Wednesday Journal 021721

W E D N E S D A Y

February 17, 2021 Vol. 41, No. 29 ONE DOLLAR @oakpark @wednesdayjournal

JOURNAL of Oak Park and River Forest

Teachers get vaccinated Page 6

Hybrid learning? No biggie Some students are adapting relatively smoothly to being in school

By MICHAEL ROMAIN Staff Reporter

Atessa Serrigno, 11, is by now acclimated to school in the Age of Coronavirus. Four days out of the week, she gets to Julian by 9 a.m., minds the socialdistancing prompts everywhere underneath her as she walks to a classroom with nine other kids spaced well apart from each other, the faces of their peers who are still learning remotely on a large screen.

The in-person school day lasts until around 12:30 p.m., and between morning and noon, the mask stays on her face.

“Wearing a mask hasn’t been hard at all,” she said.

“I can forget I have it on, too.”

Rare are the quirks of pre-pandemic school life — roughhousing in the hallways, spit balls, shaking hands.

“We don’t really talk to each other that much,” she said of her classmates. “We technically know each other, but we just stay our distance.”

Serrigno is well-versed in educational lingo.

“We get assigned one of our core teachers in subjects like math, language, literature and history, and our other teachers assign some asynchronous work to do in the classroom,” she said during an interview earlier this week.

What’s asynchronous?

“Asynchronous is the work you do on your own and not in-class-ish,” she explained, as only a middleschooler can.

Like Serrigno, Liam Moroney, 15, doesn’t seem too bothered by hybrid learning, either. The Oak Park See HYBRID on page 10

ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

MAIL FREEZE: A mail carrier braves the snow and cold while delivering mail to an apartment building on North Boulevard.

WHERE’S MY MAIL? Delivery irregular in Oak Park

Some households are going as long as five days without delivery

By STACEY SHERIDAN Staff Reporter

Not receiving mail for days at a time?

You aren’t the only one. Out of the 42 readers who reached out to Wednesday Journal after an email inquiry about their U.S. Postal Service deliveries, 35 reported their mail delivery has been highly irregular and erratic.

“Last week we didn’t get mail for four days in a row,” said Liz Keys, of north-

east Oak Park.

Mail delivery is a hot topic in Keys’ neck of Oak Park, with residents taking to social media to share their experiences; a Feb. 5 post about irregular deliveries in the Northeast Oak Park Community Group on Facebook has racked up over 60 comments.

See MAIL on page 18

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Wednesday Journal, February 17, 2021

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F E B R UA RY

BLACK

HISTORY MONTH

2021 Dear OP/RF community: We, the Staff and Administration of Thrive Counseling Center believe that a statement from us about the Black Lives Matter movement is overdue and its importance is still very relevant. We want this statement and the ensuing conversation to be both meaningful and purpose-driven.

February is Black History Month which should serve to remind us that this country, our country, was built on the backs of millions of African Americans. We believe that the contributions and sacrifices of millions of African Americans deserve more than a cursory nod in the form of Black History Month once a year; we want to make it meaningful. We acknowledge and honor the contributions of the Black community and see this is an opportunity to join the conversation about the Black Lives Matter movement and how it has affected all of us.

We should never forget May 2020 when the centuries-long systemic injustices towards people of color were thrust into our collective consciousness with the death of George Floyd. We want everyone to know that conversations about what led us to this moment and what we can do to support our community of color have been happening here at Thrive.

We have formed a committee of Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) on our staff, whose mission is to examine and address the ways in which we may have been complicit in systemic oppression and what we can and should be doing differently.

We hope to be recognized as a pioneering mental health provider in the Oak Park/River Forest community. We strive to be a provider of essential services that is aware of our responsibility to understand and support individuals and families who are struggling with the dual challenge of systemic racism and mental illness.

Thrive, like many other community-based organizations, is evaluating the shortfalls in our own individual and collective understanding of systemic racism and other forms of systemic violence.

In August we began training our clinical staff to address specific issues that people of color face and the interlocking oppressions they experience. We are continuing to research best practice models of community service where mental health treatment and social justice are treated with equal importance. We value your trust in us and pledge we will strive to earn it.

We acknowledge this pandemic has caused additional hardship on Black, Indigenous, and other people of color and want the community to know that our agency is here for you.

Black Lives Matter. We know it to be true.

Please give us a call, we are here to help.

HOPE

RESILIENCE

R EC OV E RY

120 South Marion Street, Oak Park, IL 60302 • (708) 383-7500 • www.thrivecc.org

Wednesday Journal, February 17, 2021

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By MICHAEL ROMAIN

Black art in gaslight country

area that he knew and loved, organized a photo shoot outside of Dr. Burrough’s famed South Side Community Art Center, which was the ast week, I watched a revealing docufirst Black art museum in the country when it mentary on HBO Max that brought Black opened in Bronzeville in 1940.

History Month, the very essence of it, into My father wanted the photo to be an ode to visceral focus for me.

Art Kane’s 1958 black-and-white photo of 57 jazz “Black Art: In the Absence of Light,” musicians, the iconic “A Great Day in Harlem.” which premiered on HBO and HBO Max on Feb. Squint and there’s Count Basie. Squint again 9, is one of the best documentaries on art I’ve and there’s Theolonious Monk. ever seen — not that I’ve seen many of them.

Seated in the second row, fifth from the left, The subject captivates me, because I’m the son is Dr. Burroughs. My father is seated directly of a Black artist and gallery owner, and grew up to her left. All the way on the porch, peaking surrounded by Black art. As a teenager, I would from behind the column that is on the viewer’s spend my weekends and summers inside of right side is Kerry James Marshall, my favorite Commentary my father’s gallery near Oak Park Avenue and painter.

Garfield Street. The building, which was once Of course, at the time, I didn’t appreciate who Marshall adjacent to where Carnival Grocery currently sits (back was or would become or, for that matter, what place the then it was Pan’s), was razed several years back to make photo, some two decades later, would have in the collective space for the parking lot that is there now. memory of Black Chicago.

That’s where I was introduced to the work of the I didn’t really understand Marshall or his work until great Black artist Elizabeth Catlett. It’s where my father I visited a solo exhibition of his at the Museum of grappled with what to do with the work of the Dr. Margaret Contemporary Art in 2016. The exhibit, called “Mastry,” Burroughs, the late founder of the DuSable Museum of was where I first saw Marshall’s “A Portrait of the Artist African American History and a mother of Black art in as a Shadow of His Former Self ” (1980), up close and Chicago. personal.

I remember my father and I going to Dr. Burroughs’s You can’t really appreciate Black art without knowing South Side home one summer afternoon and rummaging the social and historical context in which it was created through mounds of garbage bags soiled in cat litter, as and Marshall’s “A Portrait” may be the most concise, most if dumpster diving, picking through the detritus of a economic artistic depiction of the Black experience in formerly great civilization whose luster had dimmed.

America.

One day, my father, wanting to guard against the march Marshall’s 1980 painting is, quite frankly, ugly at first of time, to memorialize the Black arts scene in the Chicago glance. It’s crude, even borderline offensive, and that’s part of the point.

But you have to go below the surface to really understand what Marshall is doing, which he explains in “Black Art: In the Absence of Light.”

“One of the things I was trying to do was embody in a picture the concept that Ralph Ellison had laid out in his novel ‘Invisible Man,’” Marshall said in the documentary. “He describes the condition of invisibility as it relates to Black people in America — this condition of being seen and not seen simultaneously.

“And that’s what I [see in] the black figure against the black ground, where if you change the color temperature of the black, it creates enough separation so that you can alternately see and then sometimes not see the figure that’s present there.”

Marshall uses the technique of grayscale, mixing black and white, in his work. In the documentary, he introduced me to the idea that black “is not the absence of color, it’s particular kinds of color …

“If I went to the store, I could buy three different variations of black paint.

I could buy an ivory black, I could buy Photo provided a carbon black and I could buy an iron oxide black, or something that’s called A GREAT DAY IN BRONZEVILLE: A black-and-white photo showing a signifiMars black, and if you look at each one cant part of Chicago’s Black arts community. Dr. Burroughs is seated in the of those colors they are not the same middle, pictured in one of her trademark hats next to my father, pictured thing.” smiling in a white shirt. Kerry James Marshall is peaking out from behind Marshall’s photo, in one fell swoop, the right column. encapsulates both the incredible

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Staff Reporter

MICHAEL ROMAIN

diversity of Blackness, but also the fact of its artificial flatness (as monochromatic as ‘whites only’ and ‘blacks only’ signs). America’s ugly reality is that the myth of race has created a Black underclass in this country that is divorced from merit or creed.

Marshall, whose paintings now sell in the millions of dollars, is a unique success story; so are artists like Kehinde Wiley, former president Barack Obama’s portraitist (an original Wiley painting hangs prominently on the walls of the Oak Park Public Library).

But the much more pervasive truth is that the vast majority of Black artists operate in an institutional void, and not due to a lack of talent or vision or skill. I’ve seen this underworld firsthand through my father, who along with most artists in that photograph he organized on the South Side, have toiled outside of the glow of museum lights or Sotheby’s shine.

I’ve hauled foldable exhibition booths to and from convention centers at trade shows for Black doctors and Black lawyers, at conventions for Black sororities, at Black film festivals on Martha’s Vineyard, and even in and out of the homes of Black professionals.

Don’t get it twisted, these Black artists make it work.

They form their own communities and forge their own paths. Some, like my father, make good livings for themselves. But they do so without the institutional leverage afforded white artists who are no more talented or driven than they are.

In the HBO Max documentary, I learned that, according to a recent survey of major American museums, 85 percent of the artists represented in those major museums are white. Fifteen percent are artists of color, among whom just 1.2 percent are Black.

Black artists may work away from the shine of museum lights, but they are often subject to America’s long history of racial gaslighting, or denying and manipulating the reality of racism and white supremacy whenever whites are confronted with this ugly reality, especially by Blacks.

When the late great curator David Driskell organized “Two Centuries of Black American Art” in 1976 — perhaps the most comprehensive exhibition of Black art in the country’s history — major museums in cities like Detroit and Chicago turned down his offer to bring the exhibition to their facilities.

Many white people in the art world questioned why an exhibit exclusive to Black artists was needed, at all — mind you, if the statistics mentioned above are what they are circa 2021, just imagine what they were in the 1970s.

Mary Schmidt Campbell, the current president of Spelman College and former executive director of the Studio Museum in Harlem, recounted how some of those same white people seemed bewildered at the idea of a “Black fine arts museum.”

“Some of them thought what we were doing was laughable,” Campbell said in the documentary, recalling her experience helming the Studio Museum. “‘Why do you need a Black fines arts museum?” they would ask. “You have MOMA, you have MET.” If, to earn some institutional shine we must defer to this kind of gaslighting, then, as Bartleby, the Scrivener famously said, “I’d prefer not to.” The great Black maker Theaster Gates articulated my sentiment even better in the HBO Max documentary.

“If Blackness has something to do with the absence of light, does Black art mean that sometimes I’m making when no one’s looking? For the most part, that has been the truth of our lives,” Gates said.

“Is there a light? Yes. But until we own the light, I’m not happy.”

CONTACT: michael@oakpark.com

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Wednesday Journal, February 17, 2021

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BIG WEEK February 17-24 Conversations on Hemingway Tuesday, Feb. 23, 6 p.m., virtually with WTTW In conjunction with the upcoming PBS documentary, Hemingway, A Film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, nine talks have been scheduled, which include the filmmakers and special guests exploring Hemingway’s art and legacy, and features clips from the three-part documentary. First up: Hemingway and Childhood. Free. Register/more: hemingwaybirthplace.com/programs-events

Winter Warmth Concerts

Caesar and Patricia Tabet Poetry Reading: Joy Harjo Thursday, Feb. 18, 7 p.m., Virtually with Dominican University

See Harjo, the first Native American appointed as U.S. Poet Laureate (2019), read selections from her nine books of poetry, including An American Sunrise, Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings and She Had Some Horses. Harjo is a member of the Mvskoke/Creek Nation. Free, $10, suggested donation. Register: dom.edu/arts-minds

Wednesdays, through March 10, 4 to 5 p.m. and after, virtually with the Symphony of Oak Park - River Forest Each week, a new mini-concert is released, performed by members of the Symphony at Pleasant Home. Feb. 17 features Mozart’s Duet for Violin and Viola No. 1 in G Major. The Feb. 24 concert features Bach’s The Art of the Fugue and String Quartet, Mov’t No. 4, written by the Symphony’s Keith Jones, who will also play viola.

March 3 brings solo music for flute and tuba along with a Vivaldi Concerto for Two Cellos. The concluding concert on March 10 is Ireland’s Downland Suite.

Individual performances: $9, Oak Park residents; $12, non-residents. Series (includes 6 concerts): $54, Oak Park residents; $67, non-residents. Register by 3 p.m. each Wednesday to see the new concert or sign up for the whole series: pdop.org, 708-725-2000.

Toddler Exploration Time - What’s in a Desert

Through Saturday, Feb. 20, Virtually with The Ferguson Art Gallery at Concordia University Chicago See Beth Shadur’s watercolor painting series, which integrates ideas, text and visual images with the theme of fragility. Shadur, who has exhibited across the U.S. including at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Drawing Center in New York City, says, she is “looking at fragility of not only the wider environment, but the fragility of our own lives.” The gallery is closed. View anytime online: CUChicago.edu/ferguson.

Tree & Shrub Pruning Basics Thursday, Feb. 25, 7 to 8 p.m., Virtually with the Friends of the Oak Park Conservatory Winter is the best time of year to prune deciduous plants. Learn when to start, how to take a critical look at trees and shrubs, and the best approach to promote shape and thin plants before spring. Free.

Register: pdop.org

Thursday, Feb. 18, 7 p.m., Zoom with Arbor West Neighbors Learn more before the April 6 election. This forum focuses on Issues of interest to older adults. Zoom Meeting ID: 816 5335 5209, passcode: AWN. Next up, Feb. 25, OP Village President candidates.

Submit candidate questions/more: edsolan@gmail.com.

Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2 to 3 p.m., Zoom with the Oak Park Library While animal-headed gods, brightly painted coffins and hieroglyphic writing are recognizable as ancient Egyptian artifacts from modern museums and pop culture, to properly understand Egyptian art, it should be considered in its original context, divorced from its modern representations. Presenter Luiza Osorio da Silva, graduate student from The University of Chicago, will reveal the complexity and beauty of Egyptian art.

Brought in partnership with U of C Center for Middle Eastern Studies. Register: oppl.org/calendar

Fragility of the Sacred

Friday, Feb. 19, 9:30 to 10 a.m., Zoom with the Oak Park Conservatory Young explorers join education docents for stories. Each month is a different topic. Next up: March 19 - Sounds. Register: pdop.org.

Candidate Forum – River Forest Village President and Trustee Candidates

Walk Like an Egyptian: Understanding Egyptian Art in its Ancient & Modern Contexts

Family Book Club Sunday, Feb. 21, 3 to 4 p.m., Zoom with the Oak Park Public Library Bring family together with this offering aimed at kids in elementary school and their households to learn, share and discuss important topics. This month, read Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement by Carole Boston Weatherford, available through the library as a book and an ebook through Hoopla. Join for a librarian-led discussion with the community on Feb. 21 or discuss as a family using a resource guide. Register/more: oppl. org/calendar

Wednesday Journal, February 17, 2021

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

O

Grocery battle and other issues

dds and ends with some a bit odder than others: Deno’s backing … : Didn’t make it into last week’s column on Deno Andrews’ decision to drop his re-election bid for the Oak Park Village Board. Just ran out of space. But I asked the departing candidate if he had plans to endorse in the race.

“If I do endorse anyone, and this is not an endorsement, it would be Vicki (Scaman). We ran with Vicki four years ago,” he said. Back then “we” was Andrews, Dan Moroney and Simone Boutet.

All three of them announced in 2021 for either re-election or to step up to village president. Now all three have stepped away in a strange series of choices.

Meanwhile, Vicki Scaman who ran for village clerk in 2017 remains in the race for village president. With Boutet and Moroney gone poof, her single opponent is Cate Readling.

Before there was Pete’s: It is, said this non-betting man, a sure thing that the Oak Park Village Board is going to imminently OK construction of a new Pete’s Fresh Market on village-owned land at Madison Street and Oak Park Avenue. Not wanting to look dumb, I’d hedge that bet only by pointing out that the current village board is unraveling and therefore unpredictable.

But Pete’s will happen. And that has interesting consequences. Some locals are legitimately worried that a large, modern Pete’s will put the wonderful Sugar Beet Coop — less than a block away — out of business. Ditto those concerns for the also vital Carnival Grocery a couple of blocks south on Oak Park Avenue.

I’m not so sure, though I get the worry.

Sugar Beet has a niche and loyal following and a great lease. Carnival is a legitimate neighborhood grocery and not a main destination for the big restocking trips. And it is innovating with a new home delivery app that should help.

More than Pete’s, local grocers might worry about the long-rumored Amazon Fresh that is reportedly eyeing Harlem and North. It is a technological gamechanger if you have the energy to change your entire method of buying groceries. Not sure I do.

Meanwhile, quietly, the often ragged Jewel stores on Madison and on Roosevelt have recently benefitted from substantial investments by its Boise-based overlords at Albertsons. One might have thought Boise had forgotten these stores after not dropping a dime in them for 25 years. But they are sporting new lighting, new freezers, new products, better produce.

