Sussex Borough tallying cost of snowstorm

SUSSEX BOROUGH — Tuesday night's Sussex Borough Council meeting began with a short presentation from Jackie Espinoza from Jersey Central Power and Light (JCP&L) regarding the recent snowstorm.
Espinoza thanked the borough for their cooperation in assisting during last week’s storm that dumped 20 or more inches of snow on the area, and knocked out power to a number of residents.
“What we (JCP&L) have been trying to accomplish over the past few years, is to work closely with the community during times of crisis,” Espinoza said.
Espinoza also mentioned that the public can view power outages, and get an estimated time of repair on the JCP&L traditional and mobile websites.
Council President Robert Holowach thanked Espinoza.
“I think your crews did a truly great job,” he said.
“All the employees who had to work in that kind of situation deserve a lot of credit,” Mayor Katherine Little said. “It was a difficult storm.”
It was a difficult, and costly, storm for the borough as Holowach reported.
“We had a storm, we had a little bit of snow,” Holowach said facetiously, “We broke quite a bit of equipment trying to get that snow moved.
“It was heavy, and it came in fast,” Holowach said. “The borough was a hot mess as far as the single lane roads were concerned. The main roads were passable, but with two-to-four inches an hour, I don’t think there was any way we could have prepared for that.”
A broken 4X4 drive system on a township backhoe was reported by Holowach to be the most costly item damaged in the storm.
The total cost estimate from the storm is still being tallied, and will be dealt with at a later date.
In other town council news, Councilmember Mario Poggi announced the annual Easter egg hunt will be held on April 9, from 1-3 p.m. at the Sussex Middle School.
The council also adopted a resolution declaring April, Child Abuse Prevention Month.
“This is proclaiming April as child abuse prevention month, but it should really be all year long,” Little said.