Wednesday Journal 042121

W E D N E S D A Y

April 21, 2021 Vol. 41, No. 38 ONE DOLLAR @oakpark @wednesdayjournal

URNAL JOURNAL of Oak Park and River Forest

Special section, inside

The future of Oak Park’s diversity statement And its Community Relations Commission

By STACEY SHERIDAN Staff Reporter

With the results of the April 6 election decided, one of the first actions of Oak Park’s new village board will be to adopt the village’s current diversity statement – a statement that two years ago was the basis of much controversy.

Village President-elect Vick Scaman does not foresee the new board taking any issue with the diversity statement.

“Controversy in my mind was responsive to push back for revisions,” said Scaman.

With the new board, Scaman hopes no one will have any problems with making changes to the statement, should any member of the board wish to do so – which wasn’t the case under the previous board.

“It took a lot of work to get it approved by the board,” said Glenn Brewer, chair of the Community Relations Commission (CRC) and former village trustee.

The work involved in getting the village’s current diversity statement approved back in 2019 included multiple modifications and public input, as well as major debate over language, in particular the meaning of the term “systems of oppression.” At times, board discussion degraded into shouting matches.

The entire revision process dragged on for roughly six months, culminating in the statement’s approval during an explosive meeting Oct. 7, when Trustee SuSee DIVERSITY on page 17

ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

SNOW ON SNOW: The blooms on the flowering pear trees on the 100 block of South Oak Park Avenue have started to fall like snow. Actual snow on Tuesday morning wasn’t any help in preserving the beauty..

D97 weighs pairing interim superintendents for 2021-22 Consultant advises two interims based on district’s size

im superintendents for the 2021-2022 school year at Oak Park’s elementary schools.

At an April 15 special board of education meeting, Patricia Sullivan-Viniard, a consultant from the Illinois Association of School Boards, suggested that board members consider finding a pair of acting superintendents because of the district’s large student body. D97 is made up of two middle schools and

By F. AMANDA TUGADE Staff Reporter

District 97’s school board may explore the hiring two inter-

See SUPERINTENDENT on page 9

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Wednesday Journal, April 21, 2021

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NOTE FROM THE EDITOR AND PUBLISHER

F

Romain named Equity Editor, education reporter added

rom the first conversations two years ago about transforming our legacy for profit community publications into a pioneering nonprofit model, the goal has been to grow our newsroom. We want to expand our coverage, sharpen our storytelling and stay focused on coverage that no other newsroom can offer.

So it is with great enthusiasm that Growing Community Media announces that we have created the post of Equity Editor and Ombudsman and have promoted the terrific and thoughtful Michael Romain to that position. Michael will continue as editor of our Austin Weekly News. But he will step aside as the Journal’s education reporter covering OPRF and District 97.

Joining the staff and growing the newsroom is F. Amanda Tugade as our education

reporter. Amanda is a veteran of community journalism having worked at Shaw Media, 22nd Century media and as a fellow at City Bureau. Amanda has been freelancing for the Journal in recent months F. AMANDA TUGADE and has done great Education reporter work.

As our education reporter, Amanda will add coverage of River Forest’s District 90 elementary schools, a beat where our coverage has been thin. She will also cover early childhood education stories, mix in private school news and she

Visit us online at www.OakPark.com

won’t overlook the three colleges serving our communities – Dominican, Concordia and Triton.

Michael’s role as Equity Editor and Ombudsman will be wide ranging.

He will be regularly MICHAEL ROMAIN reporting on equity Equity Editor related news. His remarkable page 3 column will continue in the Journal. And he will also be working with our editorial staff to ensure that all of our coverage reflects an equity lens. Michael will have a role in advising our organization on ways Growing Community Media can become more equitable. Finally, Michael will become our Ombudsman, our connection between the newsroom and readers. Only a few newsrooms have an Ombudsman,

and we haven’t yet found a community newsroom that has brought this focus to transparency and accountability between the news gathering process and readers.

This growth is only possible, is directly attributable to the generous, passionate investment that so many people and organizations in our seven neighborhoods have mustered. We offer a special thanks to the Good Heart Work Smart Foundation for its notable three-year pledge to help fund this initiative.

You invested in us. We’re investing in our newsroom.

Our gratitude is deep and our plans are ambitious.

If you are a reader and would consider investing in our independent community newsroom, I’d love to hear your ideas. My email is dhaley@wjinc.com.

All the best,

Dan Haley Editor and Publisher Growing Community Media

CLAIM YOUR VOICE Charting the Future

est s u g d e invit

Topics include : • Criminal Justice Reform Pillar 2- Education • Infrastructure Funding For Schools • Post COVID State Education Funding

r Senato mon r Don Ha r Senato y Lightford l Kimber ive by t a d t e n t e a s r e on ode s Repr M r e y y e l ie M e Lil l l r l i a m h a C C ive t a t n e Repres Ford Wednesday, April 28, 7:30pm n w a h La S A Virtual Live Zoom Event!

Learn more at www.op97.org/news

Sponsored by:

Committee for Legislative Action, Intervention, and Monitoring (CLAIM) A Committee of the School Board of Oak Park Elementary School District 97

Wednesday Journal, April 21, 2021

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On a threatened prairie, I thought of Adam Toledo On Saturday, while standing is the need to ‘compel people to underneath an oak tree near the labour and honest industry,’ as Wolf Road Prairie Nature PrePeter the Great’s 1724 reform serve in Westchester, I thought has it, and hence to drive out of Adam Toledo. what from the perspective of “That’s around a 200- to capital appear to be modes of 250-year-old tree,” said my life that are either useless or guide, Wyatt Widmer, a 23-yearantithetical to accumulation old Brookfield man who works (and usually both).” at Whole Foods during the day In other words, there is no and volunteers with Westchesmarket economy without the ter’s Save the Prairie Society on police power, which is the his off time. means of maintaining order by “That tree is home to 50 to 60 forcing people to work for wages species of fungi. It can support that may or may not rise to the over 800 species of insects and level of subsistence; forcing us Commentary God knows how many birds to live with the systemic rape and everything else that lives of ecosystems and the regular in and depends on this tree,” he said. “And sacrificing of living beings to the machinit’s going to be underneath an apartment ery of whiteness and wealth. building soon.”

In 1500’s England, order was maintained When he isn’t working for a wage, Widthrough a series of statutes outlawing mer volunteers as land manager for what vagrancy. People were forced by the lash may be the rarest natural ecosystem in the to work and anyone too old or incapable of working had to retrieve a beggar’s license.

Chicago area. Nowadays, he’s thinking of Wyatt and I wouldn’t have been able to ways to save the prairie from a developer simply wander about in the forest under who wants to build a luxury townhome King James I, who ordered anyone caught community ironically called Springs at wandering or begging to be “declared a Wolf Prairie, on 15 acres of land along rogue and a vagabond, publicly whipped Hickory Lane, near the nature preserve. and imprisoned.”

“Imagine this as a giant Brita filter,” WyIn 1619, America’s first representative att said about the prairie. “With just a few governing bodies, the general assemblies, feet of prairie, depending on the environarose in Jamestown (the Virginia colony ment, you can clean up to 90 percent of soil bearing the king’s name) around the same runoff and prevent 84 percent of pathogens time that the first Africans arrived on from getting into the waterway.” shore. The assemblies quickly pivoted The prairie is downwind from the profrom introducing “‘just Laws for the happy spective townhomes, which would start guiding and governing of the people’” to foat about $1,400 a month for studio units, cusing “more on policing measures against according to documents the developer Africans and protecting the rights of shared with Westchester’s village board masters than on the rights of the enslaved last month. or ethical considerations,” historian James Once construction starts, all kinds of Horn writes. The italics are mine. toxins, carrying with them unpredictable By the time Sir Robert Peel established in effects, will travel from the work site, which 1829 London’s Metropolitan Police, widely is near a former landfill, and onto the rare considered the modern world’s first profesprairie earth, Wyatt said. sional police force, policing had become a As Wyatt spoke, I thought of how many well-oiled war machine, which the British times I’d passed by this prairie while would eventually transport overseas to driving on Wolf Road without so much as manage colonies in Africa and elsewhere. glancing in the land’s direction, my eyes on In his 1885 book “Our Police Protecthe concrete street. tors,” which is an early history of the New The logic that drives people to tamper York City Police (established in 1845), A.E. with this precious habitat, possibly defiling Costello describes the police as “an army an ecosystem that provides humans and for preserving domestic order in time other living beings — countless migratory of peace” and should be “organized and birds and monarch butterflies and numergoverned according to like features of our ous endangered species among them — military system.” with so many natural benefits in order to Neocleous reveals what most experts build luxury townhomes for a few hundred and historians on policing know as a basic high-earners is the very logic that frames matter of fact, but that most of us miss Adam Toledo’s death by the police. It’s the when we talk about police and policing and logic of the death instinct. “police reform.”

Like that old oak tree, Adam — born poor That is, the purpose of police power is and Brown and rough around the edges — not, and has never been, about upholding didn’t fit into our hyper-capitalist order. laws or preventing crime as much as mainHe was of no use to market forces. And he taining the capitalist order, which demands was not the kind of living being that police all life be subject to the profit motive and power was derived to protect. that the wealth of the many be perpetually In his book, “A Critical Theory of Police confiscated by the few. So long as this rePower,” Mark Neocleous writes that the mains the order of the day, the police power police power “is an activity and process will exist to enforce it — with or without rather than an institution or organization, the police. and at the heart of this activity and process

MICHAEL ROMAIN

Photo provided

ON THE PRAIRIE: A circular metal ring atop land in the Wolf Road Prairie Nature Preserve. The ring is designed to demonstrate the prairie soil’s density of life. In a single spring, Wyatt said, up to 80 adult plants can thrive in a plot of soil that’s smaller than a square foot. Our culture doesn’t value the ethic of care and cultivation that it takes to sustain such diversity of life. If we did, perhaps Adam Toledo might still be alive, the columnist thought during a walk in the preserve over the weekend.

And any living thing (whether an old tree or a juvenile delinquent or a volunteer land manager advocating for a prairie or an indigenous tribe protesting the construction of an underground oil pipeline) who stands contrary to that order is considered by the police power an enemy of the state.

This truth bears repeating: police power was derived to protect private property and wealthy white men; not black soil prairie, and poor Brown boys.

The police power was not even derived to protect the humanity of individual police, per se. Most police officers, after all, are wage-earning, working-class folk who, while agents of police power, are also among the populace to be policed and among the masses considered disposable once they lose their exchange-value (ask a Black officer who is off-duty and out of uniform or a former officer who is no longer able-bodied or who is old or a cop who acts on the mistaken belief that police are to prioritize law above order).

In that dark alley, Adam’s uselessness and Officer Eric Stillman’s exchange-value as an agent of police power and everything it is designed to protect, collided and then collapsed.

If I were in Officer Stillman’s shoes, forced to react in the blink of an eye to someone who was just holding a gun, I’m not confident that I would not have shot Adam myself, although I would like to think I would have acted with the kind of empathy and concern that Stillman and the other responding officers showed in the seconds after the bullet pierced Adam’s body.

I suppose this is cause for some commendation. At least young Adam got the care that LaQuan McDonald, shot 16 times in 2014, was denied. As McDonald’s dead

body was on the ground, still smoking from the leaden barrage of bullets, an officer approached and kicked the knife, which moments earlier had presented a threat to tires, out of the boy’s lifeless hand.

But by the time Officer Stillman and other first responders administered care for Adam (“Stay with me,” Stillman, genuinely concerned, told the dying boy) — the officers and the young Adam briefly bonded by empathy and kinship in a moment of death that is virtually impermissible in the ongoing tragedy that is our everyday lives — it was too late.

While Wyatt and I were near that oak tree just off Hickory Lane, two police SUV’s drove by, which was our signal to leave, lest we be mistaken for vagrants or loiterers.

As we were walking, Wyatt made the case for treating the land not as something to be exploited purely for monetary value, but for the vital local ecosystem that it is.

“Everything here is pretty tolerant and hospitable of the pressure we can put on it,” he said, referencing the prairie and the nearby oak savannah. “We just have to have some respect for this land and this land returns it to us. Everything we do, if it benefits the land, it will benefit us.”

Wyatt was advocating for the kind of mutuality, kinship and interspecies solidarity that the market doesn’t tolerate and that police power is designed to largely suppress, but that we must be brave enough to fight for. Because once the biomass and the biodiversity that supports our literal lives are gone, he said, they’re gone and whatever empathy and care we exhibit afterwards will have come too late to make a difference.

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Wednesday Journal, April 21, 2021

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The Vintage Home Show: Repair, Renovate, Restore Saturday, April 24, 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Zoom with Unity Temple Restoration Foundation Meet experts in old home challenges while supporting a Frank Lloyd Wright UNESCO World Heritage site. The Vintage Home Show includes nine workshops plus exhibitors. Pop in and out during the day. Bonus virtual tours of Unity Temple followed by Q&A, 5 to 5:30 p.m. In partnership with the Oak Park River Forest Chamber of Commerce. $35. Register: utrf.org/event/homeshow

Trivia Night

BIG WEEK April 21-28 Secret Garden Fashion Show

Saturday, April 24, and Sunday, 25, 2 p.m., Virtually with Dominican Universality Chicago

The production, which will take place on the Quad, will showcase senior and junior collections from Dominican’s fashion design students, in collaboration with fashion merchandising students. Free.

Register: dom.universitytickets.com/w/event.aspx?SeriesID=2

Friday, April 23, 7 p.m., Virtually with the Infant Welfare Society Join for a game of trivia via Zoom and Kahoot. No need to organize a team - play as an individual or household and connect with others virtually. Topics are for everyone and will be kid-friendly.

Compete for gift cards: $50 for 1st, $25 for 2nd, and $10 for 3rd place. $20 per person/household. Register: one.bidpal.net/iwstrivianight2021/welcome

Chair Yoga Tuesday, May 11, 3 to 3:30 p.m., Zoom with the Oak Park Public Library As part of the new Self-care Tuesdays at the Library, try out this yoga class for everybody. Chair yoga can improve flexibility, concentration, and strength, while boosting mood, and reducing stress and joint strain. Free. Offered every other Tuesday; next up, May 25. Register: oppl.org/calendar

Learn and Grow Lecture Series Thursdays in April, 7 to 8 p.m., Virtually with The Friends of the Oak Park Conservatory Programs are for all gardening skill levels and presented by Master Gardeners. Free.Register: pdop.org April 22 – Edibles & Raised Beds with Suzette Gacek.

April 29 – Container Companions with Ellen Kuner.

Plant Sale Through Sunday, May 2, Online with the Oak Park Conservatory The public can select from a large choice of vegetables, herbs and flowers, all grown at the Conservatory. Sponsored by the Friends of the Oak Park Conservatory (FOPCON). Order pickups are at the Rehm Pool parking lot (515 Garfield St., Oak Park) May 11 through 13. Order/more: fopcon.org/2021-plant-sale

Blues Guitar from Mississippi to Chicago Henry Fogel Presents: Natasha Stojanovska Wednesday, April 21, 7 p.m., Zoom with the Nineteenth Century Charitable Association Hear this concert pianist and composer from Macedonia who is working on her debut album on eastern European women composers inspired by Macedonian folklore. Her technique, deep expression and innovative interpretations have stunned audiences around the world. $15, requested donation. Register: nineteenthcentury.org

Thursday, April 22, 6 to 7 p.m., Virtually with the Oak Park Public Library Hear Chicago Blues Hall of Fame inductee Donna Herula sing and play acoustic blues slide guitar along with her husband, Tony Nardiello, singer, guitarist and harmonica player. They will perform music that developed into Chicago Blues, including Mississippi Delta Blues, Hill Country Blues, Classic Blues, Memphis Blues, and early Chicago Blues, and talk about the artists that made these

“Casablanca,” A Closer Look Monday, April 26, 1:30 p.m., Zoom through the Nineteenth Century Charitable Association Film instructor Franklin Stevenson examines the cinematic elements of Casablanca (1942) and shares interesting and surprising behind-the-scenes information. $15, suggested donation; free, members. Register: nineteenthcentury.org music styles popular. Register: oppl.org/calendar.

Earth Day Screening of “Dolores” with Appearance by Dolores Huerta Thursday, April 22, 6:30 to 9:15 p.m., Virtually with One Earth Film Festival (OEFF) Environmental activist and subject of the film, Huerta, will be participating in the post-film Q&A. This film’s themes include immigrant rights, environmental justice, sustainable agriculture and the grit and determination of female leaders in the environmental movement. For general audiences, including teens. Free; $8, suggested donation. For this and other films in the One Earth Mini Film Festival running through April 25, go to: oneearthfilmfest.org/earth-day

Community Circle: Understanding Trauma of Sexual Violence Monday, April 26, 4 to 5:15 p.m., Virtually with the Oak Park Public Library In support of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, this community circle, facilitated by library staff trained as circle keepers, is designed to unpack and help individuals understand the effects of trauma from sexual violence. Sexual violence is an umbrella term that includes any type of unwanted sexual contact - either in person or online, including sexual assault, harassment and abuse. A trained clinical counselor and advocate, certified by the state of Illinois to provide crisis intervention and support, will be present for individual assistance.

Register: oppl.org/calendar.

Wednesday Journal, April 21, 2021

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That was a weird election

lection Day 2021 has come and nearly gone. Won’t be fully gone until final votes are tabulated by the county clerk and a couple of very close races are decided, until a winning candidate for the Oak Park library board announces if her imperfect attempt to withdraw from the race means she’ll claim the seat or resign after she is sworn in.

In many ways this was a peculiar election season.

Two sitting trustees on the Oak Park village board announced they were running for village president and later dropped out.

Trustee Dan Moroney dropped out once.

Trustee Simone Boutet dropped out twice.

Got to be a record. Trustee Deno Andrews announced his plan to run for re-election before announcing he would not run.

So much for the stellar trio of candidates elected to the village board by voters in 2017. Their farewell speeches at the upcoming final meeting of this board ought to be inconclusive.

Meanwhile a candidate for the River Forest District 90 elementary schools withdrew from the race and was then elected to office. Scott Hall gets credit for actually filling out the correct paperwork with the county clerk that made his withdrawal official. That means the runner-up in the race, Sarah Eckmann, will be seated as Hall’s votes will not be certified by the county.

Sariah Lofton, a candidate for the library board in Oak Park, withdrew without ever explaining why. She, however, failed the withdrawal test from the county and so her votes will be certified and she is duly elected. When the Journal asked her last week if she would serve or resign, she issued a definitive “no comment.” Altogether odd.

If she resigns from the board once she is seated then the library board gets to appoint a replacement. Doesn’t look like it will be the runner-up in that race, though, as Peter Prokopowicz has stepped in it on social media.

Want to be on the library board? This might be just the opportunity you are looking for.

At the township level in Oak Park there

was a widely contested race for trustee. A very unusual occurrence. As of this writing, incumbent Eric Davis is 21 votes ahead of challenger Jacquelyn Rodriguez. As far as I know, neither has withdrawn, left the state or insulted anyone on social media. Just a close race.

Another close race which was almost a stunning upset was at Triton College.

There Mark Stephens, the seeming chairman for life, held on to a board seat by a sliver.

Stephens, he of the Rosemont Stephenses, has built quite a nest at Triton, a community college with a lot of money and contracts, not much ambition and which gets too little attention. The victory of Norma Hernandez for a board seat has the potential to make debates more open.

In both the Oak Park District 97 elementary schools and at Oak Park and River Forest High School, the candidates who chose to run self-selected into a group fairly well aligned with the progressive equity policies of each district.

So worries, and I had some, that the headway on equity could be derailed are of less concern. That steadiness will be critical as both districts will start the next school year with new superintendents.

If things go as planned, the outgoing District 200 board will appoint its next superintendent this week. And D97 is looking to hire one, maybe two, interim leaders for the next school year.

Both Oak Park and River Forest elected the somewhat more moderate candidate for village president, though each might argue being termed moderate. Vicki Scaman will head a village board notably remade and hopefully more cohesive than the past board.

Hard and complex issues are ahead, from finances to equity, public safety to infrastructure.

Cathy Adduci easily won a third term in River Forest. Her board will need to choose a new village administrator. How much of an inside track does Lisa Scheiner, the acting administrator, have? Will be interesting to see. And in Oak Park will Village Manager Cara Pavlicek choose to stay, be encouraged to stay? Big decision.

Congratulations on 41 years of service to the Oak Park Fire Department The Village of Oak Park congratulates Fire Chief Tom Ebsen who is retiring this week after nearly 41 years of service to the community. He will be missed.

DAN HALEY

‘The departing trustees farewell speeches at the upcoming final meeting of this board ought to be inconclusive.’

Good luck and best wishes for a happy and fulfilling retirement.

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Wednesday Journal, April 21, 2021

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Two high schoolers walk 50+ miles, raise $14k+ for mental health organizations

‘We’re hoping to destigmatize mental illness’

BIG SCREENS ARE BACK

gency intervention, for the Oak Park and River Forest community. NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) Metro Suburban provides free mental health services and support through a variety of programs.

In addition to being runners, both Tanner and Wells are also long-time Boy Scouts, and they’ve done several backpacking trips, covering over 100 miles over the course of 12 days. But their goal for Saturday was over half that distance, 52.4 miles, in only one day.

Tanner and Wells reached out to local businesses looking for sponsorships, not so much to help them financially, they said, but for help with promotion. Almost immediately, Amanda Daly, owner of The Daly Bagel (thedalybagel.com), responded, saying she’d be glad to help.

And earlier this week they heard from Carey Carlock, CEO of Riveredge Hospital in Forest Park.

Carlock said she heard about Tanner and Wells from her daughter, who’s a senior at OPRF and showed her the video the boys had made.

“That video they created was aesthetically beautiful and really on point with the message,” Carlock said. In addition to a financial donation of $500 from Riveredge, the mental health hospital and Carlock personally are supporting A Step in the Right Direction “I just really want to commend them for their thoughtful, compassionate leadership,” said Carlock. “And whenever we’re getting a grassroots effort for our young people to talk about reducing stigma and reaching out to our community and our quest for wellness, it’s going to change the narrative and it’s going to save lives.”

“We’re hoping to destigmatize mental illness,” Tanner said. “When someone seeks help for mental health issues, they’re not crazy; they’re brave. We want to help remove the negative connotations associated with seeking help for mental health.”

