While many Du Page County municipalities sweat over how to find the money to rebuild aging sewer, street and water systems, Wheaton is in an enviable position.
Unlike some of the other established towns in Du Page, Wheaton has had a couple of recent spurts of growth in upscale houses, retail space and commercial development, all a further strain on old infrastructure.
But Mayor Robert J. Martin said the city in the last 14 years or so has used what`s ”just good business practice” in spending ”a steady amount of dollars” to keep sewers, streets and other vital parts in good shape.
And City Manager Donald B. Rose said this approach is much more prudent than letting things go until it becomes necessary to spend $40 million or $50 million to rectify problems.
Call it foresight or luck, but Martin explained: ”We have an enterprise fund for all vehicles and equipment, down to the last adding machine. We buy a new piece when the old one is used up. And we`ve applied the same theory to the infrastructure.”
And Rose noted that before the present policy was adopted ”most major work was paid for by bond issue, only when needed.”
Even though Wheaton doesn`t face the massive outlays needed in Elmhurst and Glen Ellyn, it has ”a constant problem of how to keep stormwater out of the sanitary sewers,” which when overloaded can contribute to pollution of streams and rivers, Rose said.
The answer to whether the next generation will face huge outlays for infrastructure work depends on the willingness of officials and residents to keep abreast of potholes, sewer cave-ins and detention pond sedi-mentation, as has Wheaton.
All are unglamorous issues and things that people don`t think much about until hit with a misaligned car wheel or flooded basement.
For example, Elmhurst, long considered one of the more efficiently run towns in Du Page County, didn`t have a bonafide public works department before about 30 years ago, said William R. Gray, the city`s public works director.
”They weren`t that maintenance minded then,” he said.
”Generally speaking when you have sections of a town in excess of 50 years old, you`re going to have problems whether you like it or not. It`s just come to light in the last 10 years or so how important it is to maintain the infrastructure.”
