FLOODING WOES CONTINUE AT PARKSIDE HOME
Frustrated LaSalle resident says water keeps pouring in
Mud, roaring pumps and chaos has filled Richelle Dolan’s LaSalle property as she battles post-storm rainwater she says is draining from the town’s most prominent park. Her solitary home in the 1000 block of Front Road has become an island, under assault by the water coming her way from adjacent Gil Maure Park — noteworthy as the home of the annual Strawberry Festival.
“Water seeps through from the park into the back of my yard and just keeps coming,” said Dolan, a hairstylist who works out of the house she’s lived in for 10 years. “Each year it gets a little worse. I have kept bugging the town for six years. They keep saying they will come out and help — build a berm or something — but they never do.” Dolan dug into her own pocket over the past couple of years to pay for pumps to divert the water into a nearby drain. But they’ve been insufficient. The water keeps seeping up against her home, she said. Frustrated by the town’s inaction, she went a step further in recent weeks. She found free fill online and brought it in by the truckload hoping to build her own personal berm. But after the most recent deluge in recent days, all that dirt appears to have created a greater muddy mess.
“I have gas pumps, hoses and got the dirt,” a frazzled Dolan said on Friday. “My ground never gets a chance to dry out, so it just keeps getting worse.
“I can’t enjoy life. I never get to use my yard.” Administrators from the LaSalle’s public works department did not return messages from The Star on Friday. Meanwhile, an exasperated Dolan struggles to keep her property above water. The town recently purchased Westport Marina, which sits on the other side of her home.
“I would just like them to help put up a retaining wall, berm or anything to keep water from the park out of my yard,” she said. “This has been going on for six years. I’m tired of all the sitting water that will not drain.”
My ground never gets a chance to dry out, so it just keeps getting worse. I can’t enjoy life. I never get to use my yard.