Normal extends storm emergency, moves forward on energy storage zoning

Image taken by Bella Marello 

NORMAL, Ill. – Normal Town Council extended an emergency declaration and initiated the zoning of a battery energy storage system.

An emergency meeting was called by the Town of Normal to address continued local disaster emergency proclamation authority, following the tornadoes Bloomington-Normal saw on Friday.

At this meeting at 6:55 p.m. on Monday, Mayor Chris Koos signed an order for the weather disaster on Saturday. Koos said the order will soon expire and will propose to the council another emergency declaration to extend it up to seven days.

“The reason for this is it allows emergency management people to gather data and damage tally, which could help if it reaches a certain threshold in terms of allowing people that were impacted by this event to get low-interest loans or help from the government,” Koos said.

The order was approved unanimously.

At the end of the biweekly Normal Town Council Meeting following the emergency meeting, City Manager Pamela Reece shared some statistics on the storm clean-up.

“In two days, Public Works and [the] Parks and Recreation Department have been working 12-hour shifts or so to clear up trees and debris,” Reece said. “According to Mr. Otto, if I remember the numbers correctly, in two days of Saturday and Sunday, we collected about 3900 cubic yards of brush, and in the entire month of March, we collected about 3200.”

Koos thanked the workers helping with the cleanup after the tornadoes.

“Our first responders and staff, the work you did was incredible this weekend. You were mobilized. You were well organized [and] implemented incredibly well,” Koos said.

During the meeting, a motion to initiate a zoning text amendment for battery energy storage systems was proposed to the council.

Director of Planning and Zoning Mercy Davison provided some insight into what the motion means.

“Battery energy storage systems, commonly called BESS, are used to help stabilize the grid system and provide a way to store energy when there’s extra energy available, and then it’s available at times when the grid needs more energy fed back into it or on a private property when that property needs more energy.”

The motion was approved, with council member Andy Byars abstaining.

After the approval, this item will be presented to the planning commission and receive public comment, then it will be presented to the council again for final approval.

The Normal Town Council meets on the first and third Mondays of each month. Its next meeting is scheduled for May 4 at 7 p.m. at Normal City Hall.