LIPA response in Great Neck is nonexistent

The Island Now

Mr. Michael Hervey

Chief Operating Officer and acting Chief Executive Officer Long Island Power Authority

Dear Mr. Hervey and Senior Management of LIPA,

The Great Neck Village Officials Association, representing the nine villages and unincorporated sections of the Town of North Hempstead on the Great Neck peninsula, greatly appreciates the twice daily municipal storm update calls that LIPA has conducted, both before Hurricane Sandy and in its aftermath. This communication to municipal officials has been very helpful for learning about your damage assessment and work plan for the significant and unprecedented number of outages needing restoration. We certainly acknowledge and understand that this has been one, if not the most, devasting storm to hit our region. One of the most critical issues is being able to be informed and to disseminate specific information to our residents.

This morning on the LIPA call both myself and Mayor David Fox, Village of Great Neck Estates, and other mayors requested more resources to our area since all of us have seen very few lineman crews working to restore power on the distribution system here on the Great Neck peninsula. We understand that the Great Neck, Lake Success and Kings Point substations are powered, in good shape and under local control. Mr. Hervey, you reported this morning that there are approximately 70 lineman crews yesterday and 20 more today out of this area for a total of 90 on the Great Neck peninsula. Where are these crews? None of us or any of our DPW or other employees have seen more than one crew working in our area.

All of the peninsula mayors have been reporting our outages, and you have indicated that we will receive a detailed breakdown of how these crews are being dispatched and where we can expect to see them visibly working. We would greatly appreciate receiving this information so that we can manage our residents’ expectations regarding restoration.

You have the ability to communicate with our own residents better than we do and may be more believable. You should be on TV with periodic press conferences and with credible information for the radio stations and newspapers.

As we have told you many, many times, “bad” news for our residents is better than no news. You must figure out what you are doing and give us and our residents the details. “Expect 7 to 10 days and then 90% will be restored by Wednesday evening” is not news.

Thanking you in advance for your cooperation.

 

Mayor Susan Lopatkin

President of Great Neck Village

Officials Association

 

Mayor Jean Celender

Treasurer of Great Neck Village

Officials Association

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