Oct Des Plaines River Road Update

Phase I (Touhy to Devon) of the Des Plaines River Road reconstruction project is on schedule with a completion date of July 2011.

On Phase II (Rand to Devon), preliminary plans have been prepared by IDOT and are under review.  The 60" inch diameter storm sewer is part of the Phase II project since the outlet for the system is north of Welwyn Avenue, which is well beyond the project limits of Phase I.  As you may know, the elevation of the new pavement will be raised, where possible, to provide flood protection from Des Plaines River flooding.  Projected construction date is late 2011 or early 2012, and is dependent on when IDOT secures the right-of-way / easements necessary to construct the project.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any further questions.

Timothy P. Oakley, P.E., CFM
Director of Public Works and Engineering
City of Des Plaines
847.391.5390

August 21, 2010 Newsletter

IT’S AN OLD PROBLEM. As you undoubtedly know, the earstwhile genii at the Cook County Assessor’s office have sent out their proposed assessments for 2010. Ignoring these is one of the greatest sources of tax increase there is.

There is no secret that property values have continued going down, especially if you are in a flood plain. We have until September 20th to file appeals with the Assessor’s office. After that, we still have the avenue of the Board of Review for the appeals process. The monster in all of this is the State Equalization Factor. You can get your assessments reduced, but still pay significantly more taxes because of an increase in the State multiplier.

So if your proposed assessment is 4% less than last year, it doesn’t mean your taxes are going down. My suggestion is to appeal anyway because the State multiplier is used against the final assessment. If you look at your assessments over the past three or four years, I promise you that any reduction in assessment is incremental compared to the drop in value you experienced. If you experienced a 50% drop in value (not surprising in a flood plain), the assessments, at the highest moment, may have dropped 10%. Then the State multiplier puts you in the position of actually paying more taxes. The State multiplier is a stealth device, plain and simply. Supposedly, the Illinois Department of Revenue has public hearings before setting these amounts, but I challenge you to get any information from the Department about when and where these public hearings are held. Your Cook County Assessor is supposed to assess around 16%, and the State multiplier is supposed to bring the assessment up to 32%. But the State multiplier is close to three, not two. That is brutal and unconscionable, but also true.

What we need to know is how many of you want to diligently appeal your property tax assessments. If you are interested in appealing your assessment, please email Mike at mike@bestclients.com. I must tell you that it takes a lot of work from a lot of people to help you. In this case, we are probably talking about two appeals…one to the Assessor’s office, and one with the Board of Appeals. Remember, if you want to do your own appeal, the deadline is September 20th for the Assessor’s office. If you want help from the Action Group, we have to organize quickly. By the way, I have no idea why this issue never comes up in any political discussion or debate. I would think the Republicans would have a field day with this issue. Please note that on your property bill are eighteen taxing bodies, including the Mosquito Abatement District, Cook County Forest Preserve, City of Des Plaines, etc. etc. Can you imagine the political pressure on the Illinois Department of Revenue and the Governor to increase the multiplier? That way, they get their tax increases without being accountable for it. That is truly stealth politics, and both parties are to blame for it.

Please contact us as soon as possible. In addition to contacting me at the email above, you can also contact any of our Board members. Overall, we’d like to get assessment reductions for anyone living in a flood plain, but that is for the future.

We should comment that there is a tax increase this year to fund expediting the stormwater management plan. That was done up front, and it shows much courage on the part of our mayor and aldermen. Increasing taxes is not popular, especially in this environment, and they know that. But they also believed that expediting the Stormwater Management Plan is critical, and they chose doing what they think is best………knowing that the criticism won’t abate, and they will hear about increasing taxes at election time. That takes courage.

More later….we are working on an update on levee 37 and Heritage Park! Funding the National Flood Insurance Program comes up in September, and that has been a political mess. By the way, our next membership meeting is October 5th in City Council chambers at 7:00 P.M. Please save the date!!!!

Mark Walsten's 8/13 update on Generator Rebate

If you wish to respond to this or contact Mark email him at mail: mewalsten@hotmail.com

Residents,


There was a engineering committee meeting last night ( I'm not on that committee) to discuss the Mayors proposal to offer a $250 rebate to DP residents when they purchase a generator. $15,000 would be offered for the year.  I did attend the meeting, there was some 6th ward residents in attendance.

I found the program that staff proposed, flawed.
I'm not saying that I support giving tax payers money away for this program, but if I supported it I would make changes.

1. Many resident Like Sue on Birch St. have already bought generators during the 07 outage and before, they should be compensated first.

2. I would not offer $250 for a generator, at $15,000, that only covers 60 people.

3. I would offer a percentage, 50% of the $250 would cover 120 people,  30% would cover 200 people.

4. Should we really be offering any money for generators anyway? When I put my new picture window in, it (the window, I did the labor) cost me around $800. Should I expect the tax payers to pay for $250 of it?

As it turned out, Chairman Bogusz proposed that looking into 'Groupon' is a better alternative, the other committee members and myself agreed. Go to ww.groupon.com_ (http://www.groupon.com/) to see it.

Basically, if enough people sign up to purchase a certain product, they get dramatic discounts. A $400 generator could be $300 or less.

I am interested in seeing where this goes before spending tax payers money on generators.

