Townhome Owners Fight ComEd To Move Power Poles That Are 'Barriers' To Their Garage
CHICAGO (CBS) -- One Bensenville couple has spent the better part of a decade fighting two stationary foes -- power poles on their property. They say they're a hazard and claim promises to remove them fell flat.
Violet Jaworski and Constantine Theodos say they are more than pesky power poles.
They're safety concerns and barriers to their garage, they say.
"I hit the pole a couple times in the winter time," said Theodos.
Both poles were present before the bought the townhome, the one closest to the poles. The poles were there before all of the townhomes were even built. But Jaworski and Theodos have been fighting to get them removed for years.
"And when they saw those two utility poles, they were shocked that something like that was left, and nobody did anything. So they said that they would remove," said Jaworski.
Jaworski said emails from 2014 show ComEd was set to relocate the poles and bury the power lines, but those plans disappeared. A few years later, a Bensenville spokesperson said the village offered to pay part of the cost, but the townhomes' association voted it down. It's left Jaworski and Theodos with an uphill battle and questions about the height of the live power line and concerns about why the garage was even allowed to be built so close to the poles.
"ComEd said this is a safety issue with the wires hanging over there, so they were supposed to do it," Theodos said.
The distance is less than 10 feet but all within code, said a Bensenville spokesperson. There is no code regulating that.
A ComEd representative said the poles are on the ComEd's easement, but they are going to send a team to look at the poles and the power line and present some options to the owners.