MANCHESTER – Lawmakers, County and local officials as well as senior residents want some answers from Jersey Central Power & Light about their service and next month they’ll get their wish.
The Manchester Coordinating Council (MCC) will hold their next meeting at 1:30 p.m. on February 24 at the Crestwood Village V Clubhouse at 325 Schoolhouse Road, Whiting. Their guest speaker is a representative from the utility.
The representative’s appearance was arranged by 9th District Senator Carmen Amato who will be joined by other officials according to Township Senior Liaison Judy Noonan who also worked to set it up.
The MCC forum will include a question-and-answer session and the JCP&L representative will have 20 minutes to speak. The representative will discuss last month’s power outage in Whiting and other areas of Ocean County.
During recent Township Council meetings, officials and residents expressed their outrage over the interruption of power around the holidays which caused warming shelters to be opened, one of which was Manchester Township High School.
Ocean County officials have also noted an increase in power outages and capacity issues that could put some business development in jeopardy. The Board of Ocean County Commissioners are calling on JCP&L to significantly improve its accountability to its customers.
Former Manchester Mayor, now Commissioner Robert Arace spoke from the podium at the last council meeting, “JCP&L’s behavior in how they interacted with the community has been absolutely abhorrent. Not only with Whiting – although Whiting was certainly the worst especially with our seniors – Toms River has experienced serval large scale outages as well as Lakewood. It is entirely unacceptable.”
Arace and Deputy Director of the Ocean County Board of Commissioners Frank Sadgehi joined with several other elected officials in meeting with the president of JCP&L recently.
Sadeghi described that meeting as being positive. “I am cautiously optimistic that we have their attention.” He had threatened a $1 billion lawsuit against the company for damages. “They need to be more accountable to their customers.”
Capacity issues could threaten the development of office buildings in areas like Lakewood, Jackson and Manchester townships, holding up work because there is a lack of enough power, according to Sadeghi.
“Business owners could be waiting for a few years to build a new office complex as a result of this,” Sadeghi added. “This hurts the County; it hurts our municipalities and we don’t want our hands to be tied in this matter. This needs to change.”
Sadeghi noted that recent power outages in areas of Ocean County, some lasting for several hours at a time were disruptive to residents there.
“We have the largest senior citizen population in the state. Our residents rely on electricity for medical needs including oxygen and to keep their heat on during the winter,” Sadeghi said. “These disruptions seem to happen any time of year – winter, summer and we don’t know why.”
The official feels that there was a disconnect with the utility since its parent company First Energy is located in Ohio. “I want dates of when we can expect upgrades and when the work will be finished. I want us to have regular meetings and monthly updates.”
“We all rely on the utility companies if for nothing else for our basic needs, we want our lights to work, our refrigerators to keep our food cold, we want our heat to work. We pay for this. They need to do better,” he added.
The MCC sent a letter to Christopher Hoenig, who manages public relations for JCP&L, noting the group’s concern about the day long power outage on December 23, 2024 and asked what the utility was doing to prevent a similar occurrence of a massive power outage.
The council asked JCP&L what caused the blackout. They wanted to know why it occurred in Whiting and what was the status of the Whiting substation’s ability to provide uninterrupted election service. They also asked when the local system had last been updated and what did that update entail.
“We understand that you are still investigating the source of the problem, and we are willing to wait for your report. We also understand that you have a standard protocol to meet with the HOA (Homeowners Association) President, local OEM (Office of Emergency Management) manager and a municipal official,” the letter adds.
The letter also states, “as we are your clients, we respectfully appeal this procedure and request an exemption. Furthermore, we would like to point out that Manchester residents that are over 65 make up 49% of the population – a protected class in terms of health sensitivities and fixed income.”
“We need to know we have a sustainable and efficient electric service,” the letter added.
