These incompetent individuals at OR evalulated the severe damage on Burritt Place, a street right off Lawlins on Thursday, Friday and Saturday and then sent a crew with inadaquate equipment to do the job today. They even had a solo employee standing there each day waiting for a crew to arrive. Then they had the nerve to send 3 bucket trucks to my street today and tell us they needed another piece of equipment as the trees were to large and that they would be back by 4 pm. I knew this was a lie because a foreman told me the truth in the morning that they did not have adaquate equipment to handle the job today because nobody told him the level of destruction. They obviously never came back to do the job and we still have three trees accross the street and wires in the middle of the road 7 days after the storm. The foreman also said that OR had not even stepped foot in two other NJ towns as of yesterday. Honesty can go a long way but the afternoon crew did nothing but attempt to cover up ORs missteps and mishandling of the restoration. It is clear that we need legal action for a change of utility in Wyckoff as this NY company cares little for NJ residents. They clearly cannot handle the job here in NJ and at the very least we must challenge any rate increase they make at the BPU until reforms happen at this utility to stop this from ever happening again. Govenor Christie must bring the hammer down and fine them for favoring NY or throw them out of NJ.

I am glad you are finally frustrated Mayor. Your constituents have been frustrated for a whole week already....

It is frustrating and disappointing to be told by a rep from Rockland that being part of a grid of only 200 customers puts us on low priority for the company to address in power restoration. We were told that we may not have power restored until Nov 11

Where's the Mayor been since last Monday afternoon? He just realized his constituents are tired, cold, frustrated and angry?! And, where is our invisible, vote-seeking representative F. Scott Garrett? This is the price the citizenry pay for continuing to pull the lever for mediocrity. We deserve better when we make more intelligent choices on Election Day.

Welcome back Mr. Mayor.... While you were out, we've been hit by the largest storm in 100 years... Most of the town dark for over a week. . . Fortunately, we've been helping each other out in your absence . . . When you get a moment, can you call the O&R company and ask them to kindly stop by and let us know when we can plow their junk out of the way and get a real utility company here. Thanks.

Excellent idea Bill. And when we rid ourselves of O&R, they can drive the mayor and most of the Wyckoff council persons with them!

Yesterday I saw 3 out of state trucks Californa, Oregon and Alabama. The guys from Alabama were fishing in Zabriskie pond. (maybe on their break- I undersand). 50 PSEG trucks just parked at Garden State Plaza.

O&R does not have the capacity to service us in emergencies. That is very obvious, as we have seen over the last several years. Why are we still getting our power from O&R? If they can't service Wyckoff properly and we are not a priority, why are we doing business with these people? A serious discussion about our options to switch utilities should be had...pronto.

someone compared power loss on here to living in a 3rd world country-oh man are u serious?? dont think that living in a beautiful rich town like wyckoff is anything like living in a 3rd world country-that comment just made me ill. I grew up in wyckoff and even without power its no where like a 3rd world country. She should be down in southern nj where people HAVE LOST EVERYTHING!!!! NO HOME, NO CARS, NO FOOD OR WATER AND NO POWER!!

Lewis Tree service who is O &R's contractor was back again today on my street with the bigger equipment (70ft boom truck) and waited almost an hour for a crane to arrive only to back out our street again with the promise that the crane will be here later and the ":we will be back"-promise. Saw another O&R utility worker who could not do anything as a result who said the utility is completely disorganized and is not sending the right crews and equipment to the jobs and people are frustrated because manpower is just sitting in front of houses waiting like I witnessed this morning. Even the outside utilities that are here are getting upset at how O&R is handling the restoration. Maybe the outside utilites should take it over. Its time to clean house at O&R and the governors of NJ and NY must take action against this inept and ill equipt utility that cannot even manage significant help from out of state.

I have PSE&G. I have not seen a PSE&G truck all week in my side of town. I live on Wyckoff Ave. You would think a truck would pass by every now and then. I saw hundreds of PSE&G trucks staged in Paramus and Mahwah. They were just sitting there. I have had no power for almost a whole week. The projection for my side of town is another 3-5 days. No one seems to have an answer to how this mess was suppose to be addressed. Did any of the professionals at the power companies have a plan in place for the 100 year storm. The one thing we can all be sure of is these same people will be asking the State Public Utilities Commission for a sizeable increase in our rates in the not to distant future. I hope our elected officials keep all of this in mind for the future. Memories are long and most people will not forget.

