Aberdeen, Holmdel Lash Out At JCPL; Middletown And Hazlet Demur

MATAWAN, NJ — The mayor of Aberdeen and the Holmdel police department are firing shots at the area's electric provider, saying Jersey Central Power & Light has become extremely unresponsive and that Sunday's latest power outages are unacceptable.

Aberdeen Mayor Fred Tagliarini is even calling on the governor and state legislature to investigate JCP&L, because he says in March the utility company abruptly stopped sending him email notifications when the lights go out.

The mysterious missing emails is actually just one of several JCP&L problems lately, Tagliarini told Patch Wednesday. For example, when residents call him to say the power is out, his municipal JCP&L representative replied that they don't show any Aberdeen service outages on their map, Tagliarini said. He also said repeated attempts to have a sit-down meeting with JCP&L to discuss these issues have been unsuccessful.

"They started sending these emails out post-Sandy and they've been really helpful. But in those past four storms we had in March, I did not get one email. And I did not get any notifications this past Sunday when we had those high winds and the power went out," said Mayor Tagliarini. "I said to them, 'Where is my email?' They said, 'Oh, we don't know what happened.' Then it happened three times, and four times and five times."

This past Sunday, a very windy day, the power went out in pockets of Aberdeen and throughout much of Holmdel. Many residents were left in the dark for hours — and were not happy about it. The Holmdel police even complained about it on Facebook. Aberdeen Twp. also put a public Facebook complaint up (see below).

Holmdel Twp. police wrote this past Sunday: "This power outage, along with the outages last month, are unacceptable and we are demanding better service from this utility."

"I understand we will lose power. High winds, a tree goes down; I get it," said Tagliarini. "We made the decision to make that public on Facebook because there has been a communication breakdown. I reached out to Gov. Murphy and my local Assembly people to see what we can do about this. An appointment has not yet been set up."

However, it is worth noting that other towns in the area, such as Hazlet and Middletown, said they are still receiving the emergency emails, and are on good terms with JCP&L.

"I have not experienced that at all. I receive an almost constant flow of notifications from JCP&L for the entire region," said Middletown Twp. administrator Tony Mercantante. "From where I stand, the communication has been excellent for about a year now. Sounds to me like it might be more of a technical glitch."

"In regards to JCP&L notifications before, during and after a storm event, I get several and during the major events, I get conference call-in invites," said Hazlet Mayor Scott Aagre.

Interestingly, it's in this same area that JCP&L sought to build the extremely controversial Monmouth County Reliability Project (MCRP), a 10-mile long stretch of high-intensity power lines. The voltage lines would stretch from Aberdeen to Red Bank along the North Jersey Coast railroad tracks in congested residential areas. JCP&L maintains the lines are badly needed to improve service in the area. However, the towns of Aberdeen, Holmdel, Hazlet and Middletown banded together to fight the proposal, even hiring lawyers to prevent JCP&L from building the lines. It was coincidentally in March that a state judge issued her opinion on the proposed power lines, saying she thinks JCP&L has not proven they are needed.

Tagliarini dismissed the idea that the latest email snafu is connected to the Monmouth County Reliability Project.

"I don't believe for a moment this is any fall-out from anything else, except there seems to be a quirk in the JCP&L communication system right now," he said. "I'm just saying to correct the communication."

Monmouth County Freeholder Gerry Scharfenberger, who lives in Middletown and used to be a Township Committeeman there, said JCP&L has been excellent to work with, even throughout the prolonged MCRP battle, which has slogged on for months.

"Whenever I call the Middletown service rep, I get a very polite and immediate response," he told Patch. "They have been very good to work with through all of this."

JCP&L, for their part, said they have been in contact with the Aberdeen mayor.

"He has identified three areas where he would like us to review reliability. JCP&L plans to review the circuits that serve Aberdeen and we also are planning to meet with the mayor," said JCP&L spokesman Ron Morano.

"JCP&L did not abruptly stop providing notifications to Aberdeen," he added. "This past weekend during the extremely windy and rainy conditions, approximately 2,600 customers experienced momentary outages and a power outage later in the day. We understand the residents’ concerns."

Holmdel Mayor Tom Critelli did not return Patch's attempts to reach him.

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