Press Release: July 6, 2010
Contact:  Jack Colby (401)884-0788, Maggi Rogers (401)419-0389

Members of the George Wiley Center in Pawtucket met this morning with Anne Marie Beardsworth of the RI Department of Health to ask that director David Gifford, MD join their efforts to restore electricity to protected households that have been shut off.  The Department of Health agreed to take action.

Jack Colby, spokesperson for the Wiley Center, said that Ms. Beardsworth had contacted Dr. Gifford while the group was in the building, and she informed them that he would be placing a call to National Grid to ask that medically-protected customers at high risk during the heat wave have their electricity restored.

While National Grid announced a self-imposed moratorium on shutoffs last Friday, in the wake of the untimely death of Kay Phaneuf in New Hampshire, they have not offered to retroactively restore those most at risk.  The Wiley Center representatives gave the Health Department a list of members who have called for help in recent weeks, with maladies ranging from end-stage renal failure to emphysema, who have been terminated from service.

Ms. Beardsworth informed the Wiley Center that the call had been placed to National Grid this morning, but no response had been received as of 12:30 this afternoon.