Medfield Selectmen to Discuss Storm Cleanup Efforts with NSTAR

While Medfield Selectmen deemed the town’s response to , “terrific,” praising the town's Department of Public Works, and other town departments, the board expressed dismay at the breakdown in communication between the town and NSTAR, which occurred during storm clean-up efforts.

“In the past, they (NSTAR) worked with Public Works, Tree and Police departments to coordinate the top priorities,” Town Administrator, Michael Sullivan told the board, at the Sept. 6 Selectmen’s meeting. “In this case, there was none of that coordination until well-after the storm.”

In a break from past protocol, NSTAR did not have a crew “positioned” to work alongside the town’s Public Works crew during Tropical Storm Irene, which left communications with the utility relegated to “voicemail” and “computer,” according to Sullivan.

The Town Administrator stressed the town’s dissatisfaction was not directed at the NSTAR crews, but at the difficulty in communicating with the utility and the resulting delays from that lack of communication. 

The Medfield Public Works crews, Sullivan told the board, “were not allowed to touch any tree that was in contact with a wire or downed wire” and “had to wait for the NSTAR crews.” 

“We were told by several NSTAR crews that they could not respond to any instructions from the Public Works crew ... only from dispatch (at) NSTAR,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan estimated that work was delayed for periods of “a half-hour, 45-minutes, to an hour” while efforts were underway to establish contact with NSTAR.

Though Sullivan admitted “there were an extraordinary amount of trees down” and that “[NSTAR] were cutting them down, fast and furious,” he questioned the amount of time it took for NSTAR crews to go from one assignment to the next. 

His irritation, he explained, was “in the time span from when they first responded and the gaps between going from one site to another.”

Sullivan speculated NSTAR’s response to the storm was hampered by a lack of manpower.

“I’m not sure of this,” he said, “but I’ve heard, over the years, that they’ve been reducing employees in favor of contract crews and of course, in this storm, everyone on the East Coast needed contract crews.”

Selectman Mark Fisher indicated he had heard a similar statement from members of a contract crew and theorized that NSTAR had, perhaps, “waited too long to contact some of the private vendors.”

“The storm wasn’t as big as originally forecast, (but) imagine (if it was),” Fisher said. 

Said Selectman chair Osler Peterson: “It would be good to see the communication open up a little."

Sullivan informed the board that the town has requested a meeting with NSTAR representatives “so we can sit down and discuss what we would like to see happen” during future storm situations.