There was a time not long back when the expectation was that Jewel would be the chain building at Madison and Oak Park.

Boise got cold feet and Anan Abu-Taleb worked his charm on Pete’s, convincing them to build a second store about 1.5 miles from its very successful Lake Street location.

White Sox baseball! Before this snowblitzed month ends, the White Sox will play their first Spring Training game in Arizona. I suppose the Cubs might do that, too.

But it is the Sox who have earned the hope while the Trump-backing Ricketts-family has sat on their billions in an off-season that is neither a rebuild nor a legitimate contending effort.

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Wednesday Journal, February 17, 2021

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D97 and D200 staff vaccinated at OPRF

Public school educators got first dose last Saturday

By STACEY SHERIDAN Staff Reporter

Nearly 600 Oak Park public school staff received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at Oak Park and River Forest High School on Feb. 13. Those who received the vaccination are employed by Oak Park Elementary School District 97 and High School District 200.

“The nurses of both school districts were fantastic and volunteered hours of their time to help vaccinate their co-workers and neighbors,” said Oak Park Interim Public Health Director Joseph Terry.

The day went very well, according to Terry, who said he and the health department are grateful to the high school’s staff for helping to set up the clinic.

Volunteers from the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), an organization that provides supplemental emergency response workers, assisted in the vaccination effort, as did members of the Medical Reserve Corps (MRC). Both volunteer organizations have been assisting in the village’s vaccination efforts. The Saturday event was

“another great turnout” by volunteers, according to Terry.

“They have been there from the beginning,” he said. “Without these volunteers we would not be able to vaccinate as many as we have.”

MRC volunteer and Oak Park physician Bill Clark, who practices psychiatry, said the clinic went “very, very smoothly.”

“We had 15 stations set up, so there were 15 tables delivering vaccines and there really wasn’t a line,” said Clark. “I don’t know what it looked like outdoors but indoors the pace was very, very measured.”

At Clark’s table, he handled data entry while an oncology nurse administered the vaccine to educators.

“I think the two of us inoculated about 40 people,” he said. “That was my last count.”

The educators at the clinic received the Pfizer vaccination. Clark called the care put into the vaccine “very impressive.”

“They came shipped in an 80-pound box that was filled with dry ice,” he said.

The Pfizer vaccine has to be maintained at a much lower temperature, while the vaccine created by Moderna can be stored in temperatures similar to standard freezers.

Pfizer packaged the vaccines with dry ice so that no special refrigeration equipment was needed, according to Clark, The package of vaccines also contained

Photo by Bill Clark

A SHOT IN THE ARM: The OPRF Field House was vaccination central last weekend. tracking devices and temperature monitors he told Wednesday Journal.

“If the temperature rises above where it’s supposed to be, Pfizer is alerted and they will reach out to the distributor,” said Clark. “Very, very slick.”

While the clinic took place the day before Valentine’s Day, he said hearts were very full on Feb. 13 and there was a “sense of celebration” at the high school that day.

“A number of the teachers expressed how emotional they felt; that it was just a real relief.”

Many of the volunteers recognized or knew the teachers who came to the clinic for inoculation.

“I think that sort of added to the excitement of it,” said Clark. “Our kids teachers were there and we were there inoculating them.”

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Colin Fane, Agent

Live Café investigation of thrown brick inconclusive

212 S Marion Street Fl G Oak Park, IL 60302 Bus: 708-383-3163 www.colinfane.com Monday & Friday 9am-5pm Café proprietor satisfi ed with police response Tues/Wed/Thurs 9am-7pm “I didn’t feel like a task to be completed,”

By STACEY SHERIDAN Saturday 9am-12pm she said. “It felt like they also understood Staff Reporter

and valued the importance and significance The investigation into the brick thrown at of what Live is about and the gravity of the Live Café, 163 S. Oak Park Ave., is effectively offense.”

She said she believes there are more opclosed but can easily be reopened upon discovery of new information, according to the portunities for the community and police to Oak Park police department. Wrapped in a operate in tandem.

“I will say that this instance was handled note containing a racial slur, the brick was found outside the Black-owned coffee shop very well,” said Graham-Washington. “I Jan. 6. Its discovery caused heartbreak and also think that it’s because of the direct connection, communication, and personal outrage in the community.

“We’ve run down all the leads that we touch that was a part of the process.”

She believes that should be the standard could,” said Commander Bill Rygh. “If we hear something or get a tip, we can easily in policing but knows that isn’t always the case and was careful to clarify that. open it back up.”

“When people say, ‘defund the police,’ The police department welcomes anyone who may have information into the incident they’re not saying they don’t want police,” said Graham-Washington. “They’re saying to come forward.

“If anybody has anything, we’d love to fol- they don’t want the objectified transaction low up on it,” said Rygh, who also stated that that often comes with these interactions.”

She doesn’t believe that many who call for he’s eager to get the case solved.

StateofFarmdefunding the police actually want the force Detectives on the case watched hours IL abolished. video footage taken from the securityBloomington, cam- to be “What we’re saying is, ‘How can we more eras of nearby businesses, but the footage 2001290 did not show any potential suspects, accord- equitably allocate resources so that the police can play an appropriate role and effect ing to Rygh.

“If video footage revealed a suspect, we that role in our community?’”

While she would like the person responsiwould have been following up that lead, but ble for the attack to come forward, her focus it did not,” Rygh said.

Live Café had been closed to the public has always been on showcasing what the atsince the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic tack represents.

“The priority was less about identifying in Illinois but has now reopened for takeout service. It serves as the campaign headquar- one person and more about naming the unters for a slate of Black village board candi- dercurrent of negative energy and racialdates. The note found wrapped around the ized tension that fuels this sort of behavior brick read, “No n--- on the ballot.” A win- in our community period,” said Grahamdow received minor damage, indicating the Washington.

If identified, Graham-Washington said brick was thrown at it.

The brick and message were found out- she’d like to discuss the attack with the perside the café on the same day that two Black petrator to identify why they thought “an trustee candidates, Anthony Clark and Chi- act of violence and terror was the appropribuike Enyia, began hearings for challenges ate and effective solution aa a way forward to their candidacy; both challenges were for expressing themselves.”

“I don’t necessarily want this person to later dismissed by a local electoral board.

Reesheda Graham-Washington, the café’s come forward so that I could prosecute them proprietor, is satisfied with the Oak Park Po- to the fullest extent of the law,” she said.

Had the perpetrator intended to intimilice Department’s response to the incident, date Black village board candidates into saying they did their “due diligence.”

“They’ve been very responsive and pro- withdrawing from the election, they unactively reaching out to me, keeping me up- equivocally failed, according to Grahamdated the entire way,” said Graham-Wash- Washington. All remain on the ballot.

“These acts are really quite futile,” she ington.

The café’s own security cameras had been said.

Graham-Washington expressed her gratiturned off to mitigate costs during the pandemic and therefore did not record the inci- tude to the community for their support, as well as their participation in the vigil that dent.

“That really served as an impediment to took place after the attack.

“I’m very thankful to the community and the investigation,” said Graham-Washington. “It was really hard for them to pinpoint how we responded,” she said. “I think that that really does underscore that we are bigwho the assailant was.”

Graham-Washington told Wednesday ger, and that there are so many more of us Journal she felt the police handling of the that are fighting for equity and justice than those who are fighting against it.” situation was “relational.”

Wednesday Journal, February 17, 2021

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Wednesday Journal, February 17, 2021

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Rush outlines plans to provide vaccines to seniors

Medical Center vaccinating through Rush@Home program since Feb. 11

By IGOR STUDENKOV Contributing Reporter

Rush University Medical Center, 1620 W. Harrison St., recently started giving COVID-19 vaccines to homebound seniors on the West Side and in the west suburbs. The hospital is also gearing up for a much bigger ef-

fort to vaccinate high-risk Austin residents this spring.

Under the current phase of Chicago’s vaccination program, Phase 1B, vaccines are available to people age 65 and older, residents of group settings, caregivers, medical professionals and most essential workers. But Rush and other hospitals haven’t been getting enough supplies to keep up with the demand, forcing them to limit vaccination hours.

The center is still trying to get the vaccines it does have to West Siders who need it most.

Since Feb. 11, it has been vaccinating homebound seniors who are part of the Rush@

Home program, which provides services to patients who have trouble getting to the doctor’s office due to their health conditions.

Rush@Home is available to patients who have “two or more” chronic health conditions that make it hard for them to do household tasks on their own. Patients must live in either one of the West Side neighborhoods or in Oak Park, River Forest or Forest Park.

Rush is also preparing to send teams into Austin to vaccinate residents most at risk of getting COVID-19, though as of Feb. 12, the details were still being worked out.

When the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines

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were first approved, they were only available to health-care workers, and residents and staff of long-term care facilities. The city moved to Phase 1B on Jan. 25. Although Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Feb. 10 expanded eligibility to all Illinois residents with underlying medical conditions, Chicago and suburban Cook County declined to follow suit, with government officials saying they didn’t have enough doses for it.

Dr. David Ansell, Rush’s vice president for community health and equity, said that as of Feb. 9, the hospital gave around 39,000 vaccine doses to medical staff, patients and residents who signed up online.

At that point, Rush vaccinated around 40 percent of its eligible West Side and South Side patients.

Ansell said their efforts have been hampered by the limited supply. While they have 80,000 patients eligible under Phase 1B, the hospital only gets 3,900 vaccines a week.

Since each patient gets two doses spaced three to four weeks apart, the actual amount available varies.

“Because we are not getting enough vaccine, we are only vaccinating four days a week,” Ansell said.

On Jan. 27, Rush teamed up with West Side and South Side faith leaders to hold an in-person vaccination awareness event, where the participants got to ask questions about the vaccines and, if they are eligible, get their first shot.

Rev. Marshall Hatch, of West Garfield Park’s New Mount Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church, said he hoped that getting vaccinated would not only encourage others to get it, but bring hope to the community.

“Widespread vaccination represents faith and hope that we can turn the corner from this pandemic soon,” he said. “As clergy step forward to be vaccinated today, we demonstrate that faith leaders are hope leaders, as well.”

Ansell said Rush has been holding virtual community town halls to spread awareness.

Elisabeth Davis, Rush’s medical director of community health equity, said the hospital’s goal is to give the first dose to all existing patients in the program and any other eligible members of the patients’ households, by Feb. 15.

The center is part of the Chicago Vaccine Corps partnership, in which health-care providers and community organizations team up with local residents to dispel the myths about the vaccines and, once the eligibility expands, vaccinate residents. Davis said that Rush will vaccinate “high-risk populations,” including residents of senior housing developments in the coming weeks.

To register for vaccinations at Rush, visit https://www.rush.edu/patients-visitors/ covid-19-resources/covid-19-vaccines To find out more about Rush@Home program, visit https://www.rush.edu/patientsvisitors/rush-home-visits

Wednesday Journal, February 17, 2021

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

9

‘Experience matters,’ says D200 candidate pushing lone incumbent in for media literacy at OPRF David Schrodt critic of D200 board race detracking plan, urges Tom Cofsky, running for third term, says his institutional knowledge is an advantage

my work. I tend to be a long-term player.

I don’t move around. Having a long-term view and being able to look to the past, as well as the future, matters.”

Cofsky, an engineer by trade, said he’s been at the same manufacturing and distribution company for 34 years.

By MICHAEL ROMAIN That deference to experience is shared Staff Reporter by most, if not all, of the D200 board inTom Cofsky is the last the man standing cumbents, who are currently in the pro— quite literally. After his board colleague cess of looking for outgoing D200 Supt.

Craig Iseli withdrew his candidacy last Joylynn Pruitt-Adams’ successor. Both Pruitt-Adams and the majorweek, Cofsky became the only ity of the board were adamant incumbent among the six people about making sure that the new vying for one of the four open superintendent is hired before seats on the District 200 school the April elections. board.

There’s a lot at stake, Cofsky First elected to the board in said. The next superintendent 2013, Cofsky, 60, is running for will be responsible for some his third term. Ironically, the major undertakings. Some now-veteran board member was of the most pressing include among a 7-person board majorthe administration of an unity that, in 2015, did not feature precedented hybrid learning a single incumbent with more model amid an unprecedented than three years of board expepandemic and, on top of that, rience. the likely implementation of The lack of institutional mema major freshman curriculum ory was enough for former D200 restructuring. board member Sharon PatchakCofsky said that if he’s reLayman to say something about elected, he’ll vote in favor it at her last board meeting. of the proposed curriculum “I don’t remember any board changes, which would put an ever having [as few] years of end to separating incoming service,” she said back in 2015, OPRF freshmen into college adding that the 1984 Oak Park placement and honors level village board may have been the curriculum — a practice, comclosest rival. monly called tracking, that Six years later, and Cofsky is many district officials believe looking at a similar situation TOM COFSKY perpetuates longstanding rathrough Patchak-Layman’s eyes.

OPRF board incumbent cial inequities.

With Fred Arkin, who served a Cofsky said he considers the term on the board from 2015 to curriculum changes to have 2019, the only other person in the two major aspects. race with D200 board experience, “One is the standardization and that’s it’s possible that the district seats a 4-person a huge, huge piece,” rookie majority.

“Experience matters,” Cofsky said on he said. “I know havMonday. “What I’ve found is that it probably ing had five kids go takes two to four years to figure out what through the school that goes on in that building and how it works. I they may have gone through on a similar really think there’s value in that.”

Cofsky often leverages that experience track, but the diversity at the board table, often pointing out, for of experiences they got instance, when a novel concept presented was pretty broad, deby consultants seeking big dollar contracts pending on who you got isn’t all that novel, after all; or alerting his to teach you.”

The curriculum changes, he said, will colleagues, as he’s done regularly, about the rate of administrative hires or, as recently help increase standardization and introas this year, about a looming teacher pen- duce rigor across the board, despite students’ individual experiences. sion crisis.

“I tend to be a historian,” Cofsky said.

See COFSKY on page 16 “Not just with the school board, but with

“We know there are barriers that exist. We know there are inequities that exist and so we’ve got to take action.”

in after the April elections.

Sitting board members, such as D200 board President Sara Dixon-Spivy, have said that thrusting the responsibility of hiring the next superintendent onto new board members would be unfair to the new officeholders, who aren’t nearly as familiar with

By MICHAEL ROMAIN the district’s ins and outs as current board Staff Reporter members.

Sitting board members also want to make David Schrodt, a 55-year-old finance attorney who lives in River Forest, is all sure they select a candidate who will help about big ideas and if he gets elected to the implement their preferred policy agenda, District 200 school board in April, he said top of which is making sure OPRF becomes more racially equitable. he’ll focus on two in particular.

A major priority of the current D200 “I’m proposing that Oak Park and River Forest High School builds into its educa- board majority is ensuring that a planned freshman curriculum restruction paradigm two things,” Schturing that is scheduled to start rodt said. “One is the teaching in the fall of 2022 gets a final vote of mindfulness and the second of approval. is something that is so new the The goal of the restructuring language around it isn’t fully is to “ensure that the majority formed yet. of our freshman students expe“At the college level, there’s rience one high-level, rigorous a very rich academic area in curriculum in English, history, what’s called New Media Studscience and world languages; we ies or information studies or are also making curricular admedia literacy,” said Schrodt, justments in math,” according who is running for elected ofto a joint statement by the D200 fice for the first time as one of administration and Faculty Sensix candidates vying for four ate that was released in Februopen seats on the board. ary 2020.

“We should do some serious The restructuring will effecstudying about this world our tively put an end to the prackids live in and teach them tice of dividing entering OPRF about the systems that are freshmen into separate college there,” he said. placement and honors curricuSchrodt said he wants to catalum tracks. Historically, Black lyze a community conversation and Brown students have disproaround how OPRF can be a portionately been placed in the leader in helping students unless rigorous college placement derstand and navigate the digitrack. tal landscape where they spend Schrodt said that if he’s so much of their time.

DAVID SCHRODT elected, he’ll vote against the But integrating that emphaOPRF board candidate proposed curriculum change, sis on mindfulness and media but not, he insists, because he’s literacy into the educational against racial equity or doesn’t environment at OPRF will take acknowledge the high school’s the school board bringing in a new superintendent who intuitively un- fraught racial challenges.

“Based on the way it is now, I would vote derstands the unique challenges and opportu- against it, but not because I am against the nities of the technolo- principal on which it is based,” he said, gies that affect students’ adding that he doesn’t think that the curriculum changes will solve the underlying lives, Schrodt said.

That person, he added, problem of delivering a single, rigorous curcan’t be another middle- riculum to students across races, ethnicities aged administrator who and social classes.

“I’m a person who cares deeply about jusmay check all of the boxes, but “don’t have tice, but at the same time, I care about doing any experience and are things right and I want to make sure that the clueless about this mediated world these school not only makes the right choices, but also implements them in the right way,” Schkids are living.”

Schrodt said he vigorously disagrees rodt said, arguing that the empirical studies with the current board’s efforts to vote on on de-tracking that he’s seen don’t demonD200 Supt. Joylynn Pruitt-Adams’ replaceSee SCHRODT on page 16 ment before new board members are sworn

mindfulness training

“We should do some serious studying about this world our kids live in and teach them about the systems that are there.”

10

Wednesday Journal, February 17, 2021

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

HYBRID

gotten to know my teachers way more than I did my first semester.”

