Holiday Light Display Awaits Fixed Connection

Workers from Commonwealth Edison and the are working to repair an “improper” connection along Lake-Cook Road, which had threatened to reduce the size of the village’s annual holiday light display.

The display usually includes trees on the village campus at Raupp Boulevard and Lake-Cook Road and parkway trees east and west of the intersection.

But village officials last week informed the power company that an electrical connection that supplies power to the parkway was “improper” and unsafe, ComEd spokeswoman Alana Johnson said.

“Upon investigation, we determined that the connection was not made by ComEd, it is indeed improper and poses a safety concern,” she said.

The utility disconnected the power Nov. 16 and was working to install a proper and safe connection in time for the traditional lighting of the display Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving.

Deputy Village Manager Ghida Neukirch said she didn’t know who installed the parkway connection, but she expressed confidence it would be fixed by Wednesday.

A ComEd spokesman said the hookup dated back more than two decades.

Johnson said during that time, the village didn’t pay for the electricity, but that a new account would be established once the new connection is fixed.

Bennie Currie, another ComEd spokesman, said the village would be paying for the parkway service from now on.

The job of stringing those lights probably will fall to Public Works employee Jeff Hennig, who already has attached 2,500 lights to the 100 trees outside and the service center.

He starts decorating the trees in October and this year finished those in front of the second week in November. He figures that he put in 150 hours on the job.

“It’s all I do between October and November,” he said. “I went in circles before. This year I’m going up and down to see how it looks.”