Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Public Works topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Residents press for reservoir inspections and propose waste-haul changes at La Grange board meeting
Summary
Public commenters urged La Grange trustees to fund inspection and repairs for the Plainfield & East Avenue water reservoir and to rethink the village's waste-hauling contract; the Environmental Quality Commission recommended bidding the contract, a volume-based user-fee program, and year‑round food-scrap composting.
Residents used the April 14 public-comment period to press the Village Board on infrastructure and environmental services.
John Pluto told trustees he could find no records of interior or robotic/dive inspections of the water reservoir on Plainfield and East Avenue and that FOIA responses were incomplete or redacted. Pluto said a 2013 engineering report recommended interior and exterior rehabilitation, including repair of exposed rebar and high-performance coatings, and estimated a 2013 cost of about $150,000 for the recommended work. "Since 1982 when we built this, you're telling me that we didn't inspect it," Pluto said, asking when an inspection and any resulting repairs would be scheduled.
Village officials responded that inspections are planned for 2025 and that future budget years would include repairs as required; no firm schedule beyond that estimate was adopted at the meeting.
Rose Nassif, chair of the Environmental Quality Commission, reviewed the commission's recommendations on the village's waste-hauling contract (which is due to expire this summer). The EQC suggested soliciting bids for waste-haul services to allow evaluation beyond price, adopting a fair volume-based 'user pays' program (including an RFID-based model like Wheaton's), offering year-round food-scrap composting with appropriately sized containers, improving resident education on acceptable materials, and requiring hauler-provided data on collected materials and contamination rates.
Nassif said staff has begun meeting with the incumbent hauler, Flood Brothers, and that the EQC plans a formal presentation at the next board meeting to offer more comprehensive recommendations.
The board thanked speakers and noted staff would continue discussions with the hauler and the EQC; no formal action on the waste-haul contract or the reservoir repairs was taken at the meeting.
Ending: The EQC will present in more detail at an upcoming board meeting and staff will continue negotiations with Flood Brothers concerning contract options and services.
