Wednesday Journal 062922

W E D N E S D A Y June 29, 2022 Vol. 42, No. 48 ONE DOLLAR @wednesdayjournalinc

ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

Drag queen Angel Lebare entertains the crowd during the drag show during the Forest Park Pride Fest.

@wednesdayjournal

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of Oak Park and River Forest

Special Pride Section Page 17

Oak Park: abortion sanctuary community?

Walker-Peddakotla urges ordinance making Oak Park a safe haven

By STACEY SHERIDAN Staff Reporter

Crime Scene

Mourners form a prayer circle, June 25, where young Oak Parker was found murdered STORY ON PAGE 7

In light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling last Friday, Oak Park Village Trustee Arti Walker-Peddakotla will propose an ordinance designating Oak Park as a sanctuary community for abortion. The motion is expected to be seconded by Trustee Chibuike Enyia.

“This isn’t an issue that is only impacting women. This impacts non-binary and LGBTQ people too,” Enyia said. “This is but only a small step in doing what’s right.”

“Village President Vicki Scaman told Wednesday Journal on Monday she is “1,000% in support” of the ordinance.

The ordinance, if approved by the full village board, is intended to prevent the criminalization of abortion seekers and any person or organization that helps connect a person seeking an abortion with resources to facilitate the procedure. If passed, it would preclude local law enforcement from working with law enforcement agencies outside Oak Park to arrest these individuals.

While over a half century abortion was a constitutional right and legalized throughout the nation, the Supreme Court’s decision eliminated that federal protection by overturning Roe v.

Wade and the 1992 Casey v. Planned Parenthood ruling that expanded abortion rights. It is now up to individual state governSee ABORTION on page 12

ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

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Wednesday Journal, June 29, 2022

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Wednesday Journal, June 29, 2022

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West suburban mayors team up to address global warming Officials vow 100% greenhouse gas emissions reduction by 2050

By MICHAEL ROMAIN Staff Reporter

If the June 13 supercell storm that uprooted trees, downed power lines, damaged cars and ripped the roofs off of buildings is any indication of the hazards that await communities on a warming planet, a gathering of elected officials held last week was an indication of what local leaders plan to do about it.

Mayors from at least 10 west suburbs met June 23 in a conference room on the campus of Triton College in River Grove and took turns signing a memorandum of understanding that signals their commitment to joining the Cross-Community Climate Collaborative (C4).

The new initiative puts participating suburbs on the hook for achieving a 100% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

The memorandum the mayors signed and that most of their village boards voted to approve isn’t legally binding and there’s no cost for any suburb to join. Participating suburbs include Broadview, Oak Park, River Forest, Forest Park, Riverside, Maywood, Berwyn, Bellwood, Westchester and River Grove. Other suburbs may join in the weeks and months to come.

The C4 initiative is spearheaded by Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson, Oak Park Village President Vicki Scaman and River Forest Village President Cathy Adduci.

Politicians from other levels of government also attended the signing ceremony, including state Senate President Don Harmon (39th), Senate Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford (4th) and Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson (1st).

“There is no downside to signing this agreement,” President Adduci said on June 23. “Climate and environmental issues — whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat — affect us equally. Today is about working together to find solutions.”

President Scaman, who grew up in River Grove, said the C4 coalition wanted to have the signing ceremony at Triton for a reason.

“This is an institution that we all share

SHANEL ROMAIN/Contributor

TEAMING UP: Oak Park President Vicki Scaman, Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson and River Forest President Cathy Adduci spearheaded the Cross-Community Climate Collaborative (C4). for learning for our young people, and we are here to make sure that their future is as bright as we all want it to be,” she said.

“And we’re going to need them to help us on that journey.”

According to the C4 memorandum, the initiative is designed to “bring together BIPOC [Black, Indigenous, and people of color] and non-minority communities across income lines to share ideas, secure resources, and drive large-scale projects within and across communities that achieve agreed upon greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions, equity, and sustainability goals.”

Mayor Thompson, who sits on the environmental committee of the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus, a local government advocacy organization that represents 275 municipalities in the Chicago region, said during a Broadview Village Board meeting on June 21 that the C4 collaboration targets the roughly two dozen municipalities in Oak Park, River Forest, Proviso and Leyden townships.

