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WPCNR CITY HALL CIRCUIT. August 1, 2006: Mayor Joseph Delfino of White Plains has made public his concerns about the efficiency of Con Edison efforts in White Plains during the July 19-20-21-22-23 “Mystery Storm” recovery.

Mayor Joseph Delfino of White Plains Demands Better Con Ed Response. Photo, November 2005 WPCNR News Archive

Rocked on Ridgeway, July 18, 2006. Photo by WPCNR News

In a letter to Sandra Miller, Director of Public Affairs for Con Edison in Westchester County, the Mayor cites Con Edison for shorting White Plains Con Edison personnel, delaying 7,000 residents’ return to power. Here is a copy of the Mayor’s letter:

July 24, 2006

Dear Ms. Miller,

The storm that hit White Plains on Tuesday July 18, 2006, caused massive outages throughout the southern end of White Plains, particularly the Highlands, Gedney Farms, Rosedale, Saxon Woods, Havilands Manor, and Hillair Circle neighborhoods. According to your own estimates, more than 7,000 White Plains residents experienced outages and were without power for the better part of last week. The damage caused by this storm, which struck quickly and inflicted massive damage to electrical infrastructure, could not have been predicted.

My concern is in how few Con Ed line crews were available within the City of White Plains once the storm had passed. Our Department of Public Works (DPW) amassed a crew of more than 100 employees, who worked around the clock to clear the affectedl areas of trees and debris.

Unfortunately, the work of the DPW staff was hampered by an insufficient presence of Con Ed personnel necessary to  ensure that power was cut to the lines so that we could move as quickly as possible to clear the affected areas. I would also ask that a review be taken by Con Ed to ensure that the staffing levels are adequate in the most affected areas.

It has also been brought to my attention by our residents that information was difficult to obtain from Con Ed, and that often the information that was communicated was incorrect. I would suggest that Con Ed review their communications process as it relates to handling inquiries and disseminating information to the customers after major storm activity has passed.

I thank you in advance for your attention to the concerns I have outlined above. Please contact me directly should you wish to discuss this matter further.

Sincerely

Joseph M. Delfino

Mayor

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WPCNR WEST SIDE STORY. From The Mayor’s Office. August 1, 2006: Mayor Joseph Delfino announced today that the City’s planned revitalization of the Lexington Avenue – Post Road corridor will begin with new streetscapes being installed on Lexington Avenue. The project will replace several blocks of streetscape along Lexington, including the placement of utility boxes and poles underground. State of the Art lighting fixtures, benches, and other street furniture will also be added. Funding for this project was made possible through an approved appropriations request of $1 M, and Mayor Delfino was notified directly by Senators Charles Schumer and Hillary R. Clinton via a conference call.

South Lexington Avenue from The Sidewalks of Winbrook.December, 2004.  Photo, WPCNR News Archive.

“I am pleased to announce that the first step in the revitalization of the Lexington Avenue – Post Road corridor is coming from within. This announcement, coupled with the recently approved expansion at White Plains Hospital Center, and the upgrades at the Housing Authority, shows that those with a vested interest in the future of that corridor are willing to step up and reinvest in themselves and the area. It is my sincere hope that we will be the catalysts for change in the corridor, and that we will start seeing more concrete proposals as we move forward. I would like to thank Sens. Schumer and Clinton for their steadfast support of White Plains”, stated Mayor Delfino.

“White Plains has had tremendous success in the last few years in attracting new commercial and residential investment and transforming itself into an economically dynamic city.  This money will extend that success to new areas and enhance the neighborhood by burying utilities, making the street more attractive, and creating more sidewalks so people will get out of their cars and enjoy the city”, said U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer.

The Intersection of South Lexington Avenue and Post Road: new Streetscape planned. Photo, WPCNR News Archive.

City of White Plains DPW will provide $500,000.00 towards the work through in-house labor for construction, and engineering services (initial & final design plans, construction assistance, construction inspection, and project management).Detailed schematic plans were recently filed with the NYS Department of Transportation by the City’s Department of Public Works, and work is expected to commence in early 2007.

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W PNCR County Clarion-Leger. From the Westchester County Department of Communications. July 31, 2006: County Executive Andy Spano held a meeting with Con Edison today, as solely reported by WPCNR, and after that meeting, the County Executive issued this the following statement. No other statements about Con Edison explanations and plans for dealing with future communications were made:

·        At a meeting with Con Edison today, Spano was assured by the utility that it has already brought in extra crews and notified others to be on standby in the event there are any major power outages.

Spano reminded residents that if they do lose power to make sure they notify Con Ed of the outage by calling 1-800-75-CONED. Do not assume that the utility knows you are without power.  If you see a fallen wire, you should notify your local police. In addition, everyone should  own a basic phone (one that is not powered by electricity) as these are the only kind of landlines that will work during an outage.

