Trees on my mind after storm damage
Hoffman Estates got whacked pretty hard during last week's storms.
The area near Norridge and Newark lanes was hit the hardest and saw the most power outages.
Mayor William McLeod said village officials will now look to improve tree maintenance. Some trees could have been trimmed better, and high winds dislodged those branches, which in turn struck power lines, he said.
The storm was so prolific that trees as old as 60 years were torn down. McLeod said he's spoken with Dean Bostrom at the park district, and they're willing to work together on improving tree trimming. Apparently ComEd trims trees on a four-year cycle, and branches were at their longest, as this was the fourth year for Hoffman Estates.
McLeod said he'd like to see improvement with ComEd's communication. Though municipalities like Hoffman Estates have special hotline phone numbers to talk with officials from the utility company, McLeod said getting information about the power outages was like "pulling teeth." So residents aren't the only one being frozen out.
The longest stretch I was without electricity came in 1998 when I was a sophomore in college. A tornado-like storm, called a derecho, hit and uprooted trees and caused general chaos on campus, with a curfew even instituted. We were without power for 10 days, forcing me to briefly consider studying by candlelight.
It would have been nice to know how long the power would be out so we could use up the food in our fridge before it rotted, and I'm sure many Hoffman Estates residents felt the same these last couple days. Back in college, we fired up the barbecue grill for 10 days of cookouts. But we never figured out how to grill ramen noodles.
Don't DUI: The last couple of months, televisions have been flooded (maybe that's a bad word choice?) with commercials produced by the National Highway Traffic Administration warning motorists to stay sober when driving or face an arrest. The commercials feature glassy-eyed drivers in cars full of their chosen alcoholic poison like beer or vodka and cranberry. The door opens after the police stops the car and the beverage flows out like a monsoon.
Hoffman Estates police runs programs with the National Highway Traffic Administration to conduct its own DUI enforcement stings. Extra police officers will be on the streets through Labor Day. Hoffman Estates police ranked seventh in the state in terms of number of DUI arrests. Assistant Chief Steven Casstevens said simply that the goal is to save lives.
• Do you have any interesting Hoffman Estates story ideas? Send them along to Ashok Selvam at (847) 427-4475 or aselvam@dailyherald.com.