Mundelein reviews Wellington Avenue stormwater study; board directs staff to start the lowest-cost mitigation

Public works staff told trustees the village can reduce but not eliminate standing-water problems on Wellington Avenue with a modest, budgeted project; trustees directed staff to begin the first-phase mitigation work.

The discussion matters because Wellington is a long-standing depressional basin where stormwater backs up into yards during moderate storms; the study modeled options and costs so trustees could choose how much to spend and whether to pursue property acquisition for a larger fix.

A village staff member who presented the analysis (identified in the meeting as "Mister Moshe") said the team performed a conceptual model rather than a detailed engineering design. He described three alternatives: Alternative 1 would create a detention area on the village-owned parcel where a structure had been relocated and provide about 0.35 acre-feet of storage; the presenter said that option would likely cost "somewhere in the neighborhood of, 120 to a $150,000." Alternative 2 would use a depressional area on adjacent Park Street properties and likely require easements or land acquisition and cost roughly $150,000—175,000; Alternative 3 would more fully grade and define depressional storage and increase capacity to about 0.8 acre-feet but would cost on the order of $250,000, not including any land purchases.

The presenter emphasized limits: the modeled improvements addressed a 10-year (10% chance) storm event and "it's not gonna even solve the Wellington Avenue stormwater management issues" for larger storms; he noted that downstream constraints exist because the village discharges to an Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) system the village cannot alter.

Trustees asked whether the work could be phased and whether spending in the near term would preclude larger fixes later. The presenter said the options are layered and that the village could begin with Alternative 1 and later add further elements if the board chooses. Trustee Krensky said, "I like option 1 to begin with." Trustee Morris said he believed the board had direction to proceed with Option 1 and "we'll bring it out to that contract with the board." Several trustees supported moving forward because the cost had been included in the budget and because doing something now would be less expensive than deferring work.

No formal roll-call vote on construction funding was recorded; trustees gave staff direction to move toward construction documents and the contracting process for Alternative 1. Staff said, if the board approves construction, the work could be started and finished within the current construction season depending on scope.

The presentation also flagged that a more comprehensive regional approach would require larger expenditures or property acquisition to fully mitigate structural flood risk for a multi-family building identified as the most vulnerable property in the basin.