Darien Residents 'Very Upset' With Outage

DARIEN, IL — A power outage that affected 1,400 ComEd customers last week in the Darien area resulted in many residents feeling "very upset" with the utility, with some talking about a lawsuit, the mayor said Monday.

The outage occurred about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday when a tree fell on ComEd's system along Manning Road, between Fairview Avenue and Queens Court. Many, including Mayor Joseph Marchese, went without power for a couple of hours. For others, the problem lasted until the next day.

"The damage was extensive. There was a bright flash. It was like an explosion took place," the mayor said. "There were some people who were very upset in my subdivision who felt we should even entertain the possibility of a lawsuit against Commonwealth Edison."

Years ago, Darien sued ComEd after a substation fire that left much of Darien without power for five days, Marchese said.

"There were a lot of reasons we filed a lawsuit at that time," he said. "I understand and empathize with people... But there is no need for a lawsuit against Commonwealth Edison."

He said Darien now has a good working relationship with the utility. Shortly after last August's outages, a ComEd representative attended a Darien City Council meeting and took questions. Officials said ComEd is making progress in trimming trees in southwestern Darien, where residents lose power more often than other places.

Alderman Ted Schauer said ComEd's responsiveness to Darien was non-existent when the substation fire happened.

"Once we did the lawsuit, we had a very good response," he said.

Marchese said he invited the ComEd representative, Phil Halliburton, to come back to the council to report on the company's progress in Darien.

"The public has an opportunity to see that Commonwealth Edison hasn't walked away from us. They're making changes," the mayor said.

Alderwoman Mary Sullivan, who has been the council's point person with ComEd, said trimming has been done.

"This was a weather issue, an extreme issue with the flash. It was a much greater outage. Usually, we're looking at 80 people where this was much more widespread," Sullivan said.