Posted by Dennis Herrick on May 17, 2009 at 13:05:01:
If you read the article in the Eagle Tribune about the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission's hearing last month in Plaistow on utilities' and municipalities' response to the December 2008 ice storm then good for you. Not enough folks are paying attention anymore. They're fast asleep. The NH PUC just posted transcr1pts of the meeting on their website. Check the link below, Transcr1pts From The Ice Storm. They're half way down the page. I noticed a few items that didn't make it into the newspaper article. I guess it's like comparing a book to a movie of the book. You can't fit everything in. There just isn't enough film and newsprint real estate.
It seems that a volunteer emergency worker from Amesbury, Ma. claims he called Plaistow's Civil Defense and Emergency Management Director William Scully and offered him a generator and assistance. He maintains Scully never called him back and Scully asserts that all calls to the Plaistow Safety Complex are logged and no one ever heard of him. Interesting? Was this an ambush set up in advance by Unitil to knock out Scully? It happened just after we heard two gentlemen from Asplundh gush over their experiences with Unitil. Unfortunately they do contracting work for Unitil, which is an obvious conflict of interest.
It reminds me a little of the PUC's Meeting in Exeter. We start out listing to a tree trimmer. Probably works for Unitil on contract and is obviously bias. Everyone wants NH to change it's laws on tree trimming. Utility companies shouldn't be required to ask for owner permission first. Strange, there is no such law in Massachusetts and trees in Lunenburg, Ma haven't been trimmed regularly either. I have pictures. Could it be the utility companies are using this as another excuse. These companies have become lazy, cheap and hollow. Later on we here from the former President of the Exeter Area Chamber of Commerce, gushing over her many years of experience with Unitil. Well guess what, her power company used to be independent, not part of this holding company, Unitil. In central Mass no one spoke positively of Unitil at any of their meetings except for an official from a Massachusetts electrical workers union. Conflict of interest? You bet!
Next there was a call to have the Town of Plaistow pay for an emergency generator at Timberlane Regional High School so it can act as an emergency shelter next time. And since the town should buy one for the school, then shouldn't they also give one to Cumberland Farms so the gas pumps can remain on and Route 125 won't be blocked with traffic all the way down to the Mass border. Maybe Unitil should start a new program paid right out of their profits called, GGWE, Generator Grants for Weather Emergencies. That make more sense than having the taxpayers in Plaistow pick up the tab. Sure it "takes a village", but please.
Helpful hint for the NH PUC, don't waste any more time and taxpayers money investigating what Unitil did wrong. That could take years. They've already stipulated that they were at fault in customer letters and full page newspaper ads. They're screaming for our forgiveness and another chance. It would be faster and cheaper to investigate what they did right. As far as I can tell the answer is nothing.
If you go to the PUC website, check out the Plaistow and Exeter minutes while you're there. And for the folks in Atkinson, your new Selectman, Bill Bennett, had a few words to say along with your Police Lieutenant William Baldwin. Strangely missing from the minutes were statements from, Plaistow Police Chief Savage, Fire Chief McArdle, Building Inspector and Safety Official Michael Dorman, Town Manager Sean FitzGerald and the Head of the Highway Department, Dan Garlington. Well, I suppose each one of them could have filled out the NH PUC's online questionnaire instead. What worries me is that town and school officials might have been told to keep quiet so their organizations could use "goodwill" as a barganing chip in negotiating cheaper electric rates with Unitil down the road. We live in a republic, not in a democracy and we depend on our elected officials to do the right thing. Was their silence a "smiling and winking" at Unitil? If it was, then they're doing a disservice to the voters. I for one, would love to have heard from Highway, Police and Fire and about the gentleman from Plaistow that drove around town and proved that Unitil's recovery estimates were a gross over-exaggeration. By the way, that's a polite way of saying they lied.