“I feel like the remote experience is a little harder than the hybrid one,” Serrigno said. “I feel like remote is a lot more stressful than hybrid.” from page 1 Josh Vanderberg, the parent of two and River Forest High School freshman D97 students who are currently athas adapted to the daily routine of morn- tending in-person classes as part of ing temperature checks and surveys. the hybrid model, said he’s “getting “Once a week we do a spit test,” he mixed reviews,” although the experisaid, referencing the Safeguard sa- ence is growing on both kids. liva screening tests that are designed “My daughter kind of liked the freeto monitor potential positive cases of dom of being able to move around the COVID-19. The test isn’t diagnostic, so house and do whatever she wanted to a positive spit test is considered “pre- do,” Vanderberg said. “She liked to sumptively positive,” mere prelude to an find her a little spot in the house and actual diagnostic test. she did not want to go back to school, Moroney said he’s gotten used to but I think after a week she’s beginmask-wearing and isn’t particularly ning to like it.” afraid of contracting the virus.

Vanderberg said both children are enjoying the opportunity to spend some time with their peers and teachers in Want to share your pandemic learning experience? person, although he acknowledged that the current email: michael@oakpark.com hybrid model is still “really restrictive.”

Serrigno said “Obviously I don’t want to get my fam- she’s even noticed that she’s learning ily sick and there are definitely some more than she was before the panpeople a little freaked out because this demic instructional changes. is still not normal to them, but at school “I feel like I’m reading more than everyone seems to be walking around I used to,” she said, adding that she like it’s a normal day,” he said. “But with feels like she has more freedom to masks on.” choose her reading projects.

There are oddities he’s noticed, But despite being relatively unthough. fazed by the adjustments, Moroney “Inside, you can only go up some sets acknowledged that his experience as stairs and not others, which is like walk- an incoming freshman is different ing through a maze,” he said. than OPRF students who are juniors As if OPRF were not already a maze to and seniors. begin with.

“It would be different if you talked “Exactly,” Moroney says, then laughs to an upperclassman because they knowingly. know the real experience of OPRF When compared to full remote learn- and they know what they’re missing, Moroney and Serrigno both said ing,” he said. “For me, I don’t know they prefer hybrid. what I’m missing out on.”

“I never really got to know my teachers online,” Moroney said. “Over the three days I’ve gone into the class, I’ve

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Photos courtesy Districts 97 and 200

BRAVE NEW CLASSROOM: Students take part in hybrid learning inside of classrooms at OPRF, top, and District 97, where masks and distancing have become the norm.

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11

Pandemic birthday on ice Local nurse Becky Badgero kept festivities outdoors

By STACEY SHERIDAN Staff Reporter

COVID-19 has prevented the celebration of numerous occasions and holidays, but Oak Park nurse Becky Badgero didn’t let the virus prevent her from enjoying her birthday Feb. 2. Nor did she sacrifice anyone’s safety to do so.

“Just because it’s a pandemic and just because it’s winter doesn’t mean you can’t come up with a safe plan to do something fun,” Badgero told Wednesday Journal.

To celebrate, Badgero shoveled snow outside of her home, digging out an area to set up her fire pit. She and her friend Nicole Mittendorf, also a nurse, sat around the little campfire, bundled up in coats.

“We just had a really nice time,” Badgero said.

While sitting outside, the pair enjoyed takeout from Hecho en Oak Park, 1053 Lake St. “They have fantastic margaritas,” Badgero said.

Unlike the arctic temperatures Oak Park and River Forest has faced this week, Badgero said the weather on her little birth-

day party was about 30 degrees.

“Let’s be honest, compared to right now, that feels just about tropical, doesn’t it?”

Badgero said.

She and Mittendorf didn’t even need to huddle for extra warmth. They kept socially distanced, while the heat from the fire kept them comfortable.

While indoor dining has been reinstated in restaurants, Badgero said it is still safer to see friends outdoors. With the COVID-19 vaccination efforts underway, Badgero said the world is getting closer to approaching normalcy again.

Badgero didn’t even mind missing out on an indoor celebration and may even choose to celebrate her birthday outdoors next year.

“We’ll still hope for the campfire because it was so fun,” she said.

Mittendorf, whose birthday is in March, hopes the weather will warm up enough next month for them to celebrate her birthday in the same style, according to Badgero.

One thing Badgero will remember for next time is to stock up on kindling.

“I need to buy more wood,” said Badgero. “Because once that was gone, we were done.”

Photo provided

COVID BE DAMNED: Nurses Becky Badgero and Nicole Mittendorf celebrated Badgero’s birthday around the firepit in a snowy backyard on Feb. 2. The margaritas, by the way, came from Hecho in Oak Park on Lake Street.

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Oak Park indoor dining restrictions modified, expanded, again Capacity limits increased for dine-in restaurants

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Oak Park restaurants may now serve more patrons in their dining rooms under a revised order from Oak Park’s public health department.

Interim Oak Park Public Health Director, Joseph T. Terry, issued a public health order on Feb. 10 modifying indoor dining in Oak Park to whichever is less of 50 patrons or 50% capacity of restaurants and bars.

The order differs from decisions made by the City of Chicago and the suburban Cook County Health Department but aligns with Region 10 meeting the guidelines for Phase 4 set forth by the Illinois Department of Public Health.

Despite qualifying to enter Phase 4, the City of Chicago has limited indoor dining

to the lesser of 50 patrons or 25% capacity in a move designed to prevent a spike in COVID-19 cases while positioning larger footprint dining establishments to invite more customers into dining rooms.

The suburban Cook County Health Department, overseeing Forest Park, Berwyn, Brookfield, and other surrounding Region 10 communities, has adopted the same more conservative approach to lifting indoor dining restrictions.

“There was no intent to make Oak Park more lenient than its Cook County neighbors,” said David Powers, Oak Park communications director. “Our health department determined that the cap of 25 patrons would too severely limit our few larger restaurants that can safely distance more diners in their spaces.”

While the new order supersedes the order issued by Terry on Feb. 3 as it relates to capacity limits, the requirements limiting patrons to six per table and six feet between tables will also remain in place. Masks are still required unless actively eating.

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Wednesday Journal, February 17, 2021

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The beginnings of Butter and Brown

All-day breakfast bistro serves up traditional and unexpected offerings

By MELISSA ELSMO Oak Park Eats Editor

After spending 17 months converting a retail space into a restaurant and navigating a pandemic, Lanell and Tiffany Brown have proudly opened Butter and Brown Bistro, 420 Austin Blvd., in the heart of the Lake and Austin business district.

“It is nice to see this corner coming to life,” said Lanell Brown. “We are happy to join Chef Daddy, Church’s Chicken and One Lake Brewing in the area. And we do a lot of business with our neighbor, Blue Ribbon Meats.”

The Brown family has resided in Austin for a decade and built Butter and Brown Bistro to be a hands-on, family-run enterprise. Customers should expect to find daughter Brittany behind the counter taking orders, accommodating special requests, and bringing friendly energy to every customer interaction.

The welcoming eatery offers all-day breakfast, but the expansive menu covers lunch and dinner as well. Full of fun touches, the menu, is designed to appeal to the masses and provides niche selections found on few, if any, local menus. Thankfully, Shaqueta Hinke, head chef, knows how to maneuver through all types of dishes and has familiarity with volume menus. Every menu item is cooked to order at Butter and Brown. A sign clearly states customers should expect to wait 15-20 minutes to receive their order to allow for proper cooking time.

“My wife and I are foodies, and we can tell when a restaurant starts cutting corners,” said Brown. “There are ways to get things done faster, but we won’t do it. Our food takes a little longer, but you can taste the difference time makes.”

Expect to find a vast array of classic breakfast fare like biscuits and gravy, chicken and waffles, and egg dishes to appeal to breakfast purists. Butter and Brown’s “Back that Thang Up” omelet comes brimming with bacon, sausage, ham, sauteed peppers and cheese while more innovative offerings like sweet potato infused waffles spiked with coconut, cinnamon and vanilla and an assortment of “OMG Buss it Baby Butter Sandwiches” keep things creative in the diminutive restaurant. Both children and adults will appreciate the customizable sandwiches featuring a choice of meat and

ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

COOKING WITH CARE: Brown and Butter Bistro, on Austin near Lake, specializes in breakfast food, which is available all day, courtesy of the Brown family.

come on a unique jam-filled bread making the offering an unexpected sweet and savory delight.

Most breakfast dishes come with a side of Butter and Brown’s signature “pimpin’ potatoes” and grits. The fresh spuds are cube cut and cooked with onions, red and green peppers, and are topped with cheddar, while the well-seasoned grits are served plain or with cheese in generous portions.

Customers clearly clamor for Butter and Brown’s grits making them popular at breakfast and at other times of the day.

Shrimp and grits have proven to be the single most popular offering on the broad menu. Study the menu long enough and you’ll find tempura-fried alligator, a massive tomahawk steak, and fried brussels sprouts with sweet and spicy drizzle included among the offerings.

Brown was raised by a competent home cook. His mother cultivated his love for cooking by putting a hot meal on the table every day and reserving fast food as a rare treat, but his time in the Navy taught him about large scale cooking and batch produc-

tion.

“I entered the Navy just like any regular person. I had no idea what I was doing,” laughed Brown. “But I found my way to the kitchen and became a cook. Before long I was cooking for 1,500 people at a time.”

After departing the Navy is 1996, Brown went on to a career in the car business, but never strayed far from the kitchen. The Brown family owns several properties they rent out on Airbnb and additionally rented out a duo of rooms in their family home through the platform. Relying on his love for cooking and his mother’s legacy, Brown frequently cooked breakfast and brunch for his guests.

“Everyone who stayed with us would tell me I should open a restaurant,” said Brown.

“One day my wife and I were stuck in traffic at the corner of Austin and Lake. When I saw this property, I asked Tiffany how she would feel about opening a restaurant. We had no idea what it would entail or that we’d be opening in a pandemic, but by the grace of God we are here.”

Since opening, the Browns learned from locals that 30 years ago the very same store front operated as a neighborhood restaurant. Now, in addition to welcoming firsttime patrons, Butter and Brown Bistro is serving up a sense of nostalgia to longtime residents with every meal.

“It has been awesome being open. The neighborhood has been nothing by receptive. We hope to give people a place to listen to good music, read a newspaper and enjoy breakfast, lunch and or dinner.”

Wednesday Journal, February 17, 2021

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

15

ART BEAT

Applause is silent partner, supporting OPRF arts

More demand, dwindling dollars for nonprofit

By MICHELLE DYBAL Arts Editor

Applause is a silent partner of sorts at Oak Park and River Forest High School, behind the scenes funding guest artist visits and equipment like musical instruments and holding fundraisers so students have money to pay for performing arts expenses from lessons to trips.

While the nonprofit Applause is serving more students than ever, significantly less money is coming in during the pandemic.

Each fall, an early performance in the school year is Huskie Music Fest. It includes all the band, choirs, orchestras, and other groups such as Show Choir and Jazz bands. Applause hosts the event and this is their biggest fundraiser.

Not only does the group bring in money from ticket sales, it sells sponsorships before and during the event. An Applause sponsorship includes free tickets as well as a listing in future concert programs.

In 2019, Applause made just over $2,300 in Huskie Music Fest ticket sales. But the bigger aspect, said Lesa Kiefer, Applause president, is the sponsorships. That year, 79 sponsorships were purchased, some on the way out after the concert because families were “so impressed by the music program,” for a total of almost $7,300.

In 2020 there was no Huskie Music Fest due to COVID-19.

“This year we’re only at half of that; we’re only at 40 sponsorships, for about $3,800,” she said.

That’s $5,800 less than the previous year -- more than half of their annual income according to Kiefer. And, Applause started serving more students at OPRF last school year.

“We made the attempt to bring in and involve more groups,” Kiefer said. This included Spoken Word Club and Shakespeare Club. “We’ve been trying to expand the number of kids we assist so our budget actually increased some … so we have more kids, but we have less funds.”

When planning began in the music department for the Prisms of Winter concert, it became clear that outside video editing was needed to compile the 400 plus student recordings to create the virtual concert. According to Kiefer, re-allocating funds became one way to pay the $8,400 price tag, both on the part of the music department as well as Applause.

“The teachers sent out really terrific emails saying, ‘without Applause there wouldn’t have been a Prisms,’ because the school didn’t have any money at that time to offset the cost of Prisms,” Kiefer said. “The music department, out if its own budget, paid $4,000. We paid the balance, about $4,400.”

Some of the Applause money that had been budgeted in 2020/2021 for buying equipment, having guest artists and supporting a regular marching band season was shifted to pay for Prisms. An example of an equipment purchase is a Sousaphone bought in 2019 for the Marching Band. Equipment purchase requests are not coming into Applause this school year, Kiefer said.

A similar situation has arisen with the theater department for the virtual spring musical. While Applause had budgeted for guest artist visits, that is being re-allocated, with approval, so funds can be put toward the costs of the virtual version of the musical Working (2012 Version). The show includes approximately 70 students in cast, crew, or-

File photo

GIVE THEM A HAND: Huskie Music Fest at Oak Park and River Forest High School is Applause’s biggest fundraiser of the year. It was not held in 2020 due to COVID-19. chestra and production staff.

The musical itself is primarily being funded by the OPRFHS Alumni Association, which stepped in and gave $9,000 to the theater department to produce Working. The show, streaming in mid-April, will be prerecorded. The donation covers video editing and audio engineering.

Other performing arts groups are benefitting from visiting artists funded by Applause this school year. Harmony, a gospel choir group, worked with Kendall Nesbitt, an awardwinning gospel artist for eight weeks. Jazz Combo students are working with a guest combo and Spoken Word Club met with a poet. Theater design and senior Shakespeare class students along with Shakespeare Slam Team received a virtual presentation and tour with Shakespeare’s Globe Theater, something few schools in the world are able to do, according to Kiefer.

With budgeting for 2021/2022 looming – Applause’s fiscal year starts July 1 – Kiefer said the loss of income this year may have an impact on next year’s programming and purchases. She said there are reserves, which they may use, but expects they will have serious discussions with each performing arts group and Applause may have to spread small cuts to each area.

“We’re definitely being stretched in a way that makes me a little sad, because these kids are already missing out on something,” Kiefer said. “I’m hoping when they go to school next year, we can make it as normal as possible, and I hate to have to think about not being able to give the full support we have in the past and that the negative effect of COVID will continue.”

To make matters worse, two of the groups Applause supports, theater and marching band, also have less in their own accounts because their fundraising dollars are down.

Theater makes money from concessions during in-person shows and marching band from a Farmers Market bake sale, a car wash and bowling event. With these off the table in 2020, and into 2021, their need for support from Applause will likely increase according to Kiefer.

And, if there is not an in-person Huskie Music Fest this fall due to the pandemic, that could further hurt Applause’s financial situation right at the time they need to rebuild their finances.

“If that happens again and we go through a whole other cycle where we’ve lost half of our income a second year in a row, down the line is going to have devastating consequences,” Kiefer said.

When Applause appealed to the crowd that tuned into the online Prisms of Winter concert in December with a preshow PowerPoint on all the group does, only five people bought sponsorships. They had hoped for much more; in person concert tickets were $10 per person and the virtual concert was free. The group is now attempting to raise funds through local dining opportunities during the next three months.

Applause is a nonprofit, primarily made up of parents who have students in the performing arts at OPRF. It has been around for 52 years, founded as the Concert Tour Association to hold fundraisers to help student musicians pay for travel. It still holds regular fundraisers, with 95 to 98 percent of profits going into individual student accounts for use on performing arts expenses. Student fundraisers include the winter citrus sale and spring flower sale. Need-based scholarships are also available to students for things like marching band camp and travel related to the performing arts. Each year, one $1,000 college scholarship is awarded to a senior planning to major or minor in the performing arts. The group holds an annual meeting about pursuing the performing arts in college. They have also advocated for the arts. The group lobbied and succeeded to have music classes counted in 10th through 12th grade students’ GPAs starting with the Class of 2015.

More on Applause or to become a sponsor, $25 and up: applauseoprf.org/about. Also, dine on the rooftop, order take out or delivery at One Lake Brewing Wednesday Feb. 17 through Sunday, Feb. 21 and mention Applause and 10% will go to the nonprofit.

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Wednesday Journal, February 17, 2021

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

COFSKY

SCHRODT

Lone incumbent

River Forest attorney

from page 9

from page 9

“The second is to ensure access for everyone and that’s the de-tracking piece,” Cofsky said. “There are certainly some students who will be in other programs, but the majority of students will have access to the same curriculum.

We know there are barriers that exist. We know there are inequities that exist and so we’ve got to take action.”

The new superintendent, and the new board configuration, will also be responsible for shepherding a campus building overhaul to completion — a project of a magnitude that OPRF has probably not seen since the high school was originally constructed a century ago.

Cofsky was on the board when Pruitt-Adams recommended that the district fold the high school’s urgent need for new pools to replace the two aging ones that were built roughly 100 years ago into a much more comprehensive facilities master planning process.

By the spring, workers will have made significant progress toward completing a new South Cafeteria and twostory Student Resource Center, among other work. Cofsky was strongly against issuing more debt to pay for the new construction.

On Monday, Cofsky said he’s proud of the board’s fiscal record during his tenure. During his eight years on the board, the district became essentially debt-free, and has maintained an AAA bond rating and a roughly $100 million fund balance. In the past, Cofsky has lauded the board’s record of abating millions in taxes in order to give back to residents a portion of that fund balance, which started to swell in 2005, much to the chagrin of many district taxpayers.

