ROCKFORD TOWNSHIP, Ill. (WIFR) – Mary Nichols swipes past photos of her backyard. She pauses on snapshots showing years of erosion in Madigan Creek behind their homes.
“You need a step ladder to get down there,” says Nicholas of its current state. The resident of 37 years shares photos revealing a once smaller waterway — one her neighbor attests “you could jump over.”
The creek’s present form weaves through the subdivision near S. Bell School Road and Newburg Road in Rockford Township, or unincorporated Winnebago County. Days after a torrential rainstorm, soggy ground sits at its banks and around a nearby basin…