I have O&R. I have called to report downed trees on wires in my neighborhood as have other neighbors. They also had two representatives walk through on Wednesday to survey the damage. To date we still have at least 4 large trees down blocking roads and sitting on wires. When I called O&R last night they told me they did not have downed trees reported for our street, which is not true. We have not seen one O+R utlity truck or tree contractor in our neighborhood. This is UNACCEPTABLE.

Tim, maybe O & R is following Rooney's example of taking care of their own 1st, perhaps residents of Rockland and Orange counties are getting priority..karma is a .... ;)

I think the Mayor is doing a great job trying to get Wyckoff back on track. When I was in Town Hall carging my phone I heard him on the phone numerous times with utlity people, etc. Why don't you ask what the other Township Committee people are doing.

Fwiw, i have no power yet either,but not much one can do about it....take a look at Staten Island or Seaside Heights, that should put some context to all the complaining about no power

BTW, maybe the mayors (not just ours) can address the following issue. I keep hearing that there is no gas supply shortage or delivery issue. Yet, many stations WITH POWER have no gas... Saturday==> at the end of Lincoln, Lafayette, the Lukeoil on Goffle towards Hawthore, station on Lafayette, the station (Exxon) at the exit on 287 for Oakland etc TODAY. There are just so many more WITH Power and no gas. I heard from a friend that Ocean County has gas and no lines. Hooray to that leadership team. If all stations with Power had gas, we would not have the lines like we do now even more important that the odd/even deal.

I am SO saddened to read these rude, vile comments directed at Mayor DePhillips. I believe, with absolute certainty, short of putting on a hard hat and climbing a pole himself, he is doing all he can do. Let's try to be realistic, we are hardly the only town in NJ with power issues.

If you take a step outside our little utopia, there is SO much heartbreak. Deaths, loss of homes, families left with nothing. All they have ever worked for, gone. No place to call home. I too, am still left without power but my problems are nothing in comparison. We should all focus on how fortunate we are, maybe how we help these families in dire need.

I have never been more proud to be a resident of Wyckoff. The willingness to help a neighbor, the selfless, generous offerings are overwhelming. The sense of community we have here is second to none, I am so grateful I can call it home.

We all want the same thing, trees removed, power restored and our local businesses to be able to operate and start making money again. Instead of posting rude, derogatory comments, why don't you help a neighbor or take a walk to city hall and ask the Mayor how YOU can help?

To all of those defending our public servants...perhaps if they were out amongst the citizenry, throughout Wyckoff, talking to people, explaining their pre and post-hurricane planning; their interfacing with county, state and Federal government and PSEG and O&R, a reservoir of trust and understanding might fill. Instead, Wyckoff's Mayor and town council members, F. Scott Garrett and the utilities have done nothing to demonstrate that they have been on the job, have a plan and are concerned. Leadership demands action, private and public. It does not diminish terrible losses elsewhere to demand our own issues be handled with planning and intelligence.

Tim, i don't want to get in an arguement with you, as i live within a good 9 iron from your home...my comments,as an anonymous poster, are as valud as yours, probably more so, as i am NOT condoning the actions of our officials, but you do, and probably because of your relationships with them...you don't beleive Orange and rockland are purposely keeping Wyckoff without power? That would be ridiculous...and unfortunately there needs to be a town that winds up being last to have power restored,and i guess that is us...

I think it's outrageous that they bring the wrong crews to these sorts of things

Monday morning. Governor Chris Christie criticized O&R at a press conference Sunday, calling their pace of restoration "unacceptable."

http://www.nj.com/bergen/index.ssf/2012/11/more_than_65000_increasingly_frustrated_bergen_county_residents_still_without_power_monday.html

I say, too little to late BUT this is good because it will promote them to be more accountable in the future (I hope). Naive?

