Western Springs Asked For 'Prompt' Refund

WESTERN SPRINGS, IL – Three years ago, a couple of families in a Western Springs neighborhood split the costs of an $11,000 sewer project that the village told them they had to do.

In June, though, the village informed them that their location was one of 10 areas where the village planned to spend its money to improve sewers.

Now the families in the 4000 block of Ellington Avenue – Bob and Leslie Casey and Jack and Diane Doyle – want "a full and prompt" refund of the $11,000. They said no one else had to pay for their own work.

"If they weren't charged for their repairs, we shouldn't be charged for our repairs," Bob Casey said at Monday's Village Board meeting.

When they received the construction notice in June, Casey said he contacted Matthew Supert, the village's municipal services director, who showed up at his house shortly after. Casey said he wanted to see whether the problem was different from the one three years earlier.

Supert said he would check by getting a contractor to televise the sewer. Earlier Monday, Supert informed Casey that the sewer was fine and that the repair was taken off the list.

Casey said the village had been prepared to do the work under false information.

"Our intervention prevented unnecessary cost and disruption to our street and our neighborhood," Casey said in his request for payment.

Supert, however, said the village's code calls for residents to pay for repairs when their private connections cause damage to sewer mains. That was the case on Ellington, he said.

With the project from three years ago, the village met the families halfway by not charging for the street patch after the work, Supert said.

As for the village's including Ellington on the list, Supert said, "That specific location was just an oversight on our part."

He said the Village Board could take up the refund request further.

Village Manager Ellen Baer said she and Supert could meet with the families after the board meeting.

Casey said they would be glad to do that.

Village President Heidi Rudolph said she understood the families' concern.

"I appreciate you bringing it to the board's attention," she said.