That's because Jason is a hardcore left wing journalist he doesn't properly moderate the comments on this forum.Everyday is beat up on Christians and conservatives day. He's lost credibility, as a matter of fact it wouldn't surprise me if the Patch winds up in court for harassment. It also wouldn't surprise me if some of the Patch editors were making some of these remarks. Afterall patch is owned by AOL-Hufington Post.

Thomas: "Everyday is beat up on Christians and conservatives day." Really? So you obviously are blind to the derision that is reserved for those who oppose your viewpoint, or you just think it's fair because you are right and they are wrong. Either way, even a cursory look at past forum postings show that the oppsoite is at least as true. I won't argue that name calling and bullying are less than useless and counter-productive, but don't try to pretend that it doesn't come from both sides.

@Phil: So says the jokester with the ironic name. Follow your own advice.

"Everyday is beat up on Christians and conservatives day."

Tom, please explain to me how anyone would know the religious affiliations of our mayor and town council members, let alone the other posters on these threads.

nestlingwd, I think the disconnect (no pun intended) is that you apparently believe that the mayor would have been able to do more from here than he could from Aruba, while Kathlyn (and I happen to agree with her) does not believe so. In fact, I would assert that since the mayor was in a place where he HAD uninterrupted access to a telephone and internet, I would argue that he was probably in an even BETTER position to facilitate things than he could have if he had stayed in his powerless home. You don't seem to understand that JCP&L is an Ohio-based public company, not an arm or department of Washington Township, and not beholden to us in any way whatsoever, except that they would like to sell us their electricity. There is absolutely nothing a mayor or anybody else could do to speed their progress other than continuing to call and complain and demand restoration, and I saw plenty of evidence that the mayor was doing all he could in that category. It seems like you and many others expected him to personally deliver water, heat, and generators to all of the affected houses. That is unrealistic, flat out ridiculous, and simply not his job (as I understand it anyway, please correct me if I'm wrong.)

I applaud Kathlyn for a nice letter, and I am ashamed for all of the townspeople who are whining like babies and hurling unjustified insults at the mayor.

BTW, I have seen all kinds of figurative language saying what he should or shouldn't have done, but no hard specifics.

...Furthermore, if I were the mayor, and I had received all of this flak from my constituents despite doing what I knew in my heart to be my very best, even foregoing the enjoyment of the better part of a vacation in order to work tirelessly on issues for my townspeople, then my response to you all could be summed up in just two words: "I QUIT". I'd say, "If you can't appreciate me, then you can go ahead and find someone else." At least, that's the polite version.

I'm certainly not encouraging the mayor to quit. Alas, he was just re-elected. But I am saying that if he quit, I would certainly understand, and wouldn't fault him for it one bit, since I know that's what I would do in the face of all this irrational criticism.

Hmm, a few mayors using public generators and one who went on vacation. It shouldn't have even been included in the same news blurb.
I personally don't think it made any difference were the mayor was while JCPL was working to restore power. It was all over the news that some residents would be without power for two weeks so I was pleasantly surprised when our power was restored just under two weeks.

I hereby agree to disagree with you, and I hope you will do the same.

I definitely agree that it was frustrating not knowing what roads were closed at any given point in time. Of course, by trying to use those roads, you would find out. And since most businesses were closed anyway, there probably wasn't much of a need to drive anywhere for the bulk of the time. But nonetheless, it's a valid point, especially as time went on. So.... how can that be fixed? What's needed is an emergency communications command center that is up 24/7 on generator power, with radios, and a map of the town with all the hot spots marked on it with pencil / thumbtacks / whatever, as well as a bunch of people out in the field driving around finding the outages and reporting them to the command center.
That gives us one person in town who knows where all the outages are. How does s/he communicate that back out to the townspeople who are without power/phones/internet? I see three options:
1) A call-in number at the command center that people can call to get specific route info.
2) WRNJ
3) A town owned low power radio station that is activated during emergencies
We actually did have #1 in place (I used it, and it worked.)
We also had #2 in place, but we didn't feed WRNJ as much road closure data as we perhaps could have. Then again, would they have been willing to recite our full list of road closures? I'm not sure.
We could purchase some equipment to do #3 if we think it's worth it. That's a budget item the committee can decide on at a future meeting.

