Des Plaines 1st Ward candidates weigh in on flooding

The four candidates vying for the Des Plaines' 1st Ward alderman seat on April 7 agree one of the key problems facing the city is the Des Plaines River flooding and they support a regional approach to fixing it.

Candidates Michael Bausone, Eugene Fregetto, Patricia Haugeberg and Peter Tatera are competing for the 4-year term with the impending departure of incumbent Alderman Patricia Beauvais due to term limits.

Bausone, 31, a student at Oakton Community College, said flood control and curbing development are his top priorities, and both are inextricably linked.

"The biggest problem that Des Plaines can control has been development along the (Des Plaines) river," Bausone said. "I think the state needs to get involved. Someone in Springfield has to put mandates down, force cooperation ... force a solution."

Fregetto, 61, a retired Chicago Transit Authority purchasing agent who served on the city's Civil Service Commission, agrees a regional response is required to address residents' flooding woes.

"As long as we view flooding as a Des Plaines problem, it will never be solved at least within our budget or within our lifetime," he said. "Flooding is due to the congestion that we have in this urban environment. You can't force a multi-jurisdiction agreement. It has to be cooperative across county and state borders."

For Haugeberg, 59, a sales manager and former Des Plaines Park District commissioner, the problem hit home last fall when water started coming into the lobby of her condominium building, overlooking a forest preserve.

"We ended up between 4 and 2 feet (of water) within our building," she said. "Our entire first floor totally had to be gutted. With the combined sewers in the city, the size of the sewers, and with the way they have built up the 1st Ward, it needs to be addressed."

Haugeberg said since the city built a river walk (as a flood barrier) and expanded the river bed there's constant flooding in nearby forest preserves and trees falling because of root rot. She said the city cannot continue to build without thinking about the impact.

Tatera said projects such as the Big Bend Lake expansion in Des Plaines, which officials hope to get funding for this year, resurfacing and raising River Road, and upgrading infrastructure will help alleviate flooding but won't solve it.

"As long as we keep on filling up the land with concrete and homes, there's no place for the water to go," said Tatera, 75, a retired manufacturing engineer and a member of the Maine Township Senior Advisory Council. "There's a lot of area up north; they are probably going to keep on building. Everybody wants to live by the river. That's how you get it real bad when the floods come."

He added raising River Road is going to increase flooding for homes on the east side, closest to the river, and residents should be concerned. "A lot of people don't even know what's happening over there."