By Krystyna Slivinski

Source The Chicago Tribune

They marched, they prayed and they made emotional pleas, but tenants from a low-income complex in Glen Ellyn could not get assurances from village staff that their apartment buildings will be left out of a proposed taxing district for Roosevelt Road.

Tenants, many of them new immigrants and refugees, marched along Main Street Monday to the Civic Center because they believe improvements tied to the district could displace them or cause their rents to rise out of their price range. Members of the community also supported the group of more than 150.

“There just isn’t a lot of affordable housing for these people,” said David Vosburg, a four-year resident of the Parkside Apartments, which sits in the targeted tax increment financing district.

For Roosevelt Road, the proposed project area would include parcels between Route 53 and Park Boulevard between Park Avenue and Main Street. The district’s proposed boundaries exclude Market Plaza, where Jewel-Osco is located, and Pickwick Place Shopping Center and Baker Hill Development. The area is home to a mix of retail, office and residential housing that in most cases, is aging and struggling to attract new business.

“We have no specific plans for development but over 23 years, we hope a TIF district will spur interest,” said Mark Franz, village manager.

Caught in the proposed TIF boundary are the roughly 500 tenants who live at Parkside Apartments, which provides 120 affordable housing units at 18 N. Parkside Ave. The complex of eight, two-story buildings could benefit from improvements, which tenants believe would then increase their rents.

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By Mary Beth Versaci

Source My Suburban Life

Glen Ellyn will spend about $5 million on two roadway improvement projects this summer.

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By Quan Truong

Source Chicago Tribune

Glen Ellyn officials are gearing up for two major street projects this summer, which will add up to about $5 million worth of work.

The roads being fixed are deteriorating, with some dating back to the 1950s, said Bob Minix, village engineer.

“It’s come to the point where it’s time for a fairly complete reconstruction of those streets,” he said. “The pavement is very tired. There’s a lot of cracking and curbs are pretty poor in spots. They’re due.”

The village board awarded the second of two bids for the projects June 10, approving $2.17 million contract to Addison-based company, R.W. Dunteman, for the 2013 Street Improvements Project, which will include 4,000 feet along Country Club Lane, Miller Court, Cranston Court, Grandview between Smith and Hill, and Brandon between Hill and Hillside.

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By Christopher Placek

Source Daily Herald

Whenever there’s a major storm in Glen Ellyn, residents downstream from Lake Ellyn say they brace for the worst.

The man-made lake, which acts as a stormwater detention facility for a one-square-mile area near the village’s downtown, discharges water north of the lake through underground pipes that lead to nearby Perry’s Pond and eventually the East Branch of the DuPage River.

It’s those residences around the pond, located near the intersection of Riford Road and Chidester Avenue, that often get hit the hardest by flooding.

Take the case of Kurt Kabot, who told village and park district officials last week that he has dealt with ankle-deep water in his house, had large rocks displaced in his yard, and found 3-pound carp at his front door.

“Why was a house built in a flow path?” Kabot said at a recent meeting about Lake Ellyn flooding. “I can’t sleep in my house knowing it’s going to rain tonight. I got fish at my front door.”

A consultant hired by the village and park district to investigate flooding in the neighborhood has offered several recommendations that could reduce the overflow of Lake Ellyn, or at least reduce its effects when it does happen.

No matter what, officials say, none of the solutions will completely stop the lake from overflowing.

“That’s a fact of nature,” said Bill Rickert, president of RHMG Engineers, the Mundelein-based engineering firm that conducted the village- and park district-commissioned hydrologic and hydraulic study.

Officials from both agencies split the $51,430 cost to hire the consultant in 2011 after major storms in September 2008 and July 2010 left homes, roads and Lake Ellyn Park under water. Initial recommendations were presented in April 2012 in addition to a follow-up report in January.

Significant floods in April likely have increased the urgency to find solutions.

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By Quan Truong

Source Chicago Tribune

Glen Ellyn’s village board is considering lifting the $2,500 cap on a program to help residents improve sewers and may also implement a reverse 911 system in light of April’s flood.

Since the April 18 event, there have been many calls inquiring about back flow prevention and 22 residents will likely commit to a cost sharing program for sewer upgrades, according to Utility Superintendent Bob Greenberg.

The program was created in 2001 and reimburses homeowners 50 percent of the cost to convert overhead sewers or install a backwater valve, up to $2,500 per grant. Since 2001, 111 residents have used the program, and about $225,500 in grants has been given to homeowners.

The program is funded by a $3 monthly fee that is attached to sewer and water bills, said Julius Hansen, the village’s director of public works. His department is proposing the $2,500 cap be removed and that homeowners who partake in the program be reimbursed 50 percent of the full cost.

“The improved program will help more citizens that had sewer backups during the flood,” Hansen said. “The village president, trustees, village manager and public works all want to help the citizens that are most vulnerable during massive rainfalls.”

The recommendation will be formally presented to the board later this month, he said.

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By Quan Truong

Source Chicago Tribune

There are plenty of cooks participating in the Fifth annual Glen Ellyn’s Backyard BBQ Cook-Off this year who think they’ve got the best ribs or bean dish in Illinois and, maybe, the country.

Now, they’ll be able to see if that’s true after Gov. Pat Quinn declared the increasingly popular September event an official state competition, which means winners can qualify for national contests.

It also means more prestige and street cred for what five years ago started as a small block party, said Greg Bane, who co-founded the Backyard BBQ Cook-Off.

“We’re probably the largest amateur barbecue contest in the state,” Bane said. “So why shouldn’t we be of state championship status?”

The cook-off began in 2009, when local barbecue enthusiasts decided to get together in the 700 block of Willis Street to see who was the best at their craft. Or, as they called it, “friendly trash-talk.”

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By Quan Truong

Source Chicago Tribune

Final adjustments are being made to a new study that could shape much of how downtown Glen Ellyn will look in the coming years.

Glen Ellyn trustees are expected to vote on the streetscape and parking study at their next board meeting on May 28.

“I’m not a big fan of spending money on studies, but this plan, I think, was done very appropriately,” said Village President Alex Demos, after the study was formally presented to the board at a special meeting on May 20.

He, along with some trustees, named parking as one of the biggest problems they’d like to address.

The study was paid for with a $50,000 grant from the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning. It’ll have to be finalized by the end of the month in order for the village to keep the grant, Planning and Development Director Staci Hulseberg told the board.

Recommendations in the study included retrofitting tree grates so they’re all consistent and bringing uniformity to signs, trash cans, benches and lighting. Consultants who put together the study also suggested adding landscaped buffers to hide cars in parking lots, enhancing alleys that are frequently used by pedestrians and burying future overhead wires.

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