Heavy snow blamed for scattered outages

The weight of Thursday’s snow was blamed for scattered power outages in several central Maine communities that extended into Friday.

According to Central Maine Power spokesmen Gail Rice, an undetermined number of customers in various communities, including Newport, Dexter and Hartland, began reporting outages about midnight. Repair crews worked through the night and service to most customers was restored by midday Friday.

A Bangor Hydro-Electric Co. spokesman said Thursday was relatively quiet in that company’s service area, due largely to the aggressive limb-cutting program it established five years ago. A brief outage unrelated to the weather involved a utility pole fire in Old Town Thursday that required power in a limited area to be turned off for about half an hour to allow crews to make the necessary repairs.