Tag Archives: PECO

snafu majoris with PECO after the storm

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File under epic fail.

During the storm on Tuesday, we lost power. And when we had lost power, I had used the PECO app to report the outage.

Then the power came back on, and the system wouldn’t let me report that the power was back on. And at that point Tuesday night there were so many people calling PECO that they kept hanging up on customers – I should be specific, not live people the auto system.

Needless to say, this was all very frustrating. So yesterday, Wednesday, I kept calling PECO until I got a live person to change the status because I was afraid repair crews would be dispatched.

About 50 minutes ago now three trucks rolled into my street. Out of state linemen from Riggs Distler out of Connecticut.

I went rushing outside and asked them if they were here for us. Then I told them, I spent an hour on the phone yesterday to make sure this didn’t happen.

Well it happened. PECO didn’t update all of their systems so a really nice crew of linemen just hung out on my street for 40+ minutes while PECO figured it out.

I even called all my neighbors while the guys were there to make sure that everyone had power.

Ironically, I said to PECO yesterday that they need to figure something out with their app programming so that, even if you are a guest on their app, you can go back with proper identifying information to let them know if a power outage has been resolved before they know. The customer service person said “oh good idea.”

These guys were so incredibly nice. I offered to make them coffee but they all had enough coffee. We stood there for 40 minutes and they told me about the areas they were from in Connecticut and what liked about Chester County.

They were headed to Glen Mills in Delaware County next. And at 12:28 today, PECO sent us a text, saying the power outage was restored, even though it was restored Tuesday night.

Come on PECO. That was embarrassing. There are so many people who need their power restored, and this crew of able-bodied super nice linemen sat here waiting for you to dispatch them to people that needed help because you hadn’t updated your system properly.

I hope everyone out there is getting their power restored.

so whose wires are these in frazer?

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Reported this to PECO a couple/few weeks back. It is near the Home Depot in Frazer, PA. This is in East Whiteland Township.

Reported this to PECO again, and someone in the community says they may be Verizon’s wires?

So I don’t know whose wires they are, but this is dangerous.

Whomever is responsible can they just take care of it please?

Utility companies expect us to pay our bills promptly, so maybe they can actually take care of things regarding safety promptly too?

If it ends up being Verizon, it doesn’t surprise me because they have old wires from one of their poles up in a neighbor’s tree. They are sloppy.

cautious optimism? or fear of the future?

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Jacobs houseEver since I came to Chester County I have loved this house alone in its own meadow and field on Ship Road in Exton. So I decided to put a photo I took recently up on the Chester County Ramblings Facebook page and a friend of mine told me it was a house on the National Register of Historic Places. It is the Benjamin Jacobs House .

I had noticed it has had a realtor sign outside and I thought was being listed by those folks formerly known as Prudential and now Berkshire Hathaway (their new signs are supposed to stand out as per their ads but I find the color scheme makes them not particularly remarkable).

The area in which the house sits is one that contains a lot of land being cherry picked for development (has been that way for decades at this point) …or if you go down Swedesford there I think it is you see a row of cute little houses abandoned by time and man and getting more vine-covered by the year.  I believe this parcel is listed by some commercial firm  and well people have to make a living and feed their family, but still, I somewhat disappointed to find familiar names on commercial real estate  signs for parcels of land that will kill more open space in Chester County, but that is the reaction I tend to have when I see beautiful land being opened up for development like this. Every time I go by this stretch of houses as a passenger in a car I don’t have a camera with me.

Seriously? Go check out this PECO link to available land in Chester County. It is a sobering list of available land parcels and isn’t all of Chester County out there for sale. (Again see PECO Land Database Chester County )

Anyway, the Benjamin Jacobs House has been part of the Church Farms School land parcels.  It was even mentioned in the Downingtown Area Historical Society Newsletter of April 3, 2014 . That house and the family from which it gets its name are steeped in Chester County history.

The Benjamin Jacobs House was built around 1790.  Here is the description off of Zillow which feeds I am sure from listings like the one on Realtor.com :

house1The Benjamin Jacobs House circa 1790 posted on the National Register of Historic Places for its unique architectural details. Surrounded by Chester County Park grounds the 2.6 acre setting is truly beautiful with 100+ year old trees and views of the Great Valley. This wonderful estate offers many potential uses as permitted by the zoning code including; Guesthouse, Inn, Cultural Studio, Eating/Drinking house2Establishment, Professional Office and many more. Though in need of renovation the solid stonestructure presents; a dramatic front to back foyer, two large formal rooms with marble fireplaces, a house3step down family room with an angular bay seating area, spacious kitchen, study and a main level laundry room. The upper floors include 2 bedrooms with fireplaces plus 3-5 additional bedrooms and 2 baths. Other important features include covered porches, arched windows, two staircases, deep window sills, house4hardwood flooring, period trim and many historic details throughout. Come see this awesome piece of history and appreciate all of its potential. Call today for your personal appointment

