Somerset Hills District Lauded for Sandy Assistance

When Hurricane Sandy effectively pulled the plug on the borough of Bernardsville, one of the main locations for recovery efforts became the Somerset Hills school district, notably Bernards High School.

After the hurricane hit on Oct. 29, the high school became a shelter initially for northern Somerset County, and eventually, the entire county and beyond, as other shelters closed for one reason or another.

Along with serving those in need on an overnight basis and providing warmth and showers for many locals during the day, setting up the shelter in the school's lower gym was an example to students of school officials being good role models in helping others, said Schools Superintendent Peter Miller.

"It was the right thing to do," Miller said following Wednesday night's Somerset Hills Board of Education meeting. The shelter had finally closed that day, after much hard work by emergency management officials, Red Cross shelter manager Janet Murnick and many volunteers, he said. It had remained open even after school resumed last Friday.

Bernards High School also became voting location for entire borough

With much of the town still in the dark and without power, the school also was turned into a makeshift central location for all borough voting districts on Election Day, Nov. 6. Miller and other borough officials said that the process went smoothly.

On Tuesday, Mayor Lee Honecker and the Bernardsville Council approved a resolution to honor Miller for his efforts during the aftermath of an event which started with 100 percent of the borough being out of power on Oct. 30 and continued even with about 70 reported outages on Wednesday night.

"Pete worked tirelessly at home and at school during the prolonged weather emergency to maintain ongoing, effective communication with all stakeholders, including elected officials and the Somerset Hills Offices of Emergency Management," the resolution said.

Miller, an employee of The Somerset Hills School District for 34 years and superintendent for the past decade, had demonstrated foresight during the construction project at Bernards High to plan for the installation of the generator that ended up supporting a large scale shelter, the resolution noted. The superintendent had coordinated efforts with American Red Cross representatives and members of the borough's Emergency Management team to be prepared to operate the shelter during any emergency, the resolution said.

Miller credits team effort

At Wednesday's meeting, Miller credited Schools Business Administrator Nancy Hunter and Assistant Superintendent Barbara Wall for working with him every step of the way, sometimes freeing him to take on the tasks for which he was lauded.

He also noted the hard work of a list of many other staff members, including the school's information technology department, which had seamlessly linked the Bernardsville Middle School's nonfunctioning phone and internet systems to the Bedwell Elementary School, which was up and running first.

Miller also noted the professional and volunteer efforts that kept the shelter going even after the county's other shelters were closed, particularly after the Raritan Valley Community College shelter lost power after the hurricane.

Miller said that when he retires at the end of this year he will most miss the people with whom he's been working.

The borough's resolution also noted Miller's work in getting the school district operational again by last Friday.

"Pete maintained regular contact with parents/guardians, staff members, and
community members via the district's AlertNow, website, and email systems throughout and after Hurricane Sandy and Snowstorm Athena; provided steadfast leadership to the district's maintenance and custodial crews to ensure that school district facilities were safe and ready to open when power was restored; drove bus routes throughout Somerset Hills communities to determine which roads, if any, were safe for students to travel to school; facilitated the ongoing reintroduction of bus routes as they became operational and communicated same to parents/guardians, and coordinated efforts with district administrators to open schools as quickly as possible after power had been restored," the resolution said.