Politics & Government

JCP&L Exec to Discuss Storm Response Tuesday

Bernards Township Committee invites local JCP&L manager to Tuesday meeting to review outage information from October snowstorm.

Even while township officials are mulling whether to ask the state to consider revoking Jersey Central Power & Light's franchise to serve Bernards Township, a resident who also is a manager at JCP&L has been invited to Tuesday night's meeting to discuss the power company's response to the

"I believe he's going to bring in some data...to report the number of houses out, to give a numeric picture of what happened that week," Township Mayor John Malay said on Monday of discussion listed on the agenda.

Malay said that as far as he knows, Stan Prater, the township resident invited to Tuesday's meeting, is an area operations manager who is more in charge of what goes on as far as crews out in the field, rather than setting policy.

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Issues of strategic problems with command and control for repair crews, and reports of understaffing, are probably issues that must likely be addressed at a more corporate level and through JCP&L's parent company, FirstEnergy Corp., Malay said on Monday night.

As a continuing follow-up to JCP&L's response to widespread outages to the Oct. 29 snowstorm — just two months after thousands of households also were without power for many days as a result of — Malay said he will continue to consult with the township's new state legislators.

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The mayor said he has a meeting scheduled on Friday with state Assemblyman Jon Bramnick (R-District 21) to discuss strategy for pressuring JCP&L to better respond to widespread outages. The power company also has been criticized by township officials, for a lack of communication during emergencies, or for releasing accurate estimates of when power can be expected to be restored.

"I will be conferring with him [Bramnick] about the most effect ways to get them [JCP&L] to improve their performance," Malay said.

Malay previously had said that the township intended to join a petition before the state Board of Public Utilities to seek to have Public Service Electric & Gas serve Bernards Township as the franchised power company in place of JCP&L. He said then that the potential loss of customers might pressure JCP&L into being more responsive. Such a petition already has been filed by other communities, including Warren Township.

However, Malay added on Monday that proposal still is being considered by the Township Committee. He said the topic may come up again at Tuesday's meeting.

Most likely, one Township Committee member will be appointed as a point person to follow up on the issue, he said. The entire governing body would need to vote before taking official action, he said.


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