Hinsdale families walking children to Monroe and Oak elementary schools will get a formal safety review. The Village Board voted Tuesday, Aug. 25, to hire traffic engineering firm KLOA for $65,000.

The board approved a contract with the Rosemont-based firm to study pedestrian conditions around both schools. Village officials said they plan to apply the findings to other local schools district-wide.

The vote followed months of resident pressure. Alice Locatelli, who lives in the Woodlands neighborhood east of County Line Road, told the board that neighbors gathered 54 signatures door to door pushing for a crosswalk at County Line Road and Third Street. Children use that crossing to reach schools on the west side and downtown events such as Uniquely Thursdays.

"Literally, nobody said, 'We don't want a crosswalk here,'" Locatelli said. She added that children now cross in streams at Third Street, where they once spread across First, Third and Sixth streets.

After talks with village officials over the summer, the village installed what Locatelli called a "sort of rudimentary crosswalk" at the intersection ahead of the formal study. Late in 2025, officials had considered installing flashing crosswalk beacons at the same location, Patch reported.

Village Trustee Alexis Braden, who lives a block west of County Line Road, said the improvement was overdue. "For at least 14 years, we cross the road and close our eyes and hope that we don't get crashed into," Braden said at the meeting.

The study has roots going back more than a year. At the March 4, 2025, Village Board meeting, Trustee Stifflear recommended evaluating the Monroe School area as part of a Neighborhood Pedestrian and Safety Study, noting that full-day kindergarten set to begin in 2026 would increase foot traffic, according to village meeting minutes.

KLOA has prior experience with Hinsdale. The firm presented a Downtown Traffic and Pedestrian Safety Study to the board on Feb. 17, 2026, covering vehicular, pedestrian and bicycle operations in the Central Business District.

The vote count for Tuesday's approval was not included in available records. No timeline for when KLOA will deliver its findings has been announced.