The Lake Theater, the iconic multi-screen on Lake Street, has reopened after being shuttered more than a year by COVID-19.

The Lake opened last weekend and Chris Johnson, president of the family owned chain, pledges the Lake will not be closing again

You can get local news delivered right to your email in-box.

Sign up for FREE at OakPark.com

By MARIA MAXHAM Staff Reporter

Two Oak Park and River Forest High School students walked for over 17 hours on Saturday, taking 115,000 steps – about 50 miles – and raising over $14,000 for Thrive Counseling Center (thrivecc.org) in Oak Park and NAMI Metro Suburban (namimetsub.org).

Senior Jackson Tanner and sophomore Ezekiel Wells, both Oak Park residents, are thrilled with the amount they’ve raised so far.

After the walk, which took them through Oak Park, River Forest and Forest Park, was completed, they posted on Facebook that although their project is drawing to a close, “the fight against mental health stigmas rages on. Make yourself known as an ally to all. You can make a difference.”

The idea for the fundraiser, A Step in the Right Direction, was hatched when Tanner and Wells, both cross country runners, woke up one morning and decided to see how far they could walk. They ended up walking 26.2 miles, marathon distance, about 50,000 steps.

They decided to cover more miles, and a family friend suggested doing a fundraiser.

“We discussed different issues that were relevant during the pandemic,” Tanner said. “Ultimately, we decided that mental health was the cause for which we wanted to raise money and awareness.”

In a video Tanner and Wells made to

ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

WALKING WITH PURPOSE: Jackson Tanner, left, and Ezekiel Wells walk together on Euclid Avenue in Oak Park on Satuday, April 17, 2021, during their 50 mile walk throughout Oak Park, River Forest and Forest Park. spread awareness of their fundraiser, they cite a staggering statistic: during the pandemic, the number of adults reporting symptoms of anxiety or depression quadrupled, from one in 10 in January 2019 to four in 10 during the COVID-19 crisis.

After researching, they decided to raise

money for Thrive Counseling Center and NAMI Metro Suburban. Thrive Counseling Center’s mission is “to build healthy minds, families, and communities by empowering people to attain mental and emotional wellbeing,” and the nonprofit provides psychiatric services, including counseling and emer-

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Wednesday Journal, April 21, 2021

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be IL funneled into scholarships for the grade Bloomington, school’s students interested in attending 2001290 Fenwick.

“That is a huge step, because not only St. Catherine-St. Lucy Principal Sharon does it open up wonderful education opporLeamy still remembers when her young students met students from nearby Fenwick tunities for our kids, but it makes it easy for High School. About eight years ago, a hand- them to go four years and to change their ful of Fenwick students started tutoring St. lives going forward,” said Leamy about the Catherine-St. Lucy middle schoolers as part scholarship fund, as she spoke to a small group of Fenwick and Saint Catherine-St. of a service project, Leamy said.

The project later bloomed into a full pro- Lucy staff, donors and colleagues Friday afgram that now takes place twice a week, ternoon.

The elementary school also received a pulling in more than a dozen students. “It’s a beautiful thing to witness,” Leamy said, $200,000 donation from Fenwick alumni to her voice wavering from the excitement. help renovate its gym, which has become “And the relationships developed between another feature in the schools’ new agreethe Fenwick students and our students were ment. The two schools plan to share the gym to host basketball clinics, tournaments and incredible. It was wonderful.”

Now the alliance is deepening again with other activities.

Bringing the schools together is also part a full-fledged partnership being put in place of Fenwick’s initiative to give families a between St. Catherine-St. Lucy, 27 Washington Blvd., Oak Park, and Fenwick High choice and a chance “to attend schools like School, a half-mile west at 505 Washington. ours,” said Raymond Moland, director of diversity, equity and inclusion at Fenwick.

The elementary school draws nearly all of its students from neighboring Austin. Fen- According to St. Catherine-St. Lucy’s school wick is a well-regarded college prep school site, the great majority of its students – with enrollment from across Chicago and about 95% – are from Chicago’s Austin neighborhood. suburbs.

Peddicord and Moland said tuition costs Leamy said the tutoring project is one of many efforts that have brought the two can be a barrier for families, and Fenwick neighboring Oak Park Catholic schools has stayed committed to finding ways and together. With Fenwick Principal Peter teaming up with other organizations to try Groom’s warm welcome toward the elemen- and alleviate those financial constraints.

These steps, no matter how small or big, tary school’s youth and additional support from Fenwick faculty and alumni, this rela- make all the difference and work to make tionship has evolved over the years and has that bridge between St. Catherine-St. Lucy now been transformed into an official part- and Fenwick stronger, Moland said.

“This partnership is definitely an exnership.

At an April 16 gathering, Leamy and ample of two entities within a community Fenwick President Rev. Richard Peddicord working together for the betterment of all signed off on a mission “bridging the gap, our students,” he said.

By F. AMANDA TUGADE Staff Reporter

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Wednesday Journal, April 21, 2021

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

River Forest deer committee debates expert’s comments Recommendation to cull will go to village board

By MARIA MAXHAM Staff Reporter

Despite beginning the April 15 meeting with Chair Tom Cargie saying it would most likely be their last, River Forest’s Ad Hoc Deer Committee will meet one more time prior to finalizing the group’s report and recommendation to cull the deer population. That report will be provided to the River Forest village board, which will make the final decision on whether and how to control the deer population in River Forest.

Before submitting the final report and recommendation, the committee will seek confirmation from an expert that using his name in the report is acceptable, will change some wording and make grammar adjustments, and will add information about the process sharpshooters may use if the village approves culling.

The committee voted 8-6 in favor of culling at its Jan. 13 meeting. Those in favor were Cargie, John Flynn, Dan Hollenback, Cathleen Hughes, Ron Lemar, Joel Lueking, Dawn Mizgala and John Roeger. Those who voted against were Julie Armstrong, Katherine Christmas, Laurie Gillard, Marta Kozbur,

“Anchor did ask that I not include his email address, because he doesn’t want to get involved in local politics.”

had been shared in previous Ingrid Liu and Annette Madden. meetings, all of which are public, Based on that vote, a report the information is already out was put together by Cargie, with there and part of public record. evidence and expert testimony “I’m having a hard time underbacking up the committee’s recstanding why we’re even discussommendation to “enter into an ining this,” Mizgala said. tergovernmental agreement with Armstrong disagreed, citing the Forest Preserve District of an email forwarded by LuekCook County to authorize a coning to the rest of the committee trolled culling of the deer herd in with Anchor’s email address the Thatcher Woods Complex.” redacted, requesting that the inThe committee also recomformation be kept confidential. mends that the village create JOEL LUEKING Lueking said he had received and provide an educational proCommittee member gram for residents on steps they permission from Anchor to can take to avoid property damshare the email with the rest of age from deer. the committee.

The sticking point on finalizing the re“[Anchor] did ask that I not include his port during the April 15 meeting came from email address, because he doesn’t want to board member Julie Armstrong, who raised get involved in local politics,” said Luekconcerns about the report being “pretty ing. “So I simply cut and pasted the exact weighted” with commentary from Christo- email that he sent to me because he gave me pher Anchor, senior wildlife biologist for permission to share his comments with the the Forest Preserve District of Cook County. committee.” Lueking said he later asked AnArmstrong was concerned about whether chor to participate in a call with the committhe comments from Anchor, who had been tee, and Anchor declined. reluctant to appear before the committee, The letter from Anchor, however, which should be considered “on the record” and was sent by Lueking to other committee included in the report. These comments members’ village email addresses, would be were made available to the board through subject to the Freedom of Information Act an email forwarded by committee member (FOIA), and as such could be requested unLueking with Anchor’s permission. der that act, making it available to the pubMizgala said that since the information lic regardless of whether or not Anchor had

said he wanted it kept confidential, said Sara Phyfer, management analyst for the village.

Anchor’s comments were used in the report as part of the rationale behind the committee’s recommendation to enter into a culling agreement with the forest preserve.

For example, part of the report reads as follows: “Anchor stated that there are indisputably too many deer in the Thatcher Woods Complex for the preserve to support. Anchor also reiterated that a detailed research project to determine whether or not there was an overabundance of deer was not necessary because the absence of a browse line is unequivocal proof of overabundance.”

Like Mizgala, Cargie said that because Lueking had shared the comments during a public meeting, the problem of getting authorization from Anchor was a nonissue.

Addressing Armstrong, Cargie said, “[Lueking] did tell the committee on the record in an open committee meeting what Chris Anchor had said. So I think your concern is addressed … I don’t know that there has to be this formal endorsement by Anchor.”

Still, the committee decided to meet once more to address that and several other issues. Prior to the next meeting, Lueking will reach out to Anchor to see if he is okay with his name going in the report and the language used.

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Wednesday Journal, April 21, 2021

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Too tall, say neighbors of ResCorp proposal

Beautiful but blocks the sun says immediate neighbor

By LACEY SIKORA Real Estate Editor

On April 13, Oak Park Residence Corporation held a community meeting via Zoom for neighbors of its proposed development at Van Buren and Austin in Oak Park. The proposal calls for tearing down the two-story, 12unit building at 7 Van Buren and replacing it with a 44-unit building.

The immediate response from immediate neighbors is that the building is too tall and lacks adequate parking.

Residents of the existing building were given notice last summer that their oneyear leases would not be renewed. David Pope, ResCorp president and CEO, says his organization is working with tenants to find other housing in the neighborhood and says many have moved or already signed leases elsewhere.

The proposed development would include five floors of rental units, a roof top deck topped with solar panels, and a first-floor parking area for 18 cars. Currently, 5 studios, 35 one-bedroom and 4 two-bedroom units are planned. Pope says 20% of the units will be set aside as affordable housing.

Justin Dossier is president of the Parkview West Condo Association and the owner of a condominium in the building just to the south of the proposed development. He expresses concerns with how OPRC has approached the planning process and says he wishes they had involved neighbors more before to getting to this point in the process.

As the owner of a unit in an historically significant building, he is also concerned about the impact construction and the finished building will have on his building.

“First and foremost,” he says, “the building is beautiful. However, the general size for the lot is completely disproportionate to its neighbors. Secondly, it’s dwarfing our build-

ing and blocking our sunlight because 50% of our building’s windows are on the north side.”

Jim Gilchrist and his wife Sue have lived at 808 S. Humphrey since 1978. Beyond concerns that the new building will provide residents views into his yard and home, Gilchrist, who served on the village’s Building Codes Advisory Commission in the past, has several broader worries about the development.

Top of his list is height. He says that while Pope describes the building as six stories, the presence of solar panels and a roof deck on the top of the building make it a sevenstory building. “The tallest building around this is three and a half stories, so this is double that,” he says.

Steven Brown lives on the 700 block of South Humphrey, attended the April 13 meeting and says he is in total support of the project. He cites the design and the sustainability features and adds, “It checks all the boxes. It does something that most new developments don’t do in that it balances attractive, modern design with affordability.”

He says the size of the building, while larger than some neighbors, is not overwhelming. For him, the privacy concerns raised by some neighbors at the meeting, don’t make a lot of sense in a village like Oak Park that is a dense urban area The fact that the building is being developed

by ResCorp is another positive for Brown.

“It’s a not-for-profit. Affordability is a big part of its mission, and they do a good job with their other buildings in the neighborhood.”

Neighbor Frank Vozak lives with his wife Terrie Rhymer at 804 S. Humphrey, directly behind the proposed development. Vozak says he appreciates ResCorp’s original mission to turn around old apartment buildings and bring them up to better standards, but he is unhappy with the size of the proposal and the precedent that could be set by allowing developers to raze buildings and build stories above neighboring buildings with buildings that go over public sidewalks.

Neighbors also worry about the 18 parking spaces provided for 44 units. Gilchrist says during his time serving the village that

SUPERINTENDENT

Two interims may be hired from page 1 eight elementary schools and is currently home to nearly 6,000 students.

“In the times that we’re in with obviously the pandemic and all that is going on and the size of your district and the number of schools that you have, you would be looking at two interim superintendents, not one,” Sullivan-Viniard told the board over Zoom Thursday night.

The interim superintendent(s) will step in for Superintendent Carol Kelley, who will be leaving the district to take on a new job at Princeton Public Schools in New Jersey. With Kelley’s June 30 departure fast approaching, the board hopes the interim superintendent will start by July

new buildings were required to provide one parking space per unit and that allowance still led to parking shortages.

Pope counters ResCorp will actively pursue residents without cars. With 18 parking spaces for a building of 44 units, 40% of the building’s units will have a parking space.

He adds in reference to ResCorp’s other buildings, “In comparison to our existing portfolio, only 31% of our current households have a car. This is materially higher than that.”

Vozak and Gilchrist also expressed frustration with the limitations of Zoom for a community meeting. Vozak says Pope declined to answer any of his or his wife’s five questions about the development.

Gilchrist says, “It’s a disadvantage of meeting in the COVID era. You don’t really have a public meeting if people submit questions via chat and someone chooses not to answer them.”

Dossier says his questions were answered via the chat. He stresses that those answers reflect the building is likely a foregone conclusion. “I asked how many of the ResCorp’s projects that had been before the village had received approval in the past, and the answer was all of them. This goes to show the

1. But that date could change, said Amanda Siegfried, the district’s communications director, in a separate interview with Wednesday Journal.

With the search now underway, Siegfried said the board looks to be efficient, “knowing that we’re quickly nearing the end of the year.”

During the meeting, Sullivan-Viniard shared with board members a few tips on how to find the right interim superintendent to help lead their schools. Candidates must be flexible, committed to fulfilling the district’s mission and have experience working with Illinois schools, she said. SullivanViniard noted candidates should also have a good attitude, demonstrate problem-solving abilities and be willing “to do the hard things.”

“One of the terms that one of the interims who I spoke with used is, ‘I’m not a placeholder,’” said Sullivan-Viniard, recalling a previous interviewee. “‘I’m not just there if something catches on fire. There is work to do.’”

“A year is a long time, but in a school district, a year is a

power of the ResCorp in the village.”

Pope says he offered up his work phone number, email address and cell phone number to all participants and has been happy to engage with community members one-onone. He points to one neighbor of the project who reached out via email immediately after the Zoom meeting to say that they were supportive of the building, and another neighbor who posted positive comments on the chat during the meeting.

Pope acknowledges there are neighbor concerns, and says that with any situation in Oak Park, there will never be unanimity, but says that’s what makes Oak Park a special place.

Pope says ResCorp continues to work through the building and budgeting process and declined to give an overall price tag for the project. At this point, he does not anticipate asking the village for financial support and says that ResCorp is uniquely situated not to need a significant financial return from the building. “We don’t have the return-on-investment requirements that a private sector building would have.”

Pope would not provide a specific date, but says the next step is to submit plans to the village.

very long time,” she continued. “It’s an entire period for our students.”

Sullivan-Viniard has already selected a few potential candidates for the interim superintendent position at District 97, Siegfried said.

Siegfried said the board’s search for an interim superintendent is separate from its hunt for a permanent superintendent. The hunt for a permanent leader will be more thorough and offer more opportunities for district families and faculty to be part of the conversation.

“For our permanent superintendent search, we are very much committed to a robust search that has extensive stakeholder engagement, administration, teachers, personnel, parents and students,” board member Gavin Kearney said during the meeting. “This is obviously a very important decision for us as a board, as a community, and we’re committed to doing it in a way where all of the voices in Oak Park have an opportunity to weigh in.”

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Wednesday Journal, April 21, 2021

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

Beyond Hunger finds Austin home for delivery program Pandemic quadrupled call for home delivery service

By MELISSA ELSMO Oak Park Eats Editor

Beyond Hunger marked the opening of its Chicago home delivery location in the Soul City Corridor, 5317 W. Chicago Ave., with a formal ribbon cutting ceremony on April 13.

The shared space is also the Chicago home of the New Moms nonprofit.

Expanding services beyond the pantry and headquarters housed at 848 Lake St. in Oak Park permanently solidifies Beyond Hunger’s ability to deliver wholesome groceries and pantry staples to housebound people in Oak Park and Chicago’s Austin neighborhood.

Chicago Ald. Emma Mitts welcomed guests to the ribbon cutting ceremony coordinated by Tina Augustus, executive director of the Austin Chamber of Commerce.

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and Deputy Mayor Sybil Madison joined Michele Zurakowski, Beyond Hunger executive director, in making remarks to honor the occasion. Eileen Lynch, chief of staff to Senator Don Harmon and Dar-

nell Shields, executive director of Austin Coming Together were among the notable attendees. Following the ceremony guests were invited inside and assisted in packing boxes for program recipients.

“When our community reached out to us for more home-delivered groceries at the beginning of the pandemic, we responded,” said Zurakowski. “Almost overnight we transitioned from serving 80 households to nearly 300.”

After dealing with the critical needs brought on rapidly by the pandemic, Beyond Hunger worked swiftly to formalize its expanded home delivery program. A grant from the Greater Chicago Food Depository specifically targeted toward addressing food insecurity on Chicago’s south and west sides, helped make the move and expansion possible.

Staff and volunteers will assist program participants in selecting items for their

Photo by Melissa Elsmo

IT’S OFFICIAL: A ribbon cutting officially opened Beyond Hunger’s home delivery program located in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood. monthly delivery. Vast dry storage space and expanded cold food storage capacity will allow Beyond Hunger to offer more personalized services and increased access to perishable food items to those enrolled in the program.

In addition to operating the home food delivery program in Austin, Beyond Hunger will continue to offer its twice weekly food distributions at First United Church in Oak Park serving 13 zip codes including the West Side of Chicago and Oak Park.

Farmers Market finds manager New commission chair likely to be appointed by incoming village president

By MELISSA ELSMO Oak Park Eats Editor

In the absence of a chair for the Oak Park Farmers Market Commission, Cameron Davis, assistant director of development customer services and staff liaison to the farmers market commission, oversaw the commission’s April 14 meeting.

Davis was quick to inform commissioners the village has hired a new market manager for the 2021 season set to commence on Saturday, May 22. Kimball Ingram, Oak Park

resident and recent Florida transplant, has met all requirements, passed his background check, and signed a letter of intent.

“I think you will find him very personable,” said Davis. “I think he will bring new fresh ideas. I am really excited to be working with him.”

According to Davis, who participated in the interview process, Ingram has background in restaurant and bar ownership and is set to start working for the village on Wednesday, April 21. Davis indicated he will also facilitate one-on-one introductions between commissioners and the new market manager.

Building on momentum, Davis went on to announce offers have been extended to fill two of three assistant market manager positions. The candidates are still going

through the official hiring process and the release of their names is pending the outcome of background checks and other requirements.

While questions linger surrounding the ability to properly staff the online ordering and pick up program through the What’s Good app, Davis announced the hiring of three additional assistant managers to handle the complex aggregation has been approved by village staff. The positions account for approximately 400 additional hours and represent a $5,000 investment in the farmers market outside of the regular budget. That increase leaves the market with four available assistant positions to fill.

“I am very interested in filling these positions,” said Davis who also acknowledged the early weekend hours often deter

A ‘pause’ not full stop for District Kitchen UPDATE: After announcing District Kitchen and Tap would be closing, Patrick O’Brien back peddled on April 14.

Operations at District Kitchen and Tap, 220 Harrison St., Oak Park, are “paused” indefinitely, but O’Brien anticipates he will reopen his restaurant in the Harrison Street Arts District at some point.

“We did have an interested party and we entertained the idea of selling, but I misread an email,” said O’Brien. “With the

patio opening and vaccines we decided to recoup some of our losses over the summer.”

Though O’Brien spoke too soon, the challenges facing District Kitchen and Tap remain unique. Communal tables, shared plates and live music made the restaurant a community gathering place pre-COVID. These same aspects of District Kitchen and Tap’s business model have caused the restaurant to suffer

throughout the pandemic compared to other Scratch Restaurant Group establishments and O’Brien anticipates they will not be as appealing as they once were post-pandemic.

“We are probably going to remove the stage, rearrange the seating and redesign the menu,” said O’Brien. “All of this will take time and money. We are in line for a grant, but this isn’t a fun place to be.”

Melissa Elsmo, Oak Park Eats Editor

potential candidates. He went on to indicate several village employees, including himself, are interested in volunteering their time at the market.

Nearly 20 vendors have applied to be part of the market in the 2021 season and Davis expects more to come on board as the season nears. Vendor acceptance notifications were set to begin going out late last week.

Davis is also coordinating a virtual meet up between Ingram and market vendors.

It was also announced that special events will not be allowed during the first five markets. It is unclear how this may impact “Go Green Days” typically held during the early part of the market season.

Davis and commissioners agreed they need to work together to bring equity back to the market as compared to last years modified market. Vendors along East Avenue did not fare as well as those positioned on Scoville. Though the 2021 market is returning to the Pilgrim Church parking lot, pedestrian traffic will still be required to flow in a one-way loop. The commission is considering ways to encourage market shoppers to reserve some of their dollars and encourage people to loop around twice before purchasing.

Davis said the next commission chair would likely be appointed by Vicki Scaman, incoming village president. Applications for a farmers market assistant managers are still being accepted according to the village website.

Wednesday Journal, April 21, 2021

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

Putting plastic to good use Community members have collected almost 970 pounds

By STACEY SHERIDAN Staff Reporter

Austin Peoples Action Center will be receiving a brand-new bench made entirely of intercepted grocery bags, Ziplock bags and other plastics that would have otherwise been dumped into landfills.

“We’re really excited,” said Cynthia Williams, Austin Peoples Action Center CEO. The plastic collection is a joint effort between the Interfaith Green Network and the Clean Up-Give Back chapter of Oak Park and River Forest made possible through a recycling initiative coordinated by Trex, a manufacturer of eco-friendly outdoor furniture.

“If you collect 500 pounds within six months, they will make you a plastic bench,” said Interfaith Green Network’s Phyllis Rubin.

The two groups began collecting in midMarch, quickly hitting that 500-pound mark, which corresponds to about 40,000 individual single-use plastic bags.

“About three weeks in, we surpassed the goal,” said Judy Klem, of the Interfaith Green Network.

With enough plastic poundage amassed for the first bench, collection began for a second – a goal easily within reach. The caring hands have gathered a total of almost 970 pounds of plastic since they began collection efforts last month.

