Sticking with Their Story

Unitil finally finished its tour of local media this week, with a story in today's Sentinel (finally) on the aftermath of the ice storm. It's more of the same, but one thing in particular bugged me.

That one thing is the continued argument by Schoenberger that the real bad damage stopped on the Fitchburg side of Route 2. He argues that Leominster wasn't hit as bad, and part of that is because the conditions weren't as bad there as in Fitchburg.

There's certainly something to be said for the fickle finger of weather's fate, but at the same time, I still think it's a bunch of hooey. Schoenberger made the same claim in his interview with the Pride earlier this month, and it was something of a bone of contention (you can go to iTunes or here and listen, if you'd like. That portion is pretty deep into the interview).

Here's the thing: Towns like Princeton, Holden, Sterling, Rutland, Paxton, and so on were all pretty much 100 percent without power after the storm (Sterling was at like 90 percent without). Those towns were killed by damage. Go look at a map. What Schoenberger is pitching is that Leominster took a softer hit than Fitchburg. He admits north of Leominster was killed, but for some reason ignores the damage in the burbs to the south, west and east. I just don't get it. For all the half-truths and vagarities that have come out of this, this one for some reason cheeses me off, because it's so obviously not true. Dean Mazzarella may be SuperMayor, but the guy can't single-handedly change the weather. Can he?

If someone from Princeton or Holden reads this, God help Schoenberger. Those snotty towns were in a battle to prove they were the worst-hit community in the state. Holden people were particularly disappointed to hear that I thought Fitchburg looked about the same as their fair town in the immediate aftermath. They'll say they took it worse. I think we're talking a negligible difference in the grand scheme of things. Something Schoenberger either isn't aware of, but won't admit. Either way, it's one particular story line of his that gets me going. Clearly.

Let the Yelling Begin

The hooting and hollering over Unitil starts this afternoon (like it ever really ended) with the City Council's public hearing on their response to the Ice Storm of 2008. If you can't be there, you can follow along with live, blog-style updates at the Fitchburg Pride website. Yes, I don't work there anymore, but I can still pimp it out.

No February Vacation

On Saturday, I saw my parents and made plans to trundle off three of their grandchildren to Maine for a chunk for a February vacation. A few minutes ago, Mrs. Save Fitchburg and I began the long discussion of whether or not the oldest Save Fitchburg spawn will skip school to go.

The crux of the story: The next time a school official tells you they don't teach to the MCAS, don't believe them.

Simply, the school department wants to get teaching time in before the MCAS. So instead of skipping April vacation (three months away, not four weeks), going on Saturdays, or holding out and waiting for a potential DOE waiver, kiddies will go to school February vacation (President's Day withstanding).

What about parents or teachers who have vacation plans? Whether it's an overnight trip to ski country, or a week trip to Disney? They now face a difficult decision just four weeks before their plans are scheduled. Do they ditch the money and go to school, go ahead with plans and ditch school? If there are a lot of skipped classes, will it affect AYP? In many cases, the attendance AYP factor is a narrow pass. Would big skips be a problem? I guess we're going to find out.

School officials point to a survey where 56 percent of staff favored going to school during February break. Somehow, I think a fewer percentage of parents are in favor. I can hear the cranky oldsters hollering "Those whippersnappers need to go to school," and that's a waiver debate for another time. The issue here is the timing, and it stinks.

Since MCAS was instituted, school officials everywhere have gone to great strides to point out that while curriculum covers MCAS subjects, they don't "teach to the MCAS." But this move will be an inconvenience for some, and a major problem for others. To squeeze in four more days of teaching before the MCAS. The decisions facing parents and the vacation plans suddenly either in ruins or wrapped in guilt are other victims of the ice storm.

Unitil to Seek Rate Increase

Unitil officials told the Fitchburg Pride today that it will eventually seek a rate increase, partly to pay for some of the expenses borne out of the ice storm.

Begin hyperventilating... now.

The discussion over paying for the ice storm was one of a number of issues touched upon during an hour-long interview with CEO Robert Schoenberger and VP George Gantz.

Also discussed, in no particular order:

Some Ohio crews expected to help Unitil bailed, and that was a serious setback to repairs.

Changes should be made to how mutual aid is delivered to effected areas, perhaps not so much based on a utility's crews in the area, but on "worst/first" basis, where all available crews work on the biggest problems first, no matter the utility serving the area.

