Newark residents and PSE&G power station work to get along | Carter

The Fairmount Heights Switching Station in Newark's West Ward. Newark residents, the city and PSEG came to an agreement that allowed for the facility to be built.( Barry Carter | The Star-Ledger)

Residents in the Fairmount section of Newark's West Ward have a new neighbor they've gradually come to accept.

Public Service Electric and Gas has built the Fairmount Heights Switching Station to meet Newark's growing demand for electrical power, a requirement the utility was under from a regional transmission organization that maintains the power grid for 65 million people in the country.

"We've come a long way from day one from fighting it," said Dorian Johnson, president of the Fairmount Heights Neighborhood Association.

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Five years ago, packed community meetings protested what they feared would be an unsightly facility at Littleton and Central avenues. Residents, by the busload, accused the corporate PSEG officials of not telling them about its plans when it purchased 41/2 acres of land for $7.5 million that the city helped them locate.

With the Urban League of Essex County leading the way, residents and the social agency said that the facility was not compatible with their plans to address the neighborhood's economic, educational, recreational and social needs.

A rendering of the Fairmount Heights Switching Station built by Public Service Electric and Gas

PSE&G, however, had the land and needed to upgrade its electrical infrastructure that would benefit Newark and the region. Officials noted that Hurricane Sandy had left Newark neighborhoods in the dark when substations near the Passaic River flooded.

A new station would prevent that. Jaye Cavallo, a PSEG spokesman, said the switching station steps down high voltages to lower voltages before power is transmitted to substations, where the voltage is further reduced so electricity can be used in homes and businesses.

"If there is an issue at another station, the new station can pick up that extra demand for electricity," he said.

As Newark develops, he added, the upgraded electrical feature would be an incentive for companies to relocate.

"The city can be more attractive to bring in new businesses," Cavallo said.

Everyone understood the need, but residents still didn't want the station next to them. After hearings held by the city's Zoning Board of Adjustment and the state Board of Public Utilities, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka's administration brokered an agreement with PSEG in 2014 that would give both sides what they needed for the project to move forward.

For starters, PSEG agreed, in lieu of taxes, to pay Newark about $1 million every year for 30 years. The money, said West Ward Councilman Joseph McCallum, helps the city do different projects, including plans for the riverfront development, housing and repaving Newark streets and major corridors.

"This is big," he said. "This is going to increase property values. Public Service agreed to help the city."

The utility company listened to resident concerns, too, and cleaned up the contaminated land on the site that once contained a church and the Wiss Scissors factory. As the facility was built, PSE&G hired locally, training residents along the way.

It agreed to invest in housing, a community center and give the Urban League 3 acres of land adjacent to the facility to develop a mixed-used retail and housing development.

Instead of a cinder-block design to surround the switching station, a 30-foot, decorative mauve-and-beige wall has been created by Adjaye Associates, the architecture firm that designed the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture.

National and local artists, including six from Newark, have created pieces. Several tall aesthetic pillars serve as a gateway to a courtyard for the public to walk past and observe the art, making it a destination for the neighborhood.

Considering how ugly this fight started, the project is shaping up, with stakeholders understanding that there had to be some give and take to make this work and form a community partnership.

"It's going to contribute to the vitality of the community," said Urban League President Vivian Fraser. "At some point, you have to say your focus is on building and not just fighting. We're focused on the future of the neighborhood and making it great for everyone who lives here."

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While the facility is delivering power, Cavallo said it won't be fully operational until this summer.  Contractors are laying concrete for the sidewalk. Landscaping is on the way. City officials will hold a press conference April 11 to show off the wall and its art.

Some residents, however, have not warmed to the reality, wondering if their health is at risk.

Ethel Ellis, who lives in George King Village apartments, wants to move.  "We don't want that thing across the street," she said. "We are concerned about what this is going to do to us."

Johnson, the neighborhood association president, said it's time to get along with PSE&G and focus on the positive outcomes, even though his preference is for it to be somewhere else.

"It's been a three-year battle, but I think we did good for the community," he said. "We have to work together."

Sonja Dabney, another active resident, agreed. Employment, a community center, housing, commercial development, and art to beautify the neighborhood go a long way toward acceptance.

"It (station) is here," she said. "Being ticked off about is irrelevant at this point. We've got it. Now let's make the best of it."

These days, it's all about the community. And that's how it should have been from the beginning.

Barry Carter: (973) 836-4925 or bcarter@starledger.com or

nj.com/carter or follow him on Twitter @BarryCarterSL

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