Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Residents affected by the project voice few objections to it.
A Clarendon Hills road project with a $1.1 million price tag was the subject of an open house at Clarendon Hills Middle School Monday night. The turnout was light from the residents that will be affected by the village’s 2011 road improvement program. The village sent out 190 letters to property owners inviting them to the event, but only a small fraction of that number showed up to ask questions about the program. Village Finance Director Peg Hartnett said about $550,000 of that will be funded by an assessment on property owners along the streets involved through creation of a special service area (SSA). “It’s based on their equalized assessed valuation,” she noted. “If you have been in an SSA before for the road program, you will be …
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Village Manager David Cook on dirt removal: 'One way or another it will be done.'
The soccer fields at Veeck Park are covered with ice and snow now, but with spring just months away, Hinsdale soccer supporters are wondering if the fields will be usable this season. The problem is huge mounds of dirt left over from a storm water treatment facility construction project begun in 2008. There has been disagreement about who is responsible for removing the excess dirt from the park. The matter came up again this week at a meeting of the Hinsdale Park and Recreation Commission, with Director Gina Hassett noting that it was her understanding that dirt removal was left out of the bid specifications for the project. “The dirt is an eyesore, but now we’re short one of our lighted soccer fields,” she said. Revenue lost With soccer …
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Asked to consider allowing dogs on leashes in parks, Hinsdale Park and Recreation Commission officials voice several reasons for not changing the policy.
At least for now, dogs are still barred from Hinsdale parks. “We’re open to reconsidering it,” said Jeff Curran, chairman of the Hinsdale Park and Recreation Commission, Monday after commission members reached a consensus to leave the policy as is. The only park that allows dogs—with some restrictions—is Katherine Legge Memorial Park. Dogs on *leashes are allowed at specific times, which change according to the time of year. Parks and Recreation Director Gina Hassett told the commission that the Village Board’s Administration and Community Affairs Committee (ACA) had asked for the policy review. ACA Chairman Doug Geoga attended the commission meeting. “This is an issue important to [ACA] Trustee [Bob] Schultz,” he said. “He has a …
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Red Devils win all but one match in 56-3 victory
The tables have turned in the Hinsdale Central-Hinsdale South wrestling rivalry. Before Thursday night’s dual between the two schools, Central assistant coach Jim Zajicek was telling head coach Jason Hayes about the first meeting between the District 86 rivals -- a 72-0 victory by the Hornets. The Red Devils were nearly as dominant this time around, winning 56-3. “I think they have some of the pride, being a rival school,” Hayes said of his wrestlers. “They wanted to go out and wrestle hard.” That they did. The Red Devils trailed in only two matches all night. In one of those, Central’s Matt Helsey rallied to claim a 12-6 victory over Marius Gincas in the 171-pound bout. In the other, South’s Sebastian Pique, ranked third in the state at …
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Sadness moves Haitian-American Dr. Alix Charles to aid Haitians who are struggling, one year after the earthquake.
One year ago today, Hinsdale dermatologist Dr. Alix Charles was supposed to be in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and a guest at a hotel that was leveled that day by the magnitude-7.0 earthquake that claimed the lives of more than 200,000 people, injured hundreds of thousands and left an estimated 1 million homeless. “I felt very fortunate, very blessed that I wasn’t there,” Charles said. “But I felt really terrible for the people down there.” Charles, 36, whose parents were born in Haiti, had planned to be in that nation’s capital to give a lecture at a medical school. But the trip, sponsored by the American Academy of Dermatologists, was postponed because of a strike at the school. Charles said he has made about a dozen trips to Haiti since …
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Hinsdale and Clarendon Hills home sales inch up in 2010, making Realtors cautiously optimistic about 2011.
In the 19th century, speculators would purchase land along railroads in anticipation that the value of that property would increase. Turns out in the 21st century, things haven't changed all that much. The Metra BNSF line running through Hinsdale and Clarendon Hills is one reason those communities are bucking national real estate trends. "In this particular western corridor along the railroad tracks… we're not finding declines in number of units sold," says Dean Rouso, broker-owner of Prime Property Partners in LaGrange. Nationally, Rouso notes sales of existing detached single-family homes declined from 5.2 million units sold in 2009 to 4.8 million units in 2010. However, both Hinsdale and Clarendon Hills registered small increases in the…
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
School board receives Comprehensive Annual Financial Report after independent audit of district finances.
The Hinsdale Township High School District 86 remains in sound financial shape, according to an independent audit presented to the school board Monday night at its regular monthly meeting at Hinsdale South. Indicating that no news is good news, Jason Coyle of the auditing firm Baker Tilly Virchow Krause, LLP told board members that there wasn't a lot to talk about in the report given to the district. "Your fund balances continue to increase, for the most part," he said. According to the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for the fiscal year ended June 30, the district's net assets increased by $2.2 million, an increase of 2 percent from the previous year. The district had total revenue of $89.9 million and expenses of $87.7 million. …
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Bill passed the House late Wednesday night and is headed for the Senate for a possible Thursday morning vote.
The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act of 2010 is expected to go before the U.S. Senate Thursday. U.S. House of Representatives passed the legislation late Wednesday night by a vote of 216 to 198. If passed by both houses, the current act would allow undocumented immigrants who were under the age of 16 when they were brought to the U.S. to be eligible for a green card if they have had at least two years of higher education or have been in the military; are of good moral character and have no criminal record that would deny them admittance into the country or get them deported. Some critics of the bill call it amnesty and say it rewards illegal immigrants. They also question the cost of passing the bill. …
More than 100 families received gifts and Christmas dinner at Hinsdale's Memorial Hall Wednesday.
Former Blackhawks Defenseman Brent Sopel and his family joined forces with volunteers from Hinsdale Central and Hinsdale Middle School to help needy families in the area on Wednesday. The Sopel family approached HCS Family Services in Hinsdale to ask what they could do to help people who were struggling this holiday season. HCS Family Services told them about the many families that could not afford to buy food for Christmas dinner. The Sopels made a donation that was enough to pay for 200 turkeys from Whole Foods Market in Hinsdale. Brent Sopel had even planned to fly in to help hand out turkeys at Wednesday's giveaway, but had to cancel his plans at the last minute. The turkeys were donated as part of a larger event to provide 100 …
Brian J. O'Donnell
7:59 pm on Wednesday, January 26, 2011
What happens when a new construction takes place and the builder tears up the street for water and sewer and the repair is like the dozens of poor resurfaces throughout the village? The poor home owners pay all this money to have a street like all the others in the village. more ›