'Constant' Main Breaks Overwhelm Western Springs: Official

WESTERN SPRINGS, IL – Western Springs has experienced 59 water main breaks so far this year, with the issues at one point overwhelming the village staff, officials said Monday.

For all of 2023, 27 breaks were reported.

"All of these main breaks are from our aging infrastructure, so I think ultimately we'll have to address (it)," Trustee Al Fink said at a Village Board meeting.

The board approved paying bills of nearly $25,000 to two plumbing firms for dealing with main breaks last month.

"There was one weekend where we had six water main breaks over four days," said Matthew Supert, the village's municipal services director. "It was too much for our crews to handle in terms of scheduling and just the exhaustion level and the safety level. So for those, we had to bring in an outside contractor just because our crew couldn't handle the constant breaks."

Over the last few years, village officials have repeatedly pointed to problems with the local infrastructure.

They are pondering putting a property tax increase on the ballot for the April 1 election. In 2022, 54 percent of voters rejected hiking the sales tax by 1 percentage point to pay for local infrastructure.

One of Western Springs' challenges is that its income sources are limited.

That, in part, is because 95 percent of Western Springs is residential, officials say. Compared with other suburbs, the village's commercial tax base is small.

"Much of the Village’s infrastructure has surpassed its reasonable lifespan," village spokeswoman Selmin Cicek said in an email to Patch on Wednesday. "The Capital Infrastructure Plan is a comprehensive review of all the Village’s infrastructure to estimate project costs, prioritize projects based on an engineering risk assessment, and provide the Village with the tools to plan for the long term. The (plan) outlines over $200 million in recommended projects to be completed over the next 30-40 years."