Marlboro Mayor Jon Hornik is one of three New Jersey mayors slated to testify at a joint hearing of the Assembly Homeland Security and Telecommunications/Utilities Committees today at 10 a.m. in Trenton.
Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ4) wrote to Board of Public Utilities (BPU) President Joseph Fiordalsio on Monday asking that the agency step-up its oversight of the beleaguered electric utility in the wake of its horrible communications and failure to restore power to its customers in a reasonable time frame following Tropical Storm Isiasis.
For those who didn’t lose power, or see the fury of Monday night’s storm, be thankful. Your lives went on like a normal summer day with a thunderstorm in the background. For those who were in the micro-bursts…it was the scariest thing many have seen since Sandy..and more than many of us have ever seen. It lasted 20 minutes through the area…but left more immediate wind devastation than Sandy. Sandy spent hours piling water into our Bayshore and bays and oceanfront. This unnamed…moment…tore down trees and utility poles and the wires near, or attached to, them. And it was block-by-block, neighborhood by neighborhood. Which made it even harder on those without power. Many neighbors had no inconvenience at all. I can say now, it was a miracle no one was seriously injured or killed. For those that didn’t see it, trust me, this isn’t hyperbole.
In the end over 200,000 people had no power. Trees were down. JCP&L on the scramble, tested again. By Thursday night, all but just over 200 customers in Monmouth County had their power restored.
JCP&L announced that they are providing free water and ice to their customers who are without power due to weather conditions at the following Shop Rite stores in Monmouth County:
RAGE leaders, in Trenton, celebrate the BPU’s decision to nix JCPL’s Monmouth Monster Power Line Project
The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities unanimously denied Jersey Central Power and Light’s ‘Monmouth Reliability Project,’ according to Hazlet Deputy Mayor Sue Kiley who is in Trenton for the BPU meeting.
“This is a great victory for all of the grassroots activists of RAGE (Residents Against Giant Electric), and all of the government officials who fought together through a complex and arduous legal process to produce the right result for Monmouth County residents who live along NJ Transit’s North Jersey Coast Line,” Kiley said. Read the rest of this entry »
On March 29th, thousands of residents and local elected officials from Monmouth County will converge upon the Collins Arena at Brookdale to speak against the proposed Monmouth County Reliability Project as proposed by First Energy and its subsidiary JCP&L. This additional hearing called for by Office of Administrative Law Judge Gail Cookson, follows a meeting held on January 25th at Middletown High School North where thousands attended and many were turned away. As an elected official in Middletown who will not have the opportunity to speak at this meeting per the Judge’s request, I will not remain silent with the question I would have asked Judge Cookson: What’s the point of this hearing?
Jersey Central Power and Light, the electric utility that services Monmouth County, announced today that they have expanded an environmental program to help protect New Jersey’s threatened ospreys.
The company is surveying their poles and other equipment to determine where osprey are nesting—or have given indication of future nesting–and then building new nesting platforms where the birds will not be in danger due to the proximity to electrical equipment. Specialized equipment is installed to divert and discourage ospreys from nesting in potentially hazardous locations.
Two osprey nests within JCP&L’s Monmouth and Ocean service territories, one in Union Beach and another in Brick, were relocated in 2016.
NEWARK, N.J.—Rep. Chris Smith (NJ-04) testified today before the New Jersey Transit Corporation Board of Directors in an effort to convince the agency to reject the Jersey Central Power & Light Co (JCP&L) application to utilize the transit agency’s right-of-way for the proposed “Monmouth County Reliability Project.” JCP&L has proposed the 10-mile-long transmission line be placed through residential neighborhoods along NJT’s North Jersey Coast line, creating an undue burden for large numbers of people in five Monmouth County municipalities.
“Some may argue that there is little or no adverse health link to exposure to the electromagnetic fields created by these high-voltage lines, and may produce select studies that suggest that,” said Smith, Chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on global health in his expert testimony. “But there is statistically relevant evidence–including studies–that suggest otherwise.”
Senators Joe Kyrillos and Jennifer Beck announced this morning that they have introduced three resolutions in State Senate in opposition to the JCP&L project known as the Monmouth Reliability Project.
The project would drive a 230-kV transmission line on 140-foot-tall monopole towers on a nearly 10-mile path from Aberdeen to Red Bank, cutting through Hazlet, Holmdel, Middletown and across the Navesink River with sight exposure to Fair Haven and Rumson.
The recent filing of the proposed JCP&L Monmouth County Reliability Project should serve as a wake-up call to all taxpayers in the state of New Jersey. The proposed 10 mile project with upwards of 200 foot monopoles to be installed on New Jersey Transit right-of way, will have a negative impact on the property values of all adjoining properties and potentially, properties within the line of site. The impact alone in Middletown could be upwards of $1.5 million in lost value. However, don’t despair taxpayers of Middletown, Holmdel, Hazlet, Aberdeen and Red Bank, according to their BPU filing, JCP&L will be making a $9.8 million payment towards the local municipalities through Energy Receipts taxes.
JCP&L announced that they are providing free water and ice to their customers who are without power due to weather conditions at the following Shop Rite stores in Monmouth County:
