Half of Mendham Twp. Powerless As New Storm Approaches

Storms were the primary topic of conversation at the Mendham Township Committee meeting on Tuesday. Recovery from the storm known as Sandy which decimated the utility infrastructure in our area and the impending storm which is reported to come into the area Wednesday with high winds and snow.

"We’re potentially looking at a storm that could knock out some of the repair work and reverse what has been restored," said Mendham Township Mayor Sam Tolley. "We have a serious problem that will reverse the progress that was made, slow as it has been."

Evan Thomas, the office of emergency management coordinator for Mendham Township described some of the difficulty repairs crews had encountered over the last week. 

"We’re ground zero," Thomas said. "We lost 150 poles in Mendham and it takes a lot of time to replace polls. I have been on tons of conference calls, and I meet with the supervisor from the utility every morning and he tells me what he is going to do and he does everything he says. But it has been non-stop obstacle after obstacle minute by minute."

Tolley wanted to know in percentages how much of Mendham Township was still in the dark, and Thomas provided the best estimate he could.

"We’re probably between 40-50 percent right now," Thomas said. "Which isn't good enough. But a realistic update for power to come back is the end of this week for most and some into next week."

Tolley said that those estimates did not take into account the approaching storm, which would suspend current restoration efforts and possibly make more trouble on the battered utility lines.

"My latest update was 1-4 inches of snow and wind and rain," Thomas said. "Believe me, this is far from other."

Township Administrator Steve Mountain said that two crews appeared to be operating in the township, but that other crews were working on circuits outside of Mendham that might restore power faster.

"There are crews working on circuits coming in from other towns like Chester, Far Hills and Randolph," Mountain said. "But there are two sets of crews working in town and we don’t see that changing in the forseeable future."

Mountain said that officials from Mendham Township made it clear that more manpower was needed to expedite the process and that JCP&L was working on away to get more accurate estimates out to th public.

"We have asked for their ETRs so residents can plan accordingly. And they are still not able to provide that level of detail. From what they told me today they are working on a manual process hopefully in the next 24 hours," Mountain said. "Its not something that is happening in a technologically advanced way and is happening on the fly. Their customer service department is a 24/7 call center in Ohio and they have no idea and not a knowledge of a local communities. We are available through extended hours and are accessible and people do to a certain extent trust us and when the information is unreliable it hurts our credibility. It requires us to do the best we can with the limited information we have."

Committeeman Frank Cioppettini said that getting accurate estimates was crucial for planninf purposes.

"We can deal with knowing information. If we know if we are going to be out for two weeks, then we can plan for that," Cioppettini said.

Tolley noted that the shelter at the Brookside ESB had been serving residents seamlessly since the storm hit and that Thomas was to be commended for his efforts.

"All I can say is, this is a heck of a town we have here. People have been pitching in," Thomas said. "I don’t even know where to begin to thank everyone because they’ve been great."

Thomas also said that the shelter was prepared to continue serving residents displaced by last week's storm or those who might find themselves in need of assistance after the next storm.

"We are ready, and we'll get through it," Thomas said. "The county came down to check us out and said we are top notch."