Power to Be Fully Restored This Weekend, Twp. Mayor Says

In an update Thursday evening, Morris Township officials said many JCP&L crews had been in the area and that many had their power restored.

Morris Township Mayor Peter Mancuso also spoke with JCP&L President Donald Lynch and state Board of Public Utilities President Robert Hanna Thursday morning and "expressed our concerns with JCP&L’s restoration efforts.

"Mr. Lynch indicated that power will be restored to almost all of Morris Township by Saturday evening," Mancuso said in the letter. "We share in your frustration with JCP&L's lack of communication and information with regard to estimated time of restoration for neighborhoods/streets. We began demanding a comprehensive restoration plan from JCP&L once the storm subsided, over a week ago. To date we only have projected restorations by municipality for each day.

"We are working with governmental officials at all levels including Congressman [Rodney] Frelinghuysen, Governor [Chris] Christie, Senator [Anthony] Bucco [Sr.], Assemblyman [Michael Patrick] Carroll and Assemblyman [Anthony] Bucco [Jr.] to address JCP&L's restoration efforts. We have been communicating with Mr. Lynch, president of JCP&L each day via conference call.

Mancuso went on in the letter to state that approximately 5,500 of the approximately 7,800 power outages have been restored. "But this still leaves far too many of our residents without power," he said. JCP&L advised officials Thursday that indicates they expected to restore power to an additional 1,800 Morris Township customers tomorrow. "We will continue working diligently to push JCP&L from all levels of government to get restorations made as quickly as possible," Mancuso said.

The Township mayor's statement come on the heels of several increasingly-negative comments from officials in Morristown, including a letter from Morristown Mayor Tim Dougherty, where the mayor pointed out that JCP&L has gone beyond its projected 7-to-10 day restoration timeframe that was given following Hurricane Sandy.

"It's been frustrating," Morristown Business Administrator Michael Rogers said Thursday. "It has been continued frustration that we share with our residents and it's—I can only look to JCP&L to hopefully learn from this experience on how they can improve."