By Lori EhdeResidents in the northwest part of Luverne have been notified about a planned power outage that could put them in the dark for half a day or more.According to Rick Hoftiezer, line maintenance foreman for Missouri River Energy Services, an outage is scheduled for 8 a.m. Tuesday, June 6, that could last up to 8 hours."I don’t believe it will take eight hours," Hoftiezer said, "but if I don’t say eight hours and it takes that long, my name is mud."The outage will affect neighborhoods north of Luverne High School on the west side of Highway 75 to the western and northern city limits.About 100 homes in the area will be affected, and Hoftiezer said each one will receive a notice hung on the door alerting them of the outage."I know there are some people up there with water issues who have sump pumps running continuously, so they’ll have to make some arrangements," Hoftiezer said.Classes in Luverne dismiss today for summer, but administrative offices of the school district will still be affected by the outage.There are two churches in the affected area, First Presbyterian Church and the American Reformed Church, but they won’t be affected, Hoftiezer said.The outage is planned in order for the electric department to upgrade equipment and cable."This is the price of progress," Hoftiezer said about the inconvenience of the outage. "This will bring us one step closer to a cleaner, more reliable system."