Scene:
Inside the Memorial Building. It's 7:30 PM on a Monday night in the summer. Three Village of Hinsdale trustees and three Village employees sit at a grand table in the front of room. A crowd of 35 people sit crammed as their audience. The press table is empty.
Fast forward to about 8:15 PM ...
In the midst of an hour-long meeting on Monday night a 43-year Hinsdale resident summed it up perfectly with an incisive question:
Why are we here tonight (at yet another Village of Hinsdale meeting to discuss park hours)?
And like so many grest questions, the answers are much more complicated than the question.
A well-spoken King Brauwert resident and several homeowners on Laurie Lane expressed gratitude for the nine accommodations Hinsdale made last year. They are apparently without exception working as intended. And then each of the Burr Ridge attendees proceeded to ask for further consideration from Hinsdale for this year. Depending on the person, one theme was for lights to go off automatically at 9:00 PM or 9:30 PM or 10:00 PM or 10:10 PM or 10:30 PM except on schools when it has to be before their children go to bed. Never mind that during April through July, little leaguers from age 8 are playing baseball until 10:00 PM or 10:30 PM in Burr Ridge's own Harvester Park. That's NIMBY. A second theme was to hide the lights before they are shut out from their view, an idea that had been tried repeatedly but proved unworkable.
But let's go back to opening minutes of the meeting at 7:40 PM ...
One attendee who described herself as living at the "wrinkle ranch" had come to the Memorial Building to entertain and to offend. She called the facility "an abomination" and the "worst eyesore I've ever seen". Then, apparently in a moment of loneliness she tells the gathering that there are only 1 or 2 men living in KB and invites anyone to visit her bedroom to get a better view of KLM.
Next, the Mayor of Burr Ridge moves to microphone to speak. Oops. It's not the mayor afterall. It's the Village Administrator instead, but he's passing on the Mayor's opinion that Hinsdale ought to shut its parks 30 to 60 minutes ahead of his own town's parks closing.
Well, a whole lot more discussion ensues, but in the end, a sub-committee does what it does and passes the topic along to the next committee.
What's next?
Village of Hinsdale Board of Trustees meeting on Tuesday, August 15, at 7:30 PM
And after that meeting winds up, then the ACA has scheduled another discussion of parks hours at KLM for January 2007. Does a 4th round of discussions on the same topic mean that production will take the form of a George Lucas prequel?
