Local officials slam electric company after power outages

JCP&L says downed trees were outside company’s right of way

Originally Published to the Ocean Star Newspaper on July 10, 2026, including footnote published to the Ocean Star on July 24.

BAY HEAD — Legislators, mayors and council members are demanding answers from the Jersey Central Power & Light company after “tens of thousands of Monmouth and Ocean County customers lost power over the Fourth of July weekend as heat indexes neared 100 degrees,” they said in a joint statement. The local officials blamed the majority of outages on a combination of aging infrastructure and a lack of adequate preparation on JCP&L’s part.

Bay Head Mayor William Curtis, Point Pleasant Mayor Robert Sabosik and the borough administrator for both towns, Frank Pannucci, released a statement that said JCP&L treats “four- and five-day outages during heat emergencies like the cost of doing business,” and that the grid is “held together with duct tape and prayers.”

According to JCP&L, as of 3:46 p.m., July 4, a total of 119,201 customers out of 1,158,126 in New Jersey were experiencing a power outage, which equates to roughly 1% of NJ customers. JCP&L said the outages were due to inclement weather, and that at the time, crews were making significant progress assessing damage and making repairs to restore power to all affected customers. As of Thursday morning, 1,061 customers remained without electricity statewide as restoration efforts continued.

The mayors were joined by state Assemblymen Greg McGuckin and Paul Kanitra, who called JCP&L’s timeline “unacceptable,” especially for communities with large senior populations.

“This isn’t a one-off storm story. This is JCP&L’s business model,” said McGuckin (R-Ocean). “Year after year, our residents suffer some of the longest outages in the state. Ocean County has one of New Jersey’s largest senior populations, and JCP&L keeps treating four- and five-day outages during heat emergencies like the cost of doing business. It has to stop.”

McGuckin also criticized JCP&L’s lack of information regarding how and why an entire substation failed. “A thunderstorm in July at the Jersey Shore is hardly unprecedented. How is it

that only JCP&L's facilities can't seem to handle it?" he said.

JCP&L response

JCP&L spokesman Chris Hoenig spoke to the Ocean Star regarding these comments. He said the majority of damage caused by the storm was due to power lines hit by downed trees that were “outside JCP&L’s right of way.”

He said JCP&L had “hundreds of contractors” already on site on Wednesday, July 1, in preparation for forecasted “scattered” storms.

Once the damage had become apparent, Hoenig said, additional resources were requested, and 5,700 staff in total with nearly 2,900 line workers were deployed into JCP&L’s territory, which includes Ocean and Monmouth counties as well as Burlington, Essex, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Morris, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, Union and Warren counties.

“JCP&L is committed to reliability,” Hoenig said.

JCP&L is a subsidiary of one of the nation's largest investor-owned electric systems, FirstEnergy Corp., which serves six million customers across New Jersey, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York and its home state of Ohio.

At the Monday, July 6, meeting of the Bay Head mayor and council, Pannucci explained that the complaints began with a statewide call between local mayors and legislators and JCP&L the previous night, saying First Energy Corp. has a history of prioritizing Ohio over New Jersey.

“Jersey Central Power & Light is notorious for saying we’re going to get upgrades throughout the Jersey Shore and then not giving them to us,” he said. “(First Energy Corp. is) too busy spending money on whatever’s going wrong out in Ohio than, I guess, in any of their other areas throughout the United States.”

“The Jersey Shore is relying on a bunch of people from Ohio who think the Jersey Shore is nothing but an afterthought,” Pannucci said.

Bay Head Mayor Curtis criticized the infrastructure provided by First Energy, and said that there is no improvement in sight. “It's a mess whether it's snow, rain or heat," Curtis said. "The infrastructure is abysmal, and I don't see any improvements in sight. Local mayors get the

blame, but we have no jurisdiction over JCP&L.”

“JCP&L gets their marching orders from their parent company out of Ohio by people who, in my opinion, don’t give our area much of an afterthought,” Curtis said. “Electric bills are going up, up and up and we are seeing nothing out of it. The state of New Jersey and the Board of Public Utilities need to take decisive action for once and not just kick the can down the road.”