“This is really getting all the communities together to do something more local versus the whole region of Chicago,” Thompson said.

The C4 initiative will lean on two environmental consultants — Gary-based Urban Efficiency Group and Oak Park-based Seven Generations Ahead — that will provide a range of services for participating

suburbs.

Mayors who signed the memorandum commit to a range of responsibilities. In addition to publicly endorsing the C4 initiative, they also agree to C4’s goal of a 45% greenhouse gas emissions reduction by 2030 from 2010 levels and 100% reduction by 2050.

In addition, village officials in participating suburbs agree to participate in monthly “cross-community” team meetings, establish a sustainability working group or commission, and to raise awareness about the C4 initiative, among other responsibilities.

Thompson said though suburbs aren’t committing any financial resources to C4, funding to pay for constant services and other costs could come from a variety of other places.

She said the West Central Municipal Conference, a government council that represents the 40 municipalities comprising Chicago’s inner-ring suburbs, is a possible source of either direct funding or leverage for accessing other funding sources. Participating governments pay a membership fee to be in the conference.

The conference is one of 10 Chicago area government councils that have adopted the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus Greenest Region Compact, which aims “for enhanced quality of life for residents; protection and stewardship of the environment and sus-

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tainable economic vitality,” according to the caucus’ website.

Urban Efficiency Group has worked in Broadview and Bellwood for several years.

Most recently, the firm, which is minorityowned, helped Mayor Thompson create the Broadview Alliance for Sustainability, which focuses on a range of ways the village can bolster its renewable energy infrastructure.

For instance, Broadview officials are planning to install electric vehicle charging ports in its municipal parking lots along the village’s Roosevelt Road corridor.

During the June 23 signing ceremony at Triton, Darnell Johnson, president of Urban Efficiency Group, said while there are many different climate initiatives, C4’s emphasis on equity is what sets it apart from the others.

“One of the things that’s unique about this particular opportunity is the fact that it is truly built around making sure equity is centered in all of the work we do,” he said, “to make sure we are finding the gaps and spaces that exist between more resourced communities and those that are less resourced.”

The C4 signing ceremony comes a few months after the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a United Nations body comprising global experts on humaninduced global warming, released its latest report.

“The [IPCC report] tells us that by the year 2030, we have to reduce global emissions by 45% from 2010 levels,” Gary Cuneen, the executive director of Seven Generations Ahead, said on June 23.

“If we don’t do that, then we run the risk of having global temperatures that increase by 1.5 degrees Celsius from preindustrial times,” he added. “Now if that happens, they tell us we are going to have a catastrophe on a level that is just going to be unprecedented.”

Cuneen said the June 13 supercell storm that struck the Chicago area is just one extreme weather event within a week full of them — from monsoons in India and Bangladesh, to 100-degree temperatures around the country, to “massive, massive wildfires” in Spain.

“Who knows what is going to happen next week or today,” Cuneen said. “All we know is that it’s just going to continue to happen unless we address this issue.”

CONTACT: michael@oakpark.com

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Wednesday Journal, June 29, 2022

Surface Depth Tuesday, June 28 through Saturday, July 16, Oak Park Public Library (Second Floor Gallery) This exhibit features the photos of Scott Emery, which are bold examples of abstract art. 834 Lake St., Oak Park.

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BIG WEEK June 29-July 6

Illinois Libraries Present: Ann Evening With Michelle Zauner ner Thursday, June 30, 7-8 p.m., virtually through ough Illinois Libraries Present Musician and author Michelle Zauner discusses her music career and her best-selling memoir, Crying In H Mart. Joining her will be the acclaimed music writer Jessica Hopper. Register now at https://bit.ly/May18_ MichelleZauner.

Telescope Talks: Exoplanetary Life With The JPL Friday, July 1, 7-8:30 p.m.

Longfellow Community Center Discussion about possible life on other planets, moderated by Mark Benson (in person) and Dr. Morgan Cable (virtually). This subject has been thoroughly researched

by NASA, and the findings will be reported. Recommended for astronomy fans of all ages. This will also be streamed on Longfellow’s Facebook page. 610 S. Ridgeland Ave., Oak Park.

