Persistence pays off for Graue Mill homeowners

“You cannot imagine how a small group of people
really is making a change and (will) get this done,”
~ Rep. Patti Bellock

Government officials met in Hinsdale with Salt Creek as a backdrop June 5 to announce the state has approved a $626,000 grant that will allow a flood control project for the Graue Mill subdivision to go forward, and to praise the homeowners for making it happen.

The creek looks very tranquil and calm today, said Peter Schroth, president of the Graue Mill Homeowners Association, “but those of us who lived here in 2010 and 2013 know how vicious this little creek can get.”

Homeowners hired Christopher B. Burke Engineering Ltd. and started working on a flood control plan after heavy rains caused Salt Creek to overflow its banks in July 2010 and cause more than $5 million in damages to the 243-unit development, known as Graue Mill Country Residences, as well as to other homes and businesses in the area.

The damage was more extensive after storms in April 2013, when village employees evacuated residents in dump trucks and boats, and the complex was without electricity for days. Kimberly Fornek with Hinsdale Doings has the story.