Last night's meeting was a good step in that it gave residents an opportunity to meet local JCP&L representatives face to face and tell them what their failure to provide reliable electrical service meant in real terms to residents. It gave our legislative district's Senator and an Assemblyman a clear picture of JCP&Ls institutionalized neglect impact on new and long term residents and businesses. Senator Bucco and Assemblyman Bucco shared their all too familiar experience with the same impact on their families. Unfortunately I do not believe that the local representatives from JCP&L have any power to make significant changes to their failed operating policies. The needed changes include replacement of aged, failing and vulnerable infrastructure, better staffing and usage of service and repair crews and an effective system of communicating with their customers during service outages and emergencies. Those changes can only come from significant and permanent changes in JCP&L corporate policy from the top executives of the Local Operating company and it's Owner/Parent company First Energy of Ohio. I hope I am wrong, but my feeling is that until the Governor and the BPU apply heavy and long term pressure for change on JCP&L and First Energy, we will see the same old "bandaid" approach until the public heat from the recent storms dies down and then it will be back to the same failed approachs that has led to a steady decline in service from JCP&L for over 20 years. STAY INVOLVED!

Thank you MaryLynn for showing up. I would like to say I was quite disappointed in the turnout. With all the problems this town faces, more than 30 people should have made it a priority to appear at this meeting. Does this show anything to JCP&L when all everyone does is complain, yet they don't even make time to voice their complaints in unison as a town? How extremely frustrating. Unfortunately, 3 minutes was just not enough time to make all my concerns heard about their poor service, bad communication, blatent lies, etc. I also forgot to tell them that my gray hair is not due to age (quite far from it), but due to the anxiety I live with every day wondering how long my power will actually be "on." I can say I was certainly thrilled to see Senator Bucco and his son attend so they could understand this is not only a storm and tree issue, but apparantly a lack of updated equipment issue as well. We, as citizens, can only do so much. I have emailed everyone I could think of, and have yet to get anything from JCP&L with regards to finding out why I continually have these outages. Since we weren't allowed to address them about things as they were speaking, and once again not enough time, I am confused about what the outcome of hooking the Chester line into the Drakestown Road line is going to accomplish. As I stated, I Iive right down the road from it, yet have all these issues while others on the same road don't.

I don't feel any more confidant after the meeting than I did before the meeting that our issues with JCP&L will be resolved. My initial intention was to approach my comments with humor as laughter is the best medicine. I meant to tell the JCP&L reps how much I enjoyed the recorded message that I got whenever I called JCP&L during my latest 9 day outage. It went something like "Due to the effects of the recent storm, JCP&L will not be turning off power due to non-payment" (darn, I wish that I hadn't paid my bill!). And then there was the standard week long script of "everybody on by midnight Friday". Yes the reps are reading scripts. They have no choice. One of the reps at least appreciated my humor when I asked if the script had changed yet and then proceeded to read the script. The rep who read me the script on the 6th day of my outage ended the conversation with "And you have a balance due of $32". That was a definite LOL moment.
But my sense of humor died after the presentation by JCP&L. My skepticism started when the rep who gave the opening remarks referred to us as "Long Hill Township" & it went downhill from there. I didn't care about their educational backgrounds nor those pieces of equipment that they brought with them. I want to hear genuine solutions. Tree trimming in the 1st quarter of 2012 during the middle of winter? I'm not buying it!

Although I do agree that the small turnout was disappointing, you have to understand that not all 18,000 residents lost power during the Oct. storms or lose it on a continuing basis. Of the approximately 125 homes in my development, only 25 houses were without power for almost 8 days, and we are the unlucky ones with the chronic outage problems. I guess that section of Paula Drive is considered a 'low priority' area!

Four representatives of JCP&L presented a slide show of pie charts and graphics in an attempt to explain their challenges in servicing out township and what their plans were going forward:

JCP&L blamed most of the outages on trees and limbs falling onto power lines.

