Although a powerful winter storm was approaching, Village of Saddle Rock officials focused their attention last Wednesday on the problems they experienced in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in October.
“We had no lights for two weeks,” said village resident Elaine Markowitz. “Now the power lines are hanging very low, and there’s no way to know whether or not they’re live. It’s a huge hazard.”
Village of Saddle Rock Mayor Dan Levy said he has been doing daily work since the storm to resolve storm-related problem and has been talking to LIPA every day.
But, he admitted, problems remain and he continues to be frustrated by LIPA’s response.
“LIPA keeps stringing me along,” he said. “After the storm they replenished our electricity, but in their haste they neglected the little stuff.”
Levy told residents he spent the days after Sandy taking part in 45-minute conference calls with the power authority during which LIPA said crews were in specific areas.
But, he said, he found no traces of them when he sent out village deputies for inspection.
Levy said he ultimately found a 38-person electrical crew from Missouri stopped on the highway and enlisted them in the village’s clean up efforts.
The crew, he said, restored most of the village’s power in three days .
“LIPA is not made up of bad people,” Levy said. “They are just incredibly overwhelmed.”
When residents at the meeting expressed frustration at Levy’s not gaining the proper support from LIPA, he encouraged them to contact the organization themselves.
One resident said that some street lights were still out and that downed wires that carried no power remained on village streets.
She said last Friday two teenagers on their way to a temple near Hawthorne and Greenwood were nearly hit by a car when crossing a particularly dark part of the street.
The resident attributed the near accident to broken street lights between 5 and 15 Hawthorne Lane.
Another resident requested that the village board provide temporary lighting on the corner until street light is fixed.
Levy said he would look into it.
The meeting also acknowledged the ongoing construction of 20 new homes in the village, which Schwartz lauded as “helping create real estate income for the village and raising value for existing homes.”
