ON THE GREEN: OUTAGES & DELAYED OPENINGS
A storm that dropped several inches of wet, heavy snow on the Greater Red Bank Green Wednesday left dozens of customers without electrical service early Thursday morning, as shown in JCP&L’s outage map above.
LINCROFT: OUTAGE CLOSES BROOKDALE
A power outage prompted officials to close Brookdale Community College Wednesday, the school announced on social media.
LITTLE SILVER: HIGH WINDS PROMPT OUTAGES
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)
RED BANK: WARNING ON FAKE JCP&L CALLS
Red Bank officials are warning residents of a phone scam making the rounds.
In an alert issued Wednesday, the police said the scammers use methods to trick residents into believing the calls come from electric utility JCP&L.
RED BANK: HERE’S WHY YOU’RE STUCK, AGAIN
Traffic was heavy on Bridge Avenue and other roads surrounding Hubbard’s Bridge during Wednesday’s morning rush. Below, an unidentified worker carries a granite block, one of many such paving stones and old red bricks unearthed during the first day of work on the intersection on the Red Bank side of the span. (Photo below by Trish Russoniello. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Message to motorists stuck in the somewhat-suddenly-worse-again traffic surrounding Hubbard’s Bridge between Middletown and Red Bank: think of the kids.
That’s one spin that officials put on a two-to-three-week closure of the span that was announced late last Friday and took effect Wednesday morning.
RED BANK: COPS WARN OF PHONE SCAM
The Red Bank Police Department issued this notice early Wednesday afternoon:
WARNING: GREEN DOT PHONE SCAM
In the recent weeks, Red Bank Police Department has received a large number of reports from victims of a telephone fraud operation. These frauds have been documented on the news and are occurring throughout the nation.
In the scam, the victim is contacted by a person representing themselves as an employee of a business. In many of the scams, the callers have been identifying themselves as representatives of JCP&L (power company) however other business names and agencies have been used as well. The caller tells the person that they are late on paying their power bill and their power will be shut off if they do not pay immediately. The caller then directs the victim to purchase Green Dot MoneyPak cards.
AREA OFFICIALS ZAP JCP&L OVER STORM FIXES
Howell Mayor Robert Walsh addresses attendees at Monday’s ‘Snow Summit’ to discuss JCP&L’s response to Hurricane Sandy. (Photo by Wil Fulton. Click to enlarge)
By WIL FULTON
Confusion, anger and frustration, tinged by a bit of hope, permeated the Tinton Falls Municipal Building early Monday afternoon at the third annual ‘Snow Summit’ called to address the region’s relationship with JCP&L and how to improve it.
Co-hosted by Tinton Falls Mayor Michael Skudera and Middletown Mayor Anthony Fiore, the meeting was attended by mayors from across Monmouth County, freeholders, state legislators, as well as members of the media and public. Few were impressed by the electric utility’s handling
If they gave a damn, they would have already done something about their outreach to localities following catastrophes, Mayor Adam Schneider of Long Branch said of company officials. Read More
DETOUR EXPECTED FOR A.M. DRIVE TIME
Westbound traffic was diverted from West Front Street onto Broad Street Tuesday evening, above, jamming up downtown Red Bank. Below, eastbound vehicles lined up on Monmouth Street. (Click to enlarge)
Work to replace a busted utility pole on busy West Front Street may not be completed until midday Wednesday, meaning motorists could face another glacial morning crawl through Red Bank.
A shutdown of a portion of West Front to enable JCP&L crews to replace the pole, which shattered during the blizzard Sunday night, led to massive traffic jams Tuesday morning, with inbound traffic backed up onto the Route 35/Cooper Bridge to Middletown.
By the evening commute, a repeat appeared in the making.
POLES APART
A power company crew was on the scene at midday Thursday. (Click to enlarge)
Three days after redbankgreen reported that a jury-rigged utility pole was again leaning precariously over Broad Street in Red Bank, a Jersey Central Power & Light/First Energy crew arrived on the scene earlier today to begin fixing it.
Coincidence? We don’t think so.
HOMES WITHOUT JUICE AS TEMPS SOAR
Electrical service was out for some customers of First Energy Corp. parent of JCP&L in Fair Haven and Rumson this morning as temperatures were expected to crest at nearly 100 degrees.
As of 6:30a, First Energy’s online outage map indicated fewer than 500 homes without power, but doesn’t specify if that’s the total per town or collectively in the region.