Of course, all of the above also requires something else: PEOPLE. Not just any people, but TRAINED people. The command center net control operator has to be very highly skilled, and the field spotters should be pretty well trained also. So who pays for all this, or is it volunteers?

Agreed!! I receive Honeywell alerts regarding Market Day pick ups for God's sake. As if that's necessary.

Why is there a need for "a bunch of people out in the field driving around finding the outages and reporting them to the command center?" Why not have the police mobilize and do this? Unlike the Mayor, they are paid to do their jobs.

Having the police report the downed trees and wires and road closures is actually a good idea, and perhaps an appropriate use of the police. I don't know enough about the police in town to know if there are enough of them for something like that in an incident of this magnitude, so I'll leave that to those who know.

But even as a newbie in town, I have read the news enough to know that the police don't have a command center in this town with a dedicated control operator who would be receiving, recording, and disseminating all of that data. Therein lies the problem. The data needs to be gathered, then reported, collected, organized, and turned into something usable.

I don't believe that it would be realistic to have an automated system or a manned system periodically phone every single resident of the town and inform them of every single outage and closure. That's not usable. That quantity and type of data needs to be "pulled" by those who need it, not "pushed". The only push type mechanism that could work in a widespread outage is radio. I think it would be too much data for WRNJ - it would use up a huge chunk of their airtime, and we are not the only town on the map. It would require our own little radio station if you wanted to push the data out. Having a call-in number to learn about the specific outages you care about is a lot more manageable. As I said earlier, we had that. I was able to find out how to get from A to B by calling 876-4633. It worked great.

There are at least 30 police officers employed by the township. When a state of emergency has been declared, they should all be mobilized for missions such as this. As to where they report back, this could be a pre-designated township employee who can collect the data and make it available to the appropriate authorities. This is called disaster planning and should already be part of a plan on file. The lack of a plan (if this is indeed the case) is again a reflection on Mayor Short's leadership skills.

Amazing, you said something that I agree with. You know the town better than I, so is there a person or job title who you would nominate to collect and disseminate the information? And would it need to be three people, for three 8-hour shifts per day? Or two people for two 10 or 12 hours shifts per day, or what? Is there a physical space available where the person could perform this work? What tools or equipment would the person need? Do we already have them, or would they need to be procured? Would periodic emergency drills need to be conducted? If so, how often? Would the town budget support all this? (You did say "employee", not "volunteer".)

Everything you mentioned would fall within the scope of a township disaster plan. All of the personnel, space, and tools required are already employed/owned by the township. It’s like a warship that goes to general quarters and even the cooks might find themselves manning a machine gun.

MaryLynn, I'll respond to each of your sentences individually: Correct. Correct. Correct. Correct. Correct. Correct. Correct. Correct.

These type of problems occurred all over norther NJ, so the "frontier-region" argument doesn't hold water. However, you are correct that this is the new normal, which is why we need to determine how to do a better job dealing with it.

No one is blaming Mr. Short for the storm. The residents are angry that an elected official left town for vacation during the time when the residents were looking for leadership. In that aspect he failed big time.

tatkins (and others), I am bloody sick of hearing you babies crying "We need leadership". Please list some SPECIFIC VERIFIABLE TASKS, ACTIONS, or DUTIES that you believe the mayor failed to perform, and cite your evidence. Better still, tell us exactly how YOU would have gone about performing those tasks, actions or duties if you had been mayor during this event. So far, the only concrete request I have heard was from one person who said the mayor should have volunteered to help at a firehouse or church. I think that on top of already volunteering to be mayor for a year, that's really asking a lot. But some people have a heart of gold, and have no family or other commitments, and they can just volunteer their life away. That's great, and very commendable, but definitely what I would call "exceeding expectations", i.e. "above and beyond the call of duty".

