Residents want long-term solution to flooding

Residents in Schaumburg's southeast corner are struggling to find common ground with village officials over maintenance of an open drainage ditch that again caused their neighborhood to flood during the Aug. 23 storms.

Emotions ran high at a crowded recent meeting with Schaumburg's Engineering and Public Works Committee.

"This has made me ashamed of Schaumburg and I love Schaumburg," said Susan Ryan, a 37-year resident who's already spent $16,000 on Aug. 23 flooding damage.

The ditch along the north side of Niagara Avenue and the Schaumburg Park District's Sunset Park is affected by concrete erosion around the driveways and intersection it travels beneath.

Residents point out a potential bottleneck where a 30-inch pipe lies downstream from a 36-inch pipe.

Also, metal grates to keep kids out of the culverts get clogged by landscape debris and litter during heavy rains, causing water to rise above street level and into homes.

During heavy rainfalls, especially Aug. 23's, residents themselves have had to enter the flooded ditch to clear out debris -- even with lightning and thunder overhead -- to prevent or minimize water getting into homes.

"Had your public works department done its job, I don't think any of us would be here today," resident Peter Farris told the committee. "They really opened a can of worms."

Residents want the ditch covered and replaced with an underground storm sewer. But village officials say the approximately $100,000 project must be at the residents' expense to avoid improving the value of private property with public funds.

Village trustees on the committee said open drainage systems are actually coming into fashion again, but acknowledged a problem with the condition of Niagara Avenue's.

"It seems natural when you look at these photos that the residents' concern is with erosion," Trustee Mark Madej said. "It's not carrying the same capacity it used to."

However, trustees couldn't promise a quick, easy answer.

Residents asked for help to get on the agenda of a forum on drainage problems to be held by the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Cook County on Oct. 17 at Schaumburg's Prairie Center for the Arts.

But committee Chair Marge Connelly cautioned that the criteria for getting on that agenda wasn't known.

She could only promise that staff would continue to investigate the street's problems with storm water and that the conversation would continue at her own committee's October meeting.

"Frankly, water in the street is one thing, water in homes is a different thing," Connelly said. "We're trying to understand your problem and I think we're getting closer to doing that."

Residents' reactions to the meeting ranged from cautious optimism to outright skepticism. Some said they'd heard the same assurances nearly four years ago.