BY PAUL AYARS
THE COURIER

Up to five-day power outages from Wednesday's winter-like storm finally were fully restored Sunday, utility spokesmen said today.

Storm-related equipment and damage repair, however, plus debris pickup will take some time, possibly into next week, Lincoln Street Superintendent Tracy Jackson said.

"There's quite a bit," Jackson said of the debris. "We know we're going to have to go by and pick things up tomorrow."

He said the storm played havoc with street department equipment. The brakes on a department salt truck went out and four of the department's eight plows were damaged in the cleanup. One plow lost 12 welds and came apart.

"That was a heavy snow to be pushing," he said.

The porch roof on the historic polling place recently moved to Postville Park collapsed under the weight of the snow Wednesday and will be repaired, Jackson said. "We had her shored up, but not for a big, wet snow like that, apparently," Jackson said.

Jackson said the city's ongoing leaf pickup program covered Ward 3 today, with service of Ward 4 planned for Thursday and coverage of Ward 5 residents Dec. 6.

Meanwhile, most AmerenCILCO and Menard Electric Cooperative customers across the county had their utilities back this weekend, but with about 450 customers still without power early Sunday.

"By 5 pm. Sunday, everybody was back on," AmerenCILCO spokesman Susan Gallagher said today."We still were having problems with power lines in and out of our substations ..."

Stu Churchill of Lincoln, director of member services for Menard Electric Cooperative in Petersburg, said today, "As far as I know, electricity (to all Menard customers) was back on Saturday night except maybe one or two."