JCP&L displayed examples of upgraded spaces, fault detectors, and lightning protectors—all of which were in place BEFORE the outages making me question their effectiveness.

JCP&L described an “aggressive” tree trimming effort conducted every four years.

Resident’s questions and comments included:

8-10 day outages are unacceptable.

Get rid of JCP&L.

Put all wires under ground.

Why are “low priority” residents charged the same rate as “high priority” residents?

Why were service trucks bolting from one area to another, then back again instead of fixing problems in immediate adjacent areas?

Where can JCP&L’s disaster plan be found?

JCP&L plans improvements for the first qtr of 2012; residents questioned their ability to get us through the upcoming winter.

I left the meeting with that same trepidation about the upcoming winter. Between Irene and the Halloween snow, I went through 120 gals of propane over 10+ days of outages. The JCP&L team did not instill any confidence nor did they offer any real plans except to continue trimming trees and maintain existing antiquated infrastructures

I don't think anyone came out of that meeting with a lot of confidence. I almost laughed out loud when the JCP&L rep was giving his presentation, and when showing a satellite image, he says; "see all these green things? Those are trees". Then he spends all this time explaining what a spacer does, which is totally irrelevant to trees falling on lines. When Assemblyman Kennedy asks if they can send informational messages to peoples' cell phones, the rep says' "how would do that? We don't have everyone's cell phone numbers". Obviously, JCP&L is clueless about how 21st century communication works.

I also forgot to ask them what it means when you call the outage reporting number and it says, "for partial loss of power press..." What in the world does that mean? You either have power or you don't!

Another issue, as stated above, has been getting the word out. Not everyone reads this blog (I got it from one of the parents I happened to call when they were scheduled for the second meeting, after attending the first one, at which time I didn't know they had cancelled), reads whatever paper it is posted in, or listens to whatever radio station they are speaking of. I personally printed a letter off my computer and drove up and down the street putting it in mailboxes. I also called a number of parents of kids my child knows and told them (didn't see any of them either), as well as those I saw in passing. It just goes to show they're not interested in a resolution. Still reeling that one of my neighbors didn't show up when they experience the same thing I do. However, I cannot just pick up and go away, then come back when the power is back on.

Another issue I wasn't able to bring up, was the fact the PSE&G has less manpower with probably three times the area/residents. JCP&L's response to that is that they have to deal with more troublesome terrain and issues getting out to locations to deal with the problems. What a pathetic excuse! All they can ever do is make excuses and not take blame for the real reasons at hand. Just like every time anything has to do with flooding, that is their response to me. I don't have flooding, I'm on top of the mountain, no water here. Our whole town is not totally flooded (other than some major high risk areas near the river). I also believe, as stated above, all our wasted breath will get us nowhere with them, especially with such a small turnout. I too arrived quite early expecting it to be a mob scene. Totally ridiculous. No offense, but I believe the only ones that did show, were those who do not live in McMansions, but older homes, and seemingly those who have lived here for a very long time.

@Joseph Keyes: JCP&L did offer one concrete plan, that of the "tie-in" that will provide an alternate power route to the Drakestown area in case the normal route fails for whatever reason.

Oddly, it was the mayor, Ken Short that mentioned a new sub-station in Tweksbury that may help the southern residents of the township; no mention of it by JCP7L.

I was left unimpressed by the JCP&L presentation. I just the feeling that they "don't get it".

Will be looking forward to the answers to all the questions which JCP&L said would be completed in two weeks, and the mayor said would be posted on the township website.

To continue complaining to JCP&L go here:
https://www.firstenergycorp.com/corporate/contact_us.html
My submission online:
Last night I joined more than 30 other unhappy residents of Washington Township, Morris County NJ to air our complaints and demand improved infrastructure, dependable service, and rapid response to outages (as opposed to the lame responses we get). I feel our voices went unheard and the four people in front of us were nothing more than stooges sent to take the arrows and bullets from us on your behalf. We are angry and we are not going to stop with that meeting. If there is a way for us to have JCP&L rights to service us turned over to another power company, we are going to do it. In the meantime, we intend to pepper you with constant complaints (like the constant outages) and offer as much negative publicity to your company as we can muster.
Sincerely,
Cecile Marie

To add your complaint about JCP&L to the NJ Board of Public Utlities online go here: http://www.state.nj.us/bpu/assistance/complaints/inquiry.html

My complaint: Power outages are too frequent and too long. What will it take to have another utlity company take over for JCP&L?

Just Can't Provide Light! Nuff said?

Not that I am happy about losing my power for several days either, but I have to play devil's advocate and ask this hypothetical question:
YOU own the power company.
You make money by selling electricity.
There are two power lines that are down.
Each broken line will each take four hours to fix.
You have one repair guy on duty, and he has an eight hour shift.
The two broken lines are essentially identical, except that one line serves 2 customers, and the other line serves 20 customers.
Which line would you tell him to fix first, and why?

When answering the question, do not change any of the parameters of the question, nor add any additional parameters that aren't already stated.

Jon, you added many parameters of your own to the scenario of 2 vs 20 customers and whose line do you fix first and yet limit responders from adding any parameters. There are MANY factors that go into running a successful buisness besides how much money you will make on a particular day. But that aside, electricity is a service that is needed by everyone (except in 3rd world countries). Therefore it is regulated and must adhere to certain standards. If it does not meet those standards, it runs the risk of being charged huge fines and/or losing its' authority to operate in the state. By the way, the reason that I am currently awake at 3:30 AM is because I heard the pouring rain outside and I live in one of those "black zones" with the frequent power outages. There are many trees around here whose roots are exposed due to soil erosion. They are ready to fall at any moment. So I am at the computer while I wait for my bathtub to fill so that I'll have water to flush toilets when the electricity goes out.

I would suggest that Mr.Lynch, JCP&L's President, take a page from Connecticut Light and Power's President play book and respectfully resign from his position. It is quite obvious Mr Lynch is not an effective leader and out of touch with the job at hand. Some one needs to take resposibility for the inefficient and antiquated system that is currently in place. Corporate directives start at the top. For once, do the right thing Mr Lynch and resign.

@Jon: In response to your "hypothetical" question, all outages are not caused by the same "identical" issue every single time. First, on JCP&L's letter from the President page during the storm, he stated they had a lot of their people spend 3 days untangling wires to get the power back to 2,000 customers. They could have got the majority of our whole town up and running in less than 1 day, a substantial amount of more people, because, I don't know if you were at the meeting, but a majority of the fixes here were done in less than 10 minutes. Is that fair reasoning? I don't think so. Especially when I am one of those people all the time.

And, if I am going to ALWAYS be a "LOW PRIORITY" and be one of the last ones they deem necessary to put my power back on, then I should pay less money than those who are a HIGHER PRIORITY (and I am not talking about hosipital, fire, police, etc.), I am talking about the people living in the McMansions, because from where I sit, they are the ones who never seem to lose power, or are out for a very minimal amount of time, when my outages last for DAYS!

I also didn't see any of those homeowners at the meeting. Why? Because they don't have such issues. And my response to someones statement about people working, going to school, etc., is a bunch of nonsense. I know for a fact that about 99% of the mothers in this town are stay-at-home moms. The only people who showed up at the meeting were "older" residents, in my opinion, meaning like me, they live in older homes, which is where all the problems are. I know for a FACT that I paid twice the amount for my 30+ year old home than those in several of the "upscale" subdivisions built shortly before the skyrocketing housing prices.

I can probably go live in the Bronx and pay $200 a month rent for an apartment and be treated better.

Sorry, Alice, but if I didn't have to pay the exhorbatant amount of taxes here, maybe I could. And it is not age that has caused it, it is the power issues! If you don't live it, you don't know. Keep your personal opinions about me to yourself. And if I could sell the home I seem to have lost my $100,000 in cash I put down, believe me, I would move.

