CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — For more than 25 years, Dominic Kowalczyk has put up a holiday lights display outside his Tinley Park home.
Featuring more than 200,000 lights synced to holiday music, the massive attraction has drawn tens of thousands of visitors and now, criticism from neighbors.
“It happens every year,” Kowalczyk told WBBM Newsradio. “There's always a couple of people that are not happy with the traffic and everything.”
Kowalczyk said he’s worked closely with the Village of Tinley Park to alleviate traffic and litter concerns.
“We have garbage cans all over the neighborhood, we have a parking lot, on the weekends when it's busy, everything's routed on the major roads so nobody's even clogging up the streets in the neighborhood. We've really done everything we can,” said Kowalczyk.
Still, neighbors plan to bring disruption concerns before the Village Board during their meeting on Dec. 7.
Unshaken by the complaints, Kowalczyk said he feels the holiday display does a lot more good than bad.
“There are tens of thousands of people that come every year and enjoy this,” Kowalczyk said. “It makes so many people happy and puts smiles on so many people's faces. It's really sad that a small group of people is creating all this ruckus.”
Last year, the holiday lights display raised more than $32,000 for Together We Cope, a nonprofit homeless prevention agency.
This year, Kowalczyk said he hopes to raise $40,000.
The Tinley Park home is located in the 17000 block of Avon Lane and the display will be up through the end of December.
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