Village President James Dhamer has not given up on the idea of getting electric power lines buried in the village.
At the Village Board meeting Thursday night, Dhamer told trustees that he has set up a June 26 meeting with affected landowners and a consulting engineer to discuss how to work with Commonwealth Edison to get the proposed lines buried.
“I’m very disappointed that you cannot get ComEd to listen to you about new technology,” Dhamer said.
Dhamer said he has approached the utility about having a private contractor install the underground lines.
“There’s no reason why this can’t go out for private enterprise to bid on it,” Dhamer said.
Edison has said that burying the power lines would cost up to seven times more than running them overhead and that Huntley and neighboring communities would have to foot the bill.
This week, Harvard, another municipality that objected to overhead lines, worked out a compromise with the utility. That agreement will allow Edison to install the lines overhead in that community but will restrict the size of the poles and the voltage of the lines.
