Waltham Officials To Host Town Hall After Eversource Meeting

WALTHAM, MA — Waltham officials will meet with representatives for Eversource to discuss plans to prevent future power surges in the city.

This comes after a power surge on Monday sparked multiple fires and left several thousand residents without power.

The city wires inspector, fire chief, Ward 5 Councillor Joseph LaCava and Mayor Jeannette McCarthy are meeting with Eversource officials Monday to discuss the recent power surge in Waltham.

Discussions will include solutions to prevent future surges and damages resulting from Eversource’s Power Station surges, officials said.

After their meeting, the Eversource employees will be scheduling a public meeting to assist with the claims process. A date should be announced next week.

A town hall meeting is already set for Tuesday with city officials, however, and will allow residents the chance to voice their concerns over the recent power surge. It is scheduled for 7 p.m. in the Government Center Auditorium.

Waltham officials issued a notification on the city site reminding residents to submit damage claims to the company if they had any related to the surge.

In an afternoon update on Monday, Eversource officials said employees were going door-to-door to check on electrical equipment and had noticed some damage.

Eversource provided Patch with a statement about the status of the claims process on Thursday evening:

"We are focused every day on maintaining and upgrading the local system to provide safe, reliable service to our customers, and we remain in close contact with the City of Waltham and our regulators as the detailed investigation into the exact cause of Monday’s power surge continues. The area is safe, and we take serious any concerns in the neighborhood. We have gone door-to-door to work with customers in the neighborhood one-on-one, and continue to encourage customers with additional concerns to reach out to us directly. Additionally, customers who need to file a claim for property damage can do so on our website. Once the review is complete, we'll contact each customer individually with the status of their claim."

Eversource officials said the surge resulted in power outages for approximately 3,000 Waltham customers. City officials also said the outage impacted traffic signals in the city.

It was also blamed for multiple fires in the city.

To learn more about how to submit a claim to the company, click here.