Wednesday Journal 010522

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January 5, 2022 Vol. 42, No. 23 ONE DOLLAR

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JOURNAL

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of Oak Park and River Forest

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Prooff off vax to see flix Page 6

Hard decisions bring pushback and support

Chapple-McGruder is Journal’s Oak Park Villager of the Year

By F. AMANDA TUGADE

Betty White, born in Oak Park in 1922, dies at 99 Mourning the silver-haired golden girl

By STACEY SHERIDAN Staff Reporter

Hearts everywhere broke at the news that adored comedy icon Betty White died Dec. 31, only a matter of days before she was set to turn 100. She kept audiences laughing throughout her long career.

White was loved across the country, but only Oak Park has the bragging rights of being her birthplace.

Born at West Suburban Hospital Jan. 17, 1922, White only lived in Oak Park See WHITE on page 10

W

Staff Reporter

hen Dr. Theresa Chapple-McGruder became director of the Oak Park Department of Public Health last spring, the COVID-19 pandemic had shifted into a new phase. Almost a year after the novel virus disrupted, devastated and claimed the lives of many around the world, the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine offered a silver lining, a return to normalcy.

Fast forward to the present day and the pandemic is still 2021 here. The coronavirus has now VILLAGER split into two variants, delta of the and omicron, and the sudden surge of positive cases have loYEAR cal leaders, including ChappleMcGruder, in the center of the eye of the storm, combatting another wave of challenges by layering safety efforts.

There were things “we expected to happen” once vaccines were out, but “I think knowing what we know now, we would have set expectations a little differently,” said Chapple-McGruder.

For Chapple-McGruder, the COVID-19 pandemic is not the first pandemic she’s worked on.

She was an epidemiologist for the Shelby County Health Department in Tennessee during the 2009 swine flu (H1N1) pandemic and reprised the same role for the Georgia Department of Public Health when the Zika virus emerged a few years later.

Chapple-McGruder told Wednesday Journal her experience working on the COVID-19 pandemic is rather different from the previous ones.

See CHAPPLE-McGRUDER on page 8

PROVIDED

A TOUGH JOB: Dr. Theresa Chapple-McGruder became director of the Oak Park Department of Public Health last spring.

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Wednesday Journal, January 5, 2022

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Longfellow, Julian start remote due to staffing shortages OPRF, RF and other D97 schools all in-person

By F. AMANDA TUGADE Staff Reporter

Two Oak Park District 97 schools have switched to remote learning after returning from winter break this week, citing staff absences as the main reason for the change. With school set to start Jan. 4, students from Longfellow Elementary and Percy Julian Middle schools are asked to shift to e-learning until Jan. 5, according to an email announcement sent to district families over the weekend.

Parents and guardians can expect an update from the district by mid-week on whether Longfellow and Julian students can return to school in-person after Jan. 5, district spokeswoman Amanda Siegfried said.

Siegfried said the district is keeping tabs on the number of school employees who have called in absent or notified respective school principals that they may be unable to return to school during the week of Jan. 4 because of COVID-related reasons. Those employees range from classroom teachers to food service workers and custodial staff, and at this point, Longfellow and Julian schools were the outliers within the district, Siegfried said.

Percy Julian Middle School In an email, the district told families it anticipates “staffing shortages may continue over the next several weeks” because of the rise in COVID-19 cases “and associated increase in staff illness and absences.”

While the district’s goal is to continue in-person instruction, it may move schools over to online learning if it is “unable to provide appropriate staffing.”

The district is currently seeking substitute teachers and teaching assistants and encouraging those who are qualified to apply at www.op97.org/hr/employment. District

ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

97 officials are also asking eligible students to get vaccinated; test for COVID-19, if applicable; and monitor closely for symptoms.

A full list of the symptoms can be viewed on the district website or through the Centers for Disease and Control Prevention (CDC) site at www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/ symptoms-testing/symptoms.html.

Meanwhile, River Forest School District 90 and Oak Park and River Forest High School District 200 have welcomed students back into their buildings for in-person instruction.

District 90 spokeswoman Dawne Simmons

told Wednesday Journal all schools are open but the district has experienced some teacher absences. The district, however, is doing “OK right now” and was able to bring in substitute teachers, said Simmons.

Karin Sullivan, spokeswoman for District 200, said an email was also sent to families Jan. 3 to remind students to be vigilant about masking protocols and COVID-19 testing. Students are encouraged to wear KN95 or surgical masks, which are also available onsite for those who need them.

While saliva testing for COVID-19 is voluntary for students, those who are in-season athletes are required to test once a week, according to the email. All OPRF students can also continue to eat lunch off-campus, another safety measure to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

Quarantine policies for staff and students who either test positive for Covid or were identified as close contacts remain the same, despite the recent change by the CDC, District 200 officials told families in the email.

While the CDC shortened the isolation period for the general public, the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) maintains staff and students should follow previous guidelines, including the 10-day quarantine. Details of IDPH’s guidelines for K-12 schools can be found at dph.illinois.gov/covid19/communityguidance/school-guidance.html.

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A new year, more magical thinking

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a television actor and comic who was elected the country’s qualities (if only she had enticed Mr. Big away few days before Christmas and roughly a week before New Year’s Day, Joan president in 2019. “At a time when Russia has built up forces from the bike with a quick jaunt to the Hamptons Didion died, prompting me to return on Ukraine’s border and fear of an invasion is running high, instead of delaying the trip to go to Charlotte’s to one of my favorite books, Didion’s Mr. Zelenksy has surrounded himself with people drawn from daughter’s recital, maybe he’d still be alive, Bradachingly beautiful The Year of Magical his comedy studio, Kvartal 95. Few have any experience in shaw wonders).

Thinking. diplomacy or warfare.”

Big’s death also sent die hard “Sex and the City” The book is grounded in the groundless In Netflix’s “Don’t Look Up,” a meteor hurdles toward earth, fans into a collective conniption, with some taking process of mourning and takes us into Didion’s promising an extinction level event in less than a year from to Twitter to broadcast their own grief-induced grief following the sudden death of her huswhen scientists discover the threat. But instead of provoking magical thinking (“MR BIG WAKE UP PLEASE band, the author John Gregory Dunne. constructive alarm and solidarity, the scientists’ warnings IM BEGGING YOU,” tweeted @helcnsharpe; Didion had the unique ability to make a book only become fodder for social media memes, temporary sex“#ANDJUSTLIKETHAT i’m not ok,” tweeted @ about personal mourning that was written in 2005 capades, money-making schemes, light TV show banter and shelly32122). eerily prophetic in a social context and just as apTrumpy political slogans (“Don’t Look Up” being the creed But the more grandiose and dangerous kind of plicable to America in 2022. of asteroid-deniers everywhere). Spoiler alert: The movie magical thinking happens in the HBO Max show’s In a sense, for the last several years, the whole ends, as the asteroid makes its final plunge into earth, with milieu. There are clear (albeit subtle) references to country has been caught in a mood of magical thinking, pandemic trauma, but the viewer would be hard pressed to see a very banal, pleasantly ordinary dinner party. The scene is which Didion writes in hindsight was her own mindset in the gut-wrenching because it is so accurate and one dreads the signs that we’re still in a pandemic (this is a world of neither days and weeks following her husband’s death. possibility of its prescience. masks nor breakthrough cases, where everyone seems to be “Anthropologists will talk about magical thinking,” Didion Magical thinking, both in the personal context of mourning magically double and triple vaccinated, coolly and insoucianttold a Boston Globe reporter during a 2005 interview about a loved one and in the social context of responding to national ly unbothered by a mere virus while styled by Patricia Field). her book. “It’s the feeling that you can control events by traumas and threats by propping up the corpse of a dying Magical thinking asserts itself in the producers’ insistence wishful thinking: ‘The volcano will not erupt if we sacrifice culture, might also be a form of the uncanny. on adhering to the frail facade of normalcy despite the pansuch-and-such.’ ‘John will come back if I don’t give away his The uncanny, Freud wrote, arises from civilized people’s demic’s ongoing trauma. I guess the show’s creators figured shoes.’” inability to reconcile our desire for immortality with the that the story angle centered on Carrie’s hip surgery and the A virus will not exist if we do not test for its prestruth of our mortality. A helpful online primer on the ence. Sickness can be avoided by foregoing vaccines.

Freud Museum London’s web page explains that the psyThe mechanisms of American democracy will magichoanalyst’s theory “was rooted in everyday experiences cally prevent tyranny. Human innovation and ingenuand the aesthetics of popular culture, related to what is ity will triumph over climate change, because they frightening, repulsive and distressing.” just will. The free market will straighten things out, as Repressed fear, when it arises in our everyday reality long as we gut the government and don’t tax the rich. and punctures our sense of normalcy, takes the form Magical thinking often happens when our sense of of the doppelgänger, or the double that embodies the normalcy, of ordinariness is suddenly and tragically clash between civilized culture’s irrational drive to live uprooted without us having a chance to process the forever and the reality of death. Think zombies. transition from normal to something outside of our Or Betty White. The beloved 99-year-old actress and familiar conceptions of what is normal and abnorOak Park native died on New Year’s Eve, less than a mal. month before her 100th birthday. In a culture of eternal In The Year of Magical Thinking, Didion wrote that youth, we turned White into an object lesson in how to “it was in fact the ordinary nature of everything prebe young forever, how to impose your will — by dint of ceding” her husband’s death that “prevented me from Hollywood good looks, charm and personality — on truly believing that it had happened, absorbing it, the forces of time and nature. Why is it that in order SHAWN TRIPLETT/TWITTER incorporating it, getting past it. I recognize now that to value our elders, we have to bastardize them, dumb This uncanny photo of a movie theater in Mayfield, Kentucky that was there was nothing unusual in this: confronted with them down, make them young or hip or cool? destroyed by a December tornado was taken by amateur photographer sudden disaster we all focus on how unremarkable In America, now more than ever, it seems there is no the circumstances were in which the unthinkable more growing up, which is swiftly catching up with us. and former Marine Shawn Triplett. It went viral on Twitter. occurred, the clear blue sky from which the plane fell, Meryl Streep’s character who plays the narcissistic, nithe routine errand that ended on the shoulder with hilistic, juvenile Trumpian President Janie Orlean, tells impediment of age to her ability to pull off her uniquely efthe car in flames, the swings where the children were playing one of the scientists, played by Leonardo DiCaprio: “We’re the fervescent high heel game were traumatic enough. as usual when the rattlesnake struck from the ivy … adults now.” Scary times indeed.

By the way, you’d also be hard pressed to find any symptoms “‘It was just an ordinary beautiful September day,’ people How do we exit this uncanny valley? Didion, one of this of systemic racism or income inequality that are too ugly still say when asked to describe the morning in New York country’s greatest literary truth-tellers, was, no doubt, influ(we only see a lack of diversity in Charlotte’s friend group or when American Airlines 11 and United Airlines 175 got flown enced by James Baldwin, who might have pointed the way Miranda’s cultural uncouthness around her Black professor). into the World Trade towers. Even the report of the 9/11 (the quotation is pulled from an essay on Baldwin by Eddie When confronted with national trauma, we 21st century Commission opened on the insistently premonitory and yet Glaude Jr.): Americans will always insist on hewing to our frail facade of still dumbstruck narrative note: ‘Tuesday, September 11, 2001, “Escape,” Baldwin cautioned, “is not effected through a bitnormalcy, of ordinariness. And the binding mechanism is pridawned temperate and nearly cloudless in the eastern United ter railing against this trap; it is as though this very striving marily entertainment, which nowadays is one of our greatest States.’” were the only motion needed to spring the trap upon us. and most dangerous exports.

Didion’s 2005 classic informs two of this year’s pop cultural . . . Society is held together by our need; we bind it together In the Dec. 26 New York Times, I marked with a blue pen moments that I indulged in the days and weeks before New with legend, myth, coercion, fearing that without it we will be Year’s Day — Netflix’s dark comedy “Don’t Look Up” and “And traces of our cultural influence. hurled into that void, within which, like the earth before the A vast indoor amusement park called Magic Kass, patterned Word was spoken, the foundations of society are hidden. From Just Like That,” the “Sex and the City” reboot on HBO Max. to resemble Las Vegas kitsch, recently opened in the occupied “Sex and the City’s” Carrie Bradshaw, Sarah Jessica this void —ourselves — it is the function of society to protect West Bank. Developers are hoping that they can entertain Parker’s iconic character, experiences her own Didion-esque us; but it is only this void, our unknown selves, demanding, Israelis and Palestinians into forgetting their ancient conflict. period of magical thinking after her husband and longtime forever, a new act of creation, which can save us — ‘from the “The developers hope to turn a geopolitical hotspot into a hot lover Mr. Big, played by actor Chris Noth, suddenly dies from evil that is in the world.’” ticket,” the Times’ Isabel Kerchner writes. “‘Everybody stands Going into the new year, it is not enough to resolve to do beta fatal heart attack induced while on his Peloton exercise bike. in the middle of the piazza and says, ‘Wow!’,” the CEO of a ter in our current cultural and political framework. We have In the very first episode. nearby luxe shopping mall told her. to create a new one.

There are moments when Bradshaw returns to the apartOn page six, ironically enough, a serious story about ment the couple shared expecting to see her husband in the Russia’s plans for Ukraine focuses on Volodymr Zelenksy, flesh, perhaps still on the Peloton, which takes on totemic CONTACT: michael@oakpark.com

MICHAEL ROMAIN

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Wednesday Journal, January 5, 2022

Vince Amore Saturday, Jan. 8, 8:30 p.m., Donny G’s, Elmwood Park The supple sounds of classic nightclub crooning with vocalist Vince Amore. Inspired by the likes of Tony Bennett, Bobby Darin and Frank Sinatra, Amore walks in those same footsteps. 7308 W. North Ave., Elmwood Park.

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BIG WEEK January 5-12

Stress Management & Mindfulness Tuesday, Jan. 11 from 5 to 6 p.m., virtuallty through Oak Park Public Library Relax into the New Year with this interactive workshop, introducing participants to a variety of stress management techniques using mindfulness, grounding, and relaxation skills. Attendees will be encouraged to participate in experiential exercises and provided with information about the benefits of each. Register now at oppl.org/calendar.

Cozy Pajama Storytime

English Conversation Hour

Thursday, Jan. 6, 13, 20 & 27 from 6:30-7 p.m., virtually through Oak Park Public Library Join us via Zoom for a special cozy storytime. Wear your favorite pajamas and bring your favorite cuddly stuffie for some cozy stories and fun songs. Best for kids up through age 6. Register now at oppl.org/ calendar.

Saturdays, January 8, 15, 22 & 29 from 10 to 11 a.m., virtually through Oak Park Public Library Join other English language learners to practice English and learn new vocabulary in an informal setting.

Conversation facilitators will lead the session with a variety of topics for conversation. Free and open to all English language learners. Register now at oppl. org/calendar.

Spanish Conversation Hour/ Conversación en español Saturday, Jan. 8 from 2 to 4 p.m., virtually through Oak Park Public Library A casual hour of open conversation with other Spanish speakers. Whether you speak enough to hold a basic conversation or can rattle off long stories, all levels are welcome. No class, no formal lesson — just practice for current Spanish speakers. Register now at oppl.org/calendar.

Middle Grade Marvel Comics Club

Friday, Jan. 7 at 4 p.m., Forest Park Public Library Before Spiderman, Dr. Strange and the Fantastic Four were blockbuster movies, they were blockbuster comic books. The Marvel comic book empire was a major reason why. Whether you are a newcomer to the Marvel universe or an experienced comic collector, here’s a chance to geek out with other kids of a similar mind. The MG Marvel Comics Club meets the first Friday of every month for discussion, reading time, drawing time, and more, 7555 Jackson Blvd., Forest Park.

LETAB Teen Environmental Club Gin Palace Jesters Friday, Jan. 7 at 9 p.m., FitzGerald’s Sidebar Combining a love of vintage country with an extremely droll sense of humor, the Gin Palace Jesters return, keeping the honky-tonk flame burning.

Featuring the dulcet tones of Ken Mottet, narrating tales of somebody or other’s love gone wrong. 6615 Roosevelt Road, Berwyn.

Sunday, Jan. 9 from 1 to 2 p.m., Oak Park Public Library Want to make a difference in your community?

Join the Teen Environmental Club for their monthly Adopt-a-Block cleanup. Meet in the Main Library Teen Space on the second floor at 1 p.m., and walk together to a nearby designated adopted block.

Litter cleanup supplies will be provided. All teens are welcome to join. This program is led by the Leading Edge Teen Advisory Board (LETAB) where teens gain leadership skills and work together to build community. Register now at oppl.org/calendar.

Aventura Storytime with Little Parade Friday, Jan. 7 from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m., Forest Park Public Library Aventura Storytime is a bilingual English/Spanish storytelling experience featuring a special performance by Little Parade, a husband-and-wife duo who teach music online and off, getting kids involved through singing, chanting, dancing and exploring rhythm through total participation.

Recommended for kids 5 and under. 7555 Jackson Blvd., Forest Park.

Teen Video Game Club Saturday, Jan. 8 from 2:15 to 4:15 p.m., Park District of Oak Park A chance to meet other Oak Park gamers. Current video games, along with a peek into the past, will be featured, with the library’s collection of consoles and video games. Required age: 10-15. $14-19, Dole Center Multipurpose Room (second floor), 255 Augusta St., Oak Park.

