The Ocean County Board of Chosen Freeholders passed a resolution last week calling upon Gov. James E. McGreevey to appoint a resident of the county to the BPU.
The call for representation on the BPU comes just weeks after power outages plagued major portions of the county’s barrier islands, wreaking havoc during what the busiest time of the tourism season –– July 4 weekend.
Starting the afternoon of July 5 and continuing throughout the weekend and into the beginning of the week, the power was out more often then it was on from South Seaside Park north to Brick Township, according to a press release from the freeholders.
Businesses and residents in tourism communities such as Seaside Heights, the Ortley Beach section of Dover Township and Lavallette suffered financial losses as a result of the outages.
As a result of the outages, Jersey Central Power & Light Co., which provides electricity to the area, placed large generators in several barrier island communities and an additional transmission line was run across Barnegat Bay. However, Freeholder Joseph Vicari noted that the line was not energized and if power was lost it would take over two hours to energize it.
"I don’t think any real changes will be made unless we have representation," Vicari said. "There is not one member on the board who lives south of Middlesex County. Shore communities have unique needs; we need a spokesperson on the BPU to represent those needs."