EDGEWATER — The "stinking cesspool" formed on North Paulina Street that bothered neighbors for months was finally drained Friday morning.
A three-man crew and a truck outfitted with a giant vacuum tube sucked debris from two catch basins in the 6300 block of Paulina Avenue, which took care of the standing water that neighbors say was stinking up their block.
"It's going to be really nice," said neighbor Dennis McGuire, who was taking pictures of the crew with his cell phone about 10 a.m. Friday. "It's not going to stink anymore. We've been calling for weeks."
Chicago Department of Water Management Spokesman Gary Litherland seemed to have made good on his promise to send a crew out to check on the block.
But neighbor James Huffer said he and his neighbors have called both 311 and Ald. Pat O'Connor's 40th Ward office for help for months with no results — until Friday.
O'Connor's chief of staff, Tim Czarnecki, said there are 78 other backlogged requests for clogged drains, just like Huffer's, throughout the ward.
"It’s a lot," he said. "It stems over from last year."
