Challenger decries flood solutions, but offers no fixes of his own

The challenger in the 57th state house race is certain that his opponent has not done enough to curb flooding of the Des Plaines River. James Tatooles contends that he has a much better plan than Democratic incumbent Elaine Nekritz to ensure residents don't have to deal with flooding any longer.

But, the Northbrook Republican won't talk about his solutions unless he's elected.

"When I get in there, I've got a plan I believe will work, but I'm not going to outline the plan now," Tatooles said.

He said the issue will be one of his biggest priorities. It's one of the problems of most concern for residents in the district, which covers Des Plaines, Mount Prospect, Prospect Heights and Northbrook.

Nekritz, for her part, said she regularly attends the Des Plaines River meetings for a group that is pushing for Levee 37 to be built. That levee, like Levee 50 did for Des Plaines, will purportedly help the Mount Prospect and Prospect Heights areas hit hard by floodwaters.

"The funding for Levee 37 is there," she said. "The only hurdle we have left is to get some upstream storage, and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District is very committed to make that happen."

Nekritz, of Northbrook, said she sponsored legislation in 2004 to make the water district responsible for stormwater in Cook County.

"Up until then, nobody was doing anything about it," she said.

However, she said there's no one action that can take care of flooding for the people hit by the Des Plaines River.

"The storm a month ago demonstrated how complex a problem it is," she said. "We've got multiple levels of government working on it."

Besides the levees, Nekritz said helping to absorb more rain water with rain gardens, wetlands and rain barrels will help alleviate some of the problem.

Even with the levees being worked on, Tatooles said not enough has been done to solve flooding issues.

"I don't know if it's just somebody not paying attention to what they're supposed to do," he said. "So far it hasn't been corrected, so maybe (residents) want to give another person a chance."