14 The Courier sun • july 25, 2013 for breaking news visit www.couriersun.com LIPA instituting Sandy fixes BY MAGIE HAYES [email protected] Nearly nine months after Sandy, LIPA facilities are still coming back online. During the storm, five of the energy company’s substations on the Rockaway Peninsula took on water damage, shutting down the area’s power and leaving residents in the dark until repairs were made. “It’s still a work in progress,” said Nick Lizanich, LIPA’s vice president of operations. He explained that at the peninsula’s substations, LIPA worked on immediate restoration, which required both temporary and permanent mitigation. He added that in some cases, it can take over a year to order and receive the larger pieces of equipment that were damaged. Lizanich detailed those issues at a tour of the Rockaways’ substations on Wednesday, July 17. Assemblymember Phillip Goldfeder and Councilmember Donovan Richards attended to see the repairs so far firsthand. “LIPA is doing a good job ensuring the elected officials are in the loop. Communication was the biggest issue we had during Sandy,” Richards said. “To their credit, they’re taking steps forward.” In Far Rockaway, LIPA’s substation was inundated by roughly three to four feet of water. Lizanich said workers could not get in for several days, but mobile equipment and mobile substations were brought in to temporarily distribute power. But he pointed out that while “there was power on the street ... no customers were attached to it because their homes weren’t safe.” “There’s a lot of room for improvement in that entire process,” Lizanich added. Now LIPA is monitoring the fixes and working on turning temporary repairs into permanent ones. “I think prior to Sandy, LIPA sold us a lot of smoke and mirrors. The storm made it clear there were holes in the system,” Goldfeder said. “But now to see real equipment, real plans and new notification systems is a great thing.” However, despite visible changes, Goldfeder said “we have a long way to go.” “I’m cautiously optimistic that we’re moving in the right direction,” Richards said. THE COURIER/Photo by Maggie Hayes Assemblymember Phillip Goldfeder and Councilmember Donovan Richards toured LIPA substations on the Rockaway Peninsula that were damaged by Sandy. AG investigating Sandy charity money BY MAGIE HAYES [email protected] Sandy relief money is reportedly being kept under lock and key. Attorney General Eric Schneiderman released a preliminary report on Wednesday, July 17 detailing how charities have spent more than half a billion dollars of Sandy donations. At least $238 million of the more than $575 million had not been spent as of April of this year, according to the report. “All one needs to do is look around Breezy Point to realize what a travesty this is,” said Arthur Lighthall, president of the Breezy Point Cooperative. Councilmember Eric Ulrich echoed Lighthall, saying “sitting on this money while so many people are still in need is an insult.” The report also asks whether some of the funds reportedly spent on Sandy were actually used for non-storm-related purposes. “We have a responsibility to the people who donated their hard-earned money to help our community rebuild to make sure that the contributions they made were used as advertised,” Schneiderman said. The Attorney General’s Charities Bureau, which regulates all state charities, reviewed the Sandy contributions and found that 58 percent of donations had gone to storm relief efforts; 17 organizations reported potentially using funds for non-Sandy purposes such as preventing future disasters; and responding organizations granted half of the $336 million they had received to other organizations. “This funding is urgently needed and we cannot accept that charitable donations are not being spent as intended,” Ulrich said. Schneiderman’s Charities Bureau is heightening its review of Sandy fundraising and seeking more detailed answers from the responding charities, including a clearer account of how money has been spent and plans for remaining funds. “My constituents are not assisted by monies collected for victims of Sandy that are not distributed,” said State Senator Joseph Addabbo. “These funds are useless unless given to those who are truly in need.”
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