More recently, during a meeting last month, Cofsky

praised the fact that a financial audit and separate Comprehensive Annual Financial Report prepared by accounting firm Baker Tilly showed that, from 2011 to 2020, the D200 board increased the tax levy by about 1.4 percent a year, on average. That was a significant shift from the period between 2003 and 2010, when the board’s levy increase each year averaged about 6 percent, the report showed.

In November, Cofsky voted to avoid a 2.3 percent increase related to CPI in order to keep the tax levy flat compared with last year’s levy, a move that forced administrators to figure out how to make $1.7 million worth of budget cuts.

And Cofsky has also sounded the alarm about D200’s potential pension liability if the state shifts the cost burden to local school districts. According to the Baker Tilly report, that burden might total around $400 million, a point that he brought up unsolicited.

“I consider myself fiscally conservative and responsible,” Cofsky said Monday. “We are a wealthy, well-resourced district. The rest of the world would love what we have. It is abundant. Our challenge is that we need to use it wisely. We need to say, ‘Where do we hope to drive change and are we putting our money where our mouth is?’”

strate that OPRF’s planned curriculum restructuring will be effective.

He said he also predicts a “backlash” that will happen if the district implements the district’s proposed curriculum changes. When asked to explain the nature of the backlash, including criticisms that it may be grounded in white resentment, Schrodt countered that the backlash he’s referencing is not the same as what has taken place at the national level.

“To the extent that the backlash is like what we see on the national stage and what plays out with all this Trump crap, do I agree with that? No,” he said. “But if it’s a backlash based on the reality that this program was not thought-out and properly planned, what do you say to that?”

Schrodt compared the proposed curriculum changes to his work on the executive committee of the Chicago Council of Lawyers, which he said was instrumental in the Pretrial Fairness Act, a bill that passed the Illinois House in January and that would effectively end cash bail.

“This act is really, really good,” Schrodt said. “It’s going to change the way our legal system works and will make it substantially aligned with the principals of justice. It was well thought out and took years to put together. I just don’t think that in this instance [with respect to curriculum changes at OPRF], all of the due diligence and the real hard work that needs to go into these things has been done.”

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Wednesday Journal, February 17, 2021

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

C R I M E

Man finds carjacker ds carjacker sitting in vehicle in vehicle

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After leaving it unlocked and running, a ■ Someone broke into another vehicle and man returned to Apple his 2016 Toyota RAV4 and removed a black iPhone 6 and a Range found stranger sitting inside vehicle Rover akey fob between 7 a.m. andhis 11:29 a.m., at 9:4611a.m., Feb.800 9 inblock the 6500 block of RoosFeb. in the of North East Avevelt The loss stranger, a man of about 18 enue.Road.

The total in that incident is $200. years in age, then began to drive away in the vehicle. The victim unsuccessfully attempted to stop the man from driving off, causing him fall to the A to vehicle, leftground. running and unattended, Theremoved vehicle was last on was from theseen 6100traveling block ofeast North Roosevelt Oak Feb. Park11. police recovered Avenue atRoad.

8:13 a.m., Chicago police the vehiclethe in vehicle the 1100atblock of the South recovered 9:13 a.m., Feb. 11 in Harvey without the 4500Avenue block of Northapprehension.

Avenue on the Chicago side. A cellular phone and cash were missing from the vehicle. The estimated loss is $150.

Motor vehicle theft

Burglary

■ Someone entered a residence through an unlocked door and then took a canvas picture hanging on a wall inside between ■ Someone punctured the two front tires 3:45 p.m. and 7 p.m., Feb. 9 in the 1100 block of a vehicle in the 600 block of South Ridgeof Westgate Street. The estimated value of land Avenue between 6 p.m., Feb. 8 and 7:30 the loss is unknown. a.m., Feb. 9. The estimated damage is $200.

■ Someone entered an apartment build■ The doorknob and key lock to a storage ing and removed several packages from the unit were damaged between 3 p.m., Feb. 6 vestibule between 12:30 p.m. and 2 p.m., Feb. and 3 p.m., Feb. 13 in the 1000 block of Susan 12 in the 800 block of North Boulevard. UnCollins Lane. The estimated damage is $50. known loss at the time of reporting.

■ A residential garage was forced open These items, obtained from the Oak Park and a snow blower and tool kit, containing Police Department, came from reports Feb. multiple tools, were removed from inside 9 – Feb. 15 and represent a portion of the between 9 p.m., Feb. 12 and 12:18 p.m., Feb. incidents to which police responded. Any13 in the 600 block of North Kenilworth Avone named in these reports has only been enue. The estimated loss is $1,200. charged with a crime and cases have not ■ Someone entered a parked vehicle and yet been adjudicated. We report the race of removed a black leather wallet, containing a suspect only when a serious crime has the victim’s state identification card, drivbeen committed, the suspect is still at large, er’s license, a check and credit and debit and police have provided us with a detailed cards between 7 a.m. and 11:30 a.m., Feb. 11 physical description of the suspect as they in the 800 block of North East Avenue. The seek the public’s help in making an arrest. total loss is $20.

Compiled by Stacey Sheridan

Criminal property damage

17

Wednesday Journal, February 17, 2021

17

C R I M E

■ Someone broke into another vehicle and removed a black Apple iPhone 6 and a Range Rover key fob between 7 a.m. and 11:29 a.m., Feb. 11 in the 800 block of North East Avenue. The total loss in that incident is $200.

Motor vehicle theft A vehicle, left running and unattended, was removed from the 6100 block of North Avenue at 8:13 a.m., Feb. 11. Chicago police recovered the vehicle at 9:13 a.m., Feb. 11 in the 4500 block of North Avenue on the Chicago side. A cellular phone and cash were missing from the vehicle. The estimated loss is $150.

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Criminal property damage ■ Someone punctured the two front tires of a vehicle in the 600 block of South Ridgeland Avenue between 6 p.m., Feb. 8 and 7:30 a.m., Feb. 9. The estimated damage is $200.

■ The doorknob and key lock to a storage unit were damaged between 3 p.m., Feb. 6 and 3 p.m., Feb. 13 in the 1000 block of Susan Collins Lane. The estimated damage is $50.

These items, obtained from the Oak Park Police Department, came from reports Feb. 9 – Feb. 15 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

*Oak Park Main Branch Only: New or existing customers opening a new deposit account will receive a 5” x 5” Safe Deposit Box FREE of charge for the first year annual fee. At renewal, you will be billed the current rate as *Oak Park Main Branch Only: New or existing customers opening a new deposit account will receive a 5” x 5” of the anniversary date of the box rental. Safe Deposit Boxes are NOT A DEPOSIT, NOT FDIC INSURED, NOT Safe Deposit Box FREE of charge for the first year annual fee. At renewal, you will be billed the current rate as INSURED BY ANY FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AGENCY, and NOT GUARANTEED BY THE BANK. Please review the of the anniversary date of the box rental. Safe Deposit Boxes are NOT A DEPOSIT, NOT FDIC INSURED, NOT “Personal Product & Fee Schedule” and “Safe Deposit Box Fee Schedule” for additional Safe Deposit Box fees.

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Wednesday Journal, February 17, 2021

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

MAIL

encing delays to contact the Postal Service.

After not receiving mail for a few days, Victor Yipp went to the post office Monday, Feb 8. to ask for his mail directly as he was expecting some important letters but was told it was already out with a carrier for defrom page 1 livery.

“One thing that struck me is how variable “We didn’t receive our mail later Monday; it is,” Keys told Wednesday Journal, noting nor did we receive our mail on Tuesday,” that many people are going days without re- said Yipp. ceiving mail while others are getting theirs He returned to the post office on Wednesdelivered daily. day, Feb. 10, where he explained his situaIf understaffed, Keys believes that the tion and was told it was out for delivery. LatOak Park post office should rotate mail car- er that afternoon, he received a large stack riers to share the burden of absent carriers. of accumulated mail.

Oak Park post office Yipp told Wednesday personnel, including Journal he and his wife Postmaster Keenia ThomIris sympathize with as, could not provide comthe plight of post office ment to Wednesday Jourworkers but would apnal, as the Postal Service preciate notice from the does not authorize empost office regarding deployees to speak to the lays. media. Sharrie Johnson, The delay between dea media representative livery and time of mailfor the Postal Service, ing has presented issues confirmed Oak Park was for local interior designshorthanded and apoloer Becky Brofman. A gized for the disruption fabric sample sent Jan. CONGRESSMAN DANNY DAVIS of services.

27 didn’t make it to Brof“We have experienced man until Feb. 11, after staff shortages at this lothe reservation period cation and are currently for yardage had ended. using available resources “Fortunately, the manto match the workload ufacturer has more, othcreated by the impacts of erwise my client would the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic,” John- have been out of luck,” said Brofman. son said.

She and her husband, a physician, used to The recent accumulation of snow has also receive “gobs of mail” delivered daily but in challenged the Postal Service, according to the last two weeks they have gone at least Johnson, who asked that residents keep the three days without delivery. path to their mailboxes clear.

While the consequences of the fabric “We appreciate the patience of our cus- sample’s late delivery were luckily averted, tomers and the efforts of employees as con- Brofman understands that the impacts of ditions change on a day-to-day basis,” said irregular mail distribution could be far Johnson, who encouraged residents experi- greater for others.

Postal interruptus

“Anybody that would like a job right now ... can go to the post office, fill out an application and more than likely get a job.”

ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

POSTAL SCARIER: With all this snow, it’s hard to get to the main post offi ce at Lake and Kenilworth, and even harder to get mail delivered.

“This isn’t life or death for me, but for others expecting checks, medication, supplies – it could be,” she said.

Another issue regarding mail, according to Brofman, is service at the main Oak Park post office on Lake Street.

“I waited over 30 minutes in line last week,” said Brofman. “There were two attendants, but not the whole time.”

Brofman also said the post office’s selfservice kiosk, which she prefers to use to minimize contact with other people, was out of commission. After waiting in line, Brofman’s trip to the post office brightened.

“I will say that the woman who waited on me was very efficient and pleasant,” she said.

Heather Cianciolo, of northwest Oak Park, told Wednesday Journal that her mail delivery problems had ramped up in last the few weeks.

“I got a notification that the post office couldn’t deliver a package because ‘The address was inaccessible,’” Cianciolo said.

“I knew that was false. I’d spent hours that weekend clearing the snow, and the walkway and sidewalk were both cleared and dry all the way to the corner.”

While she said she understands the impacts of inclement weather, COVID-19 and Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s controversial plans to restructure the Postal Service have on delivery, Cianciolo has written to U.S. Rep. Danny Davis in the hopes that Congress will fix delivery issues nationwide. Davis’s district includes Oak Park, River Forest, swaths of the West Side and western suburbs.

“Our postal service is essential, and they need help,” Cianciolo said.

The problem of late mail extends far beyond Oak Park, according to Davis “It’s pretty much across the board,” said Davis, who added he has been receiving complaints about late mail throughout his district, which encompasses much of Chicago’s West Side, as well as Oak Park and River Forest.

Davis told Wednesday Journal he has been studying Postal Service operations for decades. Long before his political career

began, Davis worked as a postal clerk. As a congressman, Davis chaired the Congressional Postal Caucus and recently got back on the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. The committee’s purview includes the Postal Service.

The root of the delivery problem, exacerbated by COVID-19 and poor weather, has been the efforts to privatize the Postal Service, beginning with the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970, according to Davis.

“That essentially said that the postal service had to be self-sufficient,” said Davis.

“The services had to pay for the operation.”

Since then, different entities have chipped away at the postal service by privatizing parts of its operations. The most recent efforts, according to Davis, were made during President Donald Trump’s term.

“He really tried to gum up the works,” said Davis, who is meeting with Chicago Postmaster Wanda Prater and postal union representatives Feb. 16 to review operations.

Davis doesn’t think “there’s any doubt” about the Postal Service not having enough staff, particularly carriers – a job opportunity for those willing to brave extreme temperatures.

“Anybody that would like a job right now, if they are in pretty good physical condition and can read and write and want to work,” said Davis, “they can go to the post office, fill out an application and more than likely get a job.”

Oak Park resident and political science professor Joel Ostrow stated that some of the delivery issues faced by the postal service, which he called the “most trusted institution” in the United States, could be addressed simply by tweaking starting points.

If a carrier was unable to complete his or her route the day before due to poor weather or some other circumstance, the carrier should begin by delivering mail to the households he or she missed.

“What seems to happen, though, is the next day, the postmaster sends the carrier out to the same starting point,” said Ostrow.

“Some people are getting their mail every day and the rest of the route isn’t getting their mail at all.”

19

We l c o m e t o O u r H o u s e | O a k Pa r k R e g i o n a l H o u s i n g C e n t e r

February 17, 2021

Special Advertising Section

Welcome to Our House

D

uring the civil rights movement, the Village of Oak Park initiated a concerted approach to improve racial integration and break the pattern of block-by-block segregation. In 1972, the Oak Park Housing Center opened its doors to address fair housing concerns and to promote affirmative racial integration of renters in Oak Park. Twenty years later, the housing center expanded its services to surrounding communities and changed its name to Oak Park Regional Housing Center (OPRHC). Still occurring today, OPRHC Rental Counselors meet with potential renters to find apartments through one-on-one counseling and guided/ virtual apartment visits. Participating building owners list their units for rent with us, receive education on fair housing requirements, and ways to enhance their units. All services of OPRHC are provided free to renters and owners. Within the area served, 41 percent of housing are rentals and one-third of renters move each year, thus OPRHC continues to sustain this successful integrated housing program.

In Oak Park, OPRHC serves an average of 2,000 clients annually and work with 1,300 building owners/managers amassing 7,500 units. To improve upward mobility, the OPRHC develops and initiates programs to connect residents and promote dialogue

Meet our staff:

Going on 50 years, the OPRHC has transformed from a rental integration agency to all-encompassing, regional housing agency providing advocacy on the premise of creating integrated communities and building wealth for people of color.

Moving Forward Acknowledging the agency’s growth, the OPRHC worked with a consulting agency to develop a strategic plan. At the top of the list was strong recommendations to undergo rebranding initiatives and upgrading technology. The goal over the next three years is to better define our purpose and mission, to increase our outreach to serve a growing targeted population, and to efficiently serve our clients with technology that meets today’s standards.

Athena Williams, Oak Park Regional Housing Center, Executive Director

within neighborhoods. Neighbors Knowing Neighbors events are held throughout the year and attracts over 150 residents from the near west suburbs and our Chicago neighbors to the east of the Austin Community. Planned for Spring 2021 is a Neighbors Knowing Neighbors event and a spring forum focusing on healing racial transformation in an effort to furthering equity and inclusion. In 2006, the OPRHC opened the West Cook Homeowner

Athena Williams, Executive Director

Center (WCHC), a HUD-approved homeownership program providing home buyer and financial empowerment counseling and education. In 2020, at the West Cook Home-ownership Center, 403 clients received after received home-ownership and financial empowerment education.

53 households received assistance in foreclosure avoidance, and more than 50 families purchased homes.

Michael Stewart, Associate Director

Deborah Williams, Program Director, Housing

Michael has been with OPRHC for more than 25 years. He works directly with Property Owners.

He also provides Human Resource and Operational oversight for the agency.

Athena Williams has been with the agency in multiple capacities since 2015.

Lisa Zeigler, Strategic Initiatives Director

Gretchen Worley, Residential Housing Coordinator

Lisa oversees grant management and special project implementations.

Gretchen has been with OPRHC for more than 20 years. She performs all duties from intake, to client advising, to client apartment marketing.

Deborah has been with the agency for 3 years.

She manages programs associated with Homebuyer Education and Counseling, Financial Education, Foreclosure Prevention, Rental Counseling and Assistance

Natasha Escobedo, CPA Natasha is our agency’s full-time Accounting Manager. She oversees all of the OPRHC finances.

Jerry Ehernberger, Senior Residential Coordinator Jerry has been with OPRHC for more than 15 years. He specializes in data collection and client advising.

1041 South Boulevard, Oak Park, IL 60302 • 708-848-7150 5934 W. Lake St., Chicago, IL 60644 • 773-887-5187 • www.oprhc.org Hours vary by location and season, please call ahead before you plan your visit!

The Oak Park Regional Housing Center is a 501c3 nonprofit, HUD approved agency. OPRHC is the home of: the Live in Oak Park Program, providing rental matching to affirmatively further fair housing; and the West Cook Homeownership Program, providing homebuyer education, all areas of housing counseling, and a financial education initiative to help people enhance their financial skills and create positive banking relationships The opinions and views presented in this section are not the opinions or views of any of our sponsors or funders.

Special Advertising Section

We l c o m e t o O u r H o u s e | O a k Pa r k R e g i o n a l H o u s i n g C e n t e r

February 17, 2021

Reducing the Cost ofthe Homeownership Reducing Cost

of Homeownership Huntington is passionate about the growth of our communities as well as doing the right thing. This is why we are limiting our lender closing costs

Huntington is passionate about1 for the borrowers growth of our communities as well as a home in a low- to purchasing or refi nancing to $500 2 our lender closing costs doing the right thing. This is why we are limiting moderate-income area . to $5001 for borrowers purchasing or refinancing a home in a low- to 2 . REVERSE FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION moderate-income areaSEE SEE REVERSE FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Meet our staff:

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Wilane Boone,

Anita Bailey,

Senior Counselor, Financial Coach

Counselor, Rental and Housing

Reducing the Cost of Homeownership Kamau “Maui” Jones,

Community Engagement about the growth Specialist

Jacqueline Mota, Communications Coordinator

Huntington is passionate of our communities as well as doing the right thing. This is why we are limiting our lender closing costs to $5001 for borrowers purchasing or refinancing a home in a low- to moderate-income area2.

