YORKTOWN – Town Supervisor Matt Slater says that Yorktown customers of Con-Ed are still without electricity because of an inadequate response to the storm by the utility company.
“We’ve lived through this before and we were assured the proper steps were taken to prevent mass power outages and properly manage these situations. Tropical Storm Isaias has proven once again Con Edison’s utter failure to beef up its ability to respond to increasingly common extreme weather.”
Yorktown is served by two electric utilities. Con Edison serves 8,451 and NYSEG serves about 14,000. The manpower response between the two utilities is clearly visible. “NYSEG cleared 12 roads yesterday and Con Ed cleared three. It’s a joke,” said Dave Paganelli, superintendent of the Yorktown Highway Department. “NYSEG has already accomplished their make-safe phase and they are now working on power restoration.”
One reason for the delay in power restoration, according to Slater, is Con Edison’s failure to send adequate tree-removal crews to clear streets. The supervisor said the response is unsatisfactory because Con Edison has used the FDR State Park in Yorktown as a staging area for the past three months. On Friday morning town officials saw just one Con Edison truck in Yorktown. “They are staging in Yorktown, but you can’t find them,” said Slater. “We were assured we would have multiple crews from Con Edison in our town and we have just one.”
Slater has vowed to apply pressure on the company and state regulators. “We need to finally acknowledge the fact that these are no longer 100-year or 20-year storms. They are happening every year and it’s time for the utilities to harden our infrastructure and the state’s utility regulators have to force them to do it. Albany lawmakers must take real action,” said Supervisor Slater.
