Large rats have taken up post in Ellensburg, infesting downtown and causing major problems in the community.

This past August, a major power outage in Ellensburg was caused by rats that chewed through electrical wires, the Daily Record reported.

Following the power outage, the Ellensburg City Council met to discuss the issue and inform the public what they could do to prevent and eradicate rats.

According to the Daily Record, suggestions included informing the public through educational pamphlets, sealing holes in buildings and disposing of food properly.

A subsequent meeting this past month reviewed ordinances that could be adopted from other cities that would help Ellensburg deal with the infestation; the main focus being on derelict homes and homes with “absentee landlords”. Houses without occupants offer rats a nesting location, leaving the problem to spread to neighbors and eventually throughout the neighborhood.

For residents and students concerned with the disease issues commonly associated with rats, the Daily Record reports that the species of rats that live in Kittitas County do not typically transmit Hantavirus, but could transmit rat-bite fever and salmonella.

These rat-related diseases can be transmitted through a bite or scratch from an infected rat or through contaminated water or food, according to the release.

This isn’t the first time that Ellensburg has run into these rodent issues.

Larry Dunbar, Ellensburg’s energy services director, said that rats have caused 23 power outages in Ellensburg over the last two years. Central has only faced four such outages.

On Central’s campus, the problem appears minor when compared to residential Ellensburg. According to Bill Yarwood, Central’s director of capital planning, the campus hasn’t received a major complaint concerning rats since last year.

The school has 50 live switches, and an even greater number of transformers, that are all concentrated in a relatively small area. While there have been four power outages caused by rats on campus, Yarwood said that the damage caused is fairly low when the amount of electrical equipment on campus combined with the potential for damage is taken into account.

Mike Moon, Central’s director for facility management and maintenance, quelled some of the campus-wide rumors that the unoccupied Samuelson Hall was potentially housing rats.

“We haven’t had a single call involving rats inside of Samuelson,” Moon said. “Even though it’s empty, there isn’t any food or water that would enable a rat to survive.”

He also attributes Central’s constant pruning of its shrubbery along with campus personnels’ active effort to clean up food and garbage that prevents rats from nesting around campus.