North Andover Official Thinks Gas Workers Should Have Holiday Off

NORTH ANDOVER, MA -- It was Lawrence Mayor Dan Rivera who first questioned why Columbia Gas of Massachusetts was giving more than 1,700 workers working on the recovery from the September 13 gas explosions the day off on Thanksgiving. "If they don’t take days off they’ll be done sooner and every day sooner is a gift to families who aren’t lit right now," Rivera said at a press conference Wednesday.

And a day later the utility responded by saying its crews would work through the holiday. But North Andover Town Manager Andrew Maylor doesn't agree with Rivera, and he took to Twitter Friday to voice that disagreement.

Maylor, Rivera and Andover Town Manager Andrew Flanagan have mostly been in lockstep as the three communities deal with the fallout of the gas explosions. Thousands of people in the three communities have been without heat or hotwater since the explosions, which killed one and damaged or destoryed 131 buildings, and the three municipal executives have often been the point men in keeping pressure on Columbia Gas and state officials as the recovery effort moves into a third month.

And while the utility has been the target for frequent scorn -- most notably after it said it would miss the November 19 deadline to complete restoration work by at least a month -- local officials have been mostly praised for their efforts.

Columbia Gas has more than 1,700 workers in the Merrimack Valley, with most of them brought in from every corner of the country. While major gas line replacement work is complete, the company is now working on the house-by-house task of restoring gas service, or "relighting," in company parlace.

As of Thursday, Columbia had performed 4,113, or 56 percent, of the relights it needs to complete. On a town-by-town basis, the company has completed 70 percent of relights in Andover, 53 percent in Lawrence, but just 47 percent in North Andover.

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Patch file photo via Shutterstock.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).