To make up for the 10 or so days during which she could not get into her office, Kathy Alred Lin has been spending long hours there, pretty much by herself. Her work involves cleaning the office out, though, because the problem that kept her out for more than a week might not be going anywhere.
Alred Lin is the coordinator for the Rivershire Park and Nature Center, a facility that the Lincolnshire-Prairie View Elementary District 103 and Village Hall operate through an intergovernmental agreement, and which flooded in July. She and officials with the village and the district all say the building suffered serious damage, and the boards of both organizations are deciding what to do with it.
“This is the worst flooding we’ve ever had here,” Alred Lin said while in the middle of what she has been doing since July: separating property than can be salvaged from what must be thrown out.
The Rivershire center is a learning facility with an indoor classroom set in acres of woods at 45 Londonderry Lane; in 2016-17, District 103 held 66 activities there. It is large enough to merit controlled burns of its underbrush, which the village performed last fall, and has been a space where students learn about and experience nature.
But on July 13, the National Weather Service’s river gauge on the Illinois Route 22 bridge registered a new record high for the Des Plaines: 16.53 feet, a foot above the “major flood stage.” At Rivershire, officials said water came up through the floor drains and soaked the entire floor; Alred Lin said neither she nor anyone else could get inside for 10 days.
When the flood receded, Alred Lin said she found considerable structural damage. She said she feared mold had gotten past the drywall and into the wooden studs that support the frame – which could cause air inside to be unsafe for kids to breathe.
“We would no longer be able to have kids learning out here,” she said, adding that the outdoor spaces have dried out and are fine again.
Lincolnshire village manager Brad Burke and District 103 Supt. Scott Warren both said they have together spent about $17,000 cleaning items that can be removed and reused. Refurbishing the damage throughout the building, though …Burke said that could cost another $106,000.
He said the last appraisal of the entire land, structure and contents valued everything at $600,000. Mayor Liz Brandt noted that the district just finished a major capital project, making additions to a pair of its schools, while the village is funding infrastructure needs of its own – and Rivershire suffered minor flood damage in the deluge of 2013 as well.
“The concern I have is where we put the money,” she said. “There’s been a lot of damage from water throughout the community. To me, it’s becoming a black hole.”
There are two other nature centers within 1.5 miles of Rivershire: the Lake County Forest Preserve District’s Ryerson Woods facility and the independently operated Brushwood Center at Ryerson Woods. Ann Maine, president of the Lake County Forest Preserve, said her facility could handle a more kids.
“The educational programming at Ryerson serves thousands of children each year,” Maine said. “I don’t see Dist. 103 overwhelming the programs.”
Neither board has approached any votes about what to do with Rivershire, and Warren stressed that anything is possible.
“We’re beginning to look at options for that,” he said. “We’re in the inquiry stage.”
But inside her classroom, where workers have already ripped the floor trim off, Alred Lin pointed out that Rivershire stands in a 15-year flood plane.
“It’s getting to be about once every five years,” she said. “To put that much money into it…”
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And she paused, then went back to stacking boxes full of reusable contents.