By Amy Batista, Special Writer
FLORENCE — Residents asked the council for its support over concerns about constant power outages in a senior community at its July 16 meeting.
"What we are trying to do is to come up with a true root cause of this problem and a corrective action because basically we cannot continue to move forward to live with all the power outages we’ve got," said Ralph Cicchini, president of the Homeowner’s Association of Greenbriar, a senior community. "I understand that this council doesn’t have any power of doing anything about that but what I am asking you to do is to give us your support with PSE&G."
"If there is anything this council can do to bring some pressure on PSE&G to rectify this situation we would be in your debt. I appreciate it," he said.
Council President Ted Lovenduski asked council if there is anything it can do.
"I think you can do a couple of things," said Township Administrator Richard Brook. "One is we can contact the governmental representative for PSE&G for this area but if it were me I would also include a letter to Ralph Izzo, the president of PSE&G. He tends to read his correspondence and advise him of the seriousness."
Losing power that much that frequently is a serious concern no matter what age you are or if you are a mother with small children, Mr. Brook added.
"We could craft a very good, heartfelt letter that’s sincere and gets to the point to the Government Affairs Office or we could send it to Mr. Izzo directly, either way, we copy him with the mayor’s signature coming from the mayor and council or we write the Government Affairs officer and we carbon his oath and then we follow up."We give him about 10 to 14 days. It’s very fair, and carbon copy the Homeowner’s Association on the correspondence, and we request a meeting, he said.
It was also suggested to contact the Board of Public Utilities.
"I may be on the same grid as the back end of Greenbriar," said Mayor Craig Wilkie.Mr. Cicchini, along with residents, attended the council meeting to express concerns over the power grid that has been going on for the past decade.
"For 10 years, we’ve been living with power outages on the back half of that development," he said. "The front half of that development rarely ever has a power outage. The back half, we can have up to four a week."
He noted senior citizens live there who are 55 years of age and older.
"Right next door to me, I have a very nice gentleman who is a decorated war hero from Vietnam, who hurt his neck and is a paraplegic and is in bed whose power keeps going out," he said. "They have a generator. They have to get help to start the generator.""We have contacted PSE&G," he said. "We keep hearing equipment problems. We have wire problems. We have this problem. We have that problem."
He noted that there are two grids that come into the development, one grid is affected and one is not.
"We have our own meeting being set up with PSE&G," he said. "They are going to come over to our development. We are going to meet with them at our clubhouse and we want to bring this to some kind of finalization because two weeks ago I had to sleep at a neighbor’s house."
He noted the situation is "intolerable."
"We can’t keep doing this," he said. "Our thought was could they possibly redistribute that grid. It doesn’t seem reasonable the way it’s been set up. That it’s always in the back end of that development that there’s a hard wind in that woods and boom — the power’s out." "And the next day you get a voice message from them saying we apologize it was because of this reason," Mayor Wilkie said. "It is always because we have equipment failure," Mr. Cicchinisaid. "How many equipment failures can you possibly have?" Another resident stated that he has received messages from PSE&G stating it was due to tree limbs hitting the wires. "It’s gone out when it’s sunny and not windy," another resident stated. "It doesn’t make sense." Mayor Wilkie stated that the wires are being fed into the community from Old York Road from out in Mansfield and out of Bordentown. "So that’s where the limbs get knocked out some place," he said.Resident Maryanne Nicolini said she had spoken to an engineering supervisor in regards to the matter on July 14.
"He said that what he went ahead and did was took an infrared report and did it three times in and he said that there were three different breaks in the line," said Ms. Nicolini. "He said the cable that we have going underground and the overhead wires that connect there were three breakages. He said he took care of that and it cost him a lot of money and they are working on it."
She noted that the supervisor said he would like to have a meeting with the concerned citizens who are affected by the outages.
"We have been here 10 years and we have written to the Board of Utilities," she said. "We went to the public services and you know what, it is a vicious cycle. It just goes around and around. We don’t want any more telephone calls. We would just like to have some kind of ‘a can you please fix it’ and what can be done. We’ve had enough. " She noted that when it rains the residents start getting their flashlights and solar powered radio "because we are going to lose our power." "It happens all the time," she said.Kristine Lloyd, spokesperson for PSE&G, noted the "hardship" that the repeated power outages have been causing its customers.
"We understand the hardship that these repeated power outages have caused our customers, and we sincerely apologize," said Ms. Lloyd in an email on July 18. "In response to their concerns, PSE&G conducted an investigation that found that these recent outages have been caused by tree contacts during severe weather and by equipment failure."
She noted that PSE&G is taking steps to resolve these issues, including scheduling additional tree trimming in the area beginning on July 28.
"In addition, last month we conducted an infrared inspection of our equipment in the area, identifying two issues that have since been addressed, she said. "PSE&G crews will continue to monitor the area and take additional steps if necessary. We appreciate the continued patience of our customers as we work to resolve this issue."
