Letter: 50 Outages and Counting – When Will Reliable Power Become a Priority for Berkeley Heights?

Michael Leblond is a Resident of Berkeley Heights

Dear Mayor Devanney and members of the Town Council,

We almost made it TWO WEEKS since the last power outages.  Almost.  Nothing like that holiday weekend power outage to celebrate the start of summer.  

I’m writing this letter because my home has experienced yet another outage, our second of 2026, and seventh in the past eighteen months.  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.

After the last outage, I spoke to our friends at JCPL.  Gilbert made the same excuses as usual.  I spoke to Sean Hayes, a regional director from First Energy/JCPL, same old story.  

Solutions exist to stop some of these outages.  Perhaps guard rails around poles could prevent cars from knocking down poles over and over?  New York City has adopted concrete bases for poles to stop this from occurring.  Perhaps this is a solution we could adopt?  I have added a photo showing this amazing technology in NYC.

These are issues I have brought to the leadership of the town multiple times.  The outage this weekend 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?

I doubt I’ll get a response about this issue.  Silence seems to be the status quo. 

Only one member of the town council replied to my previous email.  I do appreciate that acknowledgement of the problem.  

Sincerely,
Michael Leblond

Submitted directly by the author; content reflects their own views

Editors Note: The Township Administrator responded by indicating that JCP&L at the next meeting to which Mr. Leblond responded with questions as to whether the town would take steps outside of a presentation; guardrails and pillars to protect poles as an example.