“It’s insane that we have collected so much plastic,” said Klem. “And it’s still coming.”

The idea to collect plastics for a bench came from Rubin, whom Klem called “the queen of plastics.” Rubin learned of the Trex initiative through her contacts within the Big Bold Jewish Climate Fest organization.

She presented the idea to Klem and other

members of the Interfaith Green Network.

Klem in turn posted about the initiative on Oak Park’s zero waste Facebook group, where it was seen by Adrienne Eyer, president of the local Clean Up-Give Back chapter. Eyer suggested her chapter, made up almost entirely of high school students, get involved.

“We became this trifecta,” said Klem, who called the teenage partners “amazing.”

Collection bins are set up at Oak Park Temple, the lobby of the Oak Park Conservatory and Oak Park and River Forest High School’s student activity center. Volunteers and group members routinely empty the bins, which are often times overflowing.

Sometimes the bins are emptied multiple times a day.

“It’s a sad state that there’s so much plastic coming out of our homes,” said Klem.

Once collected, the contents of the bins are weighed, documented and then brought to the Jewel-Osco in River Forest, where they are the shipped off to Trex. The grocery store, according to Eyer, has been integral to the project’s success.

Grocery bags aren’t the only plastic item able to be deposited in the bins. Also able to be deposited are plastic coverings from a number of household items, including toilet paper wrapping, sandwich bags, newspaper sleeves, dry cleaning bags, cereal box liners. Just as she suggested participating in the Trex initiative, Rubin suggested the first bench go to Austin Peoples Action Center. Already being manufactured, the bench will sit between two homes belonging to the center.

“What we use them for is to house highrisk babies or foster care babies,” said Williams.

The yard between the two homes is undeveloped. Austin Peoples Action Center is working to convert the site into a garden through donations and grants. Williams told Wednesday Journal the center recently received an anonymous $1,000 donation to go toward purchasing plants and materials.

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Customers can use Public Parking Lot 1 (behind Fifth Third Bank).

Oak Park Avenue opens mid-May.

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Brian Hammersley, of Oak Park, drops off plastic bag donations.

Stay informed and sign up for project updates:

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Wednesday Journal, April 21, 2021

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

Mom, daughter (and friends) become vaccine hunters Scoring appointments new date night for Maia Hess

By F. AMANDA TUGADE Staff Reporter

Staying up late has taken on new meaning for Oak Park mother Michelle Hess and her daughter, Maia. The two have swapped out sleeping to help family, friends, neighbors and other local teens schedule their COVID-19 vaccine appointments.

“It’s become our thing,” Michelle said.

Every night for the last two months, Michelle and Maia would huddle together with laptops and cellphones in hand, anxiously waiting for CVS Pharmacy and other vaccination sites to drop their list of open dates at midnight. It’s game on when the clock strikes 12, and the pair finds themselves refreshing several web pages until they spot a slot, quickly filling out the online forms before the appointment disappears.

“The appointments go like that,” said Maia, 18, snapping her fingers. “They go ridiculously fast, and you have to get them at the right time.”

When Michelle was tasked to book vac-

cine appointments for loved With teens now included in ones, she remembered how the pool of eligibility, Maia daunting the process felt. turned to her boyfriend, JP She said some sites were not Rettberg, and their friends user-friendly or ask to create and a handful of other parents individual profiles, but over to aid in the search. Weekend time and through practice, hangouts and date nights, she learned how to navigate especially for Maia and Rettthem. Reading every question berg, now include locking in and even entering personal vaccine appointments. information can be time-con“Especially on weekends, suming, and those steps can we’ll be together at midnight seem overwhelming to those MAIA HESS anyways,” Maia said, laughwho aren’t computer savvy or Vaccine hunter ing. “My mom will be like, don’t have the time to wait in ‘Do you guys want to get some line online, Maia added. appointments?’ We’re like, Michelle said she later ‘Yeah. We’re already together, joined a few Facebook groups so why not?’” for vaccine hunters and Each night is different, said 19-year-old started setting up vaccine appointments Rettberg, a freshman at Triton College. for strangers, and as the vaccine became There are times when he and Maia have available to more people, Michelle leaned only a handful of appointments to handle, on Maia for an extra hand. and other times, they have more than a “Once it opened up to more retail and dozen to manage. That’s when they divvy restaurant workers, I realized a lot of my friends could get appointments,” said Maia, up the list and loop in other volunteers.

“It’s super random,” Rettberg said about an Oak Park and River Forest High School the number of requests he received. Maia senior. “I started reaching out to them and added, “It varies on how many people still asking if anyone needed appointments, and I would get them and their parents’ appoint- need vaccines and also how many appointments actually show up, because obviously ments.”

“I just like seeing how excited they got because they can see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

april s r e w o sh bring n o i t n e prev ! r e w o p

there’s a limit to that.”

To date, Michelle and her army of vaccine hunters have scheduled over 300 COVID-19 vaccine appointments at various sites across the Chicagoland area. Recently, they have led families to a mass vaccination site in Gary, Ind. With the pandemic still ongoing, Maia and Rettberg spoke candidly about how hard it was for them to not see their family and friends in person. Maia said during the few times she did see her friends last year, she was “super careful” and made sure they could socially distance.

“I was like paranoid all the time like I’m sure everyone was. I got tested a few times just to be sure, because I was so scared,” Maia said, adding she was excited when she completed her vaccination last month.

As Maia reflected on that feeling of excitement and relief, she thought about her experience with helping others schedule their vaccine appointments in the past weeks and took comfort in seeing that sense of hope and normalcy return.

“I really love seeing people text me back and being like, ‘Oh my god, are you serious?’” Maia said. “I just like seeing how excited they got because they can see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

Join Positive Youth Development (+PYD) Saturday April 24, from 10am-2pm for two prevention and awareness events.

National Prescription Take Back Day and Alcohol Awareness Month Event!

We will be collecting expired/unused prescriptions & e-cigarettes/ Vape pens (pods too). Information and local resources will be available! Bike on over to discard medications & show support of an alcohol-free healthy lifestyle!

Pick up a free bike light kit while supplies last.

Oak Park Township | 105 S. Oak Park Avenue | www.oakparktownship.org/prevention-services For m ore i nfor m at i on a nd to di s cover loca l res ou rces: www.OakParkTownship.org/PYD

Oak Park & River Forest Townships

This product was developed under a grant from the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) DFC Support Program, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The views, policies, and opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the ONDCP, HHS, or CDC.

@Positive Youth Development

Wednesday Journal, April 21, 2021

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Ali curates library display celebrating Ramadan Brings greater awareness to Muslim traditions

By STACEY SHERIDAN Staff Reporter

Millions of Muslims around the world are refraining from eating and drinking during sunlight hours in observance of Ramadan, which began Tuesday, April 13. Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, which is based on lunar cycles.

To broaden the Oak Park community’s cultural awareness, Oak Park’s main library is showcasing Islamic artwork, prayer rugs and prayer beads in its Idea Box. The display, just inside the front door, is titled “Ramadan & Islam Around the World.” It also features traditional dresses from Iraq, India, Pakistan and Palestine, among other countries.

Curated by Oak Parker Dima Ali with the assistance of Juanta Griffin, the library’s multicultural learning coordinator, the display is meant to educate people.

“There is a small Muslim community in Oak Park and Muslims come from all over the world,” said Ali. “Muslim does not mean you’re Arab and Arab does not mean you’re Muslim. There are Indians who happen to be Muslim – Pakistani, Black people can be Muslim.”

Much of what is on display comes from Ali’s personal collection, including most of the dresses, which Ali brought with her when she left her native Iraq 20 years ago.

Ali also created the artwork on display. The rest was donated by other members of Oak Park’s Muslim community.

The display will be available for viewing throughout the entire month of Ramadan, a period of introspection, prayer and selfimprovement.

With the sighting of the new crescent moon, Ramadan begins and fasting commences. Those who fast in observance of Ramadan abstain from eating and drinking between sunrise and sunset throughout the entire month – a humbling experience, according to Ali. “It’s going to make you feel the hunger and thirst and pain of the needy person in your community,” said Ali. “It gives you an idea about what people go through and prompts you to do better.”

The hardest part of fasting for her is not being able to drink caffeinated beverages.

A month of worship, Ramadan also serves as a time for families to join in celebration, breaking fast together nightly.

“Traditionally in our house, we do almost like a Thanksgiving feast every night,” said Ali. The month ends and the fasting concludes, as they both started, with the sight-

RESTAURANTS GROCERY SALONS SPORTS RETAIL COFFEE SHOPS BOOKS BAKERIES FLORAL MUSIC ART SERVICES ICE CREAM

GOOD GOOD GOOD GOOD Dima Ali ing of the new crescent moon. This year, that is expected to occur May 13. A three-day celebration called Eid al-Fitr marks the end of Ramadan.

“It’s a tradition I love, and it reminds me of home,” said Ali. Ali described fasting as a “personal choice.”

“The general rule is that if you’re able,” said Ali. “You should if you can, but if you can’t, it’s fine.”

Expecting and breastfeeding mothers, people who are sick or traveling, children who haven’t hit puberty and those who simply can’t fast have dispensation, according to Ali. “In each and every religion, there’s some sort of version of fasting,” said Ali. “So, in Islam, there’s Ramadan.”

And although Oak Park boasts numerous places of worship, the village does not have a mosque. Being Muslim in Oak Park, Ali calls being part of an “invisible minority.”

“I took it upon myself to be the face of my faith,” said Ali. “I am culturally Muslim; I’m not very religious.”

Ali hosts workshops to teach people about Arabs and Muslims in the United States.

“Often in America in general, we are looked at as terrorists,” said Ali. “The media paint you this way, community members paint you this way, government officials paint you this way. And this is far from true.”

Through education, Ali aims to dispel such myths and widen consciousness.

“We go through so much microaggression and misrepresentation,” said Ali.

13

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Oak Park Avenue opens mid-May. Visit the website and sign up for project updates.

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Southtown is a neighborhood business district where Oak Park Avenue crosses the Eisenhower Expressway.

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Wednesday Journal, April 21, 2021

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ART BEAT

Arts educator battles COVID, funding cuts to reach Chicago kids Arts cuts another way Black and Brown students overlooked

Growing Community.

By MICHELLE DYBAL Arts Editor

Michael Jones has been a presence in Oak Park. What he witnessed here, happening in youth theater, drove him to bring something similar to students at Chicago’s underserved schools and to communities of color.

While he lives in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago, Jones has been involved with Gwendolyn Brooks Middle School’s BRAVO theater program, is a cofounder of Ovation Academy of Oak Park and is a board member of Madison Street Theater (MST), which is Ovation Academy’s home.

His connection has roots in a friendship, which began more than 25 years ago, with Tina Reynolds, BRAVO artistic director/program manager; Ovation Academy, artistic director/CEO; and fellow MST board member.

“Tina Reynolds has been a long-time friend and colleague,” Jones said. “We were part of the same performing arts program known as the Young Americans. At an early age, we started performing together and touring the world.”

“In witnessing the BRAVO program’s success,” said Jones, who has been a choreographer, assistant director and instructor with BRAVO, “and Tina’s unwavering dedication to youth education in the performing arts, I was inspired to establish my own missiondriven organization, with the intention of bringing quality performing arts access to underserved communities of color in Chicago.”

Professional Theater and Dance Youth Academy (PTDYA) was started in 2011. Jones is the executive and artistic director of PTDYA, which is celebrating its tenth anniversary and has served “more than 2,000 students in low-income communities” of Chicago.

PTDYA offers in-school, after school and summer arts programming to Black and, during the pandemic, Brown youth in grades K through 12, and includes dance, music, voice, improv, theater, musical theater and creative writing. Funding for arts can hit roadblocks in the communities where they operate, however, according to Jones.

“Prior to the pandemic, a lot of the schools we served were struggling to fund arts programs, simply because of their zip code,” he said. “Every time a school undergoes a budget cut, the arts are the first program to be eliminated. Our organization is not immune from these cuts. Even with our

ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

I WISH JUST THE START: Mike Jones has roots in Oak Park’s student performance groups.

Now though his focus is on Black and Brown children on the West and South sides. subsidized rates, some schools on Chicago’s South and West side still struggle to fund arts programs. We have encountered clients who had budgets as low as $1,500 for arts programming for the entire school year.”

Once COVID hit, things took a turn for the worse. PTDYA “had several cancelled contracts and events,” Jones said. Not only did this affect the bottom line, it affected students’ morale. A performance of Beauty and the Beast that students had rehearsed for weeks was canceled and expected fundraising dollars from it were never raised.

PTDYA’s in-person classes at two Chicago Public Schools were also halted.

“Our students had a sudden loss of all programming and as I followed up with them over the year, I discovered they were struggling in other ways,” Jones said. “The students we serve have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic due to food insecurity, lack of healthcare access, gun violence and the racial unrest of last summer.”

Jones and the PTDYA team pivoted to offer their programs through e-learning. Students at three Chicago schools – one near Chicago’s Back of the Yards neighborhood, one in West Ridge and one in Roseland – worked on dance, vocal training and acting with professional artists and had workshops with Broadway performers.

“We were happy to facilitate some interaction between students from different schools and provide a safe environment for self-expression during a difficult time,”

Jones said.

To keep programming coming and “to keep our supporters, students and staff as engaged as possible in the new virtual world,” Jones worked to create a music video to Stevie Wonder’s “I Wish,” raising awareness “about this issue that plagues the Chicago public school system,” lack of arts funding.

“I was a performer before I was an arts educator,” Jones said of how he was able to attract Broadway talent to the project. “I was able to contact my friends in the industry to donate their time and talent for the video.”

And Jones’ friend network helped make another wish come true.

“My friend Nancy Severinsen, daughter of Doc Severinsen, who works as a music supervisor on Dancing with the Stars and American Idol was instrumental in helping get the rights from Sony,” he said. “I wanted to rewrite the lyrics and I needed permission from Stevie Wonder’s estate to do so.

When Nancy confirmed we had acquired the rights, she said Mr. Wonder himself had blessed this project and given his approval for the rewrite.”

PTDYA hopes to raise $100,000 by the end of the summer to offer arts education to 170 students in four Chicago Public Schools this fall. The video is one piece of a campaign to reach an overall fundraising goal of $150,000 for the nonprofit.

To view PTDYA’s music video, learn more or donate: ptdya.org

Wednesday Journal, April 21, 2021

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

15

River Forest OKs contract for water meter infrastructure upgrade New system will take readings remotely

By ROBERT J. LIFKA Contributing Reporter

The River Forest officials took a major step in a major infrastructure project at the April 12 virtual village board meeting, approving a contract with Siemens Industry Inc. for services related to the planned $1.32 million automatic metering infrastructure (AMI) system.

Under the contract, Siemens will provide consulting services, project management assistance and installation and verification of water meters and multiplexer units (MXU) for the fixed-base AMI system for a fixed cost of $1,028,343.

The AMI project will entail upgrading water meters throughout the village with stateof-art equipment that will allow the village to obtain meter readings without requiring public works staff members to perform a “drive-by” read, which is the current practice.

According to John Anderson, public works director, the project will deliver better customer service by providing accurate bills based on actual consumption that can be seen in real time by providing meter reads on a daily basis.

It can also help identify any irregularities in water usage such as leaks being experienced by residents, he added. The project will require upgrading 1,964 of the village’s 3,180 existing water meters to new meters that will have the ability to provide digital readings and new MXUs, which are small battery-powered devices installed close to the meters.

Since the remote reads will be collected by radio signal, the village will need to install one or two central antennae. Anderson previously identified the water tower, the pumping station and village hall as poten-

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tial locations. River Forest officials will use the village’s existing meter manufacturer, Sensus, for the project, he added.

The contract also calls for Siemens to provide a public relations campaign that will inform residents about the program, providing informational fliers and a toll-free number for them residents to call for any questions they have about the project.

Short videos will be produced providing

information and details of the program that will be displayed on the village website. A list of frequently asked questions also will be created and posted on village web sources to inform residents and answer their questions.

Anderson said preliminary work will begin “within the next several weeks” and the entire process will take approximately one year which brings completion to spring/ summer of 2022.

Preliminary work includes data collection of the village’s current meter and MXU inventory, identifying the location of the antenna or antennas and reviewing information technology needs.

Officials also will determine current processes and how they can be improved in the future and determine of the scope and selection process of the AMI wireless network and potential leak-detection providers.

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Wednesday Journal, April 21, 2021

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ART BEAT

OPRF’s spring musical ties Terkel’s Working to COVID life In streamed version, just who is essential becomes clearer

By F. AMANDA TUGADE Staff Reporter

There’s a scene in Working, Oak Park and River Forest High School’s newest spring musical, where the cast stands on the bleachers overlooking the football field, behind them a big, bright blue sky. Dressed in construction gear, medical scrubs or fitted suits, each actor and actress hold their arms up high and sing, “If I could have been what I could have been, I could have been something.”

Repeating the line over and over, the scene fades into a montage of clips from a previous OPRF graduation where eager seniors are reaching for their diplomas, grabbing hold of their futures.

This is the part in the story where the cast, most of whom play adults navigating the challenges of their everyday lives, comes to grips with reality, said Michelle Bayer, OPRF performing arts department chair and teacher. They are reckoning with the past, thinking about “what could have been,” as the song goes, before bills, marriage and professional pitfalls.

For Bayer, who also directs the musical, crafting that particular scene took time. She wanted to create a flashback and for her audience to see the cast as if “they’re watching their graduation.” Unlike most productions, this year’s musical is a pre-recorded performance, and throughout rehearsals, Bayer often found herself outside of her element.

She had an idea of what the show could be, and she sought to capture that by leaning on her entire team, those on stage and behind the scenes, to bring those moments to life on the screen.

“Being uncertain is not my style,” said Bayer. “I know how to do live theater, and so this whole process -- I had to suspend disbelief because I didn’t know what it was going to look like.”

“Is it going to look like what I see in my head?” is a question Bayer asked herself hundreds of times. “Because in live theater, I can watch that and say, ‘I like that.’ ‘Let’s do that again,’ or ‘Let’s make a different choice.’ I can’t do that this way,” she said.

But Bayer had to trust the process much like the rest of her crew.

Over the past two months, practices were held in what felt like unconventional places. Most of them took place inside students’ homes. Kitchens, living rooms and bedrooms were recreated into makeshift stages. Bayer said students used their cellphones, “not any fancy cameras” to record themselves singing, dancing or acting. And, while most meetings were also held over

Zoom, the cast and stage crew only met in person for a total of three days to record certain scenes and group numbers.

Aasha Puri, the musical’s stage manager, said she cherished every single one of the inperson rehearsals. Ever since the pandemic put live theater on pause, she’s missed being around her “big family” – “people that just like to do theater and hang out together.”

“We didn’t really get to do that over Zoom,” said Puri, 15 and a sophomore at OPRF. “It was just kind of like work, work, work.”

And, by the same token, Working is about just that. The live stream musical, which runs about an hour and 50 minutes with no intermission, originally debuted in the late 1970s and was adapted for the stage by lyricist and composer Steven Schwartz, who wrote the Broadway hit, Wicked. It was later reworked to include songs by another famed composer, Lin-Manuel Miranda, but the story of Working, which was based on legendary Chicago author Studs Terkel’s best-selling book, has remained the same over the years, putting a spotlight on the

lives of everyday people.

From a laborer to a grocery store clerk and a stay-at-home mom, each character spins off into a series of monologues, opening up about the challenges of making a stable living, taking care of family, handling responsibility and managing the weight of work. It’s a fitting theme, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated every industry, widening the social, racial and economic gap.

“Why not talk about the work – and the work of the people that we don’t celebrate prior to the pandemic?” Bayer said. “So many people all of a sudden were important. I mean, they’ve always been important, but they were brought to the forefront.”

In an effort to localize “Working” and make it their own, Bayer said students had the chance to interview different people and learn about the ins and outs of their profession. She said they also turned to local businesses around Berwyn, Forest Park, Oak Park and nearby Elmwood Park, using their storefronts as backdrops.

OPRF senior Mira Mundt looked to her

own mother as she prepared for her role as an intensive care unit nurse. During the musical, 18-year-old Mundt embodied her mother, who is a nurse by profession, and drew from her experience of long, grueling hours and coping with the stress and trauma brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

“She’s super important to me, and she’s a hero to me,” Mundt said.

Like Mundt, castmate Leo Gonzalez relied on his friends to help him flesh out his part. In one part of the musical, Gonzalez plays a teenager who landed his first summer job as a delivery boy at a burger joint.

He sings about being independent, having purpose and contributing to his family’s financial needs.

“I just felt super comfortable because people I’m friends with work at fast food restaurants and other restaurants around Oak Park, so I could just draw from that,” said Gonzalez, who is 17 and a junior.

This version of Working also puts a spotlight on factory workers, immigrants and low-wage earners – the “jobs that no one wants to do,” they sing. All in all, the musical is threaded in a patchwork of messages, including empathy and resilience.

“Every single person has value,” said Bayer of the lesson she hopes her students and audience walk away with from this show.

“We use money to place value on people’s work, but the reality is the pandemic exposed that it’s not the people who make the most money that are the most essential. It’s that every single person has value for a system to work.”

There are two more showings of Working, Friday, April 23, and Saturday, April 24, 7 p.m. Tickets are $6 per person, with an additional $2.80 streaming fee. For more information, visit www.showtix4u.com/eventdetails/46098.

Photos provided

THE SHOW GOES ON: (Top) Juniors Leo Gonzalez (left) and Tucker Bonnell (right) pass the buck in front of the cast in “Working” on the streets of Oak Park. (Above) The cast performs the opening number “All the Livelong Day” at the high school stadium.

Wednesday Journal, April 21, 2021

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17

Local artist’s mural unveiled at Austin Walmart

Oak Park artist Tia Etu’s “Generations” unveiled

By IGOR STUDENKOV AustinTalks

Shoppers at the Austin Walmart Supercenter, 4650 W. North Ave., can now revel in a splash of color and community spirit as they leave the store.

On April 8, Ald. Emma Mitts (37th) and Walmart officials unveiled a mural painted by artist Tia Etu. The mural, called “Generations,” was placed beyond the second set of doors, on the wall directly east of the entrance. While the artwork is easy to miss on the way in, it catches one’s eye on the way out.

