Channahon sees confusion over electricity aggregation plan
By Jeanne Millsap For The Herald-News September 21, 2012 8:18AM
Updated: October 24, 2012 6:34AM
CHANNAHON — Village Hall is still receiving calls from residents confused about how to join an electrical aggregation cost-saving program this fall.
Village Administrator Joe Pena said some feel if they voted against the village joining the aggregation last spring, then they would not be signed up for the program.
That’s not true, Pena made clear at last week’s village board meeting.
Unless Channahon residents specifically contact the supplier, First Energy, to opt out, they will automatically be signed up for the program, no matter how they voted in the election.
Last spring, Channahon voters, along with those in Braidwood, Coal City, Elwood, Frankfort, Plainfield, Romeoville, Shorewood, Bolingbrook, Homer Glen, Beecher, Crete, Downers Grove, Lemont, Monee, Peotone, Rockdale and Woodridge approved participating in the Will County Governmental League’s electrical aggregation. In July, the league chose First Energy as the official electricity supplier for the towns and municipalities that voted in favor.
Channahon residents who want the estimated 42 percent savings on their electric bill don’t have to do a thing, Pena said. It will be automatic.
Trustee Debbie Militello said she is still hearing that other suppliers are going door to door misrepresenting themselves as the league’s chosen provider, and trying to sign residents up for their own plan. That, according to league Transportation Director Hugh O’Hara, is fraud.
Pena urged residents to read the letter sent to them by First Energy carefully and comply with the directions. If they are still confused, he said, they may call the village with questions.
Residents of the unincorporated Channahon Township area along Canal Road also spoke to trustees last week asking for help with a situation they say has been going on for upward of three years. Bio sludge, they said, or solid waste from sewage treatment plants, is being spread in large quantities on farm fields near their houses and near three Channahon schools — Channahon Junior High, Three Rivers and N.B. Galloway.
Paths around the farms are a popular place for kids to ride their bikes, they said, and for school track teams to run. Pat Budd said she believed the land is not suitable for farming, anyway, and is only being used to dump the sludge.
“You can’t even breathe when they put that stuff on,” said resident Pearl Adlington.
Trustees said there wasn’t much they could do other than urge the residents to talk to the Will County Board or Channahon Township.
