Pinecrest Trail power line rerouting on hold
West Milford. Orange & Rockland Utilities’ plan to reroute power lines along a local road is on hold after hearing the ire of residents who feel the change will damage the natural beauty of the area. There is no set timeline for the project's re-evaluation, O&R officials said.
| 13 Feb 2020 | 01:31
Current power lines strung across Pinecrest Trail. (
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Pinecrest Trail residents are not happy about a utility company’s plan to reroute power lines along their road, and that has caused Orange & Rockland Utilities to place the project on indefinite hold, spokesman Mike Donovan said Wednesday.
Most of the public comment portion of the Feb. 5 Township Council meeting involved Pinecrest Trail residents, who were on hand to object to Orange & Rockland's plan to reroute the power lines on the road.
Pinecrest Trail is a dirt road maintained by the residents themselves and they expressed their disappointment in being excluded from Orange & Rockland’s planning process as well as their concerns over the new plan.
The proposed rerouting of the power lines would remove the poles from their current position in a dry lake bed and put up 6-8 new poles along the road instead.
“We enjoy going out our door and walking on the trail and driving in on this beautiful, untouched, unspoiled, never-been-touched-in-any-way section of the road,” said Pinecrest Trail resident Frank Angiulli.
Angiulli and several of his Pinecrest Trail neighbors believe that Orange & Rockland’s newly proposed route will not only affect the aesthetic of their environment, but will also leave them more vulnerable to storms and power outages.
They also believe that the work it would take for Orange & Rockland to put up the new poles could potentially cause damage to the road itself.
Based in Pearl River, New York, Orange & Rockland serves approximately 300,000 customers in New York and northern New Jersey with electricity, including part of West Milford.
Speaking for the utility, Donovan said Wednesday that following the meeting and hearing from residents on the road, the utility will now review the project to reroute the power lines in the wake of the concerns expressed.
"As a result of the meeting and the new information we received, we are reviewing the project," Donovan said. "We listened to (the residents). Everything is stopped. We have to make sense of what came out of the meeting."
Orange & Rockland looked to add new poles on the street as a service improvement and to cut down on power outages in the area, he said.
The company started in 1899 as the Rockland Light & Power Company in NYACK, New York and became a wholly owned subsidiary of Consolidated Edison, Inc. in 1999, according to the company.
Mayor Michele Dale said she’s already reached out to Orange and Rockland Utilities about discussing new solutions and compromises, but had yet to hear back.
