At the City’s Public Works Committee Meeting on October 1, about 90 Park Ridge residents heard a lot of nothing from city government about what should be done to prevent, or at least reduce, the flooding that is far too regular and prevalent an occurrence in our city.

Starring in the dual role of featured tap dancer and juggler was Public Works Director Wayne Zingsheim, who tried but failed to keep his feet tapping and all the balls in the air.  What his failure pointed out, however, is that we’re no further along in addressing our flooding problems than we were a year ago, when flooding and lost electrical power lasted for as long as four days.  And by the way, we’re no closer to solving those electrical problems, either.

Zingsheim did his best to pawn off the most recent flooding as a one-of-its-kind event.  But for those residents who are tired of bailing out their basements from those “hundred year rains” we seem to get every other year or so, even the prospect that this was a “thousand year rain” would not inspire any confidence that we won’t have another one – with the same consequences – again next year. 

Under questioning from Public Works Committee member Frank Wsol (7th Ward) and Committee alternate Ald. Dave Schmidt (1st Ward), Zingsheim advanced variations on his too-much-water-for-anything-to-work tactic.  He repeatedly deflected inquiries about more relief sewers (at approx. $300,000 per two-block segment, according to Zingsheim), more pumps and lift stations, and even the construction of underground reservoirs, by opining that not even a combination of those might be enough to prevent flooding altogether.

But then he had to admit that the notorious Touhy Avenue viaduct did not flood, apparently because of just two vaults recently built in Uptown.  Oops.   

The balls really started hitting the floor, however, when Zingsheim attempted to explain the flooding at Boardwalk Place, on the western end of the city, by blaming “broken concrete” at the bottom of a 42-inch flap gate and more broken concrete that prevented a smaller flap gate from closing completely, thereby letting the Des Plaines River back up into Boardwalk and onto Riverside Drive near Cherry Street.  Zingsheim claimed that these flap gates are inspected “monthly,” and he also invoked “monthly inspection” in branding as “crap” the complaint of a Cherry Street resident who contended that a “broken valve” near Boardwalk contributed to the problem.

We don’t want to be unfair here, but we have to question both the fact and the competence of inspections that failed to detect any significant deterioration of concrete that, less than a month later, allegedly had crumbled to the point of compromising essential flood control devices.  And we also note that Zingsheim didn’t provide an answer to a question still bedeviling many residents: Why did the water in their basements suddenly drain away at around 9:45 a.m. Saturday?

All in all, Zingsheim’s performance was long on excuses and very short on meaningful answers. 

But what city government is really short on is leadership.  Mayor Howard “Let’s Make A Deal” Frimark seems more interested in bread (e.g., “Taste of Park Ridge”) and circuses (e.g., bringing in a PADS shelter) than in doing the heavy lifting of addressing these crucial infrastructure issues, especially in light of the just-discovered $1.7 million deficit in last year’s budget and the prospect of more of the same this year. 

Meanwhile, Public Works Committee chair Ald. Don Bach (3rd Ward) seems more focused on what can’t be done than on what can.  And Committee member Ald. Robert Ryan (5th Ward) is often just plain MIA.

To deal with these basic problems in fiscally responsible ways we need leadership that ensures accountability and effort from everyone in city government.  And that kind of leadership starts with a mayor who does more than just show up for photo ops and ask: “What happened?”