The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
After the most recent attempt to decorate the street didn’t go exactly as planned, the Hamilton Street Advisory Board on Jan. 9 decided to start planning for this year early.
The plan last year was for holiday lights to be strung across the street in the business district, in spots where there were opposing utility poles. The board had hoped that would happen by about last Thanksgiving.
But when the newly purchased lights arrived, it was discovered that they did not have any guide wires, which are used to hold the large strings of lights in place. So, the installation had to be delayed until the guide wires could be ordered and shipped to the township.
Then there was problem of powering the lights.
As board executive director Vince Dominach explained it, PSE&G needed to install power boxes to provide extra juice for the lights. They were supposed to be installed on four sets of utility poles, but one pole was deemed unsafe to handle the box, so only three sets of poles were equipped.
But, apparently, Dominach said, PSE&G misread the specifications and installed power boxes whose amperage was not sufficient to power the lights.
“We gave PSE&G the spec sheet to tell them what we needed to put them up,” he said. “Carl (Hauck, the township’s public works manager) put them up, they were on a timer, they were working when they were tested. Then we got the phone calls that they weren’t working.”
“They have the same lights in New Brunswick,” board member Geneva Hall said. “What was the problem?”
The lights kept blowing the power boxes’ fuses, because they overloaded them, Dominach said.
Dominach said Hauck finally cut power to the center part of the lights, the giant snowflakes, so that the rest of the lights would stay on.
“He took the middle part out so at least they’d be lit,” Dominach said.
Dominach told the board members that if they wanted to buy more lights for the street for this year’s holiday season, they need to act now to make sure they give PSE&G plenty of time to install the proper boxes.
“It’s never too early for PSE&G,” he said.
