By: Diane Benjamin

It will help understand this issue is you’ve driven Rt 150 from Bloomington to Downs. Right before the turn south to go through Downs there is a very low area called Shaddyville. The Kickapoo Creek runs along the south edge. The houses are older and not incorporated into the Village of Downs.

Rt 150 might as well be a racetrack. The intersection below is dangerous because traffic on Rt 150 is going too fast for vehicles turning off and on. This is what the area looks like:

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Since Shaddyville is in a very low area, flooding has always been possible. Problems got worse when the newer subdivision developed. Funny how concrete doesn’t absorb water like farmland. All that water runs downhill to the Kickapoo – see the blue line on the map. It does flood homes close to the creek and not just in rains like the one that flooded Bloomington a few years ago.

A development is proposed where a corn field is now. This picture hopefully gives you an idea of how much lower Shaddyville is than Rt 150:

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Last week the Zoning Board held a meeting on Downs annexing the corn field to build housing. The newer subdivision was previously annexed.

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So many people showed up the meeting had to be moved from City Hall to the fire station meeting room. The people who showed up came because of the possible flooding putting concrete uphill from this low area. The developer claimed there would be a retention pond, more on that in a minute. The Zoning Board voted unanimously against annexing the property.

On October 10 the Village Board will meet. The Mayor and the board have a history of ignoring how the Zoning Board votes. They should just move the meeting location now because a lot of people are going to show up again.

Even with a retention pond this picture shows where a lot of the water will go. It drains into this culvert.

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From there it is diverted into the backyards of homeowners down to the Kickapoo which is just behind the trees in the background:

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Yes it floods now because of the volume of water running downhill. With development it will flood worse.

I was told the developer claimed building houses won’t have any effect on the water going downhill. The locals know the flooding will get worse because the subdivision across the street as already made it worse.

I’m sure the mayor sees dollar signs, Tri-Valley probably does too. Since the residents of Shaddyville aren’t part of Downs and can’t vote in local elections, do you think he cares about them?

October 10th will tell.