A REAL LEADER would have seen to it that there was shelter and water available for the residents. Oh wait, THERE WAS!

Total BS.

Your point is synonymous to a captain of a sinking ship directing efforts to save it from a lifeboat. AKA: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/cruise-liner-captain-francesco-schettino-says-he-abandoned-ship-by-accident/2012/01/18/gIQApK8x7P_blog.html

Kevin, if you want to see total BS, just look in the mirror. I have no issue with the mayor taking his vacation (obviously). You take issue with the mayor taking his vacation (obviously). That's where this conversation ends. Next time, run for mayor. I'm sure your mother will vote for you.

And by the way, if you are equating a mayor "abandoning" several hundred people who are without power (when there is nothing he could do about it anyway) to the captain of a ship abandoning it and letting people die, you picked a grossly mismatched analog. Try again. Why don't you do us a huge favor and just spend your time on the beach or on the Honolulu patch instead of trying to rule the town from half way across the globe. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black...

Jon,

When you start paying the property taxes on 65 Kim Lane, I'll shut up. Until then, I'll hold the mayor accountable when I feel he isn't doing the job he was elected for. Speaking of elections, the last time I ran for public office I received over 3,500 votes, how many did you get?

Hookerman, you prepare for storm outages by being self reliant.

Kevin, you're complaining about your property taxes again. I would love to see your reaction when you realize your Obama tax increase liability for 2013. lol

Tom,

Your reading skill is about as good as your skill in predicting winning Presidential candidates, I'm not complaining about my taxes. I'm stating the basis as to why I have the right to an opinion.

As for my income tax liability in 2013, I have no issues with how it turns out. Unlike you, I am not a net drag on my township, county, state, and nation.

Vice Mayor Roehrich is with Mayor Short in Aruba according to:
http://bonosrama.newsvine.com/_news/2012/11/12/15113590-mayor-vacations-while-town-still-suffers-from-sandys-effects-he-reminds-critics-that-he-is-not-paid-anything

This issue was not addressed by the mayor in his letter nor by the Vice-Mayor. Yet another demonstration of poor character and poor judgement if in fact true

Yeah Ken Short should have canceled his vacation and eaten the thousands of dollars he spent and gotten his ladder, black tape, wire cutters, and a chain saw out and fix all our power lines and down trees himself!!! Because after all, he's superman!! Oh wait a minute, he's just the Mayor, a person like you or me.

Better communications is about the only substantial thing anyone can complain about in my humble opinion. JCP&Ls communication about their inability to provide proper service to this area. And given VZW wasn't passing data for a week after the storm, and AT&T was down for a period, smartphones didn't even help!

How about blasting Verizon Wireless for their horrid service for a week after the storm? Or maybe those of you who keep blocking VZW from installing a new tower behind the police station? Since you're getting on your soap box and turning this into a political agenda for yourself why don't you tell us something substantial that you would have done that would have helped? If you can answer with substance and not negative rubbish then maybe you'll win my vote next election!

Oh, by the way, you have two points numbered - 3...

Thanks...final point shoud be # 4.

5) How about holding a meeting with every current and former elected offical (TC, BOE, etc.) in the township to gather ideas on what could be done and enlisting their assistance? Just think of the good will this would have produced in getting the word out and meeting the needs of the town in a time of crisis.

In principle, I agree with your thoughts. I believe the position of Committeeman should be paid. We pay freeholders, state assemblymen and senators, congressman and all other elected officials up the food chain. Why not committeeman? Perhaps then Mayor Short would have felt more of an obligation to remain on site, even if it was for the wrong reason.

Two words...travel insurance.

Mayor Short = retired insurance agent = no excuse!

Kevin Nedd, I am finding it very difficult to follow your thoughts. At one point you said that it was you who championed the cause to eliminate salary and benefits for the position of Mayor. Now you are saying that the Mayor and committeemen should be paid. Have you changed your stance on that issue? Please clarify.

Based on a campaign pledge, I championed the elimination of benefits for committeeman. I took no such position with respect to salary. I hope this clears things up for you.

