Quarry 'Tone-Deaf' On La Grange Flooding: Official

LA GRANGE, IL – A nearby quarry showed that it was "tone-deaf" about flooding that La Grange says the quarry caused, a village official said this week.

Village President Mark Kuchler spoke about the closing arguments that took place Friday and Monday in litigation between the village and Hanson Aggregates, which owns the quarry in McCook.

"It was hard to hear the quarry's attorney talk about how unfair and upsetting it was that the quarry may have to take some water in," Kuchler told the Village Board.

For years, he said, La Grange residents have put up with ruined basements, lost possessions and repeated nightmares about flooding.

The lawyer's comments, he said, were "tone-deaf" and likely "sickened" local flooding victims.

La Grange is trying to get the right to build a pipe across the quarry's property. It alleges the company cut the former pipe in the early 1990s in violation of an easement.

At Monday's board meeting, Dan Stanner, the attorney representing La Grange, said he believed the village presented a strong case during the trial in November. He said the village showed how the quarry knew it violated the easement when it cut the pipe.

"They interfered with the easement," Stanner said. "The argument that we made to the court was that they did it because they wanted to start mining out the land underneath it and get all the revenue and profits that came with it."

Stanner said Cook County Judge Neil Cohen doubted Hanson's central argument.

"In the quarry's view, in 1992, the village somehow agreed to never put more water in the quarry and so when (the village) developed the 50th Street storm sewer project, that was a violation of this alleged agreement," Stanner said. "It's extremely safe to say that the judge was extremely skeptical of an argument that the village ever tied its hands like that in the future."

A ruling is expected by March 9, Stanner said.

After flooding in June 2021, southside residents denounced the village for waiting on litigation to solve the flooding problem. But officials said the village would be unable to pay for the 50th Street project if it took smaller measures in the meantime.

Quarry representatives have said they do not comment on pending litigation.