Wednesday Journal, January 5, 2022

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West Suburban debuts a surgical robot

Austin man was first to be operated on with assistance from hospital’s da Vinci XI surgical robot

By IGOR STUDENKOV Editor

daddy’s house and I said, ‘Pops, I gotta go, I can’t take the pain no longer.’”

Bonner’s father called the ambulance, and he was quickly taken to West Suburban. The doctors found that Bonner’s gallbladder was causing the stomach pains and related high blood pressure.

“They were kind of shocked that I was moving around and I was living [with such a high blood pressure],” Bonner said.

From there, things moved quickly. The surgery was scheduled for the following day.

When asked whether he was okay with being the first person they used the da Vinci XI on, Bonner didn’t hesitate.

“I was like, ‘Sure,’” he said. “If it’s anything that can take care of that pain, it’s good with me.”

Tiesenga said that Bonner was chosen be-

Robert Bonner, 42, of Austin, was the first patient at West Suburban Medical Center, 3 Erie St. in Oak Park, to benefit from the new da Vinci XI surgical robot when he got gall bladder surgery on Nov. 16.

Although the hospital has been using surgical robots since September 2012, the new robot is more precise and includes more surgical tools. Bonner said that he was impressed with the technology and the care he got at the hospital, adding that he recovered quickly and the surgery didn’t leave any “hideous” scars.

Photos of the robot from Intuitive, the Sunnyvale, Calif.based surgical robot manufacturer that makes the surgical device, show a towering structure with PROVIDED four tentacle-like appendages coming A surgical team at West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park down from the top. show the hospital’s new da Vinci XI surgical robot.

Each appendage ends with a thin, flexible arms that can go into the body withcause he was “the first patient who was an out requiring large openings.

Dr. Frederick Tiesenga, the chair of West appropriate candidate for using the da Vinci Suburban’s surgery department, said that XI.” The doctor said that the surgeons were the advantage of the surgical robots is that “very excited to do this.”

Since then, West Suburban surgeons have they allow for more precise, less invasive surgical techniques. This means patients been using the robot on a regular basis.

“I am a general surgeon and I use it for all spend less time recovering, so they can leave the hospital sooner than they would after different kinds of operations, multiple times every week,” Tiesenga said. more traditional surgeries.

Bonner said he was impressed with how The da Vinci XI robots, Tiesenga said, “take robotic surgery to the next level.” quickly he recovered. His father, who had They are even more precise than the older the same surgery, had to stay in the hospital robots and have better surgical instruments. for “at least a week” afterwards, while his reBonner said that he had been feeling stom- covery took less than two days.

“By Thursday [Nov. 18], man, I was moving ach pains “for probably six to seven months.”

At first, he thought the pain was indigestion, around, walking up and down the stairs, dowhich he treated by drinking ginger ale, but ing everything, and they sent me home,” he said. “By Thursday afternoon, I was back at that treatment didn’t work. the house.”

“Before I got the surgery, I was in a lot of Since then, Bonner said he hasn’t had any pain,” he said. “Everything just wasn’t feelissues. ing right.”

“The scars weren’t really hideous, like I’ve On Nov. 15, Bonner was at his father’s house when the pain got so bad that he real- seen with other people,” he said. “I am looking at the scars and I can hardly see them.” ized he had to get help quickly.

“The pain was just starting to get worse and worse,” he recalled. “And I was at my CONTACT: igorst3@hotmail.com

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Wednesday Journal, January 5, 2022

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V A C C I N A T I O N

P R O O F

M A N D A T E

Fitness establishments adjust to COVID mandates

From Cook County and Oak Park, respectively

By STACEY SHERIDAN Staff Reporter

With the new year comes the inevitable resolution to shed weight, get in shape and generally lead a more active life. But those planning to hit the gym should be prepared to present COVID-19 vaccination cards before pumping iron. The Cook County Department of Public Health’s proof of vaccination mandate went into effect Jan. 3, and a similar mandate from the Oak Park Public Health Department is close behind.

Across the western suburbs, fitness establishment proprietors are doing their part to abide by the county mandate, which was revised late Jan. 3 to include more substantive information regarding exemptions.

Oak Park Public Health Director Theresa Chapple-McGruder told Wednesday Journal the village is “reviewing the updates” to the county’s order but no decisions have been made regarding possible revisions to the

Oak Park mandate, which goes into effect encountered any problems from members Jan. 11. so far.

FFC Oak Park on Lake Street in downtown “We haven’t had any upset members,” she Oak Park is ahead of the game. The gym’s said. “We have had a couple cancellations manager Jeff Long said the gym began col- due to them being unvaccinated.” lecting proof of vaccination Blink Fitness is offering about 10 days ago. All FFC unvaccinated members the members received an email option to temporarily freeze from the gym informing them their membership until they of the impending mandate. are fully vaccinated.

“Once we sent the email Children aged 18 and unout letting them know that der participating in youth this was coming, members athletics or recreation are just started bringing in their exempt from the county’s cards and showing us,” said mandate, providing the acLong. tivities take place in estabLYNN ALLEN Blink Fitness in North Rivlishments that do not proTri-Star gymnastics co-founder erside also alerted its memvide food or drink. bers that they would soon Regardless, non-profit Trineed to bring in their vaccine Star Gymnastics in Forest cards. Following the Dec. 23 Park is still asking for all announcement of the couneligible students to present ty’s mandate, manager Evelyn Perez said proof of COVID-19 vaccination. The Centers her Blink location issued fliers, sent emails for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has authorized COVID-19 vaccinations for and made calls to patrons.

Now that the mandate has gone into ef- children as young as five.

“We want our kids to be safe,” said Trifect, Perez said the Blink location has not

“We have some families that lost family members in 2020.”

Star co-founder Lynn Allen. “We have some families that lost family members in 2020.”

Tri-Star is still allowing unvaccinated children to participate in gymnastics through Tri-Star, but the gym has lost roughly 30 students for merely requesting proof of vaccination, according to Allen.

About 350 kids take lessons at Tri-Star or compete on one of its gymnastics teams.

Tri-Star’s young clientele range in age from kids just able to walk to 18-year-olds.

“We’re hoping parents don’t go ballistic,” Allen said of Tri-Star’s request for vaccination proof.

The gymnastics studio requires masks at all times. Students and competitive team members are required to stand on stars affixed to the floor. The stars are placed six feet apart from each other, so social distancing is always practiced. Most parents have been generally respectful of Tri-Star’s safety precautions, according to Allen. But if any take issue with the gym’s stance on vaccination proof, they can take their business elsewhere.

“You’re free to go to another gym,” Allen said.

Local movie theaters brace for vaccination proof Classic Cinemas plans to enforce new rule in North Riverside, Oak Park

By BOB UPHUES Staff Reporter

Coming off a two-month stretch during which people have flocked back to local movie theaters, Classic Cinemas will institute the proof-of-vaccination protocol at its movie theaters in Cook County, including the Lake Theatre in Oak Park and at the North Riverside Park Mall per mandates from health officials at the count and municipal levels.

The mandate went into effect effective Jan. 3 at the North Riverside XQ complex and is scheduled to go into effect Jan. 10 at the Lake Theatre in Oak Park. Because Oak Park has its own health department, the village is not bound by the Jan. 3 date mandated by the Cook County Department of Public Health.

“We’re going to do it, but it is a burden,” said Chris Johnson, CEO of Classic Cinemas, which operates 14 movie houses in northern Illinois and one in Beloit, Wisconsin. Just three of the theaters are within suburban Cook County.

“We’re good citizens and it makes a challenging situation a little bit more challenging, but we’re here for the long term,” Johnson said.

One of the challenges is that many theatergoers purchase their tickets online in

ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

PROOF POSITIVE: Alexander Padilla (left) of Cicero, shows a photo of his COVID-19 vaccination card to Classic Cinemas employee Andre Coleman on Jan. 3 at the North Riverside XQ Theater at North Riverside Park Mall. advance in order to avoid lines. Now those customers will have to wait in line to have their vaccine status checked as well.

“On the one hand you want to avoid congestion, but this unfortunately will increase lines,” said Johnson who said additional

employees will be at the ticket-taking station to check vaccine documentation and IDs. “It’d be amazingly easier if there was a cohesive system.”

Like other businesses affected by the mandate, Classic Cinemas will accept actual cards, photos of cards or other digital proof of vaccine status and cross check those with personal identification, like a driver’s license or state ID, if a patron is 16 or older.

For younger patrons, that’s a little more difficult.

As for employees having to deal with people who resist the mandate and want a confrontation. Johnson said he believed that those who are unvaccinated will avoid showing up, knowing the mandate is in place and that the business is enforcing it.

“The majority of people are rule-followers, whatever the rules are,” Johnson said.

“There’s always a small percentage of people who try to get away with something, but the majority of the public is pretty good.”

The biggest hurdle is simply staffing theaters sufficiently to make sure vaccine proof checks move smoothly. Johnson called that aspect of the mandate “the killer.”

“We’re having problems getting enough staff, so this is a crusher,” Johnson said.

“I’d love to hire more people. This absolutely takes more staff and will cost money to implement.”

Wednesday Journal, January 5, 2022

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V A C C I N A T I O N

P R O O F

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M A N D A T E

Restaurants respond to vaccine requirements Compliance is on the menu as omicron surges

By MELISSA ELSMO

vaccination card on their phone,” said Joe Sullivan, owner of Duffy’s Tavern, 7315 W. Madison St. “My regulars get it and I’m hoping new guests do as well. It’s been a very rough two years for the service industry, and we desperately need to get back to normal. I hope this mitigation effort leads to more people getting their vaccinations so that they can come out safely.”

Sullivan is pleased his regular clientele is largely compliant with the new vaccine mandate and hopes the requirement will also encourage fully vaccinated individuals who remain hesitant to visit bars and restaurants to come out for the first time.

Oak Park Eats Editor

The Cook County and Suburban Cook County Departments of Public Health issued new COVID-19 mitigation orders effective Jan. 3 requiring all eating and drinking establishments as well as fitness centers and spas to verify proof of vaccination for patrons over age five. Days later Oak Park’s Department of Public Health followed suit with a similar order scheduled to go into effect Jan. 10.

Prior to adopting the ordinance Dr. Theresa Chapple-McGruder, Oak Park Public Health Director, hosted a listening session for business owners. Approximately 120 people were on the call on Dec. 28.

“If the county does it and Chicago, does it, it doesn’t really make sense for Oak Park not to do it since we are not an island,” said Chapple-McGruder during the session. “We don’t want to also become a safe haven for all of those people who are unvaccinated throughout the county and the city to come to Oak Park and utilize our restaurants and our gyms and bring in an additional risk to Oak Park that wasn’t here before.”

The Suburban Cook County and Oak Park mandates have left restaurant and bar owners to figure out how best to implement the order inside their businesses.

Mask mandates remain in effect. Read on to learn how some restaurant owners in our Eats communities are reacting to the new requirements:

One Lake Brewing Oak Park

Owners at One Lake Brewing, 1 Lake St., Oak Park, have been nimble in the face of the global pandemic. In the past two years, they have developed a curbside service model, closed their midlevel dining room, eliminated table service on the first level and constructed a flexible roof-top dining area in response to the shifting nature of COVID-19.

Most importantly Kristen Alfonsi, co-owner of One Lake, has made sure her business has followed all state and local guidelines related to the pandemic.

“We are doing our best to keep people safe, and we rolled out the vaccine requirement this week because we knew it was happening,” said Alfonsi. “To be honest, I think omicron will make business slower than the vaccine mandate will.”

Alfonsi said business had started “to get good again” and events like trivia nights and live music performances are back on the schedule, but also shared concerns that events may have to “pause” if the omicron surge continues.

Irish Times Brookfield

ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

PLEASE COMPLY: Families dine as Santa comes around and talks to children on the roof at One Lake Brewing in Oak Park in 2020.

“We understand there has been an uptick in cases and we will follow the guidelines, but we are hoping beyond hope that things look better a month from now,” said Alfonsi.

Kettlestrings Tavern Oak Park

Employees at Kettlestrings Tavern, 800 S. Oak Park Ave., are accustomed to checking identification before serving their patrons. Rob Guenthner, Kettlestrings coowner, is confident his staff is more than capable of checking customers’ vaccine cards but has some skepticism about the latest mandate.

“I worry there doesn’t seem to be a good scientific reason behind this and it feels like a way to encourage people to get vaccinated,” said Guenthner. “I am all for incentivizing people to get vaccinated but doing that at the expense of an entire industry seems odd.”

He went on to say he has concerns about customers potentially becoming upset or irate in the face of being turned away from their dining room.

“We will encourage all unvaccinated people to order takeout but will not hesitate to call the police if a situation requires it,” said Guenthner. “We hope it won’t come to that in our community, but we will not put our staff at risk.”

To prevent people from having to show their vaccine cards on multiple visits, Kettlestrings will keep a log on file for interested customers.

Scratch on Lake Oak Park

Lathrop House Café Forest Park

Patrick O’Brien, owner of Scratch Restaurant Group, has been riding the COVID wave for two years. He opened Lathrop House Café, 26 Lathrop Ave, Forest Park, mid pandemic, closed District Kitchen and Tap in the Oak Park Arts District last April, and developed a plan to help Scratch on Lake, 733 Lake St, Oak Park, thrive despite the ongoing pandemic.

“Whatever the law is we will follow it,” said O’Brien. “This issue is so highly debated, even in my own house, that I don’t want to risk alienating any of my customer base with my opinions.”

The veteran restaurateur went on to say the issue has become so political that businesses are equally at risk of losing customers if they are vocally against or in favor of vaccine mandates. O’Brien was clear his goal is to be there for his customers and help his businesses survive “whatever comes next.”

Duffy’s Tavern Forest Park

“Duffy’s is a neighborhood tavern with a substantial number of regular guests, and I know for a fact that a great number of them are fully vaccinated and already do smart things like keep a photo of their

Martin Lynch, owner of Irish Times, 8869 Burlington Ave, Brookfield, was quick to point out that vaccine requirements are required for dining or drinking in bars and restaurants across Ireland.

“Our staff is 100% vaccinated so this mandate only adds another level of comfort for our employees and our customers,” said Lynch. “We have been going by what they are doing in Ireland so I don’t see a downside to this at all. A vaccine requirement for staff and customers will only help to speed our exit from this whole pandemic.”

Lynch said they will leave checking vaccine status and ID’s to bartenders and servers. He does not anticipate there will be angry customers because of the mandate especially because it covers a broad section of the state.

“Everyone has been expecting this; it has been in the ethers and now it is here,” said Lynch.

FitzGerald’s Berwyn

Prior to the Jan. 3 mandate for suburban Cook County, FitzGerald’s Nightclub, 6615 Roosevelt Rd., fell in line with most Chicagoland music venues and required proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test to gain entry to the club. The new mandate does away with the negative test option.

Rather than wait, Will Duncan, club owner, started requiring proof of vaccination in all Fitzgerald’s indoor space, including Babygold Barbecue and Side Bar, in late December.

“We’re comfortable being open with the proof of vaccination requirement for Cook County,” said Duncan on December 30.

Duncan continues stress the importance of wearing masks among staff and patrons inside Fitzgerald’s regardless of the vaccine mandate.

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Wednesday Journal, January 5, 2022

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

2021 VILLAGER of THE YEAR FOR OAK PARK

CHAPPLEMCGRUDER

slashed since the recession in 2008.

Over recent years, Wednesday Journal has reported that the Village of Oak Park cut its public health department’s budget by roughly 20% in 2015 and removed two from page 1 full-time positions. It remains severely understaffed, a skeleton of its former self.

With H1N1 and Zika, those viruses greatly “The thing with public health is that impacted pregnant women, babies and when you’re doing it right, no one notices,” young children; whereas the coronavirus she said, calling it the “forgotten” governcould affect all people. There was a bigger mental service. learning curve with Covid, she said. It was Chapple-McGruder currently runs also more widespread. a tight-knit eight-employee ship at the “There’s just a lot of health education that health department, all of whom work to should have gone along with the [COVID-19] rein in the pandemic and protect a commuvirus and where we are, and the vaccine, nity of more than 52,000 residents. Three and how it works and what it does, and that weeks ago, the department welcomed its didn’t happen,” said Chapple-McGruder, first health education manager, a new role whose medical specialty centers that had been open since August on maternal and child health. and meant to mend the gaps of “We were just in the midst of information between the depart2021 it and trying to figure out how to ment and the community.

VILLAGER stay safe, how to stay healthy our“This is not me saying, ‘our selves and how do we then work of the health department is bad,’” she with the public and all that,” she said. “This is me saying that the YEAR said. “[There were] just too many nation’s commitment to public pieces happening at once where health has decreased over time, we weren’t able to really focus on the edu- putting us in a place where in the midst cation arm of it.” of the pandemic we don’t have all the tools That’s the thing, she opined. Providing we need in order to adequately fight the people with information and access to data pandemic in a way that makes sense to our and resources are foundational to the mis- community and in a way that is effective sion behind public health, but the pandem- and efficient.” ic also highlighted the issues public health “What we are left with is doing our absodepartments across the U.S. have faced lute best with what we have,” she said. “I over the years. came to a health department that has eight In 2020, Kaiser Health News (KHN) re- people, and the eight of us are doing our abported that the government has decreased solute best every day. We all work.” its spending for state and local public health departments for the last decade.

