News from Paul Feiner.
PAUL FEINER, Greenburgh Town Supervisor 914 993 1540
Honorable Legislators:
I am unable to attend the hearing being held by the members of the Westchester County Board of Legislators re: the power outage today. I thank the Legislature for holding the hearing and want you to know that about 2000 Greenburgh residents were out of power the first day of the outage. My family was out of power from Wednesday morning to Friday. It was cold, uncomfortable. Families with babies and the frail elderly could have suffered major health problems if the weather had been colder. Schools were closed for a few days in Dobbs Ferry and elsewhere- causing additional inconveniences to residents and students.
Lessons could be learned from this power outage. First, Con Ed should make sure that independent living centers for the elderly and senior housing complexes get their power turned on sooner—rather than later. Some of the elderly are frail—a long power outage could create major health problems for the elderly. Second, Schools should be given priority attention. Some local schools were closed for 3 days –creating problems for teachers and parents.
Finally, government has a responsibility to learn from this experience. Currently, the American Red Cross has agreements with every school in the county to house people in the event of an emergency. Woodlands, for example, is a reception center to receive people evacuated from within the 10 mile area surrounding Indian Point. The Greenburgh Police Department has worked with the Red Cross, Westchester County and Fire Agencies to set up and staff the center and decontaminate evacuees. Although some schools may have generators, I am not aware of many that do. This obviously impacts on the ability to provide heat, hot water for showers, power for cooking, lights, etc.
I have urged the Town of Greenburgh to also purchase generators for those town buildings that are capable of providing basic services to the public in addition to shelter (food, showers). Our buildings are also air conditioned which is essential in addressing the sheltering needs of people during emergencies that occur during the hottest months of the year. In a major event, the maintenance of government operations is essential to the community’s recovery, a generator should be placed at the multipurpose center, Theodore Young Community Center and at part of Town Hall. Every locality and the county should purchase generators to be placed in government buildings.
This wind storm created inconveniences for many. If the weather had been colder there would have been a greater need for shelter. If municipal buildings had been out of power our ability to provide services to the community would have been impacted. And, we could not have provided emergency shelter to those who need it.
The county might wish to assist localities and school districts by providing financial assistance in paying for the generators. The town received a $75,000 grant from the state to purchase a generator for our multipurpose building. However, after we went out to bid we found that the generator would cost $150,000. I am trying to persuade the Town Board to support funding for one or more generators that can be used to help shelter the elderly and disabled.
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