Christmas night blackout
puts 852 out for hours
FARRAH MAFFAI Hazlet Sgt. Leo Armenti instructs a DARE class at the Middle Road School, one of the many local schools that offer this anti-drug program to pupils. For more, see pages 14-18.
A large contingent of residents in the Leonardo section of Middletown could have used a little help from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’s guiding light on Christmas night.
About 852 people found themselves winding up Christmas Day and the following early morning hours without electricity. From about 9:30 p.m. Dec. 25 to as late as 4 a.m. Dec. 26, a downed wire on Leonardville Road, near East Road — coincidentally in close proximity to a GPU Energy building — caused homes in the general vicinity to lose power, GPU Energy spokesman Ray Dotter said Friday.
Unaware of the holiday lights-out situation until Wednesday, Township Administrator Robert Czech was advised of details by police Sgt. Robert Stefanski who was on duty that evening. According to Stefanski, after starting on Leonardville Road, electricity was subsequently turned off in pocket areas across Route 36, extending to Appleton Avenue and Broadway, in order to fix the problem.
"However, we were able to do some line switching and connect some folks to other lines while the problem was being taken care of," Dotter interjected. "As a result, many of the 852 we have logged in with the loss, were connected by 1 a.m. The remainder were hooked up by 4 a.m. on Dec. 26," he said.
Dotter confirmed the information Stefanski and Czech relayed, adding that while the call came in to GPU about the same time it got to the police desk — 9:30 p.m., he was "impressed that by 10 p.m. a crew was out working on it."
"For Christmas night, that’s quite efficient, I think," he commented.
Dotter added that considering the fact that Leonardville Road is well-traveled and runs parallel to Route 36 and into other main township arteries, the immediacy with which police were dispatched to the scene to keep the traffic situation under control while repairs were under way, was commendable.
Part of that call to avert potential traffic hazards, Stefanski added, was to direct traffic at Broadway and Appleton, along Route 36, where outages occurred. Stefanski, who was at the scene until 11:30 p.m., said GPU linemen were still working on the outage when he left the area.
Conceding that the outage probably put a quick cap on holiday celebrations for too many in the area, Dotter concluded, "We were still pleased with how smoothly the work went. Considering the number of residents without electricity, and those who had to be disconnected for repairs to take place, we were pleased with what we think was a timely manner in which the problem was rectified. Obviously we don’t want anyone without power, especially on Christmas night."