Friday, July 1, 3-3:30 p.m., Oak Park Public FFrid LLibrary (Main Library Veterans Room) Saxop Saxophonist Zheng presents a performance of orig original arrangements and compositions influenc uenced by Chinese music and his classical training bbackground. Through an exploration of his heritag heritage, he seeks to carve a space for AsianAmerican aartists and promote representation in the western mod model of music. Register now at oppl.org/ calendar calendar. 834 Lake St., Oak Park.

FitzGerald’s American Music Festival Friday, July 1-Monday, July 4, 1 p.m., FitzGerald’s One of the great summerfests in the entire Land of Lincoln makes a comeback, with four full days of classic roots music from the likes of Marshall Crenshaw, Daddy Longlegs, Marcia Ball, C.J. Chenier and others. $50 per day, 6615 Roosevelt Road, Berwyn.

Candid Convos: An Open Discussion on Being an LGBTQ Teen Wednesday, June 29, 2-4 p.m., Oak Park Public Library (Main Library Small Meeting Room) LGBTQIA+ Pride Month is a time to celebrate, and also a time to reflect on the issues that many people still face. Come join this safe space to receive support and resources, talk about some of the obstacles teens face, and come up with solutions. Register now at oppl.org/ calendar. 834 Lake St., Oak Park.

Live Performance: Eric Zheng

Kids Movie Screenings: ‘Moana’

Oak Park July 4 Celebration Monday, July 4, 10 a.m., Longfellow Park This gala event marks the return of the grand parade, which has been absent for the last two years due to COVID. The march will proceed north on Ridgeland to Augusta. Weather permitting, a fireworks display will begin at dusk on July 4 in the football stadium of Oak Park & River Forest High School, near East and Lake. Groups interested in participating can register at http://www.oak-park.us/ paraderegistration. 610 S. Ridgeland, Oak Park.

Listing your event in the calendar Wednesday Journal welcomes notices about events that Oak Park and River Forest community groups and businesses are planning. We’ll work to get the word out if you let us know what’s happening by noon

Wednesday a week before your news needs to be in the newspaper.

■ Send details to Wednesday Journal, 141 S. Oak Park Ave., Oak Park, 60302 ■ Email calendar@wjinc.com

Thursday, June 30, 3:30-5:30 p.m., Oak Park Public Library Moana, the daughter of a Polynesian chief, goes on an adventure to recover a mystical relic. She’s helped by a demigod named Maui. Register now at //oppl.org/ calendar. 834 Lake St., Oak Park.

Moana Choreography & Performance Workshop Saturday, July 2, 11:30 a.m.1:45 p.m. (ages 5-8), 2:154:30 p.m. (ages 9-12). Oak Park Public Library (Main Library Veterans Room) If you loved the movie Moana and can’t get enough, you can learn to sing, dance, and perform the music of this Disney movie. Participants will learn the music and choreography of several songs from the film, and put together a brief showcase for family and friends. The performance will take place during the last 15 minutes of the workshop. No experience necessary. Register now at oppl.org/calendar. 834 Lake St., Oak Park.

Wednesday Journal, June 29, 2022

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Oak Park parents ready for COVID vaccine for youngest Health director excited for her own 4-year-old

By F. AMANDA TUGADE Staff Reporter

For Meghan Paulus, the wait to get her oneyear-old son vaccinated against COVID-19 was over. Just days after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized the vaccine to include children under 5 years old, Paulus called her physician’s office to schedule an appointment for her youngest son, who is the last member of her family to get the shot.

“It’s been such a long time coming,” said Paulus, who brought her son to the Lake Street Family Physicians in Oak Park last week to receive the first dose of a two-shot Moderna series.

After months of waiting, Paulus told Wednesday Journal she was relieved when the FDA announced June 17 that the vaccine was now available for children ages 6 months to 4 years old, the last age group to receive eligibility. Paulus said her two older children are fully vaccinated and boosted against CO-

VID-19 – and now, it was her one-year-old’s turn. Both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna have been authorized by the FDA. For children 6 months old to 4 years old, the Pfizer COVID vaccine is a three-dose series, while the Moderna is a two-dose series.

