Letter: Consultant Needed Quickly to Address Explosions

This letter, in its original form, was sent to Kristi Izzo, secretary of the board for the Board of Public Utilities, and reprinted with permission:

I have been a resident of Franklin Place in Morristown since November 2006. One of the things that I have enjoyed most about living in this town is the sense of security, safety and community.

However, as you are aware, in the last two years we have had three large explosions on South Street and I have personally seen and heard two of those– outside this past spring, and that occurred late August. These are not small eruptions of gas, but large explosions. In fact, there was so much black smoke billowing up from the manhole explosion outside Walgreens that it was difficult to discern from several blocks away whether the explosion occurred in front of the pharmacy or in the adjacent parking lot of grocery store.

Some of my neighbors will be providing testimony and others have already done so, outlining the personal consequences of these explosions. Our councilwoman, Rebecca Feldman, is working hard to provide you with the rational[e] for an urgent review of this problem. I would like to add their testimonials by also conveying a sense of urgency to ensure that JCP&L act quickly to identify a consultant approved by BPU, and that the terms of the review [be] made public, as well as the timeline for the review. We are deeply concerned to have our personal safety at risk when walking or driving down South Street and I am sure this sense of insecurity will prevail until a thorough review and clear understanding of the cause of the explosions, and solutions, are presented to the residents and retailers of Morristown. We intend to follow this review and the outcomes very closely.

I thank you in advance for all that you are doing, and will do, to advance solutions to this ongoing problem of explosions of the manholes on South Street in Morristown. 

–Siobhan Cavanaugh, Franklin Place