Flooding Inaction? La Grange Official Disputes Charge

LA GRANGE, IL – Residents on a street in La Grange on Monday suggested the village was doing nothing about flooding in their neighborhood.

The village president disagreed, but said he understood their frustration.

At the same time, two village trustees said the village should detail how it plans to deal with flooding in other areas besides south of 47th Street.

South of 47th has been ravaged by flooding, with the village planning the multimillion 50th Street storm sewer project to address it. That is tied to the successful outcome of pending litigation.

In recent Village Board meetings, resident Laura West, who lives in the 100 block of South Sunset Avenue, has expressed frustration with the repeated flooding at Sunset and Elm avenues.

At Monday's meeting, West noted she grew up in the house where she now lives. The flooding only became a problem in the last three years, she said.

The water has touched her house a number of times this year. She said the village was doing nothing about the neighborhood's problem.

She said she and her neighbors would have to become more aggressive about getting their point across until they saw the issue on the board's meeting agenda.

Another Sunset resident, Stuart Smith, said he keeps hearing officials use the words "hope" and "soon" when talking about solving the problem.

"We're losing value on our block. I think our block has a stigma," he said. "It's a very, very big problem that is not addressed. You like to say it's a priority. I'd like to see how it's a priority."

A third Sunset resident, Sarah Gaul, said the problem was "completely unbelievable."

"I am appalled by the inaction," said Gaul, who moved into her house in 2019.

In response to the residents, Village President Mark Kuchler said officials understood the residents' concerns.

"To say nothing has been done, I don't know that that would be fair," Kuchler said. "We have hired engineers to look at solutions. There is no simple solution, no quick fix that's going to address Sunset and Elm."

Trustee Lou Gale said the village needed to create a plan to deal with flooding outside the 50th Street storm sewer project. In the next few months, he said, the village should let residents know when other projects can be done.

Trustee Beth Augustine said Sunset residents knew their problem couldn't be fixed immediately.

"You know that it's big and expensive. You are asking, 'What is it and when? Can I see something in writing and something talked about in a meeting?'"

She said she knew it was painful for the residents to keep coming to meetings to say and hear the same things.

But Augustine said the feedback was helping.

"We'll have something at the next meeting, I will," she said.

The village has said the Maple Avenue relief sewer project, known as MARS, would ease drainage problems at Sunset and Elm.

But officials have said the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District would only allow the village to use half the capacity of the Maple drainage pipe until 2029.

"The reason something wasn't done yesterday is that it won't do any good until 2029," Kuchler said at a meeting in July.