Point Pleasant Mayor Sabosik echoed those comments, saying blame should be placed on the company. “I don’t blame the storms, I blame the company,” Sabosik said. “JCP&L and ultimately their parent company First Energy, which is based out of Ohio, are not upgrading their aging infrastructure and it’s a problem.”

Sabosik said this past weekend was another example of the company’s aging infrastructure. “The Jersey Shore, and specifically my town, is still on a grid operating with equipment that is decades old and failing. When our power goes out regardless of the size of a storm, it creates havoc.”

He said that days after the storm there were still those with no power and unreliable information. To make matters worse, JCP&L is also not able to coordinate their public relations efforts, he said.

Sabosik said local mayors are getting information directly from JCP&L and sharing it when they can. “But then the auto responses from JCP&L that residents get when they report their outages say a different thing,” he explained. “We get a report that crews are working and will take a day or two to re-energize lines while residents are getting estimates calling upwards of several days without power, it causes chaos and panic. The bottom line is that we can not rely on their infrastructure nor their information. They promise upgrades and we never see them. They do small fixes and replace small components and hope that’ll be enough to satisfy us.”

“For the amount of money our residents pay for their electric bills which just keep rising, they are seeing no return on investment. The electric infrastructure here from JCP&L is atrocious and it’s not isolated to a single storm, it’s year-round,” Sabosik said.

Footnote: Originally Published in the Ocean Star Newspaper on July 24.

During the meeting, Mayor Robert Sabosik further explained comments he, Borough Administrator Frank Pannucci, and Bay Head Mayor William Curtis made previously regarding JCP&L’s response to the Fourth of July storms that blew through Ocean County.

“I would like to discuss JCP&L tonight,” Sabosik began. “To say that I'm totally frustrated with the lack of service would be an understatement. I've been on the phone with them probably 20 times in the last 22 days, some lasting a couple hours.”

The mayor shared some “highlights” from the conversation, including a chief complaint that the town’s contact person for JCP&L “doesn’t have information” that local officials need. “We’d call up our contact rep, and he would say, ‘Well, I have to get back to you. I don't have that information.’ We need the information given to him first so he can give us valid information,” he said.

Sabosik said there were multiple incidents in which residents were told their power would be restored in three days. Once residents had already purchased generators, preparing for multiple days without power, the power would return within a matter of hours. “That type of information, which is wrong and totally unprofessional, should not be given to towns to give to our populace,” he said.

The mayor said he was joined on a JCP&L call by 27 other mayors from neighboring municipalities with similar complaints. “What happened to the redundancy that they promised?” and “What happened to the improvements?” being chief among the questions he asked. “Basically, all of us had the same complaints,” Sabosik said.

Sabosik said he was “totally aghast” at the lack of response before sharing examples of what he calls “lack of redundancy and improvements.”

“The substation on Route 88 was from 1964. I did some history background, it was originally owned by Point Pleasant electric company who sold it to JCP&L. I asked them ‘When was the last time they upgraded it after Sandy and how much was it upgraded?’ I asked them four different times over eight days. They promised to get back to me. They have not,” Sabosik said.

“The area that was affected most was Ocean County. Out of 1.2 million customers they had 250,000 outs. Out of 250,000 out, our town had almost 6,000 people out. The geographic size of our town does not make sense,” he said.

Sabosik ended his comments on JCP&L by thanking the police, fire, emergency and public works personnel for protecting the roads and residents, and saying that he intends to go to Trenton to speak to the governor.

JCP&L did not immediately respond to the comments made July 20. But earlier this month, in regard to previous comments made by Sabosik, Curtis and Pannucci, JCP&L spokesman Chris Hoenig spoke to The Ocean Star. He said the majority of damage caused by the July 3 storm was due to power lines hit by downed trees that were “outside JCP&L’s right of way.”

He said JCP&L had “hundreds of contractors” already on site on Wednesday, July 1, in preparation for forecasted “scattered” storms.

Once the damage had become apparent, Hoenig said, additional resources were requested, and 5,700 staff in total with nearly 2,900 line workers were deployed into JCP&L’s territory, which includes Ocean and Monmouth counties as well as Burlington, Essex, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Morris, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, Union and Warren counties.