Community Corner

Town Manager: Power Situation Getting Worse

"I tell you my frustrations are reaching a boiling point as are yours." ~ Tolland Town Manager Steve Werbner.

The following is a message from Tolland Town Manager Steve Werbner that was sent to residents and businesses that subscribe to the town's e-blast system:

It is now 3:00 pm. and I have just met with our CL&P representative. The news is no better at this point. Our percentage outage has gone from 50% to 56% which to me means we are going in the wrong direction. Our elderly housing complex remains without power due to a problem with the pole in the area. This is a priority, but no time frame for repair is given. We have one line crew on Old Stafford road and a crew in Willington working on Rt. 32 feeder lines. The crew working on Old Post has not completed their work, but it appears they have left. The four line crews we were to receive have not shown up. Roads with low hanging wires interfering with fire apparatus include potions of Browns Bridge Road, Cook Road, Eastview Terrace, Fox Ridge Drive, Gottier Road, Grahaber Road, Grandview Street, Harriet Drive, Kozley Road, Mountain Spring Road, Nedwied Road, Shenipsit Lake Road, Sugar Hill Road, Webber Road, Willie Circle. Numerous other roads have wires lying on the side of the road.

I have informed our CL&P representative, who is doing a good job with what he has to work with, that his company has no credibility with me and that their performance is beyond unacceptable. I have just come from our elderly complex and several residents are huddled in the only room that has generator power trying to keep warm. Twenty residents remain at our senior center where they have been all week. Some 3000 residents are facing another night with no power and no heat on a night when temperatures are anticipated to be in the thirties.

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I personally have seen convoys of trucks leaving the TOLLAND CL&P service area office headed to other Towns.  While I understand things are bad elsewhere, TOLLAND continues to receive a disproportionate percentage of available resources in comparison to our outage figures. The inability of CL&P to be able to tell us where crews have gone, work plans for the remaining light hours, repair time for highest priorities, how they plan to address roads that have downed wires causing safety concerns is beyond belief.

As your Town Manager I will continue to advocate on your behalf, but I tell you my frustrations are reaching a boiling point as are yours. This company even under intense criticism continues to beat to it's own drummer and remains with the corporate line of baloney whenever a question is asked. If crews were assigned to our EOC under our direction the Town would be in much better shape on day seven of storm Alfred’s aftermath.

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All I can say is keeping calling CL&P and lodge your complaints, and don’t let’em snow you with their responses. This company has to be held accountable for this mess but right now all I want for TOLLAND are crews and POWER.


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