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Minutes - 08/12/2010 - Board of Trusteesroe OF 04.r MINUTES OF THE AUGUST 12, 2010 SPECIAL MEETING OF THE PRESIDENT AND BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE 0 0 VILLAGE OF OAK BROOK APPROVED AS WRITTEN ON OCTOBER 26, 2010. VV 9�f COUNtV � 1. OPENING: The Special Meeting of the Village Board of Trustees was called to order by President Craig in the Samuel E. Dean Board Room of the Butler Government Center at 7:00 p.m. The Pledge of Allegiance was given. 2. ROLL CALL: President Craig stated roll will not be taken since there was not a quorum and that the meeting will be informal. A quorum was reached until later in the meeting. IN ATTENDANCE: John W. Craig, Village President; Mark Moy, Village Trustee; Mom Saiyed, Village Trustee; Charlotte K. Pruss, Village Clerk; David Niemeyer, Village Manager; and Michael Hullihan, Public Works Director. Trustees Stelios Aktipis and James Carson joined the meeting while the presentation from ComEd was in progress. 3. PRESIDENT'S OPENING COMMENTS: President Craig stated the focus of tonight's meeting is ComEd's response to the devastating June 23`d wind storm that resulted in numerous power outages in Oak Brook and created significant property damage and destroyed many trees in town as well as the recent July 24th flood event. ComEd is going to give a presentation on their response to the storm. The remainder of the meeting will be questions and comments from residents to ComEd officials. President Craig also stated that he would like to limit the meeting to two hours and asked all residents to limit their comments to five minutes each. President Craig turned the meeting over to John O'Halloran, Community Affairs Director of ComEd for the Oak Brook area. 4. ComEd PRESENTATION John O'Halloran from ComEd introduced the ComEd team present and then began the presentation. The presentation covered the following: Storm Information Multiple storm fronts struck the ComEd service territory June 18th — June 28h resulting in over 1 million customer interruptions. Over 120,000 lighting strokes and wind speeds of 70 -80+ mph were recorded. 2,400 Oak Brook customers were affected by this storm period. July 23`d — July 24th storms resulted in major flooding, over 7" of rain recorded in Oak Brook and Elmhurst, 48,000 lighting strokes and wind speeds of 70 mph. 384 Oak Brook customers were affected by this storm period. Response Effort The ComEd Emergency Response Structure was explained. Over 450 crews were used during the restoration efforts. Nearly 200 tree trimming crews worked to remove broken VILLAGE OF OAK BROOK MINUTES Page I of 5 SPECIAL MEETING OF AUGUST 12, 2010 Page 1 or uprooted trees. Crews worked up to 16 -hour shifts throughout the restoration process. Over 2,500 field and office personnel worked more than 226,500 hours to restore service to customers. Restoration is prioritized first to public health and safety, then to the largest number of customers in the least amount of time and finally to smaller neighborhoods and individual services. System Damage ComEd equipment damage included 550 downed or displaced poles, 113 transformers and 28 structures. Seventy -five miles of wire and cable were used to repair lines damaged or downed. Municipal Outreach ComEd updated more than 400 municipalities and Chicago Wards on storm restoration efforts and storm related issues. External Affairs and the Large Customer Solutions Command Center was staffed 24x7 to identify and monitor critical customer restoration. ComEd issued electronic storm messaging updates throughout the storm period to officials and residents in the hardest hit areas. In Oak Brook, contact was made with the Village Manager, the Public Works Department and Village Administration. Customer Call Center Response The Call Center received 735,640 calls during the storms, the most occurring on Friday June 18th. Call Center employees worked 16 hour shifts with support from other customer operations departments. Questions Trustee Aktipis stated a lot of outages are caused by existing overhead lines. He asked if ComEd has considered working with municipalities to bury the lines. John O'Halloran stated overhead lines are standard due to cost and reliability. Underground lines are done only by request and for a cost. Trustee Carson asked what are the things that ComEd is working on to improve the situation in Oak Brook and what can residents do to help ComEd. John O'Halloran stated that new switches and smart grid meters were installed. He also stated that it is very hard to harden the system to storms of this magnitude. He further stated that residents can police their yards and property for broken tree limbs and not to build anything near transformers in yards. Trustee Saiyed stated that there are too many outages in the Oak Brook area and it is very frustrating. Trustee Moy stated the ComEd response to the two storm events was very impressive. Sylvia, a ComEd representative, came to the Village and worked with Donna Bettin, Executive Secretary. Donna had the ability to log into the ComEd system and inform residents when power is expected to be restored in their area. Trustee Moy also stated that John O'Halloran and Sylvia were both out in the Oak Brook area addressing any concerns residents had and kept residents informed. VILLAGE OF OAK BROOK MINUTES Page 2 of 5 SPECIAL MEETING OF AUGUST I2, 2010 Page 2 4. RESIDENTNISITOR COMMENT Resident Lynn Trombetta stated that there were five outages in Woodside Estates in the nine day period. She stated that she approached a ComEd employee working on the outages two times and both times they were very rude to her. She further stated that ComEd should do something different to prevent all these outages. Resident Wil Anderson stated that he never experienced so many outages as he did living in Oak Brook. He stated that there seems to be an inherent weakness on the pole in Wood Glen near York Road and Forrest Glen Lane. He asked why this has never been addressed by ComEd. ComEd stated that they will look into the problem and potential upgrade. Resident Harry