With negotiations with Burr Ridge complete, the Hinsdale Paddle Tennis Association (HPTA) is eager to get started with the addition of two more courts at Katherine Legge Memorial Park so they can be completed by this winter and used for the upcoming season.

The sport is played in the winter months and the HPTA, according to member Charlie Usher, thought the courts would ready for the past season at this time last year.

Reaching an agreement with Burr Ridge residents who feel the courts are a nuisance was the largest holdup in the last 12 months, but with that issue settled Usher said it was time to move forward when he addressed the Village of Hinsdale Board of Trustees at Tuesday's meeting at Memorial Hall.

The board was considering—and later approved—a motion on Tuesday to accept a proposal from Premier Platform Tennis in the amount of $148,000 for the purchase and installation of two platform tennis courts.

The board asked to hear Usher's opinion on the courts and the bid, and also wanted to make sure that the financial commitment for the new courts would be that of the HPTA, not the village.

“When something benefits just a discrete group, we want to see that group bare the majority of the cost,” Village President Tom Cauley said. “Nothing ever goes the way you plan and it's always more expensive. I don't want a lot of these costs to come back and roost on the village—HPTA needs to take the risk on this.”

The HPTA has planned to pay for the courts through the lifetime membership fees of those who join the leagues and donations from the public. Usher said that the HPTA has money for the majority of the construction, but Cauley said he wanted to make sure that the association was willing to bare the risk of cost overages.

The village president said he would take the HPTA at their word when it came to reimbursing the village for the courts, but did ask Usher to give that word.

“You have more than that," Usher said. "You have income from our group. Beyond the annual operating expenses you have $20,000 to $40,000 extra we've been paying for other things [with].”

Usher suggested that because the HPTA generates revenue for the village, more courts would be in its best interest both groups.

Cauley said he didn't foresee a problem and the numbers looked fine. He just wanted confirmation that the risk, should something go wrong, was HPTA's and not Hinsdale's.

Usher said the HPTA understood the risk and obligations and was ready to move forward. Trustees agreed.

“There is a small credit risk here, but I think we should take it and move on,” Trustee Doug Geoga said.

Under the approved motion, the village will buy the courts and then be reimbursed by the HPTA when all the funding is in order.

KLM currently has four platform tennis courts that were built in 2004, according to Usher. The HPTA asked for the courts approved at Tuesday's meeting to accommodate growing membership.

Editor's note: Patch originally reported that two of the current platform tennis courts were constructed in 1990, and the other two several years later. This is incorrect. As it says above, all four courts were constucted in 2004.