|
Announcing the 2012 Darien Citizen of the Year!
Congratulations to
Robert & Charleen Vuillaume,
Darien 2012 Citizens of the Year. Please join us for a
Coffee & Cake Reception in their honor on March 5th during the
City Council meeting, which begins at 7:30 p.m. The
Citizen of the Year banquet will be held on March 24th at Alpine
Banquets. Tickets are $30.00 each, and can be purchased at
Darien City Hall after February 1st. For more information
please call Mary at 630-353-8102.
Coffee with Mayor Weaver
Saturday, January 21st from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m., at Jam &
Jelly Café, 7511 Lemont Road. Come share your ideas and
questions about Darien!
City Meeting and Committee Agendas
The following links will direct you to the City Meeting and
Committee agendas and packet information on our website.
Stay informed on City issues and upcoming projects!
All Agendas:
City Council Meeting Agenda:
“The Sunday Dinner” hosted by the Darien Historical Society
Sunday, January 29th at Alpine Banquets - Doors open at 1:00
p.m. Tickets are $25.00 and include Dinner, Entertainment
& Prizes. Cash bar available. Don’t miss Megan Wells
“Presenting Eleanor Roosevelt”. Please call Alice for
preferred seating tickets & more information at 630-964-6792
Darien Park District “Baby Bargain Boutique”
& Maternity Sale – Saturday, January 21st from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00
p.m. at 7301 Fairview Avenue. Buy or sell good, usable
maternity clothes, toys, baby gear & kids furniture. For
more information & to register to sell call 630-968-6400
Coyote
Mating Period Approaching
You may see more coyotes in the area in coming months, as
February through April are the typical coyote mating period. The
City encourages you to be especially careful to keep your pets
on a leash.
Coyotes are a permanent fixture in DuPage County’s rural,
suburban and urban areas. Seeing a coyote cross a field,
backyard, road or golf course does not necessarily constitute a
problem or dangerous situation, either for humans or domestic
animals. Coyotes will be more active and more visible in
late-winter/early spring during their breeding seasons. Most
coyotes are harmless; their goal is to eat more natural foods
such as mice and rabbits. However, coyotes are opportunistic. If
coyotes see easy food – such as open garbage- and aren’t afraid,
they may take advantage. That puts them in direct line for a
confrontation with pets. Coyotes are not interested in eating
pets, these are territorial disputes. This summer the Darien
Police Department has received 3 reports of small family dogs
that were killed by coyotes. Studies have shown that attempts at
eliminating all coyotes are not practical, economical or
workable. When coyotes are removed others quickly move in.
For more information on Coyotes you can visit the DuPage County
Forest Preserve District at
www.dupageforest.com.
Electric Supply Referendum
Darien City Council recently passed an Ordinance placing a
question on the upcoming March election ballot. The referendum
question is “Shall the City of Darien have the authority to
arrange for the supply of electricity for its residential and
small commercial retail customers who have not opted out of such
a program?” Prior to the referendum, residents will of course
have questions. The following Q & A attempts to answer many of
those questions.
Question: How can the City purchase power at a potentially lower
cost?
Answer: Deregulation allows the City to shop for power and
purchase in bulk for our customers at a lower price.
Question: Who will take care of my power if there is an outage?
Answer: ComEd, by law, will still be paid to distribute the
power to the homes and businesses and handle any emergency
repairs.
Question: What if I don’t want to participate in the program?
Answer: Residents will have multiple opportunities to “opt out”
of the program, which will be your right by law.
Question: How do I opt-out of the program?
Answer: Customers will have a few chances to opt-out of the
aggregation program, but must do so before the City service
begins. Customers will receive notice from ComEd informing them
of the opt-out period, who to contact, and how they must
communicate their intention to opt-out. The Illinois Commerce
Commission has yet to determine the course of action to be taken
if a customer who opted out, decides to rejoin the Community
Choice Aggregation option at a later date.
Question: What happens if the City cannot purchase or negotiate
lower rates than ComEd?
Answer: Your account would stay at ComEd and ComEd would be both
the power provider and the local distribution company. Either
way, ComEd will be our distributor. By voting yes on the
referendum, Com Ed will then have to compete with power
suppliers from throughout the Midwest to provide our power.
Question: Why is this opportunity available?
Answer: This is the last part of the Deregulation Process. Until
this Act was amended, only larger customers such as industrial,
commercial, and governmental entities could participate. Three
fourths of this commercial load is currently purchased from
sources other than ComEd.
Question: Why is the City of Darien doing this?
Answer: The City does not profit from this. We, as a
governmental organization, are trying to take advantage of the
new law to benefit our residents and small business and save
them money.
Question: I am currently enrolled in ComEd’s budget program
where you are able to spread out your ComEd electric service
costs evenly throughout the year. Will the new power provider
have this or a similar program?
Answer: The City will request that this program is included in
the bid specs.
Question: What happens if the new power provider cannot meet its
demand? Will we see brownouts? Would there be a surcharge to
cover the costs of getting power from another supplier?
Answer: In the unlikely event that a supplier could not deliver
the contracted power, ComEd would provide and deliver power to
the City residents. The Illinois Commerce Commission reviews all
power suppliers to ensure that they can meet the demand. NIMEC
and other energy consultants continue to work with the Illinois
Power Agency and the ICC to adopt rules which will alleviate
these concerns.
Question: If aggregation means lower energy costs for customers,
won’t ComEd simply increase charges on the distribution side to
protect its profit margin?
Answer: ComEd owns the distribution system only, and so does not
realize profits or losses from the sale of energy. ComEd has
worked for several years with large commercial and industrial
customers who have switched to third-party energy suppliers, and
remains supportive of other customers who switch to third-party
suppliers. In other words, there will be no impact on
distribution rates, Per ICC regulations, ComEd cannot introduce
any separate distribution fees on cities that aggregate.
Once again the City of Darien does not profit from Community
Choice Aggregation. We, as a governmental organization, are
trying to take advantage of the new law to benefit our residents
and small business and save them money. If you have any
questions, please call Scott Coren at (630) 353-8104.
|