Sharon

SEE REVERSE FOR ADDITIONALEckhoff INFORMATION , Intake Manager Sharon has been with OPRHC in multiple capacities over the past 12 years. Currently she oversees all reception area and intake processes.

Karen Barragen, Intake Coordinator Karen works alongside Sharon answering phones, following up with clients, etc.

20

21

We l c o m e t o O u r H o u s e | O a k Pa r k R e g i o n a l H o u s i n g C e n t e r

February 17, 2021

Special Advertising Section

How the OPRHC has Helped Client: Marcia The Oak Regional Housing Center is a life-saver for single moms. Shortly after my son was born, I found out the condo I was renting would be going on the market. A friend recommended OPRHC. A Guide provided me with listings to match exactly what I was looking for and I found my new place the same week.

It saved me time apartment hunting with a newborn and allowed me to stay close to the downtown Oak Park area I love. I can’t wait to move in to our new place. A million thanks!

Client: Javairia When Javairia came to the Oak Park Regional Housing Center for the first time, she was in desperate need of help. She loved her current apartment, but her lease was set to expire in just over a month and she was not able to renew it. To make matters worse, the pandemic was only making it more difficult to find a new apartment.

She was living in South Oak Park, knew she wanted to stay in the Village and was looking for quality assistance that wouldn’t cost her much. When she reached out to the Live in Oak Park program, she was relieved to learn that she was going to receive free assistance. She started touring studio apartments with Gretchen, the Housing Center’s Guide, who introduced Javairia to different neighborhoods of Oak Park and explained the benefits of each of them. Within the week, Javairia found a great new studio apartment in a neighborhood she found charming and felt safe in, and she was able to avoid the stress she expected from having to find a new home on short notice.

LENDER CLOSING COSTS Any Huntington mortgage product can qualify for this offer, but standard borrower qualifications, financing guidelines, and property type eligibility guidelines will apply.

Reducing the cost of homeownership is one way we are making a difference in our communities.

Ready to learn more? Let's talk.

Ahkeem Henderson Mortgage Loan Officer NMLS# 224387 5310 W Cermak Rd Cicero, IL 60804 o: (708) 466-2017 e: ahkeem.k.henderson@huntington.com www-auth.hban.us/mortgage/henderson-ahkeem 1

Applies to Huntington closing costs. Customer must still pay certain customary expenses at closing, such as charges by other parties, including but not limited to those for property taxes, transfer taxes, property insurance, flood insurance, mortgage insurance, owner’s title insurance, guarantee fees, bond fees, state revenue stamps, city revenue stamps, seller concessions or cash back to the borrower. Example loan payment calculation: $150,000 loan amount at a fixed rate of 4.99% (5.081% APR) with 0.00 rate buy-down points, 360-month term, 80% loan to value, and customer-paid closing costs of $500 results in $804.32 P&I monthly payment (payment amount does not include amounts for escrow of taxes or insurance so actual payment obligation will be greater).

2 The property must be located in one of Huntington’s assessment areas and designated as a low- or moderate-income census tract by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council.

All loans are subject to application and credit approval, satisfactory appraisal, and title insurance. Terms, conditions, and loan programs are subject to change without notice. Other terms, conditions, and restrictions may apply.

The Huntington National Bank is an Equal Housing Lender and Member FDIC. a®, Huntington® and aHuntington.® are federally registered service marks of Huntington Bancshares Incorporated. Welcome.℠ is a service mark of Huntington Bancshares Incorporated. ©2021 Huntington Bancshares Incorporated. NMLS ID #402436 (01/20)

It is all about the intention

“T

hat is just how Oak Park is.

Diversity is a way of being here.

It’s who we are as a community.”

My friend said this after I expressed my admiration for the continued work of the Oak Park Regional Housing Center. I was taken aback by her comment, as I know this is not just how Oak Park is. Who we are as a community has always been reliant upon people who work tirelessly to create diversity as a way of being. Since the 1970s, the Oak Park Regional Housing center has been largely responsible for proactive strategies and programs that undo discriminatory practices and actively resist the ongoing cycle of segregation.

A long-term supporter of the Housing Center, my friend identifies as a progressive.

I share these details about her to highlight a common dilemma; Whether on film or in Not-For-Profit organizations, superheroes always struggle to gain recognition, even from the people who appreciate and benefit from the results of their superheroism.

Until we understand that segregation is created and undone by continual, intentional policies and decisions, this invisibility problem will remain. Well before COVID-19 caused service delivery interruptions, we failed to honor the Housing Center staff, volunteers and stakeholders for the difference they make in our communities every single day.

Their intentional, well-executed undoing is what makes Oak Park “who we are as a community”, and this undoing is far from finished. Diversity, inclusion and equity within our communities did not, does not, and will not ever happen “naturally”. This is why I think my friend’s declaration tells an incomplete story, a common mistake of privilege. We simply do not see the people who create and implement policies

Tracey Wik, OPRHC past Board President and current Board Member which enhance our quality of life daily because they are hiding in plain sight.

The monumental struggle to maintain a new and improved status quo is rarely recognized or appreciated.

Even stay-at-home orders did not thwart staff from their important mission.

Led by the talented and indefatigable Executive Director Athena Williams, the organization was unstoppable. Seeing their work as more vital than ever, the staff enthusiastically executed strategic plans developed pre-Covid-19. These efforts paid off – more than 1000 new renters moved to Oak Park, sustaining integration through the Neighbors knowing Neighbors Program and “Affirmative Moves*”. In addition, Ms. Williams hired new talent to fill key positions, including grant manager, community engagement specialist and finance director. She worked tirelessly to procure resources which enabled each and every staff member to do their work remotely and safely.

Like other superheroes whose true identities are unknown, Housing Center staff and volunteers quietly went about their day-to-day business, positively influencing people’s lives one decision at a time. These efforts deserve more than a shout out – these community members have earned far more than our gratitude.

While recognition is important to continue staff engagement, what would have the greatest impact is to continue to do our part with financial contributions, participatory citizenship and more. What difference can you make to continue this important work? * Affirmative moves occur when a person moves to a building where their race is underrepresented.

Tracey Wik, OPRHC past Board President and current Board Member

Special Advertising Section

We l c o m e t o O u r H o u s e | O a k Pa r k R e g i o n a l H o u s i n g C e n t e r

February 17, 2021

Oak Park Regional Housing Center...By the Numbers!

The OPRHC and its two programs: Live in Oak Park and the West Cook Homeownership Center, have worked diligently throughout 2020 to meet our

community’s evolving housing needs.

While 2020 presented many challenges, we met them head-on with determination and compassion to ensure the necessary

housing services and resources to all the communities we serve.

1041 South Boulevard, Oak Park, IL 60302 • 708-848-7150 5934 W. Lake St., Chicago, IL 60644 • 773-887-5187 • www.oprhc.org Hours vary by location and season, please call ahead before you plan your visit!

The Oak Park Regional Housing Center is a 501c3 nonprofit, HUD approved agency. OPRHC is the home of: the Live in Oak Park Program, providing rental matching to affirmatively further fair housing; and the West Cook Homeownership Program, providing homebuyer education, all areas of housing counseling, and a financial education initiative to help people enhance their financial skills and create positive banking relationships The opinions and views presented in this section are not the opinions or views of any of our sponsors or funders.

22

Wednesday Journal, February 17, 2021

NEED TO REACH US?

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

23

Homes

Get ready for spring with West Cook Wild Ones Group to present virtual lecture series on native gardening

By LACEY SIKORA

W

Contributing Reporter

e have been stuck in our houses for months on end -- with a few breaks for shoveling snow -- but it is the perfect time to think about getting outside.

The West Cook chapter of Wild Ones, whose mission is to educate residents of Cook County and beyond about the value and beauty of native ecosystems and native gardening, is bringing a three-part online lecture series right into your home to help you start planning for the spring and summer planting season.

Adrian Ayres Fisher, co-chair of programming for West Cook Wild Ones, says the beginning of the pandemic led the organization to scramble a bit as in-person meeting was not permitted. Now, they have mastered the art of the online meeting, and Fisher says that the virtual talks have the added

bonus of having a wider reach.

“We’ve always had a very dedicated audience coming to the library for our events, but we are now reaching new people, and even people from out of state for our talks,” Fisher said.

Last spring, the organization first got a hint that the pandemic was changing the way people thought about their yards and gardens. At the annual native plant sale,

How to attend Register for “Midwest Native Gardening Basics,” a free, online garden lecture series at westcook.wildones.org All programs will use Zoom video conferencing, and participants need to have access to high-speed internet to participate.

orders were way up, and over 50 percent of customers were first-timers. Fisher calls these numbers surprising and impressive.

“This upcoming, three-part series is really aimed at these new gardeners, although experienced gardeners will find a lot to enjoy, too,” Fisher said.

The series features four noted gardeners who will share their knowledge and answer questions about native plants. The speakers will cover soil, sun and water needs, drought tolerance and sustainability and the many benefits of gardening with native plants.

First up on Feb. 21 from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m., Chicago-based horticulturalist Ken Williams will share “Top 10 Things Native Gardeners Need to Know.”

Williams, who says his interest in botany began when he was a college student studying engineering in Colorado, first started working with native plants in the Chicago area as a vegetable gardener.

He later landed a job as a horticultural-

ist and has been working with native plants ever since. Inspired by the books of Doug Tallamy, Williams says he has learned about how much of the natural world depends upon native plants.

He says that native plants provide food for specific caterpillars, which are food for specific songbirds.

“By our landscape choices, we’re choosing to starve baby birds,” Williams said. “Bird populations are declining fast.”

While there is a lot to be worried about, he cites Tallamy’s latest book “Nature’s Best Hope,” and says that his work is to help get the point of the book across.

“You don’t need a government program to fix this,” Williams said. “You just need people taking responsibility for their own piece of earth. The hope is you, the individual homeowner.”

Williams says he replaced his own lawn See WILD ONES on page 26

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Wednesday Journal, February 17, 2021

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26

Wednesday Journal, February 17, 2021

WILD ONES

Beautiful, tough gardens from page 23 with a garden that is beautiful and tough. He hasn’t had to water it in three years “What you can do is limitless,” Williams said. “Get a native plant and put it in the ground.”

On March 21 from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m., Denise Sandoval of Good Natured Landscapes on Naperville will speak about “Native Plants through the Season.”

Sandoval says her aim is to cover plants that will do well in most people’s gardens in a variety of soil and light conditions. Sandoval has been landscaping with native plants for over 16 years, and says more and more people are becoming aware of the benefits of native plants.

She hopes to make the use of native plants more accessible to home gardeners. One way to do this is to share readily accessible native plants that can be found here in local garden centers and big plant sales.

Sandoval will also share information on the wildlife that each plant supports, so gardeners can foster an appreciation and connection to the insects and birds that benefit from native plantings.

“Everyone knows about monarch butterflies and milkweed, but we’re discovering more and more that other insects have that same relationship with certain plants,” Sandoval said.

She plans to include design tips for local gardeners too, noting that many native plants are good spreaders.

She will tell people how to use them in large and small

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM spaces, and plans to include a handout so people will have an easy point of reference to plan their gardens.

The third talk of the series takes place April 18 from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. The “Native Plant Q&A” will feature experts Monica Buckley of Red Stem Native Landscapes in Chicago and Sarah Michehl with The Land Conservancy of McHenry County.

Michehl says it’s part of her job to support all kinds of landowners from private homeowners to municipalities and park

districts on how to preserve land. She notes that one key way to do that is to plant native species, and she gives advice on plant choice, design and plant care.

She notes that interest in native gardening “blew up” during the pandemic.

“Everybody’s home, and people feel like they’re doing something good by planting native plants,” Michehl said. “It’s good to feel that you are helping.”

Photo provided

GREEN THUMBS: Presenters include Ken Williams (top left), Denise Sandoval (bottom left) and Sarah Michehl, who will explain the benefits of gardening with native plant species such as the Swamp Milkweed.

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Wednesday Journal, February 17, 2021

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29

SINGLE FAMILY HOMES

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Sunday, February 21 ADDRESS

OFFICE

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TIME

210 S. Lombard Ave, Unit B, Oak Park. . . . Baird & Warner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $219,000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Open Sun 1-3 170 N. Marion St., Unit 3, Oak Park . . . . . . . Baird & Warner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$369,900 . . . . . . . . . . . . . Open Sun 12-2

ADDRESS

OFFICE

LISTING PRICE

TIME

830 N. Austin Blvd., Oak Park . . . . . . . . . . . Baird & Warner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $373,000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Open Sun 1-3 623 S. Highland Ave., Oak Park . . . . . . . . . . Remax in the Village . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $459,000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Open Sun 1-3 1014 Baldwin Ln., Oak Park . . . . . . . . . . . . . . @properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$425,000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Open Sun 1-3 923 Linden Ave., Oak Park . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Baird & Warner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $499,000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Open Sun 1-3

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Wednesday Journal, February 17, 2021

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Wednesday Journal, February 17, 2021

VIEWPOINTS

31

Oh deer! p. 34-35

Education and the opposition party

A

title like this sounds as though it comes from the fringes of society, maybe a dark YouTube or something called Neoflix, doesn’t it? Is it nuance or is there really opposition to educating children? I have challenged local school officials on whether reducing academic rigor was the best strategy for reducing racial predictability of achievement.

However, I have never been able to convince myself the system truly wanted less for any student. Not until now. Not until reading an amendment to the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) Administrative Code where partisan politics are cloaked in new culturally responsive teaching standards.

“Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning Standards For All Illinois Educators” are requisite standards adopted by every institution capable of Illinois licensure for teaching. They shape teachers and, by default, shape students. Instead of conserving longstanding and effective standards, improving clarity, or upgrading with edits, the liberal machine hit Ctrl Alt Delete and started over. The new standards include important upgrades that should better serve an increasingly diverse demographic, and incorporating a new category, “Leveraging Student Advocacy,” seems critically important.

Wait, is that teaching students to advocate for their own education? How to ask for more time with a teacher, or better curricula in reading, writing and arithmetic?

The category on curricula initially required teachers to “Embrace and encourage progressive viewpoints and perspectives that leverage asset thinking toward traditionally marginalized populations” until Republicans pushed back and the word “inclusive” was substituted for “progressive.” My argument is, every student loses when adults play politics, and pulling prospective teachers through the eye of any partisan needle only stands to diminish and distort an already anemic pool of teachers.

Education research shows it takes just one relationship to positively affect student outcome. Not long ago I traveled 1,500 miles to say thanks to a professor who changed my outcome. I graduated from a small rural high school where only half the students went on to college, with only half of those going to a four-year school. Not every student is destined for college, but I wanted it and my general lack of achievement led me to a two-year technical school where I trained for a career as a sewage treatment plant operator. Sounds crappy, huh? I transferred schools and eventually met Charlie, my data point in that education research.

His systems ecology class started with a field trip, sampling a stream and spending the rest of the semester writing a computer program to mirror what we measured: How the riffle at the edge of the woods was oxygenating the water, and how this explained what we found in our nets. How that same water later curved through a prairie, rose in temperature,

FILE PHOTO

STEVE LEFKO

See LEFKO on page 34

R A C E

A N D

E D U C A T I O N

I N

O A K

P A R K

Wrestling with entrenched white beliefs at OPRF

I

Part 8

n 1991, District 200’s first major effort to understand and end racial achievement disparities was set forth in the Report of the African-American Achievement Committee (RAAC). It came a year after District 97 made a strategic commitment to racially integrated and equitable learning.

The RAAC’s findings set an agenda that would challenge D200 right to the present and only slowly translate into meaningful change. Such was the pace of education reform. Even more so — it was the nature of altering the dynamics of how racial injustice compromised America’s idealized vision of public education as the great equalizer of opportunity and social mobility.

JOHN DUFFY

Seeking a path forward

DONALD OFFERMANN

Racial equity goals being addressed by D200 today were present in the core findings of the RAAC’s four subcommittees. Superintendent/Principal Donald Offermann chaired the landmark study by teachers and administrators. The report 1) documented racial disparities in student grades,

discipline, and standardized test scores; 2) identified faculty beliefs about why teachers were not succeeding with large numbers of Black students; 3) recognized and described African Americans’ centuries-long struggle for freedom and justice and the extraordinary obstacles Blacks faced in America’s oppressive racial order; and 4) reviewed the emerging national research knowledge on school organizational and instructional practices which contributed to Black student success.

African-American student excellence

To show that the school was indeed working in many ways for African-American children, the report began with an impressive presentation of the names and accomplishments of 83 outstanding Black students in academics, the arts, athletics, and leadership — a proud proclamation that Black student excellence was occurring at OPRF. The challenge set forth, as is the case with racial justice and equity across America today, was to make those successes more equitable across race, class, and gender.

