Middletown Mayor Helps Organize JCP&L Response Summit
Monmouth County officials gathered in Tinton Falls for discussion of utility company's service during and after Hurricane Sandy
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Officials from Monmouth County towns gathered at Tinton Falls Borough Hall on Monday afternoon to discuss and critique Jersey Central Power and Light's (JCP&L) service and communication during Hurricane Sandy.
Most officials in attendance agreed that JCP&L did not effectively communicate with their towns during the hurricane and that many were left without the information they needed to get out to residents.
"It was absolutely poor execution by JCP&L," Marlboro Mayor Jonathan Hornik said.
"A little anger and venting is exactly what JCP&L needs to hear," Long Branch Mayor Adam Schneider said.
The discussion was hosted by Tinton Falls Mayor Michael Skudera and Middletown Mayor Tony Fiore.
"The goal for today is not for this to become a gripe session," Fiore said. "We wanted to meet, get feedback and go through the proper channels to get this information out."
"This is a utility company that we do not control, so we want to think of what things we can do for the next time this happens," Skudera said.
Fiore outlined some ideas that he had come up with that he felt could improve JCP&L's communication with towns.
- JCP&L's update calls with mayors should be regional and not statewide;
- How outages are reported needs to be addressed;
- A need for better communication between JCP&L and Verizon;
- JCP&L needs a better understanding of each town's grid;
- JCP&L needs to know which streets are a priority in town when outages are reported;
- Towns needs to know what JCP&L's infrastructure improvements are.
The mayors and office of emergency management officials also met to have a round-table discussion about JCP&L, but that part of the meeting was not open to the public or media.
Holmdel Mayor Patrick Impreveduto said whatever decisions were made by the officials should be given to the Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders.
"We need to have them expedite what we are trying to do," Impreveduto said.
Freeholder Tom Arnone agreed and said JCP&L must show its capital plan with the county and municipalities.
"The JCP&L representatives we talked to had no answers for us," Arnone said.
Lag
11:35 am on Tuesday, November 20, 2012
The management of JCP&L handled this incident very poorly. Before everyone jumps all over me and tells me how hard the field guys worked and teh long hours they put in etc, let me assure you that i am directing my comments to the MANAGEMENT of JCP&L, not the linemen. I live in a neighborhood with underground utilities. I noticed about 3 days into the outage that there was a JCP&L SUV driving up and down my block every 2-3 hours. I finally stopped the driver and asked him what was going on and why he was driving up and down my street. He said he was checking for downed wires. I pointed out that we had underground wires and he said he knew but that was what he was told to do. Sounds like poor management to me. In my travels as EMS provider, I had the opportunity to speak with many linemen crews from other states and JCP&L. One of the problems many of the crews i spoke with from TX, AL, NC said they were getting lost trying to find places and one they got there there had spend hours trying to figure out the grids. Meanwhile, all the JCP&L crews were working together? Why not put one JCP&L crew with 3 or 4 out of state crews? This is how we worked it during 9/11 when I had 200 out of state ambulances with me at Liberty State Park? Again, poor disaster planning on JCP&L's management. JCP&L's response to this incident is poor at best. As an EMS provider, we plan and drill on how to handle mass incidents, JCP&L should have been ready and planned better.
Row 15
4:30 pm on Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Thank you Lag for serving as an EMS. Also, JCP&L managers and supervisors were taking their time and unsympathetic.
Allen D. Ershowitz
11:42 am on Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Want to know why? UNIONS! Get rid of the unions get rid of the problems. By the way no one cares that you are an ems provider.
NJarhead
1:27 pm on Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Wow, you really are bitter...lonely and bored.
Susan
2:53 pm on Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Wow, that's kind of harsh
JosephGhabourLaw
2:17 pm on Tuesday, November 20, 2012
I am in a JCP&L area, in Matawan, far from the shore. While I didn't expect electricity to be up and running right away, I lost ten (ten) business days without electricity, and my home was also without power during this time.
I never expected to not lose power. However two weeks without power, far from shore, is not acceptable. My staffer also passes, daily, a transformer of JCP&L's -- 40 feet from the Shark River -- that sat at ground level and naturally flooded during Sandy.
If this was to occur during a major cold snap, many thousands of New Jersey residents would be grave risk for hypothermia – or worse. Clearly, public health and economic necessity require a re-examination of JCP&L's authorization to operate in NJ.
The bottom line is that more smart-grid components are needed by JCP&L. This would address many of the issues mentioned above.
http://www.smartgrid.gov/the_smart_grid#smart_grid
Vicki Gretsky
3:01 pm on Tuesday, November 20, 2012
I agree with most of the comments above. After Hurricane Irene our neighborhood was without power for 7 days. Everyday a new JCPL truck, suv or car came to inspect our line. JCPL must have sent 8 different people out to "assess" the problem. They sent the wrong trucks and cables a couple of times. The communication from the dispatch to the field was horrible.
I attended the BPU public hearings on JCPL after Irene. I told my story and heard many others like mine or worse. I also heard JCPL representatives speak. I learned during that hearing how antiquated the JCPL infrastructure was and the lack of manpower or investment JCPL intended to put into their broken system.
After that meeting my husband and I bought and had installed a natural gas powered whole house generator. We were without power after Sandy for 10 days. Love my generator. Can't say the same for JCPL
KS
8:32 am on Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Vicki, thanks for your helpful comments. We are also considering the purchase of a whole house generator hooked up to the natural gas line. Would you be willing to share some details about the generator purchase, including the peripheral expenses, such as the permit, the electrician for the changes to your circuit board, and the mason to create the concrete pad under the whole house generator? Any information that you could provide regarding those items and the generatr selection process would be very valuable to Patch readers considering a similar purchase. Thanks, and happy Thanksgiving.
Sal
3:41 pm on Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Instead of the Mayor of Middletown pointing his finger at JCPL he should Face Reality and recognize that the Mayors and Town Councils in our County are completely responsible for this outage ____ because they do not have a tree trimming program in their towns and in fact they discourage property owners from cutting down or trimming trees.
It is not the fault of JCPL that property owners and township owned trees fell down and destroyed JCPL lines, transformer and poles. But it is always easier to point your finger Mr. Mayor than accept responsibility for your own failure to manage tree growth in your own town and to have an effective Township run tree trimming program in place. Mr. Mayor__trim your trees and stop the whining.
Reg
7:45 am on Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Trees near power lines were trimmed in Middletown about a week or so before Sandy hit. I saw this being done in my neighborhood.
NJarhead
10:42 am on Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Trimming limbs near or in contact with power lines is the responsibility of the utility: https://www.firstenergycorp.com/content/dam/customer/billinserts/Veg-Management-JCPL-8-11.pdf
Linda Vanetti
5:28 pm on Tuesday, November 20, 2012
As far as communication between JCP&L and Verizon, we waited almost a year for a telephone pole to be taken down in front of our house. Why? Because JCP&L said it was Verizon's responsibility and Verizon said it was JCP&L's responsibility. This is the kind of frustrating nonsense we customers have to go through
Reg
9:49 am on Wednesday, November 21, 2012
I hope Middletown follows in Red Bank's footsteps and asks BPU to Investigate JCP&L. http://redbank.patch.com/articles/red-bank-calls-for-changes-asks-bpu-to-investigate-jcp-l