Belleville asks DTE to submit plan in writing on solution to outages

Representatives of the city of Belleville met with a DTE engineer by Zoom on Oct. 12 to talk about plans for solving the electric problems in the east side of the city.
At Monday’s regular meeting of the city council via Zoom, Mayor Kerreen Conley explained that the DTE representative said 80% of the problem was related to trees that grow over the lines and fall over the lines in storms. In other communities, it’s the same story, they were told.
Mayor Pro Tem Jesse Marcotte, who was in on the meeting, said the purpose of the meeting was to find out why this was happening. He said City Manager Tracey Schultz Kobylarz asked for a full plan to solve the problem, besides tree-trimming.
They said they would start working on this immediately. Marcotte explained they were told the average liability score for DTE is 1.3 and those who rely on Haggerty substation have a liability score of 4. But for this one section of Belleville that loses power regularly, the score is 8.1. Marcotte pointed out it is 8 times their average score.
DTE said it would inform the residents of their plans through door hangers, emails, and letter. He said DTE sounded like it was serious.
“They did not believe the service was acceptable,” Marcotte said.
Councilwoman Kelly Bates said the electric lines are underground in Victoria Commons where she lives and underground wires sometimes cause problems to repair.
Councilman Ken Voigt said he doesn’t go for the tree-trimming excuse.
“Since 2011, since the last time they trimmed trees in Belleville, every time a bird do-do’s on a wire, power goes out on the east side,” Councilman Voigt said.
Mayor Conley said the west side of the city had problems in the past and residents pushed hard to get them solved.
“It’s really simple to say it’s a tree problem – 80% trees,” said City Manager Kobylarz. “We still haven’t gotten anything in writing. We need detailed plans concerning transformers and things that blow in the storm.”
Mayor Conley said DTE indicated it would communicate with the mayor and city manager and will participate in a Zoom meeting once the city gets the plan in hand.
“They need to take some ownership in explaining it to the city,” Councilwoman Bates said.
Councilman Tom Fielder said over the years many times the city would talk with the DTE district representative and then the representative would get reassigned and they’d have to start over. He said they were told there are two to four times more trees in this city.
“I’m skeptical they will deal with the issue,” Councilman Fielder said.
Mayor Conley said the older portion of the community has a matured group of trees, especially in the area with the regular power outages.
“I’d like to see us compared with Plymouth,” Fielder said.
“I don’t think any of us will let it drop,” Mayor Conley said.
In other business at Monday’s one-hour-and-three-minute meeting, the council:
• Unanimously approved a donation for gazebo repair at Victory Park and approved a proper name plate for the Belleville Area Rotary Club. “I think Rotary has done a remarkable job with the gazebo,” Marcotte said. “I commend them for being willing to help us out.” Mayor Conley thanked Rotary for being willing to invest a significant amount of money;
• Discussed a new festival committee. The item was put on the agenda by Councilman Fielder who said he was concerned about the procedures going forward. Mayor Conley said after the Strawberry Festival was cancelled by COVID-19, there was a break and the council gave the idea of a new festival to Councilwoman Bates. Bates said there were a couple of meetings and Van Buren Township was involved. She said they didn’t want to dwell on negatives. They said in a new festival there should be no commercial vendors or carnival-type things, but there should be a focus on the lake, which would spur growth in the community. “We did not want paid committee members,” she said, noting in the past paid committee members had incomes of $40,000 and, “That’s not in our best interests.” Bates said the application for special events needs to be updated and it would be brought to the next council meeting. She said events could be approved three months in advance and then applicants would come back closer to the event to work out the details which would comply with pandemic rules and other things. Also, she said, there needs to be something done about large signs, such as the ones put up for the recent tent revival. Fielder said the council can’t approve Winter Fest if it can’t meet state requirements. “We’re living in a pandemic,” Bates said;
• Heard Bates say she’s been alerted by residents that city workers continue to smoke in city vehicles and two to a vehicle is not social distancing. She suggested getting stickers to remind workers there is no smoking in a vehicle. Kobylarz said she had that discussion last Friday at 8:10 a.m. and everyone knows there’s no smoking in city vehicles. “I’ll see if I can locate some stickers,” Kobylarz said;
• Was informed by Kobylarz that the Bureau of Justice Assistance has informed the city that it has been awarded $3,600 under the Fiscal Year 2020 Patrick Leahy Bulletproof Vest Partnership. It’s a matching grant so Police Chief Dave Robinson and Kobylarz will make a budget recommendation to council in the next few weeks;
• Learned that, as of Monday, the city has issued 1,207 absentee ballots and received 634 of them back. They still need six more people to help work the election;
• Heard Kobylarz say that Marie Krouse has volunteered to retrieve several flags from city hall to give them the proper retirements they deserve. She will be working with the local VFW and boy scout troops on the effort, which Kobylarz said is “several years overdue”;
• Learned Kobylarz is working with Mike Kole of the Chamber of Commerce on bringing a safe and enjoyable Winter Fest parade this year. She said they are considering alternate activities and parade routes and the safest way to bring this traditional event to the public; and
• Heard Mayor Conley say a 34th District Court meeting was set for Oct. 21 and she will report back on that.