Niles residents unhappy with city’s response to flooding

September 2, 2010 at 12:04a.m.

BY JORDAN COHEN

NILES

Robin Norman, who complained to city council in August about flooding damage in her Washington Avenue home after a heavy rainfall, returned to tell council Wednesday that she is not happy with the city’s response.

Neither are two other residents who said that heavy rains guarantee flooded basements in their neighborhood.

“They promised me that at least one action plan would be implemented and I haven’t seen it,” Norman said. The homeowner said that city officials looked at a sewer near her home and found no obstructions.

“Of course it was clear,” Norman said. “It wasn’t raining at the time they checked it.”

Another resident, Charles Johnstone, of Sheridan Avenue, said flooding is a regular occurrence in his basement. “I have to go through this twice or three times each year,” Johnstone said.

One of Norman’s Washington Avenue neighbors, Brian O’Malley, questioned whether sewer lines have been tied in with storm drains because of the amount of sewage that he and Norman have had to clear from their basements after flooding. “This needs to be addressed immediately,” O’Malley told council.

Randy Fabrizio, waste-treatment superintendent, said he is looking into the costs for a smoke test that would determine if there are leaks. He said extensive testing may have last been performed “18 or 20 years ago, before the treatment facility was upgraded.”

However, council members said the official who could best respond to the complaints, Mark Hess, the city’s grant and development coordinator, is on vacation. Hess is scheduled to return to work next week and Neil Buccino, the service director, promised Norman and the others he would set up a meeting with Hess and Mayor Ralph Infante, who also was absent from Wednesday’s council meeting.

Norman, who said that her basement furniture and carpeting were ruined after an Aug. 11 downpour, is still worried. “They’re forecasting more rain later this week and I’m wondering if we’ll be going through this again,” she said.