“There’s been a lot of rollercoasters of emotions throughout the pandemic, and I did get pretty emotional that he’s on his way to be fully vaccinated now, and with a really good vaccine, too. It is like a big weight off the shoulders,” she said.

Oak Park Public Health Director Theresa Chapple-McGruder echoed Paulus’ reactions, adding the department received shipments of the vaccine for younger children last Tuesday and would begin offering the vaccine to individuals 6 months and older starting at the June 28 clinic at the Cheney Mansion. The health department is hosting vaccination clinics every Tuesday at the Cheney Mansion, 220 N. Euclid Ave. in Oak Park, throughout the summer. Registration is required, and more information about those clinics can be found on the village website at www.oakpark.us.

“I’m excited. I’m excited for the community,” Chapple-McGruder said. “I’m excited for

my 4-year-old.”

Chapple-McGruder shared further there were infants and small children in Oak Park who were hospitalized when COVID-19 cases spiked due to the omicron subvariants.

“Knowing that these vaccines are effective in lowering risk of hospitalization is extremely important and should be heartwarming for all of the parents that have children in that 0 to 4 [age] range. All of us have been waiting these two and a half years for it.”

For Oak Park mother Melissa*, she said she felt “forgotten” because it took so long for the FDA to grant an emergency use authorization (EUA) for the COVID-19 vaccine to include children under 5 years old.

Melissa, who requested her name be withheld due to privacy concerns, said she and many other parents have had to put up with stricter guidelines in daycare centers and preschools because their children were part of the unvaccinated population.

“It’s still just so frustrating to be disrupted, especially for the little kids. Anyone who has a small child knows that routine is basically crucial,” the mother of two said.

“They need their routine. They need their habits.”

While the expansion of the vaccine eligibility has given her the chance to protect both her children, Melissa said parents with young children may still face another hurdle when securing vaccine appointments. For example, Walgreens vaccinates children ages 3 and older and CVS Pharmacy vaccinates children 18 months and older. That means, parents may have to look elsewhere such as a hospital or physician’s office to lock down an appointment.

Parents also have to check which pharmacies are offering what vaccines, she said.

“As far as I could see on their online scheduling, there were no Moderna vaccines available in Oak Park through Walgreens or CVS,” said Melissa. Melissa later secured an appointment for her 3-year-old son to receive the first of his two-dose Moderna series at a Walgreens in nearby Cicero.

“If you have the ability to check multiple places for appointments, [do it],” she advised. “Keep checking the health department. Keep checking with your pediatrician, and specifically asking your pediatrician and then making sure that you just also check the pharmacies.”

Oak Park daycares struggle to navigate COVID

Families open up about challenges they faced in finding proper childcare on top of balancing work and parenthood

By F. AMANDA TUGADE Staff Reporter

When Lisa* discovered her daughter was exposed to COVID-19 yet again at daycare, she scrambled to find a sitter. She received the news via email on a late Friday afternoon in April and knew she only had two days to secure another childcare option before the following Monday.

A single mother, Lisa, who requested her name be withheld because of privacy concerns, said she couldn’t afford to take another day off from work. Over the course of the pandemic, she exhausted her paid time off and other leave options to care for her family. She needed to work.

The problem worsened when Lisa’s daughter, and shortly after her other children, tested positive for COVID, forcing the family to isolate. But even after they completed their isolation period, the west suburban mother stumbled onto another hurdle: Unlike her

older children who went back to school, Lisa’s daughter could only return to The Day Nursery, a daycare center in Oak Park, when she tested negative for COVID-19.

“They’re like, ‘Well, she can’t come back,’” Lisa told Wednesday Journal, recalling her conversation with nursery staff. “I’m like, ‘She has zero symptoms.’” Staff advised Lisa to continue testing her daughter until she was negative.

“I’m like, ‘OK, but I can’t keep taking off work,’” she said exasperated. “And a week later, she was still testing positive. It had been like 14 days.”

The challenges faced by staff and families at the Day Nursery are not unique among Oak Park daycares.

