Hinsdale Board Approves Infrastructure-heavy Budget

The Board of Trustees unanimously approved a 2012-13 budget Tuesday night that will spend nearly $15 million on the village’s Master Infrastructure Plan (MIP) to, among other things, reconstruct two village streets, resurface others, and implement the first phase of a much-discussed drainage and road improvement project in the Woodlands neighborhood.

In all, about $16.2 million is dedicated to capital improvements in the 2012-13 budget, which is nearly double the $8.3 million set aside in the 2011-12 budget.  

In a presentation accompanying the budget, trustee Doug Geoga, who played a large part in writing the budget, said that Hinsdale has underfunded streets and sewers for many years, which has led to an "infrastucture crisis."

"Substantial efficiencies were made in Village government on a permanent basis to support long-term dedication of resources to the MIP," Geoga wrote.

Approximately $6.5 million in MIP funds will go towards reconstructing Chestnut Street ($1.96 million) and Washington Street ($4.5 million) in the next year. The village is also committing $2 million to resurface other village streets, and $5.2 million for Phase I of the Woodlands project.

Residents of the Woodlands, located on the southeast side of town between County Line Road and I-294, have dealt with drainage issues and low-quality streets for decades.

“Over time, houses have been added; streets have been added,” said Bill Seith, president of the Woodlands Homeowners Association and neighborhood resident since 1962. “Generally speaking in the Woodlands, there’s just a lot less pervious surface or open space for the water to run to.”

In 2011, in the neighborhood so that the residents would foot about 15 percent of the total cost of the project, which is more than simply road reconstruction.

Under the improvements that will be installed over the next six years, rain gardens and bioswales—two methods of absorbing stormwater and directing it to natural underground seams—would be installed along the public rights of way in the area.

The village also budgeted $310,000 for 2013-14 MIP work designs, $581,485 worth of design work for the new Oak Street Bridge, and $40,000 for local drainage work.  

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Funding for the infrastructure improvements will come from numerous sources—$1.6 million from sales tax revenue, $1.1 million from a Water Fund surplus, nearly $2 million in Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) loan proceeds, and $1.3 million from the village’s Corporate Fund.

Much of the Woodlands costs will be covered by $2.6 million in village bonds and about $2 million in SSA prepayments.

The village will have $37,328,888 in operating revenues for the 2012-13 year. Its budgeted operational expenses total about $28 million. The village expects its total fund balances to increase by about $1.57 million from the beginning of the fiscal year to the end.

The entire village budget can be found here on the village's website.