Raw Sewage -> Raw Emotion on Lakewood Flooding – Part 2

Ned Zeman told of the 2010 storm water management committee report.

“The studies were done. I think a lot of [the problem] has to do with [lack of] cooperation with our sister municipality.”

The committee’s chairman said, “If we had followed the recommendations, a lot of people would not have sweage in their basements.”

Jon Garbric, who installs lift stations for a living, criticized the new lift station and size of the new sewer pipes.

Newcomer Jon Gabric, who has ponding in his Oxford Lane front yard critiqued the pumping station a half a block from his home.

He said he installed lift stations for a living, including in the O’Hare Airport area..

“Where were you in late May,”he asked the Board, all of whom but one are relatively new, “when they were out there installing [the pump]?”

He noted the flow was “at almost 95%.”

“You’re lift station doesn’t work. The pipes are too small. Two months ago it was almost at capacity.”

He criticized the Board for the lack of warning of the potential problem.

“I could have put a clapper on valve.

“We’re one accident away from sewage.

“Why are we still running on secondary power?”

To say that he caught the attention of the audience would be an understatement.

Later he added, “The storm water will piss me off. The sewage will kill me.”

Serwatka asked him to volunteer to come up with what should be done.

“I’m begging you to do something,” Gate 14 resident Sherry Lieberman said. She said her basement had two feet of water two weeks ago and five feet on Sunday.

“I was excited to move from Crystal Lake to The Gates. It’s the best neighborhood.

“I just didn’t believe this was an issue.”:

John Fall of Hampshire Lane told the audience that this was his family’s first home. He has four foot of water in his basement, but it is stormwater. He has two pumps going.

A woman reported that she had no water because her pump was under water.

The subdivision is not served by municipal water. All homes are on wells, some deep, some in the twenty foot range.

Pat McGinnis, who owns a couple of properties in town, bemoaned the fact the Park District would not allow sandbagging west of Crystal Creek.

Water flows out of Crystal Lake not only into Crystal Creek, but across the western end of the Main Beach property and the two adjacent lots in Lakewood.

He thought the use of tank trucks to transport water from the Broadway pumping station to the sewage treatment plant was “doing nothing.”

He urged diverting the water flowing out of the lake to the creek.

The length of the problem was pushed back to a month ago by one resident.

One woman from Meridian Street complained that a Lakewood building inspector approve a full basement for her property “below the water table.”

She pegged the date about 1992. She pinned the approval on “past corruption.”

A Richmond Lane woman said her family had been at the Comfort Inn since Saturday night.

“Sewage is coming up from the toilet.

“My backyard has never flooded in seventeen years.

“We don’t know what to do.

“We have [the toilets] stuffed with towels.

“I’m proud to say I live where I live, but not now…[I have an] epic reaction of dissatisfaction.

“I spent $30 at the laundromat because I can’t use my own.

“I work full-time. My husband works full-time.

“We’re not always available when generosity is available.”

At this point Mike Webster of the pumping station design team told of how the capacity of the sewage line was calculated. He said State EPA approval was needed and he had to fight with them to get the capacity as high as it is.

“It wasn’t built to handle storm water,” he pointed out.

“Ground water is higher than the manholes,” he continued.

A man from the end of Broadway said he had five pumps going and observed that “storm water exacerbates the sewage system.

Jason Flour (sp?), the Village Engineer from Baxter & Woodman, explained that all of the main lines had been lined within the last ten years.

“I think the next logical step is the manholes.”

He suggested that the problem was illegal hookups.

Another resident said he had been flooded twenty times.

“I think the sewers are like Swiss cheese. They were old when I moved here forty-four years ago.”

Another pointed out that the water on Lake Avenue was “an Act of God.”

Nick from Hampshire Lane urged the village to increase the pump power in the sewer.

“We really need action now.”

That was met with a chorus of “Nows.”

A very frustrate Hampshire Lane mom vented:

“I have a toilet in my basement.

“Who pays for its use…because insurance won’t cover it?”

“I took my kids to my parents four hours away.”</blockquote>

A man at the corner of Warwick and Broaday forcefully said, “It’s all flowing to me. My house is the middle of an island.

“Everything flows to me.

“What the F… can I do?

“All that’s going to happen is more rain.”

A woman asked for a pump truck to drain her yard, which is where water from eleven homes ends up.

A man at the back of the room summarized what he had heard:

<blockquote>”There may be no immediate solution.”</blockquote>


Comments

Raw Sewage -> Raw Emotion on Lakewood Flooding – Part 2 — 6 Comments

  1. So sad for these residents.

    The response to this will make or break the current board.

    Hopefully someone will come up with a solution so these families can return to their homes.

  2. Welcome to the real world “Mr Tax Fighter”.

    I’m anxiously awaiting your next email to the residents which will highlight your claims of grandeur and achievements over the past few days – in first person of course.

    Maybe you are currently deliberating on how to pen a tale to berate another board member (or former board member) under the ruse of ‘transparency’ to bloat your ever increasing ego whether they deserve it or not.

    A better man would sit down and talk to these individuals one on one privately, but I’m sure that would not have the desired effect you were looking to achieve.

    Where are your “tax fighting” partners right now?

    Likely cowering in their dry basements.

    I hope that I am wrong and they are right this minute coming up with a detailed plan to come to the aid of the effected residents of Lakewood.

  3. JohnnyBGood, sounds like you might be concerned about what might come out about “(or former board member)”, your quote Sir, could be enlightening to those with a mess to clean up.

  4. You are very wrong relative of Erin.

    Shame on you for trying to use this horrendous occasion for your paltry antics.

    You can tap dance all you like; but it appears very clear as this situation unfolds, that the past boards and leaders were extremely lacking and frivolously fiddled away their real duties to the village.

    Direct responsibility lies on them for this situation getting so bad!

  5. How about some outrage over the residents illegally connecting their sump pumps to the sanitary sewers. In a more enlightened age we would have strung some of them up or at least tarred and feathered them.

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