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WPCNR THE LETTER TICKER. AUGUST 8, 2020:

In recent years there been a number of power outages in our area. Many residents have experienced significant outages for many days after each storm.

After each storm the same thing happens. Con Ed holds daily conference calls with municipal officials and lawmakers. Elected officials always criticize Con Ed. Then there are investigations and hearings. And we are told it won’t happen again.

And, it does -during the next major storm.

The problem- as I see it – is Con Ed is short staffed – doesn’t have adequate crews. It takes days after a major storm for Con Ed to get the crews they need to restore everyone’s power. And usually a week or more to get everyone who lost power back with their service.

We all know that Con Ed was unprepared for this storm. We all know that the problem was that Con Ed did not have adequate crews to quickly restore power.

They should have had outside contractors in place before the storm. They should have hired the crews before the storm. Many of us have seen few Con Ed crews since the storm.

The NYS Legislature should provide the Governor with emergency authority. His office should be given the ability to hire crews to respond to anticipated storms in the event that Con Ed does not –in advance of storms.

Con Ed should be required to provide the Governor with hiring plans prior to any anticipated storm. If the Governor doesn’t approve of the plans he or she should have the ability to override Con Ed and to hire outside contractors –who would be paid by Con Ed.

I asked Con Ed officials if residents will get reimbursed for damaged food. They indicated people should complete a claim form on the Con Ed website. They said that after the last storm and people were denied. I think the State Legislature should mandate that Con Ed reimburse for damaged food after a storm.

PAUL FEINER

GREENBURGH TOWN SUPERVISOR

WPCNR MEDIA MAYHEM. By John F. Bailey. August 7, 2020:

ALTICE CABLEVISION restored internet, phone and cable programming by Saturday morning to the North Street corridor after marathon repair to a Optimum trunk line on Bryant Avenue yesterday after four days of the neighborhood having no phone, internet, or cable programming from the company, due to a tree falling during Tropical Storm Isaias Tuesday.

Bryant Avenue was the Optimum repair epicenter (between Mamaroneck Avenue and North Street), a utility-vulnerable area with a history of being taken out by trees falling on key wiring during every “bad storm” as utility companies call them.

Optimum repair crews and trucks an tree clearing experts were hard pressed to repair the latest “tree takeout” outages by tropical storm Isaias media and communication services lasting approximately 48 hours , affecting both sides of North Street from I 287 to the southern White Plains border with Harrison, and extending across into Gedney Farms, according to persons WPCNR has talked to.

The option for residents to communicate with city police and officials and relatives was cellphone, if you had one.

Oddly, electricity was not cut off to some residents along North Street by the Bryant Avenue damage. Sources say the Optimum “Out” extended into Gedney Farms and the Highlands.

Reference to the “media outage” was not mentioned by the City of White Plains in its phone report Wednesday evening. City officials did not respond to WPCNR cellphone calls inquiring about what areas of of the city were affected by the media “Optimum Out,” and what the cause of the blackout was. (Altice Cablevision Optimum is a City of White Plains cable franchise.Fios is also a franchisee, but Optimum has the largest number of subscribers, approximately 14,000. Fios has approximately 6,000.)

WPCNR calls to the Communications Department of Westchester County, asking where in the county Optimum was out of service and the cause of the outage were not responded to. Perhaps they will today after four days. The problem was, if you could not see tv, you could not see any news or news conferences, the county televised, on any channel.

Residents calling Optimum service call numbers were met with recorded prompts and waits for representatives that did not end (blamed on “high volume of calls”), WPCNR spent 45 minutes (twice) waiting for a customer representative. One recorded update by Optimum was heard Wednesday evening by WPCNR, but gave no details on when Optimum service might be restored.

Newspapers and media appeared to ignore reporting the widespread Optimum outage which covered New Jersey, NY, Connecticut.

Optimum blamed the service outage restoration delay on streets needing to be cleared in their lone recorded taped direct reference.