I would like to address my article this time around by continuing the seasonal message of being thankful for many things happening in Westfield right now.
I was witness to the opening of the second bridge this week over the Great River. It truly was impressive to see traffic flow, tractor trailers moving under the train bridge and orange barrels being removed. Please understand there are bugs to be worked out with traffic patterns and the Police Department is analyzing this. After watching them in action on Thursday, I am confident things will be better than ever before. I also want to give congratulations to the Patriarch of Westfield, Joe Trant. His vehicle was the first to travel over the bridge and though some of us needed to move out of the way, Joe smiled and waved to the crowd. It was nice to see a lifelong resident usher in yet another new amenity for the City.
Lastly, I would like to thank, one more time, the men and women of the Westfield Gas and Electric. I know Management and Commissioners have been publicly thanked many times, but I wanted to extend thanks to the behind the scenes personnel, the workers in the holes and on the poles. I would like to go on record right now that I will never vote to sell our important asset known as the Municipal Light and Power. Years ago it was a topic of discussion at City Hall to see what Westfield could get by selling our G&E. I actually never thought it was as serious a topic as some made it out to be and after looking at the numbers and analyzing the operations, cooler heads prevailed.
I hope all of Westfield will agree, after seeing our Department in action after this last storm, that we are lucky to have the Westfield Gas & Electric. A look around other cities in the area will show you the problems we could’ve had if we didn’t have our own group. Preparation is key to emergencies and this storm proved that. The line crews were on standby starting on October 29th preparing for what was expected to be wet snow and strong winds. Barely two hours into the storm, had WG&E already had placed a call for mutual aid through HEPPA (Northeast Public Power Association). There would be over 17,000 customers affected by the storm in various ways. Given the severity of the damage every employee was called upon to fill recognized needs, even if it was working outside of their normal duties. Behind the scenes, but equally as important, were those people working in the Call Center. Phones were manned 24 hours a day during a 10-day stretch.
There is over 400 miles of wire in Westfield that measures over 47 square miles. Estimates show that approximately 25 transformers and over 30 poles were damaged, in addition to thousands of feet of wire and hundreds of untold house services. The Department has never experienced so much damage and basically had to perform the equivalent of a months’ work each and every day. Even today, storm cleanup continues, as tree crews tackle the long list of locations that need trimming and the linemen are busy making permanent repairs to the temporary ones that were necessary to restore power to our City.
As I said earlier in my article, I will never vote to sell our Municipal Department. I actually will never again vote to spend money to have an analysis done. I believe all the analysis needed was front and center during our battle with Mother Nature. Thank you to the entire Department of our Municipally owned Westfield Gas & Electric. We appreciate your hard work and your local existence.
I was witness to the opening of the second bridge this week over the Great River. It truly was impressive to see traffic flow, tractor trailers moving under the train bridge and orange barrels being removed. Please understand there are bugs to be worked out with traffic patterns and the Police Department is analyzing this. After watching them in action on Thursday, I am confident things will be better than ever before. I also want to give congratulations to the Patriarch of Westfield, Joe Trant. His vehicle was the first to travel over the bridge and though some of us needed to move out of the way, Joe smiled and waved to the crowd. It was nice to see a lifelong resident usher in yet another new amenity for the City.
Lastly, I would like to thank, one more time, the men and women of the Westfield Gas and Electric. I know Management and Commissioners have been publicly thanked many times, but I wanted to extend thanks to the behind the scenes personnel, the workers in the holes and on the poles. I would like to go on record right now that I will never vote to sell our important asset known as the Municipal Light and Power. Years ago it was a topic of discussion at City Hall to see what Westfield could get by selling our G&E. I actually never thought it was as serious a topic as some made it out to be and after looking at the numbers and analyzing the operations, cooler heads prevailed.
I hope all of Westfield will agree, after seeing our Department in action after this last storm, that we are lucky to have the Westfield Gas & Electric. A look around other cities in the area will show you the problems we could’ve had if we didn’t have our own group. Preparation is key to emergencies and this storm proved that. The line crews were on standby starting on October 29th preparing for what was expected to be wet snow and strong winds. Barely two hours into the storm, had WG&E already had placed a call for mutual aid through HEPPA (Northeast Public Power Association). There would be over 17,000 customers affected by the storm in various ways. Given the severity of the damage every employee was called upon to fill recognized needs, even if it was working outside of their normal duties. Behind the scenes, but equally as important, were those people working in the Call Center. Phones were manned 24 hours a day during a 10-day stretch.
There is over 400 miles of wire in Westfield that measures over 47 square miles. Estimates show that approximately 25 transformers and over 30 poles were damaged, in addition to thousands of feet of wire and hundreds of untold house services. The Department has never experienced so much damage and basically had to perform the equivalent of a months’ work each and every day. Even today, storm cleanup continues, as tree crews tackle the long list of locations that need trimming and the linemen are busy making permanent repairs to the temporary ones that were necessary to restore power to our City.
As I said earlier in my article, I will never vote to sell our Municipal Department. I actually will never again vote to spend money to have an analysis done. I believe all the analysis needed was front and center during our battle with Mother Nature. Thank you to the entire Department of our Municipally owned Westfield Gas & Electric. We appreciate your hard work and your local existence.
