Saturday, April 25, 2009
drainage update/nothing will change, will it?
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Good day to you all,I want to let you know that Laurie and I attended today’s Rob Roy Drainage District #2 meeting at the Sugar Grove Township building. The obvious topic was Mallard Point and the flow of water from the wetland area onto the property to the south. The concern of the farmers is that the Rob Roy drainage system is being overloaded and filled with the ponds flow of water and not allowing the drainage of surrounding farm land. After listening to the plight of the surrounding property owners, I chimed in with the current status of the level of the pond and home owners that are affected with the never ending borage of water and constant pumping just to save their homes and that the costs of doing is ever climbing.
Everyone agree that a solution needs to be found. A simple solution was discussed of installing a sewer line from the wetland area across the farm land to the Rob Roy creek. This is a similar solution that was used by a development in Montgomery and EEI was the Engineer. Everyone believes that this could a permanent solution; the rub to this solution is who will pay for the engineering, legal, and installation of the pipe.
While there were many representatives present from a number of governmental agencies including Sean Michaels from the Village of Sugar Grove no one agency stepped up and was willing to take ownership of the project. The Rob Roy district asked Sean several time to be the lead agency on the project, but he replied that he had to think about the entire Village not just one subdivision and that he wouldn’t commit any funding.
A suggestion by some of the property owners was made that the Village of Sugar Grove stop the flow of water out of the wetlands so the farm fields can dry and be planted. I immediately jumped in and said, that solution would be detrimental to the home owners and would cause a life safety issue.
The meeting seemed end in a stalemate with no real action plan for implementing a solution but maybe a few phone calls to be made.
My take on this meeting is that no one wants to take ownership of the problem. The Rob Roy stated that they have no funding to pay for any improvements and would like the Village to dam up the out flow of the pond. The Villages position is that the pond and wetlands are designed properly even if the drainage from the Ogle’s property does drain into the pond. My fear is unless the residents of Mallard Point band together and demand that the Village of Sugar Grove represent our interests and explicitly work toward a permanent solution nothing will be done and we will continue to suffer and will cause a greater problem. If the Village of Sugar Grove and the Rob Roy Drainage District turn off the flow of the water out of the pond, we may need to hire an attorney to protect our interests, since no one else will. We all need to stay vigilant in attending Village board meeting especially now.
Respectfully summated,
Kevin & Laurie Geary
Resident of Mallard Point
# posted by Julie @ 7:29 PM 
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