In the midst of ongoing town electrical work in Menemsha, an unconnected ground wire was found, and judged to be the lead factor in stray current that previously plagued the harbor. Chilmark inspector of wires Cole Powers, who through his company Powers Electric was the lone successful bidder on the work, told The Times he is certain the wire was the prime culprit in shock incidents that took place in 2017.
Powers explained that four wires were meant to travel in a conduit from the electrical panel by the harbormaster’s shack to a subpanel overlooking the transient dock. Upon being dug up, one of those wires, a ground, was found to abruptly stop some 14 feet from the subpanel. Powers explained that code at the time called for two energized wires and a neutral wire, but did not stipulate a ground wire. The previous code assumption was that the neutral wire would perform as a grounding wire, but that turned out not to be true, he said, and wires in that configuration were determined to cause an electrical phenomenon that would leak voltage into the water similar to what previously beset the harbor. Powers said he had no idea why somebody would have left an unconnected ground wire in a buried conduit.
Under Powers’ direction, Daseco Electrical made emergency grounding repairs back in July 2017. The crux of the work was installing a temporary ground wire between the two panels to staunch the stray current. On Nov. 27 of that year, Chilmark voters approved a $350,000 warrant article for upgrades to Menemsha’s electrical infrastructure, a move spurred by the shocks earlier in the year. By December 2018, the work had yet to be executed, and the selectmen were getting restless about the subject, especially because Powers’ initial bid fell through due to a technicality. But with a secord RFP, Powers secured the bid, and in conjunction with electrical engineering firm Vincent DiIorio was able to move forward on the job, and do so for less than $350,000. As of Thursday morning, trenches wound between Menemsha Texaco and the harbormaster’s shack, the handiwork of a mini excavator from subcontractor Fenner Construction. The wiring for new harborside electrical pedestals is in, and Powers said the pedestals themselves arrived three weeks early.
Chilmark selectmen chairman Jim Malkin, the board’s harbor liaison, said he’s pleased with the progress. “It’s going according to plan,” he said, “and they’re doing good work. We want to have it done by summer, and it looks like we will.”
“I’m very pleased it’s moving quickly, and it looks like it will be ready for our season,” town administrator Tim Carroll said. He said there’s an advantage to having a local contractor execute the work — Chilmark has easy access to Powers’ expertise, unlike many off-Island contractors who finish a job, never to be seen again. He said off-Island contractors are frequently loath to maintain what they’ve installed. Any contractor hired from the Island, he said, will be more inclined to take maintenance work, and if they built what they’re later called upon to keep up, they’ll have intimate knowledge of what they are working on.
“Local people and local knowledge saves us a lot of money and headaches,” he said.