MissionMainStreet by Tom Barwin

Last fall the Village Board approved an ordinance which provides for free electric vehicle parking in Oak Park throughout 2011 and 2012. Last week one of our forward thinking residents took advantage of our mini-incentive. Our very first free EV Parking permit was issued to Oak Park resident Glenn Hunter, of North Elmwood Street, on Valentine’s Day. Appropriate timing for those who love clean air!    

Glenn was kind enough to take a few of us for a spin around town on this cold, snowy, Tuesday morning.    

Glenn’s E-Car was brought to the US market by the Electric Car Company, based in Missouri. It retails for $18,900. E-vehicles are eligible for a 10% federal tax credit which reduces the retail price of the car to $17,010.

Glenn’s E-car is built on a chassis made in China, adopted from the gas vehicle world.  14 million vehicles around the world use the same chassis as the E-car.   

I have to say the ride was comfortable. Glenn’s E-car also has all the basic amenities including heat, air conditioning, and am/fm/cd player. The car comes with a one year warranty for parts and labor and a 3 year warranty for parts including all the electronics.   

Glenn has been engaged in using, promoting, and selling clean energy (solar) since the 1970s. He remains passionate about our climate, and believes his E-car is the best, most affordable, “urban commuter / neighborhood” E-car the market has seen to date. 

Glenn intends to use his E-car for his vehicular travel needs around town and around Chicagoland. The manufacturer claims a range of 59 miles but Glenn plans on a 40 mile range until he proves otherwise. The recharge cord is always in the car.     

With gas prices rising once again, it’s increasingly relevant to know that the E-car costs about $1.20 in electricity to “fill up”. The E-car batteries can be 50% re-charged in just two hours from a standard 120 volt plug. The regenerative breaking system also helps charge the batteries while traveling. 

Converting to miles per gallon, Glenn’s E-car gets an eye popping, money saving, 168 miles per gallon.  Wow!  If that’s not enough, Glenn is working on ways to integrate his new E-car recharging set-up with solar panels to take a shot at making his new e-wheels carbon neutral. That would be truly amazing.

The 4-door, standard transmission, front wheel drive E-Car has far fewer parts than a gas car. The ride, which reminds me of a fun FIAT I had in the 1980’s, uses 10 conventional lead acid batteries to run off, with two under the hood and eight under the back seats and in the trunk. Glenn expects to replace the batteries at 25,000 miles. Replacing all 10 batteries today could be done anywhere in the country, and would cost about $1,200.   

Glenn is confident that cost effective lead acid batteries will continue to do the job until the higher priced lithium battery technologies are perfected. A lithium battery is available for the Electric Car but bumps the price up by $7,000.   

The E-car is street legal, equipped with seat belts, and is fully licensed as a low speed vehicle under Illinois law.  Although the vehicle can go faster than 35 mph, as a low speed vehicle, state law limits its top speed to 35 mph. So the vehicle is legal on any road with a posted speed limit of 35 mph and can legally cross roads with higher speeds.

This low speed vehicle category and new system here in Illinois, means the vehicle does not need to be equipped with air bags. Slowing things down sounds like a pretty good idea, even beyond vehicles.  

Glenn will be mixing economics with his environmental passion. He has not only bought Oak Park’s first known E-car, he will also be selling them. To contact Glenn Hunter visit Ecological Products online. You can call him at 708.445.0341 or email Glenn.

With the reality of climate change and the prospects of ever increasing gas prices, the E-car, or cars like them, could be a big hit in communities like Oak Park. With so many services, shopping, and jobs available within a relatively short geographical range, the E-car fits in perfectly with the notion of sustainable living and conducting as much commerce as possible locally. With an easy 40 mile range, you can go as far as 15 to 20 miles to a job, store, medical appointment, or cultural venue and return easily without having a recharge concern.    

In metro regions like Chicago, with two big airports, commuter trains, CTA and PACE busses, taxi cabs galore, increasing numbers of shared cars, and an abundance of auto rentals for longer hauls, a short to mid-range commuter E-car is all one may need for day to day living. 

One final note, anyone who has an electric vehicle is eligible for a free E-vehicle parking permit for 2011 and 2012. Chicagoland E-vehicle owners who want to take in a bit of Oak Parks flavor, just stop in at our Parking Services counter at 123 Madison, with your E-vehicle documentation, and the staff will be glad to help you.

So congratulations to Glenn Hunter for being a pioneer and making a little Oak Park history. Who will be #2?

Like most anyone who lives in an older single-family home, I know how to check the circuit breaker box in the basement when the power goes off as my wife blow dries her hair while I am toasting a bagel.