·        All county beaches and pools will be open for extended hours Tuesday and Wednesday until 8:30 p.m. with reduced rates. The fee for pools will be $2.50 for adults or children with a county park pass (as opposed to $5.75 for adults, $4 for children and $3.75 for seniors). For people without a pass, it will be $5, instead of  $10. Beaches are free at Playland and Glen Island, but parking rates remain in effect. Go to www.westchestergov.com/parks for details. The longer hours will continue Thursday if the heat wave continues.  (Please Note: Playland pool is the site this week of Westchester Swimming Championships. Therefore, that pool will close to the public at 3:30 p.m. )

·        The county’s Department of Emergency Services has contacted all local governments in advance of any heat-related problems to offer assistance. The county is ready to open its Emergency Operations Center if needed.

·        To help residents cope with the soaring temperatures, the Health Department has a 24-hour “Stay Cool” Information Line, (914) 813-5620, which provides tips on how to stay cool in the summer heat and identifies air-conditioned locations such as libraries, shopping malls, movie theaters and senior centers throughout the county where residents can go to beat the heat.  A listing of some air-conditioned community locations is available on the Health Department’s website, www.westchestergov.com/health.

·        The county Department of Emergency Services is gathering information about where local governments have set up “cooling centers” for their residents. Currently, these are:

o        Elmsford: Senior Community Center, 10 North Stone Ave., 10 a.m.- 8 p.m., Mon.-Thurs.

o       New Rochelle: Hugh Doyle Senior Center, 94 Davis Ave., Tuesday and Wednesday, 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.

o       Hastings: The courtroom in the Municipal Building and the Andrus Memorial Home (neither facility has back-up generators).

o       Yonkers: Coyne Park Community Center, Nodine Hill Community Center, Cola Community Center, Chema Center, Congregation of the Sons of Israel, St. John’s Park Pavilion, Bronx River Road Community Center, Sacred Heart H.S. Cafeteria, Nepperhan Community Center

                        For specific hours and addresses, residents should call their local municipality.

“We are taking whatever steps we can in advance to deal with this weather,” Spano said. “I urge residents to use common sense when dealing with the heat. At our end, we remain ready to assist local governments and residents.”

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WPCNR MR. & MRS. & MS. WHITE PLAINS VOICE. July 30, 2006: The power is back on but the memory of the chaos lingers on. After 9/11, millions were sent Westchester County for improved “emergency” communications. Dozens of meetings were held to improve county and cities’ coordinated efforts in a disaster. Last week, Mr. and Mrs. and Ms. White Plains saw how they worked when they called city hall and city hall did not know how many homes were out. They saw how they worked when they called the police department and could not find out what roads were closed and open. But, perhaps WPCNR is too harsh.

What does Mr. and Mrs. and Ms. White Plains think about how our county and city, and cities communicated with residents in an emergency — the first really big one we have had since 9/11?

Was the information authorities gave you when you called, or that you heard on the radio or read here on WPCNR adequate — because that is all we got. I only selected adequate and inadequate — because, it was not good. Our leaders said they were ready for an emergency and had communications programs in place supposedly for an Indian Point disaster or whatever. Well,  July 18-19-20-21 was a test. How did the county the city do?

Send us your disaster stories — good and bad.

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WPCNR COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER. By John F. Bailey. July 27, 2006. UPDATED 11:32 A.M. E.D.T.UPDATED 4:45 P.M. E.D.T.: Donna Greene, spokesperson for the Westchester County Department of Communications, reported today that Westchester County Executive Andy Spano will hold a closed-to-the-public-and-press meeting with Con Edison officials Monday in the Michaelian Building to discuss Con Edison response to the three weather-related power calamities that afflicted Westchester residents in Yonkers, Valhalla and assorted communities, including White Plains, Scarsdale, Harrison, New Rochelle, Pelham and Port Chester last week.

The Mayor’s Office of White Plains, said upon learning of this meeting, that Mayor Joseph Delfino is preparing a letter to be delivered to the County Executive listing issues the Mayor wants Mr. Spano to address with Con Edison performance that affected White Plains during last week’s swath of destruction that ravaged White Plains neighborhoods. The Mayor’s Office said the letter is being drafted and will be issued this afternoon and delivered to the County Executive. As of 4:45  P.M., that letter from Mayor Delfino has not been received by this reporter.