Read more on REALTOR.com: 375 N Ship Rd, Exton, PA 19341 – Home For Sale and Real Estate Listing – realtor.com® 
Follow us: @REALTORdotcom on Twitter | Realtor.com on Facebook

It is all those “wonderful” zoning possibilities that makes me worry.  Just because something is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (Circa 1984 see Benjamin Jacobs House West Whiteland ) , it doesn’t make it bulletproof.  Take for example another listing close by belonging to same realty office I think.

613 E Swedesford Road Exton, PA 19341 (Once known as the Fox Chase Inn and put on the National Register of Historic Places also in 1984.) The photo I will use of the front is a Wikipedia Commons File.  I have one of it somewhere in photos I took but can’t lay my hands on it right now. 

800px-Fox_Chase_Inn_Chesco_PA

This house is not faring as well as the Benjamin Jacobs House. As are evidenced in the interior photos this realtor has on this listing (and here is the description):

613 1Fox Chase Inn, listed on the National Historic Register, Circa 1765, the first true licensed Tavern in West Whiteland Township. This wonderful piece of history offers many possible uses including; Cultural studio, Guesthouse, Inn, Eating/Drinking establishment, Professional business offices, Home office and many other permissible opportunities. The sale includes a historic circa 1823 stone barn 74′ x 44′ plus a large 72′ x33′ addition. Offering 2500+ sf. the Inn includes; a welcoming front porch, a historic full wall cooking fireplace, deep stone window sills as 613 3well as period trim and details. Ready for renovation this prime 2.6 acre location offers high exposure on Swedesford Road that is surrounded by acres of dedicated park grounds and open space. This property is being sold As is Please do not walk the site without an appointment

Read more on REALTOR.com: 613 E Swedesford Rd, Exton, PA 19341 – Home For Sale and Real Estate Listing – realtor.com®
Follow us: @REALTORdotcom on Twitter | Realtor.com on Facebook

The problems with these listings is my preservationists heart is reading a sub-text.  Maybe the sub-text isn’t there but what I feel is that people wouldn’t blink if these buildings weren’t there, or if their interiors were to become truly modern commercial without the proper nods to restoration and preservation of the periods in which they were constructed.

Now the Benjamin Jacobs House was a bit of a regional media sensation circa 1988 to 1990.  This was when Willard Rouse was battling to develop adjacent land.  The articles are from the Philadelphia Inquirer which at that time had a fabulous Chester County Bureau.  Of course, that no longer exists today in the eviscerated version of a once great paper and it is out loss because there is so much not being told out here in Chester County because no newspaper has enough staff.

Here are excerpts:

(Article #1 Inquirer March 1988 )

Rouse To Restore A Farmhouse Near Church Farm School

By Melinda Deanna Anderson, Special to The Inquirer Staff writer Curtis Rist contributed to this article  Posted: March 06, 1988

Over 195 years, the Benjamin Jacobs House on Ship Road has been home to a judge, to farm families and to boarding students from the Church Farm School, which used the house as a dormitory.

The house would take on still another identity under plans by Rouse & Associates, which has proposed restoring the structure for use as project headquarters during the development of 1,325 acres adjacent to the Church Farm School….The first inhabitant of the house, built in 1793, was Benjamin Jacobs, a surveyor and lawyer who was an associate judge of the Court of Common Pleas in Chester County in the latter part of the 18th century.

(Article # 2 Inquirer March 1990 )

Wanting To Be On History’s Side Plans Are To Restore Several Historic Buildings And Incorporate Them Into The Churchill Project.

By Suzanne Gordon, Inquirer Staff Writer

Posted: May 10, 1990

I seem to remember from somewhere that this was a development battle that got really, really ugly. I think simple economics of the times also played a big role. But this battle for land out here was big enough that it was mentioned in obituaries too. Even Mr. Rouse’s.

I was much younger when this battle was playing out in Chester County.  So I do not really know the outcome of the land battle and who in the end now owns the Benjamin Jacobs House.  What I do know in spite of what this battle did dividing people and communities, is that you would be better off with someone like Willard Rouse in your community versus a lot of other developers who are still gobbling up chunks and chunks of Chester County with zero attempts at historic preservation.  Today it is your basic rape and pillage of beautiful land.

