Thursday, February 21, 2013
'Climate change, once considered an issue for a distant future, has moved firmly into the present,’ reads open letter to American people.
By Tom Johnson, NJ Spotlight It is no secret that Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc on New Jersey power's grid, leaving millions of customers without electricity -- many for a week or longer. Get used to it, warns a new report. Extreme weather is likely to increase not only in frequency but intensity, and the nation’s energy facilities will continue to suffer major disruptions, particularly those located in coastal regions, according to a draft National Climate Assessment report. The likely consequences of those storms and of a warmer planet will be to ramp up peak electricity demand in regions like the Northeast, requiring additional generation and distribution facilities to be built, the report said. For consumers, that could mean as much as…
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Fair Lawn will review its contingency plans for fuel backup after the fragility of its current setup was exposed during Superstorm Sandy.
Superstorm Sandy played out just as borough manager Tom Metzler told his staff it would. He anticipated the devastation to the Jersey Shore, the flooding of the New York City subway system and the prolonged power outages across the region. “Prepare to be without power for two weeks,” he told his staff a couple days before the storm came to shore. Metzler said he knew exactly what to expect because he’d been studying Sandy, or a storm just like her, for over two decades. “In 1990 when I entered emergency management, the very first conference I attended they said this was the worst East Coast scenario,” Metzler said. “A Category 1 hurricane coming to shore between Cape May and Atlantic City with a 20 mile-an-hour forward motion.” He laid it …
Monday, November 5, 2012
Radburn Elementary and Edison School have both regained power and will function as polling stations for District 4, 5, 13 and 14 voters on Election Day Tuesday.
Edison School and Radburn Elementary, which both regained power over the weekend, will act as polling stations for Fair Lawn's 4th and 5th, and 13th and 14th District voters after all, municipal clerk Joanne Kwasniewski said. District 4, 5, 13 and 14 voters, who were told Friday to vote at the Fair Lawn Community Center, should now report to their normal polling location when they vote on Election Day. District 15 and 20 voters are now the only voters who should still report to the alternate polling place provided previously. Residents who normally vote at the Fair Lawn Public Library (Districts 15 and 20) should vote across the street at the Municipal Building, in council chambers on the second floor. Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. …
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Fair Lawn and Saddle Brook are now scheduled to be "fully" restored by midnight Tuesday
If anything definitive can be said about PSEG's town-by-town power restoration schedules, it's that they're constantly changing. In a span of 24 hours, Fair Lawn's customers without power have gone from 39.9 percent to 54.7 percent to 42.3 percent and the date for "full restoration" has been pushed back from midnight Sunday to midnight Monday to midnight Tuesday. Saddle Brook has experienced similar fluctuations. The number of reported outages in the township has actually increased after each of PSEG's restoration updates and, as of the latest estimate, 35.4 percent of the town was still without power. PSEG spokesman Paul Rosengren, who said he couldn't provide specifics on where the utility would be working in either town, confirmed that …
Saturday, November 3, 2012
PSEG has offered no timetable for the restoration of power in Saddle Brook.
- POLICE & FIRE
- Zak Koeske
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Saturday, November 3, 2012
The vast majority of Fair Lawn may have its power back by the end of the weekend, according to a PSEG work schedule released by the governor's office Saturday. Gov. Chris Christie released the restoration plans for New Jersey's three primary power companies Saturday in an effort to provide New Jerseyans greater transparency and certainty about the progress of restoration in their towns. “While progress has been made in restoring power to many businesses, households, and critical infrastructure in the aftermath of Sandy, there are still over 1.25 million customers without power," Christie said in a statement. "So many New Jerseyans have demonstrated significant patience and resilience through the storm and this initial recovery period, and …
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Due to safety concerns, the borough will reschedule Halloween as a trunk-or-treat event, rather than a door-to-door affair throughout town.
Fair Lawn will hold a parking lot "trunk-or-treat" at Thomas Jefferson and Memorial Middle Schools on Monday evening. The decision to hold a trunk-or-treat, in which children dress up and collect candy from the trunks of parked cars, was undertaken to avoid the possible risks kids could face navigating the borough's dozens of downed wires and toppled trees while trick-or-treating door-to-door, Fair Lawn Board of Education president Michael Rosenberg said. Cars are asked to arrive between 5 p.m. and 5:30pm, and the trunk-or-treat will run from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. School Closings and Updates Roseberg said he and superintendent of schools Bruce Watson have been attending daily meetings with the borough to coordinate school closing efforts …
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
The borough was experiencing telephone issues throughout the morning and early afternoon but the problem appears to be fixed.
UPDATE: 5:20 p.m., Wednesday The borough's regular phone lines are up and running again, police chief Erik Rose confirmed. From mid-morning until early afternoon, incoming phone calls placed to Fair Lawn's municipal offices, emergency operations center and police department non-emergency line had been interrupted due to a telephone service provider problem. To get around the fact that outside calls made directly to borough departments were being met with a busy signal, the borough has rigged a temporary work around that allowed callers who dial (201)-796-1700 to reach an automated phone tree that then could direct them to their intended call recipient. Rose said the police department was in the process of setting up a similar fix when the…
Both communities have postponed Halloween and plan to reschedule it on Monday, Nov. 5.
On the heels of an announcement by Gov. Chris Christie Tuesday night that he would sign an executive order rescheduling Halloween, Fair Lawn decided Wednesday morning to postpone the holiday after all and select a new date. Deputy Mayor John Cosgrove said the council took a unanimous vote Wednesday to reschedule Halloween on whatever day the state picks. "There are just too many downed wires and everything else," he said. The borough will send out a Reverse 911 call Wednesday with the updated information for residents. Saddle Brook Mayor Karen Chamberlain said the township also had postponed Halloween and would abide by whatever day the governor recommended the holiday should be rescheduled. Christie issued an executive order postponing …
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Fair Lawn residents can safely drink and use the borough's tap water and no issues are expected going forward.
Hurricane Sandy's jaunt through Fair Lawn had a minimal impact on borough water sources and residents can safely use and drink tap water. "We're in great shape," Water Department supervisor Dan Belinsky said. "The pressure, flow and quality of water were not compromised during the storm." Belinsky said that three of the borough's 15 wells were knocked off the grid in the vicinity of Memorial Park, but that with its remaining 12 wells and additional supply from United Water and Passaic Valley Water Commission, everything is running up to speed. The borough's water storage tanks, which were topped off in advance of the storm, remain full, Belinsky said. A borough phone alert sent out Tuesday afternoon that asked residents without power to …
Monday, October 29, 2012
Hurricane force wind gusts have had a major impact in Fair Lawn, but flooding has been minimal.
Hurricane force winds and pounding rains have ripped trees from the earth, gnarled power lines and blown transformers, sending sparks shooting into the night sky and leaving thousands without power in Fair Lawn Monday evening. "We're getting hammered right now," said Lt. Derek Bastinck, who noted the department has been hit with a barrage of calls for transformer explosions, live wires down and trees crashing into homes over the past few hours. By 9:15 p.m., the emergency operations center had taken 40 calls for downed trees, 17 for downed wires and 14 for fire alarms. The Fair Lawn Rescue Squad has performed nearly three-dozen rescues of residents whose homes were damaged by trees or whose basements were flooded, borough manager Tom …
Michael Rosenberg
7:48 pm on Thursday, November 29, 2012
No, sewage treatment plants, water plants and pumps run by fuel powered generators and making sure this was working was the biggest issue in town. more ›