Post Sandy: Power Outage Woes in Marple

BROOMALL–A Marple resident on the 2900 block of Dogwood Lane addressed the Marple Township Board of Commissioners at Tuesday night's meeting in regards to the number of days the power had been out on her entire block.

According to the homeowner, the power was out for five days during Sandy but about 16 homes on the 2900 block of Dogwood Lane has seen spurts of power outages at five-days at a time as well as random, miscellaneous one- or two-day power outages.

"I'm one of three families with small children and the other half of the block is actually retired and several eldery people on my block," said the homeowner. 

The homeowner came before the board to seek help in addressing the problem to PECO. According to the homeowner, PECO had sent out a letter to the resident promising to fix or deter the power outage issues on the block but has yet to do so. The homeowner, who has been a third-year resident on Dogwood Lane, said there hasn't been any changes made since then.

"We were really not a victim of the storm. So I'm not sure why there was a five-day delay and answers in those services as well," said the homeowner. "Nothing is changing except our taxes are going up, our utilities are going up and I'm sure the emergency tax base is going up which affects us as residents."

Dan Leefson, 7th ward commissioner, shared his neighborhood on Langstoon Lane also sees a fare share of power outages. However, Leefson said the homeowners association came together and went to PECO together to install another line that needed to be done. The line was installed three years later. 

John Longacre, 5th ward commissioner, said he also received a letter from another resident in his ward on Eastburn Avenue complaining about the frequent power outages. 

"They [PECO] did a great job [during the hurricane]–75 percent of the township went down, they had 75 percent back up in 36 hours–but as of, Friday, there were still 320 houses out," said Longacre. "Probably a quarter of them were hurricane related but the other three-quarters were stressing our emergency services because there are seniors involved in this houses. It should've never happened. It should've never been potentially stressing our emergency services. And even Monday we had about 160 houses out."

If the same 300 houses are always losing power, the issue needs to be fixed, said Longacre.

Michael Molinaro, 6th ward commissioner and president, stated that there are several know power-related problem areas in the township and suggested that the homeowner on Dogwood Lane meet with Township Manager Anthony Hamaday. Hamaday will then address those issues with a list of power-related problem homes in the township to PECO in order to remediate the problem.

Are you in one of those power-related problem homes in Marple? Tell us in the comments.