Electricity consumers may be surprised to discover that a ComEd version of their home circuit box – albeit one taking up most of an entire building – is doing pretty much the same thing as the one in their basement, only these are located at ComEd’s substations and they serve large geographical areas, which often traverse municipal boundaries.

  But while each of the circuit breakers at my home is controlling power to just a few outlets, each of the two dozen or so giant breakers in ComEd’s largest Oak Park substation controls power to as many as 1,000 customers spread across nine nearby communities.

Village officials were recently invited to tour the substation to see how Oak Park is in the vanguard of a digital revolution in how electricity flow is monitored and managed. We are a test site for another step in the process of moving closer to the promise of a smart grid and the holy grail of uninterrupted electricity service.

As we donned coveralls, hard hats, and safety glasses before entering the nondescript compound near the main Oak Park Fire Station, our ComEd hosts said no photos once inside, which immediately had me imagining a dazzling array of Star Wars technology awaiting just beyond the heavy, gray steel doors.

I understood the clear direction to not touch anything, but I have to admit I was a little puzzled by the no-photo request as we went inside. Perhaps an experienced electrical engineer would have seen groundbreaking innovation. But to a layperson such as myself gazing down the rows of large, industrial gray metal cabinets, little I saw hinted at the technological advancements that had been incorporated into these fairly simple devices. That’s until our tour guide, ComEd’s Manager of Smart Grid Technology, Richard Gordus, and his geek team began explaining how the new system works.

Each of the cabinets still contained what was essentially a circuit breaker. But they had been outfitted with the latest digital technology that could not only shut down a circuit quickly if a problem arose, but anticipate a coming problem and instantly alert repair crews to what and where a problem had arisen.  This giant leap forward, combined with other grid technology, promises to improve reliability and reduce power outages dramatically.  Wide, cascading area outages from downed wires or downed poles or squirrel mischief can begin to be minimized and repairs made much faster.   

While the old mechanical breakers were, like those in my home, either on or off, these digital ones constantly monitor and communicate the flow of power and provide ComEd with detailed information about the state of their electricity distribution system, or grid. These digital devices can even alert ComEd repair crews to an issue via an app on a smart phone.   The current grid requires that outages be called in by customers that have outages.  Crews are than dispatched to locate and eventually repair the problem.   A pre-digital era system which has been in place since the inventions of electricity, the rotary telephone and Model T. 

Our host was quick to point out that what we were observing was a pilot program and an expensive one at that when you consider the size of the ComEd service area. The Oak Park substation is the first of 270 in the Chicagoland ComEd service area that need smart grid upgrades. But it was evident from the enthusiasm of the ComEd crew that they clearly recognized the potential this pilot project has for helping keep the power flowing through the delivery system and improving our economic competitiveness in the power hungry, perfect power demanding digital age.

Modernization of the grid should mean that both the company and consumers benefit when there are fewer outages that are much shorter in duration, which is exactly what the pilot program underway right here in Oak Park has the potential to do. By providing ComEd with the data necessary to head off some problems before they arise, and more quickly fix those that do, these digital devices will dramatically change how the electricity infrastructure is managed and maintained.   Some compare the transformation that is underway in the energy world, to that which has recently occurred in the communications world, i.e. from land line phones we used for many decades to the incredible revolutionary communication devices most of us carry around in our pockets and purses.

And that is the promise of the smart grid – everything monitored and managed by computers that rely on digital devices capable of identifying problems as they arise and fixing them before end users are affected. Digital smart meters, like the ones now installed on every electric service point in Oak Park, were the first step. These digital circuit monitors in a local substation are the second.

As analog equipment eventually gives way to digital, the electricity grid can become a dynamic system with each of its many components constantly providing real-time data to computers that manage power flow based on conditions. Such a smart grid then will be able to reroute power around problem areas, thereby limiting the number of those affected and dispatching repair crews right to the cause.   Eventually homes that create or store power will also be able to feed it back or sell it back to the grid.

Innovations tend to erupt on the scene via an aggressive news media with a voracious appetite for anything new, unusual and presumably better. Dig deeper, however, and one tends to find the real work had been underway for some time.  

One significant obstacle remains however, and that is an archiac, wires and poles regulatory system, as old as the grid itself.   Although well intended, the current regulatory system is hampering the implementation of the Chicagoland smart grid. Reform and flexibility is needed if our region really wants to be economically competitive and a leader in this job creating, climate repair movement.

