Wrentham Selectmen Discuss Irene Response

The Wrentham Board of Selectmen, at their meeting Tuesday night, discussed the town's response to Tropical Storm Irene, and ways to improve it.

The storm swept through the town last week, bringing down many tree limbs and causing power outages.

Town Administrator William Ketcham spoke about how the town fared through the storm.

"Irene left the town without power, and some significant areas of town were without power until Friday evening," he said. "It was a difficult situation for many residents and town employees."

Ketcham said there were a number of problems with utility company National Grid.

"I think there were generally not enough electrical line people available," he said. "There were problems with internal communication at the utility and from the utility back to the town."

"We will be having a series of internal meetings about what went right, and what went wrong," he added.

Board Chairman Joseph Botaish asked if the town could look at additional power systems, claiming towns like Mansfield and North Attleboro had minimal power disruption.

Ketcham said this is a possibility.

"There is a process in Massachusetts where any town can investigate a municipal electric utility," he said. "If the board would like, I would be glad to get you information on what's involved, and also reach out to neighboring towns."

Botaish praised Fire Chief Jay McMorrow — present at the meeting — for the work done by his department.

"The communication was excellent," Botaish said. "You were right on the money about when power would be back, and you didn't make promises you couldn't meet."

Selectman Michael Carroll suggested a review session for the town's emergency departments.

"They could give a formal report of what they find we did really well, and what they found didn't work out quite as well," he said. "I got calls from people who didn't know the middle school was open. Power lines were down, so people didn't have Internet access and didn't have phones."

Irving Priest, the Department of Public Works superintendent, said he believed his department fared relatively well.

"We tried to make as many accomodations to residents as we could," he said. "We worked at opening streets as soon as National Grid cleared them."

Priest said 43 townspeople took advantage of a program that hauled away spoiled food.

"American Waste was very cooperative — they did that free of charge for us," he said. "I think that worked fairly well."

Botaish criticized Priest for not being present throughout the storm.

"The majority of department heads were here from start to finish," he said. "This was a serious, serious event, and we need to have you here."

Priest said he was in for the majority of the event.

"I wasn't here at the start, but I was after that," he said.