In the line of fire Since 2010, funding for state public health departments fell by 16% per capita while As the village’s public health director, spending for local health departments was Chapple-McGruder is at the helm of every down 18%. KHN also reported nearly 38,000 conversation around COVID-19 mitigations. state and local public health jobs have been She is the face of the health department,

Heading public health

How we choose Villager of the Year

Wednesday Journal has chosen a Villager of the Year in Oak Park every January since 1985. We added River Forest Villager of the Year in 2005.

Usually we choose individuals. Five times we have selected ad hoc groups of citizen activists. Last year we recognized over a dozen individuals on the front line of the local COVID response.

How do we pick?

The choice is made by the editorial staff of Wednesday Journal during a meeting

which means she is often characterized as a hero or villain in the tale of the pandemic.

In the last nine months, under the leadership of Chapple-McGruder, the department has worked with Oak Park’s schools, village, medical and business leaders, and guided them through the course of the pandemic. From tracking Covid cases to implementing safety measures based on state and federal mandates, Chapple-McGruder and her staff have remained at the forefront of the fight against the novel virus.

Over the summer, the department unveiled a mobile health van, an idea of Chapple-McGruder’s aimed to boost the education around vaccines, dispel any myths and make vaccines more accessible. And once the vaccines were approved for children and teens, she partnered with Oak Park public school officials to host vaccination clinics.

Back in November, Chapple-McGruder and a fleet of medical volunteers teamed up with Oak Park School District 97 and led eight vaccination clinics for eligible students ages 5 to 11. The clinics were massive undertakings, held across eight different district schools over a four-day span.

The department closed out that week with

Those who’ve made an impact

Wednesday Journal has named a Villager of the Year in Oak Park since 1985 and in River Forest since 2005. Here are the Oak Parkers we’ve previously recognized:

Oak Park 1985 Dan Elich, founder of

the CARE political party 1986 Keith Bergstrom, Oak Park police chief 1987 Clifford Osborn, Oak Park village president 1988 J. Neil Nielsen, Oak Park village manager 1989 John Fagan, superintendent of Oak Park Elementary School District 97 1990 Marjorie Judith Vincent, Oak Parker named Miss America that year 1991 Philip Rock, Illinois Senate president 1992 Joseph Mendrick, Oak Park police chief

1993 Allen Parker, Oak Park village manager

1994 Crime-fighting Harrison Street resi-

dents, organized to resist gang incursions from the West Side 1995 John FS Williams, director of Oak Park Township Youth Services 1996 Martin Noll, founder of Community Bank of Oak Park-River Forest 1997 Rev. M. Randolph Thompson, pastor and founder of Fellowship Christian, Oak Park’s first predominantly black church 1998 Kathy Lamar, active in youth concerns and outgoing District 97 school board member 1999 Susan Bridge, superintendent and principal of Oak Park and River Forest High School District 200 2000 Carl Swenson, Oak Park village manager 2001 Seymour Taxman, developer of the

Shops of Downtown Oak Park, River Forest Town Centers I and II, Euclid Terraces, and the Mews 2002 Nile Wendorf and Mila Tellez, community activists 2003 Robert Milstein, a rare trustee on the Oak Park village board who was not a member of the Village Manager Association party 2004 John Schiess and Alex Troyanovsky, architect and developer, respectively, on numerous projects in Oak Park 2005 Citizens for Change, group of nine who helped shift power to a new political organization 2006 Ali ElSaffar, Oak Park Township assessor 2007 David Pope, village president, and Tom Barwin, village manager 2008 Gary Balling, park district executive director

in December. This year those at the virtual table were Michael Romain (equity editor), Stacey Sheridan (village government reporter), Amanda Tugade (education reporter), Bob Uphues (senior editor), Alex Rogals (photographer), Melissa Elsmo (Oak Park Eats editor), Briana Higgins (digital editor) and Dan Haley (editor and publisher).

In recent years we have also invited readers to nominate potential Villagers of the Year.

an additional vaccine clinic to accommodate 5- to 11-year-olds in Oak Park who do not attend public schools.

In District 97 alone, more than 2,000 students received the first dose of the twoshot Pfizer Covid vaccine.

On Twitter, a worn-out Chapple-McGruder revealed her human side: “After a 90-minute nap, I’m still exhausted. 5 days of vaccination clinics complete. I don’t want to do this again in 2 weeks and 3 days.”

But they did, finishing off the students’ vaccination series.

Chapple-McGruder has also faced backlash especially from local parents who believed District 97’s two-week quarantine policy for students identified as close contacts were too restrictive.

More recently, she was criticized and blamed for supporting Oak Park and River Forest High School District 200’s decision to pause extracurricular and sports activities after a COVID-19 outbreak impacted dozens of staff and students. A group of OPRF parents and students gathered outside school grounds to protest that decision, which was quickly overturned.

That rally, Chapple-McGruder said, is an

2009 Mike Kelly, head of Park National Bank 2010 OPRF Citizens Council, fighting substance abuse 2011 Peter Traczyk, District 97 board president 2012 Collaboration for Early Childhood Care and Education 2013 Anan Abu-Taleb, Oak Park president 2014 John Phelan, D200 board president 2015 Cara Pavlicek, Oak Park village manager 2016 Monica Sheehan, community activist 2017 Anthony Clark, founder of Suburban Unity Alliance, OPRF teacher 2018 Jackie Moore, D200 board president 2019 Dr. Joylynn Pruitt-Adams, D200 superintendent 2020 Sixteen local heroes, representing the many helpers who helped us get through the first year of COVID-19

Wednesday Journal, January 5, 2022

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

2021 VILLAGER of THE YEAR FOR OAK PARK example of an instance where she called many times she is not “even phased by it for Oak Park police to protect herself and anymore.” She’s also used to people quesher family. Chapple-McGruder told the tioning her professional and education Journal there were parents on social me- experience and background. In fact, Chapdia who talked about protesting outside ple-McGruder’s administrative assistant her home, and she received frantic calls keeps a folder marked “Don’t Read” packed from neighbors who were worried for her with her hate mail.

Again, Chapple-McGruder said, she and her family. didn’t know about that side of In some ways, that experience Oak Park. It’s not the community served as a visceral reminder she knew and fell in love with that racism can happen even in 2021 years ago.

Oak Park. On Twitter, ChappleVILLAGER “I started my real adult life McGruder likened her experience of the to that of Percy Julian, a famed here,” said Chapple-McGruder, chemist and one of Oak Park’s who lived in Oak Park roughly YEAR first Black residents whose home a decade ago while completing a was infamously firebombed and doctoral program at the Univerwhose family experienced racist attacks. sity of Illinois at Chicago. “I bought my “Dr. Percy Julian paved the way for me,” first home here. I got married here. I adtweeted Chapple-McGruder, who is Black. opted my first child here.

“I have police protection in this commu“When my husband and I left – and we nity because of the progress he pushed for. have lived in multiple states since – we We still have a long way to go in our com- would always compare everything to Oak munity. I should be able to do my job with- Park. So, when I found out that Oak Park out needing police protection.” was looking for a health department direc“I would never have imagined the hostil- tor – and it was definitely my goal to be a ity that I faced in Oak Park,” she told the health department director to help comJournal. munities through the pandemic – we were At this point, Chapple-McGruder said totally excited, and this is where we wantresidents have called her an “idiot” so ed to be.”

It’s been tough being a Black woman in a leadership role, she told the Journal. The lines separating criticisms, discrimination and microaggressions are, at times, blurred with fear and concern or buried under data and interpretation.

But it’s not all bad, Chapple-McGruder said. In her everyday life, she sees glimpses of that same ole’ Oak Park, the one that is welcoming and endearing. It’s right there, right on her block, she said.

That type of love comes in bushels of ‘thank you cards’ from area students, holiday gift baskets or carry out dinners courtesy of local residents; there are times that some neighbors have picked ChappleMcGruder’s daughters up from school. It’s that kind of warmth, that community that Chapple-McGruder leans on for strength and is motivated by to carry on.

“There have been extremely high-highs; there’ve been extremely low-lows. I wonder what that normal is going to be because I have yet to experience normal here and what normal would look like with my family, and just living here and just working here and just being a part of the community,” she said. “I’m looking forward to that time.”

RUNNERS-UP Anthony Clark: Village President Vicki Scaman: It doesn’t get much more Oak Park than Having only served for eight months of 2021 as the village of Oak Park’s top elected, Anthony Clark. Activist, teacher, organizer, Village President Vicki Scaman has enabled political hopeful – Clark is well-known and sometimes controthe restored order versial within the to the village board, community. His cewhere the three new lebrity grew even trustees and three more in 2021, almost mid-term trustees earning him his sectreat one another ond “Villager of the with respect.

Year” accolade – this Having previtime as a Runner-Up. ously served as His eventful camvillage clerk, she paign for village witnessed firsthand trustee gave people the discord of the VICKI SCAMAN ANTHONY CLARK much to dissect in board overseen by the first few months her predecessor, Mayor Anan Abu-Taleb. Scaman has helped of 2021. After his residency, and consequentto bring peace to virtual council chamber ly his eligibility, was called into question, Clark continued to face election season conmeetings. troversies.

The cordial and polite atmoAfter losing his election bid Clark sphere at the board table has made 2021 moved forward, continuing his for an all-around more cohesive village board, but not without its VILLAGER quest to make Oak Park and neighchallenges. The previous year saw boring municipalities more equiof the the departure of long-time village table through his non-profit orgaYEAR manager Cara Pavlicek, as well as nization Suburban Unity Alliance. the hiring of a new public health He helped to open three community director mid-pandemic. refrigerators, two in Oak Park and one in Scaman and the rest of the board also Maywood, in 2021. divvied up the first portion of the village’s $38.9 million in American Rescue Plan Act Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi: (ARPA) funds in 2021, opting to use $14 milCook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi might lion to reimburse the village for lost rev- not have been the name on everyone’s lips enues during early stages of COVID-19. last year, but perhaps it should have been.

The decision faced public criticism, but dis- Since his election nearly four years ago, course at the board table has remained civil. the Oak Parker made good on his promise

to shake up what he’s described as a historically inequitable property assessment system that, he says, allows commercial taxpayers to pay less than their fair share, forcing homeowners to pay more than they should.

While many homeowners across the county saw their taxes increase significantly last year, Kaegi’s office has attributed the higher bills to the state’s messy tax appeals FRITZ KAEGI process.

Case in point: Oak Park’s Vantage apartments. Kaegi assessed the building at $90 million, but the building’s owners appealed to the county’s Board of Review, which cut that assessment to $54 million. If Vantage owners paid property taxes based on Kaegi’s assessment, they would’ve paid about $1 million more. That’s more money that other local taxpayers have to come up with Kaegi’s public commitment to transparency and equity is a marked difference from his predecessor Joe Berrios, a consummate political boss known for purported ethics violations and reported political corruption.

In August, Kaegi announced his reelection campaign. He has since won the endorsement of the Cook County Democratic Party and will compete in the primary this June.

Stacey Sheridan

Here’s who our readers nominated for Villager of the Year in Oak Park Again this year we asked our readers to offer their ideas on who should be the Villager of the Year for Oak Park and for River Forest. We heard from dozens of Oak Parkers. River Foresters were oddly quiet this year.

But here are a few collections of people, offered up by our readers.

■ School nurses ■ School nurses and teachers ■ D200 school board for changes to the freshman curriculum ■ D90, D97, D200 teachers ■ Health workers and pharmacy workers ■ Youth sports and youth arts leaders

And here are the individuals nominated by our readers.

■ Dr. Theresa Chapple-McGruder. Oak Park’s public health director ■ Fritz Kaegi, Cook County Assessor and Oak Parker ■ Vicki Scaman, Oak Park village president ■ Anthony Clark for his work on the Community Fridges and as a village board candidate ■ Monica Sheehan, activist related to OPRF and taxing ■ Darien Marion Burton, new president of the OP-RF Chamber ■ Supt. Greg Johnson and Principal Lynda Parker of OPRF High School ■ David Seleb, Oak Park library executive director ■ Arti Walker-Peddakotla, Oak Park village trustee, and members of ROYAL ■ Ravi Parakkat, Oak Park village trustee, for his work on Takeout 25 project ■ Judith Alexander, North Avenue District leader ■ Keith Taylor, local editorial cartoonist, who died in December ■ Lynda Schueler, Housing Forward executive director

Next week River Forest’s Villager of the Year This year we’re presenting Wednesday Journal’s Villager of the Year in two parts.

Today it is Oak Park’s Villager of the Year. Next week, Jan. 12, we’ll announce our River Forest Villager of the Year.

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OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

BETTY WHITE

Got her start in Oak Park from page 1 for a short time. She lived with her parents in an apartment on Pleasant Street before moving into a house on North Taylor Avenue, according to the Oak Park River Forest Museum’s Frank Lipo. The family packed up and moved to Los Angeles when White was a toddler, but she lived her life according to principles that Oak Park came to honor.

White believed in equality and stood by that her whole career. She defied pressure in 1954 to fire dancer Arthur Duncan from her daytime talk show for his Black skin.

“I said, ‘I’m sorry, but, you know, he stays. Live with it,’” White recalled in a 2018 documentary about her life and career.

Her advocacy for the welfare of animals spanned decades. She also bucked social constructs. She supported the rights of LGBTQ individuals to marry and became a beloved figure within the gay community.

KATHY GRIFFIN White’s roles on the “Mary Comedian Tyler Moore” show” and “The Golden Girls” to her 2010 stint hosting “Saturday Night Live,” which earned White her fifth primetime Emmy Award – her repertoire cemented her as a legend of the screen.

While Oak Park cannot claim to have had an impact on White’s storied career, White certainly impacted other funny Oak Park natives who became bona fide stars in their own right. Kathy Griffin took to Twitter to extoll the praises of her friend.

“She was as sharp and funny as she was soft and wise,” Griffin tweeted.

Having acted alongside White in his sitcom “Bob” and in the finale of “Hot in Cleveland,” Bob Newhart called working with White “an honor.”

“Today, we lost a giant,” Newhart tweeted.

“She was as sharp and funny as she was soft and wise.”

PHOTO BY LOURDES NICHOLLS

WHITE HOUSE: 214 N. Taylor, where the family lived after she was born until they moved to L.A.

Next week: Be Like Betty specials

Weeks ago we started planning a special Wednesday Journal section, podcast and event to celebrate Betty White’s 100th birthday. She was, you know, born in Oak Park on Jan. 17, 1922.

Fate has intervened with her death on New Year’s Eve at a youthful 99.

Our project, though, continues now as a celebration of her remarkable life and its tender roots in Oak Park – she only lived here until she was 2.

What will you find in our “Be Like Betty” section, podcast and live event?

curring role on White’s Hot in Cleveland TV sitcom. Also Cindy Fee, an Oak Parker, singer of jingles and theme songs, who is the famous voice behind “Thank You for Being a Friend,” the Golden Girls theme. And George Geary, the local chef and Wright Plus volunteer who made the cheesecakes which were often a story thread on the Golden Girls (we’ll also share his recipe).

■ A two-page spread with a full-length Betty White. Suitable for hanging in your window! You know you will.

The print special section

The podcast

■ Melissa Elsmo (Yes, our favorite food writer is also a big Betty fan) interviews Kelly Schumann, River Forest native, actress, former WJ staffer) who had a re-

Thank you for being a friend: A conversation with Cindy Fee is a podcast hosted by an enthused Elsmo and includes interviews with Fee and Geary. Ms. Fee sings

the entire theme song for us! Thanks to CrossFunction in Oak Park for hosting and producing our podcast. Details next week on when the podcast will drop.

The live event Join us at 10 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 15 just outside the Lake Theatre on Lake Street.

Listen as Oak Park Village President Vicki Scaman reads a Betty White proclamation, Frank Lipo of the Oak Park River Forest Museum talks about Betty White’s Oak Park beginnings and we share a special Be Like Betty cake – Turano Baking Company is our cake sponsor -- for 100 guests.

Thanks to Downtown Oak Park, the Lake Theater, CrossFunction and Turano Baking Company for sponsoring the event.

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

C R I M E

Wednesday Journal, January 5, 2022

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Four gunfire incidents, New Year’s Eve and Day, in Oak Park The Oak Park Police Department reported four incidents of reckless gunfire between New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, the first of which occurred at 10:05 a.m., Dec. 31 in the 400 block of South Taylor Avenue. Six shell casings were found on the scene, but no injuries or damage was reported.

Windows were a popular target for New Year’s Eve firearm play. A kitchen window in the 100 block of North Lombard Avenue was shattered by a bullet sometime between 9:30 p.m., Dec. 31 and 9:30 a.m., Jan. 1. A bullet cas-

ing was found lodged between the glass and the window screen. The cost of the damage was unknown at the time of reporting.

Someone discharged a firearm between 11 p.m. and 11:30 p.m., Dec. 31 in the 900 block of Austin Boulevard. The projectile hit a bedroom window, shattering it.

The fourth incident happened early morning on New Year’s Day on the 300 block of Wisconsin, when the victims were awoken at 5:32 a.m. by what they presumed to be fireworks but soon after heard the sound of

shattering glass, according to police reports.