Pondering what we saw and heard during the tour of ComEd’s Oak Park smart substation, I can’t help but think we had a glimpse of the next wave of true innovation, but still in its early, formative stages. Someday, perhaps we will be able to say that Chicagolands energy transformation started to be truly implemented right here in Oak Park, inside a little compound tucked away by the railroad tracks near a fire station.

Touring the GE Appliance Reliability Lab with David McCalpin, General Manager of Home Energy Management

Louisville, Kentucky - This past Thursday morning, as things were heating up in Egypt and the mid-west remained in a deep freeze, Sustainability Manager KC Poulous and I headed to General Electric’s Appliance Park in Louisville Kentucky. The purpose of our trip was to explore public/private collaborations related to community based energy and environmental sustainability initiatives.

KC’s flight was sponsored by the Galvin Initiative. My flight was covered by fees I earned for the Village last fall by teaching a local government course to Chinese government officials visiting Chicagoland.

As a result of our trip we hope to see a few Electric Vehicle charging stations installed in public parking bays in Oak Park this summer. Nearly all automakers plan on bringing electric vehicles to market over the next few years, so it is strategically important that early and potential Electric Vehicle users know that public recharging stations will be available when necessary in between home recharges.  Just last week Oak Park processed our first application from an EV owner to qualify for free EV parking in Oak Park throughout 2011 and 2012.

For EV’s to succeed this time, we need to start creating the EV infrastructure now, particularly in urban areas. EV’s need to succeed because they will reduce green house gas emissions into the atmosphere, lessen our dependence on volatile and diminishing oil supplies,  stimulate American research & development, and strengthen our manufacturing base.

As energy costs rise and the reality of climate change takes hold, in home energy management coupled with energy saving appliances will also become mainstream on mainstreet.

Since Oak Park now has smart electric meters in all of our homes, we are also hoping Oak Park, GE, ComEd, Galvin, and perhaps other partners can collaborate on a pilot project in Oak Park to test in-home energy management strategies. The new generation of smart appliances will be able to reduce or defer an appliances energy use during periods of peak or critical energy demand. These advancements can help lessen peak pressure on the energy grid, save customers on their energy bills, and reduce green house gas emissions.

All good things.

Touring the GE Test Kitchen, learning more about induction cooking with GE’s J. Thompson; K.C. Poulous, VOP Sustainability Manager; GE’s Dave McCalpin and myself.

As important as the sustainability movement is, the other story unfolding at GE in Louisville is just as interesting to a former Detroiter like myself. GE manufacturing will be hiring again!

The back story is GE’s massive, 1.5 square mile industrial park called Appliance Park was built in the 1950’s. The park is so big and employed so many people at its peak that it has its own traffic control signals. At one time over 25,000 people were employed in manufacturing at Appliance Park. We know the story, the confluence of globalization, increased competition, adversarial labor-management relations and other factors transformed a once busting complex into a shadow of its former self as employment at Appliance Park plummeted from a high of 25,000 to a low of 5,000. A snap shot of the recent American manufacturing economy.

In Louisville we learned GE is bringing back some appliance manufacturing lines from other countries and expects to create 2,000 new jobs at Appliance Park. Over the next year employment at Appliance Park will head back up toward 8,000 jobs. Labor-management relations have evolved and all are striving to work together. American built quality and productivity can now overcome the advantages of lowest cost production when long distance product shipping costs and quality are factored in.   Of course, it will also help if Americans try to buy products built in America whenever reasonably possible.  

What we may be seeing, or perhaps hoping, is that the global, lowest cost manufacturer economy (or race to the bottom as my UAW relatives might say)  that has cost our country millions of manufacturing jobs may be giving way to a smarter, more rational, loosely knit, regionally based, albeit global economy. This would be a good thing. Regions would be wise to start planning for it.

Before & after pics of a parking lot on South Maple. See ‘Snow Day’ pics at the Wednesday Journal.

The NFL Super Bowl won’t be played until tomorrow, but Oak Park Village employees embraced Tuesday’s white out, 20 inch, thunder blizzard as our own personal Super Bowl. Our game plan goal of keeping roads open for emergency vehicles throughout the blizzard and having the Village dug out and navigable within 24 hours of the storm ending was achieved!

Human Resource Director Frank Spataro’s pre storm duties included recruiting extra snow plow drivers from the ranks of Village employee’s to supplement our recession reduced DPW crews

Led by by Public Works’ Director John Wielebnicki the village put together a text book response to a near record blizzard that weather experts and state officials accurately warned would be very dangerous and life threatening.  John took the advanced weather reports seriously, strategized his manpower and equipment needs, filled the salt bins, with HR recruited non-DPW employees who had snow plowing experience, lined up private contractors to supplement village crews, put his game face on and opened snow command before the first snow flake hit pavement.

