Veeck Park Dirt Piles Still Vexing Village

The Hinsdale Village Board Tuesday night appeared set to vote on an agreement that would have turned unwanted dirt piles at Veeck Park into a berm, but delayed action on the matter when holes began to appear in the plan.

The dirt piles are left over from construction of a storm water treatment facility, a project begun in 2008. There has been disagreement over who is responsible for removing the excess dirt from the park, and the village has been holding up final payments to the project’s general contractor, John Burns Construction of Orland Park. Burns also has been at odds with the Chicago engineering firm of Clark Dietz, Inc., which provided the design work for the project.

Village officials finally negotiated an agreement with Burns and Clark Dietz that would have required Burns to remove rock and debris from the dirt piles, which then would be converted into a berm by Clark Dietz. But before the village board even began discussing the proposal Tuesday night, some village residents spoke in opposition to it.

“I understand that this is a very, very long project that everyone’s been working on for literally decades to take care of the water issues between the Village of Hinsdale and Flagg Creek,” said Eric Johnson of the Hinsdale American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO). “To wait just a couple weeks to see if there aren’t some other ideas that could be brought forward would be a great idea.”

Johnson hinted that the AYSO might be willing to help.

“In years past, we’ve offered to put forth significant funds, as long as they were earmarked for the betterment of the park,” he said. “I know the number $100,000 has been kicked around, so that’s public knowledge.”

The park has three designated soccer fields running north and south, one small one to the east, near the baseball diamond, and two larger ones to the west.

“I’ve spent a significant amount of my life here fighting that [storm water] project,” said resident Bethany Priester. “Let’s use our heads and let’s get rid of the dirt. I can’t even believe I have to be here to talk about this. I’m hoping you’ll make the right decision and make the park what you really intended it to be.”

How did we get here?

Priester posed that question to the trustees, and Laura LaPlaca, chair of the board’s Environment and Public Services Committee, provided a synopsis of the dirt problems associated with the storm water treatment project.

“A significant amount of dirt was hauled off,” she noted. “We are trying to resolve what is there now. A significant portion of that dirt was intended or it had been suggested could be used as fill around the tank of the facility that was built there.”

But LaPlaca said that idea proved unfeasible because the tank needed more support, so gravel was used for that purpose instead of dirt.

“That left more dirt on site than was originally anticipated,” she explained. “Clark Dietz has taken responsibility for that inability to use that dirt.”

LaPlaca said the EPS Committee had been working on the berm plan for six to nine months and had discussed it at many meetings.

“This is not something we’re springing on people,” she said. “I don’t want people to think this is something we came up with this afternoon.”

However, LaPlaca acknowledged that the plans for the berm had been revised five times, with the latest change necessitated by the need to access existing light poles.

Legal questions

The latest revision date on the berm grading schematic provided to the board by Clark Dietz is April 1. It shows a berm up to 10 feet in height meandering around the light poles, forcing the three soccer fields to move slightly south and east and at a slight angle.

“This looks like a major change,” Trustee Bob Schultz said. “This isn’t what the plan commission approved.”

Schultz suggested that the revised plan might need to go back to the Plan Commission before the board approved it.

“We should get an answer as to whether this has to go back to the Plan Commission,” Cauley said. “I think that’s a legitimate concern.”

Cauley suggested the board go into closed session to discuss the legal matters associated with the dirt problem, but not before noting that if the board went a route other than the negotiated agreement before it, it would be potentially costly.

“Believe it or not, it’s extremely expensive to remove dirt,” he said. “Unless we have $81,000, we can’t get rid of the dirt. We don’t have $81,000. We’re not going to have $81,000 a month from now, either.”

After spending about 20 minutes in closed session, the board returned and Cauley announced that a consensus had been reached to table the agreement for the berm creation.

“We would like to explore some options that we think we have in order to remove all or most all of the dirt,” he said. “We’ll work as quickly as we can.”