ELHS to host DPU hearing
Date: 12/5/2011
Dec. 5, 2011By Chris Maza
Reminder Assistant Editor
EAST LONGMEADOW — East Longmeadow will be the first stop on a Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU) tour of five different communities whose residents endured extended periods of time without electricity as a result of the Oct. 29 snowstorm.
The DPU is asking for public input as part of an investigation it launched on Nov. 8 into whether or not National Grid violated established standards of emergency preparedness and restoration of services at five locations throughout the Commonwealth. The first hearing will take place at East Longmeadow High School on Dec. 5 at 7 p.m.
“These meetings are purely for giving input,” Board of Selectmen Chair James Driscoll said. “The core reason [the DPU] will be here is to hear complaints from anyone about their experiences with National Grid.”
Driscoll has openly criticized National Grid for conveying “misinformation” regarding when they expected power to be restored and the manner in which it was to be restored.
“Boots on the ground was the biggest problem. When we had people [from National Grid] here, the numbers were off what they said they would be,” Driscoll said in a prior interview with Reminder Publications. “They said they would work in staggered shifts and work overnight and none of that ever happened.”
He also has raised the issue that National Grid utilizing a power conveyance system that makes East Longmeadow “the last stop on the National Grid train.”
A separate meeting between the town and the utility company has been tentatively scheduled for Jan. 11, 2012.
Driscoll said the hearings and related investigation lend optimism to the hope that improvements to National Grid’s service and infrastructure will be made.
“I would like the state to realize there isn’t a long term plan to upgrade or loop the current system,” he said. “I would like to see the state compel them to come up with a plan to do so and make them stick to that plan.”
While East Longmeadow is the host community for the Dec. 5 hearing, residents from all Western Massachusetts communities are encouraged to attend.
“This is for anybody in Massachusetts with National Grid,” Driscoll said.
The hearing in East Longmeadow will be the only one in Hampden County and one of only two that will take place in Western Massachusetts. A Dec. 7 hearing for Western Massachusetts residents will also take place at Belchertown High School at 7 p.m.
Other hearings currently scheduled include Dec. 8 at the DCU Center in Worcester, Dec. 13 at the Brookfield, Mass., Town Hall and Dec. 15 at Tyngsborough High School.
The DPU did not respond to a request for comment regarding the investigation as of press time.