By the way, in Mayor Shorts opening statements at the meeting, he suggested that we don't dwell on the past during the meeting, but rather on how to move forward. It sounded like a good idea to me. However, the JCP&L representatives set the tone when they kept referring to things that JCP&L had done in the past to resolve the issues in Long Valley. Especially the scene when they produced all of the electrical parts that they had brought with them (not understood by any layperson) and proudly explained the number of those equipment parts that had been installed in this area. One astute member of the audience asked if those items were installed after or before the recent disasters (I was assuming that it was after based on Mayor Shorts requested protocal for the meeting). Like a deer caught in headlights, they admitted that these items were installed before our recent slew of outages. Well hello reps, they obviously did not fix the problems. If anything, things have gotten worse. There was miniscule information provided by JCP&L about how they were planning to move forward and thus they set the tone for the rest of the meeting.

Kathlyn: Yes I still have my power (amazingly), thank you, glad you do as well. As for the trees, if they are not on your property, and you have had luck getting them to do something about one in the past, I would call JCP&L if they are in danger of falling on the line. If they are on the towns property and are in danger of falling on your home, contact them. If they are notified they are dangerous and do nothing, should they fall and damage your home, car, etc., you will have recourse against them. This is a known fact from my insurance agent with regards to an incident of a tree from a neighbors yard falling on someones car.

@Alice: And I blame those homeowners for my house being re-assessed at what I owe the bank making it so I cannot re-finance (having no equity anymore), and I can't sell because better homes can be purchased for that amount now. Some of them paid half of what I did, had values twice what I paid, and then complained about the assessments being unfair, thus causing my "older" home to be assessed way lower than what it should have been, and their's still being assessed at way more than they paid to start with. So, if you're interested, I'll be happy to sell it to you.

Oh, but wait, I totally forgot, you wouldn't want to buy a house that never has power would you? That seems to be the whole reason for this blog.

Alice, if you don't know how the tax assessments work then I guess I'll explain it. If your home is assessed at $500,000 and you pay $10/per thousand, that comes to $5,000 I believe. If your property has to be re-assessed to account for the housing market and becomes worth $250,000, do you honestly think they are going to cut my taxes in half as well? Not a chance. In order to keep what the government needs to payout, they now have to raise the milage rate to balance it out. So now my house is worth $250,000 @ $20/thousand keeping my taxes the same. The same is true if the value of your home is assessed higher, they can certainly not double your taxes. So if it's now valued at $1,000,000, the rate is $5/thousand (plus any additional changes needed to give them a "reasonable" increase).

And as for the rest of your nasty comments, something that seems to be occurring quite a bit on this site, keep them to yourself. You don't know anything about what I do for a living or what my finances are. The whole point of this is the fact that I PAY FOR ELECTRICITY AND I SHOULD HAVE IT. It is not MY RESPONSIBILITY to go out and purchase a generator to supply something I am paying someone else for!

And as for the job market, hey maybe you're one of the lucky ones that didn't loose their job. There are MILLIONS of people without work, and not a lot of jobs for them to get. I do the best I can with what I have, and I am not depending on the government or taxpayers (one of which I was for 40 years) to support me. Maybe we were idiots buying in what we considered a nice, safe area to raise our child (another thing you have no idea where I came from), but it's too late for that, mistake made. Had I known the housing market would crash, my power would be out all the time, and the nasty people that live in this town, I certainly would have gone someplace else.

HAPPY HOLIDAY'S!!

Kathyln: I'm sorry some of us are forced to live with these things while others are just totally ignorant to how we have to live our everyday lives wondering if our lights are going to stay on, we will be able to flush our toilets or take a shower, or keep warm. I am so ready to shoot people. It shouldn't matter how much my home is worth, or what my income is. This is a free country and I have rights. Why else would everyone in the world continue to want to come here? Because they apparantly live in developments with NO TREES and underground wiring (which I do know you have--but seem to have a lot of issues with), they can continue to blast people for whining about something we are entitled to, and they have.

Sorry Kathlyn, I thought I saw you mention it here, my mistake, but the point still being 99% of the issues are with people who have above ground wiring.

