As town prepares for potential storm, board told light plant ended National Grid suit
/By Carol Britton Meyer
Among the subjects brought up during the town manager and select board reports at the end of Wednesday’s meeting were the expected major weekend-into-Monday snowstorm and accompanying low temperatures, and the status of the town’s lawsuit against National Grid.
Select board member Jerry Taverna asked whether the town has plans for warming centers, such as the Memorial School, which was used for that purpose some time ago.
LT. GOV. Kim DRISCOLL, STATE SEN. PATRICK O’CONNOR, and State REP. Joan MESCHINO joined Town manager Jennifer Constable and town staff to visit the state department of conservation and recreation properties in hull and discuss ways the agency can partner with the local government.
“That would be the call of the emergency management team,” Town Manager Jennifer Constable responded. “The senior center, library, and other public facilities are also options,” depending on when they would be open.
She suggested that the best option to stay in touch during potential storm-related power outages – when cell phones might run out of power and with so many people no longer having landlines – is to have a battery-powered radio available for updates, including from local WATD 95.9 FM radio.
“The town will post [storm-related] information – including on social media – when we are able to do, and we have the Code Red system, although it’s not designed for power outages,” Constable said.
A pre-storm meeting of town officials was planned for Thursday.
Constable also said that the town is in need of plow drivers, while also commending the job the DPW does in keeping the roads clear.
She also asked that residents become familiar with the town’s storm-related rules related to parking and other considerations and to abide by them, which isn’t always the case, she said.
Residents are also asked to shovel out the fire hydrants near their homes, to be patient while waiting to have their streets cleared, and remain cognizant that the plowing is done according to certain priorities.
On another but related subject, select board member Brian McCarthy asked for an update on the status of the town’s lawsuit against National Grid over maintenance of transmission lines that supply electricity to Hull.
“The light board voted not to pursue the case based on town counsel’s recommendation,” Constable said.
According to newly appointed light plant manager and former operations manager Mike Schmitt, “We have had pretty good luck with the transmission lines” for some time.
Constable noted that since the lawsuit was filed a number of years ago, there haven’t been any widespread National Grid-related outages.
“We’re not pursuing the lawsuit, because if a major catastrophe and/or multiple outages were to occur, we could revisit [it],” Schmitt said.
This option would not be available if the town were to continue with the lawsuit, according to Constable.
“National Grid considers [the town] to be one customer,” McCarthy noted, while emphasizing that the age of the power lines is a major issue.
Another reason not to pursue the lawsuit, Constable said, is that there would have been no jury and that “a single judge would have made the decision. It would be us against a major utility … National Grid could demonstrate the work they have done to prevent future outages – the series of repairs on the power lines.”
She added that a top town capital project is “to identify an alternative means of transmission.”
In unrelated business, Constable reported on a recent one-and-a-half-hour meeting among town officials, the lieutenant governor, and the new Department of Conservation & Recreation commissioner, among others, to talk about various projects.
These included the proposed two-way road plan, the town’s climate resiliency work, and DCR’s recent vulnerability assessment on its properties.
At that time, the group visited a number of sites, including the Nantasket Beach Reservation.
State Representative Joan Meschino and state Senator Patrick O’Connor participated in the meeting, with the Allerton seawall project and the work needed at Fort Revere also topics of conversation.
“It was a very productive meeting, and I anticipate future conversations and a strengthening of the relationship among the administration, the DCR, and the town,” Constable said.
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