Upon further inspection, they found that a window in the rear of their residence had been broken. A bullet was recovered from the wooden window frame.

Burglary A brown purse containing cash, an Illinois driver’s license, a set of house keys and miscellaneous credit cards was taken from a grey Toyota after someone shattered its front passenger’s side window between 6 p.m., Dec. 29 and 2:28 a.m., Dec. 30 in the West Suburban Hospital parking lot at 3 Erie Ct.

Theft ■ The catalytic converter was removed from a silver 2010 Hyundai Tucson parked in the 100 block of North Grove Avenue between 5 p.m., Dec. 27 and 9:45 a.m., Dec. 28.

■ Several packages were removed from the front porch of a residence in the 800 block of North Lombard Avenue between 1:45 p.m. and 4 p.m., Dec. 28. The estimated loss is $230.

■ An unknown person removed the wedding ring from a man’s ring finger as he was being admitted to Rush Oak Park Hospital, 520 S. Maple Ave., sometime between mid-

A final step, as Lake and Lathrop hauls soil from site Digging foundation is next for mixed-use project

By ROBERT J. LIFKA Contributing Reporter

A long line of dump trucks on Lake Street Dec. 27 signaled that construction is imminent on the long-awaited Lake and Lathrop project. In a final step toward construction, the dump trucks were on site as crews hauled a layer of soil from the parcel.

Beginning work to dig the actual foundation will follow, said Kyle Haste, the development project manager for Sedgwick Properties, one of the developers.

This project has been on the drawing board since before the village board approved in 2018 the proposal by Lake Lathrop Partners LLC to build a four-story, mixed-use development containing 22 condominium units and 14,000 square feet of retail space. Variations on the same project had lurched and lingered for a decade previously.

Lake Lathrop Properties is a joint venture between Sedgwick Properties and Keystone Ventures. The original project included another story and eight more units but was scaled back.

The project experienced a series of delays over the years, including environmental cleanup from a dry cleaners formerly on the site and a lawsuit involving a tenant who did not want to move.

In October, the developers reported 14 of 22 units had been sold, including two penthouse suites. They also said a medical tenant has committed to taking 2,500 square feet of the retail space and that three others, two restaurants and another medical firm, had expressed serious interest.

The developers reported they have selected a lender and executed a term sheet and that they anticipate a 60-to-90-day loan process, which will run parallel with their site work.

Under terms of an amendment approved by the village board in October, the developers were required to commence bona-fide construction by Jan. 23, 2022 and complete the project in 18 months.

night, Dec. 30 and 5 p.m., Dec. 31. The victim has dementia and cannot remember the details of the theft, according to police reports.

The estimated loss is $1,400.

Battery An Oak Park resident was assaulted while traveling westbound on the CTA Blue Line from Chicago at 9:33 a.m., Dec. 28; the offender approached the victim and hit the victim with closed fists multiple times on the face and body, while the train was in motion. The victim exited the train at the Austin Blue Line station, where the offender then pushed the victim to the ground. The fall caused the victim to briefly lose consciousness.

These items, obtained from the Oak Park Police Department, came from reports through Dec. 29 to Jan. 3 and represent a portion of the incidents to which police responded. Anyone named in these reports has only been charged with a crime and cases have not yet been adjudicated. We report the race of a suspect only when a serious crime has been committed, the suspect is still at large, and police have provided us with a detailed physical description of the suspect as they seek the public’s help in making an arrest.

Compiled by Stacey Sheridan

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Community Foundation makes COVID grants for childcare Five agencies share $50,000 in funding

The Oak Park-River Forest Community Foundation (OPRFCF) announced its latest round of Rapid Response and Recovery Fund grants on Jan. 3, totaling $50,000 for five nonprofits in the western Cook County region.

“As we close in on two full years of the pandemic, our communities still face significant challenges,” said Tony Martinez, Jr., president and CEO of the foundation.

“Government funding for personal protective equipment (PPE) is no longer available, leaving childcare facilities to struggle with added expenses to keep children and employees safe. In addition, mental health remains a pressing concern, especially for our region’s children and young people.

This most recent round of grants will help childcare centers maintain a COVID-safe environment and provide support for organizations that offer mental health services.”

The following organizations have been awarded grants in the latest round: ■ Austin Child Care Providers Network ■ Hephzibah Children’s Association ■ The Nehemiah Community Project ■ NAMI Illinois ■ YEMBA, Inc. “Clearly, we have all been impacted by this unprecedented disruption in our lives, but evidence shows that our youth are suffering greatly from the isolation, lack of social engagement and general uncertainty,” said Chris Chambliss, CEO and executive

director of the Nehemiah Community Project. “This pandemic has our young people resorting to engaging in unhealthy coping — even reckless behaviors. More than ever before, our youth need support. Not a ‘cookie-cutter’ answer but an evolving, multi-layered, thoughtful approach that is tailored to the individual. We’re trying to bring it home and help them where they are.”

The Rapid Response and Recovery Fund was created in March 2020 with a seed investment of $50,000 from the foundation to provide needed dollars to agencies fighting to provide daily, ongoing support to the communities served by the foundation; those struggling with food insecurity, permanent housing, and health concerns. In addition,

the fund is combating the socioeconomic inequities exacerbated by this virus and is supporting the mental health and physical safety of those impacted. The fund has received more than $1.2 million in donations since it its inception and has given grants to 65 organizations in the community.

“These grants could not have happened if not for the heartfelt generosity of so many community members,” said Martinez, “We are eternally grateful to everyone who has contributed to this fund.”

To support the Oak Park-River Forest Community Foundation and its work on behalf of the community visit oprfcf.org or call 708-848-1560.

Volunteer supply chain shortages

Local nonprofits see a decline in volunteerism

By TOM HOLMES Contributing Reporter

PHOTO BY STEVEN LIFKA

Fire’s cause determined The Oak Park Fire Department has determined a candle burning in a bedroom was the cause of the house fire days before Christmas in the 600 block of North Grove Avenue that left the structure uninhabitable. The candle itself was not a holiday decoration.

Oak Park Fire Chief Ron Kobyleski told Wednesday Journal the fire department was dispatched to the report of a fire at 9:54 p.m., Dec. 22. While all occupants of the building evacuated the confines of the home, fire was observed from multiple windows on the second and third floor.

“One occupant suffered minor smoke inhalation and was treated on the scene

by Oak Park paramedics,” said Kobyleski.

Two hose lines were deployed to extinguish the fire on the two floors and the ladder truck was used to provide ventilation and access to the upper levels. The fire was under control by 11:30 p.m., ac-

cording to Kobyleski, who said working smoke detectors were present in the home and alerted the occupants to the fire. The fire caused extensive damage to the bedroom areas, leaving the house uninhabitable.

The Forest Park, Cicero and North Riverside fire departments assisted the Oak Park Fire Department in fighting the fire.

Twenty-three firefighters were on the scene.

Personnel from neighboring fire departments were not the only people to lend a helping hand that night. Kobyleski shared his appreciation for those who lived nearby who showed up to help their displaced neighbors.

“I would like to thank the neighbors for assisting in storing the salvaged presents and personal items that the Fire Department was able to recover from the home.”

Stacey Sheridan

Drew Dingman is hoping that one New Year’s resolution Oak Park residents have been making is to step up as a volunteer for the American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO).

“Our recruiting has required more time and effort in recent years,” said the Oak Park AYSO regional commissioner, “particularly with COVID increasing hesitancy to participate in larger group activities.”

“Volunteering volume was already trending downward prior to COVID,” he added as a way of noting that the virus is not the only cause.

Mike Hill, Dingman’s counterpart in Forest Park, reported the same challenge. “We have had a struggle getting parents to participate as head coaches at the 5- to 7-yearold level of our soccer program. It’s been especially hard to find young adults who want to help with our 3- to 5-year-old soccer sessions.”

The decline seems to be following a national trend. “Fewer Americans,” the website Do Good reported, “are engaging in their community by volunteering and giving than in any time in the last two decades.”

On Dec. 6, Housing Forward held a focus group involving congregational team leaders to address the issue of a fall-off in the number of volunteers following the nonprofit’s shift from an Emergency Shelter model (in which the service would change locations every night) to an Outreach, Di-

version, and Interim Housing model at the Write Inn — a single 24/7 site location.

For example, since meals are no longer served using volunteers but in “to go” style containers to be picked up in the Write Inn lobby, volunteers need to find other ways to engage with clients on a face-to-face basis.

The Write Inn site will need two people at a time to cover eight 3-hour shifts each day to sort of “mind the store,” and there is talk of individual churches serving as pop-up warming centers during the daylight hours.

Coming out of the meeting was a report indicating that COVID has forced both the nonprofit and volunteers themselves to reimagine what donating their time and energy will look like.

Beyond Hunger, which is based in Oak Park, recently issued a call for volunteers to do a variety of tasks: ■ assisting clients to shop for food.

■ data entry ■ unloading food deliveries ■ stocking shelves ■ re-packing produce ■ transporting donated food from local donors.

Not every nonprofit has been struggling.

Jackie Iovinelli, director of the Park District of Forest Park, said around 75 volunteers teamed up with her staff last summer to host the 53rd Annual No Glove National Tournament.

Dingman speculated as to why there has been a drop-off in volunteering.

“One of the causes we identified is that children, and parents, continue to be more active, in more ways, with more organizations. As a result, their ability to dedicate recurring time to a single organization has been negatively impacted.”

Wednesday Journal, January 5, 2022

NEED TO REACH US?

oakpark.com/real-estate email: buphues@wjinc.com

Homes

Color them award winners

Oak Park houses and painter win Painted Ladies contest

By LACEY SIKORA Contributing Reporter

R

on Feley has been painting houses in and around Oak Park for more than a quarter century. While he and his crew paint pretty much everything -- interiors, exteriors, historic homes and new construction -- Ronbo’s Fine Painting Inc. frequently receives accolades for

13

their work on older homes.

This year, Ronbo’s walked away with two awards in the Chicago Paint & Coatings Association’s 2021 Chicago’s Finest Painted Ladies Competition. Feley has been a winner in the competition in previous years, and while style, size and age of the property are not a factor in winning a prize, he thinks that Oak See AWARD WINNER on page 14

Park’s historic homes do lend themselves success in a competition that focuses on using craftsmanship in paint application to complement the structure of the building.

Ronbo’s was the grand prize winner for Best Professionally Painted Home displaying “best use of paint for a stunning appeal” for the paint job on the Victorian at 317 Clinton Ave. in Oak Park. The award focuses on homes

whose paint jobs enhance their curb appeal.

Feley says that owner Ellie Sharp has been a client for more than 20 years and notes that paint jobs on historic Victorian houses like hers often involve far more than a few cans of paint.

“This one needed a ton of carpentry and replacement of cedar,” he said.

On top of that, there is a bit of artistry to PHOTOS BY ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

Ron Feley, owner of Ronbo’s Fine Painting Inc., won two awards in the 2021 Chicago’s Finest Painted Lady Competition, including for his work on the home at 146 N. Ridgeland Ave. in Oak Park (top and above).

14

Wednesday Journal, January 5, 2022

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

AWARD WINNER ‘Ton of preparation’ from page 13 the colors. While the clients often drive the color choices, Feley says of Sharp’s house’s palette of greens and purples, “You have to put the colors where they pop.”

Sharp says her home was definitely in need of a paint job when she called Feley. She has lived in the house since 1998 and went with the same base colors that were there when she purchased the home because she liked them. Over time, the colors had faded, and she was ready to breathe new life into the exterior.

It’s doubtful the house was originally green. Sharp says a recent visit to the Oak Park River Forest Historical Society turned up a few historic photos of the home, which although they are black and white, show that the house has been painted various shades over time.

The home was built in 1893, and the architect is unknown.

Sharp says that several other homes nearby, including one a block north on Clinton Avenue, one on Oak Park Avenue and one on Home Avenue also have similar “onion” style turrets that mirror the turret on her home. She imagines that they all might be the work of the same developer.

The home’s claim to fame came in 1997 when a neighboring residence was filmed in the movie “Soul Food,” and glimpses of her home can be seen in the movie. Other than that moment in the sun, Sharp says her house her is like many that make up the historic fabric of Oak Park.

Ronbo’s also won an award for Best Use of Bold Color Combo for the exterior paint job at 146 N. Ridgeland Ave. Homeowner Kirsten Greshammer is a designer, so choosing a color to replace the faded beige was a priority for her.

“I don’t know the last time it had been painted,” Greshammer said, adding her family bought it in 2016. “There was

ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

The paint job for the house at 317 Clinton Ave. in Oak Park (above, and below left shown in 1956 and 1966, respectively) was recognized by contest judges for “best use of paint for stunning appeal.” evidence of a lot of patch jobs. It had sort of a beige and red palette, so we called it the Target house.”

Admitting that she hated the color “from day one,” Gres-

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hammer says that as soon as they prioritized it in their rehab budget, they called in Feley to paint the home. She said they chose to work with Feley because they knew he understood the prep work and technique necessary for the job.

Because the new colors need to work with the existing roof and aluminum-clad windows, which are in reddish tones, Greshammer says choosing a palette was a challenge.

“I’m a designer, so I did a lot of Photoshop trying different colors,” Greshammer said. “I also spent a lot of time on Pinterest looking at color schemes for Victorian houses. I saw a lot of olive green with red accents, but it just didn’t look right when I put samples on the house.”

In the end, she chose a blue color that is accented with red and cream. She recommends that people considering an exterior paint job spend plenty of time looking at the paint schemes of other, similarly aged homes in person and online.

Feley says that working on houses like these historic beauties involves focusing on two areas.

“It’s a ton of preparation and a lot of detail work,” he said.

“That’s what these homes come down to.”

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Wednesday Journal, January 5, 2022

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15

SINGLE FAMILY HOMES

Growing Community.

CONDOS

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OFFICE

LISTING PRICE

TIME

426 S Lombard Ave, #306, Oak Park . . . . Baird & Warner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $215,000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sat 11-1

ADDRESS

OFFICE

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631 Marengo Ave, Forest Park. . . . . . . . . . . Baird & Warner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$525,000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sat 1:30-3:30 631 Marengo Ave, Forest Park. . . . . . . . . . . Baird & Warner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$525,000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Sun 1:30-3:30 447 Hannah Ave, Forest Park . . . . . . . . . . . Baird & Warner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$699,900 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sun 2-4 1176 S Harvey Ave, Oak Park . . . . . . . . . . . . Baird & Warner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$240,000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Sun 1:30-3:30

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Wednesday Journal, January 5, 2022

@ @OakPark

SPORTS Huskies rebound with win to cap tough Morton Tourney OPRF girls score 50, a season high, to beat Proviso East

By MELVIN TATE Contributing Reporter

The Oak Park and River Forest High School girls basketball team went 1-3 in the Morton College Christmas Tournament held Dec. 27-30.

The Huskies’ first two games were losses against two of the Chicago area’s top programs, Evanston Township and Benet Academy. But after a 48-34 defeat at the hands of Rolling Meadows on Dec. 29, OPRF ended the tournament on a positive note with a 50-33 victory over Proviso East on Dec. 30. The 50 points were the most the Huskies (5-8) have scored this season.

“It was very important,” said OPRF coach Carlton Rosemond of the win. “I’ve been preaching to the girls all week that we’ve been playing well defensively, and to see that coming to fruition in the last game gives us a confidence boost.”

OPRF played the entire week without four key players in Sophia Henry, Keira Kleidon, Martha Lipic and Cydney MacDonald. Rosemond said he believed that, in a way, it was a blessing in disguise, because it allowed other players to gain valuable experience.

“Kids like Angelina Sunardio and Lauren Kelly got to play,” he said. “And Libby [Majka] really stepped up. She can play with anybody.”

Majka had a team-high 17 points in OPRF’s win, a game which saw the Huskies outscore the Pirates 30-12 in the second half.

As OPRF enters the heart of the West Suburban Conference-Silver Division schedule, Rosemond said the fate of the Huskies will be determined by how they play defensively.

“Our defense has to be our offense,” he said. “If we can force turnovers, we can produce some points as we continue to work through our offensive challenges.”

Offensively, OPRF has tended to pass up good, wide-open looks. While Rosemond says that’s due to the unselfish nature of the team, he feels his players shouldn’t be afraid to take shots when they have a good opportunity.

“I tell the girls in practice that we have to be confident,” he said. “I think what happens is that we take a shot and miss, and then get to the point where we don’t take them at all.

The only way to make shots is take shots, and we’ll continue to work towards that. Hopefully, there’ll be light at the end of the tunnel soon as far as our offense is concerned.”

ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

OPRF guard Darnesha Fraley (24) looks for a shot during the Huskies 50-33 victory against Proviso East during the Morton College Christmas Tournament in Cicero on Dec. 30. The 50 points scored by the Huskies’ were the most so far against an opponent this season.

Rosemond said he felt the Huskies were competitive for the majority of the tournament, but one bad quarter in each of the first three games was costly.

“To battle through our challenges and break through was huge,” he said. “It lets me know our girls are growing and getting better.”

OPRF looks to build off of the win when the Huskies welcome Lyons Township High School on Jan. 7 in a West Suburban Silver contest. Tipoff is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.

