Ridgewood September 18, 2013 THE VILLADOM TIMES II • Page 9 BPU hearing on tall utility poles inconclusive by John Koster A hearing conducted by the Board of Public Utili- ties included comments from Public Service Electric & Gas and Village of Ridgewood officials on the sudden appearance of 65-foot utility poles in Ridgewood, but no immediate conclusion was reached. Residents of Hope Street, in particular, were able Aid rendered to convince Ridgewood Mayor Paul Aronsohn and the council to protest the appearance of the poles, 15 feet taller, considerably thicker, but obviously much sturdier than the existing poles. Ridgewood and the utility agreed to a moratorium on pole installation, which means that once installa- tion resumes, as most people expect that it will be, the 65-foot poles will be installed on Ridgewood Avenue A Volkswagen Routan and Nissan Versa collided at the intersection of Ackerman Avenue and Bellair Road in Ridgewood injuring a child passenger of the Routan and the Versa’s driver. Air bags deployed in both vehicles. Ridgewood Police Depart- ment, EMS, and fire department units all responded to the scene. Both victims were transported by ambulance to The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood and both vehicles were towed from the scene by flatbed tow truck. A minor fluid spill that resulted from the crash was handled by fire department personnel. Fire department personnel also disconnected the batteries of both vehicles to reduce the risk of fire. The victims’ injuries were not considered life threatening. One summons was issued by the investigating police officer, Ridgewood Police Department Patrol Officer Patrick Elwood. Ridgewood Police Chief John M. Ward arrived first at the scene and provided first aid and comfort to the injured child prior to the response of ambulance personnel. (Photos courtesy of Boyd A. Loving.) stretching toward the Fashion Center across Route 17 while Ridgewood High School is in session. Ridgewood Village Attorney Matt Rogers said Ridgewood did not object to the project itself but only to the manner in which notification was conducted. PSE&G admitted at an earlier public hearing in Ridgewood that the utility should have provided a standard announce- ment to be posted and e-mailed to residents, and admit- ted to other minor mistakes. The utility company has steadfastly maintained that they made initial contact with Ridgewood in a responsible way. PSE&G also said Ridgewood’s municipal government has no control over an inter-community and inter-state project to protect the towns and their residents against power outages such as those in 2011 and 2012, which had some houses blacked out for five to 10 days without electrical power. The poles caused less objections in Fair Lawn, Haw- thorne, and Glen Rock, though some Glen Rock resi- dents objected to the number of times Maple Avenue was closed to through traffic for pole installation. The BPU hearing, which took place in the Bergen County Courthouse in Hackensack on Sept. 9, included testimony from Village Engineer Christopher Rutishauser and Village Tax Assessor Michael Barker who agreed with Rogers that Hope Street and Spring Street were poor choices to locate the poles. The utility said other sites had been considered and rejected. Opponents of the taller, longer poles with the higher voltage argue that the poles could make for more seri- ous damage to houses and cars if they toppled and that the voltage would be potentially more lethal. The utility has argued that the poles are heavier, newer, and driven 10 feet into the ground, and that the heavier cables will support the weight of a broken pole without snapping, making power loss and other accidents less likely. Repair crews had to be summoned from as far away as Florida to restore the first prolonged power outage due to the number of collapsed poles, and especially to the number of lines that snapped when large tree limbs fell on them. Many -- though not all -- of the new power lines will be higher than the limbs of the trees and the lines are much less likely to break under ordinary cir- cumstances.