What Ed Young Doesn't Want You To Know: Part 1 - levees

We located a copy of the Lisle Patch article that Ed Young had pulled. There is so much material here that it requires multiple posts to set the record straight. Let's deal with Young's comment on Lisle's levees first (this was a topic covered in "the real state of the Village" here and here).

Young said the levees have not been repaired for many years, and the Village Board has been trying to address this. "I'm concerned that they haven't been repaired and if they should breech, that would be catastrophic," Young said.

Here are the facts about the levee debacle:

• The levee problem was identified shortly after the turn of the century.
• In 2005 DuPage County paid to have engineering work on levee maintenance completed (Page 350http://www.co.dupage.il.us/finance/budget2010/2010FinancialPlan.pdf )

River - Dumoulin Flood Control Project - Property Reimbursement

Village of Lisle

The River - Dumoulin Flood Control Project is comprised of several different project components. A total of four pump stations will be constructed along the East Branch between Lacey Avenue and Burlington Avenue in Lisle. In addition, several areas of the levee system will be raised to their original design elevation. In order to repair the levee, permanent easements will be needed from property owners along the length of the levee. These easements are needed for access and construction and to make sure that structures or plantings are not placed on the levee in the future that would affect the integrity of the levee.DuPage County has an IGA with Lisle to reimburse property owners up to $1,500.00 for the permanent easements required for the levee repair project.

2005

• From Village Of Lisle "Floodplain Information and Protection": "Funding was available, and the engineering work was completed. Then it was discovered that the easements used to construct the levee were all temporary easements which had long ago expired. Today, the river levees areowned by around 55 private property owners, and there are few easements to allow maintenance or inspection" Ed Young has been a trustee since 1999. The levee problem was identified shortly after the turn of the century, and DuPage County provided funding for the levee engineering work in 2005. 
• Ed Young, Broda, and Lisle trustees ignored the levee problem prior to 2005, resulting in no easements being available when the levee engineering work was completed. Ed Young continued to ignore the need for easements from 2005 through 2010, even though DuPage County offered funding to help acquire the easements!

Now that Ed Young has to run for reelection, he is "concerned" about levee maintenance. Where was he in 2000? in 2001? in 2002? in 2003? in 2004? in 2005? in 2006? in 2007? in 2008? in 2009? in 2010?

We all know that politicians never lie to voters. Let's be kind to Mr Young and call his comments on the levees disingenuous misstatements. You can decide for yourself whether they are deliberately deceptive -- but does it really matter? Is this not a prime example of how incompetent "leadership" got Lisle into one mess after another since 1999?

There are many more "disingenuous misstatements" from Mr Young that will be dealt with in subsequent posts, but not till later this week. The author needs to go on a business trip for a few days, to earn money to pay for the 8.2%+ property tax increase that Ed Young and Lisle trustees intend to ram down the throats of taxpayers in tonight's budget hearing (to finance a 9th consecutive year of deficit spending).