It s a long road from budget to reality

Any city's budget is a major document that needs to be studied and scrutinized. The conversations and comments by Council Members and citizens alike at the well-attended budget meeting on Oct 13, 2009 was proof of that. And this was just one of many throughout the month of October. The culmination is tentatively scheduled for Oct 29th.

It seems that the administration and City Council did hear the pleas of, not only the 8th Ward residents, but also, their city-wide constituencies, about flooding issues throughout the city. So is this a done deal? Not likely. Discussions and comments by Alderman and city engineers are implying that the shovels will not hit the dirt until 2011. So what is the time line and milestones between now and then? Here is what I believe to be the short story:

• Oct 29th - final approval of budget
• What to watch for
1. Was the Stormwater Management Master Plan accelerated to move the start of problem areas 8 and 9 to 2010?
2. Was the revenue to support the acceleration approved at sufficient levels?

• Bidding the work (Survey Request for proposals sent scheduled for completion Dec 2009)
• What to watch for
1. Bid notices in the papers and on the Des Plaines web site.
2. Dates for Bid opening and acceptance.

• Design Phase of Problem areas 8 and 9 (Scheduled for winter - spring 2010)
  
• What to watch for
1. Has design work started by winter of 2010?
2. Is design work completed by Spring of 2010?
3. Activity of engineers and design teams on Marshall and Pennsylvania throughout this time frame.

• The work is beginning on Marshall and Pennsylvania (Fall 2010- Winter 2011)
• What to watch for
1. Notices to residents of traffic inconveniences in the vicinity
   
2. "Julie" markings and flags in the vicinity of the construction
   
3. Appearance of heavy equipment and porta-potties on and near Marshall and Pennsylvania

There is a long road between talking about this type of project and seeing it come to fruition. It would behoove us to continue to ask questions and learn more about how and when Problem areas 8 and 9 of the Stormwater management Master plan will be complete.
Updated 10/23/2009 -- scheduling information (in red); courtesy of Jon Duddles, Asst. Dir. of Public Works and Engineering

A plea to the Mayor and City Council at the October 13, 2009 Budget Meeting

Mayor Moylan and City Council Members,

My name is Halina Kraszewski, and I have resided at 685 Devonshire Drive in Des Plaines for 16 years.
As a resident of the 8^th Ward and as a Realtor with over 19 years of experience in the Real Estate industry, I am requesting that you approve the acceleration of the Storm Water Master Plan. Due to frequent floods our City has a stigma attached to it - “Des Plaines floods” - and some buyers would never consider looking for properties in our town, knowing that flooding also occurs in areas that are not even designated as flood zones.

Some of our residents in the 8^th Ward have exhausted their insurance claims and their insurance companies have canceled their coverage. At this time, those people do not have any protection against losses due to storm and sanitary sewer back up.

In order to be in compliance with the law, every Seller has to disclose to a potential Buyer any problems with flooding or leakage in the basement or crawlspace and explain it to a potential buyer in writing. A potential buyer has the right to check the CLUE report: this is a national insurance industry database that contains personal claims. A CLUE report is the equivalent of a credit report for a house, which examines all claims reported to the insurance company in a given period for five years. When a potential buyer learns about the extent of our flooding problems, he or she walks away from the purchase.

Banks have the right to check the CLUE report prior to approving a mortgage. Due to the tightening of lending requirements, financial institutions may deny issuing a mortgage because they do not want to get stuck with a high risk or uninsurable property.

When Sellers cannot sell, they walk away from the property and the home eventually ends up in foreclosure, thus bringing the value down for the neighboring properties. When property values decrease, the City of Des Plaines collects less revenue in transfer taxes. It should be in the best interest of our City to keep the value of the properties up and invest in our infrastructure.

Our 8^th Ward consists of middle class residents. Our homes are our biggest investments which we have to protect. Our property comes with a bundle of legal rights. One of those rights is enjoyment. Due to frequent floods, we cannot enjoy our homes. We are worried about our homes being invaded by water or sewage even though our homes are not located in the flood zone. We are worried when we go to work, when we go away for the weekend or when we go away on vacation. We are worried about the potential risk of disease from the contaminated water that sewage leaves in our homes. Our homes are not being used the way we intended to use them. Our family rooms in the lower level are left without carpets due to frequent water and sewer invasions. Again, I am talking about homes that are located in a NO FLOOD ZONE.

I am asking that you please help us by approving the acceleration of the Storm Water Master Plan and formulating an interim flood protection plan while residents await construction.

Thank you for your support!

For access to the CLUE database point your browser to
http://www.choicepoint.com/products/risk_reports.html?l2=homesellers_disclosure&bc=c&sb=c

Accelerating the Stormwater Management Master Plan -- Dollars and Votes

On October 13, Rosemary Argus will propose that the Stormwater Management Master Plan be accelerated to be completed by 2013 as opposed to the current schedule of 2017 completion. So as I see it, the issue will come down to Dollars and Votes.
Let's talk Dollars.
During a meeting (Oct. 1, 2009) attended by over 100 8th Ward residents, Councilman Argus attempted to facilitate a discussion about the Dollars issue, "can we raise revenue via a water bill or property tax increase?" She did not have the "how much" at hand; but if she did, I believe it would have been a non-issue. So how much revenue are we talking about?

• There are approximately 23,000 households (comments welcomed from authoritative sources on this number. )
• A presentation delivered (City of Des Plaines Jon Duddles P.E.) at this Oct 1 meeting estimated that the city will need $6,603,881 over 4 Fiscal Years (2010-2013) to accelerate the Flood Control CIP. Doing the math, that is:
  
• $287/household (over 4 years)
• $72/household/year

Note that the above amounts will actually be lower because the businesses in our community will bear some of the expense.

These dollars do not seem exorbitant to improve our flooding infrastructure. So raising this kind of revenue per household seems, I think, very doable -- $72/tax bill; or on a bi-monthly water bill, $12/bill. (Comments and math corrections welcomed).

Now let's talk Votes.
Looking at a table of the Stormwater Management Master Plan that lays out the yearly expenditures to complete the Plan in 4 rather than 8 years, the plan would have improvements in five out of the eight wards (Wards 2,3,5,7,8). All of a sudden there should be five out of eight Councilmen voting YES, since it positively affects their constituency.

A$72/ year increase to either my tax bill or water bill to help Des Plaines mitigate the flooding risk is a worthwhile investment with far-reaching implications.