La Grange Board outlines flood‑mitigation timeline; 50th Street storm‑sewer project still awaiting permits and appellate action

La Grange village officials told residents on July 14 that major flood‑mitigation projects are nearing the final engineering stages but do not yet have a definite construction start date.

In a presentation to the Village Board, President Kugler said the 50th Street storm‑sewer trunk line (running from Wyola Avenue to East Avenue) is about 90% designed and the outfall design is in its final stages, but permitting by the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD) and the Illinois Department of Transportation is still pending. He also said elements of the project are implicated in a pending appellate court matter and the village is awaiting either oral argument or a ruling.

Why it matters: the project targets five low‑lying depressional areas south of 47th Street and is intended to reduce repeated basement flooding for many La Grange households.

Kugler said the village expects the project to go out for bid “around fall to early winter” and confirmed that the appellate court matter is a parallel track rather than an explicit legal bar to beginning work. “There was no court order saying that we can’t put a shovel on the ground,” he said, while also urging patience as permitting and design tasks finish.

Village Manager Knight and staff gave estimates and timelines for related projects: a Lyons Township High School storage system that would provide roughly 10 acre‑feet (about 3,260,000 gallons) of underground stormwater storage and is about 95% designed, and a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers combined‑sewer rehabilitation project (roughly $2,000,000) that would line approximately 13,000 linear feet of combined sewer pipe. Knight said the village has secured $2,000,000 toward the LTHS storage financing but is still short of the total funding needed and is lobbying federal, state and county partners for assistance.

Residents asked for clearer timelines and for ways to pressure permitting authorities. “Is there an end in sight?” resident Steve Coppell asked. Kugler replied that the village will keep the public informed and recommended quarterly updates at a minimum. He also urged residents to contact elected officials who sit on bodies such as MWRD to press for support.

The village emphasized existing homeowner assistance programs: a sewer‑backup prevention grant reimburses 50% of eligible costs up to a village commitment of $5,000 for overhead‑sewer work or backflow preventer installation. Kugler encouraged homeowners to consider the program but said expanding eligibility (for example, to residents served by South Lyons Township accounts) would require review and potentially additional funding.

Public comment highlighted urgency and local impacts. Resident Laura West praised recent progress but said “there’s still nothing yet” — calling the situation “no way to live” during storms. John Pluto raised technical questions about outfall sizing and asked whether construction in one area could shift flood burdens elsewhere; officials said engineers are studying system impacts and will try to mitigate downstream effects.

What happens next: staff said they will continue engineering work, pursue permitting, coordinate with partners and provide routine public updates at village meetings and on the village website. The board invited residents to raise questions at future meetings and indicated hope that a court ruling will come before construction but reiterated that the court timeline is external to the village’s design and permitting work.