For the second time in as many months the Manalapan Police Department had its telephone service cut off for several hours.
Manalapan Police Chief Stuart Brown, Mayor Michelle Roth, Township Administrator Tara Lovrich and Township Committeeman Andrew Lucas met with Verizon representative John Szeliga on July 21 to find out why – just one month after Szeliga had appeared before the Township Committee to give assurances that phone service would never be inadvertently cut off again – the same service termination occurred again on July 19-20 for the same reason.
The direct telephone lines to the police department were out of service from 11:48 p.m. July 19 until 4 p.m. July 20 because of work being done in the area by Verizon employees.
In May, telephone service to the police department was cut off when Verizon employees performing work in the area caused the lines to be inadvertently disconnected, according to Verizon representatives.
Szeliga, who appeared before the Township Committee in June to apologize for that service interruption, said at the time that fail-safe measures would be put into effect to ensure that the problem would not reoccur.
At that meeting Szeliga said Verizon already had a policy in place that should have provided Manalapan officials with notice of the work being done by the utility in the area. He said they should have been informed that the possibility existed for a temporary termination of service while the work was being completed.
Unfortunately, Szeliga said then, the policy had failed, but following the first service interruption, the company had taken steps to correct the error.
That does not appear to have been the case, as township officials said they found out when they met with Szeliga on July 21 after the latest incident.
According to Roth, when she asked Szeliga why the notification had failed a second time, he responded by saying the problem was more “invasive” than previously known as the second cutoff in service proved.
Roth said that according to Szeliga’s explanation of what transpired on July 19-20, Verizon still did not have the telephone numbers properly integrated into its system.
The mayor said Szeliga did say that since this happened a second time, the company will have two departments working emergency responders and that it will be activating a national line dedicated solely to police and emergency responders.
Reached on July 21 following the meeting among Manalapan officials and Szeliga, Verizon spokesman Rich Young told the News Transcript, “We have a massive effort under way so we have the situation fully in hand by the middle of the week.”
Young also noted that as before, although the police department number had been shut down, Monmouth County’s 911 emergency number had remained fully operational.
Speaking for the police department, Brown said, “While I understand the issues they face, it doesn’t make it OK. It’s unacceptable that this occurred not once, but twice to a police department.”
Brown said police personnel became aware of the cutoff in service at 1:55 a.m. July 20 (about two hours after the telephone service had been terminated) at which time all calls that were being placed to the Manalapan Police Department were diverted to the Monmouth County Police Radio Room until the lines were restored.
According to Roth, Szeliga also promised that Verizon would implement failsafe measures such as an alarm that would sound if the telephone lines were to go down.
Young said company officials would be looking at several such fail-safe measures.
Roth said Lucas asked that Verizon adjust the bill so that Manalapan is given some credit for the time the telephone service was down.