Hi qdogPa,

There is no reason to talk about a 9 iron. Seeing 3 trucks parked a block away yesterday for 5 hours and a staff of 6 just text on their cell phones and drink coffee is very frustrating. There is definitely something wrong with the way they are managing their crews...Still have no power today.

The Mayor as well as every other Committeeman is doing everything they possibly can to speed things up. As Tim Shanley said, these power companies may be overwhelmed due to the level of destruction. Chief Ben Fox was on CBS radio 880-AM this morning talking about the Wyckoff power situation.

I have lived in town for 30 years and lost my power approximately twice a year ever year. Last year I was without power for a week and this year again. What is wrong with O&R ? This is pathetic. There are several trees down in my neighborhood and we have all reported that to O&R at least 3 times this week. Then we were told that they had no record of trees down. What does that tell you? Not one truck has come on to Barrett lane to even take a look. Two reps were walking around the neighborhood last week and saw all the damage. How could they possibly not have known about the trees? A neighbors town tree fell into our driveway and the owners told us they were waiting for the DPW to come and take it away. This meant I could not even get out of my garage. So, my husband and several neighbors got chain saws and we cleaned it ourselves so we could get to work. We are desperate! Please Mr Mayor and Council, please help us get our power back and also please can you look into changing our service from O&R to maybe PSE&G?

I think the Mayor and officials in Wyckoff have alot of explaining to do - we hear from the Mayor publicly for the first time on Sunday night, seriously?????

It is ok for Rooney to give gas to Wyckoff residents only, turn away those from other towns, but now when my fellow resident Mr Shanley complains about possible favorable treatment by O&R to its OWN state residents, he complains...kinda hypocritical,don't cha think. ;)

Its obvious the people we have elected officials in Wyckoff with NO experience in getting anything done except doing a good job picking up leaves. We need to vote this whole crew out next time.

Mayor DePhillips HAS been and continues to be hard at work on our behalf as I witnessed last week. The culprit is O&R - they have not worked on our part of their service territiry until very high heat was put on them by our combined governmental officials. It is outrageous that a Utility can get away with this lack of any meaningful performance for so long.......

Again, to those of you defending the mayor and town council, what evidence do you have to substantiate your claim that our public servants "are doing everything they can"? None of them have been in any neighborhood in our vicinity. On our block, no one even knew the mayor was in town until his Sunday statement, which it is accurate to report, was the result of angry phone calls to his office. Otherwise, we might have believed he was out of state. Leadership is what is required; leadership is not what Wyckoff has received, not from the mayor, town council, county, federal or utilities.

We are all in a disaster situation and we can complain all day and blame whomever and we have that right. I think it is actually applying some pressure to the leadership (not judging them) to push progress to the limit.

Here is another take on all this. We had 2 instances from last year with awful response as well (5 day outage EACH). Therefore, this time, we need to hold the electric companies and our officials to the task of going through a lessons learned process and creating a future plan that can be utilized when necessary. We need to REQUIRE an annual re-validation of the process as well. When people are tired after a difficult task, and customers are happy again with power, the tendency is to move on and never get to the postmortem. The lessons learned should account for many of the complaints in the comment chain. We need to not allow them forget and move on! We should require a reasonable deadline to get this done.

qdogpa: Are you absolutely sure that O & R is taking care of their own? I have friends and co-workers who live in NY served by O & R and they are STILL without power as of right now!!

YCougher...we work for a living, when we have heat, light and power. I'm glad you have the time to volunteer. If you're in touch with the mayor, advise him the very best leaders are visible during difficult times, visiting, consoling and assuring the residents that their concerns are first and foremost in his daily mayoral duties. Visibility and honest public exchanges are simple gestures which would build public trust.

This has been an overwhelming situation for all involved. In my area - Farview/Vance/Timberline/Miller . . . power still out - poles still down . . . survey trucks come and go . . . but no crews. I also have never heard about so many substations being down . . . that can't be easy. Wyckoff Patch and OEM have been GREAT means of communication. I do believe the crews have been disorganized, but given the scope of the situation, some confusion is probably unavoidable. It would appear however, that Franklin Lakes leadership got out in front of this while Wyckoff leadership seemed vacant. Perhaps more was going on behind the scenes, but don't blame people for being upset . . . O&R has also appeared nonexistent and when you combine the two . . . it doesn't look good. At the same time, we are still VERY lucky compared to other parts of the area. Let's hang tough together and when we get on our feet, launch resources to others who need help even more.

