‘Where Are Kids Supposed to Go?’

Bonnie Bolger lived at the corner of East Avenue and Pershing for 40 years without a drop of water in her basement. In August 2025, it flooded for the first time. 

She lost everything in her finished basement. Insurance didn't cover the damage, she said, and she received no assistance from the city. Then, this spring, water sprayed through her basement windows while she and her 22-year-old son ran outside in the dark to check whether the street drains were clogged.

“This is horrible! … just blew my mind. I told Public Works the sewer wasn’t covered with debris. We checked and tried to push the water along but it was too late.”

Bolger's experience is no longer unusual. Her sister, who lives near 35th Street and Wesley Avenue, has dealt with basement flooding nearly every year for five decades, she said.

Across Berwyn, residents describe a city where flooding has quietly become the new normal: basements soaked, streets swamped, and sewers overwhelmed by storms that once would have been manageable. 

In the same Facebook thread, Connie Arroyo described her street flooding on both sides simultaneously, with the sewers clogged and useless. Another resident, KJ Sadler, warned that as more homeowners install check valves to protect their own basements, floodwater has nowhere to go but into the streets and, eventually, through the doors and windows of homes in the lowest-lying areas.

City officials have known this for years. Berwyn's own 2018 Stormwater Management Plan documented seven major flooding events between 2010 and 2017. Records obtained by 15 West through a public records request to the City of Berwyn showed a single storm in April 2013 generated $1.27 million in FEMA assistance payments to 303 Berwyn households. 

The plan identified Janura Park, a community park at 28th Street and East Avenue, as a priority site for underground stormwater detention infrastructure expected to serve approximately 24 acres of residential neighborhood along Euclid Avenue, Wesley Avenue, and Clarence Avenue—an estimated 200 or more homes. Internal city emails obtained by 15 West show an early draft of the city’s May 2026 public update also described the project as benefiting more than 200 homes. The version ultimately released to the public instead described it as serving “47 participating homes.” 

15 West asked the city to clarify the relationship between the two figures.

That was 2018. Seven years later, the detention system remains on hold. The most visible sign of the unfinished project is a large pile of excavated soil sitting in Janura Park.

A New Field. An Old Dirt Pile.

On July 12, 2026, Mayor Robert Lovero stood at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new Berwyn Community Field, an artificial turf athletic field at 29th Street and East Avenue, just steps from Janura Park. The mood was bright. In front of him, Township Supervisor David Avila, the project's biggest financier, described Berwyn’s need for more places for children to play.

“Where are kids supposed to go?” Avila said at the ceremony. “Where can they exercise and play soccer, play the games they love?” The new athletic field answers that question for hundreds of Berwyn families. Funded through a township partnership and championed by Mayor Robert Lovero, Recreation Director Anthony "Tony" Martinucci, and Township Assessor Jacqueline Pereda, the field is expected to serve hundreds of young athletes each season.

Just steps away, however, another city project remains unfinished.

Its most visible sign is a large pile of excavated soil moved from the athletic field into Janura Park, where it has sat while the city's long-planned flood mitigation project waits for federal funding.

At the ribbon cutting, Martinucci explained what the pile is for.

“What's going to happen is there's a water reclamation project for storm sewers, that's going to go under there,” he said, “and it's going to be their grant—or whatever—is then going to pay to put two, maybe three, T-ball fields.”

The soil first appeared in November 2025.

Residents would wait nearly six months before the city publicly explained why it was there.

“I Do Not Have Any Information On This”

The City of Berwyn's May 19 press release described the project as "ongoing," noted that permits and clearances had been finalized, and explained near the end that construction had stalled because federal funding had been frozen following disruptions at the Department of Homeland Security. The $5 million grant has been frozen since at least early 2026.

Records obtained by 15 West show city officials had been discussing Janura Park as a temporary “dumpsite” months before residents were publicly told why the soil had been moved there.

The records also show that contractor Team REIL Inc. had been coordinating with city officials as early as August 2025 about using Janura Park as a temporary dump site for the soil. In an August 29, 2025, progress report, Team REIL Assistant Project Manager Monica Thompson noted that engineers had met with city staff “to design a dumpsite at Janura Park” and that the city had agreed to provide trucks to haul soil there. A September 5th update from Team REIL Project Manager Jeff Koehler noted a tentative start date of September 15th for the soil move.

The emails were copied directly to Mayor Robert Lovero's city email account.

When 15 West asked who authorized moving the soil to Janura Park, Senior Engineer Nicole Campbell responded: “I do not have any information on this.”

Yet emails obtained by 15 West show city officials had discussed using Janura Park as a temporary "dumpsite" months earlier.

The Question No One Is Answering

Judy Gall, a Berwyn resident whose family has dealt with flooding since her house was built in 1942, put it plainly in a Facebook comment: 

For residents like Gall and Bolger, the stalled Janura Park project is the difference between a dry basement and a ruined one. Between a home that can be sold and one that cannot.

The $5 million grant that would fund the underground detention system, and eventually the T-ball fields Martinucci described, is tied up in a federal funding freeze affecting FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant projects nationwide following disruptions at the Department of Homeland Security. The City of Berwyn says it is waiting for updates from contractors and project partners. 

No timeline has been provided for when construction will resume.

"Nothing has improved," Bolger said. "And no one seems to be doing anything about it."

15 West requested comment from Mayor Robert Lovero's office and the City of Berwyn. We will update this story if city officials respond or if a construction timeline is announced.