Peters stated that ComEd should be responsible for tree trimming above the 10 ft. radius not the property owner. He asked ComEd if they are able to trim trees in the easement. ComEd answered yes as long as the Village issues a permit. He also stated that ComEd needs to improve equipment in Forrest Glen and other parts of Oak Brook. He further stated that residents need to call in an outage because that is how ComEd finds out. Resident James Chan stated that the power supply in York Wood is very unstable even when there is not a storm. He also stated that Chatham Lane experiences a lot of flooding. He cleans the street drains during storms in order to not experience flooding. He stated that this should be done by the Village, not the residents. He further stated that residents have signed a petition and will present it to the Village for more drains to be put on Chatham Lane. Manager Niemeyer stated that the Village is aware of other streets that have flooding problems and is working on a solution for all with Michael Hullihan, Public Works Director. Resident Arlyne Dvorsky stated that she lives in York Wood and experiences outages all the time, sometimes for hours and sometimes for a few minutes. She asked if York Wood is tied to power from Westchester. ComEd stated that York Wood may have been tied to Westchester in the past. Residents Kathy and Mike Watts stated that there are three cul -de -sacs in Forrest Glen that seem to be separated from the rest of the subdivision because they experience outages when the other homes do not. Kathy stated that ComEd needs to improve the outdated infrastructure in the area. She also stated that ComEd workers in the field do not find their way around town easily and are frustrated with the infrastructure as well. Mike stated that the profits that ComEd make should go to investing in the future and upgrading the infrastructure rather than purchasing other companies. Resident Bill Kenny stated that residents are most concerned with prevention and what ComEd will do to minimize the problems in the future. He also stated that the Village VILLAGE OF OAK BROOK MINUTES Page 3 of 5 SPECIAL MEETING OF AUGUST 12, 2010 Page 3 needs to address the issue of installing underground cabling. President Craig asked ComEd if they conducted an analysis comparing employee overtime costs and the cost of installing underground cabling in areas that have frequent outages. John O'Halloran stated that he does not know if ComEd conducted such a study and that if it was advantageous to install underground cabling it would have been done already. Resident Gopal Lalmalani stated that he lives in Hunter Trials and he experiences outages on a monthly basis. He also stated that there are leadership issues with both the Village and ComEd. The process of developing a solution to the problem needs to be started between the two parties. He further stated that the Fire, Police and Public Works Departments did a tremendous job during the two storm events. He reminded everyone that the damage assessment form from the assessor's office for flood damage needs to be filled out and faxed by Monday. John O'Halloran from ComEd explained the different causes of momentary and sustained outages and how they are handled by ComEd. Trustee Aktipis stated that an analysis of Oak Brook areas that have frequent interruptions needs to be done to determine what is causing the interruptions and any weaknesses need to be addressed to solve the problem. Manager Niemeyer stated that the cost of underground cabling is very expensive, very involved and needs to be done on a regional basis. Residents Dave and Sandi Saxman state that they have frequent outages. Trustee Carson stated that an assessment of certain areas in Oak Brook needs to be conducted. Resident Kifi Akbar stated that she was out of power off and on for 7 days and how upset she was to find out that ComEd was not aware of the situation. She also stated that she would like a list of deliverables sent to the Homeowners Association President of Forrest Glen or a grass roots committee will be formed. A resident asked if the integrity of the entire infrastructure is compromised when repairs are done on sections only. ComEd stated no. A resident asked if the Village can purchase their electricity from another supplier or if another supplier can maintain the equipment. Manager Niemeyer stated that there are towns that run their own electricity systems but it is very costly. ComEd stated that there are other suppliers that residents can purchase electricity from but they are the only company that can deliver the electricity so therefore the only company that can maintain all the wires. ComEd also stated that they are committed to remedy the problems that the northeast section of Oak Brook is having with the reliability of service and will have an update or resolution between 30 -45 days. VILLAGE OF OAK BROOK MINUTES Page 4 of 5 SPECIAL MEETING OF AUGUST 12, 2010 Page 4 Resident Rosa Rena asked if ComEd wants residents to report the momentary outages and why is it that ComEd does not know when an outage has occurred without the resident notifying them. ComEd stated all outages need to be reported and that they are alerted through their system of mass outages but not single resident outages. All outages should be reported to 1- 800- Edison1. Resident Trombetta stated that she wants someone to say they will fix the problem. Trustee Aktipis stated that once they receive the assessment from ComEd, the Village will be working on a solution to fix the problem. A resident asked if ComEd is going to reimburse residents for spoiled food and hotel stays. ComEd stated that there is a claims form that can be filled out by the resident. A resident stated that ComEd can avoid a lot of issues if they would upgrade their infrastructure. 5. ADJOURNMENT Motion by Trustee Aktipis, seconded by Trustee Moy, to adjourn the Special Meeting of the Board of Trustees at 8:58 pm. VOICE VOTE: Motion Carried. ATTEST: /s/ Charlotte K. Pruss Charlotte K. Pruss Village Clerk VILLAGE OF OAK BROOK MINUTES Page 5 of 5 SPECIAL MEETING OF AUGUST 12, 2010 Page 5