Residents Steer Conversation On Power Outage To Flooding

About eight residents showed up Saturday morning after the village of Niles called a meeting to ask residents for input on how they could better help them during power outages.

But many of the residents wanted to talk about flooding, which village manager George Van Geem deemed a separate, though related, issue from power outages.

Earlier:

Patrick Rigney, a resident, said he experienced serious basement flooding three years ago, and suffered lesser but still significant damage this summer. He added that the damage is not just from standing water but also from sewage back-up.

“We thought it was just flooding but there’s a silt, a sand-like material, all over the basement,” said Rigney, who resides at Kedzie and Osceola. “Everything was ruined. Surface water is different from sewage.”

Staff can visit homes, identify flood relief

Steve Vinezeano, Niles' assistant village manager, responded that back-up varies in different homes.

“One recommendation we have is that we can have someone on staff specifically trained to go to residents’ homes and identify potential issues on a case-by-case basis and tell residents what they can do on their lots,” he said. 

He announced that next month, the village’s storm water commission will present its recent findings to the board regarding capital improvement projects related to flooding in the village, and the board will go from there.

More flood relief on the way

“I’m very happy to say that after Sept. 27 …we can move forward. We’ve had to do computer modeling with engineers [to determine things like flood routes], and internally they changed 12 ordinances and other internal policies to prevent things that have happened in the past.”

Van Geem said that Niles has historically had problems with flooding.

“There have been flooding problems in Niles since the 1950s, and it’s always the same issue,” he said. “It’s going to be expensive in order to fix it, so we have to prioritize. The next time it rains seven inches in two hours, everybody’s going to get flooded. But we’re try to pick up those people affected by only one or two inches, when they should not be.”

Overhead sewers can relieve problems

Vinezeano said he has had at least 200 calls about flooding in the last two to three weeks. This can be compared to a total of around 780 flood-related contacts made in all of 2008, he said.

He added that about 80 percent of this month’s calls could have been prevented with an overhead sewer system to relieve back-up. He suggested that a separate purchase program for such systems may be a possible solution.

Village also looking at how to respond to power outages

Van Geem opened the meeting by asking for input on what the village could do to relieve the discomfort and inconveniences residents experience during power outages. 

“We want to know, what are we missing? What did you need help with?” said Van Geem.

Help with generators, providing a 24-hour refuge

Some ideas for solutions included a purchase assistance program for new generators as well as making Village Hall a 24-hour refuge where people could charge phones and laptops and get out of the heat.

A new generator program could focus on purchasing high-efficiency models for those in the village who would like one but may not be able to get one on their own.

“There are things about a program like that that could work for everybody,” said Van Geem. “A lot of home owners may not feel comfortable running one or keeping it maintained but if someone needed help buying one [the village could assist].”

Van Geem said he was also meeting with ComEd to discuss issues, such as the power company’s automated system not being accurate with its details of when power would be coming back on in areas of Niles.