Class Action Doesn't Suit Granby, East Granby Businesses

Many area small businesses have joined a against Connecticut Light & Power for damages incurred as a result of an alleged negligent response to power outages caused by the late October snowstorm.

Those businesses just don't happen to be located in Granby and East Granby.

Indeed, while representatives from six business - four in Granby and two in East Granby - all said they were significantly impacted by the lack of electricity for up to 10 days, none of them hesitated in distancing themselves from the litigation.

Lori Love, owner of , saw her business lose power entirely for four days and have electricity restored to just half her store for another week.

The end result was thousands of dollars worth of lost sales and perishable stock, causing Love to tighten the store’s figurative belt.

“Everybody who is working is volunteering their time,” Love said. “That’s amazing to me. You still have to pay rent and other bills and that leaves you pretty strapped.”

While she has filed an insurance claim, Love said that the amount that she will receive hasn't been determined.

“I’m hoping they will hurry up and call,” Love said.

When asked, however, if she is thinking of joining the class action lawsuit, Love replied, “Unequivocally, no.”

“Did anyone take a look at the number of trees down?” Love asked rhetorically. “Nobody can criticize for one minute how hard CL&P [employees] have worked. People are just looking for someone to blame and be angry at.

“What if they had emergency crews on standby? What would that do to our rates? There’s no point [to joining a lawsuit]. It doesn’t serve a purpose. Let’s just get things fixed and move on and get paid back from the insurance company, to which I pay a monthly premium.”

That was also the prevailing attitude at two of Granby’s pizzerias — and .

After closing four days from flooding caused by Tropical Storm Irene and three more as a result of the recent power outages, Granby Pizza owner Franco Araujo can be forgiven for feeling a little snakebit.

“That’s a week’s vacation that we didn’t want,” said Araujo, who estimated losses in sales and food ranging between $5,000 and $7,000 from the recent power outages.

Yet, Araujo doesn’t hold any ill will toward CL&P.

“This isn’t like a normal storm,” Araujo said. “It wasn’t something we were expecting. I don’t blame CL&P for anything.”

Rob Steuart, manager of ABC Pizza, said that his store lost power fully for several days, but that the losses — include thousands of dollars worth of food — was hard to quantify.

“It absolutely affected us,” Steuart said. “We did the best to serve our customers with whatever we could. We all put in hours we normally wouldn’t. The hardest part was disappointing customers when we couldn’t provide what they wanted.”

Lost stock wasn’t a huge problem for Jim Farley at the , which only had to throw away refrigerated Kahlua-based coolers.

Nevertheless, being closed for several days and operating on half-power for several days more  resulted in significantly reduced customer traffic, Farley said.

“I don’t have a figure for you, but it was lots of money,” Farley said. “We don’t make the product, so if they have power down the street, people are going to go there. They went somewhere to get it.”

Still, despite the losses, Farley stopped short of holding CL&P, or anyone else for that matter, accountable.

“What are you going to do?” Farley asked. “It was a disaster. I have no animosity toward anybody. It just happened.”

In East Granby, Ashley Caruso, assistant manager of , said that being out of power for four days was “awful.”

“We had to throw everything out. It was crazy,” she said.

So you’re going to join the class action lawsuit, right?

“Oh God no,” Caruso said. “It’s not [CL&P’s fault]. … No way, absolutely not. As far as we’re concerned, what are you going to do?”

Jim Lergos, manager of , had a similar experience with his establishment and a held the same viewpoint.

Lergos said that he threw away between $5,000 to $10,000 in food alone — he did not provide an estimate in lost business — but refused to hold anyone responsible other than himself.

“We should have been more prepared,” said Lergos, noting that he was looking into buying a generator to prevent such losses in the future.

All of the managers and owners said that they have decided to hope for the best from their insurance companies and move on.

At least one, Love, has also chosen to use the forced shutdown of her business as an opportunity.

Specifically, Love said that she had rearranged the back of her store to make it more of a sit-down gathering place for people to enjoy the delicious hot meals and soups prepared on site.

“We’re getting more back to basics,” Love said. “I’ve remembered why I opened up this business in the first place. When the power was out, people came here as a gathering place.”

It’s that focus on their respective businesses that, perhaps, keeps them from thinking of legal action.

“I have a lot of other things to worry about other than CL&P,” Love said.