F O R E S T PA R K
ForestParkReview.com Vol. 104, No. 42
$1.00
REVIEW OCTOBER 20, 2021
New FD Lieutenant makes history Page 6
Proviso East football opens new stadium Page 9
@FP_Review @ForestParkReview
Board: no more video stream
D209 President Rodney Alexander ends practice of livestreaming board meetings By MICHAEL ROMAIN Editor
Since 2017, the District 209 school board has livestreamed its regular board meetings. On Oct. 12 night, however, that practice came to an abrupt and chaotic halt. District 209 board President Rodney Alexander said he and D209 Supt. James Henderson made the decision to not record the Oct. 12 regular meeting—a decision that Alexander said will stand as long as he’s president of the board. “We don’t by law have to record at all,” Alexander said during an interview on Oct. 13. “The superintendent and I are responsible for setting up the meetings. We knew the crowd was coming. We knew that the teachers union was putting together these theatrics or whatever.” During Tuesday’s meeting, a crowd of several dozen people lodged a variety of complaints about the school board and administration that ranged the gamut — from a ongoing outbreak of fights at Proviso East to teachers complaining of working without contracts to a lack of transparency. Since the district did not live-stream the Oct. 12 board meeting, a resident recorded and uploaded the meeting to the Facebook group, Forest Park Advocate Community. After learning about Alexander’s decision, some community members have vowed to step in and start recording the meetings themselves if they have to. At one point, the Facebook video shows, the meeting devolved into a shouting match between some board members and audience members, prompting See D209 PRESIDENT on page 8
ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer
The team from Riveredge Hospital took home the “creepiest casket” award at the 2018 casket races.
Time for caskets to ride again Forest Park’s ghoulish signature event is back this Saturday By ANDY VIANO Editor
For its 100th birthday, Laurie Kokenes wanted to get the Forest Park Chamber of Commerce something special. The chamber’s director since the 1990s, Kokenes put herself in charge
IN Big Week . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 THIS Crime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 ISSUE Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Classified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
of the celebration, knowing the quirky town she served deserved something a little more outside the norm than cupcakes, balloons and funny hats, especially with the spookiest day of the year approaching on the calendar. So she looked west for inspiration. “I was looking for a Halloween event
and found (Manitou Springs), Colorado had casket races and I didn’t even look any further,” she said. “(I thought) that’s so Forest Park.” Thus the caskets rolled, garish fourwheeled reminders of one’s own mortality and the village’s morbid pride that See CASKETS on page 10
No ruling yet on Pioneer Tap
Council OK’s outdoor music
PAGE 5
PAGE 9