1) Below is a 1996 photograph of the standing water at 2432 Oak Avenue. What you see is just one of eight backyards that began flooding on the north side of Oak Avenue after the village allowed the grade to be raised at 2428 Oak Avenue [R]. The grade was raised to construct the new garage in the picture and a long cement [impermeable] driveway. In this picture, the garage at 2428 is approximately one foot higher than the yard at 2432. The water is almost a foot deep in this picture. And the yard didn't drain for days. That's why the owner took the picture.
Since this photo, the house with this backyard at 2432 has been torn down for a larger house with a bigger footprint. The grade was raised to the same level as the garage and driveway at 2428.
2) Even though we took this picture [below], we're not sure what the date was. Sometime in the eighties, we believe. The original reason for taking the picture was to honor the beautiful elm tree that would be sacrificed at the altar of ending street flooding by adding curbs.
Turns out the new curbs were a purely cosmetic change, despite what one resident, a longtime member of the Planning Commission, led us to believe. The street flooding continues to this day.
The reason for posting this picture now is to point out why many people on Oak Avenue thought that the sewers had been improved when the curbs were added. Au contraire, mon ami, those pipes are only the intake pipes for the street grates. Not anything related to improving the sewers.
The tree is gone, replaced with an oak. The three bedroom house with a one car garage in the picture was torn down, replaced with a McMonster.
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