The mural is part of Walmart’s Chicago Mural Program, which looks for local artists to design murals for its Chicago locations. Etu’s mural features Austin’s iconic “Pink House,” located at 556 N. Central Ave.; several generations of Austinites in a cornfield; and two kids selling snow cones.

Etu said she wanted to paint something that would show Austin in a positive light and encourage Austin residents to be selfsufficient and nurture the next generation.

According to Walmart spokesperson Colleen Dungeon, the Chicago Mural Program launched more than a year ago.

“Walmart began working with local artists to create specialized murals for its Chicago stores,” she said. “The Chicago Mural Program includes outreach to local leaders and community members to design a

Photo provided

Tia Etu’s “Generations” can be found at the Austin Walmart unique mural that speaks to the diversity and resilience of the local community.”

Dungeon said that Walmart will unveil a similar mural at Walmart Supercenter in the Chatham neighborhood, 8331 S. Stewart Ave., on April 15.

Etu owns Whatever Comes to Mind art studio in Oak Park, at 27 Harrison St., and she teaches private art classes for K-12 stu-

DIVERSITY

Rebuilding Community Relations Committee from page 1 san Buchanan, out of frustration, lashed out at board’s male members.

Brewer does not foresee the incoming village board having any qualms with accepting the diversity statement, now known as the Oak Park Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Statement.

He believes much of the ire over the creation of the new diversity statement stemmed from people not being on the same page as each other.

“I think there was so much bitterness over the statement, in the last go around, that it made it almost impossible for it to be anything more than a statement,” said Brewer. “I’m hopeful that, given the makeup of the new board, that it will be viewed as a call to action.”

Trustee Arti Walker-Peddakotla believes adopting the diversity statement is an important step to affirm the incoming board’s commitment to equity. However she does not believe the diversity statement needs any more work.

“We now need to get past making statements,” she said.

“We actually need to do things that impact people’s lives in a meaningful way.”

dents and senior citizens. Etu said that, while she lives and works in Oak Park, she considers home near Columbus Park, and often takes walks in Austin. She said she has friends who live and work in Austin and has taught classes in the community.

“Because I’m on the outskirts of Chicago and Austin is right there, Austin is home, in a sense,” Etu said “It’s totally different once

Now about halfway through her term, Walker-Peddakotla, previous to taking office, was involved in revamping the village’s existing diversity statement. That statement was first drafted in 1973 near the start of Oak Park’s racial integration efforts. It was amended through the years and again in 2017. Walker-Peddakotla said she was working alongside the CRC to make the statement a better reflection of the village in its current state.

In May of that year, when she, Trustee James Taglia and Buchanan were sworn in, Walker-Peddakotla believed the village board would be voting on the updated diversity statement.

“I was under the impression when I got sworn in that I was going to be sworn in on the new statement that that the CRC had worked on, and I had provided input on it,” WalkerPeddakotla recalled. “That did not happen.”

The board instead accepted the existing statement. Walker-Peddakotla told Wednesday Journal the reasoning she was given was protocol; as she had given input on the updated statement when other trustees hadn’t, using the revised statement would be a breach of proper procedure.

“It really was a sign of things to come,” said Walker-Peddakotla.

That moment set the stage for the months-long diversity statement debate, as well as the board’s general divisiveness in discussions of racial equity.

The volleying of the diversity statement between the CRC and the village board contributed to the souring of relation-

you cross Austin Boulevard, but it’s where I roam.”

Etu said that she was approached by Mitts’ staff and she took the project on because she thought it was a good opportunity.

After Walmart approved her sketches, she painted the mural. Walmart then scanned the image and blew it up.

Etu said she painted the Pink House because “people from Austin are going to know that house and that’s going to put a smile on their face.” The cornfield and the kids selling snow cones are designed to invoke a sense of self-sufficiency, she said.

“People are growing their own food, they’re creating their own small businesses,” Etu said.

The faces of people of different ages, she said, are meant to create a sense of history and legacy.

Etu hopes that the mural will encourage shoppers “to be neighborly” and to care for the next generation.

“Feed your children, literally and figuratively,” she said. “Give them education and proper food, so they can grow and be the best they can be.”

Etu added that she wanted to paint something that would show Austin in a positive light.

“I’m hoping that they’ll just say, ‘Hey, I can relate to that, this is my neighborhood, this is what it feels like to be in the neighborhood and this is what it is,’” she said. “I hope that they feel represented. It’s not about the shootings or things like that, because we all know how Austin gets depicted in the media. I want them to feel happy and I want them to feel proud.”

ships among elected officials.

Feeling the village board repeatedly disregarded their recommendations, CRC commissioners became so embittered last July that six out of seven members resigned en masse.

With no replacements appointed, Brewer remains the commission’s sole member. He has been working to recruit new CRC members, wishing to see a more representative CRC. “I think we were working toward broad representation near the end, right before everyone decided to resign,” said Brewer. “That’s what I look for and what I’ve been looking for.”

Scaman told Wednesday Journal she was “impressed” with how the departed CRC members helped adapt the diversity statement despite the controversy. She views the near empty commission as a chance to create a harmonious relationship between the board and new CRC members.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity to rebuild where we can seek representation from all sectors of our community to aid the village board, advise the village board boldly and holistically,” said Scaman.

Before appointing new members, Walker-Peddakotla believes the board should look inward to determine just what part the CRC plays in determining the future of Oak Park.

“I think this new board has to really ask itself, ‘If we want to move racial equity forward, what’s the role of the CRC in that work?’”

18

Wednesday Journal, April 21, 2021

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C R I M E

BMW carjacked on Austin Blvd.

A BMW 750LI was carjacked at 11:33 a.m., April 13 in the 100 block of South Austin Boulevard. The male offender got into the vehicle through its unlocked front passenger door, while the vehicle’s owner was sitting inside. The man ordered the victim out of the vehicle. Once the victim had fled, the man hopped into the driver’s seat and drove off, going southbound on Austin Boulevard.

Chicago police recovered the BMW, the estimated loss of which was $23,000, the following day at 4:56 p.m., April 14 in the 4700 block of West Fulton Street in Chicago. The vehicle was unoccupied, and police made no apprehensions.

Burglary ■ Someone broke a window to a 2017 Chevy Silverado and then took a laptop computer from inside the vehicle between 3 p.m., April 11 and 5 a.m., April 12 in the 800 block of North Austin Boulevard. The estimated loss is $500.

■ The glovebox and center console of a 2011 bronze Kia Sorento was ransacked after someone entered the vehicle through an unlocked door while parked in the 700 block of Lyman Avenue between 9 p.m., April 12 and 6 a.m., April 13. No loss at time of report.

North Avenue PNC Bank robbed The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) has apprehended the man who reportedly robbed PNC Bank, 6621 North Ave., at 11:45 a.m., yesterday. The man entered the bank under the pretense of opening an account then demanded money after passing a note stating he was

carrying a gun.

The bank employee complied, and the offender fled in an unknown direction carrying an estimated $2,000. He was subsequently arrested by the FBI in south suburban Calumet City Stacey Sheridan.

■ A man was observed via video surveillance forcing open the metal panel in the overhead door of Jiffy Lube, 215 S. Harlem Ave., at 11:23 p.m., April 15; once inside the business, he pried open the register and removed cash. The estimated loss is $140.

■ One man broke the south side 6-foot-by6-foot glass window of the Parlor Barber, 964 S. Oak Park Ave., then a second man climbed through the window and removed several pieces of hair grooming equipment at 1:55 a.m., April 17. The break in activated the business’s alarm, alerting the alarm company, which notified the owner, who viewed video surveillance footage. The two offenders fled in an unknown direction. The total loss is unknown.

■ Someone entered an unlocked vehicle and took a pair of sunglasses, an iPhone and a pair of sandals from inside between 11 p.m., April 14 and 6 a.m., April 15 in the 400 block of South East Avenue. The estimated loss is $1,225.

Theft of a motor vehicle

Someone removed a vehicle from the 800

block of South Oak Park Avenue between 6 p.m. and 11:45 p.m., April 15. The estimated loss is $10,000.

Criminal damage to property Someone damaged the rear window of the victim’s 2003 Honda Odyssey while it was parked outside a residence in the 900 block of North Humphrey Avenue between 11:40 a.m. and 11:51 a.m., April 18. The estimated damage is $100.

■ These items, obtained from the Oak Park Police Department, came from reports April 13 – April 19 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

Bail set at $3M for man charged with shooting officer Oak Park officer was shot during a traffic stop April 8

By STACEY SHERIDAN Staff Reporter

Arrested in the shooting of an Oak Park police officer, Enrique R. Rosa was ordered held on $3 million bail Sunday, April 11. Rosa’s next court date has been scheduled for April 20 at the Maywood Courthouse.

The 26-year-old man is in custody at the John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County, according to the Cook County Sheriff ’s office. Rosa is recovering after being shot by an Oak Park office during the altercation.

Rosa has been charged with two counts of attempted murder of a peace officer and one count of aggravated battery with a firearm for the April 8 shooting of the unnamed Oak Park police officer during a traffic stop.

He faces up to eight years in prison for each count of attempted murder and a minimum of six years in prison for the count of aggravated discharge of a firearm, if convicted.

The shooting occurred while the Oak Park officer was assisting Forest Park police with a traffic stop at 7 a.m., April 8, in the 600 block of Harlem Avenue near the interstate 290 expressway.

Oak Park police have now confirmed that there were two Oak Park officers in the

squad car responding to the scene on Harlem Avenue. One was a field training officer, the other a probationary officer. It was the field training officer who was shot by the alleged suspect. Police also said only the FTO discharged his weapon.

Rosa, of the 2200 block of West Monroe Street in Chicago, was pulled over by the officer and upon stopping out the vehicle, opened fire on the police officer, striking him in his arm. The officer returned fire on Rosa, shooting him twice in his leg, according to Oak Park spokesman David Powers.

“This incident illustrates the dangerous and unpredictable challenges officers face each and every day as they serve and protect our community,” said Oak Park Police Chief LaDon Reynolds in a village news release.

“The prevalence of firearms and the ease with which they can be obtained makes being a police officer a risky profession. But many still choose to serve because of their dedication and desire to make a difference by literally putting their lives on the line for the greater good. I salute the officer wounded in this incident and wish him – and his family – a speedy recovery from this traumatic experience.”

Both the officer and Rosa were transported to Loyola Medical Center with nonlife-threatening injuries. The officer, whose name has not been released, was released from the hospital’s care April 10 and is recovering at home.

Forest Park Deputy Police Chief Ken Gross said the altercation began as a domestic disturbance call on the 900 block of Thomas Avenue in Forest Park. It is believed that the offender took his girlfriend’s car, which he was driving when police stopped him.

The last time an Oak Park officer was shot during active duty was 1983, per Powers.

The Illinois State Police Public Integrity Task Force (PITF) is handling the investigation into the use of force by the Oak Park police officer.

Wednesday Journal, April 21, 2021

@ @OakPark

19

SPORTS

Pitching a strength for new-look OPRF baseball in 2021 Only one player returns from 2019 supersectional squad

By MELVIN TATE Contributing Reporter

Oak Park and River Forest High School head baseball coach Joe Parenti was confident there would be a season this spring once the number of COVID-19 cases decreased earlier this year. And the Huskies were eager and ready to get going once the season was approved.

“The boys are very happy to not only be doing something they love, but hanging out with each other,” said Parenti. “The atmosphere is very positive and efficient. We have a lot to go over in a short period of time, but we feel we’re good to go.”

In 2019, OPRF went 24-13 and advanced to the IHSA Class 4A supersectional, where the Huskies lost to Hampshire 4-0. Senior Grant Holderfield, an Indiana signee, is the only player returning from that team, and the Huskies will depend on him often.

“Grant really is a premier pitcher and one of the best in the state,” Parenti said. “He’ll also be an outfielder for us when he’s not pitching.”

There are plenty of new faces for OPRF this spring, including seniors Jared Cortez, Ethan Glossa and Aiden Krupp (Notre Dame recruit); junior David Andolina; sophomore Calvin Proskey; and freshman Mason Phillips, whom Parenti is excited about.

“He’s an all-around talent with great speed, and he’s handling being on the varsity very well,” he said.

Pitching has been the key to OPRF’s success in recent seasons, and with quality arms like Holderfield, Proskey, Andolina and Krupp, the Huskies’ depth is strong once again this year. OPRF should also be solid both defensively and at the plate, as well as feature plenty of speed in the lineup.

But given the lack of experience playing together, Parenti would like to see the fun-

ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

BRINGING THE HEAT: OPRF pitcher Grant Holderfiel, the Huskies’ ace, is one of the premier hurlers in the state, according to manager Joe Parenti, who is looking for his rotation to lead the way in 2021. damentals develop more.

“We need to execute the little things in game situations, for example, bunting, not missing signs, being in the correct position for bunt coverages and relays”, he said.

“This will come in time and with more ingame experience. It’s a process leading up to the playoffs.”

Even with missing last season, Parenti believes another highly competitive year in the West Suburban Silver is at hand.

“All the coaches feel that this will be a great conference season,” he said. “The teams are very balanced in comparison to one another and anyone can win it. We like our chances, but it will be a great test for every team.”

That was evident in OPRF’s season opener April 17 at home against Hinsdale Central. Behind solid pitching from Holderfield (4 innings, 1 earned run, 4 hits, 7 strikeouts) and 2 RBI and two runs scored by Cortez, the Huskies defeated the Red Devils 14-8 in a sloppily-played game that featured a combined 10 errors for both teams.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, OPRF’s 25game regular season is comprised of solely West Suburban Conference opponents -- all of the Silver teams, plus divisional crossover games with Downers Grove South, Leyden Township and Morton.

The Huskies have a busy week ahead with five games, first on the road at York on April 19 and 24, and at home against Leyden on

April 21, York on April 22 and Hinsdale Central on April 23.

Make no mistake, this season will present challenges for OPRF. But Parenti senses his players are ready for anything that comes their way with the positive attitudes they have displayed.

“They’ve handled (the uncertainty) as best one can expect; based on our practices and contact days they’re in great spirits,” said Parenti. “I think the main lesson we are taking from this is to be thankful for everything in your life because things can change without any of your control. I feel everyone is really thankful to be playing baseball again and excited to be back on the field doing something they love and are good at.”

Late York strike breaks Huskies’ hearts 18-17

By MELVIN TATE

Contributing Reporter

It’s one thing to lose a game. But when the loss occurs in the closing seconds -- which is what happened to Oak Park and River Forest High School football team April 16 at Oak Park Stadium -- it tends to sting more.

“That was a tough one,” said OPRF head coach John Hoerster after the Huskies dropped a heartbreaking 18-17 contest to visiting York. “We had some kids who stepped up and made some big plays for us, [but] it was a tough one [to lose].”

OPRF (3-2) started slowly and trailed 10-0 with three minutes to go in the first half. Ho-

erster felt the Huskies left some plays on the field early on, but also gave them credit for showing resiliency.

“We were shooting ourselves in the foot and making mistakes,” he said. “[But] we figured it out and the kids did a nice job sticking with the plan.”

After York (3-2) kicked a 20-yard field goal

to go up 10-0, OPRF got right back into the game on its next offensive play with an 80yard touchdown strike from quarterback Jack Landis (8-of-19, 178 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT) to Ryan McFadden.

Then running back Demetrius Dortch See FOOTBALL on page 20

20

Wednesday Journal, April 21, 2021

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

OPRF girls look to build cohesive unit on the pitch

By MELVIN TATE

Contributing Reporter

The Oak Park and River Forest High School girls soccer team is thrilled about returning this spring after the 2020 season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We were ecstatic when we found out there would be a season this year,” said OPRF coach Christine Johnson. “We’re extremely excited to be back on the field. Everyone has a positive outlook and we’re ready to get to work.”

The Huskies, who went 3-1-9 in 2019, have several returning players that will provide leadership and experience -- seniors Sophie Donnellan, Kate Klinger and Audrey Stutz along with juniors Julia Daun and Katherine Hoffman, who led OPRF in goals as a freshman.

“Katherine has amazing tactical skills that allow her to distribute the ball and create opportunities for her and her teammates to score,” Johnson said. “Her aggressiveness and overall athleticism makes her a standout player.”

The Huskies also look for Kiki Leman and Hailey Nowak to make an impact. Johnson says sophomore midfielder Leman is a gritty player who finds herself in the right place at the right time, while Nowak, a junior defender, is tenacious and provides a strong presence on the field.

OPRF has not played together very much as a unit, so Johnson feels developing awareness of each other on the field as well as reading everyone’s style of play will be important in how successful the Huskies will be this year.

“The team is competitive, coachable and has the desire to be successful,” said Johnson. “We have a lot of talent and are motivated to be an impactful team in our conference this season.”

As always, the West Suburban Silver is loaded up and down with top programs, and Johnson expects plenty of competition. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the Huskies’ schedule consists solely of West Suburban Silver teams, plus Downers Grove South of the conference’s Gold Division. Moreover, there will be no state tournament this spring.

Johnson believes her players have shown maturity and learned a lesson from the pandemic.

“I feel the players have handled the uncertainties of the past year well given the circumstances,” Johnson said. “I think the pandemic has taught them to be resilient and appreciate the things we often take for granted.”

OPRF opens the season April 20 at Hinsdale Central (post-press time), then hosts Proviso West April 22 at Oak Park Stadium.

FOOTBALL

Season finale April 24 from page 19 (184 all-purpose yards) opened the second half with a 71-yard kickoff return that set up a game-tying 31-yard field goal by Talib Becktemba-Goss at the 9:20 mark of the third quarter.

The game evolved into a defensive struggle from that point, with both teams gaining multiple stops. Finally, late in the fourth quarter, OPRF marched 37 yards on 10 plays to gain the lead, with Landis capping the drive on a nine-yard touchdown run with 2:03 remaining.

However, on the ensuing drive, the Dukes were able to convert a fourth-and-5 from the Huskies’ 45 on a five-yard pass from Max Assaad to Aaron Berman, who stretched out just far enough to gain the first down.

Then two plays later, Assaad found Luke Malaga open for a 29-yard touchdown pass with 33.6 seconds left. York opted to go for the two conversion and succeeded as Assaad, who threw for 345 yards on the evening, and Malaga connected again to give the Dukes an 18-17 lead.

OPRF drove to the York 41-yard line in the final seconds, but Landis’ desperation pass was intercepted at the 10 by Malaga as time expired to seal the Huskies’ fate.

“You’ve got a few hours to feel sorry for yourself, and then you’ve got to get back

to it,” Hoerster said. “You’ve got to put the past in the past, focus on the future, and appreciate the opportunity that you have moving forward.”

In their final home game, seniors Jake Birmingham and Naahlyee Bryant had outstanding games for OPRF. Birmingham finished with 9.5 tackles (8 solo) while Bryant notched 5 tackles, including a pair of sacks. Senior James Murphy (6.5 tackles, 5 solo) and sophomore Cameron Crape (interception) also contributed to the Huskies’ defensive efforts.

OPRF finishes the season April 24 at Glenbard West.

Friars overwhelm Leo Senior Night for the Fenwick High School football team was a success as the Friars blanked visiting Leo 43-0 on April 16 at Triton College.

In his second start filling in for Kaden Cobb, quarterback E.J. Hosty threw for two touchdowns -- 16 yards to Eian Pugh and 25 yards to Max Reese. Nick Polston ran for two touchdowns out of the Wildcat formation (1 and 9 yards respectively), and Danny Kent and Jacque Walls each added touchdown runs.

On defense, Fenwick (2-2) recorded five sacks, including two by Conor Paris. Mirko Jaskic forced a fumble, Jordan McAdoo and Jack O’Malley each recovered fumbles, and Michael Erwin had an interception.

The Friars end the season April 23, hosting St. Ignatius at Triton College.

S P O R T S

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Wednesday Journal, April 21, 2021

21

Late LTHS header seals win over Huskies in finale

OPRF finishes pandemic shortened campaign at 5-5-1

By MELVIN TATE Contributing Reporter

The Oak Park and River Forest High School boys soccer team wrapped up its pandemic shortened season by dropping a hard-fought 2-1 contest to visiting Lyons Township High School April 15 in the latest installment of this intense rivalry.

“The last five years or so, it’s come down to either penalty kicks, overtime or the final 10 minutes with the two of us,” said OPRF coach Jason Fried. “It’s the history of us playing back-and-forth; both programs have a lot of energy with their crowds, and a lot of the players know each other. They go at it because they’re competitors, but there’s also a lot of respect for each other.”

For the majority of the first half, the field was heavily tilted in favor of LTHS, which created several good scoring opportunities.

But OPRF senior goalkeeper Zach Shack came up big with some huge saves to keep things scoreless.

Ultimately however, the Lions (11-1) would break through thanks to a goal by Max Behm with 11:30 left in the half, and LTHS took the 1-0 lead into intermission.

But the Huskies (5-5-1) responded to begin the second half by taking the attack to LTHS, and they were rewarded about nine minutes in thanks to senior midfielder Paul Garcia, who took a nice feed from junior defender Eric Jackson and beat LTHS goalkeeper Johnathan Laczynski for the equalizer.

“The ball came to me and my only instinct was to shoot,” said Garcia. “Luckily it went

in, and scoring is always a great feeling.”

OPRF kept up the pressure and produced a few more quality chances but couldn’t find another goal.

Knowing that LTHS is one of the state’s top teams, Fried felt the Huskies missed a chance to take control of the match and that the Lions gradually shifted momentum.

“We had our chances,” Fried said. “We hit the crossbar once, and Easton [Bogard] just missed by six inches left on another shot.”

After those misses, the Lions stepped up their pressure and got the game-winning goal with 6:23 remaining on a header by Brian Salvino off a nice cross by Behm.

Despite the loss, Fried was proud of the effort and determination the Huskies showed against the West Suburban Silver champions.

“I congratulate [LTHS], but I also take nothing away from our boys.

They fought the whole game,” said Fried. “It was back-and-forth; unfortunately we came out on the wrong end. But we can live with that, and I’m proud of the way they played.”

ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer Overall, both Fried and Garcia felt the season was a success in spite OPRF’s Eric Jackson (right) looks to dribble past Lyons Township’s Jonathan Hill during the of the challenges playing in a pan- Huskies’ season finale, a 2-1 loss to the Lions, on April 15 in Oak Park. demic.

