Government At Work

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18 –

7:30 p.m. – Crystal Lake City Council

Meeting in the City Council Chambers, 100 Woodstock Street –

 A number of proclamations have been requested by various groups including National Massage Therapy Awareness Week;

1776 Restaurant,-20^th Anniversary

 Accumation, Inc,- 40^th Anniversary

GKI, Inc – 40^th Anniversary

The Players Bench – 35^th Anniversary

ServiceMaster by Pletz -25^th Anniversary

The Council is being requested to support a Resolution in support of the Northwest Municipal Conference White Paper for solutions to inadequate ComEd outage response to repeated power outages in the Chicago region this summer. This has prompted municipal leaders in Chicagoland, in conjunction with the Northwest Municipal Conference, (Crystal Lake is a member) to craft solutions that implement higher reliability and outage response standards to better protect the health, safety and welfare of resident and businesses.

The recommendations of the NWMC White Paper call for measures to be adopted prior to any further consideration of legislation that raises rates and guarantees ComEd profits.

This consideration is the result of electric power outages that accompanied a series of severe storms in June and July resulting in extended power outages that left public facilities inoperable during crisis periods when residents and businesses were most dependent on these operations. Additionally, many communities needed to divert police and fire personnel to watch over downed power lines blocking streets for days while awaiting ComEd repair crews to arrive.

The White Paper of the NWMC has some recommendations for such situations including the recommendation of specific protocols for ComEd power restoration during widespread outage events. Also recommended are legislative and regulatory actions needed to ensure ComEd emergency management and preparedness is up to the task in future outage situations.

State Legislators are being asked to defer any further consideration of Senate Bill 1652 until the recommendations in the White Paper are adopted. SB 1652 is ComEd’s legislation to increase electric rates and corporate profits as part of implementation of “smart grid” technologies.

Among other matters before the Crystal Lake City Council for consideration are changes in parking for areas near South School with various times but primarily during drop-off in the morning and pickup in the afternoon.

Another parking issue being handled is to restrict parking Cress Creek Lake near the intersection of Cress Creek Court. Parking in this location makes it difficult for garbage trucks to make heir routine pickups along Cress Creek Lane