Should stop paving until flooding solved

The pending (hopefully pending and not already “approved”) request by the Evangelical Free Church in Arlington Heights should remind us of the following:

After the flooding from the major rainstorm three years ago, the Daily Herald reported that the Arlington Heights Water Department said they didn’t have a handle on the flooding problem and would have to wait until all the damage claims/reports were available before proceeding.

Fast forward three years and the Arlington Heights Water Department is now preparing to spend over $300,000 for a “study.” They were quick to add that after the study has been completed, there still won’t be any money available to begin any repair programs.

A couple of questions:

Ÿ Who’s doing the study and what has the AH Water Department staff been doing the past three years with the information they collected? Shouldn’t they be responsible for this study?

Ÿ And finally, how could the village even begin to think of adding more pavement to the village landscape? A moratorium on major paving should be put in place until this flooding problem is solved or at least until a plan is put in place.

The village owes this approach to all of its residents who continue to suffer flood losses after struggling and worrying through every major rainfall. There is no place hereto even begin thinking about satisfying the special interest of one constituency.

Ed OHare

Arlington Heights