Mixed bag for Fenwick at Dundee-Crown The Fenwick High School girls team went 1-2 at the 38th annual Komaromy Charger Classic held at Dundee-Crown High School on Dec.27-30.

“We played very well the last three halves

[of the tournament],” said Fenwick assistant coach Dale Heidloff. “We were down by 20 in our second game and cut the deficit down to three. It was a turning point for us, and against [St. Charles North], we played solid.”

After their first-round game against Naperville Central on Dec. 27 was canceled due to COVID-19 protocol, the Friars (9-6) fell to eventual tournament runner-up Barrington in a quarterfinal the next day 75-39. Mira Schwanke led Fenwick in scoring with 19 points, including four three-pointers.

On Dec. 29 against Lake Park, Fenwick’s late rally wasn’t enough, falling 52-44. Elise Heneghan had 19 points and Grace Kapsch 12 in the effort.

The Friars ended the tournament on a positive note Dec. 30 with a 40-29 victory over St. Charles North. Cam Brusca led a balanced Fenwick attack with 10 points. Audrey Hinrichs, Heneghan, and Kapsch each

added six points, while Mia Caccitolo and Schwanke had five apiece.

Heneghan and Schwanke were named to the all-tournament team.

“They took on the senior leadership the second half of the tournament,” Heidloff said. “They both played very well.”

It’s been a bit of a struggle for the Friars, who have battled numerous injuries and other absences, but Heidloff said the team, despite being shorthanded at DundeeCrown, is starting to jell.

“They’re getting back to where we expected them to be,” he said. “We have to get much stronger defensively and execute our things offensively. The last couple of days, I saw some things that I was very happy about.”

Fenwick’s next scheduled game is at home on Jan. 6 against St. Ignatius in a Girls Catholic Athletic Conference-Red Division matchup. Tip time is 7 p.m.

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS IS FRIDAY 5 P.M. Call Viewpoints editor Ken Trainor at 613-3310 ktrainor@wjinc.com

Wednesday Journal, January 5, 2022

VIEWPOINTS

17

Offermann’s legacy

p. 19

The possibilities of the third third

I

t is a poignant time of year and a poignant time of life.

One aspect of aging is that we have opportunities to become aware of what we may have previously taken for granted. For me, the recent “holiday” season has highlighted relationships, has made me more aware of the possibilities of connection.

Last week I found myself sitting at the fireplace with my daughter, in the glow of the flame and the nearby tree ornaments. The light was soft and shimmery around the edges. In that quiet time, I was pondering my recent road trip with wife and daughter. Driving along easily, over six days and five cities, we visited family and friends, siblings and niblings and contemporaries (I just learned the word niblings, a genderneutral reference to nieces and nephews).

We took COVID precautions with each new grouping, each step of the way — masks, distancing, home tests, PCR tests, etc.

Within each group of family and friends, I appreciated the years I’ve known the individuals, the changes they’ve been through and the dependability, if not the consistency, of our relationship.

During the road trip, I noticed I was usually, numerically, the oldest person in the room. As I am aging, I haven’t thought of myself very differently, no matter what number years I’ve been alive. Indeed, our collective idea of what “old” means seems to keep shifting as we keep aging. I recall acknowledging respectfully people in the room who appeared to be the oldest chronologically.

If my role in the room is indeed changing, I really haven’t done anything to deserve it, except to just keep breathing.

Along with being more tuned into relationships this “holiday” season, my recent road trip highlighted stiffness in my body, my difficulty bending over — indeed, my mortality. During a driving break, sitting in the back seat for hours, browsing my cellphone, I came across a picture that I took 2 years ago, on Jan 3, 2020. That was about one month pre-COVID, back when I worked out daily at the local fitness center, back when I traveled around the country. As I snapped that picture, I had no idea of how things were about to change.

Today, I appreciate the resources I had which enabled me to travel, I appreciate the resources I have at this poignant time and I appreciate the resources I’ve had to get me through the last two years.

Also, I acknowledge that not all of us share in the benefits of resources. One unavoidable current fact about resources is that two multibillionaires (Bezos and Musk) own more wealth than the bottom 40% of all Americans. Incredibly, the top 1% of our population owns more wealth than the bottom 92%. This is outrageous. Stop and think about this fact for just a moment (20 second pause).

By 2030, 54% of middle-income people over 60 will not be able to afford senior housing. If you were creating a cultural system, it would not be perfect. Inevitably, it would be flawed. But would it be this skewed? One percent has more than 92%. Not only outrageous, this is unsustainable.

Aging is both wholeness and brokenness, both loss and opportunity, a poignant and unfolding re-balancing. Now is the time for us to join, or to help initiate, local efforts that address economic inequities, such as the Leaders Network Community Credit Union. Those of us in the third third of life have an opportunity to enable balance, and in doing so step toward becoming much-needed role models.

FILE

Oak Park Village Hall, Pathfinder sculpture

MARC BLESOFF

I

We need a shared vision of a sustainable future

n life we solve three types of problems: problems created in the past, problems affecting our present, and problems of the future.

Looking through that lens at municipal government (or any form of government for that matter) the same three problems — of the past, present, and future — can be named equity, affordability, and sustainability.

Most of our social and political conflicts stem from our inability to balance how we allocate resources to solve these problems. Often, existing resources are insufficient to solve all of them simultaneously, hence they get prioritized one way or the other. Most often, either the present wins, or we play whack-a-mole with past, present and future, reacting to the loudest voices in society.

Neither approach seems to be working for us. How can our resources be deployed most effectively?

We need to focus on the future and in that context solve for the past and present. One missing piece, however, deters us from taking a future-focused approach: our community does not have a shared vision of their future. While difficult to achieve, a shared vision is possible. Elected officials and other leaders need to create a shared understanding of the future: a vision that addresses equity and affordability today, while focusing on sustainability.

The word sustainability is not limited to environmental sustainability. It has a broader meaning that should include socioeconomic sustainability. While cli-

mate action is absolutely necessary, it is by no means sufficient that we create a path for mere survival. We must help people see their relevance in that future. Our failure to do so is why very often we are divided on climate action — not exclusively because people don’t understand or believe in the science, but also because they don’t understand their role or see their relevance in the future for which we are asking them to pay.

I envision an incubator for our sustainable socioeconomic and environmental future that provides training for our youth, creates jobs of the future, and builds a culture of sustainability. I’m encouraged by and grateful for the support of the Oak Park Village Board and the village staff to further define, clarify, and explore the feasibility of such a sustainability incubator in 2022.

The goals that every taxpayer should consider important include aligning our local economy to the future clean energy economy; attracting federal, state and private investments to our community (affordability); diversifying our tax base (affordability); and preparing our youth to fully participate in the future (equity). We can design this vision (i.e., the sustainability incubator) in a way that helps us achieve these goals, but how we structure it and create the partnerships required for its success have not all been determined yet. However, the exploration to balance our finite resources among equity, affordability and sustainability is absolutely worth it.

Rave Parakkat is an Oak Park village trustee.

RAVI

PARAKKAT One View

18

V I E W P O I N T S

Wednesday Journal, January 5, 2022

O U R

V I E W S

I

What I learned in 2021

learned that we have what it takes to overcome this pandemic, that vaccinations work, even if they don’t prevent breakthrough infections, and that if we were unified in our efforts, we would be past COVID by now.

I learned that we weren’t able to accomplish this because a sizable minority of Americans sabotaged those efforts because of ideology and fear and misinformation and shortsightedness and distrust of government and science.

I learned (firsthand) that if you get COVID in spite of the vaccinations, you’re better off than the unvaccinated who get it.

I learned that at least one-third of this country is functionally mentally ill and living in a fantasy world characterized by conspiracy thinking, known as “The Big Lie.” That many of these Americans are fiercely antidemocratic and spoiling for a fight, willing to overturn an election through armed insurrection, and that these insurrectionists are not likely to stop with one failed attempt.

That the Republican Party is the party of treason and cowardice and ethical impairment, and that they will do anything, literally anything, to gain and maintain power, including rigging the electoral system to make it harder to vote and easier to overturn results that don’t meet their distorted sense of entitlement. And that they must be resisted through the might of our collective voting, as we did in 2020, because we are the majority and, at all costs, must not remain silent.

That democracy is far more vulnerable and endangered — and precious — than I ever imagined.

That the national media, to an extremely disappointing degree, is not helping in the effort to save democracy but instead gives aid and comfort to those whose main goal is undermining democratic government. And that their conventional thinking and lazy journalism makes them, consciously or unconsciously, complicit in that effort.

I learned that we are running out of time and those of us who are still grounded in something resembling reality need to be motivated and mobilized enough to save the Earth from those who have, for so long, profited from its destruction.

I learned that there is tremendous resistance to the efforts to move this country toward racial equity and that another backlash is building, aimed at preserving white superiority and dominance, and that backlash will make its presence felt in the mid-term elections this November.

I learned that the 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court is the most politically partisan and least independent ever and, therefore, is the most dangerous court in our history.

Meanwhile …

I also learned that people in general can be counted on and depended on, and that friendship can deepen and endure.

That there is courage and fairness in ordinary human beings when it counts.

That most people rise to occasions and can still discern what is real and true from what is false and misleading.

That love is genuine and tangible and practical and active and is visible all around us.

That beauty can still be found in the quiet everyday and also resides within us. That art enriches and nourishes and sustains the soul and touches the heart.

That the world is better in spite of all the efforts to make it worse because the desire to move forward is stronger and truer to who we really are.

That people do come to their senses and pull their heads out of wherever they’re buried, and they can recognize the error of their ways, even those who are addicted to self- and world-destruction.

That most of us are still capable of reason and rationality and empathy and wisdom and that our better angels have in the past always won out over the underside of humanity.

That forgiveness is possible, even for those who have done so much harm to this country in the name of greed and power lust and twisted logic and ignorance and inside-out patriotism.

Also …

This year I learned, anew or more deeply, how much my family and friends matter to me, and that some relationships need to be rebooted and refreshed.

That family may fragment, but also reassembles.

That “we” are an unfinished jigsaw puzzle.

That being human is a lifelong evolution and worth the journey, despite its many struggles.

That our lives are books meant to be read aloud, filled with surprising richness and worth the telling, and can be unlocked by a few simple questions from those curious enough to listen.

That actions are stronger than words, but words married to action have greater power still.

I learned that helping is the best way to be productive, that our hope lies in “we,” motivated and mutually reinforced, that many hands make not just light work but better work. And that helping irrigates the roots of friendship.

That good company makes me a more effective person than I am on my own.

That trust is the byproduct of proving ourselves worthy of one another.

I learned from a trusted teacher over a lifetime to “keep growing,” right to the very end.

I learned from a trusted friend to adjust accordingly, whatever the current set of circumstances.

I learned the power of “anyway” and “any way,” to live life anyway, despite its setbacks, and to love any way possible.

I learned not to wait, but also not to rush whether it’s losing weight or writing.

I learned that I have much to learn from 8-yearolds, and re-learned the power of decorating a Christmas tree.

I learned that time heals, relationships ripen, and how lucky I am to have had so many good people enter my life.

And that they stayed as long as they could.

And that some will stay till death parts us, if then.

I learned again, as I do every year, that no matter how many are trying to ruin everything, the list of restorative human beings is always longer.

And once again I learned the hard way, as I do every year, That life is worth the living.

KEN

‘T

Vax proof?

Absolutely

his issue is so highly debated, even in my own house, that I don’t want to risk alienating any of my customer base with my opinions.”

Patrick O’Brien, owner of Lathrop House Café, Forest Park and Scratch Kitchen on Lake, Oak Park.

That’s what O’Brien told Wednesday Journal this week when our Melissa Elsmo asked him about how his restaurants will enforce the newly instituted proof of vaccination requirement imposed by both the county government and also by Oak Park’s public health department.

Rational response, we suppose, from a businessperson. Or from a person trying to get along in their own household.

Happily this is the opinion page of the local newspaper and sharing opinions is our stock in trade.

We’re all in favor of requiring citizens to provide proof of full vaccination — that’s three shots if you’re eligible — before they stroll into a restaurant, movie theater, fitness center, music venue. Extend it to airplanes, too. This should have been implemented months back.

The concept is simple. COVID kills people. We have a powerful tool in vaccines that does a remarkable job of preventing serious illness or death from COVID and its variants. Rational people have taken this proactive, life-affirming step. They deserve to be protected by government, by business, by churches, by restaurants, theaters, gyms and nightclubs from an irrational minority of people who have turned a worldwide pandemic into some sort of political proving ground for the deranged.

Segregating those people from the rest of us so that we can move toward some changed sense of normal life — breakfast at Louie’s, lunch at George’s, dinner at Lou Malnati’s — makes perfect sense. We have no second thoughts on this. We have no sympathy for the unvaccinated. Actually we have contempt for them and we don’t want them sitting near us coughing on our popcorn at the Lake Theatre.

If the minority will not permit themselves to be persuaded then they must be separated. They’re the ones making the choice.

Our concern, our only concern, is for the health — mental and physical — of those working in these businesses who must enforce proof of vaccination. Chris Johnson, CEO of Classic Cinemas with movie theaters in North Riverside and Oak Park, states what is clear. It is very difficult to hire people in this moment. Needing to hire more people to enforce this mandate will not be simple.

We’ll close with this hopeful quote from Johnson: “The majority of people are rule-followers, whatever the rules are. …

There’s always a small percentage of people who try to get away with something, but the majority of the public is pretty good.”

Pray that he is right.

TRAINOR

V I E W P O I N T S

Continuing the Offermann legacy The late Don Offermann arrived at Oak Park and River Forest High School in 1964 as an English teacher, later became chair of the English Department, and retired as OPRF superintendent in 1999. After his retirement, he established the Offermann Scholarship for Excellence in English at the OPRFHS Scholarship Foundation. This provides a $1,000 scholarship each year to one graduating senior applicant who plans to major or minor in English in college, and is chosen by members of the English Department.

Each year, Dr. Offermann would attend the spring honors reception to meet and get to know the current recipient. Despite not having an honors reception in 2021 due to the pandemic, Dr. Offermann and his wife, Verna, were able to meet the 2021 recipient of the Offermann Scholarship for Excellence in English, Talib Becktemba-Goss, before he started his freshman year at Northwestern University.

This year, the OPRFHS Scholarship Foundation will open the common application to graduating OPRF seniors, with more than 70 scholarships available, including the Offermann Scholarship for Excellence in English, on Friday, Jan. 7. (The common application will close at 3:30 p.m. on Friday Jan. 28 and student recipients will be notified in mid-March.)

To donate and help the foundation continue Dr. Offer-

Wednesday Journal, January 5, 2022

W E D N E S D A Y

JOURNAL of Oak Park and River Forest

SUBMITTED

SCHOLARS: Don Offermann and his wife, Verna, were able to meet the 2021 recipient of the Offermann Scholarship for Excellence in English, Talib Becktemba-Goss, before he started his freshman year at Northwestern University. mann’s legacy, please visit www.scholarships4oprfhs. org/scholarships. For more information, please contact scholarship manager, Melanie Weiss, at scholarshipsoprfhs@gmail.com.

Melanie Weiss Oak Park

Editor and Publisher Dan Haley Senior Editor Bob Uphues Equity Editor/Ombudsman Michael Romain Digital Publishing and Technology Manager Briana Higgins Staff Reporters Stacey Sheridan, F. Amanda Tugade Staff Photographer Alex Rogals Viewpoints Editor Ken Trainor Real Estate Editor Lacey Sikora Food Editor Melissa Elsmo Columnists Marc Blesoff, Jack Crowe, Doug Deuchler, Mary Kay O’Grady, Kwame Salter, John Stanger, Stan West Design/Production Manager Andrew Mead Editorial Design Manager Javier Govea Designer Susan McKelvey Business Manager Joyce Minich Marketing Representatives Marc Stopeck, Lourdes Nicholls Development Manager Mary Ellen Nelligan Development & Sales Coordinator Stacy Coleman Circulation Manager Jill Wagner E-MAIL jill@oakpark.com Chairman Emeritus Robert K. Downs

Johnson and Parker’s impact on OPRF

N

ew OPRF Superintendent Greg Johnson and Principal/Assistant Superintendent Lynda Parker have been so impactful this year. They have spearheaded the freshman restructuring at OPRF, worked to ensure that students are able to learn safely and fully in-person, and been meaningfully engaged with both students and the larger Oak Park and River Forest community. I can’t speak much to the first two, but as a current senior at OPRF, I have a lot to say about the last bit.

Principal Parker has been such a bright light in the OPRF community since the beginning of the school year. She is enthusiastic about Huskie spirit and often stands at the top of the Student Commons staircase at the beginning of the day to welcome students as we go to our first period classes. She is a fantastic communicator, an effective problem-solver, and perhaps most importantly, she sees it as her responsibility to be the primary conduit between students and the administration. Though a very busy person, she makes sure to reserve time to make herself available during our lunch periods every week for students to talk about anything we want. I have taken advantage of this opportunity and gotten to know her. When I or another student brings up an issue with the school — anything from how hallway passes are managed to school cleanliness — she takes note, often writing an email to the relevant administrator on the spot to ask how the issue could best be addressed. And she makes an effort to get to know us all. She makes a point of learning and remembering the names of students she talks to, helping us feel less like she is someone who is in charge and more like she’s someone we can go to when we need to address something — someone we can feel comfortable talking with critically too, because she will keep that critique in mind and undoubtedly

search for a solution.