“We always say this, but it’s more “It started off slow, but as the season pro- ard and Jackson lead a strong group of reimportant this year. The best thing you get gressed and we got used to playing with turners for the fall, and Fried is optimistic out of soccer is not just a human connec- each other, we got better as a team,” added about continued improvement and success tion, but the bond you get from it,” Fried Garcia. “I have a lot of good memories and for OPRF. said. “This group of players from the se- I’m going to miss the players, coaches and “We look good for next season,” Fried niors to the freshmen is something special. the school.” said. “If we continue to get better and hold The last seven weeks have been amazing.

The Huskies lose nine players to gradua- each other accountable, we’re going to be in They battled every game and played really tion, including Garcia and Shack. But Bog- good shape.” good soccer. I’m so proud of all these guys.”

Fenwick girls soccer has new coach, new system

After supersectional appearance in 2019, Friars look to reload

By MELVIN TATE Contributing Reporter

The Fenwick High School girls soccer team has new leadership this spring as Craig Blazer takes over for Rob Watson. Blazer, who also coaches the boys team, has the same approach for both programs.

“Knowing your audience is important as well as the presentation, but the fundamentals are the same,” he said of the difference between coaching boys and girls.

Last year, the Friars were aiming to build off a successful 2019 season, one that culminated in a 4-0 loss to eventual state champion Benet Academy in an IHSA Class 2A supersectional. However, the COVID-19 pandemic had other ideas, and the season was canceled.

“Missing last season was very unfortunate, but now we

have the opportunity to make up for it,” said senior Emi Kapusta, a DePauw University recruit. “I’m truly grateful to Fenwick for giving us the chance to play.”

This year, Fenwick will look to reload around four experienced players, including Kapusta, Anna Dray, Julianna Giuffre and Grace McCann. According to Blazer, the skilled quartet will be heavily counted on given everyone is starting over essentially with no season last year.

Although the coaches’ systems are different, Kapusta feels that the transition from Watson to Blazer has been smooth.

“I can’t wait to have the chance to work with coach Blazer, and the rest of the staff,” she said. “They’ve already displayed within this short period of knowing them how much dedication they have to offer to the program.”

Having just concluded the boys season, Blazer and his assistants have been gradually incorporating elements of his system, and it may take some time for the Friars to completely adapt to it, especially with many new players around.

“We are improving every session in developing our possession, transition and defending,” Blazer said. “We still

need time on defensive and offensive restarts. It’s a process, but we are getting there.”

Fenwick will look to remain competitive in the Girls Catholic Athletic Conference, where Loyola and St. Ignatius return very strong teams and have had recent success. Yet, Blazer also wants his players to look forward to improving every day, be good teammates, and enjoy being on the team.

“The girls have brought a lot of maturity and leadership to every session and done a good job overall with looking forward to trainings and games,” he said.

In addition, Kapusta would like to see the Friars ultimately work as one cohesive unit.

“We have many new players joining the varsity this season, so we want to welcome them with open arms and show these girls how to support each and every teammate,” she said. “I believe all of us wish to make the best out of our season this year due to the loss of our last one.”

Fenwick opens the season April 24 versus Nazareth Academy at the Dominican Priory in River Forest, with match time set for noon.

22

Wednesday Journal, April 21, 2021

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Homes

Ray Kroc’s childhood home hits the market

Man who made McDonald’s famous grew up in Oak Park

By LACEY SIKORA

A

Contributing Reporter

Gunderson-built home at 1007 Home Ave. in Oak Park hit the market this week. Like a lot of Oak Park homes, it boasts charming original details and a connection to an historic per-

son.

Unlike most Oak Park homes that claim a famous connection, this house claims a connection to a man who became a billionaire marketing hamburgers and fries to the masses. The house was the boyhood home of Ray Kroc, the man who developed the modest California hamburger franchise business McDonald’s into an international fast food empire.

Fame was a long way off when Ray was born in 1902. His father, Louis, worked for Western Union and his mother, Rose, gave piano lessons to help make ends meet when the couple purchased the home in 1907 from S.T. Gunderson, the developer who built the house in 1905.

When Amy and Matt Bauer bought the home in 2016, they purchased it before it officially hit the market.

They heard from the seller’s agent that the home had belonged to the Kroc family, but that was about all they knew.

“It was a cool fact, but it was really just the house that drew us in,” Matt Bauer said.

He cites the way the sunlight filled the house, the original oak woodwork and the stained glass as the big draws.

“The home has a lot of original detail,” said Amy Bauer. “The door hardware and the wood were things we really loved. It has that classic Oak Park feel, but with a more modern floor plan with the open floor plan between the kitchen and family room.”

The couple was moving to the suburbs from a South Loop loft, and loved the new family room addition that the previous owners put on the home since it provided a similar open floor plan.

Matt notes that space helped them envision themselves raising a family in the home, a key point since Amy was expecting their first child at the time.

Monica Dalton of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices is listing the house for the Bauers for $625,000 and says that the history of the home is a bonus when selling a house in Oak Park. Many potential buyers may feel as Dalton does.

“I’m a history buff,” Dalton said. “The stories of Oak Park -- who lived where, the notable owners -- I’m fascinated by that.”

File photo

Ray Kroc’s childhood home at 1007 Home Ave. Get a view inside the historic Gunderson at Oakpark.com While the history is a hook, she says that she expects the attributes of the house will be what draws in the new owners.

“Ultimately, buyers will find the history interesting, but the house itself is really a great house,” Dalton said, adding that previous owners did a lot of great renovations and that the Bauers updated the home nicely as well.

“It’s a good house. It’s going to sell quickly.”

For the Bauers, the open kitchen has been a great place to cook, and they added a few updates to make the house their own. In the family room, they redid the fireplace by adding stacked stone with a television above the mantle.

In addition to other utilitarian updates, they took on a big project pre-COVID that they call a lifesaver. In the fourth bedroom,

the smallest in the house, they had a custom Murphy bed built into the space. When folded up, it has a desk space next to a builtin bookcase. When folded down, it becomes a queen-sized bed, making the room perfect for guests.

Matt says they purposefully chose to use quarter-sawn oak for the piece to help it blend into the home’s original wood.

“It’s the most used space in the house now,” he said.

On top of making the house their own, the couple also delved into the history of the home,” Amy Bauer said. “The previous owners had invited Ray Kroc’s niece, Lois, into the home, and they left behind copies of family letters and photos that she provided.

“She shared pictures of the family in the home, on the porch and in the backyard in the early 1900s. It was cool to see this history

of people enjoying the house.”

The previous owners also left behind copies of letters that Louis Kroc wrote to Rose before the two were married, and Matt says these provide a little peak into the lives and relationships of the couple whose son would become famous.

When they sell the house, Amy says they will leave behind the memorabilia of the Kroc family for the next owners.

“It seems like it’s part of the house and should stay with it,” she said.

24

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e Make Math ake Sense

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ore than any other subject, math has a stigma of being boring and anxiety provoking.

For many students, the past year of remote instruction has made learning math even more difficult than usual. At Mathnasium of Oak Park/River Forest, owner Jana Frank and her team of compassionate instructors have found a way, ever in this most challenging year, to alleviate student stress and “Make Math Make Sense” for local kids of all ages.

According to Frank, the biggest issue they faced with online learning was encouraging student participation.

Pre K - 12th Grade “Often with math,” she says, “students Remediation to Enrichment ED WE ARE EXPERIENCED can be confused and too embarrassed EARLY REGISTRATION SPECIAL: S MATH SPECIALISTS FREESummer CONSULTATION FREE CONSULTATION to ask questions.” At Mathnasium, Slide Prevention 15% OFF ALL Summer getting kids to talk is essential. All An in-depth SAT/ACT look at how the An in-depth look at how the Prep Programs the Method works learning is done one-on-one (whether LS WE TEACH ALL LEVELS during Mathnasium Method works Mathnasium & Geometry in-person or online), with instructors and howAlgebra we can meet your and how we can meet your OF MATH ABILITY month of April family’s needs. family’s needs. asking the kids to share how they got Review/Preview their answers and making them full PROVEN RESULTS participants in the learning experience.

Mathnasium Oak Park/River Forest Mathnasium La Grange The instructors are trained in proactive 1101 Chicago Ave, Oak Park, IL 60302 1 S. Waiola Ave, La Grange, IL 60525 mathnasium.com/your web address Your Locationlagrange@mathnasium.com mathnasium.com/your web address engagement, and never teach through oakparkriverforest@mathnasium.com 123 Any Street Rd. lecture or wait for a question—the 800-123-4567 800-123-4567 mathnasium.com/oakparkriverforest mathnasium.com/lagrange Any Town, ST 90000 entire lesson is a series of interactive 708.613.4007mathnasium.com/your web address 708.582.6593 discussions.

Currently Mathnasium has opened back up with a limited number of students on site to maintain safe social distance protocols. Next year Frank hopes to be back to the vibrant experience of in-person instruction, though, she emphasizes, the online option is not going away.

“Remote learning is especially useful,” she says, “for parents who are unable to get their students to the center or for kids who have super packed schedules, so we are excited to be able to offer these very flexible options.”

More than ever, this summer is the time for students to hone their math skills and get a jump on the school year. Schedule a FREE TRIAL SESSION for your student to see if Mathnasium is the right fit for your family this summer.

Please call or email as soon as possible as all summer programs are currently 15% off through the end of April!

Mathnasium of Oak Park/River Forest is at 1101 Chicago Ave, Oak Park, (708) 613-4007. Visit mathnasium.com/ oakparkriverforest

A Summer of Unforgettable Adventures Awaits at RFCC!

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Part-Time (2 – 4 hrs.)

Full-Time (6 – 11 hrs.)

Breakfast Club (15 mos. – 2 yrs) Parent and Tot Camp M,W : 9:00am–10:00 am

Young Voyagers (3 yrs. - 1st gr.)

M-F: 10:00am– 4:00pm Extended Care 7:00am-10:00am & 4:00pm-6:00pm

Three For All (3 yrs.)

M,W: 10:15am–12:15pm T,Th : 9:30am–11:30am

Adventure Camp (2nd – 4th gr.)

M-F: 10:00am-4:00pm Extended Care 7:00am-10:00am & 4:00pm-6:00pm

Little Explorers (4 & 5 yrs) M-Th: 9:00am-11:30am

Urban Safari (5th – 8th gr.)

M-F: 10:00am – 4:00pm & 4:00pm-6:00pm Extended Care 7:00am-10:00am & 4:00pm-6:00pm

Summer Scene (K – 7th grade) M-F: 12:00pm-4:00pm Extended Care 7:00am-10:00am & 4:00pm-6:00pm

Unforgettable Adventures from June 14th– August 20th Arts & Crafts, Games, Sports, and More!

River Forest Community Center 8020 Madison Street River Forest, IL 60305 708-771-6159 www.rfcc.info

iver Forest Community Center offers unforgettable adventures in part-time camp programs for either parents & tots (ages 15 months to 2 years) or preschool children ages 3 to 5. Full day adventures await older children ages Kindergarten through 8th grade!

RFCC provides age-appropriate activities designed to encourage positive group interactions as well as foster individual growth. Activities can include Arts & Crafts, Games, Sports, Special Events, and more!

Our leaders thrive on creating a safe and fun learning environment through play, in which children are encouraged to explore and develop their cognitive, language, social-intellectual and motor skills. Our mission is to provide a hands-on approach to learning which allows children to explore their environment while enhancing social, emotional, cognitive and motor development.

Extended care options are available for children in Kindergarten through 8th grade. Unforgettable adventures for all run from June 14 through August 20!

For more information, please see our website at www.rfcc.info or call 708771-6159.

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Register now for OPRF Alliance team tryouts: Fall ’21 – Spring ’22 season! May tryout dates. All Alliance players have access to coach-supervised summer clinics and scrimmages before the Fall season kick off in August.

Alliance Offers: • Summer clinics • Summer scrimmages • August pre-season training

• Winter training & indoor games • Spring training & games • Tournament play

• Fall training & games

Summer Clinics (M-F morning) • June 14 to June 18

Teams Next Year (birth year): High school Boys (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007)

2009 boys

High school Girls (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007)

2010/11 boys

• Sunday evenings

2008 boys

2012 girls

• Monday evenings

2009 girls

2013 girls

• June 21 to June 25 • June 28 to July 2 • July 26 to August 8 (evenings)

Summer Scrimmages

2010 girls

2011 girls

• More dates will likely be added

OPRF ALLIANCE is a community of families and competitive travel soccer. The club was started in fall 2012 by a small group of soccer skilled adults who wanted to create an affordable traveling soccer option for area families. Our coaches are professionally trained, they are skilled and dedicated. They coach for the love of soccer, a belief in community soccer and a passion for training kids to play at a high level. Our coaches are invested in our community and their teams.

Check our website for tryout dates, details and registration: www.oprfalliancesoccer.com/ We are always looking to add more teams and more motivated coaches: oprfalliancesc@gmail.com

April 21, 2021

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VIACLAY

Working and teaching together at ViaClay

Kids Camps

mornings 9a - noon or afternoons or 1p - 4p

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iaClay Community Pottery Studio is located just south of downtown Oak Park in the Pleasant-Home District at 208 South Marion Street. The newly expanded 4,000 sf studio offers students and members an engaging and bright communal workspace. ViaClay’s Kids Camps and adult classes begin in June 2021 and teachers Sarah Luepker, Bridget Doherty, Pennie Ebsen, and Emily Christopherson look forward to welcoming potters at all ages and levels of experience.

“We had such a great response last year even during the pandemic, that when we learned the storefront to the north of us was available, we decided to expand,” explains studio manager John Beck. Beginning in mid-May, John and owner Gabe Tetrev will be welcoming families to tour ViaClay’s freshly renovated dedicated classroom space outfitted with new pottery wheels and other equipment.

viaclay.com Community Pottery Studio 208 South Marion • Oak Park info@viaclay.com (708) 434-5848 Gabe Tetrev, owner, and teacher Sarah Luepker

“It’s great to see these blocks at Marion and Pleasant come back to life after such a challenging winter,” owner Gabe says. This year, Gabe’s own studio GP Tetrev Pottery, until recently at 159 Oak Park Avenue, has also moved to the expanded ViaClay space. “We’re excited to have everyone working and teaching together, and to bringing the retail experience to ViaClay more easily now that we’ve consolidated locations.” John and Gabe plan “popup” sales of members’ ceramic work at ViaClay throughout the year. The first Studio Sale and Kiln Opening event is scheduled for Sunday, May 30, 10a – 5p at 208 South Marion.

For more information on Kids Camps or to schedule a studio tour, visit ViaClay’s website at www.viaclay.com, or call or email John Beck at john. beck@viaclay.com or (708) 434-5848.

all photos: DTKindler

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Ovation Academy for the Performing Arts

ow in its sixth year, Ovation Academy provides both kids and adults with high quality performing arts training and unforgettable musical theater experiences. Each year over 500 local families attend its wide range of classes, camps, rehearsals, workshops, and private lessons. According to the academy’s founder and executive director Tina Reynolds, “Imagination, creativity, and inspiring magic is what we do best.”

In 2019, Ovation moved from the basement of the Oberweiss store on Oak Park Avenue into its gorgeous new home in the Madison Street Theater building, which features two fully equipped theaters as well as ample classroom and studio space. A fencedin courtyard provides additional activity space during fair-weather days.

As with all performing arts groups, the pandemic posed unprecedented challenges to Ovation. A quick pivot to zoom-based learning in 2020 slowly evolved into a mix of both virtual and in-person programming, including mandatory masks, temperature checks,

plexiglass barriers, social distancing, and a new air filtration system. When its hvac system broke down this past winter, the community stepped up and crowd-funded the $60,000 needed to replace it and heat the building for our students. Ovation is grateful for the unwavering support of its families, whose dedication and loyalty have kept it alive during these challenging times.

Summer camp at Ovation is a time for kids aged 5-14 to discover the joy of musical theater anew. With a mix of theater games, skill-building workshops and rehearsals, kids can learn, grow and make lasting friendships along the way. Every camp culminates in a fully produced musical theater production, with a limited capacity audience in attendance to celebrate the kids’ achievements. Join us this summer and get ready to make memories that will last a lifetime!

Ovation Academy for the Performing Arts 1010 Madison St, Oak Park, IL 60302 708.222.7564 www.ovationacademy.org

Draw out your briliance at Masterclass Workroom

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e at Masterclass Workroom believe that creativity is a basic function of being human. Creativity is a fundamental factor in expressing and developing oneself fully. When practiced regularly, it is nourishment and therapeutic for our souls. Being creative is a skill that can be honed and is not only used to express artistic vision; it can be used to solve problems in all aspects of one’s life.

Masterclass Workroom was conceived to provide a beautiful, safely communal space to create and hone skills, using the most exquisite materials. Each of our small classes is project-based, focused on a specific technique and skill. We gently guide students to develop each technique in their own unique way, making the project a reflection of them. Techniques are taught in a way that students can see multiple applications and contexts to use in other classes or when they are

off flying on their own creative journey.

We offer classes in a multitude of mediums: sewing, jewelry making, leather work, fiber arts such as weaving, punch needle, crochet and locker hooking, and elevated paper crafts including paper vessels, paper flowers and card making.

Our teachers have years of experience as professional artists and beautiful humans, eager to encourage and draw out the creative brilliance that we all have within us.

Visit our website www. masterclassworkroom.com to view classes, or email us for custom classes and special groups: artisanmasterclass@gmail.com.

Masterclass Workroom Elevated craft classes for teens and adults Sewing Weaving Quilting Jewelry Coiled Rope Bowls

Paper Boxes Paper Flowers Locker Hooking Punch Needle Leather Work

www.masterclassworkroom.com

For inquiries regarding custom classes and custom groups: artisanmasterclass@gmail.com

146 N. Oak Park Ave. Oak Park, IL

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The perfect summer to start taking Language or Music lessons!

The Language and Music School has been a center of arts learning in Oak Park for over 25 years.

Now, at one of Oak Park’s most historic locations, Oak Park’s only arts castle, a revival Tudor mansion, it is no wonder past clients have called us “incredible”, “The most beautiful institution in Oak Park, it would not be Oak Park without it” - William, adult student “My daughter has been going to school here for almost 7 years.

Maria and Brando are so amazing.

They put so much care and effort into every part of the education the students receive. We were so lucky to discover this school. Aside

“welcoming”, “Great with children and adults”. In 2020, our founders were called “Visionary” in the Chicago Tribune.

Here is a recent review (we have a 5 star average on Google and Facebook!):

from the immersion program my daughter has taken several types of music lessons and all the teachers have been awesome. This school is one of my daughters favorite places and we could not be happier.”

- Keri Ann, mother of 8 year old student

Do not hesitate to call to learn about our private lessons today!

This summer is the best time to start learning a language or instrument!

LANGUAGES CURRENTLY OFFERED: Spanish, Japanese, Polish, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Russian, Arabic, Sign Language, Coding, E.S.L. (English as a Second Language) INSTRUMENTS CURRENTLY OFFERED: Piano, Voice, Harp, Banjo, Violin, Trumpet, Cornet, Trombone, Euphonium, Tuba, Drum Set, African Drums, Saxophone, Clarinet, Viola, Cello, Oboe, Guitar, Bass Guitar, Upright Bass, Electric Guitar, Harmonica, Recorder, Ukulele, Music Composition, Ear Training, Music Theater, Music Therapy. All Band & Orchestra Instruments TUTORING CURRENTLY OFFERED: E.S.L., Math, Reading, Writing, Language Arts, Advanced College Science, Audition Prep, Theater Scene Study, Drawing, Marketing

The Language and Music School At

509 N. Oak Park Ave., Oak Park info@internationalmansion.com • (708) 524-5252 • InternationalMansion.com

•Private Music Lessons • Foreign Language Lessons • Academic Tutoring

The Language and Music School At 509 N. Oak Park Ave., Oak Park info@internationalmansion.com • (708) 524-5252 • InternationalMansion.com

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

VIEWPOINTS

A bouquet of memories for a community builder This tribute to the late Sherlynn Reid ran in our Oct. 27, 1999 issue when she retired. We thought it was appropriate to run again to honor her memory.

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et me offer a bouquet of memories to Sherlynn Reid as she retires. She has been both friend and mentor for many years. I first met her on the way to the national board meeting for the Oak Park Exchange Congress. Jim McClure, Vernette Schultz, Bobbie Raymond and I were traveling on the Rapid Transit to a Cleveland suburb. Sherlynn and I connected because we had both lived in Cleveland and although our life experiences were different, we have remained committed to the racial diversity of communities.

While I lived, and later worked, in Bellwood for the Leadership Council, I often touched base with Sherlynn for advice. During the planning of the National Neighbors Conference, she was great support. Her leadership as president of the League of Women Voters and again as president of the Chicago Fair Housing Alliance, made her a recognized ally for developing strategies to build racially diverse neighborhoods.

When I sold real estate, I would see Sherlynn at training on Fair Housing; when I worked to preserve low-income housing for Latinos in Hodgkins, she provided guidance. We were co-trainers for First Colonial Banks after a lawsuit mandated Fair Lending Training. Her family’s experience with discriminatory mortgage lending in four metropolitan areas was the focus of a training video developed for examiners. The tape dramatically illustrates the disparity of lending practices when based only on race.

Our most memorable presentations were also the most difficult. One West Cook community had invited us to speak about home ownership and racial change. One questioner essentially wanted to know, “How do you keep people out?” Sherlynn skillfully re-directed the SHERLYNN REID question to: “How to welcome new residents.”

In another meeting with area school administrators, we suggested that hiring practices needed to recruit people of color, education curricula needed to expand to showcase the contributions of all racial groups, and that all students needed to be prepared for a diverse workplace. We were met with blank faces; in those days it was too soon to expect a positive response; all the more reason that we needed each other for moral support.

As a friend, she has shared her family times, as well as her network of Fisk alumnae and Links members. She made me realize there are lively and interesting people around the country who mutually support each other in key leadership roles. Often this is invisible to the white majority.

At one point I asked Sherlynn, “Why do you have time for me and all my questions?” She said, “Oh, I definitely think you are teachable.” I took that as encouragement to speak out on community issues; to stand firm on fairness and the rights of the protected classes; and to work to build an interactive, multiracial community. At each stage in my development, I have felt Sherlynn’s kind support.