The estimated bills were based on past usage, but uses higher supply charges from a supply contract finalized over the summer. It's common practice, and adjustments will be made in January. Estimated payments -- even no payments -- are fine.

The company has no plans to get out of Massachusetts.

Schoenberger and Gantz said they felt Unitil was getting better in Fitchburg, and customers were responding, before the storm. Schoenberger acknowledged his company might never have a "love affair" in Fitchburg.

Unitil is working on improving call center operations.

Gantz said he was impressed with Mayor Lisa Wong's messaging and discipline following the storm. He was more evasive when discussing critical comments from public officials.

Schoenberger and Gantz acknowledge a two-pronged PR effort on the local and state level. Jeremy Crockford, from Unitil's new PR firm, O'Neill and Associates, said Boston media received early attention because much of their reporting was erroneous and needed corrections. Gantz described local media coverage as "aggressive," but "fair."

Those are some of the quick bulletpoints, if you're still seeing straight after the start. There's a story that hits on some of this stuff right now at the Pride Website. There will be a larger story in Friday's Pride, and on Friday we'll be putting the audio of the entire interview online for your weekend enjoyment.

The Cleanup Question

I commented briefly on this in another post, but it's worth its own post at this point.

Last night, the City Council went off on the city's cleanup efforts. Mayor Lisa Wong defended it, pointing to costs and reimbursements.

As I said in my comment, I don't really want to go through a day of "council said, mayor said." It's repetitive and doesn't get to the heart of the matter.

Here's the real question: Is it worth the cost to clean up quick, or should the city go through the longer hoop-jumping to get reimbursed for the cleanup. It is, according to projections that no one is disclaiming, a $1.5 million question.

In a vacuum, of course you want a fast cleanup. I think you could make an argument right now, today, that coming up with $1.5M for a quick cleanup would be a chore for the city. Did any councilors say last night where they'd get the money from? Looking down the road, the governor this week looked for expanded cutting powers, with mid-year local aid cuts looking more and more likely. You can bank on cuts in next year's budget.

So, you can't answer the question in a vacuum. I'm guessing the councilors have gotten a lot of calls, and want it stopped. But can the city afford to pay for the work themselves? And if you think the federal government is flexible in its rules, ask Townsend how that's working out for them (that town is ineligible for fed reimbursement, because Middlesex County didn't reach the disaster minimum cost).

It's easy to call up a councilor and say "Goddamn it, the branches still aren't picked up and my street looks like crap." But that doesn't take into account the financial side of things. There might be money for this, but there's red tape to deal with first, like it or not. If DPW goes out and starts doing it tomorrow, you can pretty much forget about it.

So, does the city have $1.5M to clean up the mess? That appears to be the question of the day. I'm leaning toward the reimbursement process until someone can detail where the money is coming from.

No Gantz, Let's Bash Elsewhere

If you didn't see the comment below, George Gantz is taking a pass on tonight's FATV appearance, up to his butt in "emergency" situations around the area. At least they're aware of the "emergency" situations over at Unitil this time. It's been scattered outages, and they've very quickly and proudly announced they've been taken care of quickly today. Good for them.

To fill some more space here in Post #750 (holy crap. 750? I write too much), let's turn our attention to the Boston TV stations, which did themselves oh so proud yesterday and today.

I haven't watched the evening news today, but caught the 6s, the 10s, and the start of the 11s last night. They were in full bluster because there was an ice storm! Just weeks after the last one!

If you remember back to Dec. 10, there were some warnings of some outages in the forecast. Certainly not what we got. This time, the weather guys were pretty on the ball. If anything, the storm was a bit warmer than forecast, but they repeatedly said while there would be ice, it wouldn't be anything like last time. Well played.

On the news side (and I'm looking at you 25, and particularly 7), it was significantly different. If you skipped the weather and just watched the news side, you were expecting Round 2. It really wasn't cool. It was exasperating. It was a reminder that you should skip TV news and read newspapers (particularly the Fitchburg Pride). It stunk.

Anyway, just a reminder that TV news is no good.

Here We Go Again (?)

Depending on when and where you get your weather news, we might be in for some more trouble tomorrow.

Last night's 7 news on 56 talked about up to a half-inch of ice tomorrow afternoon. This morning on 25, Fitzgibbons said there's no reason to expect anything like last time. And you know what I mean by "last time."

In any case, the mayor sent out an advisory yesterday afternoon telling folks to, you know, stock up on batteries, flashlights, that kind of thing. Just in case. I'll likely be refilling a gas can or two for the olde generator. Just in case.

