Posted on April 22, 2019
KANKAKEE — Bob Lathim says he was excited when he and his wife bought their house south of Aroma Park in September 2017.
It’s in a neighborhood with well-kept homes shaded by large, mature trees. The Kankakee River flows along the east side of the subdivision.
“This is a great place to raise a family and grow old,” Lathim said. “That’s what I was looking forward to.”
But things haven’t quite worked out for the Lathims, who live near the end of Riverview Drive. In February 2018, just five months after they moved in, their neighborhood flooded. This forced the couple out of their house to allow for a contractor to restore it.
They moved in with family near St. Anne. They hope to return home in the next couple months.
Because the Lathims’ house is in a floodplain, they were required to have flood insurance, which Lathim said costs about $100 per month.
Lathim, a security sergeant at the Illinois Veterans Home at Manteno, said he recently received a document from FEMA showing that his house flooded at least one other time — in 2014. This is something he said he did not know about, saying it should have been disclosed.
The recent flood dramatically changed the neighborhood. One riverside house was torn down. The two houses across from the Lathim’s now sit vacant, still needing restoration work. One of the homes’ lawns is covered in leaves and its gutters filled with debris.
“That’s going to drive down property values,” Lathim said.
In February when Kankakee River ice jams caused flooding near Wilmington, Lathim feared something similar in his neighborhood. On a lawn near the river, two large pieces of ice the size of small boats came ashore, he said.
Lathim said he wants to get the word out about the vulnerability of neighborhoods near the river. He plans to start a petition effort to urge improvements to the river such as dredging and raising the banks, which can be done by Army Corps of Engineers.
He said he plans to continue living in the neighborhood.
“It would be paradise out here if it weren’t for the flooding. When we were still in the house, my stress would go away when I was driving home,” Lathim said.
‘MISERABLE REALITY’
Kankakee County Board Chairman Andy Wheeler has been working with officials on the Indiana portion of the Kankakee River to reduce flooding.
A century ago, Indiana drained its wetlands near the river, causing issues in Illinois, Wheeler said.
“The miserable reality is that we’re getting more rain. More sand is going down the river coming from Indiana. The data bears that out. That’s why Aroma Park keeps getting blown out,” he said. “It’s been a source of contention between the two states. The flooding is so bad in Indiana, exponentially worse there.”
In Indiana, a bill in the legislature calls for spending millions for river improvements, Wheeler said. This could have some benefit in Illinois, including Watseka, which is especially vulnerable to flooding.
Illinois, on the other hand, has no money to deal with such problems, he said.
It costs $1 million a mile to dredge the river, Wheeler said.
“Then what do you do with the sand?” he said.
‘FILL UP WITH SAND’
Without major improvements in Indiana, dredging the Illinois portion is futile, Wheeler said.
“You can’t dredge the Kankakee River now because it will fill up with sand in six months,” he said.
Wheeler said he has lobbied lawmakers in Washington for help with the river. One change officials would like is to place the whole Kankakee River system under one office of the Army Corps of Engineers, rather than three.
Wheeler said he understood what residents near the river are feeling. In 2005, he moved from his riverside house near Momence because it repeatedly flooded. When he lived there, he loved fishing off his back porch.
“It was gorgeous there. My kids loved it. It was like living in Wisconsin,” Wheeler said.
Besides the people, the river would be the community’s best asset “if we could get the damn sand out of it.”
“It’s a beautiful river that’s being choked out by sand,” Wheeler said.
Source: daily-journal.com
