Con Ed promises Klein they’ll be good neighbors

After a Coffee with the Senator event at one Morris Park residence, 25 area residents expressed their concerns over long-standing issues at the Con Edison service center off Bronxdale Avenue. Senator Jeff Klein was able to help solve the issues plaguing the residents.

According to area residents, the Con Edison facility which is a dispatch center for service trucks that repair overhead power lines, perform meter replacement and readings, and provide other service to power transmission systems, has a noisy compressor on-site, a gate that is left open at all hours of the night, and blasts smoke from an undisclosed source into the air.

Those living around Con Ed site, which straddles a rail line near E. Tremont Avenue from Bronxdale Avenue to Unionport Road, have long complained about the problems, but had little recourse, until Klein stepped in.

“I appreciate Con Ed coming forward and listening to the concerns of their neighbors about problems that have gotten progressively worse over the years,” the senator said at the meeting. “Con Edison’s decision makers came down to the public meeting and really worked with the community.”

Con Edison spokesman for the Bronx, Rolando Infante, said that there were various issues that the power company needed to address. These included overgrown trees encroaching on neighboring residential properties, the employee access gate, and noise issues.

“The first thing that we did was to limit access to the gate,” Infante said. “We have two compressors at the site – one to clean trucks and one to run the facility. We were in the process of replacing a compressor, and the temporary compressor we used made more noise.”

According to neighbors, when the facility turned on the compressors, besides the noise, there was also smoke discharge.

“I have a house that is right next door to Con-Edison; I have had asthma for 20 years,” said Vince Lombardi, a Van Nest Avenue resident, explaining his plight with the facility. “The compressor used to blast dust into the air and makes a lot of noise. They promised the senator that they would move the compressor to the other side of the lot.”

Lombardi said that Con Ed trimmed trees along its property line and also is keeping up its end of the bargain so far by limiting access to the employee gate.

Con Ed, Klein