A $13,087 DuPage County block grant will help bring the Internet to Hamilton Townhomes this spring, supporting the village’s programs to keep street gangs out of the low-income complex.
Last year the county gave Bensenville an $18,000 grant to open a computer classroom in the Police Neighborhood Resource Center at Hamilton Townhomes. This year’s grant will fund rental of the computers for another year and pay for Internet connections, said Arnold Germain, village liaison with the complex.
“We think the Internet access will draw a lot of people into the center,” he said.
The resource center, located in a townhouse unit the village bought eight years ago, holds computer-assisted English-as-a-second-language classes, literacy classes and homework help sessions as well as a Boy Scout troop and Girl Scout troop. The ESL classes have become quite popular, said a resource center employee.
Other efforts by the village and the Bensenville Park District to reclaim Hamilton Townhomes include turning run-down tennis courts into a basketball court, replacing a little-used skating rink with a soccer field and building a play lot for toddlers.