Andrea, i have no idea, but it was suggested by another, who had previously supported Mr Rooney providing gas only to Wyckoff residents.. Just pointing out the potential hypocrisy of said poster. , who by the way, was appointed to a position by these upstanding men....

How can anyone whine about people complaining under these circumstances? I don't care if the reasons for such a slow response are ineptitude, cronism, apathy, lack of pressure on the power companies by our officials at the local, state or federal level, or anything else, all complaints are warranted and valid. If you still have no power, call everyone you can think and COMPLAIN!!!

If you have gotten you power back, help your neighbors. Let them borrow your generator you no longer need, fill an extra gas can and offer that, continue calling the power companies and officials and keep complaining for those without power. Invite your neighbor to your home so they can warm up a bit. Do something but don't you dare suggest that they stop the complaining!

Being without power for 7 days is very difficult for all of us, no doubt, but when compared to the devastation suffered by so many others it is an inconvenience! I lost the contents of my fridge & freezer, which thankfully I can afford to replace. I still HAVE My home, intact! I'll bundle up, catch up on reading, and pray for those who REALLY suffered a loss. I feel blessed things were not worse! Sharon Walton

Well said Jim!

These are exceedingly difficult circumstances for everyone. The amount of the damage exceeds the capability to restore it in a timely fashion. Frustration and anger are completely understandable. DePhillips is doing an outstanding job trying to get Wyckoff the help it needs. These elected officials are walking amongst us. They are residents just like the rest of us. They have their own power issues and child care issues and work issues while at the same time trying to interface with the utilities and government to rectify the situation as best they can. Lets face it, with problems of this magnitude, no one was going to be happy. It's a no win situation. Our electeds don't control the infrastructure and don;t control the allocation of resources. Still, you have to give them credit for keeping the pressure on and doing everything they can to get resources dedicated to this community. Att his point, that is all they can do.

Orange and Rockland very cleary stated on their website before the storm even hit, to expect delays of 7-10 days or longer. Cleary an admission of how incapable this company is. Orange and Rockland is also a wholy owned subsidiary of Con Edison!
Profits before People!! Time to harness the anger and find a way to replace them...

Yes, get rid of O&R, because PSEG has been terrific during this storm. ;)

I know people in Paramus, who PSEG, and are still without power, ..

Joe, thanks... I stand corrected but it would be nice if Town Hall had the correct information. I am deleting the other post..
"DePhillips requested representatives from both O&R and PSE&G at the Wyckoff Township Committee meeting on Monday at 7:30 p.m"

It is a fact that Messrs. Boonstra, Christie, and Rooney, were all out separately (but in contact with each other) during the wee hours of the night surveying damage, identifying hazards, etc., with either a member of the DPW crew or Fire Dept. personnel. Let those who are quick to criticize try working all day into the night for a few days straight for the good of the town!!

O&R has many more NJ customers still out than NY customers. The numbers (as of 2:30PM 11/5 - http://apps.coned.com/stormcenter_external_oru/default.html):
NY customers out - 16% (35k out of 223k)
NJ customers out - 29% (20k out of 71k)
Bergen customers out - 24% (13k out of 57k)
Passaic customers out - 51% (~7k out of 13k)
Outside of cajoling & begging O&R to send more manpower, I don't see what else the mayor or TC can do to restore power right now. Perhaps the mayor or TC can do more to console residents or make their suffering less. Personally, I believe the Mayor/TC are doing a good job in this crisis. If others feel differently, have at it and make suggestions. I think the mayor would take the advice to heart. ON that note Mr Mayor -- please advise O&R that you will bring to the attention of the NJ BPU O&R's horrendous outage rates in NJ v. NY. I have dealt with many of the biggest utilities in the country, they are #s oriented and fearful of their regulators.

(Cont.).....

