A power line that came down on Newman Springs Road caused hundreds of Red Bank residents to lose full or partial electrical service Tuesday night.
The incident also interrupted some Gabbagools hard at work across the street.
An easterly view along River Road from Cedar Street earlier this week. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
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By JOHN T. WARD
Electricity supplier JCP&L may be unplugging itself from an agreement to install low-energy streetlamps in Fair Haven, Environmental Commission Chairman Ralph Wyndrum said Wednesday night.
That prompted some choice words about the utility from commission member and former councilman Jon Peters. Among them: “They are the princes and princesses of darkness.”
A backhoe operator was lucky to be alive after his machine struck a live power line in Red Bank Tuesday morning.
Six days after Tropical Storm Isaias, electrical service was almost fully restored on the Greater Green early Monday, just in time for some uncomfortably hot weather.
As of 6 a.m., 11 homes and businesses in Fair Haven were awaiting restoration of power from First Energy/JCP&L, down from more than 2,300 at the peak, according to the utility’s outage map. Fewer than 5 each in Red Bank and Little Silver were still without service, the map indicated.
Ambient temperatures and humidity will combine to create feels-like peaks to nearly 100 degrees Tuesday and Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service. The extended forecast for the Greater Green is below.
The effects of Tropical Storm Isaias continued to disrupt life on the Greater Green early Friday, three days after it passed through the region.
As of 6 a.m., 80,411 homes and businesses in Monmouth County did not have electrical service from First Energy/JCP&L, or more than one in four customers, according to the utility’s outage map, shown above.
See details about Red Bank, Fair Haven and Little Silver below.
JCP&L reported between 100 and 500 customers in Red Bank had no electrical service Monday morning, more than 12 hours after a disruption caused by an accident on Catherine Street.
A report that a tour bus, attempting to turn around on Shrewsbury Avenue, backed into a utility pole could not be immediately confirmed. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
Jersey Central Power & Light’s outage map showed electricity out for up to 100 Red Bank customers Friday following an early-morning incident in which two utility poles on Maple Avenue snapped.
Billing for service would continue to come from JCP&L even for those customers who participate in the aggregation plan. (Image by Concord. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
In an effort to head off shocks to residents about anticipated changes to their electricity bills, Red Bank official kicked off a public outreach effort Thursday.
Driving the effort: the borough’s planned entry into the “energy aggregation” marketplace, where the local government serves as a bundler of customers to obtain better rates than those offered by Jersey Central Power & Light.
JCP&L’s power distribution facility adjoining Mohawk Pond in Red Bank. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Red Bank officials are considering passage of a law that would automatically turn Jersey Central Power & Light customers in the borough into customers of another electricity provider unless they opt out.
An aerial view created by JCP&L shows the southern terminus of the line at a substation in Red Bank. (Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
New Jersey regulators have pulled the plug on a controversial plan for electricity provider Jersey Central Power & Light to construct a 10-mile long, high-voltage electricity transmission line that would end in Red Bank, the Asbury Park Press reported Friday.
Charlie Velazquez said he was “still shaking” after his near brush with death. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A Middlesex County man said he was “lucky to be alive” after a live electrical line landed on the van he was driving in Red Bank Wednesday morning. More →
Homeowners living along the line and other objectors packed a public hearing on the JCP&L proposal held at Brookdale Community College last March. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Electrical utility JCP&L has failed to prove it needs a to build a controversial 10-mile long, high-voltage electricity transmission line that would end in Red Bank, a judge has ruled.
The decision, handed down Thursday, represents at least an interim victory for a grassroots effort led by homeowners to thwart the proposed $111 million project.
Many in the crowd came with signs and wore stickers indicating the distance of their homes from the proposed power line. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Thwarted from speaking two months ago, hundreds of opponents of a proposed high-voltage electricity transmission line from Aberdeen to Red Bank came electrified with anger Tuesday night.
The occasion was a public comment session at Brookdale Community College on the Jersey Central Power & Light Company proposal, which calls for support poles as tall as 210 feet running for 10 miles along the North Jersey Coast Line railroad, ending at a substation in Red Bank.
Two months after an overflow crowd jammed a first hearing, opponents of a proposed high-voltage electricity transmission line from Aberdeen to Red Bank are expected to gather at Brookdale Community College in Lincroft Wednesday evening.
A view north along the North Jersey Coast Line from the Red Bank train station. The proposed JCP&L power line would be strong alongside the railroad right-of-way on poles as tall as 140 feet. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
A controversial 10-mile long, high-voltage electricity transmission line that would end in Red Bank is no more welcome today than it was when it was shelved more than two decades ago, two local legislators said Thursday.
State Senators Jen Beck, of Red Bank, and Joe Kyrillos, of Middletown, jointly introduced a trio of resolutions in Trenton aimed at blocking electricity provider JCP&L from building the line.