If the power does stay on tomorrow night, it could be a doozey over at FATV, where Gentleman Bill Gates has Unitil Veep George Gantz on for 90 minutes. The first half will be an interview (which we're very intrigued to see) and then they're taking calls for the last 40 minutes. You have to assume they'll be on the old seven-second delay, and that there will be extra security at FATV HQ tomorrow night. Gotta give Gantz credit for walking into this one.

The Gantz appearance/beating can be considered part of a fairly aggressive rebound strategy by Unitil. They had the much-derided letter last week, they had full-page ads in the dailies yesterday (including El Globo, which is clearly a PR move), and the CEO is being peddled for edit board interviews. They're on the PR offensive, trying to make up lost ground. That's a lot of ground, though. And when you have Gordon Edes against you, well, you're really in trouble.

Unitil Says Sorry

On New Year's Eve afternoon, as desks and offices are clearing out for what could be for many a five-day weekend filled with booze, fun and football, Unitil posts on its website an apology for its handling of the Ice Storm of 2008. You can read it here.

The Reinforcements

It's about a week late for folks who are still listening to a generator whale away in their backyard, but make no mistake, the reinforcements are here.

I was out of the city all day, but drove from the SF Mansion to Wal-Mart Mountain and back, and I couldn't count all the trucks I saw. They were, literally, everywhere. Sounds like Highland Ave. is back, and I know a friend on Marshall St. who got plugged back in today. Hopefully this all ends soon, and then we can figure out how to make it better next time.

A Look (Not Too Far) Back

If you missed yesterday afternoon's press conference (you can see it, and other press conferences at the FATV website. Kudos to them. They don't have power in their offices, and they're still grinding it out), you might want to check it out. If you have time.

I say that, because it was long. I don't know what happened -- I think after a week of hearing people complain, the collective reporters in the city had enough -- but Wong answered questions for 45 minutes. There were no real heated exchanges, no point where I can point to fireworks, no heroic journalists outwardly fighting for the people (and I'm not trying to create one), but it was a grind as she kept the wall up, and we kept banging away. There's only so many ways you can ask "How much does Unitil suck," but I think we collectively came up with about 17. I give the reporters there credit (and yeah, I was one, but whatever) for sort of deciding now was the time to push, and I guess she gets credit for not cracking.

My point? Only go back and read this post from last month. As people make a "Wong/Unitil" connection (yes, that's you Wally -- and others), check this post out. I can't think of a better way right now to describe what's going on. She all but said yesterday "I'm going to stay on message. Here's the message. I'm not going off it." There was an undercurrent of "I'll deal with Unitil later" in some cases, but she's not coughing up the magic quote the reporters are all but begging for, residents are frustrated for not hearing, and Steve DiNatale and Kevin Starr delivered on Saturday.

I guess I bring all this up because I'm guessing most people end up not watching the raw video, but reading the stories on line and in the papers, and they obviously don't see it all happening. The discipline and on-message style of Wong was frustrating to me last month, and I think it's frustrating everyone right now. But it certainly isn't new. I'm not trying to support Wong or anything else here (that means you, Lori), but I'm trying to help explain what's going on in the city right now, and how Wong is dealing with it publicly. I think yesterday's press conference and last month's post are pretty indicative of what's up.

I'm Taking It All Back

While I still think there needs to be a review of Unitil and the city's emergency planning, I'll say this: I'm taking back all criticisms and compliments I've given here this week (except for the councilors. They really kicked ass by any measure).

Here's why:

Simply, I don't know shit about this stuff. I don't know how power gets turned back on, I don't know how the circuit systems are set up, and I don't know how this all gets decided and fixed behind the scenes. Yes, it's disturbing that thousands of people won't have power a week after the storm, but I don't know enough to launch off anymore. Maybe I'm getting soft in my re-powered old age. I also realize that, hell, no one in an official capacity -- private and public -- has been through anything like this before. There's no experience or past practices to rely on. There's a playbook -- hopefully -- but you can give Tom Brady and Randy Moss a playbook, but they don't run the plays well until they get practice. And who has ever really been able to practice this?

So, we'll go back to firing away on this at some point, and there are some obvious targets, but for now, we're going to realize our ignorance makes us unqualified, and we're going to put the hammer away... for now. But I'm sure there are plenty of "experts" who will now tell me why I'm an idiot.

See It All. Again.