Fire and EMS Department service calls doubled during the storm

Our team took the offensive and was in full response mode by noon Tuesday, well before the rush hour white out. Like the MVP quarterback that he is, John went into battle with a solid game plan but called several audibles as events dictated.

The 48 hour storm match didn’t have a half-time so John and his key flankers caught a very few winks over night on cots, provided by the health department, which were set up in chilly public works offices.  Our team stayed on offense until every street, alley, and transit connection was re-opened after the whipping mother nature attempted to put on us. 

Tailgaters digging out on South Boulevard

Our drivers, and all the men and women in Chicagoland who were out fighting the blizzard, who actually got the work done, all deserve a special game ball and tip of the helmet. They worked very long hours in extremely treacherous conditions.   To avoid accidents and injury plow drivers had to be focused and alert throughout the all night and Wednesday morning prime time storm response.    As plows tried to wiz down the streets and use velocity to push enormous amounts of snow some cars were still out and getting stuck in streets during the white out conditions.  The volume of snow and drifts made sidewalks unwalkable so the few pedestrians who were out for whatever reason were walking in the streets.  Dicey circumstances indeed.

L CTA and PACE buses: 1 stuck, 1 broke down, 2 trapped  | R CTA bus slides into Marion street viaduct

The Village’s relatively new Public Works facility on South Boulevard is proving to be a fantastic facility to work out of, and the Blizzard of 2011 gave us the first chance to really test our new emergency operations center.  From this experience and with citizen input we learned a few lessons for next time but overall our DPW, Police, Fire, Parking, and support departments worked very well together throughout the event.  Although 3 of our older trucks went down with overheated transmissions our fleet services crew kept our equipment functioning between runs to excavate some of our equipment which occasionally got stuck in massive drifts.

Our Housing Department, Business Services, and Recycling Managers all made their way to DPW at the break of dawn on Wednesday morning to help with the phones as residents awoke.  The Law Department came in to cook real food for the crews on break. The Public Information staff worked to communicate with residents through the local press as well as tweeting, facebooking, emailing, and scrowling short messagese on VOP cable TV.  We also stayed in communication with ComED as 500 homes and the Central Fire Hall experienced lengthly power outages during the storm. As the dig out began we were in close communication with school district D-97 and D-200 as well as the Parks District.  All had a major dig out of their own to tackle. 

Pedestrians came out with the sun with many walking to one of our 11 business districts for snow day supplies

As I write this Saturday morning update, things appear to have returned ALMOST back to normal. Main Street is open for business and business appears to be brisk.  Waste Management just passed through my alley collecting trash and recyclables just one day behind the regular schedule.

Neighbors working together.    Out and about inspecting streets for emergency vehicle passage Police Chief Rick Tanksley observed one spirited neighborhood appearing to be having a block party which included a barbeque.  More pics at the Wednesday Journal.

But the enduring memories I will take from the Blizzard of 2011 was how the sun came out after the storm, how pretty the snow was and how good we felt that nobody got seriously injured or died from this event. The bonus was seeing all the kids around town wearing big snow day smiles and the good people with able backs, strong hearts and snow blowers helping less able neighbors shovel out their sidewalks (including Mark, Val, Randy and others in my hood) as well as seeing the platoons of citizens who got together to open up their alleys even before Village equipment could get there.

Drifts at Village Hall were five feet tall.

Our snow battle even made the Los Angeles Times. Go figure.

So thanks to all who fought the storm, all who helped each other out, and all who demonstrated patience and civility.  Events and challenges like the storm is what being a community is all about.

DPW Director John Wielebnicki accepting flowers from a kind and grateful citizen who appreciated the effort and results

Our most special thanks goes out to the kind citizen who sent flowers to Village Hall for our efforts.   In today’s remote control, internet world, it seems the angry, invisible, often unnamed critics with access to keyboards seem to dominate the freedoms of the gigabyte world, so it was really nice to get the flowers and hear more directly from so many others who had positive things to say about the effort.    I presented the flowers to our storm fighting MVP quarterback, John Wielebnicki, for the team effort he led in recognition of  the men and women who worked their tails off to get the job done!  

Oak Park, good town, good people, darn good snow storm fighters.

PS.  Our 4 legged friends may be happy to know the meltdown should begin on Valentines Day.   Let’s hope it’s gradual.   We could use a few extra days to recover before going into flood fighting mode!  Happy Super Bowl Sunday all.

Anyone remember this headline?

The front page of the Chicago Sun-Times in 1967.

…and 2011