AMESBURY — Downtown businesses usually open on Monday will be in the dark as National Grid turns power off while completing a maintenance project.
Select locations on Main, Mill and Water streets, as well as Market Square, will have the power shut off from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday as National Grid workers move an overhead transformer located in the parking lot behind Ovedia Chocolates to a ground transformer.
"We are replacing the overhead with a single pad mounted transformer," said David Graves, spokesman for National Grid. "Twenty-seven customers will have their service shut off, including four residential customers on Mill Street."
While many downtown businesses are usually closed on Mondays, both Mad River Tavern and Ben's Uniforms said they would be feeling the pinch.
While Ben's Uniforms said they would take an unscheduled day off as they rely on computers to do business, Mad River Tavern yesterday tried to figure out what they would do.
Though the restaurant doesn't open until 5 p.m., food in coolers and refrigerators would need to be dealt with, according to general manager Sasha Nisenbaum.
Earlier this week letters were sent out to all businesses that will be affected to alert them of the scheduled outage.
In the event of bad weather, work will be moved to Tuesday, or as a second option, Wednesday, during the same time period.
"We are replacing what is there for reliability," Graves said. "It's a new piece of equipment and will maintain the system and make sure it's reliable."
