Belleville: Schools Closed Monday; Shelter Moved to Middle School Due to Additional Outages

Belleville’s public schools will be closed Monday due to a second power outage striking the township yesterday, Township Manager Kevin Esposito said Saturday.

As of Friday evening, nearly schools had electricity, prompting school officials to reopen schools on Monday. That decision had to be reversed Saturday, school board president Pete Zangari said. 

It was not immediately known why power was knocked out once again to parts of the township where it had been restored in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. PSEG officials said earlier this week, however, that sometimes it is necessary to shut power down in an area to fix a downed line or other problem not previously reported to the utility.

Utility crews, however, were operating within the township Saturday.

“There are significant line trucks in town right now,” Esposito said. “It’s possible they took down the grid so they could restore power throughout town.”

The township’s emergency shelter, which had been at Belleville High School, had to be relocated to Belleville MIddle School, 279 Washington Ave., due to the outage, Esposito also said.