When I moved to Oak Park and later accepted the position of Housing Programs Manager, I found Sherlynn Reid to be both friend and mentor.

Her legacy to all of us is that we, too, can take an active role in building community. Her contributions to Oak Park, her leadership in the region, and her reputation in Fair Housing are a beautiful bouquet of memories.

CYNTHIA BREUNLIN One View

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Maze is a touchstone Ken Trainor, p. 32

An Earth Day wish

s the local faith community, we want to strongly encourage the Oak Park Village Board and Environment & Energy Commission to bring forth a community-wide composting program. Join the commission’s composting discussions on Thursday, April 29 at 6 p.m.

John F. Kerry, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, said in his opening remarks, “The scientists told us three years ago that we had 12 years to avert the worst consequences of the climate crisis. We are now three years gone, so we have nine years left.”

Later his office said, “Without an increased and urgent mitigation ambition in the coming years, leading to a sharp decline in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, global warming will surpass 1.5 C in the following decades. This will lead to irreversible loss of the most fragile ecosystems, and crisis after crisis for the most vulnerable people and societies.”

We need to continue to move forward toward a zero-waste commitment. Ana Garcia Doyle, director of the One Earth Film Fest, continues to warn us of the fact that our treatment of the planet is also a reflection of how we treat others. Seeing the Earth as “disposable” is also seeing others as having no worth. Caring for the Earth is a practical way of caring for others.

Mac Robinet, former member of the Environment & Energy Commission, wrote in the Wednesday Journal: “The primary purpose of composting is to divert organic material (e.g. food and yard waste) from landfill in order to avoid production of methane. Methane (CH4) is a powerful greenhouse gas, which is a significant cause of global warming. Composted material also has environmental benefits when added to soil. Utilizing organic compost will increase organic matter, prevent fertilizers from leaching into ground water, and provide micro-organisms that can break down pollutants.”

Our youth high school project, It’s Our Future, was able to collect over 500 signatures to adopt a more community-wide composting (opt-out) approach which they presented to the Oak Park trustees.

The book Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming, rates “Preventing Food Waste” and “Composting” as top solutions. Nearly half of the solid waste produced is organic or biodegradable. Much of it ends up in landfills producing methane, which is up to 34 times more harmful than carbon dioxide.

In 2009, San Francisco passed an ordinance making it mandatory to compost the city’s food waste. Denmark has not sent organic waste to landfills in more than 25 years, reaping the composting win-win-win of cost savings, fertilizer production, and reduced emissions.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, more of us are staying at home and producing more food scraps and waste. The need for composting has increased, so now is the time to act.

We ask our political leaders, as we ask ourselves, to show care for all aspects of creation (from toxic landfills to whole communities struggling to survive), and not trash it!

Join the Village Composting Program: www.oak-park. us/village-services/refuserecycling/compostable-program.

INTERFAITH GREEN NETWORK One View

The Interfaith Green Network consists of: Rev. Christian Coon Urban Village Church, River Forest First United Methodist Church

Rev. John Edgerton

First United Church of Oak Park

Rabbi Adir Glick/Rachel Glick

West Suburban Temple Har Zion

Rev. Colin Knapp

Pilgrim Congregation Church

Rev. David John Hailey

First Baptist Church of Oak Park

Rev. David R. Lyle

Grace Lutheran Church and School

Rev. Ben Lynch

Fair Oaks Presbyterian Church

Rev. Hailey Braden Lynch

Fair Oaks Presbyterian Church

Rabbi Victor Mirelman

Emeritus at West Suburban Temple Har Zion

Rev. Carl Morello

St. Giles Catholic Church

Rev. Kathy Nolte

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church

Rev. Katherine Thomas Paisley

First United Methodist Church

Rev. Rex Pillai

Ascension Catholic Church

Mac Robinet

St. Edmund Catholic Parish

Rev. John G. Rumple

Grace Episcopal Church

Rev. Marti Scott

Euclid Ave. United Methodist Church

Rev. Alan Taylor

Unity Temple Unitarian Universalist Congregation

Oak Park Friends

Peace, Justice and Environment Committee

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Investing on Austin Blvd.

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he last new residential construction on Austin Boulevard comes from the mid-century era where California motel-style buildings were considered in vogue. Now one of those near eyesores may be demolished to make way for a notable new building.

The Oak Park Residence Corporation, one of those quasi publicprivate partnerships which are hard to explain but have had big impact on Oak Park’s integration and its housing stock, is proposing a new apartment building for the corner of Austin and Van Buren. It would be on the site of the motel-like building which it has long owned.

ResCorp made its pitch to neighbors last week for this handsome, modern, remarkably sustainable and, yes, taller than typical apartment house. The project also builds in nine affordable units out of the total of 44 units.

The response, as our Lacey Sikora reports today, is mixed.

Mixed is better than full-out NIMBY. Even a critic who lives in a handsome condo building just next door and is justifiably riled that the height will block much of the sunshine into the condo units admits the proposed building is “beautiful.”

Other neighbors have the usual and reasonable concern over too few parking spots. And one is dubious of plans for a “colonnade” structure that would extend over the public sidewalk as part of an effort to create a beeline straight across Austin Boulevard and into wondrous, undervalued, Columbus Park.

We’d note the valid griping that most all the new construction in Oak Park happens in and around the downtown districts. And we celebrate the idea of investment on Austin Boulevard that is bold and beautiful, that stuns with its focus on sustainability, that bets on mixing affordable and market rate pricing. It has to be noted that ResCorp has been an outstanding landlord with a wide but, until recently, unambitious approach to housing.

There will be hearings. Neighbors’ voices will be heard. Perhaps there are compromises to be made. Overall, we think this project, this investment on Austin Boulevard is invigorating.

Two schools find each other

Here’s another gratifying investment along Austin Boulevard.

St. Catherine-St. Lucy School and Fenwick High School have made a pact of mutual support. Now it might read as if Fenwick, its generous alumni and donors are the ones doing the giving as they pledge big dollars to support a tutoring program that brings Fenwick students to the Catholic elementary school, that provides $100,000 in scholarships for young students to attend Fenwick and which dedicates $200,000 to upgrade the school gym inside Maguire Hall.

That’s all great and good.

What St. Catherine-St. Lucy offers Fenwick is connection to its fine students, 95 percent Black, mostly from neighboring Austin.

Fenwick students tutoring the middle schoolers learn plenty.

Opening a pipeline from Austin to Fenwick – a mile as the crow flies – will help Fenwick reach its needed goal of a more diverse student body.

There are benefits all around here. Good that all involved perceive them.

Steps against stigma Two OPRF students took 115,000 steps toward battling the stigma of mental illness last Saturday when they walked 50 miles through Oak Park, River Forest and Forest Park and raised more than $14,000 on their trek.

Jackson Tanner and Ezekiel Wells, both cross country athletes, chose to support Thrive Counseling Center and NAMI West Suburban with their fundraising. Just as critically, they sent a message to their peers that there is bravery, not shame, in tackling mental illness issues.

V I E W P O I N T S

Maze: a storybook place to dream

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aze Library was a place you ion John, and the Bounty Trilogy (Mutiny could go to be launched into the on the Bounty, Men Against the Sea and wider world, where the future Pitcairn’s Island) to name just a portion of lived. There was church and the bounty that awaited. school, the ballfields, candy Mostly I read biographies of famous men stores, and Maze Branch. All the instituand women — actors, athletes, soldiers, tions a kid needed in South Oak Park in explorers, doctors, presidents, writers and the late 1950s, early ’60s. Maze was where I teachers. I hauled them home and camped went to dream. all summer long on our screened-in front Biographies covered the south wall of porch exploring life scenarios that led the kids’ section, raised several steps up to the fulfillment of dreams. I figured no from the main floor, split-level style. John matter what life might throw at me, I could Tunis sports novels were found against the handle it as long as I had books to read. I west wall. Maze is where I opened my first would never be bored.

World Book Encyclopedia. School assignMaze is probably the finest example of ments forced my first encounters with the gingerbread architecture, like entering Readers Guide to Periodical Literature, a scene from Snow White and the Seven that era’s cumbersome equivalent of Google, a treaDwarfs, a fairyland of woodwork. Overhead, the sure trove of sources, not all of them located at Maze, ornate triangular cross-beams flow down the walls, leading me occasionally to the modernity of the Main ending in carved scrolls, with flowers in relief. The Library. original built-in white oak bookshelves still line the But I rarely wanted more than Maze had to offer, a walls. The adult reading area features a gas fireplace three-block walk from my house, which was odyssey flanked by two leather reading chairs and a mantle, enough back then. above which hangs a painting by Carl Krafft, one of Coziness and low-tech charm still define the space.

Oak Park’s best-known artists.

Maze is exquisitely quaint. Anyone trying to lure a Outside, the red-brick-and-limestone façade is friend to live in Oak Park should warmly lit at night, with a take them to the Lake Theatre, welcoming entry, now with a Austin Gardens, Scoville Park, cleverly-disguised ramp making the Conservatory, Unity Temple, it accessible to wheelchairs — the Wright Home & Studio, and without having to remove the the Hemingway Birth Home and original cement front steps.

Childhood Home to whet their Something about the quiet appetite and pique their interest. industry inside a library soothes Save Maze for last — to seal the minds and souls. It’s like a deal. church without solemnity and a As we get older and come to living room without the bustle terms with the transitory nature and noise. of life’s impermanence, it is In autumn, window panes comforting to have at least one are adorned with many-colored Maze Branch Library, Oak Park shrine to innocence preserved. construction-paper leaves, folFor some, it’s Wrigley Field. For lowed by snowflakes in winter, me it’s Maze — an incubator of dreams, a cocoon, and then Valentine’s Day hearts, St. Patrick’s Day shama launching pad. Not a labyrinth but a name: Adele rocks, and pastel eggs or flowers for Easter, signaling Maze, one of those fortunate few who had a single, the longed-for arrival of spring. all-consuming focus in life — a branch librarian for At once insular and connected, this library provides decades, ruling it with a firm but benevolent hand an oasis, a comfort zone, brimming with stirring tales until she expired right here at the front desk in 1957, of adventure. I wish I had a list of every book I ever and from then on it bore her name. checked out of Maze and read in my youth. Better yet, The building, which opened in 1936 (same year as I wish I could touch the books themselves, smell the the Lake theatre), expanded during renovation some pages, and flip through the memories. years back at a cost of more than $2M, but it’s still a From time to time, we all feel a longing to revisit gem, designed by Prairie-School architect E.E. Robchildhood. Whenever I need to be reminded of how erts. magical life felt back then, I’m drawn to Maze. It Patronized by loyalists who come as much for the wasn’t “magic” at all — just the small miracle of being ambiance as the resources, this is a place designed to alive and wondering how life might unfold. Life is make kids fall in love with books — and libraries. It’s “storybook” by nature. This place confirms it. cozy enough to feel at home but connected enough to Stenciled on one of the walls here is a testament by provide a portal to the world writ large. A kid could Adele Maze from 1954: sample that world and begin to imagine his place in it.

“All of these activities were fun for both youngsters Books are better at that than television or movies. You and grown-ups and were instrumental in making all realize that the library was a friendly, happy place as can be absorbed by a book — and the world it creates well as a storehouse of books and knowledge.”

— for days, even weeks, at a time.

Maze is a touchstone. I keep coming back because, Childhood is mainly about biding time, waiting occasionally, I need to revisit dreams once dreamed to grow up. One of my imaginings involved writing and the happy spaces that blessed my childhood. something someday that might enchant a child as Outside on the south patio is a brick with my name much as I was charmed, sitting in a comfortable nook, on it, inscribed: “A childhood well spent here.” reading and dreaming out the window as seasons Maze Branch Library opened again this week followslowly passed. ing a too-long pandemic absence.

There I found Hugh Lofting’s Dr. Dolittle books, On-

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Wednesday Journal, April 21, 2021

W E D N E S D A Y

JOURNAL of Oak Park and River Forest

Editor and Publisher Dan Haley Senior Editor Bob Uphues Equity Editor/Ombudsman Michael Romain Staff Reporters Stacey Sheridan, Maria Maxham, F. Amanda Tugade Staff Photographer Alex Rogals Viewpoints Editor Ken Trainor Real Estate Editor Lacey Sikora Food Editor Melissa Elsmo Arts Editor Michelle Dybal Digital Strategist James Kay Columnists Marc Blesoff, Jack Crowe, Doug Deuchler, Linda Francis, Mary Kay O’Grady, Kwame Salter, John Stanger, Stan West Design/Production Manager Andrew Mead Designers Mark Moroney, Javier Govea 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

Why ‘Hemingway’ was a success I appreciated your enthusiasm for the Burns-Novick Hemingway series [Getting to know Hemingway, Ken Trainor, Viewpoints, April 14]. Lynn Novick was at the 2017 Hemingway Society Conference in Oak Park/ River Forest to talk about the work they were doing on the documentary.

For many years, I looked forward to a major discussion on Hemingway the Artist and not solely on the man and myth. Hemingway was a hardworking artist who got up early on a daily basis to write and that often gets lost. His short stories and the later novels also explore many themes that are still hot topics today, such as date rape, abortion, sex change, androgyny, and dealing with injuries. Read other novels from that time, and you can see how he changed English language expression.

I know his history, but seeing again how the concussions, post-traumatic stress, bodily and head injuries (cars, planes and war), family-inherited

mental illness and the problems of self-medicating that exasperated alcoholism made me wonder in some appreciation as to how he could even write during his last decade. Eventually, with the shock treatments and its loss of memory, he couldn’t.

His son, Patrick, told me that losing his home in Cuba was a major blow since it contained his library of 9,000 books. The Cubans began studying his library and found that roughly 2/3 of the books had marginalia, often research-oriented for his literary work. His final inability to write overcame any promise he made to son Jack who said they agreed to never kill themselves.

Without writing and his art, I believe, he ceased to live.

If people read and appreciate his literary work more due to the series, I believe it will have succeeded.

Scott Schwar

Former executive director of the Hemingway Foundation

Hemingway’s too stark truth?

Ken Trainor’s column, “Getting to Know Hemingway” [Viewpoints, April 14] is beautifully written and very insightful on the Oak Park native, and yet so sad.

Perhaps the overarching message of his writing (as explained in Ken’s column) is just too stark a truth;

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

hence, the perception that many local residents are dismissive of his writing.

Susan Montgomery Oak Park

‘ONE VIEW’ ESSAY

■ 250-word limit

■ 500-word limit

■ Must include first and last names,

■ One-sentence footnote about yourself,

municipality in which you live, phone number (for verification only)

■ Signature details as at left

your connection to the topic

Email Ken Trainor at ktrainor@wjinc.com or mail to Wednesday Journal, Viewpoints, 141 S. Oak Park Ave., Oak Park, IL 60302

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V I E W P O I N T S

Wednesday Journal, April 21, 2021

Swedish vs. Swiss

The disappearing backhoe

Hilarious. In the run-up to the River Forest election, much was said about the now infamous Lake-Lathrop “project.” Mainly, we heard that it’s going along swimmingly and the building will be up and ready by November. Meanwhile, for months at a time nothing happens, no reports come from the developer, and we continue to build air castles.

So two or three days before the election … mirabile dictu! … a backhoe shows up on the

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

I enjoyed reading Michael Romain’s “On the difficulty of doing nothing” [News Commentary, April 14] for its genial and engaging tone, and its gathering of thoughts, references, and thoughtprovoking quotes.

It struck one false note, however: Linnaeus is not Swiss but Swedish. Confusing Switzerland and Sweden is a common mistake, for sure, triggered by the

property, its large arm pointing to the sky magnificently, showing “something is happening!”

By the Monday after the election it was gone.

We had been duped by an election-ready rental backhoe performance. It was brilliant. Wonderful theater. I’m still laughing at the chutzpah.

November, here we come. Or maybe later.

Ed McDevitt

River Forest

initial “sw” in the names, and the fact that both countries are famously neutral, largely collectivist, and in Europe.

Nevertheless, Switzerland is not Sweden. One country has world-renowned cheese, chocolate, banking, hospitality, and timekeeping industries; the other, not. ’Nuff said.

Peter Bürgi Oak Park

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YOUR WEEKLY AD

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

Public Notice: Your right to know • In print • Online • Available to you 24/7/365 PublicNoticeIllinois.com

BY PHONE: (708) 613-3333 | BY FAX: (708) 467-9066

BY E-MAIL: EMAIL@GROWINGCOMMUNITYMEDIA.ORG

V I E W P O I N T S

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

Wednesday Journal, April 21, 2021

35

HELP WANTED HELP WANTED HOMECARE AIDES Sahara Homecare is hiring Homecare Aides for our Melrose Park location. We are looking for compassionate caregivers to assist elderly clients with everyday tasks such as cooking, cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping, and other errands. Pay starts at $14.00 per hour and flexible hours are available.

Please call our Melrose Park office at (708) 344-2273 if interested or email Nicole Gray at nicoleg@saharahomecare.com and Greyder Martinez at greyderm@saharahomecare.com.

We are hiring Relationship Bankers in Oak Park.

Check out this opportunity to join a great team! https://wintrust.taleo.net/careersection/2 /jobdetail.ftl?job=2100424&lang=en

HELP WANTED ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH INTERN The Village of Oak Park is seeking qualified candidates for the position of Environmental Health Intern in the Health Department. This full-time seasonal position will provide assistance to the Environmental Health Practitioners in the inspection and local businesses, homes and other establishments to enforce state and local laws and ordinances related to public Health safety; to respond and resolve citizen complaints regarding nuisances and reported epidemics. Applicants are encouraged to visit the Village of Oak Park’s website http://www.oak-park.us/ jobs. Interested and qualified applicants must complete a Village of Oak Park application no later than April 30, 2021.

PART-TIME CHEF Oak Park Meal Service looking for an experienced part time chef to manage food prep, cooking, cooling & packaging. Day hours, $15+/hour.

Contact Angie via email • angiemontroy@angiespantry.com

ALL POSITIONS AVAILABLE PAPASPIROS RESTAURANT 708-358-1700 • Ask for Spiro

YOUR WEEKLY AD

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

WHO’S COOL?

PHOTO BY MARTHA SWISHER

BY PHONE: (708) 613-3333 | BY FAX: (708) 467-9066

BY E-MAIL: EMAIL@GROWINGCOMMUNITYMEDIA.ORG

The statuary in front of this house on North Grove shows some flair.

The latest census on equity Oak Parkers are concerned about equity.

The online 2020 U.S. Census data shows the median income of 93 ethnic groups. If you list all of the incomes of a group, the middle of the list is the median.

Indian-Americans (#1)* top the list with $127,000. White income is surpassed by 21 non-EuroAmerican groups. Nigerian-American (#55) and Ghanaian-American (#57) median income is $69,000 while white (#61) income is $66,000. Five Caribbean ethnic groups have higher median incomes than African-Americans (#87) at $44,000.

Why are people from Nigeria and Ghana not affected by the presumed Black disadvantage?

Two common theories of achievement are the self-fulfilling prophecy and rising to meet expectations. Yale professors Amy Chu and Jed Rubenfeld noticed various cultural groups doing well in the Ivy League, and they studied the differences in ethnic groups success. Their book, The Triple Package, states a three-element theory of ethnic group achievement: impulse control along with a simultaneous superiority complex and insecurity.

Even with our problems, about 150 million more people would like to immigrate to the USA, including 37 million Latinx (Gallup 2017).

Robert Sullivan Oak Park

Learning about Linneaus

I just read today’s Commentary [Michael Romain, News, April 14] and want to let you know how much I enjoyed it. You brought in a range of other writers’ perspectives and described how they hit you in a specific landscape (toney/snooty Wilmette).

In your unplanned visit to the Chicago Botanic Gardens, you mixed the messages you were reading with your reactions to the plantings, ponds and statues. You im-

plicitly invited me, the reader, to do the same.

When you stopped by the prominent statue of Linneaus, I recalled that my learning about him in biology class years ago was all about classification of plants without mentioning his race-based classification of humans.

Jack Crowe Oak Park

MARKETPLACE ITEMS FOR SALE

ITEMS FOR SALE

ANTIQUE HALL TREE Antique American Hall Tree, solid oak. Excellent condition. 29”w x 78”h x 11”d, with covered shelf and mirror. $159.00.

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BRASS HEADBOARD Solid brass headboard.Originally from Marshall Field’s. $189.00.

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ANTIQUE MUSIC CABINET Antique music cabinet with door and five shelves. Standing on four legs. Mahogany finish. $129.00.

708-488-8755 FRUITWOOD FINISH NIGHTSTAND Solid wood nightstand, fruitwood finish. 1 drawer and 1 bottom shelf. 15”d x 24”w x 24”h. $59.00 708-488-8755 LADDERS 24 FT EXTENSION LADDER $50 WERNER 7 FT STEP LADDER Very good ladder. $50 708-488-8755

QUEEN BED FRAME Queen size bed frame, spring base on wheels. Mattress not included. $59.00.

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WANTED TO BUY 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 Lost & Found, Items for Sale, and To Be Given Away ads run free in Wednesday Classified. To place your ad, call 708-613-334

ELECTRIC HEDGE TRIMMER $50.00 708-488-8755 BLONDE DRESSER WITH MIRROR 4 drawers. Blonde wood. Very old. Excellent condition. $89.00 708-488-8755 BLONDE CHEST OF DRAWERS 5 drawers. Blonde wood. Very old. Excellent condition. $89.00 708-488-8755

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BY E-MAIL: EMAIL@GROWINGCOMMUNITYMEDIA.ORG

36

Wednesday Journal, April 21, 2021

Join Us in Celebrating 35 Years!

Upcoming Programs and Events

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

Bring Mom a Taste of the Best!

B.B.Q. RIBS & CHICKEN BURGERS & HOT DOGS

Thru May 2: 32nd Annual Plant Sale April 22: Edible Gardening Free Virtual Lecture

Mickey’s is the place!

April 29: Container Companions Free Virtual Lecture May 1: Spring Open House at the Conservatory

Support the Friends of the Oak Park Conservatory.

Become a member today.

