West Dundee gets funds for riverfront work

West Dundee has received a grant that village officials say will turn the tide of erosion and destruction along the Fox River in the village's downtown.

Kane County Board member John Fahy this week presented the village board with a $15,000 check from the county's riverboat casino fund program to begin stabilization work on the riverfront area near the pedestrian plaza of the Riverwalk.

The Kane County Riverboat Grant Program assists local communities with educational, economic and environmental endeavors using funds from the Grand Victoria Casino in Elgin.

A matching grant from the village will double the grand total available. The village will spend the $30,000 that is available on shoring up the river banks with large boulders and additional top soil.

Years of flooding and large ice flows have washed away the soil protecting vegetation and also eroded the depth of the riverbank.

"As the water in the Fox flows downstream and makes a turn south through town, the flows have washed away soil on the west side, the inside, of that turn," Trustee Becky Gillam said. "As the soil has been washed downstream, the roots of countless mature trees, bushes and perennials have been exposed, causing them to die."

Village Manager Joe Cavallaro said the funding is a starting point in the village's efforts to protect the natural area, as well as the $4 million investment in the Riverwalk, which was completed in 2003.

"Originally we thought we could stabilize the riverfront with just vegetation," Cavallaro said. "But with the rise and fall of the river level and flooding, the vegetation hasn't worked. That has been washed away. This will give us a start to begin the needed repairs."

Cavallaro said the work will likely begin in the spring and will continue until the $30,000 is exhausted.