Politics & Government
Hinsdale To Be Awarded Road-Improvement Grants
The potential police merger with Clarendon Hills and the purchase of a new village phone system were also topics of discussion at Tuesday night's Board of Trustees meeting.
The was preliminarily awarded $1.1 million in road-resurfacing grants from the DuPage Mayors and Managers Conference to improve a few of the village's major roads in 2017, according to Village President Tom Cauley.
At Tuesday's Board of Trustees meeting, Cauley said that the project would include the resurfacing of Chicago Avenue from Garfield Street to Oak Street; Hinsdale Avenue from Madison Street to Garfield; parts of Madison Street; and parts of York Road between The Lane and Ogden Avenue.
Cauley said the grants were expected to be confirmed by the conference on Thursday.
Find out what's happening in Hinsdale-Clarendon Hillswith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Hinsdale-Clarendon Hills police merger
Village President Tom Cauley's president's report Tuesday was devoted to addressing .
Find out what's happening in Hinsdale-Clarendon Hillswith free, real-time updates from Patch.
(Patch spoke to Cauley and other Hinsdale officials about police consolidation before Tuesday's meeting .)
Cauley said the villages had a choice: they could plan the consolidation fully before releasing information to the public, or they could alert the community early on about the plan.
"By following the second approach, we get input from the residents, the police departments, and the unions as we move forward in consolidation," Cauley said.
The village president said Hinsdale has in recent years cut its police force, as well as the department's civilian positions.
"When cutting police department expenses, there comes a point where there's a legitimate concern that further cost reductions could impact quality of police services. We haven't reached that point yet, but we don't want to reach that point."
Can you hear me now?
The Board of Trustees voted to approve a contract worth $73,085.25 with MidCo, Inc. of Burr Ridge for the purchase and installation of a new Mitel Telephone System for the village offices and police department.
Assistant village manager Darrell Langlois said the village's current phone system is 20 years old and the change will allow it to get out of its current contract with AT&T.
The phone system was not a budgeted item because it's not being paid for with money from any village funds. Instead, it will be paid for with the police department's drug-seizure money
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