Buried power lines an impractical joke

I am 88 years old and a former lineman for Western United and ComEd. I have worked many stormy nights and cold winter days.

Now when the public needs additional electric lines, ComEd has been told to bury the lines. To me that is a joke. Electricity and lightning strikes want to go to the ground. Can you imagine what a good strike does to underground cables?

There is one safe way to handle electricity and that is the right way. Also, the far cheaper way is up on poles with insulators. The cost of crossing highways, roads and rivers, underground is tremendous. As for health problems, I had very few sick days off and fathered six fine children.

End of my story.

Wallace “Bud” Bohlin

Elgin