Sauk Village Public Works Director Kevin Weller fails to notify Mayor, Village Administrator, or Village Clerk of water outage and slacks off culture testing of Sauk Village water to all water customers west of IL-394 until 7 DAYS after issue.

By: Joachim Mahomes.

On September 29, 2020 residents of Deer Creek experienced a lengthy interruption in water service, and lost all water pressure for several hours. This was later announced at the Village Board Meeting on October 14, 2020 that a new section of Water Main running under IL-394 expressway that serves all connected residents to the Municipal water supply west of IL-394 was placed into service. This resulted in a complete loss of water pressure for several hours while the new section of water main was provisioned.

In cases where water pressure drops below  20 PSI in any portion of a drinking water distribution system, or whenever a section of the water system is changed out or opened for extended periods of time, the Village Public Works department is MANDATED BY THE ILLINOIS EPA to issue a BOIL ORDER for all affected customers, NOTIFY those customers paying careful attention to Restaurants, Medical Centers and Facilities, and Nursing Homes, and submit water samples for cultural testing to a Licensed, Registered Laboratory to ensure no health hazards pose a risk to residents health and ensures safe consumption and use from any bacteriological or species parasites from entering  the public water supply while main pressure was interrupted below 20 PSI.

It wasn't until OCTOBER 6, 2020 - 7 DAYS LATER that the Public Works Department Director Kevin Weller initiated an ILEPA required BOIL ORDER, when the Sauk Village Illinois Facebook Page (NOT an official Facebook page of the Village, and NOT OPERATED by the Village) pointed this out to residents in a post dated October 2, 2020 , that action was taken by Sauk Village Public Works Department. The post referred residents affected by the water interruption to the Illinois EPA hotline to submit complaints. A Subsequent interruption in service was experienced by residents on October 3rd for some residents in sections East of IL-394, and the details of that interruption was never disclosed by Public Works.

On OCTOBER 7, 2020 - 8 DAYS AFTER THE INITIAL WATER PRESSURE LOSS the Boil Order was LIFTED, citing Laboratory testing was conducted and completed, and showed no signs of Coliform Bacteria in the samples taken from 3 sites.

The Village of Sauk Village has an OFFICIAL WEBSITE, an OFFICIAL FACEBOOK PAGE, and also pays an annual service fee for CODE RED - REVERSE 911 NOTIFICATION to notify residents in a specific area of town to emergencies, BOIL ORDERS, or other important information that is important for residents to be made aware of in a specific area, or Village Wide. It is unknown who is responsible for sending out these notifications using these methods of communication the Village has at its disposal. What IS NOT KNOW is how Public Works Director Kevin Weller notified the Mayor, Village Administrator, Village Clerk, or Trustees that this event was scheduled to take place, or that it had been completed, since these days it seems as if Public Works Director Kevin Weller doesn't answer to ANYBODY in Village Hall.

INFORMATION SOUGHT THROUGH FOIA REQUEST

Knowing the history of issues with the Water in Sauk Village, a FOIA request was submitted asking for the results of the Laboratory testing, as well as copies of any documents, emails, or other written forms of notification or communication that were made to any Administrative contacts in Village Hall by Public Works Director Kevin Weller, in respect to the opening and interruption to a major portion of the Water Distribution System. According to the response in the FOIA request, "Per Mr. Weller, there were no emails or correspondence". Public Works Director Kevin Weller's $87,000 a year salary, and brand new take home vehicle and the fuel used in it is paid for by taxpaying residents in Sauk Village, yet somehow doesn't seem to be held accountable for the lacking services in Sauk Village. But in this instance, this could have had an entirely different turn-out of making residents sick, had the Water Distribution System become contaminated, and residents weren't notified until 7 DAYS LATER they were consuming, bathing in, and cooking with tainted drinking water.

Original Email request for records related to the No Notification

Actual Laboratory Test Results

Now it has become the focus of Ringleader Trustee Debbie Williams of the Fanatical 5 Trustees to call out the UN-OFFICIAL Sauk Village Illinois Facebook Page for making the Fanatical 5 Trustees the focus of mismanagement and miscues in Sauk Village since they took their Trustee seats in 2019, and often find themselves at the chagrin of that UN-OFFICIAL FACEBOOK PAGE, but when there is IRREFUTABLE DOCUMENTATION to show just how the Fanatical 5 Trustees and their 2nd attempt at a Village Administrator hire current Part-Time Village Administrator Jerry Hurckes whom makes $45,000 a year for about 25 hours of work per week do not work for residents. The fact remains that by Public Works Director Kevin Weller OWN RESPONSE in the FOIA request, that he made NO EMAIL, and NO CORRESPONDENCE WITH VILLAGE HALL ADMINISTRATORS OR OFFICIALS WITH REGARDS TO THIS MATTER. There may have been a PHONE CALL, however this never resulted in proper ILEPA REQUIRED notification going out to residents until 7 DAYS AFTER THE FACT!

RESIDENTS - Don't you think you deserve BETTER? Do you think it is fair, that the Fanatical 5 Trustees, AND their Village Administrator do NOTHING to reprimand, or hold Public Works Director Kevin Weller accountable for placing the health of residents affected by this water interruption in potentially harmful bacteria in the water supply? Since the hiring of the 25 hours a week PART TIME JERRY HURCKES, the Fanatical 5 Trustees 2nd hired Village Administrator in less than 1 year, would hold Weller accountable for this and other shortfalls in Public Works Department performance and ability to complete work properly and in accordance with Illinois EPA guidelines so as to NOT place residents' health in jeopardy?

Residents should be MAD AS HELL! And don't ask Public Services Committee Chair Trustee Bernice Brewer. In the 3 YEARS she has held that Committee, she has YET TO CONVENE A SINGLE COMMITTEE MEETING for that vital area of Village Public Services to residents. She's too worried  about trying to "Watch the Money" when she clearly has NO CLUE of how Village Finances actually works.