By Christina Whittington, Special Writer
EAST WINDSOR It has been two weeks since Hurricane Sandy, the class one tropical cyclone that made landfall in New Jersey, left her mark on the township, leaving more than 10,000 residents without power, some up to 10 days.
Mayor Mironov and council members briefly reflected on the storm’s impact on East Windsor at their meeting Monday night.
”It was a difficult week that could of been made less difficult if JCP&L (Jersey Central Power and Light) had been more organized and forthcoming in their communication in terms of schedule and specificity of neighborhoods,” Mayor Mironov said.
In a post-hurricane statement posted on the township website Nov. 12 (See Page 4A), Mayor Mironov said she was in communications with JCP&L and Gov. Chris Christie’s office throughout the entire event.
”When action and information remained not forthcoming, I reached out to everyone I could including elected officials at all levels, president of the Board of Public Utilities and the highest executives of JCP&L, finally receiving back multiple calls from the president of JCP&L with specific actions, work plans and schedules,” Mayor Mironov wrote in the statement.
”The absence of appropriate communications by JCP&L setting forth reasonable timelines and action plans, including specific infrastructure and neighborhoods to be repaired and restored, and their failure to promptly address priority sites was not acceptable and further aggravated the stress and uncertainty of residents and, undoubtedly, resulted in huge numbers of added phone calls to the utility,” Mayor Mironov wrote.
The statement said East Windsor would be following up with JCP&L and appropriate state officials to discuss necessary changes and improvements.
Councilman Peter Yeager acknowledged the performance of the Public Works Department.
” I want to highlight and thank the Department of Public Works,” he said. “We had a lot of tree damage in my section of town, and we didn’t even miss garbage collection. We had garbage pickup, we had recycling pickup, and a lot of debris and trees were picked up within a few days, and that is important because there are safety concerns with driving down these roads with the debris on there. They did a great job.”
”It was great to see neighbors supporting one another,” Mayor Mironov said.
Mayor Mironov and council also unanimously passed a resolution opposing Assembly Bill A-323/Senate Bill S-2074, which “ permits special occasion events that promote agricultural tourism to be conducted on preserved farmland under certain circumstances.”
Mayor Mironov noted that in a position statement by the New Jersey Taxpayer’s Association, which also opposes the bill, the organization states it has studied the issue and the bill at length, and the bill would permit the development of nonagricultural facilities on preserved farmland and allow construction of buildings and other types of things.
While the association said it supports agricultural tourism as a viable economic mechanism and farm enterprise, it cannot support the construction on preserved farmland of nonagricultural entities such as banquet halls and catering facilities.
”We strongly support preserved farmland, and we also support agricultural tourism, obviously as seen in town,” Mayor Mironov said.
The next township council meeting is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Nov. 27.

