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Residents,
First of all, happy St. Patricks day to our Irish residents and all others who are Irish for the day. And a beautiful one it was.
We are in the end game of the ordeal inflcted on so many by the storm of last Saturday. The remaining large pocket of approximatley 60 homes in the Fairlane/Southgate/Kent/Conchrane area are in their fifth day still without power. But our Village Manager, Fran Frobel, managed to scare up two crews (at least one of which was apparently up from Georgia) and they were busy all day replacing broken and downed telephone poles in the afflicted neighborhood. I personally counted at least four new poles in place. The police indicated tonight that some were strung with wire, though not yet powered. There is some conflicting information about when the work will finish: the police have heard that it should be finished tomorrow, as I did from at least one contractor on site. However, there is a recurrent and persistent
theme we are hearing about depleted supplies of equipment such as transformers and that the fix may take until Saturday. So, rather than raise hopes only to be dashed, let us remain hopeful that this will draw to an end shortly.
The police and fire chiefs walked the homes in the still-dark neighborhood today to check up on everyone - lots of good-natured (if a little frustrated and understandably bedraggled) residents were around but nobody in crisis. Certainly, the work underway was encouraging news. The weather, as well, was lovely.
Again, we're at the tail end of one of the longest extended outages in recent memory. It certainly underscores how much we take for granted that the assumed magic of light is always a flick of a switch away, except when it isn't.
Peter Swiderski
Mayor
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