Schaumburg, residents debate drainage issue

Up to his chin in a clogged, overflowing drainage culvert during last Thursday's storms, Peter Farris was sure there was a better way to keep his Schaumburg street and neighbors' homes from flooding.

Farris was clearing tree limbs and debris from a grate meant to keep kids out of the culvert along Sunset Park.

But the grate also gets clogged, causing the flooding. And he feels it should be the village's responsibility to clear it, as his side of Niagara Avenue is in Schaumburg.

While going out in the thick of the storm wasn't his favorite option, it seemed the lesser of two evils as his street began looking like the natural wonder that gave it its name.

"The biggest issue is that if this goes underwater, these homes' sump pumps won't work," Farris said.

A public works official did come by in a truck to observe the situation, but then drove off again, Farris said.

He and his neighbors are asking the village for help again to fill in the troublesome open culvert.

Officials say the residents themselves bear a large part of the financial responsibility.

Talks with the village's engineering department in 2003 resulted in a draw, with both sides unwilling to assume the cost of improvements.

Both sides know filling in the ditch would be costly, though no formal estimates have been made.

A special service tax that could have filled in the ditch was offered to residents about 15 years ago, but village records show none of these households along Niagara Avenue chose to participate.

Village Manager Ken Fritz said the decision to provide drainage in this manner was made by the original developers. When later homeowners came along, they bought their houses essentially "as is" and paid somewhat less in the absence of the improvement they now want, he said.

"It's not fair for the village to go back and use tax dollars to pay for a public improvement of value only to private individuals," Fritz said.

He added the village was willing to do what it could to facilitate any project residents might desire, but that financing such work would still mainly fall to them.

As the drainage ditch lies in the public right-of-way, resident David Judycki feels the village should be as responsible for drainage there as anywhere else in town.

"It's not our property and not our water flowing through there," he said. "To me, it's their storm water. The fact that it's an open ditch was all right with them 30 or 40 years ago and now they want nothing to do with it."

Judycki and his neighbors feel particularly let down that a similar culvert on the opposite, unincorporated side of the street was gradually filled in years ago. They said they'd never have guessed they'd have been better off by being unincorporated.

But even with the improvements the opposite side saw, homes on either side could flood if the street floods, Farris said.