Politics & Government
La Grange Country Club Called 'Bad Guy'
The club doesn't care about residents suffering from flooding, an official said.
LA GRANGE, IL – A La Grange official on Monday slammed the La Grange Country Club, accusing it of doing nothing to help the village with flooding.
"We need to remember who the bad guy is – the La Grange Country Club," Trustee Glenn Thompson said at a Village Board meeting. "The country club has refused to work with this village for the last several years."
A man answering the phone at the country club early Tuesday morning said, "We're not going to respond." The man did not identify himself.
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The village wants to build a flood wall along Brainard Avenue. It would be on village property, but would need the club's approval, the village says.
In a letter to the club in 2021, Village President Mark Kuchler said a flood wall would mean that golfers would have to wait 1½ to 3 hours while water drained from the course after 10-year and 100-year storms.
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The alternative, he said, was the continued "devastating" flooding of homes in the neighborhood.
At Monday's meeting, Thompson blamed the flooding in that area on a state Department of Transportation engineer's mistake by lowering Brainard. The agency violated the state's rule of "doing no harm" with road projects, he said.
The "saddest thing," Thompson said, is that the flooding near the club hurts the section of town known as the Country Club neighborhood. This is where the club's members and caddies live, he said.
"It's very unfair for the residents who live there because the country club just doesn't care about them," Thompson said.
Thompson, who was elected in April, co-founded Dry Up La Grange. It formed in 2021 as a result of residents' anger over flooding.
In 2021, Mike Matteucci, who had long been vocal about flooding issues in the community, was elected to the Village Board. But he resigned a couple of months later.
He said he had a conflict of interest because he was a member of the country club.
He said he disagreed the country club was among the primary causes of flooding near Spring Avenue and 50th Street and surrounding areas.
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