In case you're missing those days of yore when the city was covered by ice and you trying to figure out what the hell happened last Thursday night, you can see it again through a handful of videos aggregated at the Fitchburg Pride website. This was a little thing we were thinking about rolling out soon, but figured now was the time to give it a whirl. Check it out, and if you hate it, let us know. If you like it, let us know that, too. If you don't care one damn, let us know that also, I guess. But you'd have to be not caring a lot to be that motivated, I guess.

And... We're Back

Not to rub it in, but power came back on in my neighborhood at 6:55 this morning. The 5-year-old immediate complained that the lights were keeping her awake.

Anyway, progress has been made. Now it's time to the cable up.

According to Unitil, as of 7:05 this morning, over 11,000 Massachusetts customers still didn't have power. They think all "primary circuits" will be fixed in the next day or so. I don't know what that means, really.

Anyway, there you go. Keep the reports coming, if you wanna.

How Has It Gone?

Some of this is tough to determine -- and might not ever be determined -- but it's worth five days later to start to assess who has done well and who has not in the aftermath of the Ice Storm of 2008.

We'll start with Lisa Wong. She seems pretty well organized, and has done a good job of holding daily press briefings and handling getting information out. The city side of services -- DPW tree removal, shelters, public safety -- has not been an issue. All in all, from what I can tell, a pretty good job.

City departments. Again, a good job. Especially when you consider something like happens once in a lifetime, and most city leaders haven't been through this before. No one is complaining about a lack of city services. Department heads have come up big.

City Council. They have been fantastic. One person who is smarter than me (I know, I know, that's 39,999 people in Fitchburg) was working at the shelter this weekend, and was blown away by well councilors were performing. They were attentive, listening, helping, and getting stuff done. Councilors have two jobs: Set policy in City Hall, and act a conduit for residents in their wards or around the city. There's no policy here, but councilors have been extraordinary in helping residents out. Collectively and individually, they've been the stars.

Of course, not all all is good here. I just got off the phone with Mrs. Save Fitchburg, and I told her regionally, we are significantly in the minority at this point, we still have no power. There are still murmurs that Unitil hasn't been, well, fully committed to getting things done here. For example, Wong said on Sunday a Unitil person had been with DPW employees for half the day. Not the whole day, half the day. Jeez. I think in a situation of this size, it's not unreasonable to think that some parts of the city will be without power for a week or a few days longer. But it's been five days and just over half the city has power at this point. That doesn't seem so hot, especially when you hear Unitil is just about done in New Hampshire. Throw in the history, and it's enough to have a bad guy in this whole thing. Congratulations, Unitil.

Time to Update

OK, I don't have a lot of time -- there's so much work to do this week -- but one thing I want to try to start getting a handle on here is what's up, and where? My street and neighborhood (the Hollywood area) got the mess cleaned up yesterday, and I saw utility crews on Rollstone Road last night and Shea Street this morning. It looked like lites were on Shea St. last night, but I didn't see any at 6:30 this a.m. (although crews were there. Maybe they turned it off for a while?)

As far as I can tell, south of Franklin Road, from Oak Hill Road to Rollstone, is still stone dark. I haven't been anywhere else since Sunday, unfortunately. Parkhill seems to be creeping back to life.

I'll try to update comments a little bit more today. Tell us about your area.

It's Not So "Pretty" Any More

It's Monday morning, and the biggest change since last night is all the ice has melted, and that thinnest of silver linings -- that it still looked kind of pretty out -- has melted away.

Yesterday afternoon, Unitil said about two-thirds of its 27,000 customers were without power. Mayor Lisa Wong said it was the goal to get half of those 17,000 without power hooked up by today. If we can, we'll update later. It's going to be some busy days ahead.

An important note: You might want to have your individual connection to power checked. Unitil made a point yesterday of saying their responsibility ends at the connection to your home. If there's a problem with the connection pipe at your house (mine seems to be leaning, I'm not sure if it was like before and I didn't notice or if that's a new issue), you need to take care of that. I don't know if you can have someone check it before Unitil gets your street back up, but there you go.

Anyway, keep on fighting. More later, one way or the other.

Unbelievable.

I don't really know what to say right now. It's been two days of juggling some work and updates, while trying to get the family moving in the right direction. From what I've seen and heard, a lot of people seem to be on the same schedule.

More later, but if you need anything, call 343-4801. Call 911 for emergencies only. Stay warm, stay smart, and someday will back on this and it will all seem funny.