For certain, the barriers to equity examined by the committee had no quick and easy solutions. Still, See DUFFY on page 35

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Wednesday Journal, February 17, 2021

O U R

I

V I E W P O I N T S

Family comes first

V I E W S

Tone matters

f it were time to hand out another of the Journal’s Villager of the Year awards — we know it is only February — it would hands down go to Reesheda Graham-Washington, owner of Live Café and a respected facilitator on equity and other issues.

We were taken by Graham-Washington’s comments at the well-attended vigil on Jan. 7 outside the Oak Park Avenue coffee shop and gathering space after a brick was thrown at the café wrapped in a racist message.

The tone of her message that evening was strong, direct, but also calming and healing. This was not necessarily a hate crime, we recall her saying, but it was most certainly a “fear crime.” We’d call it both. But acknowledging that racial hate comes percolating out of irrational fear is a key point. Not as the basis to make excuses but to plan a response.

Today, Stacey Sheridan reports the inconclusive results of the investigation of the incident by Oak Park police. Available surveillance video does not show the crime, said an Oak Park police commander. So while the case is currently closed, Commander Bill Rygh said the department is hopeful there will be new leads to track.

Graham-Washington says the Oak Park police were responsive and proactive. She said the connection between her and the department was “relational” and she contrasted that to the “objectified transaction” that many people feel in their encounters with cops.

Right there we have the basis for the sort of honest and open conversation about policing that Oak Park’s elected and appointed leaders have been fully unable to have since the racial reckoning began last summer with the murder of George Floyd by cops in Minneapolis. The village board bickers and provokes intensifying division and cloaking a certain desire to do better on policing in this village.

Graham-Washington’s tone also contrasts with the pathetic and debilitating social media exchanges currently underway among principals in our story from last week about Trustee Simone Boutet’s choice to involve police in a text message contretemps with Anthony Clark, a candidate for village trustee.

This hurtful nonsense will blow up our opportunity for a healthy politics.

We need to do better. Resheeda Graham-Washington ought to be our model.

Vaccinating teachers Watch the protracted fight in Chicago between public school teachers and the city’s government over school reopening.

Watch the mixed messaging coming out of the Biden administration over the necessity of vaccinating teachers before public schools can safely reopen.

And then be grateful to watch the collaboration of Oak Park’s village government, its teachers and public schools as mass vaccinations of our educators is now fully underway.

Last Saturday, the OPRF Field House was the mass vaccination site for the first round of shots in arms for our teachers. The field house will host vaccinations next Saturday, too.

With the high rates of effectiveness being demonstrated by the current vaccines, it can only raise confidence among every stakeholder in our essential public schools to see teachers line up for shots.

A critical step toward moving past this hard and, for many students, lost year of education.

Families are this test bed of love because we can’t entirely quit them. This is what makes families so fascinating, because you’re thrown together with a group of people, who you would never pick if you could simply pick on the grounds of compatibility. Compatibility is an achievement of love. It shouldn’t be the precondition of love, as we nowadays, in a slightly spoiled way, imagine it must be.

We’re highly socialized creatures who really take our cues from what is going on around us. And if we see an atmosphere of short tempers, of selfishness, etc., that will bolster those capacities within ourselves. If we see charity being exercised, if we see good humor, if we see forgiveness on display, it will lend support to those sides of ourselves. We need to take care what we’re exposing ourselves to, because too much exposure to the opposite of love makes us into very hostile and angry people.

stroying this democracy. The rest of us can’t allow that to happen.

You’re being lied to by untrustworthy people in whom you placed total trust. At some point you will realize that they took advantage of that trust and betrayed you.

You’ll shake your head over how this could have happened.

A few, too few, Republicans are starting to come to their senses. Ten Republican congressmen and women showed great courage in voting to impeach the man who led the insurrection. Seven Republican senators showed great courage in voting to convict him. The numbers are much too small but they indicate an awakening.

There are rays of hope, most notably Adam Kinzinger, a Republican congressman from Illinois, who has been telling the truth about his dysfunctional party.

He says, “It’s time to unplug the outrage machine, reject the politics of personality, and cast aside the conspiracy theories and the rage. … People need to be reminded that the Republican Party has this rich history. We used to be optimistic.” He likens his party to going on a massive bender. In the morning, he says, “You have a choice. You can take a delicious Bloody Mary, or actually confront your choices and become a better person.”

Realizing the truth, telling the truth, and becoming a better person is not that hard. Well, it is for some people, like Mitch McConnell who knew the truth, then told the truth, but not until after he voted with 42 other Republican senators and reality-deniers to acquit the former president on the flimsiest of technicalities, just when the American family needed them most.

And why? Mostly because they’re afraid of losing their jobs, sad to say. What was more important at this crucial juncture in American history, defending democracy or keeping their jobs? Their answer was loud and clear and will shame them forever.

And here’s the thing: It’s not like their job is all that great. It’s the U.S. Senate for heaven’s sake. They do almost nothing. All they get from the job is the chance to be on TV once in a while and make a lot of money (though most are already rich). And feel “powerful,” whatever that means.

Is that worth betraying our family? In the film “A Man for All Seasons,” the future saint, Thomas More, during his trial, confronts his former assistant, who has lied and been rewarded with a political appointment (Attorney General of Wales). More says, “Why Richard, it profit a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world ... but for Wales?!”

The Republican Party sold its soul … for celebrity jobs and a few perks. That’s why they cannot be allowed anywhere near the steering wheel.

Kinzinger will likely lose his job, but he held onto his soul. He is the example Republicans need to follow.

For the sake of the country.

And because, never forget, we are a family.

KEN

TRAINOR

Alain de Botton

Author of the essay, “Why you will marry the wrong person”

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e are family. America, that is. And family is where forgiveness takes place. Also interventions and tough love. We love you, but we have to level with you. As Krista Tippett said in her On Being interview with Alain de Botton, “In our marriages and with our children, there are things about the people we love the most, who drive us crazy, that we do not comprehend, and yet we find ways to be intelligent, to be loving — because it gets a better result.”

So, Republicans, we forgive you. Getting angry about your self-destructive and nation-disruptive behavior over the last four years hasn’t gotten much result. So we love you, but we have to be honest. You are off the rails, utterly and completely. You have been trying to create your own reality, but it isn’t pretty — or compatible with the real world.

True, the rest of us are imperfect. We are fallible, too, and often wrong. But we are still on the rails, however wobbily. And at a certain point, those who love you need to tell you that you can no longer drive the family car. It’s just too dangerous.

You’re part of the family and nothing will ever change that. But you are a danger to yourself and the family. We have to take away the keys until you acknowledge that you have a problem and start taking steps to becoming a responsible person again.

Even if you didn’t directly engage in insurrection, your support for it is seditious. And your embrace of outright lies about the election indicates that your grasp of reality can’t be trusted.

What is reality? To a large extent, it is “an agreed-upon fiction.” But when there is more than one agreed-upon fiction and they are completely at odds, another measure of “what’s real” must come into play. Your fiction is de-

College costs are outrageous I am a resident of River Forest, and I have been longing to express my opinion on the expense of going to college for lower- and middle-class families. As a 17 year-old, I will have to start looking at schools, and the things I have come across have startled me. I believe that colleges take advantage of people because they know they can, especially selective colleges.

They know they offer the best education and people

are willing to pay the price. But even non-selective colleges can charge up to $40,000 a year per student, which is outright ridiculous. I believe there should be a limit on how much colleges can charge based on the student’s achievement and that student’s financial stability.

John Silvestri River Forest

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No balance between hospital and neighbors

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his letter is in response to some of the statements made by Iris Sims, chair of the Oak Park Plan Commission in her Feb. 10 op-ed, about Rush Oak Park Hospital’s controversial request to build a 713-space parking garage in our neighborhood.

Ms. Sims discussed the garage during a Feb. 1 meeting of the Oak Park Village Board.

During the meeting, a petition opposing the garage, signed by more than 90 members of the Center West Oak Park Neighborhood Association (CWOPNA), was read. Ms. Sims wrote that the petition was from a “new neighborhood group that formed after the last commission meeting.” In fact, CWOPNA is the same group of neighbors that for the past several years has been trying to ensure that hospital growth is reasonable and responsible. (Some residents have been at it for decades.) You can read more about our point of view in published letters from Jan. 13, 2021 and Nov. 19, 2019.

The legitimate needs of the hospital and its neighbors have long been out of balance. Unfortunately, the village board has tipped that balance even further on the side of the hospital. At its Feb. 1 meeting, for example, the board invited a hospital executive to speak and answer questions, but no residents were invited to speak.

As background, the Plan Commission, after a lengthy discussion during their Feb. 20, 2020 meeting, recommended the village approve the garage with conditions, including lowering the height to six stories and allowing Rush to add a level underground so that it would not tower quite so much over two-story homes. Importantly, a full and accurate summary of the Feb. 20, 2020 Plan Commission discussion regarding the garage height was not provided at the recent Feb. 1 meeting.

Nonetheless, the village board, based on no new data, saw fit to approve Rush’s original application

DAVID OSTA

One View

W E D N E S D A Y

JOURNAL of Oak Park and River Forest

COURTESY OF MATTHEI & COLIN ASSOCIATES

OUT OF BALANCE: Proposed Rush Oak Park Hospital parking garage compared to surrounding houses. height at seven stories. This is unprecedented. Never before has a parking garage or possibly any structure so high been allowed across from single-family homes.

The village board also rubber-stamped the hospital’s demand to rezone homes it has been gobbling up in the 600 block of Maple Avenue — from Residential to Hospital zone. Astonishingly, the board approved this rezoning without knowing the hospital’s plans for the properties, which Rush is keeping secret.

Sooner or later, Rush will seek approval to develop Maple Avenue. We hope the village by then will finally be willing to — gasp — balance the hospital’s growth with neighborhood quality.

For decades, the hospital has been bulldozing homes and eliminating green space to accommodate its relentless growth. To help offset these negative effects, the hospital should be required to compensate the neighborhood by, for example, funding a neighborhood park. (Such compensating benefits are required under the village’s ordinance for planned developments.)

So what is the village afraid of ? Rush is not going to leave Oak Park. We should gain something when we allow it to expand into neighborhoods. We hope candidates in the upcoming election for village board president and trustees will commit to restore the balance.

David Osta is an Oak Park resident.

Enthusiastic about Parakkat and Scaman You may know Ravi Parakkat as the founder of the Takeout 25 Oak Park initiative that has creatively leveraged social media to help sustain our local restaurants through the pandemic. What you may not know about Ravi is that he is an engineer focused on digital transformation in industries including manufacturing, financial services and energy.

Ravi’s award-winning work in Ontario, which has made energy more affordable by implementing data and technology in innovative ways, is an example of what he does best. He brings a technology vision for our community to address some of our most pressing challenges.

Ravi is also an MBA, and has managed businesses big and small. His efforts to implement financial transparency in banking after the 2008 financial crisis remain a part of our financial system to this day. With these experiences, he would bring fiscal responsibility, transparency and discipline to the village board, essential skills to address our budgetary challenges that will result from the pandemic.

Vicki Scaman has a far-reaching resume of accomplishments and service in Oak Park. She seems to have done it all: chair of the Liquor Control Review

Wednesday Journal, February 17, 2021

Board, Township grant coordinator, OP-RF Chamber Board member, business manager, nonprofit executive director ... the list goes on. Of course, her experience as village clerk means she knows a thing or two about government transparency, something she is deeply passionate about.

Vicki believes in taxing bodies working together for efficiency, avoiding silos that can be counter-productive. As a creative thinker and an active listener, she knows that embracing inclusion and the diversity of our viewpoints can be something positive, not negative, in setting us on the journey to real change.

Both Ravi and Vicki made an eager effort to contact me as chair of the Civic Information Systems Commission regarding what we had been planning to investigate for 2021 and beyond. I appreciate that they understand it requires an active interaction between a village board and commissions to get results.

Let’s elect Ravi for Village Trustee and Vicki for Village President to help us realize an equitable, sustainable and affordable Oak Park.

David Baker

Chair, Civic Information Systems Commission

Editor and Publisher Dan Haley Senior Editor Bob Uphues Staff Reporters Michael Romain, Stacey Sheridan, Maria Maxham Viewpoints Editor Ken Trainor Real Estate Editor Lacey Sikora Food Editor Melissa Elsmo Arts Editor Michelle Dybal Sports/Staff reporter James Kay Columnists Marc Blesoff, Jack Crow, Doug Deuchler, Linda Francis, Mary Kay O’Grady, Kwame Salter, John Stanger, Stan West Staff Photographer Alex Rogals Design/Production Manager Andrew Mead Designers Mark Moroney, Javier Govea, Debbie Becker Business Manager Joyce Minich Marketing Representatives Marc Stopeck, Lourdes Nicholls Sales & Development Mary Ellen Nelligan Circulation Manager Jill Wagner E-MAIL jill@oakpark.com Chairman Emeritus Robert K. Downs

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

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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Wednesday Journal, February 17, 2021

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The Deer Committee needs to check their math

was saddened by the manner in which the Deer Committee’s vote was reached to recommend deer culling to the River Forest Village Board of Trustees. However, as the committee considers its final report, I do hope the members re-evaluate their reading of the survey and, based on recent national events, the dangers of ignoring facts in favor of advancing questionable positions.

Based on the article, at least one committee member saw a mandate from the people supporting culling. That is an unusual conclusion based on the reported facts. Of the River Forest residents responding, as to the specific question of culling, which I understand defines the charter of the committee’s recommendation, 764 of 1,509 respondents (50.6%) voted either to do nothing or to pursue non-lethal options. This shows an admittedly slim majority favoring no or a non-lethal solution, even with a general recognition that the deer were damaging vegetation (87.3%) and leaving feces in yards (62.1%). Even acknowledging these issues, which I did in my ballot, a majority still opposed any lethal action.

Only 332 (22%) favored the lethal option using professional sharpshooters. I am sure they are convinced that this will be a good learning opportunity for their children and grandchildren, and I am sure they will bring those children to witness the culling and to learn how we should best interact with nature and the world around us.

And 280 respondents (18.6%) preferred a combination

of culling and non-lethal means. Even if one performs the very questionable analysis and includes the mixed-resolution voters in the culling camp, you merely reach 40.6%. The remaining 133 votes (8.8%) were reported as either taking no position or some alternative position.

These results are far from the mandate in support of culling claimed by Village Trustee Cargie and committee member Hollenbach. In fact, I recall clearly from grade school math that 50.6% is a larger percentage than 40.6%. It is also larger than 49.4%, if one includes votes expressing no or other opinions.

I agree 100% with Mr. Hollenbach that “it’s time to listen to the people.” I also think it is time for him to revisit some of his school math texts. I am proud of a village that would solicit residents’ input on a topic such as this. I find it reprehensible and unconscionable that the input would be ignored. Committee member Madden is correct that the process was a sham.

Mr. Cargie is also correct in saying this process was “reflective of our village” and our village president, though I do not believe Mr. Cargie and I would agree on whether this was a good or bad thing. Here is simply another example of an official needing to prove they are right and losing sight of what it means to do the right thing.

If that sounds familiar based on four years of recent experience, maybe we can indeed learn from history. Maybe we can reflect that learning at the April election too.

Chris and Mary Hillcoat are River Forest residents.

CHRIS & MARY HILLCOAT One View

Photo courtesy of Mary Wickers

Respecting River Forest residents’ voices

On Jan. 25, I attended a River Forest Village Board meeting to voice concerns about issues of transparency and process affecting the advisory bodies that report to the village board. Today I want to share with RF residents the response I received because I think it shows a way of handling resident input that is getting in the way of real progress on issues from deer management to Lake and Lathrop.

Rather than creating a framework for the board to genuinely address the issue I raised by acting as a deliberative, legislative body, including feedback from residents, President Adduci and village staff handled the matter themselves, outside of the village board room.

Four days after my public comment on the issue, an entire new page of policy was

LEFKO

Where education is heading from page 31 teemed with aquatic plant life becoming depleted of oxygen, and left our nets empty.

We formulated hypotheses on land and water use, tweaked parameters and simulated responses, gaining foundational knowledge of stream systems.

We learned to use tools for exploring truth back then. Now, on a walk in Montana

added to the village website where exactly no policy had existed. This detour around the village board was a disservice to my request, and to the community. Not only does it not solve the problem, nor include public discussion, it gives a false impression that there is no problem and never has been.

I hope residents will ask themselves why ideas like increased transparency are welcomed with such robust resistance in River Forest. Residents should be aware that, with elections less than two months away, their vote gives them their own power to decide for themselves if they want their government to resist transparency or embrace it.

I would like to see our village be a place where every voice is heard and treated with respect. We need those voices; they will be a vital part of strong community solutions.

Adduci is the best choice

I also still wish for the issue I have raised to be taken seriously. I have submitted a report to the village board with suggested improvements for advisory bodies, along two veins: 1) transparency and accountability, and 2) power sharing with checks and balances. My report is the result of conversations I have had with municipal law attorneys, elected officials, not-for-profit experts, and others.

The report will be included in the packet for the next village board meeting, but if any residents would like to see the report in advance of the meeting, or discuss any questions about these issues of transparency and checks and balances in village government, they may email me at publicjcg@gmail.com.

I am always pleasantly surprised by the high quality of River Forest residents who voluntarily serve year-after-year on the village’s many municipal boards. The elected members of the Village Board of Trustees are a prime example of this unselfish service to our community.