Under the guidance of the Oak Park Department of Public Health, daycare employees or children who tests positive for COVID-19 must isolate for five days and can only return with a negative antigen test result. Those identified as close contacts are required to quaran-

tine for five days, the health department also advised. Quarantine restrictions changed earlier this month, now requiring those who are close contacts to submit a negative test result.

Restrictions for daycare centers in Oak Park look rather different from its schools, which has since lifted its masking mandate and eased other mitigations this past spring.

School officials also announced that staff and students who were unvaccinated and asymptomatic no longer needed to quarantine.

For Lisa and many other parents with young children in Oak Park daycares, the varying rules became too confusing and frustrating. Now, they were coming together and voicing their concerns to Oak Park Public Health Director Theresa Chapple-McGruder.

‘It’s just rough’ Lisa and Paula,* another Day Nursery parent who requested anonymity, said they

and more than a dozen local parents are asking the health director to loosen quarantine restrictions and offer support for working parents. The six-page letter to Chapple-McGruder included signatures from 30 families and testimonies from parents who voiced concerns over The Day Nursery’s closures. The daycare has closed classrooms because of outbreak cases, pushing staff and children into isolation and quarantine and parents to scramble for alternative childcare. In late May, The Day Nursery closed its entire facility for five days after a total of eight positive cases impacted all five of its classrooms. Part of the closure took place over Memorial Day weekend, but some parents struggled to find other childcare after the holiday was over.

“The lack of consistent childcare centers is not merely an inconvenience to working parents with children in childcare,” they wrote.

“Instead, this is an issue that furthers social See DAYCARE on page 8

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Wednesday Journal, June 29, 2022

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Village OK necessary for plan to light revamped OPRF fields Flash Drought?

Um...a What?!?

After a very cold and very wet spring, summer has arrived in full force. Over the past few weeks, we have experienced record and nearrecord heat, with this pattern expected Scott to continue for the McAdam Jr. foreseeable future.

According to the National Weather Service, a flash drought, or rapid onset drought, may be developing in Illinois, thanks to below-average rainfall and little rain expected in the coming days and weeks.

Never heard of a flash drought?

Until last week, neither had I. It occurs when multiple environmental factors align to create a perfect storm. A combination of lowerthan-normal rates of precipitation, abnormally high temperatures, strong winds, and increased solar radiation (i.e., clear skies), sets this phenomenon in motion.

With these conditions expected to take shape, it will be extremely important to monitor your landscape’s well-being. Supplemental watering, in accordance with local guidelines, should be done regularly to ensure adequate moisture for your plantings and to keep your overall landscape healthy.

Remember, plants are living, breathing organisms. Like us, they need to receive the proper nutrients and water for optimal health.

2001 Des Plaines Ave. Forest Park • 708-771-2299 www.mcadamlandscape.com

The lighting of one field brings the village into the mix

By STACEY SHERIDAN Staff Reporter

The high school already uses Ridgeland Common from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. during the school week for physical education classes and some baseball activities, according to Jan Arnold, executive director of the park district.

The Village of Oak Park’s only role in the project is whether to accept the high school’s lighting plan for the south field, which requires a special use permit.

The south field currently has lights standing at 98 feet tall, but the high school is requesting new lights that will stand approximately 10 feet lower. Lights over

A shared plan from Oak Park and River Forest High School and the Park District of Oak Park to revamp and reconfigure outdoor athletic facilities at the school and at Ridgeland Common is required to go through the Village of Oak Park’s planned development process to address the lighting proposal for one of the school’s fields.

The lighting issue is relatively minute in comparison to the high-rise development projects that typically go through that process, which necessitates that projects first go through the village’s plan commission before reaching the village board. The village board, however, received an overview of the project June 21 ahead of the commission – an atypical move that caused some minor confusion.

“What kind of questions are we allowed to ask now before the planned process is started?” Trustee Susan Buchanan asked.

The overview, according to Deputy Village Manager Lisa Shelley, was to inform the community on the project, the cost of which has not been released but in part involves moving two softball fields and one baseball field to make space to accommodate a new 400-meter running track and OPRF High School Field area for field sports, including discus throwing and long jump. Outside of the project, $6.1 million in field renova- or under the zoning height requirement of 45 feet need village approval. The high tions is already scheduled.

