By James Lomuscio
The Eversource power outage planned for Sunday from 12:01 a.m. to noon has the owner of the Westport’s Rye Ridge Deli scrambling, not to mention soured at the power company.
The Rye Ridge Deli is especially busy on weekends. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com
Not only is Sunday morning one of Scott Martin’s busiest times of the week, he says. He’s worried about spoilage in his deli display cases that could cost his business thousands of dollars.
Located at 159 Main St. in the same space as the former, iconic Oscar’s Deli, Rye Ridge is one of three delis Martin owns by the same name. The others are in Stamford and Ryebrook, N.Y.
The planned power outage is expected to affect businesses and residents along Main Street, Elm Street and the Post Road and possibly Riverside Avenue, even Saugatuck Shores.
Mitch Gross, Eversource Connecticut spokesman, two weeks ago said the outage is necessary as the crews work on an electrical upgrade for the town, “to strengthen the system for our Westport customers.”
He said the outage is in a 12-hour block just in case the crews run into any issues.
“We’ll work as quickly and as safely as we can, as we always do,” Gross said.
Martin, whose deli open at 7 a.m., hopes it will be very quick.
“This time of year when Westport is very quiet all week long, Saturday and Sunday, those two days are our savior,” he said, adding that Sunday brunch is big business.
“When I first heard about this, I called Eversource and said, ‘I hope you are going to provide us with some kind of generator,” Martin said.
He said his plea went unanswered until Monday when woman who answered the phone at Eversource said a generator would be sent.
“But today at 3:30, I received a call, and they said no,” Martin said.
“Right now I’m in the middle of getting a generator,” he said, adding that Northeast Generator in Bridgeport gave him an $8,000 rental quote.
“We’re trying to see if it’s feasible to do this,” Martin said. “We’re trying to work this out now.”