It is no surprise, then, that the qualifications of candidates vying for the presidency of the village board are exceptionally high. One candidate, however, stands out. Given her years of experience as a member and president of the board, together with her record of accomplishment, leaves no doubt in my mind that candidate Cathy Adduci is the best choice for the office of president of the village board.

River Forest

River Forest

with Charlie as a friend, I had another question: What changed most from beginning to end of your teaching career?

“It used to be students showed up wanting to learn how to conduct science so they could apply it to topics important to them, their family or plans for future work,” said Charlie, whose teaching career spanned about 40 years. “I began to notice in the later years students increasingly showed up with conviction for pre-conceived ideas and wanted to learn how to support them with science.” He lamented the order of things, and how the lack of open-mindedness complicated teaching a discipline.

John Grant

His answer seems eerily correlated with the direction of public education.

An upgrade to teaching standards seems normal. Changes to reflect advances in understanding or to benefit a changing population makes sense. I am afraid of the nuances in these new standards though, the vagueness that seems to confuse the position of student and teacher. There is risk in putting answers before exploration, activism before foundational knowledge.

Our way out of most messes comes from diversity of thought, education is no different, and anything otherwise seems in opposition to good education.

Al Popowits

On other matters …

Four more years! Cathy Adduci has this way of bringing people together, leveraging her experience and her board and village resources, and finding the best path forward. Decisions, by definition, will not make everyone happy.

What makes me extremely happy about Cathy is she is always available, listens intently, involves many, and has unbridled passion for the future and people of River Forest.

Steve Lefko is a 2010 transplant to River Forest, husband and father, and a former corporate scientist who has traded up for the role of Director of Character Development, Lefko Inc.

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Rushing into culling deer The deer culling issue in River Forest is again a hot topic on social media. Before any final decisions are made, I urge the press to report on what is going on. The IDNR and the Cook County Forest Preserve (they own the deer) have not done any studies and are not making River Forest a priority for any deer culling they normally do on their lands.

Of course, they are willing to take taxpayer money (I think I heard $200,000) from River Forest to cull deer, though.

This should not be a hasty decision. The reason I keep hearing to justify killing the deer is to preserve the landscaping in residents’ yards.

Also, this is an extremely populated area and before this dangerous undertaking occurs, there has to be justification to kill the animals and an assurance and indemnification that the village will not be liable.

When public monies are at stake, the public must have a voice. I heard some members of a committee assigned to do the research recently resigned because their voices were silenced and/or ignored.

What about Maywood on the west side of the woods?

I hope we get some good reporting on what is going on.

Pierangela Murphy River Forest

No need to slice and dice ‘defund’

Thanks to Ken Trainor for taking a crack at explaining “defund police” within an inch of its lexicographical life. But I think it’s easier than all that. Ask yourself what the “woke” users of the phrase had in mind and see where you stand. It was a rallying cry for the deeply distressed, and

DUFFY

Culturally responsive? from page 31 the report’s lasting legacy was that it unabashedly set forth potentially transformative ideas for teaching, learning, and confronting the dominant culture and structures that inequitably shaped race and education at OPRF. It was an agenda that D200 would both commit to and evade in subsequent reports and plans right up to the present Strategic Plan, which prioritizes racial equity goals with strong accountability procedures.

‘Cultural deficit’ thinking widespread In addition to a detailed presentation of quantitative achievement disparities — on average, 20 points on standardized test scores between white and Black students — the report included revealing faculty beliefs about Black students, their families, and the values teachers believed African Americans had about education.

Teachers overwhelmingly put the burden on Black students expressing what sociologists refer to as “cultural deficit” thinking. Put bluntly, the vast majority of teachers believed African-American students and their family culture did not place a priority value on education. Only a few teacher responses suggested that any responsibility for racial inequities might be found in OPRF’s established curricu-

as a referendum question it works. It’s a thermometer that takes the community’s temperature, measuring what side voters are on of this year’s great divide. No need to slice and dice. Let the spirit move you.

Jim Bowman Chicago

lum structures and its white-dominant culture. On a positive note, most teachers believed improvement was possible and that they were willing to learn how to make that happen.

The report also established a key component that subsequent D200 research reports in 2003, 2011, and recent surveys and public testimonies embrace — asking Black students how they experience OPRF High School. The report’s survey data on Black and white students’ beliefs found that their attitudes on good teaching and valuing of education were very similar. It also concluded that negative peer pressure was not a significant factor impacting the motivation of students of color.

Culturally responsive teaching Noteworthy for current professional learning at OPRF was how the work of the subcommittee on instruction, headed

by African-American teacher Mark Vance, evolved a vision for instruction at OPRF. The subcommittee’s recommendations commenced D200’s slow-but-steady journey to adopting culturally responsive learning. That goal today is being advanced as part of racial equity procedure goals being coordinated by Dr. Levar Ammons, director of Equity and Student Success.

Unfortunately, despite faculty commitments to develop and innovate their practice, the RAAC, like subsequent achievement studies in 2003 and 2011, garnered a limited follow-up commitment. The lack of any reference to the report in the

Wednesday Journal, February 17, 2021

The cruelty of killing deer

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The new face of hypocrisy

Excellent column [To defund or not to defund? That is not the question, Ken Trainor, Viewpoints, Feb. 10]. I’ve been saying the same thing for months. My friends keep trying to explain what it means, and I say if you have to explain it, it’s the wrong term.

Is Mitch McConnell the consummate face of hypocrisy?

Although Donald J. Trump was impeached in the House while still in office, Mitch McConnell refused to start the Senate phase of the impeachment trial until after Inauguration, even going so far as to say that he would turn away the House Managers if they attempted to deliver the Articles of Impeachment before Jan 20. Then McConnell refused to convict in the Senate, even though he admitted Trump was culpable for the coup, on the basis that his hands were tied because the Senate trial was being held after ex-president DJT left office.

Up until now, the definitive example of hypocrisy is that of a man appearing in court after killing his parents, and then pleading for mercy on the grounds of being an orphan.

Well Mitch McConnell’s argument ranks right up there.

Oak Park

Oak Park

Regarding the deer culling decision in River Forest: Could we all be better, kinder, and smarter residents and disdain the cruelty of killing deer?

Jayne Gould

River Forest

‘Defund’ is the wrong term

Joyce Porter

district’s 1995 Strategic Plan bore disturbing witness to this assertion. Nonetheless, many faculty continued to design supplementary programs to aid Black students, including support for AfricanAmerican students who gained admission to Advanced Placement and Honors curriculum where Black students were disproportionately under-represented. Still, the overall organization for teaching and learning continued to perpetuate what equity allies viewed strongly as a system of learning that was racially separate and unequal in opportunity to learn.

Emergence of a D200 equity coalition D200’s lack of urgency in responding to the RAAC, combined with the school

Fran Sampson

board’s physical removal of APPLE mothers from the high school because of a dispute over who actually was the president of APPLE, contributed to the creation of a coalition that focused on equity, but especially on racial equity.

In 1994, a year before the divisive 1995 D200 board election, the unprecedented coalition of equity allies, all based in Oak Park, formed Building and Renewing Institutions Dedicated to Good Education (BRIDGE). Coalition allies would sponsor a slate of candidates for the board in the 1995 election. All BRIDGE candidates would be defeated by a PTO-backed slate that saw no problem with the status quo at OPRF. To that unsettling story I turn in Part 9 of this series.

Candidate One Views and letters of support

With the election approaching, we need to set the ground rules for making use of our Viewpoints pages. As in past years, we will allow each candidate running for office one official One View essay of 500 words to discuss their candidacy. Since the election is April 6, candidates may want to wait till we get closer to Election Day, but they can also run it earlier if they wish.

Letters in support of candidates should be 350 words tops. If we receive too many for our limited space, we’ ll run the overflow online.

Ken Trainor

Viewpoints Editor

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Wednesday Journal, February 17, 2021

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

Join the library’s Anti-Racism Resource Challenge

As your public library, we’re committed to dismantling the systems of oppression that have created, and that fuel, racist conditions. We know we have work to do, both as individuals and as a community organization serving all of Oak Park.

And as a key part of our continuing anti-racism journey, we’ve kicked off a yearlong Anti-Racism Resource Challenge that we’re inviting you to join us in. Adults and high schoolers can participate — no Oak Park library card required.

To join the challenge, go to oppl.org/arrc.

From there, you can register in Beanstack, a digital platform we’re using to track our progress. We first used Beanstack last summer with our all-virtual kids summer reading program, and it’s available via both web browser and app.

This is a self-guided challenge that’s broken up into four themes for the year.

Each theme offers specially selected books, media, articles, and websites. It also offers opportunities to participate in library-led programs and conversations, and encourages ways to take everyday actions to help dismantle systems of white supremacy.

The challenge launched on Feb. 1, at the start of Black History Month. To get the

most out of the experience and take advantage of related library programming, we encourage you to begin with Theme 1, but you can start anytime. Here are the themes for the year: Theme 1: How We Got Here – Historical Context, Structural Racism, White Supremacy.

We must learn the true history and extent of racism in our country before we can understand how we got here and be capable of creating lasting change.

Theme 2: Policing, Mass Incarceration, Protests, Black Lives Matter. We affirm that state-sanctioned violence against Black communities must end, and that racial disparities and biases heavily impact our criminal justice system.

Theme 3: Contemporary Black Life in America. We appreciate the humanity of Black lives, the contributions of Black communities, and the richness of Black experiences.

Theme 4: Intersecting Identities. We commit to an inclusive movement, recognizing the value of all Black lives, and striving to fight oppression in all of its forms.

While recognizing the complexity of an anti-racism journey, and that different

ANTIRACISM RESOURCE GUIDE TEAM One View

people are at different points in their learning, we believe following four sequential themes will help us all get the most out of the challenge. The themes also help capture the many different facets of our journey, moving us through learning about white supremacy to celebrating Black joy.

And speaking of Black joy, join us for “Celebrating Black Futures: Live Performance, Art, and Conversation” on Friday, Feb. 26, 5 p.m. Learn more and register at oppl.org/calendar.

Both the challenge itself and the materials featured in it were curated with inten-

tion, passion, and library-wide representation by the library’s Anti-Racism Resources Guide Team.

There are special selections from two larger comprehensive anti-racism resource guides: Anti-Racism: A Starter’s Guide, and Countering Anti-Black Sentiments. Both guides, and the challenge, are at oppl.org/ anti-racism.

We hope you’ll join us!

The Oak Park Public Library Anti-Racism Resource Guide Team is made up of committed library staff across departments.

SHOP LOCAL! SUPPORT SMALL! Feb 19-21, 2021 Check out your favorite local retailers this weekend and see if they are participating in this BIG SALE! oprfchamber.org

O B I T U A R I E S

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Frances Picone, 95 Wright docent, Ascension CCD instructor

Frances R. Picone, 95, longtime resident of Oak Park, died at home on Feb. 11, 2021. Born in Chicago on April 19, 1925, she attended Austin High School and worked at the Chicago Tribune as a copy girl. She was even offered her own advice column, which she turned down to marry and move to Oak Park in the late 1950s to raise a family. There she raised six children, and was a caregiver to her mother who also lived with her family. She served as room mother, den mother and picture lady for many of the classes at Hawthorne Elementary School (now Julian Middle School). She lived in the family home for 62+ years where she passed peacefully in the early morning of Feb. 11.

She was very active in the Oak Park community, serving as a docent for the Frank Lloyd Wright Home & Studio, where she memorized pages and pages of history and architectural information about the property and surrounding area.

For at least 25 years, she and, her husband Roy taught an early morning gym class at the Oak Park YMCA where they made lifelong friends and acquaintances. Their class was always full of area judges, lawyers, community movers and shakers and even Mr. T! She was also active in Ascension Parish and taught religious education classes for several different grades over the years.

The Picone home had a very large dining table that was always full of family and others. There was always plenty of food and room for one or two more, even with six kids and their grandmother. A wonderful cook, her pizza, fry cakes and homemade ravioli will be missed although the children have attempted to carry on the tradition.

She always looked forward to weekends with the grandchildren, who were the light

of her life these past years. Many meals were spent around the kitchen and dining room tables in lively conversation.

Frances Picone was the wife of the late Rosario (Roy); the mother of Liz, Christopher, Joseph, Regina (William) Etherton, Victoria and Rosario Jr.; the grandmother of Mary Frances, Ann Marie, Victoria, Rosario III and Julia.

The Picones were faithful supporters of the Monastery of the Holy Cross, a Roman Catholic, Benedictine Monastery continuing a centuries-old tradition of living according to the Rule of St. Benedict. In lieu of flowers please consider a donation to the monastery at chicagomonk.org.

Helen Scotty, 90 Ascension and Economy Shop volunteer

Helen Neale “Quasi” Scotty (nee Lawson), 90, longtime resident of Oak Park, died on Feb. 10, 2021. Born on Jan. 6, 1931, she grew up the youngest of four in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood. She spent 16 years at St. Xavier schools. From the beginning, family meant the world to her, whether they were siblings, elders, cousins, children, nieces, nephews, or grandkids. She always made others feel special and emphasized the importance of family.

After marrying Jim Scotty and starting their family in Cincinnati (three kids) and moving to Boston for a decade (seven more), they moved to south Oak Park, to a Gunderson house located halfway between her two sisters’ family homes. There she managed the joyful chaos of raising her own family and becoming a volunteer extraordinaire, mostly at Ascension School and Church.

She later taught first grade and shifted her volunteering focus to the Economy Shop.

Her greatest accomplishment is the leg-

acy of her family. She showed how to love, to have compassion, and to forgive. She also showed how to have fun and to never take yourself too seriously.

Quasi is survived by her children, J. Neale (Sue), Sharon (Dave) Holland, Mike (Amy), Kate (Elias) Zavala, Brian (Barb), Meg (Guy) Larson, Tom (Carol), Matt (Donna), Madolyn (Kevin) Trant, and Sean (Jocelyn); her grandchildren, Alec and Chris Scotty, Dan and Mark (Britta) Holland, Jack (fiancée Alex Morocco) and Meghan (fiancé Pat Nolan) Scotty, Joel and Luke (Steffani) Zavala, Ben and Suzy Scotty, Casey and Cara Larson, Alex, Seamus and Finn Scotty, Emma, Katherine, Lizzie and Anne Scotty, Cailyn and Declan Trant, and Maxine Scotty; and great-grandchildren Jimmy Holland and Kaylee Zavala. Her husband Jim preceded her in death.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Ascension Church, Oak Park, or the Alzheimer’s Association.

Services will be held at a later date when reduced restrictions will allow for a proper celebration of this great woman’s life.

Toodle-oo!

Arrangements were handled by Drechsler, Brown & Williams Funeral Home.

Blanche Scodius, 95 Former Forest Park resident

Blanche M. Scodius (nee Naiser), 95, of Brookfield, formerly of Forest Park and Melrose Park, died on Feb. 8, 2021.

Born on Dec. 28, 1925, she was the wife of the late Victor; the mother of Victor (Janet), Joseph (Martha Ann), and Michael (Sharon); the grandmother of Brandon, Evan, Sara (Nicholas Brown), Rachel, Jack, Maxmilian, and Alexandria; and friend to many.

Visitation was held on Feb. 13 at Zimmerman-Harnett Funeral Home, 7319 Madison St., Forest Park, followed by funeral Mass at

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St Bernardine Church, Forest Park, and interment at Mount Carmel Cemetery In lieu of flowers, donations to the Parkinson’s Foundation are appreciated.

Rosemary Whiston, 92 River Forest resident

Rosemary Whiston (nee Schwartz), 92, of River Forest and formerly Oak Park, died on Feb. 10, 2021. She was the wife of the late Daniel A.; the mother of Caroline (Peter) Stankovich and the late Brent Whiston; the grandmother of Anna (fiancé Kyle Dubiak) and John; sister of the late Ilene (Neil) Megown, Betty (Tony) Wiewel, J. Fred (Agnes) Schwartz, and Marvin Schwartz; and the aunt of many nieces and nephews.

Visitation was held on Feb. 13 at Drechsler, Brown & Williams Funeral Home, followed by funeral Mass at St. Giles Church, Oak Park, and interment at Queen of Heaven Cemetery.

W E D N E S D A Y

JOURNAL of Oak Park and River Forest

To run an obituary Please contact Ken Trainor by e-mail: ktrainor@wjinc.com, before Monday at noon.

Please include a photo if possible.

Drechsler, Brown & Williams Funeral Home

Since 1880 Family Owned & Operated Charles Williams, Owner/Funeral Director 203 S. Marion St. Oak Park 60302 708/383-3191

38

Wednesday Journal, February 17, 2021 New local ads this week

HOURS: 9:00 A.M.– 5:00 P.M. MON–FRI

WEDNESDAY

CLASSIFIED Deadline is Monday at 5:00 p.m.

Place your ad online anytime at: www.OakPark.com/Classified/

YOUR WEEKLY AD

REACHES SIX SUBURBAN COMMUNITIES: OAK PARK, RIVER FOREST, FOREST PARK, BROOKFIELD, RIVERSIDE, NORTH RIVERSIDE, AND PARTS OF CHICAGO

Please Check Your Ad: The publisher will not be responsible for more than one incorrect insertion.

Wednesday Journal Classified must be notified before the second insertion.

The newspaper reserves the right to edit or reject any advertisement.