It was Superintendent Johnson who pledged in his first statement as superintendent-designate to bring back the principal position after its responsibilities were split among the administrative team following the departure of Principal Rouse in 2019. Though this means that his role has officially been more involved in external relations with the community (compared to the principal’s role leading internal relations between the students, faculty, and administration), he has nonetheless been very responsive with students and members of the community alike. Nothing, I believe, has proven this better than his attendance at the early December community rally in opposition to the cancellation of school extracurriculars to curb the spread of COVID. He could have elected to stay out of the fray, releasing prepared statements from the safe (and much warmer) confines of the school building, isolated from the opposition — but instead he chose not only to attend the rally, but field questions from protesting students and parents for over 45 minutes.

The superintendent and principal may have similar ideologies and support similar policies as the prior D200 administration leadership team, but their methods of involving students and the community more directly have been a sincere and greatly appreciated shift. I look forward to seeing how they continue to remain engaged in the future, especially with the new Superintendent Student Advisory Council that will begin meeting in January with a diverse student representation from all grades and perspectives, giving us a new means of offering our thoughts on various issues directly to the administration.

I thank them for everything they have done over the past year and look forward to seeing what the coming year brings.

Tim Mellman is a senior at OPRF High School.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Chair Judy Greffin Treasurer Nile Wendorf Deb Abrahamson, Gary Collins, Darnell Shields, Sheila Solomon, Eric Weinheimer

TIM

MELLMAN One View

About Viewpoints Our mission is to lead educated conversation about the people, government, schools, businesses and culture of Oak Park and River Forest. As we share the consensus of Wednesday Journal’s editorial board on local matters, we hope our voice will help focus your thinking and, when need be, fire you to action.

In a healthy conversation about community concerns, your voice is also vital.

We welcome your views, on any topic of community interest, as essays and as letters to the editor. Noted here are our stipulations for filing.

Please understand our verification process and circumstances that would lead us not to print a letter or essay. We will call to check that what we received with your signature is something you sent. If we can’t make that verification, we will not print what was sent. When, in addition to opinion, a letter or essay includes information presented as fact, we will check the reference. If we cannot confirm a detail, we may not print the letter or essay.

If you have questions, email Viewpoints editor Ken Trainor at ktrainor@wjinc.com.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

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ADDRESS 141 S Oak Park Ave., Oak ParkIL 60302 ■ PHONE 708-5248300 EMAIL Dan@OakPark.com ■ ONLINE www.OakPark.com Wednesday Journal is published digitally and in print by Growing Community Media NFP. The newspaper is available on newsstands for $1.00.

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V I E W P O I N T S

Wednesday Journal, January 5, 2022

Beating a dead tax

Attack ideas, not people

Hate mongers are everywhere. Oak Park and River Forest are not immune to the kind of pathetic and obnoxious behavior going on elsewhere in the country. Some of you wonder why, all of a sudden, this kind of people has surfaced. My own feeling is that they have always been with us. They just have the courage, now, to be more overt, granted permission by the outrageous behavior of some of the members of our recently past and unfortunately present government in Washington.

I was always taught that it is OK to disagree with other people, even your parents, your teachers, and your religious leaders. But the trick is to attack ideas, not people. Disagree if you will, but do so in an adult manner. My father said that eloquent people don’t need to resort to vulgar language in order to make a point.

I received an anonymous hate missive in the mail recently. It purported to be from a group called “Women Soc. Of R.F.” The handwriting appears to be that of a child. The language is ju-

venile, but I imagine it was written by an adult. In vulgar terms, the writer tells me to move back to Oak Park and shop there. The writer threatens me if I do anymore “lying to get attention.”

The writer and his/her/their friends shop at the Jewel all the time and like it just fine. Oh, but the writer did wish me a “Merry Christmas (witch!)”

Another thing I was taught at a fairly young age is that if “they” are taking pot shots at you, then you are probably doing something right. So I take this missive as a high compliment. Clearly the writer follows my exploits closely because he/she/they know that I used to live in Oak Park.

I’m flattered.

But given that the individual took the trouble to find my address, just to be safe, I have sent a copy of the letter to the River Forest Chief of Police.

People who write these sorts of things are, inevitably, cowards, hiding behind their anonymity, but you never know.

Louise Mezzatesta River Forest

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

The new year is upon us, and while inflation is devouring everyone’s earnings, we can be thankful there is one less inflationary concern this year: the Fair Tax. The legislation behind the failed attempt to pass a constitutional amendment in 2020 that would have allowed for a graduated state income tax, marketed as the Fair Tax, unwisely did not include a provision for protection against inflation, more commonly known as inflation indexing. Indexing tax brackets against inflation ensures that income taxes don’t grow faster than the incomes they’re based on. Without it, every year there is inflation under a graduated income tax, there is an automatic, hidden tax hike. Politicians like automatic, hidden tax hikes. This was a feature of the Fair Tax, not a bug.

That ballyhooed $250,000 tax bracket where only the top 3% of taxpayers would have paid more in taxes under the Fair Tax? With 6.8% inflation, that threshold would now essentially have been $233,000 after just one year. $100,000 tax bracket? Now $93,200. And on and on it would have gone as each tax bracket continued their inevitable descent toward the lower and middle class. All taxpayers, from McDonald’s fry cook to McDonald’s CEO, would be hit with a tax hike

this year had the Fair Tax passed.

It’s not that the state legislature isn’t aware of inflation exists. Quite the contrary. When they doubled the motor fuel tax a couple of years ago, they indexed the new rate to inflation. Even the caps on political contributions are indexed to inflation. If you’re surprised that politicians would prioritize their political action committees and deep-pocketed lobbyists over taxpayers, you haven’t been living in Illinois very long.

I attended Fair Tax public hearings and recall when its proponents were confronted on this matter, they countered that inflation wasn’t a concern. Except that is the very reason why you index monetary thresholds against inflation, so you don’t have to concern yourself. The necessary adjustments happen automatically. No thought required.

Until the Biden administration decides to address inflation with something other than a shoulder shrug, expect high inflation to stick around. Until then, know that our flat state income tax has inflation indexing already built-in.

Small consolation in the grocery check-out line, but consolation nonetheless.

Nicholas Binotti Oak Park

O B I T U A R I E S

Helen Woodruff, 92 Loved gardening and dancing

Helen Woodruff, 92, died at her home in Forest Park on Dec. 12. Born and raised in Wisconsin, she and Edward “Ted” Woodruff met when Ted decided to take dance lessons at an Arthur Murray dance studio where she was one of the teachers. They partnered so beautifully that they became partners in life, and were married for 39 years until Ted’s death in 1997.

They raised two children in River Forest,

where she was known as a wonderful neighbor, cook, and friend. Right up until the end, two of the greatest joys of her life were dancing and gardening. She spent many happy hours at Ballroom City in Villa Park, where she celebrated her 80th and 90th birthdays.

This past summer, at 91, she still had a hand in the plantings at her condo.

Helen is survived by her son, Bruce Woodruff (Nancy Luikaart) and her daughter, Leann Runyanwood (Mark Runyan). She is also survived by her brother, Ray Lamboley (Ethel Esser), and nieces and nephews in Wisconsin.

Her love of gardening and walks in the woods inspired her memorial location of Morton Arboretum, on Saturday, May 7. It will be an open house from 10 till 2. Tell the front gate you are there for Helen Woodruff ’s Memorial and there will be no charge. The arboretum

Robert P. Gamboney Funeral Director I am there for you in your time of need.

All services handled with dignity and personalized care.

Cell: 708.420.5108 • Res: 708.848.5667 I am affiliated with Peterson-Bassi Chapels at 6938 W. North Ave, as well as other chapels throughout Chicagoland.

should be full of flowers at that time of year — she would like that.

If you’d care to send an arrangement to the memorial in May, address it to Morton Arboretum; Thornhill Center, Helen Woodruff; 4100 Illinois Route 53; Lisle, Illinois 60532.

Jerry Koenig, 84

Longtime Grace Lutheran teacher & principal Gerald “Jerry” Louis Koenig, 84, was born on June 26, 1937 in Collinsville, Illinois and died on Dec. 23, 2021.

Between those dates he lived a wonderful and blessed life.

He and his future wife, Marj, both graduated from Concordia Teacher’s College, River Forest in 1960 with degrees in Education, and they married that Aug. 14. He later earned a master’s degree. After four years teaching at Immanuel Lutheran School in Des Plaines, he took a call to serve as a junior high teacher at Grace Lutheran in River Forest, where he served there for the next 36 years, as teacher and then principal, investing in students and shaping them with God’s guidance and grace. Over the years, at different times, he also led high school ministry, father/son canoe trips, many aspects related to building expansion, and other activities in the congregation. In 2015 he received a commendation for 55 years of ministry service by

the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

He loved the outdoors — camping, hunting, fishing and traveling — along with his beloved St. Louis Cardinals. He camped with his family around more than 30 states and visited many countries, chaperoning choirs and visiting international Christian schools. He enjoyed woodworking and gardening and a good game of cards. Mostly though he treasured God’s people — the students he taught and led, his many friends and colleagues, and the family he delighted in.

After Marj’s death in 2009, Jerry and LaNell were married on Aug. 21, 2010. They enjoyed many years of travel and time with family and friends. In his last years, he fought a valiant fight with Lewy-Body Dementia with Parkinsonism. LaNell’s care for Jerry during that time was an incredible blessing.

Jerry is survived by his wife, LaNell Mahler Koenig; his three children and nine grandchildren, Kendall (Connie) Koenig — Kaleb, Maddie & Leah; Kurt (Brenda) Koenig — Karl, Kevin & Kristian; and Karla (Bill) Koehne — Aiden, Ethan & Ryan; as well as three siblings, Don (Marcia) Koenig, Darlene Gutzwiller, and Ralph (Sue) Koenig. He also cherished LaNell’s children and grandchildren, Naomi Mahler (Todd Lynum) — Sofia & Grace; Rachel (Brett) Kraemer — Andrew & Julia; and Matthew (Loren) Mahler — Hannah. He was predeceased by his parents, Hilbert and Olinda Koenig; two siblings, Melbourne Koenig and Dolores Thayer; and his beloved wife, Marj (nee Will).

Visitation will be held at Grace Lutheran Church, River Forest on Friday, Jan 28 from 5 until 8 p.m. with a memorial service at Grace on Jan 29 at 10 a.m.

Memorial gifts can be given to Grace Lutheran School.

Wednesday Journal, January 5, 2022

Growing Community Media

21

HOURS: 9:00 A.M.– 5:00 P.M. MON–FRI Deadline is Monday at 5:00 p.m.

BY PHONE: (708) 613-3333 | BY FAX: (708) 467-9066 BY E-MAIL: EMAIL@GROWINGCOMMUNITYMEDIA.ORG

HELP WANTED

HELP WANTED • NETWORK SPECIALIST Class specifications are intended to present a descriptive list of the range of duties performed by employees in the class.

Specifications are not intended to reflect all duties performed within the job.

DEFINITION To perform various network/system administration, computer support, and operational activities for the Village including computer system setup, configuration, and testing.

SUPERVISION RECEIVED AND EXERCISED Reports directly to the Information Technology Services Director.

EXAMPLE OF DUTIES: Essential and other important duties and responsibilities may include, but are not limited to, the following: Essential duties and responsibilities 1. Ensure that best in class customer service is provided to both internal and external customers and also embrace, support, and promote the Village’s core values, beliefs and culture.

2. Configure, test, and deploy network systems, such as, firewalls, routers, switches, wireless equipment, network servers and storage arrays.

3. Configure, test, and deploy system servers, such as, file, print, Internet, e-mail, database, and application servers.

4. Configure, test, and monitor server and end-user systems for security, such as, user accounts, login scripts, file access privileges, and group policy management.

5. Configure, test, and deploy end-user systems, such as, workstations, laptops, mobile devices, printers, and software.

6. Test, configure, deploy, and support security systems, such as, facility access system, video & audio system.

7. Monitor and auditing of networks, systems, and user activities to ensure security and efficiency of systems. Create scripts and reports of detail activities for regular review.

8. Perform and participate in disaster recovery activities, such as, backup procedures, data recovery, and system recovery planning.

9. Assist end-users with computer problems or queries. Troubleshoot systems as needed and meet with users to analyze specific system needs.

10. Ensure the uniformity, reliability and security of system resources including network, hardware,



software and other forms of systems and data.

11. Prepare, create and update user/technical procedure documentations and provide computer training.

12. Assemble, test, and install network, telecommunication and data equipment and cabling.

13. Participate in research and recommendation of technology solutions.

Other important responsibilities and duties 1. Train users in the area of existing, new or modified computer systems and procedures.

2. Participate in the preparation of various activity reports.

3. Travel and support remote facilities and partner agencies.

4. Operate, administer and manage the Village and Public Safety computer systems, including E-911 center, in-vehicle computer systems.

5. Prepare clear and logical reports and program documentation of procedures, processes, and configurations.

6. Complete projects on a timely and efficient manner.

7. Communicate effectively both orally and in writing.

8. Establish and maintain effective working relationships with those contacted in the course of work.

9. Perform related duties and responsibilities as required.

QUALIFICATIONS Knowledge of: Principals and procedures of computer systems, such as, data communication, hierarchical structure, backups, testing and critical analysis.

Hardware and software configuration of. computers, servers and mobile devices, including computing environment of Windows Server and Desktop OS and applications, Unix/Linux OS, VMware, iOS/Android.

Network protocols, security, configuration and administration, including firewalls, routers, switches and wireless technology.

Cabling and wiring, including CAT5/6, fiber network, telephone, serial communication, termination, and punch-down.

Telecommunications theory and technology, including VoiP, serial communication, wireless protocols, PBX, analog, fax, voicemail and auto-attendant.

Principles and methods of computer programming, coding and testing, including power shell, command scripting, macros, and

VB scripts.

Modern office procedures, methods and computer equipment.

Technical writing, office productivity tools and database packages.

Ability to: Maintain physical condition appropriate to the performance of assigned duties and responsibilities, which may include the following: - Walking, standing or sitting for extended periods of time - Operating assigned equipment - Lift 50 pounds of equipment, supplies, and materials without assistance - Working in and around computer equipped vehicles Maintain effective audio-visual discrimination and perception needed for: - Making observations - Communicating with others - Reading and writing - Operating assigned equipment and vehicles Maintain mental capacity allowing for effective interaction and communication with others.

Maintain reasonable and predictable attendance.

Work overtime as operations require.

Experience and Training Guidelines Experience: Three years of network/system administration in the public or private sector, maintaining a minimum of 75 Client Workstation computers. AND Training: Possession of a Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university with major coursework in computer science or a related field. Certifications in Microsoft Server Administration, Networking, Applications and Cisco Networking.

Possession of a valid Illinois Driver License is required at the time of appointment.

Vaccination against COVID-19 strongly preferred.

WORKING CONDITIONS Work in a computer environment; sustained posture in a seated position for prolonged periods of time; continuous exposure to computer screens; work in and around computerized vehicles outdoor and garage facility; lifting heavy equipment, communication cabling and wiring into walls and ceilings.





ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF HR AND RACIAL EQUITY The Village of Oak Park is seeking qualified candidates for the position of Assistant Director of HR and Racial Equity in the Human Resources Department. This newly created position supports the management of activities and operations of the Human Resources Department and collaboratively develops and drives an organization-wide racial equity and social justice strategy, ensuring timely execution of objectives, and continuously monitoring the progress towards reaching milestones.

The incumbent will lead and provide subject matter expertise to the leadership team in the development and implementation of equity initiatives, both internal and external. Applicants are encouraged to visit the Village of Oak Park’s website http:// www.oak-park.us/jobs.

Position opened until filled.

MEDICAL RECEPTIONIST Part time or Fulltime Medical Receptionist for an OB Gyne Office in River Forest Nye Partners in Women’s Health Please email resume to: yvonne@ nyepartners.com POLICE RECORDS CLERK The Village of Oak Park is seeking qualified candidates for the position of Police Records Clerk in the Police Department. This position will perform a wide variety of specialized clerical duties in support of the Police Department including processing and maintaining documents, correspondence and coding reports; and to provide information and assistance to the public.

Applicants are encouraged to visit the Village of Oak Park’s website at http://www.oak-park.us/jobs.

SANITARIAN The Village of Oak Park is seeking qualified candidates for the position of Sanitarian in the Health Department. This position will perform a variety of duties including education and enforcement activities for the promotion and protection of the public health environment.

Applicants are encouraged to visit the Village of Oak Park’s website http://www.oak- park.us/jobs.

Seasonal Farmers’ Market Manager The Village of Oak Park is seeking qualified candidates for the position of Seasonal Farmers’ Market Manager in the Health Department.

This position manages the Oak Park Farmer’s Market including the vendors that sell directly to the public within established guidelines. This is a part-time seasonal position with work from January-mid November and work required on Saturday’s from May through October. Applicants are encouraged to visit the Village of Oak Park’s website at http://www.oak-park.us/jobs.

Interested and qualified applicants must complete a Village of Oak Park application. Open until filled.

