Danbury Mayor on Eversource: ‘They Are Going to Have to Rebrand’

Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton joined the Ethan and Lou Show on Wednesday (8/5/20). His appearance came a day prior to his normal weekly spot to react to the impact of Tropical Storm Isaias on Danbury, CT. When Lou asked when his power would come back, the Danbury Mayor had this to say:

If anybody sees Neversource, let me know, 'cause they are not in Danbury. Well, they changed the name, remember after the last fiasco, they were Northeast Utilities and they were like we gotta rebrand, we gotta rebrand. They are going to have to rebrand after the billing debacle and this nightmare.

Lou followed up by asking if the Mayor's office has any contact with Eversource and this was the Mark Boughton's response:

We do, I think our contact is on vacation, so that's great, but we do have a stand in contact, and it's just, you know, there's 500,000 people without power so everybody, there's a crisis, it has to get done right away. I will say, our crews have been out all night long, they've cleared every road that they can. They currently have wires tangled with the trees so we can't touch them until Eversource shows up and shuts off the power.

It's at this point Ethan and Lou asked again when the Mayor thinks power will be restored to Danbury and Boughton replied:

By the weekend for most people, I think. There is a lot of damage to a lot of these lines, some people you can just flip a switch but most people will be by the weekend, maybe Sunday night.

This is the section of the Mayor's interview having to do with the Tropical Storm, Eversource and power restoration.

Not long after the Ethan and Lou interview, the Danbury Mayor tweeted this:

Yesterday, I-95 posted an update on projections for city cleanup and featured this tweet from the Mayor who, even in the middle of the storm, was clear to point out it may take a bit to dig out from this.

The last we spoke to the Mayor about Eversource, was prior to Tropical Storm Isaias on (7/30/20). That conversation was about the recent rate hikes Eversource had imposed on their customers for what they call a "delivery charge."

I extended the company (Eversource) an opportunity to respond to the Mayor's comments last week and have not heard back. Today, I sent a second invitation to the media department and I eagerly anticipate their response.

I was clear in the second invitation that their efforts to restore power to CT would not be the only talking point. I wanted the company to know that their customers are still waiting to hear about why they thought their "delivery charge" increase was warranted/appropriate.

This is the phone number to contact Eversource about your power outage 800-286-2000.