To follow up on update A) what specific actions were planned for that day by JCPL and what did they accomplish against the plan?

Also did the Mayor extend an invite to the CEO of JCPL to visit Long Valley and see the damage firsthand? Even if the JCPL CEO had declined, it would have demonstrated thought leadership on the part of the Mayor, something he clearly lacks.

Bravo Hookerman, finally some tangible ideas that can be discussed with civility! This is FAR better than incessant cries of "We need leadership", "The mayor is in over his head", and "The mayor is incompetent". Those vapid remarks get us nowhere.

Now to discuss your ideas a little:
1) Good one. JCP&L WAS providing outage figures regularly. As we all know, they fluctuated a lot. Perhaps they were real, perhaps it was poor data management, I dunno. An inquiry is needed.
2) I'm picturing a bunch of mayors all saying "No, come restore MY town first. We have got it worse." Not sure I want to be that JCP&L guy! But I see your point.
3 A-D) As I said in another post, I had felt strongly that data dissemination could have been improved. Then I learned about 876-4633 and that gave me a way to get the data I needed. There was simply too much data to give it all out via WRNJ and phone messages. This type of data needs to be "pulled" by the person who needs it on an as-needed basis. Just reading a list of every road in town would take you 10 minutes, even without saying whether the road was open or exactly where the closures were. Who is going to sit through that? It's just like the old school closures on the radio. I don't need to hear about the other 14 towns, I just need to hear my own. Then you cough or sneeze and you miss it. No good.

I'm not trying to squash your ideas. The dialog is good and we need to keep it going. Patch says I'm out of typing space on this one...

This week, the Honeywell Instant Alert system listed the changes to every bus route in the township that was affected by the hurricane. If they can put all that into a phome msg, they can put road closures. If someone doesn't want to listen to it all, they can simply hang up. But the information would be there fore anyone who wants it.

The Mayor won't even answer the question whether or not Vice Mayor Bill Roehrich is with him in Aruba. How "open" could the "forum" be?

Yup hold a meeting every 2 or 3 days to answer questions you can't and tell us you don't know anything because JCP&L are chuckleheads. This way everyone could burn gas getting to the meeting and then just get REALLY mad.

Hmmm....

6) Stay in town until the vast majority of residents had power.

6) Kevin, I just HAVE to ask you because I'm dying to understand WHY you keep saying the mayor should have stayed in town until the vast majority of residents had power. (And by the way, I think only 780 were without power when he left, but that's not germane to my point.) Please elucidate for me: What specific personal needs of yours were not met as a result of the mayor not being physically in Long Valley since last Friday? What specific hardship or loss did you personally incur as a result of his being on vacation? Or are you merely attempting to speaking on behalf of some unnamed others whom you feel were personally harmed in some way but do not have a voice? Help me understand your reasoning please.
Also, please explain precisely HOW you feel that the residents without power would have benefited by the mayor being physically present in town? I'm sorry for being so thick, but I just don't get that.

1. A vast majority of residents were without power when the Mayor left town.

2. For me it's a matter of principle. Having served in our naval forces, I fully subscribe to a leadership concept where you don't abandon ship while rescue efforts are still underway. For the landlubbers, the concept of leaving no man behind could also apply. It's the same reason our Governor chose not to attend a campaign for Romney in PA (20 min. away) during the last weekend of the campaign. He declined, stating his duties in NJ were too important.

To me, "vast majority" means well over half. I'd have to see the stats before blindly believing you on that one.

Thanks for clarifying that you feel the mayor should have stuck around just on principle. That helps a lot for me to understand just how badly you were personally harmed by his vacation, i.e. not at all. Now we can all see for certain that you are just a whiner with some sort of axe to grind.

You can't compare this with the governor's role, since the governor position actually does have power. As I read the town code, it is the Township Committee that has the power, not the mayor. The mayor role appears to be primarily ceremonial in nature. I'll welcome corrections from legal scholars far more knowledgeable than I about NJ Township law.

I never claimed any personal harm. We'll see how much personal harm comes to the Mayor when he is recalled in early 2014.

