Monday, December 3, 2018, U.S. Congressman Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5) brought together mayors from Sussex and Warren counties, Senator Steve Oroho, and leadership from JCP&L to discuss the aftermath of the March 2018 storms which dropped as many as 21 inches of snow on the area and cut the power to more than 103,000 homes, some for as many as 10 days. The storms resulted in over 1,600 reported outages in Sussex County and over 1,500 in Warren County, specifically.

“To effectively respond to future storms, we need to work together and ensure we have the procedures and infrastructure in place to minimize damage and restore power as quickly as possible,” said Congressman Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5). I appreciate all the the mayors and elected officials and JCP&L coming together today for such a productive meeting. As we head into peak storm season, I want to thank everyone who came out today for a productive discussion on how we can better keep our communities safe and respond to storms and power outages.”

“I was pleased to join Congressman Gotthiemer, senior management of JCPL and many of our mayors and elected officials to discuss ways to continue to improve preparation, education and communication to minimize power outages as much as possible. One clear way is the vegetation management legislation Assemblymen Space and Wirths and I are sponsoring to enable reasonable prevention measures to avoid tree damage during severe storms. I look forward to continuing to work with all involved to enhance reliability,” said Senator Steve Oroho (LD-24).

“It was a pleasure to attend a meeting today organized by Congressman Gottheimer, with Senator Steve Oroho, a bipartisan group of mayors and committeepeople, and JCP&L’s upper management to get the bottom of how to strengthen the electric grid in Northern NJ. It’s one thing to field residents’ phone calls when the power is out, but it is heartening to see our elected representatives working hard in the downtime before these storms to make sure our towns get more reliable electricity. Some concrete solutions came out of today’s meeting– such as using staging areas in our towns rather than remote county locations– and the mayors had the valuable opportunity to speak directly with those at JCP&L who will make a difference when the next storm hits. I am really grateful small towns like Knowlton are given opportunities like this and I appreciate Congressman Gottheimer bringing us all together to make it happen.,” said Knowlton Mayor Adele Starrs.

Below: Gottheimer meets with representatives from JCP&L and local leaders. Left to right: Tim Dooley (Hampton), Joe Kennedy (Belvidere), Tim McDonough (Hope), Jim Perry (Hardwick), Senator Steve Oroho (LD-24), Congressman Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5), and Adele Starrs (Knowlton).