Village of Baxter Estates Settles into New Digs

The Village of Baxter Estates held its first Board of Trustees  meeting on Thursday, July 1, at its new home, the Bird House at 315 Main Street. There, the board discussed business as usual, albeit in a fresh setting.

"We just moved in this past Monday and we are renting with an option to buy," Village Mayor Fred Nicholson said. "It is exciting that we are finally here after contemplating the move for 18 months, and now we also have over 50 phone lines."

During a public hearing Nicholson and the rest of the Board Trustees voted on approving a transfer of $30,000 from the Villages Highway Snow Removal and Road Repair Fund to the Land and Building Capital Reserve Fund to add a handicap bathroom, fix up the back deck and conduct some needed electrical work to the new village hall.

"These funds will also allow for landscaping, window and wall improvements," Nicholson said.

Later in the meeting, residents Jim and Marilyn Sacrestano spoke about their concerns over flooding their Hillside Avenue home has endured due to poor stormwater drainage from improperly working grates.

"Every time it rains our basement and garage gets flooded and it has been happening for 15 years with no relief in sight," Jim Sacrestano said. "We have brought this issue up about our bad 'V' shaped grates to the Village Board of Trustees for the past two years asking for an engineer to assess the grates and possibly change them."

The Board of Trustees brought up a motion for Vachris Engineering to change the grates near the Sacrestano's home so that the public water would flow down the drains instead of going into their private home.

After looking at the engineer's proposal, Trustee Doug Baldwin said the report was not concise and would create the same flooding problem because it called for placing the catch basins upstream. But after much back and forth the Board of Trustees approved the $10,000 engineering plan. The board also pointed out that if the plan failed, no more money would be invested into the plan. Also,the board would not be liable. 

The Sacrestanos were glad that motion passed and hopes this would be the solution.

"I know some on the Board did not want this passed because they thought the engineering report was not professional," Jim Sacrestano said. "But, do we have a Board full of stormwater experts here? I will take my chances with the engineering company, which is saying they will install a box drain going upstream. It is much better than the situation we are in now, which is never-ending flooding."