Michael Kaplowitz, County Legislator, told WPCNR that  as of 1:30 P.M., he had not been notified by the County Executive of the Monday meeting. Asked if he would attend if invited, he said he thought so. Asked what he, Kaplowitz, had thought of Con Edison’s policy shift in which they would not pay for food spoilage claims Westchester residents had suffered because of storm damage, Kaplowitz said he was “dissappointed.”

Asked if he thought Westchester County should attempt to reimburse its residents foir the $8.75 Million Con Edison would have been prepared to pay them if they honored storm damage, Kaplowitz said “No,” that Con Edison should be working with the county and try and come together with the county and make a gesture to the residents by paying the claims instead of hiding behind their statutes allow them to get away with (not paying food spoilage caused by storm damage outages).

Asked if the county should make an effort to reimburse its own residents like the county regularly bails out the Westchester County Medical Center, Kaplowitiz said the situation was different, that the Medical Center was non-profit and had improved its management, and that using county funds to reimburse was just taking from taxpayers.   “It (the food spoilage claims) should come from the shareholders of Con Edison, a profit-making business, not the taxpayers of the county,” Kaplowitz said. Kaplowitz said Con Edison had failed to communicate, did not have enough repair crews (being that the company had to call in other companies for help), and did not provide adequate information on recovery progress as the power crisis unfolded last week.

The purpose of the Spano meeting with Con Edison  Ms. Greene said is to look to the future to improve Con Edison communications with the public and to explore infrastructure conditions and the status of “feeder cables” and how Con Edison is equipped to handle future heat and power demands as well as weather-related powerline damage on the scale of last week’s third storm that devastated central Westchester. Ms. Greene said the meeting would be closed to the press. She had no explanation as to why the meeting would be closed, and whether other county legislators and public representatives would be in attendance.

Greene repeated that County Executive Spano feels that Con Edison “did a good job in its response,” but communications with the public were a key issue the County Executive wants to examine. Greene said Spano wanted to explore what new technologies Con Edison can use so their customer service representatives would be better prepared to provide estimates on when customers without power could expect electricity to be restored. Greene also confirmed, (as county news releases had advised residents last week), that Con Edison does not have the kind of technology monitoring equipment that instantly shows on a monitored screen when power has been lost to an individual customer, a street, a section or a city. The only way Con Edison knows if power is lost is if a customer or police call them, she said.

Greene said Con Edison, in the third storm that took place July 18 in the early hours of July 19 when an alleged “microburst” hit the County Seat (White Plains), Con Edison response began based on police information and customer calls. She said Con Edison personnel were called into the County Emergency Center and routed crews to down wires, where in cases they “stood guard” until the appropriate crews were dispatched to neutralize the live wire. Greene said the county did not have detailed information on how and when Con Edison deployed its crews during the first day of recovery, July 19 and the next, July 20. Greene said the larger emergencies were taken care of first, again based on police and consumer calls.

However, as any person calling in last week knows, the Con Edison voice mail menu, 800-75CONED is tedious, lasts about five minutes, before you can give your information, and does not give you response to a live person and is exasperating when you have an emergency situation. When WPCNR pointed this out to Ms. Greene, she said that was one of the issues the County Executive was going to look at, in addition to the County Emergency Notification System, which Susan Tolchin, Chief Adviser to County Executive Spano criticised in a letter to the Journal News today.

The obscure Tolchin letter on the Journal News oped page today was the first official reprimand of Con Ed performance by the County Executive other than Mr. Spano’s request for Westchester residents receiving equal food spoilage claims payments with Queens residents which he lobbied for Monday. Mr. Spano still has not responded to WPCNR’s questions on whether he will attempt to find other ways to compensate Westchester residents’ spoilage claims due to storm damage,  (his Department of Communications said yesterday he would not). Con Edison, in an action first uncovered by WPCNR,  subtlely refused to pay food spoilage claims for wind and downed power lines damage, after leading residents complaining of storm damage to believe they would during Monday afternoon’s public hearing.

Tolchin wrote that the county chose on Thursday afternoon (40 hours after the storm July 18 had concluded)  “to implement CENS after a Thursday afternoon conference call with Consolidated Edison officials in which they told us that, beginning Thursday night, if the public called their customer service number, representatives would have the estimated restoration time for each address.” Tolchin’s letter responding to a complaint of Gabrel Farkas who complained that Con Ed could not tell him estimated time of restoration, said “there were others, who did not receive the information as Con Ed promised. There is no excuse for this failure, and points up serious problems with Con Ed’s communication to the public.” The letter states, “it will be one of the subjects the county executive will discuss when he meets with Con Ed officials to go over the outage.”

It will apparently be Mr. Spano’s first public discussion of performance issues with Con Edison because Mr. Spano according to a legislative aid did not attend Monday afternoon’s public hearing on the Con Edison performance held by County Legislator Tom Abinanti.