BY PHONE: (708) 613-3333 | BY FAX: (708) 467-9066 | BY E-MAIL: CLASSIFIEDS@OAKPARK.COM | CLASSIFIEDS@RIVERFOREST.COM HELP WANTED

HELP WANTED

CITY RENTALS DELUXE 3BR APT 5955 W HURON First Floor. Large kitchen, all electric appliances. Near West Suburban Hospital. Near all public trans. $1150/mo.

Call 773-637-8677 for appt.

YOUTH DEVELOPMENT SPECIALIST HEPHZIBAH CHILDREN’S ASSOCIATION PART TIME POSITIONS AVAILABLE The program will follow the safety Hephzibah Children’s Association guidelines of the IDPH regarding is a renowned social service agenface masks, social distancing and cy in Oak Park, IL that has been cleaning & disinfecting. helping children thrive and families Requirements include: flourish through innovative community-based programs.

• Minimum of 6 semester hours in education, recreation, social work, The Day Care Program is accepting or related college courses applications for February – June, • Experience working with children 2021 school year. We seek individuals to provide care and supervision If you are interested please contact: of 5-11-year-old children. Positions are Monday through Friday from Amy O’Rourke, Director of Day Care by email at: 12:15 – 6:00 pm. aorrouke@hephzibahhome.org include letter of interest and resume.

Responsibilities include assisting with and monitoring e-learning, suHephzibah Children’s Association is pervising arts and crafts, activities, an equal opportunity employer. We sports, group games, and indoor welcome qualified applicants from and outdoor play, lunch and snack, all backgrounds to apply. We value, and homework help. advocate for and support diversity throughout our organization. We The program begins in February embrace a respectful, multicultural, and will be in Oak Park, IL serving environment for employees and the 5-11-year-old (K-5th grade) chilclients we serve. dren.

HELP WANTED DEPUTY FIRE CHIEF OF EMS & INFECTIOUS DISEASE The Village of Oak Park is seeking qualified candidates for the position of Deputy Fire Chief of EMS & Infectious Disease in the Fire Department. This position will direct, manage, supervise, and coordinate the programs and activities of the Fire Department’s Emergency Medical Services and Infectious Disease Division; to coordinate assigned activities with other Village departments, divisions, and outside agencies; and to provide highly responsible and complex administrative support to the Fire Chief and Public Health Director when assigned. Applicants are encouraged to visit the Village of Oak Park’s website at http://www. oak-park.us/jobs. First review of applications will be February 21, 2021.

FIRE MARSHALL The Village of Oak Park is seeking qualified candidates for the position of Fire Marshal with the Oak Park Fire Department This position will manage, supervise, and coordinate the activities and operations of the Fire Prevention Bureau. Asist in the development, implementation, and coordination of various programs within the Bureau. Applicants are encouraged to visit the Village of Oak Park’s website at http://www. oak-park.us/jobs. First review of applications will be February 26, 2021.

SENIOR SERVICES SENIOR SERVICES At We All Care Home Care Agency we offer in home care services in senior. We make sure you or your family member safe and comfortable in their home. We assistant with cooking, cleaning, transportation, assistant with vitals, Medication reminder and much more. Feel free to call 773-827-4543 Lost & Found, Items for Sale, and To Be Given Away ads run free in Wednesday Classified. To place your ad, call 708-613-3342

OFFICE & RETAIL SPACE FOR RENT RIVER FOREST–7777 Lake St. * 1116 sq. ft. * 1400 sq. ft. Dental Office RIVER FOREST–7756 Madison St. * 960 sq. ft.

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

SUBURBAN RENTALS

WANTED TO BUY

OAK PARK: ROOSEVELT/ OAK PARK AVE. CORRIDOR 2BR 4RMS close to blue line. On site laundry, parking, heat & water incl. $1200/ month 708-383-9223

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

Call Uncle Gary 708-522-3400

SUBURBAN RENTALS

SUBURBAN RENTALS

STUDIOS, 1, 2 & 3 BR Best Selection & Service

OAK PARK & FOREST PARK

708-386-7355

MMpropMgmt.com

ELECTRICAL Ceiling Fans Installed

A&A ELECTRIC

Let an American Veteran do your work

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.

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

CEMETERY PLOTS

HANDYMAN

4 FOREST HOME CEMETERY PLOTS 4 Forest Home cemetery plots available together or separately. Easy access and exit, in desirable Garden Sec. 61, Lot 342-A spaces 1,2,3,4. $1650 each, transfer costs not included.

Call 847-468-0013 and leave message

HANDYMAN

PETS

HAULING

While you’re away, your pets are okay . . . at home

cat calls

Oak Park’s Original Pet Care Service – Since 1986

Daily dog exercising Complete pet care in your home )PVTF TJUUJOH t 1MBOU DBSF Bonded References

524-1030

FLOORS KLIS FLOORING INC.

Apartment listings updated daily at:

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

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

HANDYMAN Mike’s Home Repair Find your new apartment this Saturday from 10 am – 4pm at 35 Chicago Avenue.

Or call us toll free at 1-833-440-0665 for an appointment.

FOUND PET BLACK CAT Black cat in River Forest, along Chicago Ave, between Ashland and Park.

Please contact 708-366-8880

ELECTRICAL

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

CURT'S HANDYMAN SERVICE Drywall Repair • Painting Fans Installed • Carpentry Trim Gutter Cleaning • Window Repair

FREE ESTIMATES Excellent References No Job Too Small

708-488-9411

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

773-637-0692 Ask for John

BASEMENT CLEANING

Appliances & Furniture Removal Pickup & Delivery.

708-848-9404

HEATING/ AIR CONDITIONING HEATING AND APPLIANCE EXPERT Furnaces, Boilers and Space Heaters Refrigerators Ranges • Ovens Washer • Dryers Rodding Sewers Lic/Bonded 25 yrs experience

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

708.749.0011

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

REFINISHING 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

PUBLIC NOTICES PUBLIC NOTICE Cellco Partnership and its controlled affiliates doing business as Verizon Wireless (Verizon Wireless) is proposing to build an approximately 33foot replacement light pole telecommunications facility in the vicinity of 7234 Circle Avenue, Forest Park, Cook County, Illinois 60130. Public comments regarding potential effects from this site on historic properties may be submitted within 30 days from the date of this publication to: Project 6121000731 - JR c/o EBI Consulting, 6876 Susquehanna Trail South, York, PA 17403, jrobinson@ ebiconsulting.com, or via telephone at (240) 357-0091 Published in Forest Park Review 2/17/2021

FREE SERVICE CALL WITH REPAIR AND SENIOR/VETERAN DISCOUNT.

708-785-2619 or 773-585-5000

Wednesday Classified 3 Great Papers, 6 Communities To Place Your Ad, Call: 708/613-3333

PUBLIC NOTICES LEGAL NOTICE INVITATION TO BID ASBESTOS CONSULTING SERVICES The Board of Education of Oak Park Elementary School District #97 will receive sealed Asbestos Consulting Service bids at the Administrative Office located at 260 West Madison Street – Oak Park, IL, (60302), until 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday March 3rd, 2021. At this time sealed bids will be publicly opened and read.

Copies of specifications may be secured at the Oak Park Elementary School District #97 District Office, 260 Madison Street, Oak Park, IL 60302. Cut-off date for picking up scope of services is 4:00 pm, February 24th, 2021.

Bids mailed or delivered shall be marked to the attention of: Ms. Jeanne Keane Oak Park School District 97 260 Madison Street Oak Park, Illinois 60302 The front of the envelope should be clearly marked “ASBESTOS CONSULTING SERVICES”. Additional information may be obtained by contacting Ms. Keane at (708)524-3125 or jkeane@op97.org Bid Due Date: Wednesday March 3rd, 2021 at 1:00 P.M. Only those bids complying with the provision and specification of the bid will be considered. The Board of Education reserves the right to waive any informalities, qualification or irregularities and/or reject any or all bids, when in its opinion, such action will serve the best interest of the Board of Education of Oak Park Elementary School District 97.

Sheryl Marinier Board Secretary Published in Wednesday Journal Februaryv 17, 2021

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: Y21005947 on February 8, 2021 Under the Assumed Business Name of GUERRERO DESIGN with the business located at 1 E. ERIE STREET SUITE 525-2263, CHICAGO, IL 60611. The true and real full name(s) and residence address of the owner(s)/partner(s) is: JULIO C GUERRERO JR. 2322 LARKIN STREET SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94109, USA. Published in Wednesday Journal 2/10, 2/17, 2/24/2021

Attention! Homeimprovement pros!

Reach the people making the decisions – your target demographic.

Place an ad in Wednesday Classifieds!

Call 708/613-3342

Starting a New Business?

Call the experts before you place your legal ad!

Publish your assumed name legal notice here!

Call Mary Ellen for details: 708/613-3342

P

PB

Wednesday Journal, February 17, 2021

CLASSIFIED

39

(708) 613-3333 • FAX: (708) 467-9066 • E-MAIL: CLASSIFIEDS@OAKPARK.COM | CLASSIFIEDS@RIVERFOREST.COM

Let the sun shine in...

Public Notice: Your right to know

In print • Online • Available to you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every day of the year OakPark.com | RiverForest.com | PublicNoticeIllinois.com PUBLIC NOTICES

PUBLIC NOTICES

PUBLIC NOTICES

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NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING VILLAGE OF OAK PARK PLAN COMMISSION

Wednesday Journal, February 17, 2021

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

DOCKET NUMBER: PC 21-02 & 21-03 (Zoning Ordinance Text Amendment and Special Use Permit) HEARING DATE: March 4, 2021 TIME: 7:00 p.m. or as soon thereafter as the Agenda permits.

LOCATION OF HEARING: The Plan Commission will conduct the public hearing remotely with live audio available and optional video.

The meeting will be streamed live and archived online for on-demand viewing at www.oak-park.us/commissiontv as well as cablecast on VOP-TV, which is available to Comcast subscribers on channel 6 and ATT Uverse subscribers on channel 99. The remote public hearing is authorized pursuant to Section 7 (e) of the Open Meetings Act. The Village President has determined that an inperson public hearing is not practical or prudent due to the COVID-19 outbreak during Governor JB Pritzker’s current disaster proclamation. It is also not feasible to have a person present at the public hearing due to public safety concerns related to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Written testimony or comments regarding the application may be provided prior to the public hearing by email to planning@oak-park.us. The individual’s name and a reasonable part of their testimony or comment will be read aloud into the record at the public hearing if received no later than 30 minutes prior to the start of the public hearing. If email is not an option, written testimony or comment can be dropped off in the Oak Park Payment Drop Box across from the south entrance to Village Hall,

123 Madison Street, to be received no later than 5:00 p.m. on March 4, 2021. All written testimony and comments will be distributed to the Plan Commission and made a part of the official hearing record. Those wishing to provide public testimony at the hearing shall contact the Village Planner at planning@oak-park.us for instructions on attending the live Zoom meeting by 5:00 PM the day of the hearing. Interested persons may also participate in the hearing to cross examine the applicant and its witnesses by emailing the crossexamination form to clerk@oak-park. us before 5:00 PM on the day prior to the public hearing to sign up. Individuals who sign up to participate in this manner will receive an email from Village staff with information about how to join the meeting online through Zoom web-conference means or by phone. Questions regarding written testimony or comment can be directed to 708-358.5420 or email to planning@oak-park.us.

SUBJECT PROPERTY ADDRESS: 1114 Madison Street, Oak Park, IL 60302 ZONING DISTRICT: MS – Madison Street Zoning District LEGAL DESCRIPTION: LOT 7 IN SUBDIVISION OF LOTS 65 TO 68 AND 71 AND 72 AND ALLEY BETWEEN SAID LOTS IN SCOVILLE AND NILES SUBDIVISION OF BLOCK 5 IN SCOVILLE AND NILES ADDITION TO OAK PARK, BEING A SUBDIVISION OF THE WEST 40 ACRES OF THE SOUTHWEST ¼ OF SECTION 7, TOWNSHIP 39 NORTH, RANGE 13, EAST OF THE THIRD PRINCIPAL MERIDIAN IN

A copy of the application and each of the applicable documents are on the Village Website at www. oak-park.us and also on file and available for inspection at the Village Hall, Development Customer Services Department, 123 Madison Street, Oak Park, Illinois 60302, during current business hours, Monday through Thursday, between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. The Plan Commission may continue the hearing to another date without further notice by public announcement at the hearing setting forth the time and place thereof.

ALL INTERESTED PERSONS ARE INVITED TO BE HEARD OAK PARK PLAN COMMISSION Oak Park, Illinois 60302

Published in Wednesday Journal February 17, 2021

PUBLIC NOTICE OF COURT DATE FOR REQUEST FOR NAME CHANGE

PUBLIC NOTICE OF COURT DATE FOR REQUEST FOR NAME CHANGE

STATE OF ILLINOIS, CIRCUIT COURT COOK COUNTY.

STATE OF ILLINOIS, CIRCUIT COURT COOK COUNTY.

Request of KEVIN KHANG DINH Case Number 20214000570

Request of WILLIAM DEWAYNE LEONE Case Number 20214000561

There will be a court date on my Request to change my name from: KEVIN KHANG DINH to the new name of: KEVIN KHANG LEODINH

There will be a court date on my Request to change my name from: WILLIAM DEWAYNE LEONE to the new name of: WILLIAM DEWAYNE LEODINH

The court date will be held: On APRIL 13, 2021 at 9:30AM at DISTRICT 4 COURT MAYWOOD, COOK COUNTY in Courtroom # 0112

The court date will be held: On APRIL 13, 2021 at 9:30AM at DISTRICT 4 COURT MAYWOOD, COOK COUNTY in Courtroom # 0112

Published in RBLandmark 2/17, 2/24, 3/3/2021

Published in RBLandmark 2/17, 2/24, 3/3/2021

Illinois Classified Advertising Network WANTED

FREON WANTED: We pay $$$ for cylinders and cans. R12 R500 R11 R113 R114. Convenient. Certified Professionals.

Call 312-291-9169 or visit RefrigerantFinders.com

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COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS. P.I.N.: 16-07-322-022-0000 PETITIONER: Kim Rasmussen, 133 S. Scoville Avenue, Oak Park, IL 60302 PROPERTY OWNER: Timothy Rasmussen, 133 S. Scoville Avenue, Oak Park, IL 60302 REQUEST: The Petitioner is requesting 1.) a text amendment to Article 8 (“Uses”), Section 8.3 (“Use Restrictions”), Table 8-1 (“Use Matrix) of the Oak Park Zoning Ordinance, by adding “Live/Work Dwelling” as a Special Use (“S”) within the “Use” column for the MS – Madison Street Zoning District, and 2.) a Special Use Permit to allow live/work dwelling within the MS-Madison Street Zoning District at 1114 Madison Street (P.I.N. 1607-322-022-0000).

REAL ESTATE FOR SALE IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS COUNTY DEPARTMENT CHANCERY DIVISION WELLS FARGO BANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION AS TRUSTEE FOR OPTION ONE MORTGAGE LOAN TRUST 2006-3, ASSET-BACKED CERTIFICATES, SERIES 2006-3 Plaintiff, -v.CHARLES T. GRANT, JUANITA J. GRANT, THE PRAIRIE PLACE AT 6436 ROOSEVELT CONDOMINIUM ASSOCIATION Defendants 2019CH14912 6436 ROOSEVELT RD, 413 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 November 5, 2020, an agent for The Judicial Sales Corporation, will at 10:30 AM on March 11, 2021, at The Judicial Sales Corporation, One South Wacker Drive, CHICAGO, IL, 60606, sell at a public sale to the highest bidder, as set forth below, the following described real estate: Commonly known as 6436 ROOSEVELT RD, 413, OAK PARK, IL 60304 Property Index No. 16-18-428-0431030, Property Index No. 16-18428-043-1054 The real estate is improved with a condo/townhouse.

Sale terms: 25% down of the high-

REAL ESTATE FOR SALE

REAL ESTATE FOR SALE

REAL ESTATE FOR SALE

REAL ESTATE FOR SALE

est 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. 14-19-11626 Attorney ARDC No. 00468002 Attorney Code. 21762 Case Number: 2019CH14912 TJSC#: 40-2378 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 # 2019CH14912 I3163568

in the above cause on December 17, 2019, an agent for The Judicial Sales Corporation, will at 10:30 AM on March 25, 2021, at The Judicial Sales Corporation, One South Wacker Drive, CHICAGO, IL, 60606, sell at a public sale to the highest bidder, as set forth below, the following described real estate: Commonly known as 1226 N AUSTIN BLVD, OAK PARK, IL 60302 Property Index No. 16-05-127-0270000 The real estate is improved with a multi-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. 14-19-06429 Attorney ARDC No. 00468002 Attorney Code. 21762 Case Number: 2019CH08452 TJSC#: 41-167 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 # 2019CH08452 I3164170

IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS COUNTY DEPARTMENT CHANCERY DIVISION QUICKEN LOANS INC. Plaintiff, -v.DRIKO DUCASSE, UNKNOWN OWNERS AND NONRECORD CLAIMANTS Defendants 2019CH08452 1226 N AUSTIN BLVD OAK PARK, IL 60302 NOTICE OF SALE PUBLIC NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale entered

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Wednesday Journal, February 17, 2021

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on s w e n e t o-da t p u he e t h t d l n l a a t t n Ge me n r e v o g CAL O L s at r n u o i o t y c e l AL e C O L g HED upcomin S I B R U REF & W E the N

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