Flooding on mind of Carol Stream candidates

The four candidates running for Carol Stream village board in the April 5 election agree: the village’s response to the July 2010 flood wasn’t good.

But they also offered solutions — some already in the works — they say will improve how the village deals with potential future flooding.

The candidates, who are running for three available seats on the board, offered their views on the hot-button issue during a Daily Herald endorsement interview.

One candidate, Mary Frusolone, an administrative assistant with Carol Stream Park District, said she was motivated to run for office as a result of the flood response.

The night before the July 23 flood, she recalled working on an environmental project at Illini Drive and Silverleaf Boulevard, and noticed a storm sewer loaded with garbage. Residents there said they hadn’t seen a street sweeper in the neighborhood since April, according to Frusolone.

By 2 a.m., she said she saw public works personnel putting up barricades in the streets as the flooding was imminent. But by dawn, residents’ cars already had flooded.

“They did not do nearly enough to notify people,” Frusolone said. “Putting up barricades is not notifying residents.”

She criticized the response from the fire and police departments and the village’s leadership. She said one person who called for help in dealing with flooding was told, “Borrow a boat from your neighbors.”

But she now says she thinks the village learned from the July flood response.

When it rained soon after and Illini Drive was under water, the village told residents to move their cars, she said.

During an August flood, she said an emergency plan was implemented and sandbagging operations took place in the parking lots of Jay Stream Middle School and St. Luke Catholic Church, both near the flood-prone neighborhood south of Armstrong Park.

Frusolone is a member of a disaster response committee that formed after the July flood. She said working with the village, fire department and park district on flood control and response will be integral.

“If there’s another flood, we’ll see the August response, not the July response,” Frusolone said.

Candidate James Joseph, an employee of the DuPage County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, said the perception is the village didn’t do enough during the flood. In a previous job, Joseph said he consulted with a governmental body in Lake County, telling them it was important to be seen on the streets.

“You have to see them,” Joseph said. “They weren’t out there.”

He said flooding is a countywide issue, and can’t be a “not in my backyard thing.” He, like other candidates, also thinks a proposed water reservoir and pumping station at Armstrong Park will help alleviate some flooding issues.

“Floods will happen,” Joseph said. “Being able to deal with them when they come is very important.”

Incumbent Trustee Greg Schwarze said flooding in 2008 was actually worse than the floods last year, but the response was different.

“We worked with the county (in 2008) and didn’t follow up enough,” Schwarze said. “We dropped the ball on that.”

He said a lot of the problems have been addressed, including cleanup efforts in Klein and Thunderbird creeks, a buyout program that uses village, county and federal funds to purchase flood-damaged houses, and an emergency notification system that sends alerts via phone and e-mail.

Incumbent Trustee Don Weiss said the village’s response was terrible, and trustees didn’t get the type of management reports they needed. But he believes the county’s Armstrong Park project will get done and the village will respond better in the future.