New 8th Ward alderman: Des Plaines should cash in on casino - DailyHerald.com

From a Daily Herald article By Madhu Krishnamurthy

New 8th Ward alderman: Des Plaines should cash in on casino - DailyHerald.com

Our new alderman is waisting no time finding ways to wisely spend the anticipated revenues from the new casino.

Excerpts from the Herald article:

"Charewicz said casino and future sales tax revenues will help ensure the city continues with flood prevention efforts, and provide funding of storm and sanitary sewer improvements."

"The city recently completed a major storm sewer upgrade in the 8th Ward along Marshall Drive to alleviate flooding as part of its Stormwater Master Plan.
" 'My ward is diagnosing and trouble-shooting the flooding issues (to determine) where is the next step … where is the money best being spent, ' Charewicz said."
"Charewicz said in severe rainstorms the city’s sanitary sewer system fills up and can’t handle the excess water, causing backups in basements. 'A sanitary sewer infiltration study should be conducted this spring,' he said. The study will determine how the storm water is seeping into the system, he added."


Mike Charewicz officially takes on his term Monday, May 2, 2011

Rear Yard Drainage -- cost sharing?

As we move into a new year, it seems that there will be some discussion about cost sharing mechanisms between residents and the City on the "rear yard drainage" part of the Flood Water Management project in Des Plaines. The topic is an the agenda os a Engineering Committee Meeting, chaired by Alderman Matt Bogusz on January 7 at 6:30 PM at City Hall. Rosemary Argus is also on this Engineering Committee and will attend.

This reporter senses that residents attending this meeting will be most vocal about and costs imposed on them for flood management.

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

October 1 -- 8th Ward Flood Meeting Organized by Alderman Rosemary Argus

Back on July 28, 2009, 8th Ward Councilman Rosemary Argus held a "Flood Meeting" to gather feedback for flooding issues in her ward. She is having a followup meeting as noted below at the Friendship Conservatory on October 1, 2009. Mayor Moylan, Jon Duddles, and Tim Oakley are scheduled to attend.
The text of her flyer follows:

Our first meeting

Residents Present at 8/19 Meeting

Adam Oleander

Ann Brown

Bob Furst

Carol White

Halina Gumulka

Halina Kraszewski

Joanna Sakowicz

Jim Vinci

Issues Discussed:

• Pursuit of litigation against the City of Des Plaines. It was unanimously agreed to pursue a Class Action Lawsuit against the City of Des Plaines. Jim Vinci presented evidence of his attendance at several City Council Meetings, at which he pleaded with the City Council to address our problems. Jim has substantial documentation and an actual video tape of a Council meeting from 2001. The Council members are taking no action. The lawsuit is a step toward holding our public officials accountable for their lack of action. Their decisions are affecting our personal property, our personal lives, and our personal health. Joanna Schwartz has been in contact with an attorney who has asked for further information before he will represent us. Jim Vinci will meet with the attorney at the appropriate time to provide the necessary background material.
• Complete and submit the Freedom of Information Act to the City of Des Plaines. Joanna has made edits based on the group's input and will submit this form to the City.
• Contact Tim Oakley to address specific residential concerns. It was suggested that residents call Tim Oakley, the City's Chief Engineer, and have someone from his department come out and listen to specific concerns. Jim Vinci already did that back in 2001, and that is why Marshall Drive and Pennsylvania are included as Problem Area #12 in the City's Stormwater Master Plan. It became apparent during last night's meeting that the work slated for Marshall and Pennsylvania may not help all of us, so it is important to bring our individual issues to the City.
• Use of Social Media. Bob Furst made the excellent point that we have to use technology to our advantage. Setting up a blogging service to post documents and messages that could ultimately be accessible to other residents in our ward. Bob also suggested use of the Chicago Tribune local website to post ongoing flooding concerns to an even broader audience.
• Status of Flood Survey Information. The flood surveys filled out by residents were secured by Rosemary Argus, but someone needs to process and summarize them. We need a count of flooding problems by type of problem as well as a count of flooding problems by street. Specific survey comments, made by residents, should really be addressed by Rosemary to Mayor Moylan and the City Council.
• Attendance at City Council Budget Meetings. The main budget meeting we are interested in is the one where the City Council discusses the CIP (Capital Improvement Plan). Bob Furst pointed out that we may have to attend several budget meetings in order to insure that we don't miss it. Last year, Rosemary told Jim Vinci when the CIP was going to be discussed, and he attended only that meeting, which was on October 16th. Jim requested that the City Council accelerate the 8th Ward work, but they declined.
• Status of Chicago Tribune Article. The article is now going through editing and should be available soon.
• Problem Area #12 Project. It was unanimously agreed that the Problem Area #12 project, to address Marshall Drive and Pennsylvania Avenue flooding problems, begin now, rather than 2011.
• Letter to Peter Roskam. Jim Vinci is working on a letter to Congressman Peter Roskam and will submit a draft to the group for review. It might make sense to first show the letter to our attorney so that it sends the right message. It is intended that the Des Plaines Mayor, City Council, City Engineer, City Attorney, and Chicago Tribune reporter, be copied on the letter.
• Spokesman Assignment. It was agreed that Jim Vinci be the spokesman for our group because of his initial correspondene with the Tribune reporter, Elizabeth Schiele.
• Contact with Rosemary. Other than what was mentioned above, we agreed that our contact with Rosemary should be very limited right now because, although she has expressed support, she is a representative of the City.
• Ward Representation by Other Ethnic Groups. We agreed that it would be a good idea if people of other ethnic groups joined our group. This would facilitate communication with individuals who really need help, but are unable to understand what is happening or being done to address flooding.
  

