By Frank Mustac, Special Writer
A power outage last week that temporarily left about 600 households without electricity and closed Route 29 in Hopewell Township, near the Union Fire Department, was caused in part by a diseased ash tree.
John Anderson of Jersey Central Power & Light attended the Hopewell Township Committee meeting on Monday to provide an update about the outage that occurred on June 21 around the evening rush hour, and plans by the company to remove ash trees near power lines.
“We had two trees that came down during a brief thunder and lightening squall that came through the area,” Mr. Anderson said.
As a result, several poles were broken and multiple spans power lines came down.
According to Hopewell Township Police, “Three separate utility poles with multiple transformers have been broken” and needed to be replaced.
“We did respond quickly,” Mr. Anderson said. “We were somewhat hampered in our restoration activities because we had to be cognizant of the rush-hour traffic, so we were working in cooperation with local police to make sure that we were not adversely disrupting the traveling public at the same time we were working quickly to get the power restored to as many customers as we could.”
“I just would like you to know that, although I know that this is no surprise, but the ash trees in and around this portion of New Jersey are in serious trouble. There are really two separate issues. You’ve got one which is a disease that is referred to as ‘ash yellows’ or ‘ash decline.’ And separate from that you may have heard about the emerald ash borer.
The emerald ash borer is a type of invasive wood-boring beetle.
Mr. Anderson said, “has embarked on a pretty aggressive program to be targeting these tree for removal outside the four-year cycle we would normally be on.”
“This is the case, ironically, on Route 29 where we had a tree crew already deployed and working there when those trees came down, one of the trees had been identified to be removed that day. So we still have a number of trees that will be removed.”
“We do have a highway occupancy permit, again working with the local traffic control and the Department of Transportation to make sure we are doing that promptly and safely.”
“This ash tree situation is bad and it’s getting worse,” he said. “We are taking this very seriously and are working proactively.”
“Thanks the Hopewell Township Police Department and Chief (Lance) Maloney for his efforts in helping to deal with the traffic issue out there, as well,” Mr. Anderson said.
Hopewell Township Mayor Kevin Kuchinski thanked Mr. Anderson for the update.
“I appreciate all the efforts the other day,” the mayor said. “I saw that it was quite a mess down there.”
