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South River residents and officials praise borough electric crew after outage; councilman cites reliability and rate data
Summary
Following a Friday outage caused by a dump-truck incident that downed poles and lines, borough officials and residents credited the electric and DPW crews for restoring service by about 10 p.m.; Councilman DeSantis presented comparative rate and SAIDI reliability figures to defend the municipal utility.
A windfall of public praise and data-driven defense followed a power outage that affected parts of South River last week. Residents and council members commended borough electric-department crews and Department of Public Works staff for restoring power after a dump truck reportedly struck lines and poles.
Multiple residents who spoke during the meeting described crews working around the clock to restore service; the transcript records restoration of power by about 10 p.m. Council members said the outage sequence included temporary restorations and reclosings as crews worked to stabilize the system.
Council data: Councilman DeSantis told the meeting the borough's average electric rate is $177.19 (compared with an investor-owned utility statewide average he cited of $207.98) and said South River's SAIDI (a reliability metric measuring average outage minutes per customer) was 69 minutes in 2023 versus higher averages for broader regions cited in published reports. He said the municipal utility has made about $1.4 million in capital investments over the last five years and that South River is among municipal utilities with low or no debt.
Residents' accounts: Joe Donato and Jim Hudgeson, residents who spoke during public comment, praised the municipal crews' rapid response and compared the borough's performance favorably to investor-owned utilities in other jurisdictions.
What the borough said about cause and recovery: Speakers described a dump truck's raised bed striking lines and poles, damaging crossarms and taking down cable and fiber optics. Officials said restoring power required staged re-energizing to avoid system surges; that process resulted in some neighborhoods coming back on and then being taken offline briefly while crews completed repairs.
Next steps: Council members said they will continue to invest in capital improvements and to monitor reliability metrics; no formal new policy or funding action was taken during the meeting excerpt.