Visit us: 615 Garfield, Oak Park Tues - Sun 10 am - 4 pm OakParkConservatory.org

Learn more at fopcon.org

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Wednesday Journal, April 21, 2021

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

37

O B I T U A R I E S

Daniel Furey, 67 Railroad engineer

Daniel J. Furey, 67, of Sequim, Washington and a native of Oak Park, died on Saturday, April 3, 2021. Growing up in Oak Park, he attended St. Edmund Grammar School, class of 1967; he was also a proud graduate of Oak Park and River Forest High School, class of 1971, where he was a dedicated member of the OPRF football team for four years.

He attended Northern Illinois University, eventually moving on to work for BNSF Railroad. The railroad work, which he loved, brought him to destinations throughout the West and Northwest U.S. It was in his “engineer” days in Washington State that he met Anne Dalton, whom he fell in love with and married. He had been a true railroad engineer for his first 20+ years, living and operating freight and coal trains in locations in Montana, Idaho, Texas, Wyoming, Colorado, Washington, Oregon and California. He continued “driving trains” for BNSF, but eventually was brought into BNSF operations management. He retired

in 2019 after almost 40 years with BNSF to Sequim, outside Seattle.

His love of travel brought him to his favored U.S. destinations, including a recent Alaska cruise, of which he and Anne shared beautiful videos, pictures and stories. His family and friends recall that his could have been the loudest voice in the room, but he chose rather to be that room’s best “listener.” An extraordinary storyteller of his life “riding the rails,” he was active in local Sequim and Edmonds municipal civic administrations where he faithfully served on various city commissions.

In addition to his wife Anne, Daniel Furey is survived by his two sons, Patrick (Ashley) and Kevin (Allie) Furey; and his brothers, Jim (Jacqueline), Mike (Maureen), and Bill (Kathleen) Furey. He was preceded in death by his parents, June and John J. Furey.

Funeral services are private. A memorial service will be held in Seattle at a later date.

The family is being assisted locally by Peter B. Kennedy & Co. Funeral Directors.

Carlos German Baldoceda, MD Born in Lima, practiced in Chicago

THE NEW PATRIOTISM

PHOTO BY MARTHA SWISHER

This house on Euclid Avenue reflects a shift in American thinking.

Need a helping of

Carlos German Baldoceda, MD, 75, of Berwyn, formerly of River Forest, died April 17, 2021. Dr. Baldoceda was born in Lima, Peru on Nov. 3, 1945 to Teodoro & Juana Baldoceda. He completed his medical studies at the Universidad Nacional de Trujillo Facultad de Medicina. He moved to Chicago in 1972 to complete his residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology. He practiced until his retirement in 2015. He was an avid reader, a ceviche aficionado, and a generous friend.

He was the husband of Margarita (nee Mejia); the father of Blanca (Michael Dobbins)

Baldoceda, Ursula (Turkmen) Canli and the late Carlos Baldoceda; the grandfather of Melek, Elif, and Ipek Canli and Isabel Dobbins; the brother of Exaltacion Baldoceda, Wilfredo Baldoceda, Jesus Baldoceda, and the late Teodoro Baldoceda, and Fausto Baldoceda.

Visitation Saturday April 24, 2021 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. at Drechsler, Brown & Williams Funeral Home, 203 S. Marion St., Oak Park. Interment Queen of Heaven Cemetery. In lieu of flowers donations can be made to the Carlos Baldoceda Memorial Fund, https://tinyurl. com/carlosfund.

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

All services handled with dignity and personalized care.

Call Jill at (708) 524-8300 or visit OakPark.com/subscribe

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

38

Wednesday Journal, April 21, 2021

Wednesday Journal, April 21, 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 | RiverForest.com/

38

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 PUBLIC NOTICES

PUBLIC NOTICES

PUBLIC NOTICES

PUBLIC NOTICES

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 in-person 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 May 6, 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@oakpark.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 cross-examination 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: 213-215 Harrison Street, Oak Park, IL 60304 ZONING DISTRICT: HS – Harrison Street Zoning District LEGAL DESCRIPTION: Lots 45 and 46 in Block 1 in West Harrison Street Subdivision of the North ½ of the Northwest ¼ of the Southwest ¼ of Section 17, Township 37 North, Range 13, East of the Third Principal Meridian, in Cook County, Illinois.

PUBLIC NOTICES

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING BEFORE THE ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS FOR THE VILLAGE OF STICKNEY, COUNTY OF COOK, STATE OF ILLINOIS TUESDAY, MAY 11, 2021 at 6:00 PM

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING VILLAGE OF OAK PARK PLAN COMMISSION DOCKET NUMBER: PC 21-04 & 21-05 (Zoning Ordinance Text Amendment and Special Use Permit) HEARING DATE: May 6, 2021 TIME: 7:00 p.m. or as soon thereafter as the Agenda permits.

PUBLIC NOTICES

P.I.N.: 16-17-302-014-0000 PETITIONER: Jeffrey Bergren (Mosaic Counseling and Wellness, LLC), 1590 W. Algonquin Road, #149, Hoffman Estates, IL 60192 PROPERTY OWNER: Harrison Street Ventures, LLC, 15 Forest Lane, South Barrington, IL 60010 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 “Outpatient Behavioral Health” as a Special Use (“S”) within the “Use” column for the HS – Harrison Street Zoning District, and 2.) a Special Use Permit to allow an outpatient behavioral health use within the HS-Harrison Street Zoning District at 213-215 Harrison Street (P.I.N. 16-17-302-014-0000).

Notice is given that the Zoning Board of Appeals of the Village of Stickney will conduct a public hearing on Tuesday, May 11, 2021 at 6:00 p.m., at the Village of Stickney Village Hall located at 6533 West Pershing Road, Stickney, Illinois 60402 to take public comment and testimony concerning:

LINE TO A POINT IN THE NORTH LINE OF AFORESAID PERSHING ROAD THAT IS 50 FEET WEST OF THE POINT OF BEGINNING, THENCE EAST IN THE NORTH LINE OF AFORESAID PERSHING ROAD THAT IS 50 FEET WEST OF THE POINT OF BEGINNING, IN COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS.

An application submitted by the WT Group, 5722 Trillium Blvd, Hoffman Estates, Illinois 60192, on March 30, 2021, to the Village of Stickney Zoning Administrator requesting a special use permit to operate a Gas N’ Wash with a gas station with a convenience store, an automobile wash and restaurant at the property located at 3800 South Cicero Avenue, Stickney, Illinois, 60402.

(PINs: 16-33-400-038-0000).

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 Friday, 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.

THAT PART OF THE EAST 383 FEET OF THE SOUTHEAST 1/4 OF SECTION 33, TOWNSHIP 39 NORTH, RANGE 13 EAST OF THE THIRD PRINCIPAL MERIDIAN, WHICH LIES SOUTH OF A LINE DRAWN AT RIGHT ANGLES TO THE EAST LINE OF AFORESAID SOUTHEAST 1/4 THROUGH A POINT IN SAID EAST LINE WHICH IS 552.11 FEET NORTH OF THE SOUTHEAST CORNER THEREOF OF AFORESAID SOUTHEAST 1/4; EXCEPT THE EAST 50 FEET THEREOF TAKEN FOR CICERO AVENUE AND THE SOUTH 34 FEET THEREOF TAKEN FOR PERSHING ROAD, AND ALSO EXCEPTING THAT PART DESCRIBED AS FOLLOWS COMMENCING AT THE INTERSECTION OF THE WEST LINE OF AFORESAID CICERO AVENUE AND THE NORTH LINE OF AFORESAID PERSHING ROAD, THENCE NORTH IN THE WEST LINE OF AFORESAID CICERO AVENUE, A DISTANCE OF 50 FEET TO A POINT, THENCE SOUTHWEST IN A

ALSO EXCEPTING THAT PART TAKEN BY THE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS IN CASE 87L50570 DESCRIBED AS COMMENCING AT THE SOUTHEAST CORNER OF SECTION 33 TOWNSHIP 39 NORTH RANGE 13 EAST OF THE THIRD PRINCIPAL MERIDIAN THENCE ON AN ASSUMED BEARING OF SOUTH 89 DEGREES, 49 MINUTES 53 SECONDS WEST ON SOUTH LINE OF SAID SOUTHEAST 1/4 A DISTANCE OF 50.00 FEET TO THE SOUTHERLY PROLONGATION OF THE WEST LINE OF CICERO AVENUE; THENCE NORTH 00 DEGREES 00 MINUTES 00 SECONDS EAST ON LAST DESCRIBED LINE 84.00 FEET TO THE POINT OF BEGINNING; THENCE SOUTH 44 DEGREES 54 MINUTES 57 SECONDS WEST ON A LINE WHICH INTERSECTS THE NORTH LINE OF THE SOUTH 34.00 FEET OF SAID SOUTHEAST 1/4 AT A POINT DISTANT 50.00 FEET WEST OF THE WEST LINE OF SAID CICERO AVENUE, A DISTANCE OF 39.66 FEET TO A LINE 28.00 FEET WEST OF AND PARALLEL WITH THE WEST LINE IF SAID CICERO AVENUE, THENCE NORTH 00 DEGREES 00 MINUTES 00 SECONDS EAST ON THE LAST DESCRIBED LINE 101.08 FEET; THENCE NORTH 06 DEGREES 08 MINUTES 48 SECONDS EAST 261.50 FEET TO A POINT ON THE WEST LINE OF CICERO AVENUE SAID POINT BEING 417.0 FEET NORTH OF THE SOUTH LINE OF SAID SOUTHEAST 1/4; THENCE SOUTH 00 DEGREES

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

Published in Wednesday Journal April 21, 2021

Public Notice: Your right to know • PublicNoticeIllinois.com OakPark.com | River Forest.com

The Legal Description for the property is as follows:

Starting a new business?

Call the experts before you place your legal ad!

Publish your assumed name legal notice in • Wednesday Journal • Forest Park Review • Riverside/Brookfield Landmark • Austin Weekly News Call Mary Ellen for details: 708/613-3342

00 MINUTES 00 SECONDS WEST ON THE WEST LINE OF SAID CICERO AVENUE 333.00 FEET TO THE POINT OF BEGINNING. This request will be heard at a public hearing held at the Village of Stickney, Village Court Room, located at 6533 W. Pershing Road, Stickney, IL 60804. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the hearing will also be broadcast via Zoom.us.

The Zoom meeting ID is as follows: Meeting ID: 312 915 7558 Passcode: 768782 All persons in attendance (in-person or virtually) at the foregoing hearing shall have an opportunity to give testimony, be heard and ask questions about the project. Further information regarding this application is available through the Zoning Administrator, Josh Brniak (708749-4490), whose office is located at the Village of Stickney Village Hall located at 6533 West Pershing Road, Stickney, Illinois 60402. Any person wishing to give testimony or public comment at the hearing may present said comment or testimony at the hearing (in-person or virtually) or they may submit their comments or testimony at least one (1) hour before the hearing to the Zoning Administrator, Josh Brniak at jbrniak@ villageofstickney.com. Any changes related to the location or manner of attendance of the hearing resulting from any local or national emergency, including but not limited to COVID-19 related state, federal and local restrictions or other emergency declarations by the Village President, the Governor of the State of Illinois or the President of the United States of America, shall be posted on the Village’s website.

Publication Date this 21st day of April, 2021.

Village of Stickney Zoning Board of Appeals

Published in Landmark April 21, 2021

PUBLIC NOTICES LEGAL NOTICE STATE OF ILLINOIS) COUNTY OF COOK )ss Circuit Court of Cook County, County Department, Domestic Relations Division.

In re the marriage of DIANA ITZEL COSS y LEON, Petitioner and CARLOS BLADIMIR LOPEZ MUNOZ, Respondent, Case No. 2021 D 002918.

The requisite affidavit for publication having been filed, notice is hereby given to you, CARLOS BLADIMIR LOPEZ MUNOZ Respondent, that a Petition has been filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, by the Petitioner, DIANA ITZEL COSS y LEON, for Dissolution of Marriage and for other relief; and that said suit is now pending.

Now, therefore, unless you, the said Respondent, file your Appearance and Response electronically to said Petition with the Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, on or before May 12, 2021, default may be entered against you at any time after that day, and a Judgment for Dissolution of Marriage entered in accordance with the prayer of said Petition.

DOROTHY A. BROWN, Clerk.

Published in Wednesday Journal April 14, April 21, April 28,2021

NOTICE OF NEIGHBORHOOD MEETING Date: Time: Location:

May 6, 2021 6:00 PM 320 Chicago Ave. Oak Park Subject Property Address: 6545 West North Avenue, Oak Park, Illinois 60302 Proposed Development: Development and Construction of a New three story, 15 unit rental apartment building with 15 ground floor parking spaces.

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: Y21006573 on April 9, 2021 Under the Assumed Business Name of GRAF JANITORIAL AND MAINTENANCE with the business located at: 1047 DUNLOP AVENUE, FOREST PARK, IL 60130. The true and real full name(s) and residence address of the owner(s)/partner(s) is: DAVID L GRAF 1047 DUNLOP AVENUE COACHHOUSE BEHIND 1045 DUNLOP, FOREST PARK, IL 60130, USA.

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: Y210006472 on April 1, 2021 Under the Assumed Business Name of TOULA’S with the business located at: 632 WOODBINE AVENUE, OAK PARK, IL 60302. The true and real full name(s) and residence address of the owner(s)/partner(s) is: RENEE ELENA HAAS 632 WOODBINE AVENUE, OAK PARK, IL 60302, USA.

The applicant is requesting zoning relief for the following: 1.) Increase in density from 12 allowed dwelling units to 15 dwelling units. 2.) A reduction in side yard from a required five feet to zero feet. 3.) Exemption from having a load berth. 4.) Exemption from having Public Art. 5.)

A reduction in rear yard at ground floor parking garage from ten feet to zero feet.

Published in Forest Park Review April 14, April 21, April 28, 2021

Published in Wednesday Journal April 14, April 21, April 28, 2021

Published in Wednesday Journal April 21, 2021

Purpose of Hearing: Pre-Planned Development Submittal Discussion Contacts: Craig Volpe CMV Development 312-213-4499

OakPark.com RiverForest.com

Wednesday Journal, April 21, 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 / 7 / 365 OakPark.com | RiverForest.com | PublicNoticeIllinois.

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(708) 613-3342 maryellen@rblandmark.com

REAL ESTATE FOR SALE

REAL ESTATE FOR SALE

REAL ESTATE FOR SALE

REAL ESTATE FOR SALE

IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS COUNTY DEPARTMENT CHANCERY DIVISION CITIMORTGAGE, INC. Plaintiff, -v.CALVIN L. SMITH, VILLAGE OF MAYWOOD Defendants 2020CH06802 813 SOUTH 21ST AVENUE MAYWOOD, IL 60153 NOTICE OF SALE PUBLIC NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale entered in the above cause on March 18, 2021, an agent for The Judicial Sales Corporation, will at 10:30 AM on May 13, 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 813 SOUTH 21ST AVENUE, MAYWOOD, IL 60153 Property Index No. 15-10-328-0050000 The real estate is improved with a single family residence.

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

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

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

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

by The Condominium Property Act, 765 ILCS 605/9(g)(1) and (g)(4).

If this property is a condominium unit which is part of a common interest community, the purchaser of the unit at the foreclosure sale other than a mortgagee shall pay the assessments required by The

Condominium Property Act, 765 ILCS 605/18.5(g-1).

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

For information, examine the court file, CODILIS & ASSOCIATES, P.C. Plaintiff’s Attorneys, 15W030 NORTH FRONTAGE ROAD, SUITE 100, BURR RIDGE, IL, 60527 (630) 794-9876 THE JUDICIAL SALES CORPORATION One South Wacker Drive, 24th Floor, Chicago, IL 60606-4650 (312) 236SALE 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. 14-19-12025 Attorney ARDC No. 00468002 Attorney Code. 21762 Case Number: 2020CH06802 TJSC#: 41-438 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 # 2020CH06802 I3166754

Commonly known as 615 North Oak Park Avenue, Oak Park, IL 60302.

The mortgaged real estate is improved with a single family residence. If the subject mortgaged real estate is a unit of a common interest community, the purchaser of the unit other than a mortgagee shall pay the assessments required by subsection (g-1) of Section 18.5 of the Condominium Property Act. Sale terms: 10% down by certified funds, balance, by certified funds, within 24 hours. No refunds. The property will NOT be open for inspection.

For information call Sales Department at Plaintiff’s Attorney, Manley Deas Kochalski, LLC, One East Wacker Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60601. (614) 220-5611. 19-024425 F2 INTERCOUNTY JUDICIAL SALES CORPORATION intercountyjudicialsales.com I3166929

Corporation. 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(g1).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, Megan K. Gajewski, KELLEY KRONENBERG Plaintiff’s Attorneys, 150 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 2800, Chicago, IL, 60601 (312) 216-8828. Please refer to file number CM19055.

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

Megan K. Gajewski KELLEY KRONENBERG 150 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 2800 Chicago IL, 60601 312-216-8828 E-Mail: Mgajewski@kelleykronenberg.com Attorney File No. CM19055 Attorney ARDC No. 6276927 Attorney Code. 49848 Case Number: 19 CH 12066 TJSC#: 41-551 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.

I3167637

IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS COUNTY DEPARTMENT CHANCERY DIVISION WILMINGTON SAVINGS FUND SOCIETY, FSB D/B/A CHRISTIANA TRUST, NOT INDIVIDUALLY BUT AS TRUSTEE FOR PRETIUM MORTGAGE ACQUISITION TRUST; Plaintiff, vs.

JOANNA SENTER AKA JOANNA D. SENTER; NICHOLAS M. SENTER; POPLAR BANK FKA BANCO POPULAR NORTH AMERICA; Defendants, 19 CH 8670 NOTICE OF SALE PUBLIC NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale entered in the above entitled cause Intercounty Judicial Sales Corporation will on Monday, May 17, 2021 at the hour of 11 a.m. in their office at 120 West Madison Street, Suite 718A, Chicago, Illinois, sell at public auction to the highest bidder for cash, as set forth below, the following described mortgaged real estate: P.I.N. 16-06-323-025-0000.

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

IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS COUNTY DEPARTMENT CHANCERY DIVISION U.S. BANK NATIONAL ASSOCIATION AS INDENTURED TRUSTEE FOR ANGEL OAK MORTGAGE TRUST I, LLC 2018PB1 Plaintiff, -v.ECHELON INVESTMENT CORP., PATRICK OCENAS, SERENA VICTOR Defendants 19 CH 12066 817 S. CUYLER AVENUE 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 April 5, 2021, an agent for The Judicial Sales Corporation, will at 10:30 AM on May 18, 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 817 S. CUYLER AVENUE, OAK PARK, IL 60304 Property Index No. 16-17-124-0200000 The real estate is improved with a single family residence.

The judgment amount was $691,465.75.

Sale terms: 100% of the bid amount shall be paid in certified funds immediately by the highest and best bidder at the conclusion of the sale.

The amount owed also includes 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. 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 certified check must be made payable to The Judicial Sales

EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY All real estate advertising in this newspaper is subject to the Fair Housing Act, which makes it illegal to advertise any preference, limitation or discrimination based on age, race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status or national origin, or intention to make any such preferences, limitations or discrimination.

The Illinois Human Rights Act prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental or advertising of real estate based on factors in addition to those protected under federal law.

This newspaper will not knowingly accept any advertising for real estate which is in violation of the law. All persons are hereby informed that all dwellings advertised are available on an equal-opportunity basis.

To complain of discrimination, call HUD toll free at: 1-800-669-9777.

Wednesday Journal • Landmark • Forest Park Review

40

Wednesday Journal, April 21, 2021

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

189 S. Oak Park Ave., Oak Park, IL 60302 (708) 386-1400

HomesInTheVillage.com

Featured Listings for This Week River Forest $675,000 3BR, 1.1BA Harry x116

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7721 Wilcox Ave Forest Park

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Oak Park $239,000 3BR, 1BA Laurie x186

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Chicago $159,300 1BR, 1BA Laurie x186

127 S Scoville Ave Oak Park Multi unit...$389,900 Mike x120

Managing Broker/Owner

Mike Becker

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Patti Sprafka-Wagner

Harry Walsh

April 21, 2021

AUSTIN FORWARD. TOGETHER. 2021 QUARTER 1

THE AUSTIN COMMUNITY PUBLISHED ITS FIRST QUALITY-OF-LIFE PLAN CALLED AUSTIN FORWARD. TOGETHER. (AFT) IN 2018.

THIS QUARTERLY PUBLICATION DESCRIBES HOW AUSTIN COMING TOGETHER (ACT) IS SUPPORTING THE COMMUNITY TO IMPLEMENT AFT AND OTHER EFFORTS.

SEEKING EQUITY FOR

AUSTIN

How the community is tackling deep-rooted health injustices.

A PATH TO HEALTH EQUITY PAGE 3 | SUPPORTING PLAN IMPLEMENTATION YEAR THREE PAGE 4 FOOD APARTHEID: HOW AUSTIN IS RECREATING ITS FOOD ECOSYSTEM PAGE 7

2

Austin Weekly News • April 21, 2021

AUSTIN FORWARD. TOGETHER. 2021 QUARTER 1

Since 2010, Austin Coming Together (ACT) has facilitated collaboration to improve education and economic development outcomes in Chicago’s Austin community.

Today, we serve a network of 50+ organizations committed to improving the quality of life in the Austin community. Our strategic plan is called Thrive 2025 and outlines how we will mobilize our resources to achieve 4 impact goals by the year 2025: Quality Early Learning, Safe Neighborhoods, Living Wage Careers, and a stable Housing Market.

ACT BOARD OF DIRECTORS Officers CHAIR

Larry Williams Broker, State Farm Insurance VICE-CHAIR

Angela Waller Community & Government Relations Director, Advocate Aurora Health SECRETARY

Bradly Johnson Director of External Affairs, BUILD Inc.

TREASURER

LaDarius Curtis Senior Director of Community Engagement & Health, West Side United EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Darnell Shields Austin Coming Together

Directors Sharon Morgan Director of Graduate Support & Community Outreach, Catalyst Schools

Reverend Reginald E. Bachus

Tenisha Jones

Ruth Kimble

Senior Director of Strategy & Operations, West Side United

Founder & CEO, Austin Childcare Providers Network

Reginald Little

Jerrod Williams

Mortgage Loan Originator, Fifth Third Bank

Law Clerk, Illinois Appellate Court

Dawn Ferencak Senior Marketing Strategist, Chicago Parent

Deborah Williams Community Outreach & Engagement Specialist, Habilitative Systems, Inc.