River Forest Public Schools District 90 River Forest Public Schools District 90 is seeking to hire a School Psychologist for a full-time position for grades PreK-4th starting in December 2021. To qualify, candidates must have a valid Illinois Professional Education License with endorsement in School Psychology (PreK-4). A Master’s Degree is preferred as well as 5 years of successful educational experience in both general and special education; and at least five years of successful experience in evaluating students, collaborating, and problem-solving with school and District teams. The right candidate will facilitate MTSS meetings, including individual and grade-level planning meetings.

Integrate D90 practices around equity and inclusivity into daily work and relationships with students, families and colleagues.

Duties include: Completing appropriate psychoeducational assessments for children who have or are suspected of having a disability. Identifying and assessing the learning, development, and adjustment characteristics and needs of individuals and groups, as well as, the environmental factors that affect learning and adjustment. Using assessment data about the student and his/her environment(s) in developing appropriate interventions and programs. Responding to parent and teacher requests for evaluations in accordance with Illinois law and maintaining compliance in accordance with Illinois special education law.

Application Procedure: Interested candidates should complete the online application availableat district90.org.

River Forest Public Schools District 90 River Forest Public Schools District 90 is seeking to hire a Special Education Instructional Teacher Assistant for K-4th starting immediately.

Qualifications: a) Valid Illinois Professional Educator License with Endorsements; or Educator License with Stipulations with a Paraprofessional Endorsement. b) Successful instructional assistant experience is preferred in regular education or special education.

Job Duties: The instructional assistant in Special Education will work with both general education and special education staff members to support learning for identified child(ren) with special needs. Responsibilities include instructing students in small groups and one-on-one settings. This will also encompass helping students to develop positive interpersonal ACCOUNTANT The Village of North Riverside is in search of a qualified candidate to serve as an Accountant in the Finance Department. This position performs detailed professional accounting work in a wide variety of the Finance Department functions, including maintaining and reviewing financial records and performing technical work relative to assigned areas of responsibility.

Qualifications: - Bachelor’s degree in business, accounting, finance, or another related field from an accredited university - CPA or CGFO is desirable - At least three (3) years of progressive experience in municipal finance or other closely related field - Demonstrated proficiency and knowledge of Microsoft Office Suite is required - BS&A financial management package is a plus To Apply: Open until filled with the first reading of applications on February 3, 2022.

Email application, cover letter, resume and three (3) professional references to administration@northriverside-il.org or by mail to: Village of North Riverside Finance Director 2401 S. Des Plaines Avenue North Riverside, IL 60546 708-447-4211 708-447-4292 (fax) PART-TIME COMMUNITY SERVICE COORDINATOR The Village of Oak Park is seeking qualified candidates for the position of Part-Time Community Service Coordinator (up to 10-15 hrs./week) in the Adjudication Department.

Thisperson monitors individuals who have been ordered to provide community service in the Village, coordinates with organizations that provide community service opportunities, etc. Applicants are encouraged to visit the Village of Oak Park’s website http://www.oak-park. us/jobs. Open until filled.

relationships with peers and adults: utilizing and modeling school behavior management programs: and assist in communications between students, teachers and parents as requested.

As an equal opportunity employer, it is the policy of the River Forest Public Schools, District 90, to not discriminate against any employee or any applicant for employment. District 90 values a talented and diverse workforce, and will attempt to recruit and hire minority employees.

Application Procedure: Interested candidates should complete the online application available at district90. org

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Wednesday Journal, January 5, 2022

CLASSIFIED

BY PHONE: (708) 613-3333 BY FAX: (708) 467-9066 BY E-MAIL: EMAIL@GROWINGCOMMUNITYMEDIA.ORG RENTALS & REAL ESTATE

MARKETPLACE CARS WANTED

CLASSICS WANTED CLASSICS

WANTED TO BUY

SUBURBAN RENTALS

WANTED MILITARY ITEMS: Helmets, medals, patches, uniforms, weapons, flags, photos, paperwork, Also toy soldiers – lead, plastic – other misc. toys.

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OAK PARK–6142-44 Roosevelt Rd. * 3 & 5 room office suites FOREST PARK–7736 Madison St. *2500 sq. ft. unit Strand & & Browne Strand Browne 708-488-0011 708-488-0011

CLASSICS WANTED

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Ceiling Fans Installed

$$ Top $$ all makes, Etc.

We install plugs for battery-operated vehicles We fix any electrical problem and do small jobs We install Surge Protectors • Home Re-wiring • New Plugs & Switches Added • New circuit breaker boxes • Code violations corrected Service upgrades,100-200 amp • Garage & A/C lines installed Fast Emergency Service | Residential • Commercial • Industrial Free Home Evaluations | Lic. • Bonded • Ins. • Low Rates • Free Est.

Collector James

630-201-8122

708-409-0988 • 708-738-3848 Sr. Discounts • 30 Yrs. Exp. Servicing Oak Park • All surrounding suburbs • Chicago area

FLOORS KLIS FLOORING INC.

New hardwood flooring installation & pergo. Sanding, re-finishing, staining. Low prices, insured.

Call: 773-671-4996 www.klisflooring.com

HANDYMAN Mike’s Home Repair Drywall H Painting H Tile Plumbing H Electric H Floors Windows H Doors H Siding Ask Us What We Don’t Do

708-296-2060

HANDYMAN Roofing Repairs Concrete Repairs • Drywall All types of handiwork Call For Free Estimates

BASEMENT CLEANING

Appliances & Furniture Removal Pickup & Delivery.

708-848-9404

LANDSCAPING BRUCE LAWN SERVICE Fall Yard Clean-Up Slit Seeding Bush Trimming Fall Leaf Clean-Up Senior Discount Snow Removal

brucelawns.com

708-243-0571

PAINTING & DECORATING CLASSIC PAINTING Fast & Neat Painting/Taping/ Plaster Repair Low Cost 708.749.0011

OAK PARK & FOREST PARK

PUBLIC NOTICES

PUBLIC NOTICES

LEGAL NOTICE The Village of Oak Park will receive sealed bids at the Public Works Service Center, 201 South Boulevard, Oak Park, Illinois 60302, until 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, January 19th, 2022 for the following: BID 22-107 VILLAGE OF OAK PARK 2022 TRAFFIC SIGN MATERIALS BID PACKAGE REQUEST FOR BIDS Bid forms may be obtained from the Public Works Customer Service Center by calling 708358-5700 or by stopping by the office located at 201 South Boulevard, Oak Park, Illinois between the hours of 7:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Information is also available from the Streets Superintendent, Scott Brinkman, sbrinkman@oak-park.us or on the Village’s website http://www. oak-park.us/your-government/ finance-department. The Village of Oak Park reserves the right to issue proposal documents and specifications only to those vendors deemed qualified. No proposal documents will be issued after 4:00 p.m. on the working day preceding the date of proposal opening. For more information call the Public Works Service Center at 708.358.5700.

LEGAL NOTICE The Village of Oak Park will receive sealed bids at the Public Works Service Center, 201 South Boulevard, Oak Park, Illinois 60302, until 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, January 19th, 2022 for the following: BID 22-108 VILLAGE OF OAK PARK UTILITY PAVEMENT PATCHING SERVICES REQUEST FOR BIDS Bid forms may be obtained from the Public Works Customer Service Center by calling 708358-5700 or by stopping by the office located at 201 South Boulevard, Oak Park, Illinois between the hours of 7:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Information is also available from the Streets Superintendent, Scott Brinkman, sbrinkman@oak-park.us or on the Village’s website http://www. oak-park.us/your-government/ finance-department. The Village of Oak Park reserves the right to issue proposal documents and specifications only to those vendors deemed qualified. No proposal documents will be issued after 4:00 p.m. on the working day preceding the date of proposal opening. For more information call the Public Works Service Center at 708.358.5700.

THE VILLAGE OF OAK PARK

THE VILLAGE OF OAK PARK

PLASTERING McNulty Plastering & Stucco Co.

Small & big work. Free estimates.

Complete Plaster, Stucco & Re-Coating Services

708/386-2951 • ANYTIME Work Guaranteed

Licensed, Bonded, Insured, & EPA Certified Expert craftsmanship for over 50 years

WOODWORK Terry's

Woodwork Restoration On-site refinishing of wood

and fiberglass since 1977.

Includes doors, woodwork, windows, staircases and new woodwork etc. All work done by hand. NO sanders. Your unfinished project my specialty!

References available.

Contact Terry Seamans at 630-379-7148 or terryseamans@yahoo.com

773-637-0692 Ask for John

Published in Wednesday Journal January 5, 2022

Reach the people making the decisions.

Illinois Classified Advertising Network

Place an ad in GCM Classified!

Call 773/626-6332

WANTED TO BUY FREON WANTED: We pay $$$ for cylinders and cans. R12 R500 R11 R113 R114. Convenient. Certified Professionals. Call 312-291-9169 or visit www.RefrigerantFinders.com

Published in Wednesday Journal January 5, 2022

ROOMS FOR RENT

Large Sunny Room with fridge, microwave.

Near Green line, bus, Oak Park, 24 hour desk, parking lot. $125.00. New Mgmt.

312-212-1212

PUBLIC NOTICES PUBLIC NOTICE Notice is hereby given, pursuant to “An Act in relation to the use of an Assumed Business Name in the conduct or transaction of Business in the State,” as amended, that a certification was registered by the undersigned with the County Clerk of Cook County. Registration Number: Y21008380 on December 16, 2021 Under the Assumed Business Name of LOFTON SNOW REMOVAL with the business located at: 6127 S. UNIVERSITY SUITE 1058 CHICAGO, IL 60637. The true and real full name(s) and residence address of the owner(s)/partner(s) is: DARRONTE LOFTON 6947 S. NORMAL AVE CHICAGO, IL 60621, USA Published in Wednesday Journal December 22, 29 2021, January 5 2022

PUBLIC NOTICE Notice is hereby given, pursuant to “An Act in relation to the use of an Assumed Business Name in the conduct or transaction of Business in the State,” as amended, that a certification was registered by the undersigned with the County Clerk of Cook County. Registration Number: Y21008331 on December 10, 2021. Under the Assumed Business Name of WORLD TRAVELER EXPERT with the business located at: 1009 FLORENCE AVE, EVANSTON, IL 60202. The true and real full name(s) and residence address of the owner(s)/partner(s) is: CHAN RICHARDSON 1009 FLORENCE AVE EVANSTON, IL 60202, USA. Published in Wednesday Journal December 22, 29, 2021, January 5, 2022

PUBLIC NOTICE For any person who was a Special Education Student at Oak Park & River Forest High School and graduated in 2014 or 2015 you will have 30 days to contact Lynette Welter, 708.434.3806, lwelter@oprfhs.org at Oak Park & River Forest High School to request your records. On February 24, 2022, the Special Education student records for the 2014 and 2015 school years will be destroyed.

Lynette Welter Scheduling and Records Secretary Special Education Published in Wednesday Journal January 5, 12, 2022

Wednesday Journal, January 5, 2022

CLASSIFIED

BY PHONE: (708) 613-3333 BY FAX: (708) 467-9066 BY E-MAIL: EMAIL@GROWINGCOMMUNITYMEDIA.ORG

PUBLIC NOTICES

PUBLIC NOTICES

PUBLIC NOTICES

PUBLIC NOTICE Advertisement of Bidding Request for Bids for the Rehm Pool- Pool Preparation and Painting Project Owner: Park District of Oak Park 218 Madison St, Oak Park, IL 60302 The Park District of Oak Park will accept sealed bids for the Rehm Pool–Pool Preparation and Painting Project, located at 515 Garfield Av. Oak Park Il. 60304. The project consists of removal of existing paint, cleaning, preparing and painting the concrete pool surface. The bid is to be quoted for the Diving Well with the Main Pool to be included as an Alternate. The Park District of Oak Park will receive individual sealed Bids until 11:00 am (Central Daylight time) on Wednesday, January 19 th, 2022, at 218 Madison St., Oak Park, Illinois. The bidding documents and requirements will be available on the Park District’s website, Wednesday January 5 th , 2022 at 3pm. A mandatory pre-bid walk-thru is scheduled for Monday, January 10 th , 2022 at 9:00 am (Central Daylight time) at 515 Garfield Ave., Oak Park, IL 60304. Bid bonds will be required by bidding contractors.

Copies of the bidding specifications available on January 5 th , via the Park District of Oak Park website at: http://www.pdop.org/bids-and-rfps/

no mistakes, errors, exclusions, or omissions on the part of the bidder shall excuse the bidder or entitle the bidder to a return of the aforementioned amount.

during the meeting by persons participating via Zoom.

For additional information, contact Bill Hamilton at billhamilton@pdop. org or (708) 7252304. Only the bids prepared in compliance with the bidding documents will be considered.

This project must adhere to the Prevailing Wage Act of 2019. The Park District of Oak Park encourages minority and women owned business firms to submit bids for this project.

Park District of Oak Park By: Chris Wollmuth, Secretary Park District of Oak Park 218 Madison St. Oak Park, IL 60302

Published in Wednesday Journal January 5, 2022

PUBLIC NOTICE FOREST PARK PUBLIC LIBRARY ADVERTISEMENT FOR BIDS Lump sum sealed bids will be received by the Board of Library Trustees of the Village of Forest Park for Exterior Improvements at the Forest Park Public Library, 7555 Jackson Boulevard, Forest Park, IL 60130. Sealed bids will be received on or before, but not after 2:00 PM Wednesday, January 19, 2022 at the Forest Park Public Library, 7555 Jackson Boulevard, Forest Park, IL 60130. Bids received after that time will not be considered. All Bids shall be addressed and delivered to the circulation desk immediately inside the entrance to the building on or before the time set forth above. Sealed envelopes or packages containing the Bid Forms shall be transmitted to the attention of the “Library Director” and shall be marked or endorsed with the title of the Bid (“Sealed Bid for Forest Park Public Library Exterior Improvements”) and the Bidder’s full legal name. The bids will be publicly opened and read aloud in the main floor meeting room at 2:00 PM on Wednesday, January 19, 2022.

Bids shall be submitted in the form and manner contained in the Bidding Requirements.

Contractors may obtain copies of the Bidding Documents from any BHFX Digital Imaging location beginning Wednesday, January 5, 2022. Please contact BHFX at (847) 593-3161 to obtain a set of Bidding Documents or visit their Plan Room online at www.bhfxplanroom.com.

Bidding Documents may be downloaded from the BHFX online Plan Room at no charge to bidders.

Bidders shall be responsible for the costs of reproduction of printed copies.

Each bid must be accompanied by a bid bond or a cashier’s check in the amount of 10% of the total bid, made payable to Forest Park Public Library, as a guarantee that the successful bidder will promptly execute a satisfactory contract, will furnish a satisfactory performance bond and payment bond and proceed with the work. Upon failure to do so, the bidder shall forfeit the amount deposited as liquidated damages and

23

No bid will be considered unless the bidder shall furnish evidence satisfactory to the Board of Trustees that the bidder has the necessary facilities, abilities, experience, equipment, financial and physical resources available to fulfill the conditions of the Contract and execute the work, should the Contract be awarded such bidder.

Bidders will examine the plans and specifications and the location in which said work is to be done and judge for themselves all the circumstances and surrounding known and reasonably foreseen conditions affecting the cost and nature of the work, and all bids will be presumed to be based on such examination, familiarity and judgment.

Questions about the bid documents should be submitted, in writing, to Andy Dogan, Williams Architects at ardogan@williams-architects.com.

Responses to questions submitted by bidders during the bidding period shall be in the form of written addendum to all plan holders of record.

Questions will not be accepted after Friday, January 14.

The successful bidder shall be required to provide a Performance Bond and a Material and Labor Payment Bond in the amount of 100% of the Contract Amount, as well as liability and property insurance as required by the Bidding Requirements before commencing work.

The successful bidder shall enter into a formal contract based on the conditions and requirements in the Bidding Requirements and the Bidding Requirements will be incorporated into the Contract.

Not less than the prevailing wage shall be paid for labor on the work to be done as required by law. The Forest Park Public Library is tax exempt.

The successful bidder will be required to comply with the provisions of all State of Illinois and federal laws concerning public works projects as well as the State of Illinois Human Rights Act and the regulations of the Illinois Human Rights Commission. The Board of Trustees reserves the right to reject any and all bids, and to waive any technicalities and irregularities in the bidding and to hold the bid proposals for a period of ninety (90) days from the date of opening set forth above.

Published in Forest Park Review January 5, 2022

PUBLIC NOTICE VILLAGE OF RIVERSIDE, ILLINOIS NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING Notice is hereby given to all interested persons that a public hearing before the Planning and Zoning Commission of the Village of Riverside will be held on Wednesday, January 26, 2022 at 7:00 p.m., or as soon thereafter as the business of the Planning and Zoning Commission may permit, and conducted electronically via Zoom, to consider an application for a variation from Section 10-7-3(F)(2)(a) (Accessory Structures and Uses) of the Village of Riverside Zoning Ordinance to allow the construction of a fence in a street yard.

Due to the ongoing public health emergency, and consistent with the Governor’s most recent emergency declaration, and the recent amendments made to the Open Meetings Act in Public Act 101-640, this meeting will be conducted electronically.

Public comments are welcome on the proposed variation when received by email or in writing by the Village Planner prior to 5:00 p.m. on the day of the meeting.