If you already have a generator, please answer the following questions:

1. How many Watts is it.

2. What do you run on it, IE ejector pump, sump pump, refrigerator, T.V.,
lights. Some of these, all of these?

Thank you and have a great week end!
Mark

Senator Durbin reply's about the NFIP

Thank you for contacting me about the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).  I appreciate hearing from you.

For the past five years, the NFIP has been challenged by higher numbers of flood claims. These claims have exceeded what the NFIP collects in annual premiums and its borrowing authority from the U.S. Treasury. To help meet these increased claims, Congress increased the NFIP's borrowing authority in 2005 and again in 2006.

With my support, Congress passed and the President signed into law the National Flood Insurance Program Extension Act on July 2, 2010.  This law ensures that basic NFIP authorities remain in force by retroactively reauthorizing the program from June 1, 2010, through September 30, 2010.

Congress is working to reform the entire program. On July 15, 2010, the House of Representatives passed the Flood Insurance Reform Priorities Act (H.R. 5114). This measure would reauthorize the NFIP through Fiscal Year 2015 and make major reforms to the program. This bill has been referred to the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee. While I am not a member of this Committee, I am committed to ensuring the Flood Insurance program remains strong and viable for years to come.

Again,thank you for contacting me. Please feel free to keep in touch.

Sincerely,
RichardJ. Durbin
UnitedStates Senator

River Road Construction At Touhy

According to Alderman Mark Walsten Here is what's taking place on River Rd.  North of Touhy. Phase II is to start next year. The current work is part of the reconstruction of River Road from Devon to just north of Touhy. The end of the new pavement for Phase I will be 100’ north of Sherwin. Phase II will pick at this point north of Sherwin and continue to Rand Road. The work they are currently doing is to prepare for the 1st stage of construction that requires temporary pavement up to a point north of Welwyn. This is all for the lane transitions into a single lane in each direction.
If you have any other questions direct them to:

Jon Duddles, P.E.
Assistant Director of Public Works and Engineering
City of Des Plaines
1420 Miner Street
Des Plaines, IL 60016
Phone: 847-391-6127
Fax: 847-391-5619
(http://www.desplaines.org/)

MEETING CANCELLATION NOTICE

The July 19th Des Plaines Flood Group meeting has been cancelled due to a scheduling conflict at city hall... please let others know

On a good note:

The portable generator program which was initiated by our Group is very close to reality, as we've found some Federal funding for it and our portion is wonderfully inexpensive. We may be able to get as many as 300 of them. Keep informed through the website and blog!!

June 14th Meeting Minutes

Board members in attendance: Bill Burrows, Mile Elliot, Len Karson, and Glenn Wiorek.

Mike introduced Glenn Wiorek our new 7th board member. He is our 6th ward representative as well as webmaster.

Glenn gave a quick overview of http://www.dpfloodaction.org the new DPFA group intern website. He also discussed where he wanted to take the website in the future. The plan is to build on the new site taking what we have now and offering many social networking features - interactive polling, discussion forums, calendars, better event tracking, comments, etc...

Len Karson gave a presentation on the results of the last survey. Many concerns where on Levee 37 and 51 and the heritage park water retention area. 70% said the DPFA group was also felt that we helped. 66% of the responses favored continuing with guest speakers. Action item while area dependant where helpful.
Ideas where: Pressure the city to step up drainage/sewer repairs, getting schools doing flood control studies , home buyout study, Clean river and reopen run off at turn off before Big Ben. Len suggest we do a survey related to these to see what to start petitioning. Suggest review the FEMA approved city flood action plan, Home buyouts study, would 3 inch lowering of big bend lake really help. Many had concerns as to why they didn’t seem to get any property taxes relief. While the assessed tax value went down the tax multiplier increased causing a tax increase. A member said that anyone south of Oakton should apply for tax relief for airport noise.

Bill Burrows gave a presentation of tracking of the river levels. Years of channeling of the river and years of construction without water storage compensation and dubious zoning changes that have allow business to bypass things. The last 35 years the level at flood levels at moderate or higher flood levels. Felt the two best options where to build flood walls or housing buy outs. A sub group of DPFA is studying the housing buy out in the big bend.

First action item is to pursue an engineering university doing flood control studies.

Second action item - We will be sending an email out to all with a quick poll based on the surveys and tonight's meeting. The survey will also be available on-line and it may be the main place to vote at the next meeting we will state the rankings, maybe take another vote and get the petitions rolling. This will let us know what the top things to pursue and base those petitions on.

Some of those items are -

A) A housing buy out study to compare costs between buyouts and other measures like flood walls.

B) Put pressure on Army core to step up their phase II plan,

C) Reviewing the DP Disaster plan and presentation to the city official to improve things during flooding - where sandbags are delivered, why they not filled with 2 auto fillers machines and other means to help to fill the bags. Also to police the sandbag areas as people from outside of Des Plaines have been taking our sand.

D) Is the 22 million worth it to lower big bend 3 inches when the water levels rise 6 or more feet above flood levels?

E) Keep the pressure on to try to speed up the water retention area for levee 37 in Mt Prospect.


It was also asked to find out if all the storm drains the empty into the river have check valves to prevent backflow.

Glenn Wiorek has permission to use the Riverside Flood group web site's government contact page and their template petitions/letters. He will be adding them to the website. He also plans to set up the survey on-line.