And, lest we forget, the Mayor has a family of his own to take care of. Unlike a governor or congressional rep, Mayor is a part time endeavor, so on this issue, give him a break. I agree we should hold utility and the more empowered gov't officials' feet to the fire -- governor, congressional rep, FEMA, BPU, FERC, O&R, PSE&G. Clearly NJ is a low priority to O&R. FERC and the NJ BPU should consider revoking O&R rights to operate in NJ (definitely in Bergen, more so in Passaic County!). Stay warm, safe and sane. GXR

Don't blame the local mayor, etc but how about Congressman Garrett? He is one of those government hands off free market types who did not even sign the congressional bipartiasn bill for emergency relief to NJ residents the other day. Oh wait, in the middle of the storm a got a call from "W" pushing Garrett in the upcoming election. WHAT A JOKE!!!!.

I placed a picture in the article in case some of you could not remember what an O&R truck looked like. I am starting to forget.

Take a look around not only our area, other storm areas and the rest of the world; after doing that, repeat the following:
I FELT SORRY FOR MYSELF BECAUSE I HAD NO SHOES; THEN I MET A MAN WHO HAD NO FEET!!!!!

I hope all the people that are crying about how long it takes to get power back are prepared to pay up to have our lines buried underground or to allow power companies to at least triple their staffs to have faster recovery times...

Lets get the underground program going. If our leaders had made this a priority thirty years ago, the nation would have been well on its way to secure the residential electrical grid.

Jon and Ed you must have a generator at home right? Not everybody

Apparently a generator is a new requirement for Wyckoff homeowners thanks to O&R.

New in Wyckoff - No, I do NOT have a generator at home! What would make you think that? In case you missed the point, there are people who lost not only power but also their cars, homes and, in other storm affected areas, their LIVES!! If you didn't lose your life, you are the one WITHOUT SHOES!!! Everything else can be replaced or is an inconvenience. If you're dead, you can't replace anything!! Sorry if the saying was a bit too deep for you.
As for my situation, I was without power for one week; an 85 year old lady who lives directly behind me still doesn't have power so a couple of days ago, I ran an extension cord from my house to her's so she could at least have heat.

Bravo Ed!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh Linda - You're really on top of things. DePhilllips said he is stepping down from being Mayor and that is why there are two seats up for election. Also, Rooney isn't such a great hero!! Did you people see the prices of other gas stations? $3.49, $3.53, etc. - Rooney $3.70. Before Sandy I haven't seen any cars in that gas station. Also, why did the public employees of Wyckoff Town Hall get gas? Some of them don't live in Wyckoff. I'll be glad when this (gas) situation is back to normal and I can get my gas in Midland Park for 20-30 cents cheaper! I try to shop locally - but locally is too darn expensive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No one in their right mind gets gas in Wyckoff when things are normal. All 3 gas stations charge too much when much cheaper gas is 5 minutes away.

Would be in favor of an initiative to bury the wires underground. But let's get everyone power first. And until then stop telling people not to complain about the situation but offer assistance to the less fortunate ones!

Eight days post Sandy. No power in much of Wyckoff, no sign of PSEG in our neighborhood either. I'm told neither PSEG nor OR showed up for at Wyckoff's town meeting last night. Who amongst Wyckoff's leadership has the necessary heft to force the utilities to begin to restore electrical service to our town?

Hey Gary. The "bully pulpit" has been occasionally successful when used by politicians in the court of public opinion and discourse. Federal and State politicians have a larger platform than local officials but it's another tool which can be used when obfuscation, mismanagement and incompetence, in this case by the power utilities, harms the public. The fate of CPL's CEO after last year's power restoration debacle in Connecticut serves as an powerful example. Agreed there are larger issues at stake here, poor/negligent pre-storm planning by the utilities and the public's and governments failure to confront the vulnerabilities of the above-ground power grid system. Accountability of near monopolies looms large as well. We're hanging in, hoping PSEG lives up to their promises but I would not bet a farthing on that. Take care.

PSE&G has no estimates on restoring power to Goffle Road. Best guess is from 2 weeks to over a month at this time. Why blame the Mayor? God help us all.

It's not a question of "blame", it is about leadership, using every resource to ensure that the public is fully served.

There is a CEO at PSEG where the buck stops. He's the captain of a ship which has foundered. He and his crew are the problem. They deserve our anger and contempt for their pre-storm planning and subsequent restoration mismanagement which placed lives and property at risk. Mid-level managers are clueless without instructions from those in charge.

