DTE talks about power in Leonard and Addison

As DTE Energy’s Director of Regional Customer Operations for your community, I would like to address some concerns brought forward by the village of Leonard and Addison Township officials and other DTE customers through this publication earlier in the month (Supervisor, village prez tour power lines with DTE reps, Feb. 1).

We realize that there have been several outages along your circuit over the past six months and apologize for not being able to provide you with the level of electric reliability you expect, and that we at DTE strive to deliver.

Let me share with you some reasons for those recent outages: Extreme weather accounts for some interruptions, but first and foremost is trees and branches that came into contact with our equipment. Across our system, that accounts for about half the outages that occur, and that ratio was mirrored with the recent issues in and around Leonard as well.

We are committed to the further spot trimming of trees in your community, which will help to lessen the number of outages, and lower the average time without power when they do happen. Our Customer Excellence team will also be patrolling the circuit soon and making plans for performing upgrades and replacements of DTE equipment as needed.

Further, our engineering team is actively investigating the structure of your entire circuit. It’s currently divided into zones to help lower the impact of any outage. We are looking into whether further dividing up this circuit could help lessen outage impact for our customers here even more.

Again, we appreciate your concerns and feedback. We apologize for the recent interruptions in DTE electric service this community has experienced and will be working hard to improve your circuit in Leonard and Addison Township, to provide you with the power you need, and the reliability you deserve.

Sandeev Sarna

DTE Energy

Oxford ‘best-kept secret’

Dear Editor,

I want to share what I think is the best-kept secret in Michigan today.

After a devastating loss by Republicans last November across all levels of government, one of the biggest stories receiving very little coverage is right here in town.

Josh Schriver, a 30-year-old resident of Oxford, was newly elected to be the State Representative for folks in Ortonville, Brandon, Oxford, Addison, Leonard, Oakland, Bruce, Romeo, and Washington townships. But it isn’t just his age that makes him stand out.

Schriver wants to turn around the negative view most people have about politicians. What is unusual is that he is willing to stand up and say “No!” to the excesses we often see coming out of Lansing. He believes in transparency, so he posts on Facebook how he voted, along with an explanation for his vote. Only one other State Rep does that. He believes in the Michigan Constitution and is only one of two legislators who raised the majority of their campaign funding from residents in their district. He also said he believes the spending should benefit everyone, not just special interests. Pretty remarkable.

I feel people in our community would like to read more about this rising star in the Michigan Legislature. He lives right here in Oxford, which makes my interest even greater. Let’s keep an eye on this guy!

Jay R. Taylor,

Oxford