My car screeched to a halt as I applied the brakes and parked at the county courthouse curb. An incredible sight filled my vision.
Where green grass once grew was a beautiful garden. It was built of rocks that glistened and shone in the rays of the late spring sun. The garden’s sides sloped into a shallow depression of… rocks and more dirt!
I was amazed with the simplicity of the concept. What a great idea to fill a grassy green space with rocks.
I AM KIDDING.
If you have driven by the courthouse lately, you must have seen the “rain garden”—a pretty name for a sight rivaling the beauty of London’s WWII bomb rubble. It’s hard to miss.
I had read of rain gardens but never seen one. What a shock.
A rain garden’s purpose is to slow down and filter pollutantfilled storm water runoff that all the hard surfaces of our 21st century civilization send speeding into our precious lakes, rivers and wetlands.
A nice idea but let’s back up the buggy and really look into it and apply this to our local situation. A few thoughts come to mind.
Wouldn’t the courthouse lawn grass have been filtering some of the pollutants from the courthouse parking lot runoff?
Just a wild guess but the last time I looked, grass was a living plant. And yes, maybe the courthouse grass isn’t a native plant but wouldn’t even the most fussy hybrid grass stalk species do some filtering? I’m simply a common person so I’m just asking.
As for all the hard surfaces of modern civilization—-we live in the middle of a national forest. Are the paved surfaces in Cook County so numerous that we had to spring into action and dig holes in the ground to preserve the terrain? We hardly rank with Beijing and New York City for paved roads and parking lots.
Doesn’t take much Googling to find that the votes at the May 7 regular board meeting of the Soil and Water District were unanimously in favor of the rain garden plans.
There may be more to the story that I don’t know. Rain gardens probably sounded like a good idea but did anyone see the actual plans before giving the go-ahead to not only spend money but also dig up a green space?
Therain garden was not dug by volunteers. This crater was actually built by paid laborers with the funding coming from the MCC Clean Water Legacy grant.
Free money paid for this moonscape and so I suppose that makes it okay.
Everyone knows that free money drops out of the sky, comes from nowhere and goes everywhere. Free money doesn’t cost anyone a cent. Right?
So why not spend it?
I’m not the only detractor of the courthouse rain garden, and I’m not even certain just where the buck stops but the topic of rain gardens was scheduled for the June 8 county commissioners’ meeting.
Should I look forward to seeing grass again on the courthouse lawn?
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