By KEVIN NEVERS

No infrastructure could ever be engineered to accommodate a foot of rain in only 36 hours, but Chesterton Street Commissioner and Town Engineer Mark O’Dell do have a better idea now than they did a week ago of some of the ways in which the stormwater system could be improved.

Among those fixes, as they told the Stormwater Management Board at its meeting Monday night, would be the possible connection of the old Jewel/Osco detention pond to the Kmart pond.

As it happens, developer and builder Vic Roberts broached exactly that retrofit from the floor on Monday, after noting that, two or three times a year, the residents of the Olde Towne subdivision find their streets under water. That subdivision is served by the old Jewel detention pond, and when it overflows—as it did this weekend—Olde Towne becomes “a secondary detention pond,” Roberts said. To the west, however, and at a lower elevation, the Kmart detention pond still had capacity when the rains ended.

Roberts’ solution: pipe the old Jewel detention pond into the Kmart one.

“I know where you’re going with this,” Schnadenberg replied. “(O’Dell) and I talked about this last night.” In fact, he said, something along the lines suggested by Roberts might be feasible, but any pipe would have to be metered—the Kmart detention pond doesn’t have infinite capacity—and a few other issues would have to be resolved as well.

Schnadenberg did offer this comment on the old Jewel detention pond. “The system doesn’t work,” he said. “It wasn’t built right.”

In any event, Roberts noted, with the proposed construction by St. Anthony Memorial Health Care Centers of a 24-hour free-standing emergency department on the site of the old Jewel, drainage in the neighborhood really needs to be improved. “What happens if patients can’t get in and out?” he asked.

Debriefing

So, President Larry Brandt put it to Schnadenberg and O’Dell, “I suppose we got a pretty good idea this weekend of what we need to do.”

Yes and no, Schnadenberg said. A two-inch rain in 15 minutes would be a much better indicator of problems in the system than a 12-inch rain in 36 hours. “This was a natural disaster. With 12 inches of rain, there’s nothing you can do.”

As O’Dell noted, once the ditches and other receiving waters breach their banks—Pope O’Conner, Gustafson, the Little Calumet River—the flooding is bound to become generalized. “Now they’re starting to fall. When they recede, so will the detention ponds, then the streets and yards. It’s like a big stair step.”

O’Dell did say that—“when we have a chance”—he and Schnadenberg will compile a list of problematic locations and possible solutions.

One ditch performed well, Schnadenberg said: Peterson.

One other performed very badly, MS4 Operator Jennifer Gadzala added: Pope O’Conner. “It was very surprising to me the way it expanded out of its banks. There’s still water on 1100N, while Coffee Creek and Sand Creek have already receded a bit.”

Gratitude

O’Dell took a moment in the meeting to express his gratitude to all of the town employees who worked so hard and unstintingly this weekend, not only those from the Utility but from the Street Department and the Fire Department. “We had to make them go home,” he said.

O’Dell also specially thanked R.V. Sutton Inc. for once again stepping into the breach and sending a platoon of its own workers to man pumps, operate the vacuum truck, and build dams. “We didn’t have that many employees to work around the clock,” O’Dell said. “We’d like to thank R.V. Sutton for responding in this emergency situation.”

“I think you’re exactly correct,” Brandt said. “We certainly have dedicated employees in town and we appreciate their efforts.”

August

In August the Stormwater Utility ran a surplus of $9,552 and in the year-to-date is running a surplus of $89,145.

Posted 9/17/2008