Please be MP neighborly and keep the storm drains in front of your home cleared of debris. Grass clippings in the street wind up clogging MP storm sewers and cause street damage, costing the Village money. Please mulch grass clippings into your own yard or dispose of them properly. Thanks for being a good neighbor.
Reprint from the August 2015 Villager
By Scott Doellinger, Code Enforcement Officer
When everything works as intended, the stormwater system is a thing of beauty. No, really.
Rain flowing off the streets goes into storm drains ... then into underground pipes ... then into Minerva Park lakes ... then into Kilbourn Run ... then into Alum Creek ... then further downstream ... as intended.
But just like plaque build-up in your arteries, when that flow is restricted, there’s back-up. In a stormwater system, we call it flooding. Offenders are leaves, grass clippings, branches, or any other obstruction that keeps rainwater from moving quickly through the system.
Village Ordinance 660.05 requires the occupants of a lot abutting a street to keep the sidewalk, curb, and gutter free of snow, ice, or “any other nuisance.” This includes keeping leaves, grass clippings, and other debris out of the stormwater system to avoid flooding.
It’s just as important to keep organic material from running into the lakes, thereby reducing sediment that requires dredging, costing thousands of dollars. And toxic materials such as motor oil, fertilizer run-off, and fluids from automobiles will do serious harm to the lake ecosystems.
So keep the roadway and gutter free of debris and keep the fish happier and Minerva Park’s lakes healthy and clean. And help prevent flooding that can strike unannounced at you and/or your neighbor(s) ... a worthy goal in and of itself.