Ravinia Sewer Program Goes Down The Drain

The City Council has worked tirelessly in trying to deal with flooding in basements from the public sanitary sewers lines. I believe we had successfully worked in a partnership with the residents in the Highlands in alleviating most of the problem areas. We continue to work on a regional basis with the County, State, and Federal officials in trying to place a storage facility to slow the flood waters down before they reach Highland Park.

Trying to work the Sewer Program in the Ravinia neighborhoods has not worked. Prices have skyrocketed(doubled) while our pocket books have been mugged by this crippling economy. We will not proceed at this time on this Sewer lining Program because the costs to residents is way too high and great questions by residents need to be answered before we proceed on anymore private funding on this project.

The idea behind this program was for the city to rebuild or line our public sewer systems in the right of way and seal the system from infiltration of water. This infiltration has caused capacity problems and back up of sewage in peoples homes. Along with the millions the City is spending on our infrastructure in the streets, we had asked residents to line their privately owned lateral sewer lines that connect their homes to the public sewer lines. The City also offered a 20% cost share, a low interest loan, and an option not to pay anything until the home was sold.

While this program was well intentioned and I believed did work in the highlands, times have changed and we need to rebuild this program to where the burden of this project does not cripple our residents......... To be continued..