Springfield's City Water, Light and Power is starting to put a price tag on it's efforts to get power restored and make other repairs in the wake of the recent derecho.
Utility Engineer Doug Brown Friday estimated the cost for his department to be around $15 million. As for repairs, he said CWLP has replaced 150 poles, 167 cross arms, 376 fuse links, 400 insulators and 39 transformers. On top of that, thousands of feet of wire.
But Mayor Misty Buscher was quick to point out that is not the total amount the city is paying. "That's not overtime of our employees. That's not any other city agency, including public works. So, the cost is mounting."
Buscher said state government has been assisting with data collection. That will be used for a likely request to receive federal disaster aid. The mayor said a threshold of $22 million needs to be met to qualify.
She said IDOT and IEMA have been working with the city, and she spoke with Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Deputy Gov. Andy Manar after the storm.
Brown said CWLP can't give estimates for power restoration in specific areas. "We're not there yet," he added.
As of late Sunday, only a handful of customers remained without power.
