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.
We all understand that safety must be the utmost of concerns since the voltages they work with allow no margin for mistake. They are hardworking fellows, well met, that understand the infrastructure that they are working on. They work 16 hours a day until the system is up and running, power returned to the company’s customers. It is a shame that more of the managers in the company are not as well versed in the circuitry and time required to safely execute power restoration. Perhaps more management should be recruited from the ranks of line crews.
JCP&L sends out a contracting crew to do these but not often enough. And it appears with the amount of damage we received this go around they werent even close to being prepared ahead of time in this department.
Our gas service is (of course) underground, and it has never failed in any storm over the past 25+ years. If JCP&L would place its wiring underground - at least major feeders - trees would be irrelevant. Then again, our above-ground tv cable and telephone wires weathered Sandy just fine, too. Perhaps JCP&L should have a nice chat with the cable tv and phone companies about dealing with tree limbs. If JCP&L wants me, a homeowner and customer, to maintain its infrastructure, then I expect to be paid for it. If JCP&L wants me to hire a contractor at their expense ...
22 hours ago . I have Zero Respect for the City of Long Branch! Once the Mayor & some officials are removed, the City will be a better place! But alot of damage has been done! So the better part of Long Branch will probably never come back. Wait for the Wave to hit Pier Village! And it won't be green! It will be the Payback for stealing land! Enjoy it while you can. The Time is near! And if the power should go out in Long Branch for a week again! You will know the Mayor won't be showering! The Mayor knew zero about JCP&L's lack of upgrades, that has been going on for many years before the Sandy storm. Only after the fact! The Mayor makes a big deal about JCP&L! The way I look at this is: If the Mayor showered & stayed clean! He may have been aware of JCP&L's many problems way before this Sandy Storm! Even if the shower was used! It still stinks! Like · · Promote · Share. Tony Bruno likes this..