Offered by Beverage Pouch Group
Kind of like a Capri Sun for adults! Same light golden color!
We knew after boxed wine it was only a matter of time.
Get out and go have a good time this weekend!
June 18, 2009
On The Go!
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22 comments:
PRU, that is so wrong! Just like boxed wine is so wrong!
I hope everyone remembers to drink responsibly! Stay safe!
Hey........its flooding pretty bad.
And there another storm behind the 2nd one.
Get both oars in the water flood commission!
Nice flood control Park Ridge....more water in my basement today.
I hate this F**king town!
Idea for the flood control folks...
How about halting building huge houses on small lots? Another thought....How about not allowing the new construction to be built at a higher grade than existing homes? A new home was built near us and it is significantly higher than surrounding homes. Who checks these things?
I hate to tell you how many times our former public works director and current flood commission member stated new homes taking up every ounce of green space and being built at a higher grade than the neighbors is no problem and does not contribute to flooding. I didn't believe him then and I question his ability to judge what needs to be done when many of the problems came into play or got worse under his administration.
Email from the Mayor:
Dave Schmidt to supporters
show details 2:04 PM (41 minutes ago) Reply
As you all must know by now, Park Ridge is experiencing another flood with characteristics similar to those occurring last September. Although we did not have as much total rain, we received a couple "microbursts" which overtaxed our antiquated system. The first burst around 3am this morning had not been emptied out of the system before the second burst came through. That is why the water and sewage began backing up into basements and manhole covers got blown off the sewers, because the water pressure was so high.
I have been in close contact with the City Manager and the Director of Public Works. They are doing what they can, but we obviously need to find a long-term solution to the problem. The Flood Relief Task Force met for the first time two nights ago and are committed to finding that solution. Hopefully they will be able to learn valuable information from today's episode.
As part of that process, I encourage you and your neighbors to contact the Public Works Department to provide as much detail as possible regarding any problems you have experienced. That information will be gathered and given to the Task Force. Hopefully, it will provide clues as to specific causes of various types of problems. Instead of calling, the best way to get that info to DPW is to send it via e-mail to Susan Tedeschi at STedesch@parkridge.us.
Good luck to all of you.
The mayor is responding to the issue, on top of things. How refreshing in comparison to the former manner in which these issues were dealt with.
Kudos, Mr. Mayor.
The forester should check tree roots that go into sewers for flooding, instead of letting almost every house without a generator get flooded.
Millions of power outages happen also and they should fix that also, the problem there is trees that affect the power lines which cause them too fall.
So stop blaming all your problems on new houses and learn that other factors go into these issues.
Oh my god no!!!! Not the trees!!!!!
My home fortunately does not have a flooding problem (just the new airplane noise) but I certainly feel bad for those of you who do. I thought I'd offer some suggestions that may or may not help someone. We bought our house about 14 years ago. The previous owners had installed a drain tile system with a sump pump in the basement. There are times, even when it's not raining, that the sump pump will go off. We made sure the water coming out of the sump pump is diverted away from the foundation. I'm sure having this system has kept most of the water out. (We also keep a spare sump pump on hand) We did have a problem with foundation seepage. Water came in from many places all over the basement. What corrected this problem was making sure that gutter water was diverted away from the foundation. I had found an old sidewalk that was buried between us and the neighbors house. It had been used when they used to bring coal into the house through a coal door. The coal door had been bricked up, but the sidewalk was left. Over time it shifted and was covered with dirt. When it rained, the water was actually being diverted by the sidewalk, towards the foundation. As soon as I removed the sidewalk, the seepage on that wall stopped. Having gutter water go into underground pvc pipes attached to pop-ups also diverts water away from the house foundation. Positioning the pop-ups so the water runs away from the house (and not towards your neighbor) is important. We have also had regular maintenance on our sewer system. We did have our basement sewer drain back up slightly one time. We had someone come out and found that there were tree roots that were in the pipe between the house and the street. There was also a tip from an old rodding tool stuck in there. We had the pipe cleaned out and haven't had a problem since. There is a product that can be put in the sewer to keep the roots from growing into the pipe; and it doesn't hurt the trees. Regular maintenance helps to keep the line clear. (Does the city do regular maintenance?) Our house also sits on the high end of the street so I'm sure that also helps us. I hope this information is helpful to some of you, depending on what problems you are having. Best wishes.
The former public works director was a consummate bureaucrat, so (like a "good German" in the 1940s) he did exactly what he was told to do. And when he couldn't take it any longer, he quit.