An aerial view created by JCP&L shows the southern terminus of the line at a substation in Red Bank. (Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Setting the stage for a faceoff with residents living alongside it, electricity provider JCP&L on Tuesday filed its formal request to build a controversial 10-mile long, high-voltage electricity transmission line that would end in Red Bank.
Fair Haven Mayor Ben Lucarelli says the controversial transmission line may help his town avoid a repeat of the long outage experienced after Hurricane Sandy. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Fair Haven Mayor Ben Lucarelli stepped onto a political third rail Tuesday, proclaiming his support for a controversial 10-mile long, high-voltage electricity transmission line that would end in Red Bank.
The 10-mile high-capacity power line would run above the Red Bank train station on new, taller pylons and terminate a few blocks south at a power substation, according to JCP&L. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
The Red Bank council tabled a resolution Wednesday night opposing a proposed 10-mile long, high-voltage electricity transmission line that would end in the borough.
Councilman Mark Taylor put the brakes on the measure when he said he hadn’t seen it before the start of the governing body’s semimonthly meeting and wanted a chance to do some research into the issues.
Kyle King, an environmental health consultant to JCP&L, was surrounded by questioners at the event. Â (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Plans for a 10-mile long, high-voltage electricity transmission line terminating in Red Bank drew dozens of concerned residents to an information session in Lincroft Tuesday night.
Dubbed the Monmouth County Reliability Project, the 230-kilovolt transmission line is needed to keep pace with demand for electricity, according to Jersey Central Power & Light.
But residents living along its path — the existing New Jersey Transit right-of-way between existing substations in Aberdeen and Red Bank — said they fear it will have harmful health effects and reduce home values.
A portion of Red Bank’s West Side, including a stretch of Shrewsbury Avenue, above, was briefly without electricity Tuesday night as a result of a burned wire at Bridge Avenue and Chestnut Street, right. First Energy/JCP&L reported about 427 customers affected in the 90-minute outage before power was restored at 10 p.m.
During the outage, volunteer firefighters responded to a report of a gas leak on a darkened block of Shrewsbury Avenue near Monmouth Street. Fire Chief Chris Soden said no evidence of a leak was detected; other neighbors reported smelling a skunk or marijuana. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
Crews from JCP&L and Little Silver cleared a fallen tree and electrical line on Branch Avenue, where a service line was torn away from the house at left during a wind storm Sunday morning. The utility company’s outage map showed up to 100 customers in both Little Silver and the River Plaza section of Middletown without power, with lesser numbers in Shrewsbury and Fair Haven.
The National Weather Service had a high-wind warning in effect until noon, with possible gusts of of 50 to 60 miles per hour. And . (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
WE MADE IT! The winter of 2014, with its seemingly endless snowfalls, ends Thursday with the vernal equinox at 12:57 p.m. Thursday, according to the Old Farmers Almanac. The National Weather Service says temperatures on day one should rise into the low 50s, and skies will be mostly sunny, as they were when a crew of utility workers tackled a job at Monmouth and West streets in Red Bank earlier this week. (Photo by Trish Russoniello. Click to enlarge)
By JOE FISHER
With long lines of motorists and generator owners searching for gasoline in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy still a fresh memory, Red Bank officials are taking steps to require filling stations in the borough be equipped with a backup energy source for the next big blackout.
At Wednesday’s borough council meeting, Mayor Pat Menna recommended amending licensing requirements to mandate that stations have a backup power source by January 1, 2016.
A hard hat signed by Alabama Power line workers was donated to Fair Haven as thanks for the town’s hospitality at Tuesday night’s council meeting. (Photo by Wil Fulton. Click to enlarge)
By WIL FULTON
In a meeting predictably dominated by issues related to Hurricane Sandy, Fair Haven’s borough council and a concerned public agreed on Monday night: though the local government did well, better communication is needed.
Council members and residents said the townÂ’s officials did a good job of damage control and post-storm recovery efforts, but a lack of effective communications from the borough was the one lingering negative at the governing body’s bimonthly meeting.
“I think the main thing is we need to do a better job communicating,” said borough AdministratorTheresa Casagrande.
Fair Haven voters chatting outside the Youth Center, where all local balloting was moved to accommodate Sea Bright residents at the Fair Haven firehouse. (Photo by Rebecca Desfosse. Click to enlarge)
By REBECCA DESFOSSE
Sea Bright residents and other voters displaced by the wrath of Hurricane Sandy were able to exercise their right to vote in Fair Haven this Election Day. Grateful that they were able to vote despite the devastation in their hometowns, voters piled into two polling locations in Fair Haven from all over the state.
Sea Bright residents were instructed to vote at the Fair Haven firehouse, while all Fair Haven residents were rerouted to the Youth Center behind the police station.
Sea Bright resident Kristin Thatcher said she wasnÂ’t inconvenienced at all by the change in polling locations – she was just glad she was still able to vote. More →