SOUTHWICK – The Select Board cleared up a few questions earlier this week during a discussion with representatives from Western Massachusetts Electric Company (WMECO).
The board asked WMECO to come to meet and wrap-up some loose ends related to the Oct. 29 storm and the week of cleanup and power restoration that followed. WMECO Customer Operations Manager Denise Vogel, Account Executive Maurice Nichols and Director of Operations Bliss Young fielded questions from the board. At the end of the discussion, Chairman Fred Arnold also asked Vogel about an outstanding bill related to police details going back to the June, 2011 microburst.
The $2,900 bill was sent to WMECO following the June 7 weather event that caused numerous trees to fall and roads to flood. Many wires were down and Police Chief Mark Krynicki said he had to use officers to keep the roads safe, so motorists would not drive over downed wires. He said the matter has been brought to the state attorney general’s office.
“I’m sorry it had to get to this,” said Arnold.
Vogel said WMECO’s policy is not to pay for detail police officers unless the company requests them.
“Our policy is, if you’re blocking our roads, we’re putting a detail there,” said Krynicki.
Vogel said there is no guarantee that a downed wire belongs to WMECO. She mentioned a booklet WMECO gave the town as a guideline to which wires are WMECO wires.
“But it could be a cable wire that’s down, but it’s tied to electricity two poles down,” said Fire Chief Richard Anderson. “It’s not hard and fast.”
Arnold said he would like to “sit down and keep this out of court.” Vogel agreed and noted that the WMECO employee in charge of paying bills has been bogged down and is going through them now.
As for the Halloween storm, Select Board member Russ Fox asked several times about WMECO’s procedures during and immediately following the storm. He said it appeared that political ties gave some communities priority.
“What’s the pecking order?” he asked.
Vogel said satellites were set up in communities, including Southwick, to assess damage right away. In Southwick, WMECO set up shop in the Big Y parking lot until the board realized they were in the lot and offered them space in Town Hall with the town’s emergency operations center.
Young said the first priority is life threatening issues, such as wires on vehicles. Priorities for restoration begin downtown.
“We try to get the center of town working wherever we could,” said Young. “That’s usually where the stores and gas stations are. The pecking order is public safety and then we rely on our liaison.”
Nichols serves as Southwick’s liaison.
Young said before WMECO trucks were seen in town, they were working on lines in Granville in order to get into Southwick.
“We have to build the infrastructure to get there,” he said.
Southwick Engineer Richard Grannells said communication was tough at first.
“Once they got (into Town Hall), the information was flowing,” said Grannells.
Everyone agreed the storm was devastating.
“This was an extraordinary storm,” said Anderson. “But for us, the whole town was priority one because we had no one to tell us if the down wires were hot. I only had one way in and out.”
All parties said they learned a lot from the storm and are planning for improvements in case another weather event of that magnitude hits the area.
