Man says village to blame for flooding, village responds

Have the problems brought by nature been made worse by human hands?

One resident said a berm that was built to protect an office building is causing problems for him.

Rick Sprowl is keeping a close eye on the rising flood behind his St. Charles home.

"It's been up against the house on three sides of the house. I'm afraid it's gonna be in the house and what damage it can do," Sprowl said.

He believes there's a reason the flooding is worse on his side of the river than the other – berms.

He said one berm leaves homes on the other side of the river dry, but it creates a bottleneck and causes a whole bunch of flooding on the other side of the river.

"They put the berm in to protect the fire department, the township office and the homes that are in that area up there and over in front of the DNR. They're putting themselves in front of the people along here," Sprowl said.

Village leaders posted on Facebook saying they connected the berms on one side of the river to protect the DNR offices.

Sprowl would like the township to consider building one on his side of the river. He said he has had no luck.

"The village won't admit to any problem with it," Sprowl said.

The village manager, Matthew Lane, defended the use of berms.

"They're basically saving the water from getting to M-52, which would be kind of a disaster because it's the main route in and out of town," Lane said.

He said he does not know if the berms are causing issues, but acknowledged the concerns of residents.

"I know it's not pleasant to have water encroaching on your property," Lane said. "We can ask our engineers if there's anything better we can do, but as of right now we have the best of what we've got."

He did say village leaders have not received any complaints of water actually getting into homes.