Just received $424 estimated bill from JCP&L for one month for the period of: Oct 20 through Nov. 21. Hello! My normal bill is less than $100. My power was off for 2-1/2 days. What is this based upon???

Not sure if there is any correlation at all, but a day after my power was restored one of my lamps caught on fire. Hmmm. Sure wish we had solar power ready for prime time.

Fire from the gods? The big corporations -- right? They seem to hold all the power.

Wow MaryLynn, I sure hope you called in with your actual reading!

Yeah, another thing to put on my mile long to-do list.

JCP&L was acquired by First Energy Corp. of Akron, OH when it 'merged' with GPU Energy of Morristown, NJ in 2001. First Energy Corp. has since made other acquisitions; MYR Group, Allegheny Energy. Is it any surprise that such a heavily leveraged company has cut costs by dismissing staff, delaying maintenance, taking a reactive stance to potential problems rather then proactive? People, this is free market capitalism at its best. Better get used to it.

d33nb9, Not sure I understand your comment. Wouldn't free market capitalism indicate that I can buy from my vendor of choice? Would that not imply that there is no government mandated monopy on the delivery of service to me, which is what the state of NJ specifically grants to JCP&L?

After all is said, and unfortunately very little is done, our problems with JCP&L boil down to a very simple answer. JCP&L, like many companies today, is nothing but a "Cash Cow" for it's parent company First Energy of Ohio. That means we get milked for the revenue we provide and First Energy sends as little cash as possible back to us in order to maximize their profits. i.e. Minimal investment in new more efficient, more reliable infrastructure, band aid repairs on aging infrastructure, outsourcing maintenance and repair servcies and don't get me started on right of way tree clearing. As I said in a previous post, the solution has to come from the BPU leaning on JCP&L/First Energy to start making the necessary investments to restore our electrical system to something that approximates what we pay for. That is going to require the Governor and both houses of the State Legislature to lean heavily on the BPU. If the BPU can't do the job, it should be eliminated and it's responsibilities turned over to an existing State Agency that can get the job done.
Write the Governor and Legislators! Demand Action!
Read an interesting article in today's Star Ledger Business section. According to the State Division of Rate Counsel, JCP&L has not requested a rate increase for its services in years. Unbelievable? Possibly JCP&L has been so noble because it appears their Return on Investment EXCEEDS the State guidelines. JCP&L's spokesman doesn't believe that there is a need for a rate review.

Has anyone seen ANY, further repairs since the storm? On Drakestown road and Laketown, we have some trees almost at a 45 degree angle, leaning OVER the road and WIRES, One tree even has a red ribbon around it. There's still colored ribbons on lines over Drakestown, Debris still narrows road ways on the shoulders. JCPL band-aids are getting tattered, but I have yet to see ANY REMEDIAL upgrading or repair. The BPU, does lean on JCPL if you send formal complaints but there's no follow-up or punitve action. ANOTHER thing, Long Valley, and particulalry the Zoning Board of ''Appeasement'' has to STOP allowing ''flag lots, ''flag off a flag'' and ''flag off a flag off an easement'' like we have on Jones lane ! WHAT do you think will happen when THAT GUY'S line goes down, on his ''sky hook'' plot ? Can JCPL even GET TO IT, and, if HE"S OUT, we are ALL OUT until they reach him.. Mr Tobin, please PASS THIS ON to the Committee, road dept. etc., as I am getting worn out with them all on this subject.