Domino, I strongly suspect that you are calling me a "Short supporter", and accusing me of being in his political inner circle. So let me clear the air on that one: I have never met Mr. Short. I don't know Mr. Short. In fact, I very deliberately did not VOTE for Mr. Short, for two reasons: 1) I never saw any campaign statement from him, nor any statement in which he asked for my vote or justified why he should get it; and 2) I reasoned that even without my vote, he would almost certainly win, since he was disappointingly unopposed. (Although after seeing the way this lynch mob has behaved, I'm sure anyone who at any point had considered running for mayor is breathing a sigh of relief for dodging a big bullet!)

I am new to this town, and I am simply a person who prides himself on being reasonable, practical, and possessing a good deal of common sense. And my common sense tells me that regardless of WHO our mayor was during this storm, and regardless of WHAT that mayor may have tried to do, the outcome would have been essentially the same. This was a huge natural disaster, and in the battle of man vs. mother nature, man has NO CHANCE of winning, if you hadn't noticed. Every property owner in this country has a personal moral (and legal) obligation to take appropriate measures to protect their own family and property. (I say legal because your mortgage requires you to maintain your house, if you have a mortgage.) I depend on nobody but myself in incidents like this.

Domino thinks....Hmm does anyone find Irony in that?

I don't think getting signatures of 25% of voting residents will be an issue.

Kevin:

Will you be leading the recall from here or Hawaii?

Kevin, are you going to run this from Hawaii?

Wherever it's best...

I think you meant "major complaints and excuses" have pretty much been aired.

Great publicity for our township, huh?

Yes, Kevin, that channel 9 clip is great publicity for our township. I'll bet it was one of those Short defenders that initiated that (sarc). I especially like the way Short's vacation was lumped in with the mayors who took generators for their personal use. It was so cool how they jumped from a picture of a big generator directly to the Long Valley Mayor who took a vacation. For the public that watched this, some of them might be wondering "The Mayor of Washington Township took a generator for his own use and then went on vacation?"

In_the_dark, Is channel 9 the best you can do? No one get's their news from channel 9, not even little old ladies in Brooklyn. If you played the video out your window in LV more people would have seen it than on channel 9.

Tom,

"In_the_dark" didn't provide the link to the video, It was first provided by “Angelo”. At least get the names right of the people you are attempting to smear.

The distribution of the video is irrelevant with respect to the validity of its content. In this case the content is very damaging to your dear friend (per the OT) Mayor Short.

I hope you feel the same way in 12 months when the movement to recall Mayor Short kicks into high gear.

Sorry for the newbie question, but where can I go to find the document that lists the responsibilities and duties of the mayor of this town? Is it published anywhere?

Duties of the Mayor can be found in the Township Code:

http://www.ecode360.com/11399214#11399217

Very cool, thanks for that link to the Code!
It says: "The Mayor shall preside at meetings of the Township Committee and perform such other duties as the Township Committee may prescribe." Then it goes on to say, "The Mayor shall have the power to make proclamations concerning holidays and events of interest to the Township. He may from time to time appoint citizens' committees to inquire into matters that are of interest to the Township, and he shall have such other appointment powers as are conferred upon him by law; all appointments shall be subject to confirmation except where otherwise provided by law. He shall have and exercise the ceremonial power of the Township, and he shall exercise every other power usually exercised by Township mayors and conferred upon him by law."

I'm no lawyer, but I don't see anything in there that seems relevant to the situation at hand. Which of those duties do folks feel were breached?

How about "he shall exercise every other power usually exercised by Township mayors and conferred upon him by law."

You don't think this includes ensuring the health, safety, and well being of all the township's residents?

I have no idea what it means or was intended to mean. It's much too vague for me to understand. Can you point to some case law, or identify which other laws they are referring to when they say "conferred upon him by law" ?

They have this really neat invention called "Google". People use it to look stuff up that they don't understand.

Jason,

Why not just delete the offending posts?

