'Constant' Main Breaks Overwhelm Western Springs: Official
WESTERN SPRINGS, IL – Western Springs has experienced 55 water main breaks in the last year, with the issues at one point overwhelming the village staff, officials said Monday.
"All of these main breaks are from our aging infrastructure, so I think ultimately we'll have to address (it)," Trustee Al Fink said at a Village Board meeting.
The board approved paying bills of nearly $25,000 to two plumbing firms for dealing with main breaks last month.
"There was one weekend where we had six water main breaks over four days," said Matthew Supert, the village's municipal services director. "It was too much for our crews to handle in terms of scheduling and just the exhaustion level and the safety level. So for those, we had to bring in an outside contractor just because our crew couldn't handle the constant breaks."
Over the last few years, village officials have repeatedly pointed to problems with the local infrastructure.
They are pondering putting a property tax increase on the ballot for the April 1 election. In 2022, 54 percent of voters rejected hiking the sales tax by 1 percentage point to pay for local infrastructure.
One of Western Springs' challenges is that its income sources are limited.
That, in part, is because 95 percent of Western Springs is residential, officials say. Compared with other suburbs, the village's commercial tax base is small.
