[Imc-newsroom] HB 1776 signed!! (fwd)

[Molly Stentz]

Does anyone want to do a "good news" piece? an activist victory for once!

Power companies in Illinois no longer have unlimited power to
arbitrarily chop down lovely trees in our communities! They are now
mandated by law to conform to city standards, set by the city arborist.

This is pulling power down to the local level, where more residents can
reach it, and if you live in urbana at least, where we have an arborist
that cares about and values trees, trees everywhere are much safer! Whew!

The low down is below. Easy story!

-molly
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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 03 Aug 2001 11:31:12 -0500
From: Gretchen E. Knapp <geknapp at davesworld.net>
To: geknapp at davesworld.net
Subject: HB 1776 signed!!

Howdy concerned citizens!

Get out the party hats and start celebrating our first victory toward
protecting our property rights and our trees!!  And congratulate
yourselves for all of your hard work and continued support!!

HB 1776 Signed by Ryan
Yesterday Gov. Ryan finally signed HB 1776, the
utility tree-trimming bill, which became effective
immediately.  Attending by invitation only to represent you
were John McMahon and Laura Huth for C-U, and
Gretchen Knapp and Mary Lapham for B-N.
As you know, John is our hardworking attorney,
Laura founded IPCUTSOT right after the awful
tariff surfaced, Mary founded the B-N branch,
and Gretchen has been coordinating.

Witnesses to HB 1776 Signing
Reps. Rutherford, Brady, Berns, and Winkel were
present; so was Sen. Maitland.  We saw the mayors
of Normal and Flanagan, and other municipality
officers attended.  Rep. Rutherford mentioned Save
Our Trees as one of the groups who worked hard
for a resolution of the tree-trimming problem.

Media Coverage of HB 1776
We did a media blitz with TV, radio, and newspaper
interviews in C-U, B-N, Peoria, and Springfield
to educate our fellow property owners
about the bill's effect on them.  Incidentally, the
Gov. thought he was signing under an "old oak tree"
which wasn't an oak at all.  Gretchen gave the Gov.
Save Our Trees buttons and leaflets and showed
him a recent photo of an IP-butchered tree on
East Washington St. in Bloomington near the State
Farm headquarters.

What HB 1776 Does For Us:  Local Standards

If you live in a municipality with a tree-trimming
ordinance, HB 1776 says that the power company
must follow the municipality's standards for trimming.

However, the law also says that cities/towns have
to pay any additional costs of trimming according
to local ordinances.  How much and who pays?
Everyone wants to know.  Stay tuned.

What HB 1776 Does For Us:  Extended Notification
The bill extends the time period in which a power
company must notify you that they're going to trim
your trees to between 21 and 90 days.  And citizens
have a toll-free number to call if they have complaints
(this last part is in the existing law).

 If you have problems with trimming and you live under
a tree-trimming ordinance, at least you can have your
 community arborist provide an independent evaluation
and can appeal to your local government for help.

What HB 1776 Doesn't Do For Us:  Exemptions
If you don't live under a tree-trimming ordinance, your trees
will be trimmed according to ANSI A300 and OSHA standards,
which are as vague as possible.  These standards described
in the bill refer to worker safety and say nothing about methods
of tree-trimming (like "topping") or easements or how much
can be trimmed or how far away from the line a power company
can trim.  In other words,  you're out of luck.

Sure, you can phone the toll-free number and complain to the ICC.
But a tiny percentage of complaints received by the ICC are
determined as justified by the ICC.  Take a look at the customer
satisfaction section on the ICC website at www.icc.state.il.us

The city of Chicago is exempt from the law -- but not the surrounding
counties in Chicagoland.  Chicago made an agreement with
Commonwealth Edison.

And notice that this bill does not set any penalties for utility
companies which do not follow its directive.  The ICC is supposed
to regulate utilities, although many are exempt.  For example,
rural electric cooperatives like Corn Belt Energy, and muncipal-
owned power companies, like the one in Springfield, are not
regulated by the ICC.

Normal Signs Agreement With Illinois Power
After losing a lawsuit and appeal to the town of
Normal over tree-trimming, Illinois Power signed
an agreement earlier this week to work closely
with Normal's arborist in tree-trimming this fall.
Several areas of Normal have not been trimmed
for ten (10) years.  Begining in September, residents
will see IP crews around town working under the
municipality's direction beginning in September.
Help us monitor tree-trimming by reporting/checking
www.geocities.com/trimupdate/

New Tariff
Get ready for the new tariff which should be appearing
this fall.  Although the municipalities, the utilities, CUB,
and IPCUTSOT resolved many areas of disagreement,
two key areas remain.  Unfortunately, we remain under
Rutherford's 'gag order'.  Illinois' regulation of utility
easements is a very complex issue, and we hope that
clarification of utility easements will be on the agenda.

Next Mailing
We're still mailing out copies of "Power Utilities &
Tree-Trimming in Illinois" which explains HB 1776's
affect on your property rights and what you can do to
preserve those rights.  You can pick up copies at the
Champaign and Urbana libraries, the Ecology Action
Center in Normal, the Anita Purves Nature Center
in Urbana, Common Ground food store, the Farmers'
Market (ISEN table), and at ISEN's offices in Urbana.

Save Our Trees!