Hey, why are people picking on JCP&L again? Tomorrow is the date that they are going to be providing us with the answers to all of our questions (the Brooklyn Bridge is still for sale). I got an interesting answer already. On or about 11/4/11 I spoke to a "Floor Support Resolutionist" who put in an order for me to the "Forestry Dept". The following week I actually received a call back. I explained the tree problem pretty much as Mr. Freiday stated, including several trees on Fairview whose roots are significantly exposed. The Forestry Supervisor said that he would check out the area on 10/25/11 and offered me a call back with the results. I accepted. Would anyone like to know the results? Check out my next "comment"

On 12/2/11 I received a voice message on my cell phone from the Forestry Dept. Supervisor. I am not releasing his name because I don't want to get him in trouble. He is just following orders. The response was: ..."Hello Mrs. Carter. This is _____. I spoke to you a couple of weeks ago...I told you that I would give you a call in reference to the trees around your property & on your road. Currently we had to work in a substation that got hit very very hard by the storm and we've been mandated to clear that substation up currently. Our guys will be working in the Chester area. I'm hoping to get back to it by the first of the year to work on your road & other areas within Chester. Chester substations are getting done next year. Apparently I still don't know exactly when we're doing them. I have not been notified on that date, other than the first part of the year or the end of the year yet"....He did leave me a number to call him back at if I had anymore questions. I do have a question. WHO IS GIVING THE ORDERS AT JCP&L AND WHO IS GOING TO HOLD BPU ACCOUNTABLE FOR NOT PUTTING AN END TO THE ABUSE? Please, Tracy Tobin, could you get our Mayor & Town Committee members to join in with those other towns who have signed petitions to be serviced by another energy company? I still keep my bathtub full just in case, but can't do anything to prevent freezing pipes (we have a backorder in for a generator).

I suggest EVRYONE passes on their complaints by e-mail or phone to the BPU. Lame as they may seem, over the years I have often taken anxious phone calls from JCPL supervisors asking me for more info, and even occasionally offering some action. JCPL does jump when the BPU barks, too bad they don't BITE.

It is 2 weeks today since our town meeting with JCP&L. When and how will the residents be notified of JCP&L's responses to our questions?

Mayor Short said the answers by JCP&L would be posted on the township website. Don't know if Short received them today, or earlier. The JCP&L answers are not on the twp website.

So where are the answers to our questions. We were supposed to have them by 12/5 and today is 12/8. Did JCP&L erroneously send their response to Long Hill Twp or Chester? They don't seem to know that there is a town by the name of Long Valley in their service area.

Is anyone else paying $3.90 a gallon for home heating oil? Talk about caught between a rock and a hard place. Because I'm going broke paying for heating oil I think maybe I should lower the thermostat to 50 and use space heaters -- but then is JCP&L going to push the prices through the roof because of the cost of recent storms? The birds have the right idea. Maybe it's better to drain the pipes and get out of town during the winter. Any body have any suggestions for oil companies that charge reasonable prices?

Hi
There are definitely some bargain oil providers out there.
However, if you want a "full-service" company that takes responsibility for your heating system, they tend to cost more. I was with Region Oil (aka Spartan, Christy Halsey, etc. for 30 years before I realized they were gouging me. At one time, their service was so good I didn't shop, but then they laid their guys off and there was no reason to pay their premium price.
I am now with Dixon Bros. They have a full service and also provide propane. Their pricing is much better than Region, and their service is outstanding.
If you don’t need a full service provider, then there are lots of discount providers. See them in the Daily Record and Observer. The only thing to beware of is that some of these are just “man with truck” operations, so they are not so good at automatic filling before you go dry, and they run out quickly if and when we have another oil shortage.

it's called the ''spot market'' often up to a whole DOLLAR less than full service. All you need do is read the gauge on your tank and order. IF you have an underground tank or no gauge, you measure with a ruler, has to be long enough to reach bottom (4 or 5 ft ) or more. The ''weights and measures'' dept can tell you what ''INCHES of oil'' in a 275 or 550 or 1000 gallon tank represents or Google it. For service there's plenty mechanics not necesarliy connected to a full service company.

Any bets on what time we lose power tonight?

I was thinking the same thing, have my flashlight ready just in case! It's pretty windy

funny, I was sure it would go out, it did, but only for about a minute, after all, we already GOT most of the trees and limbs down for JCPL with the last couple storms.

JCP&L answers delayed a week or two:
http://longvalley.patch.com/articles/mayor-another-1-2-weeks-for-jcp-l-answers