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198 <br />Regular Council Meeting <br />7/18/94 <br />Page Four <br />Mr. Diemert said the entire file was given to him by the Service Director and Building <br />Commissioner to look at for all the years going back. The drainage easement area is <br />normally a private property owners responsibility. That is, any water that comes from <br />somebody upstream is supposed to be your responsibility to get it through your <br />property and off into the next drainage course without changing any natural course. <br />Back when this easement was taken in 1987, the Village agreed to ditch those areas and <br />to help the flow of water so that folks would not have their basements and yards <br />flooded. The easement area was granted; the Village did the ditching. The only thing <br />that the Village reserved was to do that. The ditch was made; the ditch was set up, <br />some piping was constructed and our responsibility was restricted to completing that <br />job and then maintaining the interior of any culvert pipes that may have been put in <br />there. If someone upstream is violating the law by disconnecting their sanitary from <br />their toilet sanitary sewers and putting it into the storm sewers that is a violation of law <br />that has been followed up on and has to be corrected, but it is not the Village's <br />responsibility to find those people. It is the responsibility of the Board of Health to find <br />those people because that is a health law violation. If someone told Mr. Graham that <br />this is the Village's responsibility then they have misinformed him. The Village is here <br />to try and correct the problem, but it is not our land (except for the interior of the pipes <br />is our responsibility.) The easement gives him the right to build or construct on it <br />providing that he does not interfere with the purpose of the drainage. If they, as <br />property owners, want to build a culvert and cover it up (as many have done <br />throughout the Village and we have assisted them in giving them direction and advice) <br />but it is private property. He can do anything he wants provided what he does not <br />interfere with or prevent the use of the property for the purpose that it was intended to <br />be given. <br />Mr. Graham said he understands he would be taking a risk if he put something right on <br />top of it. <br />Mayor Rinker said he may be able to design it in such a way to minimize that risk. <br />Mrs. Graham asked who their attorney should talk to. <br />Mayor Rinker said their attorney should contact the Law Director. <br />Mr. Fixler said when he was at the Graham's property they were discussing a grate that <br />could be installed at one end of the pipe so kids couldn't get in there. In discussion with <br />Gus and Steve, they had advised that putting a grate over the sewer pipe would in <br />many cases be more detrimental because if a small child wriggled through and the rains <br />came, they could get trapped in there and not get out.