This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Community Corner

Regional Utility, Local Frustration

Town officials take JCP&L to task for the slow pace of power restoration and repairs.

Frustrated by a lack of responsiveness, planning and communication by Jersey Central Power & Light in restoring power after Hurricane Irene, elected officials from various municipalities gathered at Summit City Hall earlier today to seek answers on why so many residents in their towns and districts remain without power.

Summit Mayor Jordan Glatt, New Providence Mayor J. Brooke Hern, Millburn Mayor Sandra Haimoff, Chatham Councilman William O’Connor, Warren Township councilman Vic Sordillo, and others, joined Assemblyman Jon Bramnick, Assemblywoman Nancy Monoz and State Senator Tom Kean in challenging JCP&L CEO Donald Lynch by conference call. 

“On their Web site it says that Summit’s power should be restored today,” Mayor Glatt said. “I just spent the last two hours going neighborhood to neighborhood. There’s just no way that is going to happen.”

Find out what's happening in Summitwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

As of this morning, the city of Summit tallied over 1,000 homes still without power, according to city administrator Chris Cotter.

Both mayors and residents alike say that JCP&L does not appear to have a plan for repairs and is not properly communicating, not only a repair schedule, but not even power restoration.

Find out what's happening in Summitwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“It’s a lack of communication, that is the biggest problem,” Bramnick said.

His assessment appeared to be correct as after the approximately 30-minute call, Mayor Glatt offered this succinct summation of the conversation with Lynch. 

“The word is clueless,” said Glatt, who organized the meeting.

Bramnick said it still appeared that the utility was overwhelmed. “The information we got was broad-based information,” Bramnick said. “We did ask them how many trucks in which areas and we did learn that Millburn had 13 crews there, but (with the other towns) we couldn’t get that response.”

Summit resident Catherine Lanpher said that she has been without power for days and has tried to get a sense of a repair schedule out the company, but to no avail. She added that she was told that crews have been in disarray. 

“They have the personnel here but logistically cannot deal with the number of personnel and can’t send them - they don’t know what to do, they don’t know what they need. How many times did they have those trucks to come out and assess the situation and they have made improper assessments?”

That aspect at least appears to be consistent with the company.

Just before the room broke up at the end of the press conference, Millburn Mayor Haimoff walked back into the room to report that she had her police department count the number of trucks on her city’s streets during the meeting.

“They counted seven,” Haimoff said. “The point is, they are not giving accurate information."

"At least you've got trucks," Bramnick quipped.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?