North End outage throws political sparks
Stephanie Ebbert, Globe Staff
Saturday, August 13, 2005
After a night without power and continued spotty service, weary North
Enders were sapped of their energy yesterday and city politicians --
smelling a campaign issue -- were blowing their own stacks.
Councilor at Large Maura Hennigan, a challenger in the mayoral race,
seized on this week's manhole explosions by asserting in a news conference
that Mayor Thomas M. Menino has not demanded enough of the electric
utility.
''The mayor is asleep at the switch," Hennigan said. ''He is not
holding NStar accountable, and it is
his obligation as mayor of this city to make sure our streets and our
sidewalks are safe."
Asked at a news conference about Hennigan's assertions, Menino tried to
deflect the question. When pressed, he responded: ''Has she got an
engineering degree?" and walked away.
Afterward, he bristled again when asked whether he was confident that
the problems would not recur. ''Now I'm NStar?" he asked.
At his news conference, Menino joined state Department of
Telecommunications and Energy chairman Paul Afonso outside the Madonna
Della Cava Society, to say the group's weekend feast would be held. Some
had feared a cancellation, after manhole fires caused explosions and power
outages Wednesday and Thursday nights.
Yesterday, NStar replaced a length of cable along Hanover Street and
examined more than 70 transformers, Menino and Afonso said. Independent
engineers accompanied NStar workers on safety checks of 12 manholes, they
said.
''I think it always concerns us when things like this happen in our
city," Menino said. ''I just think with this incident, they've repaired
everything that needed to be repaired."
Some restaurateurs watched profits melt in the hours they went without
refrigeration. At Salumeria Toscana, which would normally sell $1,000
worth of gelato a day, the gelato stand was empty and the ice cream
machine had ''blown up" in a power surge, said co-owner John Gagliotta. As
generators hummed, electric service along Hanover remained sporadic: At
Mike's Pastry, the gelato cooler was chilled, but the air conditioning was
strained, and so were the waitresses.
Outside The Daily Catch seafood restaurant, eight trash bags filled
with spoiled soft crab, lobster, and shrimp lay stinking in the sun. NStar
will reimburse the owners for lost food, but lost profits will never be
recouped. City health inspectors went through the area to make sure
merchants were getting rid of spoiled food.
''No customers were coming after two days of news that the North End
had evacuated," said Zura Tsanava, bar manager at Caffe Dello Sport.
''It's really slow, and we're just trying to recover the damage."
NStar spokeswoman Caroline Allen said about 100 customers lost power
Thursday night, and 80 of them had it restored sometime overnight. About
25 stayed in hotel rooms at NStar's expense.
While the steep air-conditioning demands of this week's humid days may
have played a role, Allen said that the problem was not necessarily due to
overload, and she denied that cables are vulnerable due to their age.
''It's not an indication of a larger problem," she said.
But at the same time, she said NStar would analyze the area
infrastructure's age and electric demand ''to assure the public and the
mayor's office that we are making the area as safe as it can be."
Menino also said he's ''very convinced that it is safe at this
time."
Hennigan said NStar workers she was consulting blamed aging
infrastructure. One NStar worker on Hanover Street yesterday echoed her
assertion. ''It's about how old the system is," said the worker, who would
not give his name for fear of losing his job. ''It's not set up right to
handle the load in the area."
Hennigan, who has been unsuccessfully pressuring the mayor for numerous
campaign debates, said she went to Hanover Street to make her case because
she assumed the mayor would be appearing there, too. After she announced
her news conference, the mayor rescheduled his event twice; it began just
15 minutes after Hennigan's.
Joked Hennigan: ''This may be as close as you're going to get to a
debate."
Click here for Maura's press conference on this issue
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