North Trail Flooding Is Tip of Iceberg

When at least 15 residents of the North Trail subdivision came to Monday’s Village Board of Trustees meeting to ask for relief from stormwater and potholes, there was little surprise on the part of Village officials.

As Patch reader Mark Chertow pointed out in a comment to coverage of Monday’s meeting, the flooding issue is more widespread. “(The) Village also needs to address the flooding on Woodvale, similar to North Trail same watershed same issues,” he writes.

Woodvale was closed for a day and a half in April, according to Village Manager Kent Street. He said representatives of Deerfield, Highland Park, Bannockburn and the Lake County Stormwater Management Commission met to discuss potential solutions.

“It’s the whole eastern boundary of the Village,” Street said referring to the areas touching the Middle Fork of the North Branch of the Chicago River which separates Deerfield from Highland Park. “Stormwater has to go somewhere.”

A number of streets in addition to Woodvale and those in the North Trail subdivision were closed from hours to more than a day in April, according to Street. That storm coupled with the one June 26 which prompted the North Trail residents to come to the Board meeting, also spurred the intergovernmental meeting.

“I was told (the April storm) were a once in a 100 year rain,” North Trail resident Steve Fine said at Monday’s meeting. “We’ve had once in a 100 year rain five or six times.”

The Village’s intergovernmental effort will include projects to help all three communities. Grant money will be sought to help fund it, Street said Monday. Some things have been done and others are being considered.

“Our goal is to help return slow, absorb and redirect the runoff,” Street said. “There is a lot in place now like the Prairie Wolf Slough and creek cleaning.” Large objects including railroad ties were removed from the sewers after the June 26 storms, according to Street.

In the North Trail subdivision, residents told the Board the flooding was responsible for large potholes. When the rain sits in them, mosquitoes breed, according to neighborhood resident Melissa Hoffman.

“When cars and trucks go by asphalt flies. We’re waiting for somebody to get hurt,” Melissa Hoffman said. “There is a lot of flooding. We’re pretty much a landlocked neighborhood when we have flooding.”

Though the North Trail streets are not scheduled for repaving for several more years, Deerfield Public Works Director Barbara Little said several types of temporary relief are possible and will be considered.

“We can patch and do edge grading,” Little said referring to the temporary repairs on Deerfield Road a year ago done as a bridge to complete repaving which is scheduled in 2014. She believes the edge grading will help the holes near the curb where water accumulates.

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