Let's get organized

Because of an expressed interest on flooding issues in our 8th Ward, we are having an initial meeting on Aug 19. Halina (nice lady that she is) has volunteered to host the meeting at her house, located on Devonshire. Our initial agenda includes

• The option of a Class Action Lawsuit against the City of Des Plaines,
• Contact with Elizabeth Schiele of the Tribune news staff. She has been conducting interviews to construct an article about our flooding problems.
• Develop a general strategy to remedy this long-standing problem.

Just the beginning

It has become clear that the flooding problem in the 8th ward is much more extensive than I ever imagined. We went door to door on Marshall Drive and handed out the meeting flyer which led to at least 200 people coming to the Friendship Park Conservatory on July 28, 2009. We need everyone that showed up at that meeting to storm City Hall when the City Council has its budget meeting to discuss the CIP (Capital Improvement Plan). This will likely happen in mid-October. However, I will be taking several actions prior to that. A Chicago Tribune article is step one of my strategy. Every time there is threatening weather, it serves as another reminder of the City's unpreparedness to deal with the flooding problem.

I am pursuing contact with Lisa Madigan's office and have already contacted Peter Roskam's office. I did not actually speak to Congressman Roskman, but I understand that he does meet with constituents. I can try to set up a meeting with him if the residents would find this beneficial. I spoke to Kitty Weiner, the District Representative. She actually called the City of Des Plaines and spoke with Mayor Moylan. He told her that the City was doing the best they can and working on one project every year, as the budget permits. My rebuttal to him is that my family has waited 23 years for the City to find a solution. At the October 16, 2008 meeting on the CIP, I specifically asked for an interim plan, while we await construction. As usual, I got no response from former Mayor Arredia and his City Council. Mayor Moylan also thought that State Farm should not have been able to cancel our coverage. This is just another indication of the City's lack of understanding of the nature of insurance as well as the seriousness of the flooding problem in Des Plaines.

Despite the response that Kitty got, I think it is still worthwhile to call her. The more complaints she receives, the more attention this is going to get. It's easy to get discouraged, but please do not.

Here's some key phone numbers to have handy:

• Kitty Weiner - District Representative for Peter Roskam 630-893-9670 x12
• Lisa Madigan's office - 312-814-3000 (note that Ms. Madigan deals primarily with consumer fraud and not legal desputes between residents and their public officials)
  
• Elizabeth Schiele -Chicago Tribune Reporter(NW Division) - 312-208-6011 elizabethschiele@sbcglobal.net. Feel free to voice your concerns to her.
• Des Plaines Emergency Numbers (You can call these numbers to report flooding problems and ask for sand bags). 847-391-5394, 847-391-5395, 847-391-5396