Emailed comments may be sent to Village Planner Francisco Jimenez at fjimenez@riverside.il.us. Written comments may be submitted to the attention of the clerk at 27 Riverside Road, Riverside, Illinois. Public comments may also be made live

For those wishing to view the meeting or make public comments via Zoom, a Zoom link will be made available via the Village’s website at https://www.riverside.il.us/165/Planning-Zoning-Commission no later than 4 p.m. on January 26, 2022. If you have questions regarding communication to the Commission during the meeting, please contact Village Planner Francisco Jimenez at 708-447-2700 ext. 326.

Application No.: PZ22-01 Petitioner: John Schiemann Property Commonly Known As: 40 Kimbark Rd PINs: 15-35-205-035-0000 The Property is legally described as follows: LOT 21 IN BLOCK 1, IN BEEBE’S CENTRAL RIVERSIDE SUBDIVISION OF THE SOUTH 20 ACRES OF THE EAST FRACTION OF THE NORTHEAST ¼ OF SECTION 35, TOWNSHIP 39 NORTH, RANGE 12, EAST OF THE THIRD PRINCIPAL MERIDIAN, IN THE VILLAGE OF RIVERSIDE, IN COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS. Proposed Variation: • A variation from Section 10-7-3(F) (2)(a) (Accessory Structures and Uses) of the Riverside Zoning Ordinance, which states that fences and walls shall be prohibited in street yards, except where the street yard adjoins a nonresidential use or along 26 th Street, 31 st Street or York Road, subject to further review by village staff. The petitioner is seeking this variation to build a privacy fence, up to 6’ in height on a corner lot and street yard, to enclose the property and to create a yard to be used by the petitioner and family.

The above application is available for inspection at the office of the Village Clerk, 27 Riverside Road, Riverside, Illinois 60546. During the Public Hearing the Planning and Zoning Commission will hear testimony from and consider any evidence presented by persons interested to speak on these matters.

Persons wishing to appear at this hearing may do so in person or by attorney or other representative and may speak for or against the proposed variations. Communications in writing in relation thereto may be filed at such hearing or with the Planning and Zoning Commission in advance by submission to the Village’s Building Department at 27 Riverside Road, Riverside, Illinois prior to 4:00 p.m. on the day of the public hearing.

The Public Hearing may be continued from time to time without further notice, except as otherwise required under the Illinois Open Meetings Act. Dated this 29th day of December, 2021 Jill Mateo, Chairperson Planning and Zoning Commission Published in RB Landmark January 5, 2022

PUBLIC NOTICE Notice is hereby given, pursuant to “An Act in relation to the use of an Assumed Business Name in the conduct or transaction of Business in the State,” as amended, that a certification was registered by the undersigned with the County Clerk of Cook County. Registration Number: Y21008414 on December 28, 2021 Under the Assumed Business Name of PAT MADE US with the business located at: 11 S LA GRANGE ROAD APT 202, LAGRANGE, IL 60525.

The true and real full name(s) and residence address of the owner(s)/ partner(s) is: MEGAN PATSAVAS 11 S LA GRANGE ROAD APT 202 LA GRANGE, IL 60525, USA Published in Wednesday Journal January 5, 12, 19, 2022

REAL ESTATE FOR SALE IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS COUNTY DEPARTMENT - CHANCERY DIVISION WILMINGTON SAVINGS FUND SOCIETY, FSB, NOT IN ITS INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY, BUT SOLELY AS TRUSTEE OF CSMC 2019-RPL11 TRUST Plaintiff, -v.THOMAS P. QUINN, SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE OF VANESSA FUDGE (DECEASED), JOSEPH BERNARDI, VILLA OAKS CONDOMINIUM ASSOCIATION, UNKNOWN HEIRS AND LEGATEES OF VANESSA FUDGE, UNKNOWN OWNERS AND NON-RECORD CLAIMANTS Defendants 2021 CH 00225 426 N. HARVEY AVENUE, UNIT #1SE OAK PARK, IL 60302 NOTICE OF SALE PUBLIC NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale entered in the above cause on October 18, 2021, an agent for The Judicial Sales Corporation, will at 10:30 AM on January 20, 2022, at The Judicial Sales Corporation, One South Wacker, 1st Floor Suite 030R, Chicago, IL, 60606, sell at a public sale to the highest bidder, as set forth below, the following described real estate: Commonly known as 426 N. HARVEY AVENUE, UNIT #1SE, OAK PARK, IL 60302 Property Index No. 16-08-102-0201008 The real estate is improved with a condominium.

The judgment amount was $29,183.68.

Sale terms: 25% down of the highest bid by certified funds at the close of the sale payable to The Judicial Sales Corporation. No third party checks will be accepted. The balance, including the Judicial Sale fee for the Abandoned Residential Property Municipality Relief Fund, which is calculated on residential real estate at the rate of $1 for each $1,000 or fraction thereof of the amount paid by the purchaser not to exceed $300, in certified funds/or wire transfer, is due within twenty-four (24) hours. No fee shall be paid by the mortgagee acquiring the residential real estate pursuant to its credit bid at the sale or by any mortgagee, judgment creditor, or other lienor acquiring the residential real estate whose rights in and to the residential real estate arose prior to the sale. The subject property is subject to general real estate taxes, special assessments, or special taxes levied against said real estate and is offered for sale without any representation as to quality or quantity of title and without recourse to Plaintiff and in “AS IS” condition.

The sale is further subject to confirmation by the court.

Upon payment in full of the amount bid, the purchaser will receive a Certificate of Sale that will entitle the purchaser to a deed to the real estate after confirmation of the sale.

The property will NOT be open for inspection and plaintiff makes no representation as to the condition of the property. Prospective bidders are admonished to check the court file to verify all information.

If this property is a condominium unit, the purchaser of the unit at the foreclosure sale, other than a mortgagee, shall pay the assessments and the legal fees required

by The Condominium Property Act, 765 ILCS 605/9(g)(1) and (g)(4). If this property is a condominium unit which is part of a common interest community, the purchaser of the unit at the foreclosure sale other than a mortgagee shall pay the assessments required by The Condominium Property Act, 765 ILCS 605/18.5(g-1).

IF YOU ARE THE MORTGAGOR (HOMEOWNER), YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO REMAIN IN POSSESSION FOR 30 DAYS AFTER ENTRY OF AN ORDER OF POSSESSION, IN ACCORDANCE WITH SECTION 15-1701(C) OF THE ILLINOIS MORTGAGE FORECLOSURE LAW. You will need a photo identification issued by a government agency (driver’s license, passport, etc.) in or-

REAL ESTATE FOR SALE

REAL ESTATE FOR SALE

REAL ESTATE FOR SALE

der to gain entry into our building and the foreclosure sale room in Cook County and the same identification for sales held at other county venues where The Judicial Sales Corporation conducts foreclosure sales.

For information, Alexander Potestivo, POTESTIVO & ASSOCIATES, P.C. Plaintiff’s Attorneys, 223 WEST JACKSON BLVD, STE 610, Chicago, IL, 60606 (312) 263-0003. Please refer to file number 313858.

THE JUDICIAL SALES CORPORATION One South Wacker Drive, 24th Floor, Chicago, IL 60606-4650 (312) 236SALE You can also visit The Judicial Sales Corporation at www.tjsc.com for a 7 day status report of pending sales.

POTESTIVO & ASSOCIATES, P.C. 223 WEST JACKSON BLVD, STE 610 Chicago IL, 60606 312-263-0003 E-Mail: ilpleadings@potestivolaw. com Attorney File No. 313858 Attorney Code. 43932 Case Number: 2021 CH 00225 TJSC#: 41-2661 NOTE: Pursuant to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, you are advised that Plaintiff’s attorney is deemed to be a debt collector attempting to collect a debt and any information obtained will be used for that purpose.

Case # 2021 CH 00225 I3183852

The property will NOT be open for inspection and plaintiff makes no representation as to the condition of the property. Prospective bidders are admonished to check the court file to verify all information.

If this property is a condominium unit, the purchaser of the unit at the foreclosure sale, other than a mortgagee, shall pay the assessments and the legal fees required

by The Condominium Property Act, 765 ILCS 605/9(g)(1) and (g)(4). If this property is a condominium unit which is part of a common interest community, the purchaser of the unit at the foreclosure sale other than a mortgagee shall pay the assessments required by The Condominium Property Act, 765 ILCS 605/18.5(g-1).

IF YOU ARE THE MORTGAGOR (HOMEOWNER), YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO REMAIN IN POSSESSION FOR 30 DAYS AFTER ENTRY OF AN ORDER OF POSSESSION, IN ACCORDANCE WITH SECTION 15-1701(C) OF THE ILLINOIS MORTGAGE FORECLOSURE LAW. You will need a photo identification issued by a government agency (driver’s license, passport, etc.) in order to gain entry into our building and the foreclosure sale room in Cook County and the same identification for sales held at other county venues where The Judicial Sales Corporation conducts foreclosure sales.

MCCALLA RAYMER LEIBERT PIERCE, LLC Plaintiff’s Attorneys, One North Dearborn Street, Suite 1200, Chicago, IL, 60602. Tel No. (312) 346-9088.

THE JUDICIAL SALES CORPORATION One South Wacker Drive, 24th Floor, Chicago, IL 60606-4650 (312) 236-SALE You can also visit The Judicial Sales Corporation at www.tjsc.com for a 7 day status report of pending sales.

MCCALLA RAYMER LEIBERT PIERCE, LLC One North Dearborn Street, Suite 1200 Chicago IL, 60602 312-346-9088 E-Mail: pleadings@mccalla.com Attorney File No. 2005419IL_615363 Attorney ARDC No. 61256 Attorney Code. 61256 Case Number: 12 CH 25204 TJSC#: 41-3006 NOTE: Pursuant to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, you are advised that Plaintiff’s attorney is deemed to be a debt collector attempting to collect a debt and any information obtained will be used for that purpose.

Case # 12 CH 25204 I3184301

Property Index No. 16-18-429-0200000 The real estate is improved with a single family residence.

Sale terms: 25% down of the highest bid by certified funds at the close of the sale payable to The Judicial Sales Corporation. No third party checks will be accepted. The balance, including the Judicial Sale fee for the Abandoned Residential Property Municipality Relief Fund, which is calculated on residential real estate at the rate of $1 for each $1,000 or fraction thereof of the amount paid by the purchaser not to exceed $300, in certified funds/or wire transfer, is due within twenty-four (24) hours. No fee shall be paid by the mortgagee acquiring the residential real estate pursuant to its credit bid at the sale or by any mortgagee, judgment creditor, or other lienor acquiring the residential real estate whose rights in and to the residential real estate arose prior to the sale.

The subject property is subject to general real estate taxes, special assessments, or special taxes levied against said real estate and is offered for sale without any representation as to quality or quantity of title and without recourse to Plaintiff and in “AS IS” condition. The sale is further subject to confirmation by the court.

Upon payment in full of the amount bid, the purchaser will receive a Certificate of Sale that will entitle the purchaser to a deed to the real estate after confirmation of the sale.

The property will NOT be open for inspection and plaintiff makes no representation as to the condition of the property. Prospective bidders are admonished to check the court file to verify all information.

If this property is a condominium unit, the purchaser of the unit at the foreclosure sale, other than a mortgagee, shall pay the assessments and the legal fees required

by The Condominium Property Act, 765 ILCS 605/9(g)(1) and (g)(4). If this property is a condominium unit which is part of a common interest community, the purchaser of the unit at the foreclosure sale other than a mortgagee shall pay the assessments required by The Condominium Property Act, 765 ILCS 605/18.5(g-1).

IF YOU ARE THE MORTGAGOR (HOMEOWNER), YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO REMAIN IN POSSESSION FOR 30 DAYS AFTER ENTRY OF AN ORDER OF POSSESSION, IN ACCORDANCE WITH SECTION 15-1701(C) OF THE ILLINOIS MORTGAGE FORECLOSURE LAW. You will need a photo identification issued by a government agency (driver’s license, passport, etc.) in order to gain entry into our building and the foreclosure sale room in Cook County and the same identification for sales held at other county venues where The Judicial Sales Corporation conducts foreclosure sales.

For information, examine the court file, CODILIS & ASSOCIATES, P.C. Plaintiff’s Attorneys, 15W030 NORTH FRONTAGE ROAD, SUITE 100, BURR RIDGE, IL, 60527 (630) 794-9876 THE JUDICIAL SALES CORPORATION One South Wacker Drive, 24th Floor, Chicago, IL 60606-4650 (312) 236-SALE You can also visit The Judicial Sales Corporation at www.tjsc.com for a 7 day status report of pending sales.

CODILIS & ASSOCIATES, P.C. 15W030 NORTH FRONTAGE ROAD, SUITE 100 BURR RIDGE IL, 60527 630-794-5300 E-Mail: pleadings@il.cslegal.com Attorney File No. 14-21-01929 Attorney ARDC No. 00468002 Attorney Code. 21762 Case Number: 17CH02438 TJSC#: 41-3039 NOTE: Pursuant to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, you are advised that Plaintiff’s attorney is deemed to be a debt collector attempting to collect a debt and any information obtained will be used for that purpose.

Case # 17CH02438 I3184363

IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS COUNTY DEPARTMENT - CHANCERY DIVISION JPMORGAN CHASE BANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION Plaintiff, -v.RASHINDA PLUMP, WAVERLY CLARK, JR, UNKNOWN OWNERS AND NON-RECORD CLAIMANTS, WAVERLY CLARK, JR., INDEPENDENT ADMINISTRATOR Defendants 12 CH 25204 1187 SOUTH HIGHLAND PARK OAK PARK, IL 60304 NOTICE OF SALE PUBLIC NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale entered in the above cause on December 11, 2019, an agent for The Judicial Sales Corporation, will at 10:30 AM on January 28, 2022, at The Judicial Sales Corporation, One South Wacker, 1st Floor Suite 030R, Chicago, IL, 60606, sell at a public sale to the highest bidder, as set forth below, the following described real estate: Commonly known as 1187 SOUTH HIGHLAND PARK, OAK PARK, IL 60304 Property Index No. 16-17-325-0470000 The real estate is improved with a one story two unit brick building with no garage.

Sale terms: 25% down of the highest bid by certified funds at the close of the sale payable to The Judicial Sales Corporation. No third party checks will be accepted. The balance, including the Judicial Sale fee for the Abandoned Residential Property Municipality Relief Fund, which is calculated on residential real estate at the rate of $1 for each $1,000 or fraction thereof of the amount paid by the purchaser not to exceed $300, in certified funds/or wire transfer, is due within twenty-four (24) hours. No fee shall be paid by the mortgagee acquiring the residential real estate pursuant to its credit bid at the sale or by any mortgagee, judgment creditor, or other lienor acquiring the residential real estate whose rights in and to the residential real estate arose prior to the sale.

The subject property is subject to general real estate taxes, special assessments, or special taxes levied against said real estate and is offered for sale without any representation as to quality or quantity of title and without recourse to Plaintiff and in “AS IS” condition. The sale is further subject to confirmation by the court.

Upon payment in full of the amount bid, the purchaser will receive a Certificate of Sale that will entitle the purchaser to a deed to the real estate after confirmation of the sale.

IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS COUNTY DEPARTMENT - CHANCERY DIVISION U.S. BANK TRUST NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, NOT IN ITS INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY, BUT SOLELY AS TRUSTEE OF LSF10 MASTER PARTICIPATION TRUST Plaintiff, -v.HEATHER JOHNSON, BENEFICIAL ILLINOIS I, INC. AS SUCCESSOR IN INTEREST TO BENEFICIAL ILLINOIS INC., DELL FINANCIAL SERVICES L.L.C., UNKNOWN TENANTS, UNKNOWN OWNERS AND NON-RECORD CLAIMANTS Defendants 17CH02438 1161 S. RIDGELAND AVE. OAK PARK, IL 60304 NOTICE OF SALE PUBLIC NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale entered in the above cause on December 17, 2019, an agent for The Judicial Sales Corporation, will at 10:30 AM on January 31, 2022, at The Judicial Sales Corporation, One South Wacker, 1st Floor Suite 030R, Chicago, IL, 60606, sell at a public sale to the highest bidder, as set forth below, the following described real estate: Commonly known as 1161 S. RIDGELAND AVE., OAK PARK, IL 60304

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Wednesday Journal, January 5, 2022

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

Quality, Affordable, Independent Housing for Seniors

O

ur beautiful 6-story building provides quality, affordable, independent housing for seniors. The Oaks offers studio and one-bedroom apartments, with kitchens and private bathrooms.

Amenities include an award winning interior landscaped atrium, central meeting room, library, laundry facilities, computer learning center, internet access, electronic key entry system, and parking.

On-site management includes 24/7 emergency maintenance service and a senior services coordinator who is available during business hours to assist residents in accessing service agencies and programs designed specifically for seniors. The Oaks is

owned and operated by the Oak Park Residence Corporation and is funded by the US Department of Housing and Ur-ban Development through the 202/Section 8 Program. Monthly rent is based on the resident’s income, with individuals paying approximately 30% of their monthly income toward rent.

For more information, please visit us at www.oakparkrc.com or contact us at 708-386-5862.

114 South Humphrey • Oak Park, Il 60302 • 708-386-5862 • oakparkrc.com

oprfchamber.org