On Wednesday, April 9, residents of Lathrop Homes experienced a major power outage which shut down electricity throughout the whole development and shut down most offices. Residents had lights out for days. U.S. Dwellings, the management company for Lathrop, put an emergency plan into effect. Lending a hand were Commonwealth Edison along with CHA representatives from headquarters.

They walked around the development to determine what had caused the problem. Management's janitorial staff worked late into the night to be of whatever assistance they to could to residents. They were knocking on doors and checking on those known to have oxygen tanks or any illness that might require immediate attention as a result of the blackout.

During the power outage, one of our young residents lost her life in a fire. Then there was more media attention, and CHA representatives from downtown returned. Electricity would be out for the next 24 hours, while management staff were in the process of getting more generators to add to those in place. But all in all, many residents looked at the good side of things: offers of helping with food, and the assistance provided by the Red Cross and the Illinois Department of Human Services.

This was an accident waiting to happen. Most residents feel CHA should inspect its electrical equipment more often. We regained power - the generators are gone and transformers are in place - by press time. Throughout the blackout, most residents felt management and its janitorial staff did a very good job of trying to help keep things normal.

Some residents are upset that they have not been compensated for food they lost when they only receive food stamps once a month. Again, let's remember that this is downtown. But if you've lived in the development as long as I have, you will see management is doing the best with what they have and is keeping the residents informed as to what is happening.

After all, the current management company only recently came in, and we have experienced these black outs - although not as long - in the past. Also to be praised are the staff of the service connector and all the interagency people who helped out.

For now, many residents are thankful that nothing much worse happened.
Resident leaders are urging residents to get and keep a united front and make CHA accountable for its own mistakes. We need a united front because with numbers you can make things work.

Remembering
Let's keep remembering the Miller Family in our prayers for their loss has been greater than any of ours.

Friends of the River
Friends of the Chicago River held the River Rescue Day clean up and picnic in Lathrop Homes on Saturday, May 10. A good turn-out of residents met at the Cotter Boys and Girls Club and had a great time.

Victory
Congratulations to the new First Ward Alderman Manny Flores.

Summer Jobs
Let's get as many of our kids in summer camp and summer jobs as we can. Whatever positive activities we can find for them will help us all have a very happy and safe summer.