JCP&L Foreman Reports Outages Fixed in Chatham

Power was restored to 100 percent of Chatham Township by Saturday morning, according to statements from township officials.

"There are still homes without power that may need the service reconnected by JCP&L," a statement issued by the Chatham Township Police read Friday afternoon.

JCP&L Foreman Rob Kennedy, a resident of Chatham Borough, said the borough was also reconnected as of Saturday morning.

Power connections between utility poles or from a pole to a private residence are the responsibility of JCP&L. Meter pans and any power connection issues within a private residence are the responsibility of the homeowner, according to JCP&L.

The Tanglewood Recycling Center in Chatham Township is open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily until further notice from the township, according to the municipal website. The mulch area in Chatham Borough is open Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and curbside collection will begin Monday.

Municipal Relations

JCP&L President Donald M. Lynch held a conference call Friday afternoon for town officials, the latest of several such calls that have taken place regarding the storm and outages since Oct. 28.

Lynch explained to those on the call the various challenges faced by the over 4,000 workers in 16-hour shifts cycled throughout the day and night to get JCP&L customers back online. He said there were over 7,000 tree orders, over 400 broken poles and over 2,000 spans of wire replaced.

"We have applied every resource here to get every customer in. With this amount of damage, we try to get the largest numbers of customers in first, and unfortunately someone has to be last," Lynch said on the call.

Officials asked about JCP&L's tree-trimming policy, particularly on private property. Lynch said, "We are responsible for any of the trimming around any of our wires that serve any of our customers. The only thing that we're not responsible for trimming would be the service wire ... from our last pole that serves you, that wire that goes into your house, if it's an overhead wire. We're not responsible to trim that."

Officials asked about service orders and reports of service outages and restorations from JCP&L that are inadequate or inaccurate, according to municipal information. Some expressed disappointment in the utility company's response to the storm, the emergency plans and how they have been enacted, and the levels of communication between company representatives and local officials.

Several other officials also thanked Lynch for the work done for all the work done thus far to get their towns back up.

Borough Mayor Nelson Vaughan tried but was unable to speak to Lynch on the call. "This is a propaganda call," he said. "I'm getting angrier by the minute."

Lynch said the damage caused by the early October snowstorm was significant. "[We were] struck by this second once-in-a-lifetime storm. The damage is so significant. I've never seen anything like it in my 35 years [with JCP&L]."

Twice officials were cut off by the operator controling the call. Both times Lynch asked the operator to allow the speaker to finish.