Ocean Grove at night. Photo by Paul Goldfinger

We’ll start this off with two cases:

FIRST CASE: One of our local citizens, Anita Meeks, says a street light has been out at the corner of Broadway and Pennsylvania for four weeks now “due to a car demolishing the pole.” Neptune Public Works told Meeks it was up to Jersey Central Power & Light to fix the problem. She says she has gone online twice in the last two weeks to report the matter to JCP&L, but has gotten no response. She said she emailed Mayor Randy Bishop, who told her he would make some calls. Deputy Mayor Eric Houghtaling has also shown an interest.

SECOND CASE: Four street lights are out on Ocean Avenue between Main Avenue and Ocean Pathway. We are not sure how long these have been out, but it’s been at least a week. We received an email about this on Tuesday and checked it out on Thursday evening. The man who told us about it also told the Township last week. “It is my opinion that the Township did report it but the company responsible [JCP&L] still has not responded with repairs,” he told us in his email.

Ocean Grovers who are worried about crime are often advised to keep their porch lights burning throughout the night. But if that’s a good idea for us residents, it’s also a good idea for JCP&L. An Ocean Grove street can be scary when a street light is out.

In the past, we have found it extremely difficult to communicate with JCP&L on the matter of burned-out lights.

Therefore, with your help, Blogfinger has decided to try to keep track of burned-out street lights in town. We urge our readers to inform us of any such cases. Let us know, also, of whatever efforts you may have made to report the problem and get the lights repaired.

We raised this issue with Deputy Mayor Houghtaling on Thursday. He told us that citizens should report any burned-out light problems to the Township — either to Township Clerk Rick Cuttrell, to Assistant Business Administrator Vito Gadaleta, or to Houghtaling himself. The Township will then contact JCP&L. We urge all citizens to do that, but you can also report the problem to us. Listing the burned-out lights here on Blogfinger — and thereby sharing the information with your neighbors — may be helpful. There is strength in numbers.

— Charles Layton

UPDATE, Friday evening, from Anita Meeks re the missing light at Broadway and Pennsylvania: “As I bid my dinner guests adieu at 9:30 this evening, as we commented on the lack of light, who should appear? A huge JCP&L truck with cherry picker. (Overtime here?) They asked where the light was burned out. We said, ‘The entire pole is missing.’ They will report this to ‘someone’ because they only replace bulbs. And so it goes.”

Editor’s Note: Thanks, Anita, and please keep us informed of future developments.