Frustration Grows in Town Hall with CL&P

Patch sat down with First Selectman Mary Glassman on Wednesday to get an update about what is happening with power restoration in town.

What’s the power restoration status?

The most up to date info we have is that Connecticut Light & Power is hoping to get the Hopmeadow corridor restored by late this afternoon with full restoration for most of the town by Sunday. That is as of 10 a.m. this morning.

What’s the top priority of the town at this state of the situation?

The town’s priority still remains to make the town safe — clear roads of trees and power lines and have access to 100 percent of all the homes in Simsbury.

Is that not the case now, are there homes that are not accessible?

Right now that is not the case. We have made some progress but the remaining road closures are the result of downed lines that we have to wait for CL&P crews to clear. Neither town crews nor state Department of Transportation crews can remove trees down near power lines. Our priority continues to be to clear all roads in the town of trees and power lines.

Is there a concern that people are getting too casual around downed power lines at this point — driving under them and over them?

Yes. There is also the issue that generator use from private homes can re-energize power lines as well as solar panels. While a wire may look dead it may not be. They may think there’s no power but that many not be the case. We continue to urge caution.

How frustrated are you at this point? You called into the radio show of Jim Vicevich on WTIC AM this morning and you referenced a lawsuit the town filed against CL&P and suggested it may be time to file another one.

Our frustration is that we are still in a dangerous situation in Simsbury and we're not getting the crews to be able to clear our roads and keep people safe. We have contacted the governor’s office, the National Guard, CL&P, the American Red Cross, and the state DOT to muster the resources we need to keep our people safe and to restore power.

At this point we are filling CL&P and DOT crew trucks with fuel to keep them working in town.

In the 1990s Simsbury filed a lawsuit against CL&P for lack of maintenance of the lines as there were a number of times the town lost power and had extended outages.

As a result Simsbury and other towns benefited by a tree trimming program, updated transmission line plan, as well as a maintenance schedule.

It made a tremendous difference in town but now we're right back where we were with frequent outages for extended periods of time.

How do you feel about the number of crews from CL&P coming to town?

We were told additional crews were coming to Simsbury and up until today one crew was in town. That indicates something is clearly wrong.

Resources are not being devoted to restore the lines.

Will you file a lawsuit?

We’ll take a hard look at options going forward. We may possibly sue again.

In the meantime options are to utilize the town shelter where 1,100 people have checked in to use showers, have a meal or take a warming break or charge cell phones. It’s open 24 hours a day and is a tremendous resource for the town.

What's the good news?

The silver lining in all this is we have a dedicated staff — police, fire, chamber, business, ladies aux, and local hotels all rallied to support residents to make folks comfortable and safe as possible.

Are you tried of hearing the “lobster ravioli” reference to the Metro Bis meal at the shelter the first night?

People have to understand that was in the beginning. Chris Prosperi, owner of Metro Bis, had to clean out his restaurant. With no power, he was going to lose all his food. He did a wonderful thing and we are grateful. We are grateful for all food donations. But it’s pretty much back to hamburgers at this point.

Anything else?

They key today for us is to restore power to Hopmeadow Street. That way residents can access the library, buy groceries and get gas, as well as the fact the other facilities such as churches may be use for additional shelters.

We are working with local churches to open up their building as mini shelter and to provide relief.