Jason, closing the forum is not the answer. Moderating the comments is the key to a successful dialogue.If people know that personal attacks are not permitted they will tine down the rhetoric. I would never allow what goes on on the Patch to go on my at my website.
All that's going on here is that a bunch of sore losers of past elections are bashing the Mayor. Notice they're ignoring the work of Tracy Tobin, Jim Liaabraaten and Dave Kennedy?

Tom,

It's not bashing....it's called holding the Mayor accountable for his dereliction of duty and extreme poor judgment.

Greg,

Your deflection and belittling tactics won't save Mayor Short this time. Township resident's are not stupid and won't forget who went to Aruba while the majority of neighbors were without power.

http://www.my9tv.com/video?clipId=7956223&topVideoCatNo=240181&autoStart=true

Diggy, if the mayor's sole responsibility is to ensure that the township residents all have electric service at their homes, then you are probably right, he is not needed.

My understanding of the mayoral role is that preservation or restoration of electric power for the townspeople is not one of his official responsibilities. In fact, I am firmly of the opinion that that is something between me and my electricity provider, and I neither expect nor need anyone else to intervene on my behalf when it comes to that.

The mayor and committee are not responsible for the restoration of power. But they are responsible for coordinating the efforts to ensure our roads are passable so that the repair crews can get to the areas in need of repair. Isn't safe passage a duty of the committee? How about advocating on behalf of the town with the power companies as well? Is that not his job?

How were you personally harmed by not having the mayor in town during the storm? Mayor Short put Tracy Tobin in charge. Are you saying Tracy Tobin was a poor choice?

No, Thomas I did not say Tracy was a poor choice. The decision to get on the plane was the Mayor's very poor decision. I was not personally harmed, but disappointed that an elected official put his interests first.

Mary, I disagree with you but I hope you and your family and home are OK. You are saying Tracy was a poor choice. Your statment is political. Tracy Tobin said it rightly below. Having the Mayor here wouldn't have made First Energy get the power restored any faster. It's incumbent upon our selves to prepare for the storm by having generator and supplies on hand for at least a 1 week period. It's also out duty to check on our neighbors especially senior citizens who might need water and food and heat.

Tom,

"The Mayor put his own self interests in front of his constituents. He made a very poor choice."

Mary expressed her opinion with respect to the Mayor's actions vs. her expectations. How is this "political"?

Carol, the Mayor and should have shown up with his reindeer and a sleigh full of gifts too.

Really? You wanted a hug from the Mayor? You needed reassurance from your Mayor? "We're in this together"? Do you realize how ridiculous this sounds?!

People really have become way to dependent on the gov't.

Carol, I completely agree with you.

Thanks so much for the clarification, Tracy. Greatly appreciated.

Tracy, this isn't about J C P & L's response. Its about why the Mayor did not demonstrate empathy to suffering residents.

Thank you for all of your efforts dealing with the power outages. I appreciate any effort made on my behalf.
It sure would have been nice if all of the complainers here actually stepped up and did something for themselves and their neighbors rather than sit behind their computer screens complaining about what one man did not do for them....

Amen!

Question Tracy; last year there was a special meeting held specifically to address the issues with the power outages after Irene and the snow storm (with reps from JCP&L). Do you anticipate having another one of those sessions, or will this be handled at the regulalry scheduled committee meeting? I'm sure there may be many residents who would like to express their opinions on the handling of the storm, but I wasn't sure whether the town council wanted to handle this at a regular committee meeting, or hold a special one just for that agenda.

Thank you Tracy for all of the factual information. It won't make any difference to the complainers. They come from the school of "It is the government's responsibility to take care of me". I'd love to know if any of the complainers attended any of the meetings last year about JCP&L and/or if they have ever attended any of the monthly town meetings.

True!

Dear Liberty,
Everyone does have a right to complain. It is the manner in which some are doing the complaining that is disturbing. Is it necessary to use insults, threats, and mean-spirited comments for some to get their point across? Does it serve any purpose to say "most people of moderate intellect buy travel ins!" Maybe after working endless hours to make sure that anything humanly possible was done to fix the immediate crisis, the Mayor felt it would be OK to leave for the vacation that he and his wife looked forward to for 8 months. I guess that he is as clueless as I am as to how much this town has changed.

