LYNN — National Grid employees met with residents of the Marian Gardens affordable-housing complex Thursday afternoon after 94 units were hit with three nearly full-day power outages in the last seven days.
On Friday, Saturday, and Tuesday, Marian Garden residents living at 18 Anderson Lane were without electricity due to outages that lasted roughly 17 hours. Ward 6 City Councilor Fred Hogan, who said he grew up in the complex and has known some of the residents his entire life, opened the discussion by thanking the roughly 45-person crowd for gathering at the Demakes Family YMCA.
“I went to a lot of doors and people weren’t very happy. They weren’t happy to be in one room with one light for that many hours — from 8 a.m. until one in the morning,” Hogan said. “I lived there for 10 years, so this hits home for me.”
Following brief remarks from Mayor Jared Nicholson, National Grid Customer Manager and Lynn representative Faith Hassell explained the problem’s origin. On Friday, Hassell said National Grid workers discovered a burnt fuse at the complex, replaced it, and re-energized the power cable, restoring energy.
When power went out again the next day, National Grid workers found that the same fuse had burned. They replaced it and entered a manhole for a visual inspection. Finding nothing, they re-energized the cable.
“Frustrating for you all, frustrating for us because we felt like there was something going on,” Hassell said.
It wasn’t until Tuesday’s outage when workers, after a full day of inspection, discovered a fault in the cable and replaced portions of it, Hassell said. She added that the cable inspection and repair would typically be done faster, but the manhole cover was unusually narrow.
Hassell added that National Grid will replace the manhole cover to ensure faster maintenance, and is considering replacing the cable.
“It is on our radar to potentially replace the cable in the area. While we don’t have a project currently in the works, we’ll continue to monitor the reliability of this feeder, what’s actually feeding your community. If we continue to see outages on it, we will escalate the issue to ensure that the reliability of this area is recognized and resolved,” Hassell said.
Hassell also distributed claims forms to residents whose groceries spoiled during the power outages, noting that National Grid doesn’t typically reimburse customers for food lost during power outages. However, many residents, who were hit with similar outages this time last year, expressed frustration with National Grid’s lack of a committed effort to solve the problem.
Community members grilled the National Grid employees, asking them why no workers knocked on their doors to inform them of the issue. One resident complained that he was not able to get in touch with anyone from National Grid on the phone throughout all three outages.
Resident Jacob Mercado, who said he’s worked as an electrician, remarked that there are a number of Marian Gardens tenants who have medical issues and rely on electricity for life-preserving devices.
“We don’t have generators, so if we don’t have power for the people that have pacemakers and need electricity, what is National Grid going to do to make sure that there’s no issues?” Mercado asked. “If you have a main line coming into the 86 lines and you have a fault, then you have a guy out there testing each line to see what line is at fault.”
Nicholson responded that in an emergency situation, residents should call 911 immediately. He was met with applause when he added that he would work to open community shelters in the event that another outage occurs.
Mercado expressed gratitude to Nicholson for his efforts to support the residents and to Hogan, who knocked on doors and checked on residents. He said that given National Grid’s recent rate spikes, there should have been at least one customer-service representative checking on residents during the outages.
“There should be customer-service people knocking on doors checking on people, not our city councilor,” Mercado said. “You raised our rates to such an outrageous amount that people are struggling to survive and now you show us absolutely no basic courtesy.”
After residents continued to voice their complaints, National Grid Director of Finance Jonatas Silva got the crowd’s attention and announced his personal phone number, inviting residents to call him night or day if they need assistance or help.
Silva also offered to meet with residents and the City Council again in a month to keep them updated on National Grid’s repair projects.
“Our crew did an amazing job trying to get out there, but there’s limitations,” Silva said. “When you call Customer Care, National Grid’s customer service, we have that encoded for serious illnesses and medical conditions because that creates another layer of information that we can use to provide potentially a different level of service to you.”