The Franklin Lakes fire department has dry ice and regular ice most nights, and are distributing it for free (for those whose freezer contents haven't yet spoiled).

Mr. Mayor,
Many of us in Wyckoff are still without power. It is very disappointing the response to from the Township with respect to making services available to meet peoples basic needs. Communities hit far worse than Wyckoff by Sandy have put in place emergency preparedness plans to meet the needs of those without power and limited resources. The response from Wyckoff has been shameful. Where can an elderly person go for a hot cup of coffee, a place to warm up, a hot shower? Who from the community is checking in on these folks? Where is a warm shelter for those that can no longer sleep in their homes? There are folks in this community without power and limited resources and the Township has done little to nothing to help them. In the post 9/11 world, not having an emergency preparedness plan in place is negligent at best.
The Township of Wyckoffs response to this community during this crises has been as underwhelming as the response from our utilitities. Get your act together! The next emergency could be much worse.

There ARE two shelters running, one at Powerhouse and one at Christian Health Care. BOTH are doing and outstanding job of it. CHCC does have overnight facilitites also. As of today 7 November 2012, CHCC will remain open until the need no longer exists. Both places have hot meals and CHCC has hot shower facilities also. There ARE resouces, and Wyckoff has been offering them and using them. Just call the Board of Health office, the WILL assist as best they can or get you inot touch with the right people. And if you need information, GO TO THE TOWN HALL !! They will give you the best help and information they have available !

OUSTANDING JOB Mr, MAYOR !!!! I have been going to the town hall every day and have seen you there every day , no matter the time, working the phones to get the power companies out and the problem areas solved. Thank you Mr. Mayor for your own sacrafice and the time away from your own family to server and protect the entire Wyckoff family.

Instead of sitting on here bashing the local government, and eagerly awaiting rebuttals, how about going around helping out citizens who are truly in need. Go down to Hoboken, send items to the Jersey Shore. Be a true Wyckoffian, or move.

BTW Jackie, the Wyckoff health Department and the WPD, BOTH, do wellness checks on all seniors each day. Had you gone to the Town Hall or even called all of those needs could have been takend care of. And I will step further into it. You could have offered your own assistance and it would have been accepted. I did and it did and I am much better person for saying to Mr. Shannon, "Give me a call if there is anything I can do to help out." I did not get to my home before the call came in and I was off. And it was worth every second to volunteer for helping out anyone who came in. And I will do it over and over if necessary. You might want to consider doing the same thing.

Our Mayor, and I have seen other members of the TC constantly at Town Hall, the firehouses, with the DPW, all working the same hours and more to get Wyckoff stable and in repair.

Rather than critizing you can help out and get you hands dirty and be of benefit to your Town and neighbors. You will feel better for it, I assure you.

Ph, an everyone might just take a moment to say a THANK YOU to Scott Fisher and the DPW, the firemen, the ambulance corps, the police department ( INCLUDING the disp[atchers who worked endless hours also ) and so on. We should all stop into the Town Hall and offer a thanks to Mr. Shannon and Ellieen (sp sorry if I spelled that wrong ) and to our Town Clerk, Joyce and her team. And do not forget everyone else in that building, they ALL pitched in and I am grateful for each one of them. I would hope you feel the same.

I have been no fan of the mayor but when we are a town of 17,000 split between two utilities, one owned by ConEd, probably the worst utility in the US outside of Entergy in the south it is hard to blame the mayor. The problem rests with the state and the rules imposed on the utlitlies. The answer is not to bury everything as who would pay for it? Maybe all new construction could be buried but it is not going to happen in areas like this. If the utiliites had better response plans than this would not have been as bad. Crews should have been out with tree companies on day 1 clearing everything. How many days are we going to have to drive by the house on Monroe that has a tree that crushed both their cars and is sitting on the wires. So yes the mayor can call every day, as does every mayor up here in Bergen County, but until the state puts more conditions on the utilities, which they voted not to do in the last year the situation will not improve. Get rid of O&R nice idea, but PSEG's response in this area has not been much better.