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La Grange Village Board hears plan to alleviate flooding near Lyons Township HS North Campus

La Grange residents near the North campus of Lyons Township High School (LTHS) may be getting some relief from the devastating flooding in recent years.

Mike Burke, a representative of Christopher B. Burke Engineering, made a detailed presentation of a model to mitigate flooding in the Village’s North Basin.

While the areas in the model included studies on Maple Avenue Relief Sewer (MARS), the Ogden Avenue Relief Sewer (OARS), Drainage District D in the Northwest section of the Village, and the underpass near Gordon Park, the intersection of Sunset and Elm avenues was at the top of the list.

“For this depression, we’ve developed a project to provide underground flood storage at the Lyons Township High School field to the West,” Burke said.

The proposed model for this area includes a stormwater storage vault under the field that would be five feet deep, and a 60-inch relief sewer to move the runoff from the intersection to the field.

Burke said that the plan for Sunset and Elm would work in concert with proposed improvements in the MARS project to “completely eliminate flooding” in that area for a 10-year storm event.

(Details of the presentation can be found at the Village website villageoflagrange.com)

Costs of the projects are $9 million for the Sunset and Elm improvements and $17.1 million for the MARS project. The rest are yet to be determined, although Burke said that current estimates for OARS were “somewhere around $13 million,” the underpass improvements were around $5 million, and that addressing flooding issues near Stone and Brainard avenues came in at $7 million.

Burke also indicated that talks with LTHS regarding the proposed stormwater detention vault were in process.

Village President Mark Kuchler asked Burke what the effect would be on the Sunset and Elm area if the Village only did the improvements in the MARS project, without the detention vault at LTHS.

Burke said that the flooding relief at Sunset and Elm would be “nominal,” and that the only viable solution for Sunset and Elm was the vault at the high school.

One resident who lives right at Sunset and Elm avenues was cautiously optimistic about the proposals.

“A year after announcing this study, I’m really, really relieved to see some results from the study,” Laura West told the Board.

West has been a regular participant in the ongoing discussions over the flooding issue and has spoken on the issue at many Board meetings.

“It (the study) illustrates everything that my experience has been telling me, that Sunset and Elm is not normal,” she said. “This is an extreme corner, an extreme intersection … our corner needs help.”

Contacted later, Kuchler indicated that LTHS was agreeable to the plan for the detention vault.

As for the financing of the improvements, he spoke to the Sunset and Elm improvements, saying the Village sought to “have it partially paid by the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD).”

He also said the Village was hoping to secure state grants.

The next La Grange Vukkage Board meeting will be at 7:30 p.m., April 22 at the Village Hall, 53 S. La Grange Road.

Hank Beckman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.