In Memoriam BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Jack Macnamara 1937–2020 FOUNDING BOARD CHAIR

Mildred Wiley 1955–2019

Pastor, Friendship Baptist Church

ACT STAFF Leadership Team Darnell Shields* Executive Director

Shavion Scott

Strategic Initiatives Team Sandra Diaz

Deputy Director

Service Delivery Enhancement Manager, Austin Community Hub

Andrew Born

Jai Jones

Research & Evaluation * Ex Officio Member of the ACT Board of Directors

Engagement Specialist, Austin Community Hub

Dollie Sherman Engagement Specialist, Austin Community Hub

Ethan Ramsay Lead Organizer, Austin Forward. Together.

Marketing & Development Team Alicia Plomin** Marketing & Development Manager

Dearra Williams

Nicole Marcus

Marketing & Development Associate

Neighborhood Network Liaison

**Also part of the ACT Leadership Team

We’re hiring! Learn more at AustinComingTogether.org

ACT MEMBER ORGANIZATIONS A House in Austin Allies for Community Business

Chicago Austin Youth Travel Adventures

Kids First Chicago

South Austin Neighborhood Association

KRA Westside American Job Center

St. Joseph Services

Jane Addams Resource Corporation

Austin Childcare Providers Network

Chicago Community Loan Fund

Legal Aid Chicago (fka LAF)

St. Leonard’s Ministries

City of Refuge

Manufacturing Renaissance

Austin Community Family Center

Cluster Tutoring Program

Mary Shyrese Daycare

Stone Community Development Corporation

Austin Weekly News

Erikson Institute

Maryville Academy

Be Strong Families

Friends of the Children

Mercy Housing Lakefront

Beat the Streets Chicago

Friendship Community Development Corp. of Austin

New Moms

Greater West Town Community Development Project

Oak Park Regional Housing Center

Housing Forward

PCC Community Wellness Center

I.C. Stars

Project Exploration

IFF

Renaissance Social Services, Inc.

Institute for Nonviolence Chicago

Sarah’s Inn

Because I Care Bethel New Life Beyond Hunger BUILD Inc.

By The Hand Club for Kids Cara Catholic Charities

OAI, Inc. Open Books

The Catalyst Schools The Loretto Hospital The North Avenue District, Inc. UIC Jane Addams College of Social Work VOCEL Westside Health Authority West Side Forward Youth Guidance

AUSTIN FORWARD. TOGETHER. 2021 QUARTER 1

Austin Weekly News • April 21, 2021

3

A path to health equity

By Darnell Shields Executive Director, Austin Coming Together

A

ustin is Chicago’s largest community area with nearly 100,000 people but it only has two grocery stores. Lincoln Park, on the other hand, has ten grocery stores for their 60,000 residents.

Unfortunately, that is just one example. Austin residents also struggle to find the same quality education, living-wage jobs, and safety that is readily available in other areas.

Chicago is one of the greatest cities in the world. But life in some areas is dramatically different than others. Your zip code really determines how close to home you will find quality health care or education, healthy food, and even a well paying job.

When it comes to equity—defined as fair treatment, access, opportunity and advancement for all people—it is simply not present in Austin.

Why? Years of disinvestment and lack of support for essential services and infrastructure.

With high unemployment, low life expectancy, and limited to no access to certain resources, families here face racial injustice on several levels.

When a community lacks basic infrastructure, it becomes more vulnerable to the effects of a disaster being detrimental in the long-term, especially a disaster of the caliber of COVID-19.

The events of 2020 exposed broken systems, oppressive policies, and layers of deeply rooted injustice. But it also showed just how strong the Austin community is.

Through riots, unrest, and much heartbreak, Austin remained resilient. And we continue to push through seemingly insurmountable challenges because we are standing together to face them.

Austin is my home, so seeing the creative and often heroic ways neighbors are helping each other fuels my passion for this work.

Austin Coming Together (ACT), alongside other stakeholders, has been dedicated to

and faith-based entities, West Side United’s ‘Live Healthy West Side’ framework brings health education, training, and services to vulnerable populations through community engagement. These and other efforts are helping West Side neighborhoods grow stronger, healthier I have never been more into and more vibrant places proud of my colleagues to live.

connecting Austin to the opportunities it needs since our inception in 2010. We leverage our network and experience in order to mobilize resource distribution and increase equitable access.

Last year, ACT joined Mayor Lightfoot’s Racial Equity Rapid Response Team (RERRT) and its collective effort to address racial disparities Far beyond health in Black and Brown at the Austin clinic. care, there are many communities. In an social factors that attempt to flatten the They’ve shown we will determine a family’s COVID-19 mortality of thriving. curve, the RERRT step in and do more with chances That is why West Side partnered with local United partners like groups to launch no hesitation.

Rush University Medical an education and Center have expanded engagement strategy, DARLENE HIGHTOWER, their mission from generate and distribute VICE PRESIDENT OF COMMUNITY beyond providing expert PPE supplies, and set up HEALTH EQUITY AT RUSH health care to improving testing sites including the quality of life for five in Austin. Through people in its diverse neighboring communities, this, the foundation for future work to tackle long standing and systemic inequities was laid. like Austin.

Being part of this effort has allowed ACT to “When you have a strong economic magnify the needs of Austin and participate in foundation, the health outcomes are better,” the creation of community-centric strategies. said Darlene Hightower, Vice President of West Side United takes a similar approach seeking out community involvement in designing solutions. The group was formed through input from local residents and leaders who wanted to see tangible impact in metrics like economic vitality, housing cost burden, and violent crime rates. As a collaborative of health care institutions, residents, educators, non-profits, businesses, government agencies

Community Health Equity at Rush.

In addition to critical support of COVID-19 response, Rush has improved mental health access in schools, and served 10,000 families on the west side with food within the past year. Recently, Rush was called upon to assist with a Protect Chicago Plus initiative and to help create, set up and run two temporary vaccine clinics in Austin in a matter of a few short weeks.

“I have never been more proud of my colleagues at the Austin clinic. They’ve shown we will step in and do more with no hesitation,” said Hightower.

Although it is more common now than in years past, this level of coordination and partnership must become the standard going forward.

My faith in a beautiful future for my community has not wavered. We are on the right path, but it will take rethinking and retooling how we invest in communities to really see places like Austin thrive. n

TOP—A small group of Dominican University nursing students volunteered to assist at the clinic at Catalyst Circle Rock. Photo courtesy of Dominican University.

BOTTOM—Time-lapse photo from the clinic.

4

Austin Weekly News • April 21, 2021

AUSTIN FORWARD. TOGETHER. 2021 QUARTER 1

ACT awards over $184K Supporting Plan Implementation Year Three

A

ustin’s quality-of-life plan, called Austin Forward. Together.

(AFT), is a set of goals created by and for the community designed to address 23 strategies with 84 total actions across 7 Issue Areas between 2019 and 2023: Community Narrative, Education, Housing, Youth Empowerment, Economic Development, Public Safety, and Civic Engagement.

Today, there are more than 40 dedicated volunteer members across seven Task Forces, one for each Issue Area. In partnership with ACT, these Task Forces have signed on over 40 unique organizations as Implementation Partners and together have initiated more than 30% of the plan’s total actions so far!

In 2018, ACT’s ability to apply community-driven solutions to foster economic opportunity resulted in a $1 million Vital Communities grant from The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Part of that investment is being utilized to support necessary infrastructure, and the remainder

is allocated to Core Members implementing activities in the plan. In 2019, $64,000 of those funds were distributed to Implementation Partners already working to accomplish some of the AFT priority actions, while $181,848 were distributed in 2020.

This year, we are proud to announce that eight organizations have been selected to whom $184,792 total funds will be distributed.

Recipients are ACT Core Members who submitted the most thorough proposals for work that is primed and ready to happen now.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT The goal of the Economic Development Task Force is to create economic revitalization in Austin and by Austin.

We will support new and existing local businesses, entrepreneurs, and the workforce; improve our commercial corridors; and attract new investment to build a stronger, more dynamic local economy.

FUNDED ACTION 2.2*: E xpand and support local resources like bootcamps and apprenticeships in high demand economic sectors.

$25,000

will support New Moms’ job training programs to help prepare young mothers ages 16-24 for careers in high demand sectors like advanced manufacturing, health care, and building and trades. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the need for this program and its services due to the high increase of unemployment and homelessness in the Austin community. Participants will gain knowledge and skills, practice them in real time, and receive assistance locating an opportunity that will lead to lifelong employment stability.

$20,000

will be allocated to Manufacturing Renaissance (MR) for their YMA Manufacturing Bootcamp that offers residents ages 18-29 ten weeks of technical training and career development. The YMA is an innovative contribution to the broader workforce development and education landscape that systematically inspires, and prepares young people for living wage careers in manufacturing. Bootcamp participants get exposure to employer and strategic partnership development, program recruitment and orientation, technical training, professionalism training, plus job interview coordination and placement.

FUNDED ACTION 2.3*: Build a new Manufacturing Training Center in Austin.

$25,000

will aid Jane Addams Resource Corporation (JARC) in the development and build-out of a training space at Freedman Seating.

In fall 2019, JARC was unexpectedly asked to halt their manufacturing training and support services that had been operating at the Austin College & Career Academy since 2017. A new facility for this important program means Austin residents will now have the chance to complete their training in welding and computer numerical control without leaving Austin while JARC lays the groundwork for their move into a state-of-the-art manufacturing center.

*These reference numbers coincide with the full list of Strategies and Actions in the plan.

READ THE FULL AUSTIN FORWARD. TOGETHER. PLAN ONLINE AT AustinComingTogether.org/QLP

AUSTIN FORWARD. TOGETHER. 2021 QUARTER 1

Austin Weekly News • April 21, 2021

PUBLIC SAFETY The goal of the Public Safety Task Force is to collaborate and create programs that increase a sense of safety, community and quality of life to build a healthy and resilient neighborhood.

FUNDED ACTION 2.2*: C reate an Austin Restorative

FUNDED ACTION 2.3*: E xpand outreach intervention programs

Justice Court.

$25,000

that break the cycle of violence.

will support BUILD Inc. in creating an Austin Restorative Justice Center as they wait for Chief Judge Evans’ approval of Austin’s first Restorative Justice Community Court (RJCC).. Restorative Justice is a philosophy that focuses on repairing the harm caused to people and relationships, aiming to humanize all those involved in a group or conflict. Value is placed on empathy, learning, collaboration, mediation, and the ability to have brave conversations.

$25,000

will allow the Institute for Nonviolence Chicago (INVC) and Hope Community Church to expand their public safety and street outreach for the Austin community. With violence increasing, creating peace-building activities and conducting training programs on conflict management will encourage greater social cohesion, creating a safer space for everyone. Funds will also be used to support joint Hope Community Church/INVC events and activities planned by peacemaker participants that will engage the community, promote peace, and bring resources to those who need them most. Collectively, these efforts will empower residents who are involved with street organizations to use their influence to change the tide on specific neighborhood blocks.

COMMUNITY NARRATIVE The goal of the Community Narrative Task Force is to revitalize the image and spirit of Austin by promoting assets such as our historic housing, creating a healthy community and building a more robust environment for local arts and culture.

FUNDED ACTION 3.4*: B uild a sense of community through activities such as

FUNDED ACTION 2.1*: Bridge the gap between

creating and maintaining community gardens.

$15,644

will support the South Austin Neighborhood Association (SANA) in helping the recently created Austin Veterans Community Organization (AVCO) engage with more Austin-area veterans and others to take advantage of group therapy, peace circles, and meditation at the Veterans Peace Garden.

Funding will also support members of the Austin Garden Collective who are working to maintain safe and beautiful spaces throughout Austin by volunteering in local gardens.

Plus, funds will help improve and expand physical structures in SANA’s Farm to Table Summer Community Garden, as well as support efforts to create to create new educational programming that teach residents how to maximize their financial resources while maintaining a healthy eating lifestyle so they can address food insecurity, financial strain, and worsening health.

residents’ experiences and how they are reflected by media outlets.

$24,148

will support the expansion of Westside Health Authority’s Austin Has The Mic (AHTM) youth training program. This program teaches 20 participants the basics of broadcasting, videography and photography. The main goal is to cultivate strong relationships and give Austin residents a voice on multiple mass media platforms. Funding will go towards supporting the expansion of the weekly podcast show, which will incorporate interviews from community members about current events and social injustice topics.

YOUTH EMPOWERMENT The goal of the Youth Empowerment Task Force is for Austin to have healthier and more engaged youth who are able to reach their full potential.

FUNDED ACTION 3.4*: C reate paths for youth interactions with mentors and role models.

$25,000

will provide staffing for St. Joseph Services’ Youth Mentoring Program at St. Angela’s Catholic School in Austin, allowing them to increase the number of youth they serve. The program offers Austin’s young people a safe mentoring environment that promotes education, peaceful conflict resolution, and sustained healthy behavior and positive community engagement.

5

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Austin Weekly News • April 21, 2021

AUSTIN FORWARD. TOGETHER. 2021 QUARTER 1 Education

Housing

Public Safety

TASK FORCE CHAIRS

TASK FORCE CHAIRS

TASK FORCE CHAIRS

Plan Leaders

Natasha Smith-Walker

Athena Williams

Bradly Johnson

Community Narrative

Crystal Bell

Project Exploration

Economic Development

TASK FORCE CHAIRS

TASK FORCE CHAIR

Briana Shields

Jerrod Williams

Briana Janeé Arts

Kenneth Varner Healthy Schools Campaign

STRATEGY LEADS

Lasondra Kern

Community Resident

Suzanne McBride

Community Resident, South Austin Neighborhood Association Member INTERIM TASK FORCE CO-CHAIR

Heather Sattler

Community Development Consultant

Austin Talks

STRATEGY LEADS

Michael Romain

Erica Staley

Austin Weekly News

Alicia Plomin

Austin Coming Together

Cindy Schneider Spaces-n-Places

Manufacturing Renaissance

Emily Peters

Jane Addams Resource Corporation

Tina Augustus

Ella Flagg Young Elementary School

Charles Anderson

Michele Clark High School STRATEGY LEADS

Ruth Kimble

Austin Childcare Providers Network

Madelyn James

Austin Childcare Providers Network

Pam Price

Chicago Public Schools

West Cook Homeownership Center/ OPRHC

Allison McGowan

Community Resident STRATEGY LEADS

Shirley Fields Hunters Realty

Rosie Dawson

BUILD Inc.

Marilyn Pitchford Heartland Alliance

Chris Patterson

Institute for Nonviolence Chicago STRATEGY LEADS

Adam Alonso BUILD Inc.

Westside Health Authority

Bradly Johnson

Athena Williams

Edwina Hamilton

West Cook Homeownership Center/ OPRHC

Natasha Dunn VOCEL

Cata Truss

Community Resident

Sean Schindl

Kids First Chicago

Austin Chamber of Commerce

Youth Empowerment

Civic Engagement

TASK FORCE CHAIRS

TASK FORCE CHAIR

Carmen Scott-Boria

Deborah Williams

BUILD Inc.

D’Elegance Lane Westside Health Authority

STRATEGY LEADS

Deonna Hart BUILD Inc.

Gina Young

Habilitative Systems Inc. STRATEGY LEADS

Arnold Bearden

South Austin Neighborhood Association (SANA)

Sharif Walker Bethel New Life

Catholic Charities

BUILD Inc. BUILD Inc.

Juan Villalobos BUILD Inc.

Gina Young

Catholic Charities

Bertha Purnell

Institute for Nonviolence Chicago

Jose Abonce

The Policing Project

Roxanne Charles West Side Forward

INTERESTED IN JOINING AN IMPLEMENTATION TASK FORCE?

Contact ACT’s Lead Organizer, Ethan Ramsay at 630.474.4016 or eramsay@austincomingtogether.org for more information

AUSTIN FORWARD. TOGETHER. 2021 QUARTER 1

Austin Weekly News • April 21, 2021

7

Food apartheid:

How Austin is recreating its food ecosystem

By Alicia Plomin Marketing & Development Manager, Austin Coming Together

F

or generations, residents of Chicago’s Austin community have been challenged to find what others might consider basic resources. The neighborhood has plenty of liquor stores, mini-marts, and gas stations, but fresh food is hard to come by.

Austin is often referred to as a ‘food desert,’ but that term does not accurately describe the decades of systemic racism, neglect, and misinvestment that have created these conditions.

transportation, housing, and education before COVID-19, and now the pandemic has greatly exacerbated these difficulties.

Due to a lack of mobility or transportation options, many Austin residents who need the emergency food services of pantries and soup kitchens can’t access them.

As part of the city’s Racial Equity Rapid Response Team (RERRT), Austin Coming Together (ACT) led weekly food distributions in the summer and fall of 2020. Even with nine other Austin based food pantries, the effort still served 750-1,000 families every week. ACT responded by convening the community around this growing issue.

Through that convening, the depth of the problem became even more clear.

“When you think of a desert, it’s a naturally occurring environment, so calling neighborhoods food deserts when they don’t have healthy food options is basically saying ‘this just happens in some places,’” said Liz Abunaw, owner of Forty Acres Fresh Market.

“At its core, Austin Eats addresses the inequalities in food access that drive the inequalities of health and economic outcomes for Austin,” says Abunaw. “When you have an inequitable food system, and the choice to be healthy in your diet is not readily available, that extends to unequal access for people’s health, jobs, income, and neighborhood built environment.”

Therefore, ‘food apartheid’ is a better fit. “What we see today is inequality and segregation. What we have to do is break down these barriers, and that’s why we are facing food apartheid in the Austin community,” said Abunaw.

The result of lack of food resources? Austin residents spend 85% of their disposable income in Oak Park and other neighboring areas. This trend must change if we are to revitalize the community. The time is now, and the work has already begun.

Access to healthy food options should be the right of every single American; unfortunately, it has become more of a privilege. This is evidenced by the fact that nearly 4 out of 10 households were making stressful tradeoff decisions between food, healthcare,

A diverse group of stakeholders have come together with an holistic approach to address the entire food ecosystem with the goal of achieving long-term sustainable change.

AUSTIN EATS

“Food apartheid” describes Austin’s lack of food access caused by years of systemic issues.

THE PROBLEM

55.4% of Austin’s residents report having easy access to fruits and vegetables.

Source: chicagohealthatlas.org

This effort, called Austin Eats, will synergize the organizations already working to promote healthier food choices across Austin and create an infrastructure geared toward food access. To accomplish this, Austin’s entire food continuum needs to be considered, from community gardens, food pantries, and grocery stores, to food cooperatives, culinary entrepreneurs and restaurants.

These funders came together to form the Austin Fresh Fund in an effort to explore what it would mean to support greater access to healthy food in the Austin community on Chicago’s West Side—a key strategy of Austin’s Quality of Life Plan. They pooled a pledged $1 million in grant funds and have awarded resources to several of the organizations involved in the Austin Eats Initiative.

Austin Eats is “a collaborative action that brings the ideas of individual organizations, residents, and faith-based leaders together to scale a more cohesive, robust and strong food system that covers the needs of everything in Austin. We came to the understanding that alone, we will not solve the problem,” says Abunaw.

While the Austin Eats plan spans a five year timeline, organizers are concentrating the first year’s efforts on uniting the various groups already touching parts of this work; crafting a cohesive plan that will stand the test of time; and implementing strategies for successful execution.

Ways to address these problems are outlined in the Austin Forward. Together. plan, a set of goals created by and for the community designed to utilize 23 strategies with 84 total actions to improve seven issue areas by the year 2023: Community Narrative, Education, Housing, Youth Empowerment, Economic Development, Public Safety, and Civic Engagement.

The Austin Eats initiative was born out of the Community Narrative (CN) issue area in Austin Forward. Together., which describes the community’s desire to revitalize the image and spirit of Austin by creating environments that foster health and wellness and promote healthier food choices across Austin. This community led effort was made possible through the collaboration of the Christopher Family Foundation, Lumpkin Family Foundation and The Builder’s Initiative.

REAL SOLUTIONS The Austin community is slowly moving towards a more equitable food ecosystem with a future grocery store and food co-op at different stages of development.

Austin’s food co-op educates residents on the significance of integrating healthy food choices in a daily diet. They will teach food literacy, mental and physical wellness, as well as cultural empowerment.

Furthermore, Austin Eats will support a pilot program for culinary entrepreneurs that provides 250 meals per month to Austin families.

To date, twenty two organizations are now working together to support and lead the implementation of the Austin Eats initiative.

THE PLAN Austin Eats outlines plans to change the food landscape and rewrite the narrative around food in Austin by focusing on: •G rocery Access & Culinary Entrepreneurship: Last year’s Farmers Market as managed

by Forty Acres through the city’s Dept. of Cultural Affairs & Special Events was a valuable resource for residents. Over the next two years, Austin Eats aims to increase the number of market customers from 50 to as many as 150, and to double the number of vendors.

•G ardens & Farms: A new community garden will be built in northeast Austin, while efforts to support a year-round hydroponic farm and 20+ existing community gardens is also a focus.

• Marketing: Increasing awareness of Austin Eats and the work it involves will be a challenge, but it is essential in helping this initiative succeed. n

We We We

about AUSTIN. about OUR CITY. about EQUITY.

Chicago’s Austin community is full of incredibly passionate individuals and groups who truly care for one another. It has beautiful architecture, housing stock, and an immense potential for growth. But it is also struggling now more than ever. From job loss to food insecurity, existing problems have recently gotten worse.

Austin Coming Together (ACT) has worked alongside our 50+ member network to serve and care for Austin families since 2010. Since COVID-19 began, we have connected thousands of residents to critical resources, but the need is still growing.

2

COVID-19 temporary Vaccine Clinics

$158K

support for communitybuilding efforts

200

Wellness Kits distributed

$210K+ direct financial assistance to families

Show how much you Join the #AustinCares campaign today!

In order to continue supporting Austin families right now, we need your help.

Make an impact where it’s needed most!

DONATE ONLINE AT

AustinComingTogether.org/AustinCares