April 22, 2025:
Some of West Central Electric Cooperative’s commercial customers– including DRG Media Group– will be without power much of the day on Wednesday (April 23, 2025), while a power pole gets replaced west of Fort Pierre.
West Central Member Services Manager Jessie Tucker says residential customers won’t be affected.
The electrical pole that needs to be replaced is a main one along that line, which makes replacing it more complex than replacing a typical power pole. But, Tucker says, if the main pole had to be replaced, this is a good time of year to do it.
Again, residential West Central Electric Coop customers in Fort Pierre and the surrounding area shouldn’t be affected by Wednesday’s planned, approximately eight hour long power outage.
The power outage will cause some of the DRG Media Group radio stations to be off the air on Wednesday, but there are still ways you can listen.
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100.1 FM/KJBI/The Eagle
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FM frequency will be off all day
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smart devices and the website livestream at https://drgnews.com/eagle/ will be working
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92.7 FM/River 92-7
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FM frequency will be off all day
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smart devices and the website livestream at https://drgnews.com/river/ will be working
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KGFX AM 1060
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AM frequency will be on as it normally is
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The KGFX translator at 103.1 FM will be off all day
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Smart devices and the website livestream at https://drgnews.com/kgfx/ will be working.
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KPLO
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94.5 FM frequency will be on as it normally is
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KPLO translator at 100.5 FM will be off all day
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smart devices and the website livestream at https://drgnews.com/kplo/ will be working
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April 15, 2025:
No one was injured and no structures were damaged in a grass fire along Verendrye Drive Monday evening (April 14, 2025) west of Fort Pierre.
Fort Pierre Volunteer Fire Department Chief Dustin Dowling said the call came about 6:15pm CT and there were structures nearby.
Dowling says the strong, gusty wind the area had on Monday had died down, which greatly helped the efforts to contain and extinguish the fire.
Dowling says the cause of the fire is believed to be an electrical power pole.
West Central Electric Cooperative and the Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) are investigating to see what caused the pole to begin smoldering.
Other agencies responding were the:
- Pierre Rural Volunteer Fire Department
- Stanley County Sheriff’s Office
- South Dakota Highway Patrol
- Fort Pierre Ranger District U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service Fire Department
West Central Staff Engineer Kit Talich says they believe sparks from the power pole started the small grass fire, but as for what caused the power pole to begin smoldering…..
Only the one electrical pole needs to be replaced, but Talich says it happens to be a pole that’s critical to their power distribution system.
Talich says the power was off in the affected area for about 2.5 hours.
Talich and West Central Member Services Manager Jessie Tucker say the pole will need to be replaced.
Once a replacement plan for the pole has been established, Talich and Tucker say customers in the affected area will be alerted ahead of time so they can make any necessary arrangements prior to the planned outage.
Photo courtesy of West Central Electric Cooperative.
Photo courtesy of West Central Electric Cooperative.
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