Power Outages in Berkeley Heights

Michael Leblond is a resident of Berkeley Heights

Dear Mayor Devanney and members of the Town Council,

I am writing yet again to voice my concern about the endless power outages that continue to plague Berkeley Heights.  Since my last outage in November, numerous other outages occurred across the town.  I encourage you to see the volume of them on local facebook groups.

I’m writing this letter because my family experienced yet another outage, our first of 2026, and sixth in the past eighteen months (3/11/25, 5/19/25, 9/9/25, 10/28/25, 11/26/25).  My home has experienced more than fifty outages since I moved here in 2009.  Some of these outages are short, just a few minutes.  Some are a few hours, like today and Superbowl Sunday in 2023.  Others are even longer, June 26th, 2023 which was over eight hours.  A handful have been multiple days, forcing my family to leave our home.

This afternoon, my sons couldn’t do their homework nor study for exams without power.  You might suggest they work with pen and paper, but that isn’t possible for assignments on Google Classroom.  It is exceptionally difficult for my son to work on computer code and prepare for an AP Exam on Computer Science without electricity, since a key component for computers and WIFI is electricity.  That test is this Thursday, I’m sure he’ll do just fine without preparing for a college level exam.

These are issues I have brought to the leadership of the town multiple times.  Today’s outage continues the pattern of poor service from First Energy / Jersey Central Power and Lights.  Publicly, the leaders of our town have done little, if anything, about this issue.  When does it become a priority? When will the council hold public hearings? When will a representative from First Energy be held accountable by our town council?

I’m sure local businesses appreciate losing sales during outages.
I’m sure our schools operate flawlessly when power goes out. 
I’m sure our first responders like dealing with additional calls and problems caused by or during these outages.  

Accepting regular power outages as a normal occurrence is unacceptable. None of my friends or family in surrounding areas have this recurring issue.

I doubt I’ll get a response about this issue.  Silence seems to be the status quo. 
Maybe you can’t answer because of a power outage?

Sincerely,
Michael Leblond

Submitted directly by the author; content reflects their own views