A resident suggested hypocrisy in the village's proposal. But an official defended the idea on cost grounds.
Patch Staff
|Updated Thu, Dec 14, 2023 at 7:43 am CT
HINSDALE, IL – It would be fair to say that Hinsdale's Bill Haarlow has connections to the village government.
He serves on Hinsdale's Historic Preservation Commission. His wife, Laurel, is a former elected village trustee and a current member of the Plan Commission.
But Bill Haarlow said at this week's Village Board meeting that he did not hear about a proposal to remove the brick on Sixth Street until he read a Patch story just after Thanksgiving. Then like other residents, he recently got a letter from the village.
Haarlow, who lives on Sixth, objected to the idea. So did his wife and other residents.
They said it was important for historic preservation to keep the street the way it's been since the 1890s. It's all brick for four blocks – from Garfield Avenue to County Line Road.
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At a meeting last month, the village revealed a plan to replace the brick with asphalt, except for the intersections, which would be done in brick.
Whatever the case, the village must tear up the street to separate the sanitary and storm sewers, as regulations require.
The village estimates it would cost an extra $2 million to redo the street with all brick. That cost, officials say, should be covered by residents.
"These plans as presented are a huge disappointment and frankly unacceptable for most of us on these blocks," Haarlow told the Village Board on Monday.
The village, he noted, has created incentives for residents to preserve their homes. This is to stop the trend of teardowns of historic houses.
The four blocks of Sixth Street are in the Robbins Park Historic District.
"I find it ironic, if not hypocritical, to encourage and indeed to implore residents to preserve historically significant homes if we as a municipality are unwilling to save our common and historic public assets," Haarlow said.
In 1974, he said the village considered doing away with the brick because of the cost, but ultimately decided against it.
"Fifty years later, we are confronted with the same exact scenario," Haarlow said.
Resident Jennifer Reenan, who lives in the Orland P. Bassett house in the four-block section, said she was disappointed in what she considered the lack of communication from the village about the issue. She said she found out about it through Patch.
As for the cost argument, Haarlow said, "Relatively minimal work has been done on Sixth while other streets have been patched and repaved many times."
Sixth Street resident Melissa Kinzler also urged the village to keep the brick. She said many residents see the street as a local treasure.
In response, Village President Tom Cauley said he was for historic preservation.
"I wish we could do it all brick, but to me, the cost is prohibitive," he said. "Money is an issue. It's always an issue. We've got pension costs. We've got lots of costs we have to cover."
But he said the trustees have made no decision. The village plans to submit the all-brick option, among others, to contractors for cost estimates.
"In my opinion, $2 million in one four-block area of the town is just not fair to the other residents of the village," he said.
But he said the decision wasn't his.
"The trustees will vote on it," Cauley said. "They are the decision-makers."
The village plans to go out to bid early next year. The utility work alone on Sixth Street is projected at $1.7 million.