Power struggle continues, but the game will go on.

[Mark Farinella]

Satisfied that there was no preferential treatment involved in the restoration of electric power to the Gillette Stadium-Patriot Place complex before the rest of Foxboro, and that the town can handle the crowd, the board of selectmen voted unanimously Wednesday night to allow tonight's Giants-Patriots game to proceed as scheduled.

A forced cancellation would have been on the grounds of public safety concerns, but Police Chief Edward O'Leary and Fire Chief Roger Hatfield agreed that road conditions, lighting and public safety staffing are adequate to accommodate the demands of a stadium event. The game probably would not have been moved on such short notice to MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., home of the Giants and Jets.

Electricity has been down in most of Foxboro since 9 a.m. Sunday as a result of damage caused by Tropical Storm Irene. The stadium complex was first to have its power restored because of an additional feeder line from Wrentham that was added to the site's power grid several years ago.

Gillette Stadium's predecessor, Foxboro Stadium, went dark on national television on Jan. 12, 1997, during the AFC Championship Game between the Patriots and Jacksonville because the power demands of the stadium exceeded the capacity of the lines running into it at the time. The Kraft organization (then in just its second full year of ownership of the team, but its ninth of stadium ownership) expanded the capacity of the Wrentham substation and had the additional lines run to the property at its own expense.

The Patriots had to view films of their last game off-site on Monday, but power was restored to the complex the next day.

During the extended outage endured by the rest of the town, the Kraft organization has taken several steps to help. Portable generators and high-intensity streetlights have been set up at several intersections in town, generators were offered for the town's two housing complexes for seniors, and ice was distributed to residents at the public safety complex on Chestnut Street.

Much of Foxboro, Attleboro, Norton and Rehoboth remain without power in the wake of the Sunday storm. As of late Wednesday, according to National Grid estimates, 6,400 of Foxboro's 7,800 customers were still without power, although the company's liason with the town, Tom Coughlin (ironically, the same name as the Giants' coach), said that many of those should be back online today.