La Grange Village President Mark Kuchler gave a brief update on the village’s ongoing litigation with Lehigh Hansen Quarry at Monday night’s board meeting, an issue that has a significant effect on residential flooding.
But with some residents, patience is wearing thin.
“The flooding is always discussed, but it’s never on the agenda, and it’s never voted on,” Laura West told the Board.
West who lives on Sunset Avenue near the Lyons Township High School Soccer Field, stressed that she understood the difficulty of the problem.
“We know it’s a big, hard difficult issue,” she said, while noting that residents were anxious for an answer. “The trust is gone, the patience is gone . . . we don’t have the luxury of time.”
West said the residents interpreted “hard work as something on the agenda, something being approved.”
Sarah Gaul also lives on Sunset Avenue and echoed West’s sentiments and wondered about the progress on the MARS project (Maple Avenue Relief Sewer) that would help relieve the flooding in their area.
“We are looking forward to a more formal action,” she said, noting the amount of taxes homeowners paid each year.
“Where is the capital outlay (for projects),” she asked. “We need to see more action.”
(MARS, a portion of which is already completed, is a relief sewer along Maple Avenue designed to increase capacity by 50 %)
Trustee Beth Augustine sought to assure the residents that village officials were working on the problem.
“We are on it,” she said. “You will see.”
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Contacted later, Kuchler said he thought residents shouldn’t lose trust.
“We’ve been very consistent in what we’ve said,” he said, stressing that the Village was “very focused on the litigation with the quarry.”
Kuchler said that the MARS project would triple the capacity of the Village runoff capacity and “was definitely a priority,” but also pointed out challenges MARS presented.
He explained that the village was limited by a consent decree that let the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District not accept any of the village’s extra runoff until 2029.
Then there are the costs involved.
While a portion of MARS was complete, there were still 15 blocks to be constructed, at a current price of about $1 million per block.
“We don’t have the money currently,” Kuchler said.
And with the MWRD not willing to help with costs, Kuchler said the Village would be seeking grants from other governmental entities.
“We’re working on all available remedies,” he said. “There’s no easy solution.”
The next La Grange Village Board meeting will be Monday, October 24, 7:30 p.m. at the La Grange Village Hall, 53 S. La Grange Road.
Hank Beckman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.