You're fine Jason. As a "hardcore" left wing liberal, I have not seen one article of yours that has pushed this view. I also commend you for always being kind to these kind of comments. Kudos.

Dear Jason: Please keep up the good work. You and the patch have been a tremendous asset to Washington Township. As far as the stupid comments directed at you are concerned, do what everyone else does: consider the source. Take it as a badge of honor.

LOL!

Jason, You say you've been objective, however; you ignored reporting election results in the June primary concerning David Larsen. I have an email from you saying it wasn't your job. Moreover, any time there's an election you write more favorably about any challenger to Republicans.
You say you're objective, but have you ever done an article on Dave Kennedy and the lies he's told as a committeeman? Don't you think it newsworthy that an elected official is claiming that enforcing the law is a conspiracy against him? Or how's about an article on former Committeeman and Democrat, Kevin Nedd for his conviction for harassing a local family on his website?
Every day is bash the Christian day because every time I comment on an issue on the Patch and talk about my faith you allow childish taunting and bullying to be spewed directly at me with no restraint by posters hiding behind pseudonyms. Have you confronted or banned or taken down wtgodot's threatening remark to me today? " lotita needs protection" This is a threat Jason and you've allowed this to stand, not to mention the constant bashing of Mayor short on this thread.

My remark that you're a left wing journalist stands until you or the Patch editors decide to clean up these comments sections and give fair and equal coverage to the Republicans. Maybe then the LV Patch will be worth contributing to. I hope to continue a journalistic relationship with you, but I'll leave that up to you.

TL

Journalistic relationship? Is that anything like a platonic relationship?

Just can't stop with the name calling and twisting people's words, can you Liberty? I am impressed that I am so important that you made the comment about buying trip insurance just for me and whatever the other reason was. It is nice to see that we were able to agree about something...the fact that I am clueless. I really did not have any idea that so many people like you and in-the-dark and all of the other mean-spirited people had moved into Long Valley. Yes, people spent endless hours taking care of their family. Most people do that even when there is not a crisis. The Mayor had to do that as well as help his entire community. Did you read Tracy Tobin's comments? Are you willing to help us fight JCP&L and the Board of Public Utilities? If you were involved last year, then you know what a monumental task that is. If you weren't involved last year, would you be willing to help out this year. Whoever the Mayor will be, I'm sure they would welcome all of the help that they can get. You will, however, need to learn how to have discourse without getting nasty and resorting to name calling or you will do more harm than good.

Kathlyn, I think most of Long Valley did what they had to do and appreciate that the only thing we had to endure was a couple of weeks without power. I can't imagine what those complaining would do in the event of a real catastrophe..

Well for starters we would not look to Mayor Short to lead us though the crisis!

I only repeated what you said, that you were clueless. Don't be impressed, because you just don't get it--you're not important at all. You say the same stuff over and over, ad nauseum. And that last sentence of yours, you need to practice what you preach.

Kevin, that's correct. I would not be looking to our small town mayor to lead me through a crisis.

Don't want to mislead--the comment below is for Kathlyn. The one who doesn't like name-calling but says we're all mean-spirited.

So if we have a blizzard of epic proportions and your street has not been cleared of snow for 10 days, you don't think the Mayor is ultimately responsible?

Hi Kristina. Through my personal experiences, the problem is a lack of communication within the Power Company. A couple of days after the storm I saw a JCP&L truck assessing the damage on our street. A couple of days after that I called JCP&L and spoke to a representative to let them know that we still have downed wires and have to drive under uprooted trees being held up by wires. I was told not to drive over any wires. I told the rep that we had no choice if we needed to get out of here. Approximately one hour later someone did respond, jotted things down on a pad, moved all of the wires on the road over to the side and put up signs closing our road. However, to get out of here we still had to drive under trees being held up by the wires. Several days later I called again and someone responded and was jotting down notes. On the evening of 11/10, a tree company was here to start work on cutting the trees. They had to leave when it got dark. On 11/11 when the trucks rolled into town, I drove around until I found a couple of trucks. I asked what I could expect and was told that it was possible that we would not get our power back on that day because the damage was much worse than what they expected. The truck was from Duke Energy and they said that someone would be coming out to assess the damage in my area. Shortly later a truck drove up our street taking notes. By some miracle, we did finally get our power back that evening.

