La Grange Accused Of 'Little Care' For Flood-Affected Residents

LA GRANGE, IL – La Grange Village President Mark Kuchler told trustees Monday that he hasn't stopped smiling since the village's court victory over flooding earlier this month.

Then the smiling stopped.

During public comments at the Village Board meeting, La Grange residents reminded trustees about flooding in their neighborhoods.

A recent Cook County court ruling settled a long-running dispute between La Grange and a McCook quarry owned by Heidelberg Materials, formerly Hanson Aggregates.

The decision paves the way for the village to install a larger pipe along 50th Street to dump water into the quarry. Such a project is expected to help many residents south of 47th Street.

During the meeting's public comments period, resident John Pluto, who lives in the 700 block of East Avenue, asked a series of questions related to his concerns that the project would end up hurting his neighborhood.

After Pluto was done, Kuchler asked for the next speaker during public comments.

"The next speaker will just say nice things and so it'll be a break before we get the hard questions," Kuchler said.

Later in the public session, Michael Sorbara, a resident in the 700 block of 12th Avenue, started off by asking the trustees, "How many of your homes flooded or were damaged?"

Kuchler cut off Sorbara, saying he wouldn't allow a back and forth between the resident and trustees.

"I've been up here a lot of years, and I can tell you there have been a lot of times when residents have become very emotional," the village leader said. "I'm not saying you."

Sorbara then resumed, saying the city has done nothing to solve drainage problems in his neighborhood. Two neighbors have filled a drainage ditch with cement, but the village has not responded to residents' concerns about that. (In an email to Patch on Tuesday, Village Administrator Jack Knight said the village was investigating the issue.)

For years, Sorbara said, residents have suffered tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage.

"None of you guys have that effect," he said, referring to village officials. "I can understand why there's little care, and I can understand why you want me to sit down. I'm not emotional. This just sucks for us. There's very little care for our families."

He then took Kuchler to task for suggesting that Pluto's comments were negative. Pluto lives a block away from Sorbara.

Kuchler apologized.

Sorbara said he and others in the neighborhood are the hardest hit.

"We've yelled at the city," he said. "We've asked for a solution to this drainage between our ditches, and nothing happened."

He said he would regularly start coming to the village about the problem.

"This is what you need – passionate people to come up here who are actually residents who are being flooded," Sorbara said. "You can dismiss us all you want, but we're here."

Later in the meeting, Trustee Lou Gale said he was often asked by residents whether flooding has affected him.

In 2010, he said, flooding ruined the carpet in his finished basement. He pulled it out with his brother-in-law.

"I've gone through it. I know it, and I know everyone else on this board knows it too," Gale said. "It's a massive problem. It is not something where we can just dig ditches and fix it all by ourselves."

Trustee Beth Augustine said her parents' house was ruined by flooding in the first year they owned it.

"We're working really, really hard (on this problem)," she said. "I understand why it doesn't look that way."

Also at the meeting, Laura West, who lives at Sunset and Elm Avenues, spoke about flooding in her neighborhood.

She said the court victory would benefit La Grange, but said the village cannot forget about residents outside the area of those benefitting.

"It, by no means, addresses a lot of the very well-known pervasive problems throughout La Grange," she said.

West has spoken at meetings for more than a year on flooding.