Power Outage, Storm Damage Dominate Village Council Discussion

Frustration about power outages was running high among residents who spoke at the Downers Grove Village Council meeting Tuesday night. Their complaints and a storm update dominated the short meeting.

Downers Grove resident James Toler came before the council for the second week in a row to talk about the many power outages he’s experienced. “I want the village to hold ComEd accountable,” he said, adding that he hadn’t been taken seriously last week.

Mayor Martin Tully asked audience members to raise their hands if they had experienced power outages this week—about half of the people in the room raised their hands.

Tully said that the village did take the issue very seriously, but, “We don’t operate the power grid.”

Toler’s issue was not a new one, Tully said, acknowledging that Toler had suggested the village sue ComEd. But, Tully said, no one commences litigation lightly.

Commissioner Sean Durkin also expressed frustration. “Going forward, and looking at the history, something needs to be done,” he said. “Frustrations can only go so high.”

Several residents commented on power outages and the siren still not sounding in advance of a major storm.

The village had fluctuations in power and was not able to activate the siren until after the brief storm had hit the village, officials said.

“Do we need a backup system for the backup system?” asked resident Jeff Crane. “We, the residents, have been twice fooled.”

Another resident, who experienced six power outages in the last few weeks, said maybe a lawsuit against ComEd was the only option.

Commissioner Bob Barnett said it is appreciated when residents bring problems to the attention of the council members so they can understand how broad the problems are, but he didn’t appreciate the tone in which some residents complained. “Sarcasm we can do without,” he said.

Council members commented that ComEd is more or less an unregulated monopoly, and Barnett said the council wasn’t suggesting that power outages weren’t the village’s problem. But what does “make them do something” mean, he asked the audience.

He also drew a distinction between resident Toler’s issue of frequent power outages with the recent storm incidents that caused widespread outages.

Commissioner William Waldack brought up the siren issue saying he was glad there was a policy change, but that no one can control when the power goes out. There may need to be another backup system, he added.

Commissioner Becky Rheintgen noted that regardless of the planning the village puts into the system, there will always be unexpected things that occur, and the community needs to understand it wasn’t an issue of a person not doing his job.

Village Manager Dave Fieldman gave a storm report from the July 11 storm. “The conditions for siren activation were met for this storm,” he said.

“This issue was immediately looked into and has already been resolved by making adjustments to the uninterrupted power supply backup systems. So we have tested that and it is functional,” Fieldman said.

Regarding power outages, ComEd was estimating that 90 percent of affected residents should have their power restored by Friday noon, Fieldman said. 

Today 3,900 residents were without power, he said.

Fieldman said 175 parkway trees were damaged and another 10 were destroyed. This storm will cost the village $60,000.

Durkin asked that, as the village prepares for long-range financial planning, official budget for storms.

Talk of storm cleanup brought up the issue of personal versus private property and which is the village’s responsibility to clear.

There are storms every year that cause damage to public and private property, Tully said. “That’s the important distinction here." When it’s public, there’s no debate about who should take care of it and pay for it, Tully said. The discussion is at what point should public dollars be used for private storm debris cleanup.

‘I’m also a little concerned…to expand services when maybe we should focus on improving the quality of the services we already provide," he said.