Hinsdale Village Hall Behind Times – By At Least 3 Minutes

HINSDALE, IL – Hinsdale and the fictional town of Hill Valley in "Back to the Future" have a similarity: Both need to save their clock towers.

In Hill Valley, a volunteer asked Marty McFly to donate to the clock tower effort. Marty would likely receive no such request for the tower at the Hinsdale Memorial Building, where Village Hall is.

The village is poised to spend $41,000 to take care of the project itself, so private money is not being sought.

Under a proposal, Hinsdale would digitally upgrade the clock and restore the bell-ringing mechanism, among other things

At Tuesday's Village Board meeting, trustees generally agreed on the spending. A vote is expected in a couple of weeks.

The bell was dedicated on July 4, 1929, in honor of war heroes. When the bell worked, it ran every hour on the hour. The clock runs three to eight minutes behind schedule, officials said.

"It acted like a huge grandfather clock with multiple gears and a pendulum," Trustee Michelle Fisher said. "The bell itself needs serious maintenance."

Village President Tom Cauley said he liked the idea of spending village money on the project.

"If we as a community are going to be committed to restoration and preservation of houses in the community, we should try to preserve this building, which is a real gem," he said. "If we don't do some of these repairs, (the clock and bell) could be damaged irretrievably. If we do these repairs now, we could add a digital upgrade and preserve a part of our history."

While the village is poised to give money for the clock tower, a private fundraising effort is underway to improve the building's patio. The village is expected to pay for part of that project.