WYCKOFF

Bergen County mayors demand accountability after snowstorm outages

Apoplectic elected officials across North Jersey are seeking ways to hold their power companies responsible for what they describe as poor or nonexistent service, particularly during the second of two storms to hit the area this month.

Mike Bean, a troubleshooter with PSE&G, removes a broken tree branch from a power line to restore electricity on North Browning Avenue in Tenafly on March 8, 2018.

In Wyckoff, Mayor Brian Scanlan says the Township Committee will take a no-confidence vote against the Orange & Rockland utility at a meeting on Tuesday. They will also consider a motion calling on the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities to revoke the utility's franchise in Wyckoff and allow PSE&G to serve the entire township instead.

Meanwhile, Upper Saddle River Mayor Joanne Minichetti says she has been asked by the Northwest Bergen Mayors’ Association, which represents 12 towns, to organize a meeting with PSE&G and Orange & Rockland representatives, state and federal legislators, and the state Board of Public Utilities to discuss the response to the March 7 storm and “potential ways to improve these efforts.”

“There is a significant difference in the way this storm was handled by O&R as opposed to Sandy, which caused a great deal of frustration to me as well as some of the other municipalities,” Minichetti said. “Having a dialogue with the utility companies is obviously the first step.”

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Thousands of customers across North Jersey lost power for days after the March 7 storm. At Gov. Phil Murphy's direction, the state Board of Public Utilities is conducting an investigation of the power companies' response to that storm, as well as one the week before.

Wyckoff's central business district, police station and town hall, two major traffic lights, and 2,500 homes were without power for four days after the last storm, Scanlan said.

“There is a pattern of mismanagement at Orange & Rockland, particularly a lengthy delay of three days before mutual aid trucks arrived from other states,” Scanlan said. "Wyckoff is at the end of the line, the end of the alphabet. It’s a disgrace the way this company treated us.”

A broken tree branch caught fire on a power line in Ho-Ho-Kus on Thursday, March 8.

Orange & Rockland spokesman Mike Donovan defended the utility's response. 

"O&R/Rockland Electric’s storm response was a complicated and dangerous effort, and the devastation in Wyckoff and the surrounding area was substantial, certainly on a par with Superstorm Sandy," Donovan said. "We’ve done nearly everything we could to tackle this challenge from an operational and logistical perspective."

However, he acknowledged, "We fell short in providing information customers needed to plan their day. Specifically, O&R’s response was marred because O&R was unable to provide reliable service restoration times for some customers."

Donovan said the utility is offering to reimburse customers for food and prescription medicine spoilage if they lost power for three consecutive days or more during the two storms.

A downed tree rests on power lines, blocking Hillcrest Avenue near Norman Drive in Ridgewood, on March 8, 2018, after the previous day's storm.

Despite Wyckoff's experience, officials in other towns reported better service during the storm.

Orange & Rockland had a representative at West Milford's Office of Emergency Management throughout the day during the March 7 storm, Mayor Bettina Bieri said.

“I personally interacted with him at the OEM office, as we reported outages to him and he was able to answer questions and send crews to respective locations," Bieri said.

Donovan said similar service was provided to Wyckoff through the Franklin Lakes emergency management office. However, Scanlan said that neither he nor Police Chief David Murphy had heard of such a station.

Orange & Rockland, a Con Edison subsidiary, serves 304,947 electric customers —232,593 in New York and 72,354 in Bergen and Passaic counties.

Assemblyman Chris DePhillips, R-Wyckoff, says he is researching and drafting legislation to address power companies that do not meet customer needs during future emergencies.

“Everything is on the table, including the transfer of service to other companies,” DePhilips said. “I am completely fed up with Orange & Rockland. It’s as if Irene and Sandy never happened. No lessons were learned.”

The state Board of Public Utilities' president, Joseph Fiordaliso, said his office was also investigating the legality of allowing municipalities to switch utility companies.

However, he cautioned that the board may not have the authority to make such a move, which he said may require legislation.

The board will explore whether the protocols developed after Superstorm Sandy were followed, and whether any of them need to be changed or added, Fiordaliso said.

"It will be an opportunity for the utility companies to evaluate their procedures," he said. "If they did not follow the protocols, they will be held accountable."

Email: stoltz@northjersey.com