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HomeMy WebLinkAbout0838_001%7W t I %J L I V V L [%A I III IV, 30,1998 Gerald L. Farley P h o ri e's, 847/392-6000 4N Mayor Fax. 847/392-6022 TDD: 847/392-6064 Village of Mount; Prospect: OFFICE OF THE MAYOR 100 South Emerson Mount: Prospect-, Illinois 60056 Mr. John Costello Vice President -Governmental Affairs Commonwealth Edison Ten South Dearborn Street, 37th Floor Chicago, Illinois 60603 Dear Mr. Costello: It is with great consternation and frustration that I write to you on behalf of the Village's Board of Trustees and the residents of the Village of Mount Prospect in expressing our extreme displeasure in the frequency of power outages we have experienced throughout the Village in the recent past as well as the inordinate amount of time that it takes Commonwealth Edison to restore power. It continues to be unfathomable to me that Commonwealth Edison cannot seem to keep the power on in even the most mild of conditions. While the storm that blew through early on Friday, May 29 could have been expected to produce outages, the fact that it took fully 36 hours to restore many parts of Mount Prospect has to be viewed as unacceptable from a system reliability and customer service standpoint. This particular storm did not cover the entire Chicago metropolitan area. Rather, it was somewhat geographically confined to a half a dozen contiguous communities. Given that fact, it would seem that Commonwealth Edison was in a position to pour maximum resources into a relatively confined area and get power back up and running within a reasonable amount of time. The fact that it took so long suggests a couple of things. One, the overall condition of your physical plant has to be considered suspect. Faults, surges, tree contact and exploding transformers suggest that Commonwealth Edison has been lax in its long-term system maintenance and facility upgrade program. Acts of God notwithstanding, reasonable steps can and should be taken to minimize the potential impact of Mother Nature. Commonwealth Edison has easements throughout the Village of Mount Prospect. You have certain rights within those easements including that of trimming trees in a manner which reduces the potential for tree contact or failing branches. In my estimation, Commonwealth Edison has been woefully lacking in its tree trimming program for many years. The result is a public relations dilemma whereby regular and reasonable trimming has by necessity been cast aside and wholesale butchering and amputation is now the norm. Page two. Mr. John Costello June 2, 1998 The other defect in Commonwealth Edison's system is the obvious inadequate response capability to widespread outages. In all of my many years of living in the Village of Mount Prospect, I cannot remember it taking so long to restore power on a given instance. I think people, in the face of severe weather, understand that outages will occur but to go 12, 18, 24 and 36 hours without power or even seeing a Commonwealth Edison truck in their neighborhood suggests an inadequate response. Please understand that I do not fault the dedicated line crews who must labor under extreme pressure and adverse conditions to do the actual restoration work. Rather, my complaint goes to those who make the ultimate decision regarding how the system will be maintained and the make- up of the emergency response forces. I cannot help but feel that somewhere along the line, consideration of profit and shareholder return is resulting in an inferior product for the resident customers of Mount Prospect. Asyou can well tell, I am extremely unhappy with Commonwealth Edison's presence within our fine community. An additional problem from my perspective is that unlike nuisance businesses the Village has almost no ability to enforce corrective measures on you. Yet, the elected officials and administration find themselves having to constantly scramble to find out why power went out this time and how long it will take to be restored, only to receive the same frustrating answers that our citizens get from you. The c:tttzens of Mount Prospect have, a right to get straight -forward answers to their legitImate ons, regarding system reliability and emergency response* T o that end, I extend a, dilrect, questi i 4" nftat"11'on to you and other, senior, Commonwealth Edison management to join us at a special, ivi Committee of the Whole meeting on Tuesday, June 30, 1998 (7:30 p.m.), so that we can further discuss the concerns which I have raised in this letter. I look forward to a quick, positive response to my request. Sincerely yours, Pl',JP" FARLEY Mayor GLF/rcc c: Board of Trustees Village Manager Michael E. Janonis Illinois Commerce Commission Arlene Juracek, Commonwealth Edison