Hopefully he will take his new responsibility and new freedom from the bureaucracy seriously and help come up with workable solutions to this problem.
But if we want to solve this problem, it won't be easy and it won't be cheap.
The Mayor's e-mail references a burst not being emptied out of the system. I am curious if anyone knows how long it typically takes for the system to clear out.
It would appear that there was over 6 hours between the 3AM storm and the heavy rain of yesterday morning. The fact that the system would still be taxed by a storm that occured 6+ hours earlier is an indication of the enormity of this problem.
I am glad there is a task force and I am very curious to see what they come up with. My gut tells me that "solving" the problem will be cost prohibitive but I hope I am wrong.
As an aside, in my neighborhood the number of homes that took on water is significantly greater that in September. The rainfall combined with the power outage was the perfect storm. Many of the homes ran through the battery life on their back up sytems. Once the sumps lost power in the water came.
Anon 9:36 - Sounds like you live in a new house. I agree that new houses are not the sole cause of flooding, but a major one. I happen to live between two new houses both built higher than me and my backyard floods in all major rains. The city said I should put in a drainage system (at my cost) to stop the flooding. Never mind they are the ones who caused the problem or at least allowed it to happen. This is how this city works. Its lost on the city that I lived for years prior to these new homes with a dry backyard. Dave Schmidt talks often of an antiquated sewer system. One of the reasons its antiquated is because of all the large new homes removing green space. Unless there is a plan to limit the size of new homes or make them accountable for the extra water they dump into the system and on surrounding properties, the flooding problem will not be solved.
anon 3:42:
I half agree with your post.
The part I agree with is that a new construction home should not be allowed to be built higher than the neighboring property or change the landscape to cause water to run off in to the neighbors yard. I would think that should be a enforcable rule and part of the building code and inspection process.
The part I disagree with is the assumption you make that these larger newer homes "dump extra water into the system". There are many new construction homes in my area (I live in an older house)and they have the same number of people living in them as my house. Sometimes they have less people and rarely more. How is it they use more water?? Do you think they somehow use all 4 of their toilets at the same time? Do they take more showers or do more laundry than the rest of us?? In fact, I would bet that many of these larger, newer homes use less by comparison because they have newer (low flow) more efficient systems.
Anon 9:05 What a nice and neighborly post. I agree that there is a lot we can do to help ourselves. But, I also agree that the large homes might contribute to the problem. It's not that they use more water, they use more green space. Also, limiting size to be in keeping with a neighborhood would help maintain the quaint character of P.R.
Why do people get so defense about trees in this community?
Anon 6:54 - The amount of water a new house dumps into the system has nothing to do with the number or residents. It has to do with the amount of green space the new house eliminated. On my street alone we have had three huge houses replace significantly smaller homes and this has taken place throughout Park Ridge. The water that was absorbed by the green space that no longer exists has to go someplace. My guess is that most ends up in the sewer system or on adjacent properties.
Ah hello......."Tree City USA".
Just a guess.
Happy Fathers Day to all the male posters here!!!!!!!
I walked out of the house on Fathers Day today to see one of my neighbors digging up the mulch around his parkway trees. Turns out he and another neighbor got a ticket for violation of Municipal Code 9-4-2 "improper mulching of his trees". If you look up that code there is no reference to mulching trees. The section only refers to maintenance removal or destruction of parkway trees and the need for a permit. The best we could guess was that it was mounded up too high. Unless he got the ticket because he didn't have a permit to put some mulch around his trees. The irony is that his yards are kept impeccably neat.
Do these people have nothing better to do? How about getting the hundreds of low hug parkway trees trimmed? How about getting the dilapidated overgrown houses/lots cleaned up. Of course there is always the flooding issues to work on if they need something to do...
I agree, doesn't this city have other big problems to focus on other than trees!
Tree city U.S.A or not I think this city and citizens really over do it.
I admit this is petty, but it is an example of what city employees could be doing instead of issuing citations for improper mulching. My gripe is that many of the bushes along the front of the Busse maintenance building are dead, and with all the employees, skills and equipment in that building there can be no excuse. The city can make a few dollars fining residents, or save tax dollars by taking care of city shrubs. Geez.
Tree City USA!! Tree City USA!!
There are a million 'Tree City USA's' out there. If you check out their website, it's not a particularly difficult designation to get. I'm all for PR being a Tree City USA; but we have gone crazy with it.
I got seepage, and I feel very lucky to have only gotton that. On the upside, McMasions are going out of style, so hopefully the homes they build now will be a little smaller.
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