Motorists Urged to Drive Cautiously in Work Areas

Conroe, Texas - Throughout April and May, Entergy Texas, Inc. customers in a portion of Conroe can expect to see contract workers removing vegetation or hazard trees that could cause problems for their electric service.

Work will get underway April 7 along a power line out of the Conair substation on Hilbig Street. The line is a little more than 11 miles long and serves 1,549 customers. The work area is south of North Loop 336, west of Frazier Street and north of Wilson Road to IH-45.

"Our goal is to keep the lights on for our customers," said Victor Enmon, customer service representative for Conroe. "A key part of doing that involves having an aggressive vegetation management program. We keep a schedule that ensures all of our power lines receive regular vegetation maintenance. This helps ensure that limbs and other vegetation are cleared away in order to minimize power interruptions to our customers. When we conduct this cycle of trimming, we also remove danger trees that may be outside our right of way, but that are in poor condition and close enough to fall into the lines."

While crews will be in highly-visible bucket trucks, customers can expect to see crews working manually to remove vegetation. Drivers in the area are urged to be alert for the workers and use caution when nearing work areas.

In 2013, Entergy Texas workers trimmed more than 1,900 line miles of trees and removed 20,725 hazard trees from throughout Southeast Texas. A hazard tree is any tree with a structural defect, such as being dead or dying, decayed or leaning. Any of these circumstances could cause the tree to fall into overhead power lines.

Entergy Texas, Inc. provides electricity to more than 420,000 customers in 27 counties. It is a subsidiary of Entergy Corporation. Entergy is an integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations. Entergy owns and operates power plants with approximately 30,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity, including more than 10,000 megawatts of nuclear power, making it one of the nation's leading nuclear generators. Entergy delivers electricity to 2.8 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.

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