Hinsdale To Lose Big Chunk of Sales Tax Money: Officials

HINSDALE, IL — This fall, the Hinsdale Oasis is expected to be closed for three years as part of the Interstate 294 construction project.

That means the village will be out $550,000 a year in sales tax money, officials say. The oasis is the largest source of sales tax revenue for Hinsdale.

The oasis will not be replaced in its current forum, but the Illinois Tollway has agreed to allow the village to redevelop the property, according to village records.

At Tuesday's Village Board meeting, Village President Tom Cauley said the village is making progress in drafting an agreement with the tollway. He said he recently met with the tollway's executive director.

"There are things that came out of the meeting that are very encouraging for us," Cauley said. "I don't want to talk about them publicly because things are still in kind of flux. We have some very positive developments."

Cauley said the village wants to figure out what happens to Hinsdale during the three years the oasis is shut down. He also said the village is inquiring about its rights to prevent businesses from developing within a certain distance of the oasis.

He said he expected a draft agreement on the oasis in the next couple of months.

"My expectation is that it will be very good for the village. It's going to come to a head relatively quickly," he said.

Cauley spoke about the subject in pushing for the village to keep John D'Alessandro of JLD Consulting as the village's lobbyist to deal with tollway issues for another half year, costing $5,500 a month.

He said D'Alessandro has been helpful to the village, saying he likely wouldn't have gotten the meeting with the top tollway official without the lobbyist's connections.

"It's important the trustees look at something like a lobbyist and scrutinize it more than something like repaving a road," Cauley said. "Lobbyist expenses are certainly something that can be abused. On some level, I'd rather not have lobbyists, but I have to say John D'Alessandro has been very helpful to us."

The trustees plan to vote on extending the lobbyist contract at its meeting later this month.