Mayor: Power Restoration, Voting are Priorities

Good afternoon, this is Mayor Miriam Levitt-Flisser providing an update on the Village’s Hurricane Sandy recovery effort.

Earlier this morning, Saturday, November 3rd, Con Edison reported to County municipal officials that a total of 775 Con Ed employees and out of state mutual aid workers, are on-site at the Rye Playland staging area for assignment in Westchester County.

479 of these employees are line restoration workers and 296 perform line cutting and road clearing work. These workers comprise a total of 158 crews. These crews are currently being equipped with the necessary materials and supplies previously identified for each municipality and are being dispatched to the various communities.

Con Ed crews currently working in Scarsdale consist of a single line and tree crew to cut power lines, clear trees and open roads, and two line restoration crews to restore electrical power. Con Ed’s priorities for restoration County-wide are school buildings and election polling places for Tuesday’s national election.

Village officials have been in direct contact with Con Ed officials to reinforce the severity of power outages in Scarsdale, which stand at 75% of all customers, and the necessity for additional crews to be dispatched to re-open roadways and restore power to residential neighborhoods.

We have been in contact with our State Assemblywoman as well who is advocating directly with Con Edison on our behalf. Con Ed continues to report the date of November 11th for full County-wide power restoration; however we are working hard to improve that outlook.

For those residents without power and heat, the American Red Cross has established a regional emergency shelter for our area at the Albert Leonard Middle School, 25 Gerard Lane in New Rochelle. The shelter is equipped with cots for sleeping. The Red Cross can be contacted at 914 682-2299.

In addition, the Scarsdale Public Library on Olmstead Road is available as a comfort center with power, heat, free coffee and other amenities, including movies in the Scott Room. Residents may also charge their cell phones and other electronic devices.

The Village has extended the Library hours from 9AM-9PM Monday – Friday and 11AM-9PM on Sunday. Village DPW crews continue to open roadways in which electrical lines are not present. All major east/west and north/south traffic corridors are open for traffic. This includes Mamaroneck Road where the last section from Cambridge to Post was opened a few hours ago.

Other major roads open are Post, Popham, Crane, Fox Meadow, Olmstead, Fenimore, Sprague, Heathcote, Wilmot, Palmer, Secor, Weaver and Griffen. The Village Center and Heathcote 5-Corners are accessible as well with most merchants open for business.

A Village street map identifying all open and closed roads has been posted for public view at the Scarsdale Library on Olmstead Road and the Police Department kiosk on East Parkway adjacent to the Christie Place Garage.

Regarding Tuesday’s national election, Con Ed is working toward having all polling places in the Village restored with electrical power by Monday, November 5th at 5PM. There are currently 142 polling places without power in Westchester County. The Village has established eight polling places for this election, five of which are currently without power. These locations are Village Hall and the Edgewood, Fox Meadow, Greenacres and Quaker Ridge Elementary Schools. The other polling locations, Crossway Firehouse, Heathcote School and the Library have electricity.

If Con Ed is unable to restore power to all polling places by Monday, the County Board of Elections will attempt to notify all voters of the alternate locations, and County officials will be on-site at the pre-determined locations to redirect voters to the alternate sites. We will provide updated information in this regard as we receive from the County and Con Ed.

Thank you for your patience and understanding as the Village works with the appropriate government agencies and Con Edison to restore power, open roads and get the Village up and running again. Please continue to call the Emergency Operations Center at 722-1150 and the Scarsdale Police Department at 722-1200 for any storm or non-storm related inquires and concerns.