So when I am told a really fascinating old house is “under contract” I hope for the best.  After all both the Benjamin Jacobs House and the Fox Chase Inn play a vital part in local history.

Here’s hoping they stand a better chance than Loch Aerie and Linden Hall which are both sitting like ghosts of their former selves on Route 30 in Frazer.  At least Loch Aerie has a caretaker living there, Linden Hall is just rotting and although I can’t say for sure, from the photos I have taken it sure looks like the building envelope has been pierced by vines and such. And then there is the Ebenezer AME Church on Bacton Hill Road.

A lot of people don’t realize that Exton didn’t used to be one big development like the King of Prussia area. And I hope by pointing out gems like the Benjamin Jacobs House and the Fox Chase Inn, people wake up to that again.

I find a common recurring theme in my own writing: the preservation of Chester County before it’s too late. Pick a municipality, all seem to have something going on.  I am not trying to deliberately pick on certain municipalities, but some of them talk about historic preservation and land preservation  and that is it.  I also hope that by writing about these preservation issues it will spur those who can afford to be really generous to become champions of the land once again.

I know that people everywhere are worried about large land parcels in Chester County, and the more rural they go, the less is known about what will happen. I had one person say to me recently about land I guess towards the northwest quadrant of the county where they said the land was the “perfect storm” for a developer: open farmland and glorious woods and no wetlands to speak of.

Can we save every old house and every old farm? I wish, but the realist in me says no. It is just so darn concerning that a county known for agriculture and beauty just seems to be growing piles of Lego-like structures wrapped in Tyvec without a thought as to our future.

The moral of this long-winded fable is simple: wherever you are in the county, please support land and historic preservation efforts.  They are so crucial.

Thanks for stopping by

Jacobs house 2

was it extreme heat or malfunction today at limerick nuclear plant?

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UPDATE – my friends at PECO connected me to the Limerick Generating Station  because apparently since deregulation PECO has not owned generating facilities – including Limerick.  The facilities are owned and operated by Exelon
Nuclear.  Here is the press release from their media person:

This morning I learned via Phoenixville Patch (they really do try to keep abreast of news and having dealt with interim editor Tom Sunnergren I know he has a nose for news) that Limerick Patch was reporting a shut down at the nuclear plant in Limerick. (and yes that is my photo from a friend’s deck outside Pottstown.) The cause, as per Patch and other Philadelphia media like 6 ABC is an electrical fault.

The very ODD thing is that the Morning Call via Reuters  seemed as if they were implying the shut down was part of a multi state shut down at other nuclear plants due to heat.

Seriously check it out:

Limerick among four nuclear power reactors shut down Wednesday

By Scott DiSavino, Reuters11:35 a.m. EDT, July 18, 2012

Several nuclear plants on the U.S. East Coast, including Exelon’s Limerick nuclear plant, were shut down early Wednesday and New York’s Consolidated Edison power company reduced the voltage in parts of Manhattan as the obsessive heat wave stressed the region’s power system….A unit at Exelon’s Limerick nuclear plant in Pennsylvania shut early Wednesday, according to power traders. Officials at the company and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission could not confirm the Limerick shutdown.

So which is it? Or is it both?

Here is Limerick Patch, and unfortunately if you live in PA, you hear about this and no matter what the reason, you think about Three Mile Island.  I was in high school when Three Mile Island news broke.  As a matter of fact I was outside of PA in  Washington, DC visiting friends and researching a term paper at The Library of Congress (it was an obscure topic and as good excuse as any to explore The Library of Congress which is really, REALLY cool! )  I remember when the news cut in and they flashed up shots of the reactors at Three Mile Island and reported the accident at first – it was very scary to hear about at the time.

Government, Business

Unscheduled Shutdown at Limerick Nuclear Plant

NRC: Electrical fault in transformer was impetus for manual shutdown.

By David Powell Email the author 10:37 am

The Unit 1 nuclear reactor at Exelon’s Limerick Generating Station was shut down at 8:15 Wednesday morning following an electrical fault in a transformer, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in a statement sent to area media outlets.

The reactor was manually shut down from the power station’s control room following the fault, according to the NRC.

“The NRC is closely monitoring the shutdown, with our Resident Inspectors assigned to the plant gathering information from the control room and sharing it with NRC staff. There do not appear to be any complications at this point. We will want to know more about Exelon’s root cause evaluation ….” NRC spokesperson Neil Sheehan said.

….Exelon company spokespersons did not immediately return calls seeking comment Wednesday morning.

Hmmm, I have a couple PECO contacts, so I wonder what is going on?  Maybe in the end it is nothing, but being perceived as secretive or furtive is not the card to play I think.