Sarah,

This thread is about the incompetence and poor judgment demonstrated by our Mayor who abandoned his township while a majority of his constituents sat in their cold dark homes without power. No one here is saying people did not suffer or that others have not responded with tremendous efforts to help.

Perhaps my comment would be better off in one of the various other threads, agreed. I just think we should sort of focus on the matters at hand rather than getting all riled up was my points. I have been following every article Patch has released and I was commenting on the people that keep bashing JCP&L (Which this article does seem to have) and the complainers.

I used this thread to respond because it seems to be getting a lot of attention and I wanted people to put things into perspective.

Thanks for the response though. I respect your opinion

I don't see anyone "riled up". No one is threatening to harm the Mayor. I see people expressing their displeasure with the Mayor. He is an elected official and should be accustomed and open to feedback, even if it is harsh.

Kevin,

Read more comments then. There are a lot of people getting testy in this thread but I more so meant other threads where people were flipping out over the whole no power JCP&L situation. I also never meant "riled up" as in "death threats". I think we maybe have a different definition of the phrase. I agree the Mayor needs feedback, and I for one think maybe he did use some poor judgment and am not totally on his side. Like I said, perhaps my comment was best for another thread but I hoped someone would read it and put things into perspective.

Again, my comment was for people throughout this ordeal who were extremely childish in behavior, not necessarily for everyone on here right now.

Cheers

Sarah,

Well spoken Sarah. I have a daughter who is a senior in college (thank God!). Good luck in your classes. I'm sure your parents are proud!

Very well said, Sarah Beth. It is uplifting to know that someone as young as you can rise above the bitterness and put things in perspective. I would like to clarify, however, that most of us who complained about JCP&L are referring to corporate headquarters, not the people out there doing the job. I feel as bad for them, and maybe even more, than I do for us the consumer. I said that every time that I spoke to a representative on the phone and the linemen in the field. We were out there giving the linemen coffee, water, soda, snacks. There were so many States represented on our one block alone. The JCP&L employees should not have to go through this time and time again. And the out of state crews should not have to be away from their families for weeks at a time bailing us out. Sandy was a horrible storm, but long power outages have a history in this area starting way before Sandy. The linemen from out of state will tell you how antiquated the power equipment in our area is. Some JCP&L employees have called radio stations anonymously to air their own grievances. For the most part, however, the employees cannot speak for themselves for fear of losing their jobs. To fight to fix or get rid of First Energy, the parent company, is not just for us, but for the JCP&L employees also. Half the staff was laid off when First Energy bought JCP&L. Thanks again for your intelligent and well spoken comments, Sarah Beth. I hope that you have a bright future (no pun intended).

Sarah Beth,

I believe there a 2 threads referenced here, both touching on what to consider so that "next time" is better. I believe it is clear that very few people believe that JCP&L's response to this issue was far below what many had hoped, and in that regard , the question is when can be done about it.

Y
The second thread focuses on leadership; was the mayor's decision to go on vacation appropriate or not, and if not, what can be done "to make it better for next time (where was /is Roehrich??)".

Yes many were and are in a less fortunate situation, and from an actionable stand point those that are concerned can donate funds, goods, and their time.

For Long Valley residents, the issue being discussed is whether the majority of voters believe Mayor Short's decision to go to Aruba was appropriate.

I again have to thank Tracy Tobin, as he has stepped into the Mayor role well and is at least making an effort to factually share some of the information surrounding the missing mayor issue

ITD,

Nice segmentation of the issues at hand.

Of course you agree...anything to take the spotlight off of Mayor Short's incompetence and poor judgment.