Politics & Government

Judge Denies Move to Resume Work on Amagansett Sub Station

According to 27 East PSEG notified the town Thursday through their spokesman Jeffrey Weir that the utility said it hoped to schedule a hearing for Friday or Monday, enabling its work to resume on the Amagansett sub station which was temporarily shut down by an Stop Work Order Form.

Later Thursday, according to Newsday "A State Supreme Court judge Monday denied PSEG Long Island's request for a temporary restraining order to quash a stop-work order issued by East Hampton Town on a contested transmission project.

"Acting Justice Ralph Gazzillo said he was 'not satisfied by clear and convincing evidence that there would be irreparable harm' if PSEG were blocked from immediately continuing work at a LIPA substation in Amagansett.

The Stop Work Order on the Amagansett sub station was issued by East Hampton Town Building Inspector Tom Preiato posted the stop-work order at the Amagansett substation on late Friday afternoon, Mr. Cantwell said. Jeffrey Weir said it was attached to a fence. 

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"While we are confident, Mr Weir said, "we will ultimately prevail on the law and the facts, East Hampton's stop work order prevents us from addressing  summer of 2014 reliability issues for all of our customers in the Town of East Hampton.

It’s our understanding that LIPA, said Mr Weir, which owns that property, is not required to obtain building permits for substation work,” countered Mr. Weir in a phone interview, noting that there was no mention of a stop-work order at the meeting on Thursday, April 3. “It’s extremely important that the project be completed on schedule to ensure the Town of East Hampton has safe consistent reliable electric this summer.”

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PSEG had argued 9,000 customers would face an outage in the summer peak season if work weren't allowed to continue.

“It’s our understanding that LIPA, which owns that property, is not required to obtain building permits for substation work,” countered Mr. Weir in a phone interview earlier in the week, noting that there was no mention of a stop-work order at the meeting on Thursday, April 3. In an article in 27 East Mr. Weir reiterated that it is important the project move along according to schedule. “It’s extremely important that the project be completed on schedule to ensure the Town of East Hampton has safe consistent reliable electric this summer.”

According to the Newsday story The parties will be back in court at a later date to argue for PSEG's request for a declaratory judgment that it is exempt from the codes and an injunction to allow substation work to continue. PSEG has already installed all 267 poles along the 6.2 miles of the project, and strung cable on slightly less than half of those large poles.






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