The high school’s track team uses Con- school got permission for the south field’s cordia University Chicago’s facilities, but current lights in 2002. Now that the lights the lease of that site expires in 2024. The will be lowered, OPRF must go through the planned development process again. university did not renew the lease.

High school officials are in the process The track and field area is planned to go into the space currently occupied by those of conducting an illumination study to see three fields, while the baseball field will be how the change in the height of the lights moved to the south field and the two soft- will impact surrounding neighbors. The study is expected to be finished by the end ball fields to Ridgeland Common as part of an intergovernmental agreement with the of June. The plan commission will likely review the lighting plan in July and then Park District of Oak Park. the village board will make a final decision The agreement would be something of an extension to an already existing ar- in August. rangement between the two taxing bodies.

In the event that the village board does

not grant the special use permit, District 200 Superintendent Greg Johnson said there is no backup plan.

“We don’t really have a workable plan B at this point to get the track and still have softball and baseball on site,” Johnson said.

The lights on the north field, where the tennis courts are, do not need a special use permit as they will meet the zoning height requirement.

The planned changes to the high school’s sport fields, which are not part of the Imagine OPRF capital improvement plan, also include replacing natural grass with turf, a low-maintenance alternative.

Turf can also withstand heavy use and eliminates the risk of sports fields becoming excessively muddy.

Buchanan and Trustee Arti WalkerPeddakotla, however, shared apprehension over the health and safety aspects of turf.

Turf absorbs heat, making the fields extremely hot during periods of warm weather. The safety of kids playing on overheated turf fields and any potential associated atmospheric impact concerned Buchanan.

Crumb rubber infilled turf is made from recycled tires, which can contain toxins. As turf breaks down over FILE time, lead and other chemicals are potentially released and then inhaled by those playing on the artificial grass, according to the Children’s Environmental Health Network.

The little plastic blades of grass also break into smaller pieces that get tracked outside of the sports fields or playgrounds.

Walker-Peddakotla told the board her children had experienced this firsthand from playing soccer.

“The pellets from the artificial turf – the little black dots – will get in their shoes and will get in their socks, and that stuff hasn’t been shown to be good,” she said.

The village board ultimately has no legal authority to prevent OPRF from putting down turf. The high school can put in the artificial grass by right, meaning it does not need village approval.

Wednesday Journal, June 29, 2022

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Young woman’s murder ‘top priority’ of Oak Park police West Side NAACP members gathered at BP station on Saturday

By STACEY SHERIDAN and F. AMANDA TUGADE Staff Reporters

The murder of 18-year-old Jailyn LoganBledsoe is the top priority of the Oak Park Police Department, Interim Police Chief Shatonya Johnson told the village board at its June 27 meeting.

“Detectives are reviewing information from the crime scene and surrounding areas,” said Johnson said, who called the murder “senseless.”

While asking for patience from the community, the interim chief said police are working diligently to arrest the individuals responsible for the young woman’s death.

Johnson said she is “committed to keeping the community updated” without “compromising the integrity of investigation.” Additional police resources have been deployed to the area, according to Johnson.

The Oak Park village board was flooded with heart wrenching letters from the community begging for justice for Logan-Bledsoe, an OPRF student and activist whose family had long Oak Park connections. Her body was discovered by police in the parking lot of the BP gas station at 100 Chicago Ave. at 1:45 a.m., June 22.

Logan-Bledsoe, who lived in the 100 block of North Austin Boulevard, was transported to Loyola University Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead. Her official cause of death, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office, was listed as a gun-

ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

VIGIL: Attendees stand in a prayer circle on Saturday, June 25, during a gun violence rally outside the BP gas station on Chicago Avenue in Oak Park.

shot wound to the neck.

Logan-Bledsoe’s grandmother, Phyliss Logan, is vice-president of the West Side NAACP. That chapter organized a gathering at the gas station early Saturday which was part prayer circle, part conversation with representatives of the station’s owners and part protest.

Some two-dozen people, mostly NAACP members, were at the event as was Oak Park Village President Vicki Scaman. Deborah Williams, an NAACP member, said Tuesday morning that a follow up meeting is planned between Scaman, Karl Brinson, NAACP chapter and BP owners.

Athena Williams, executive director of the Oak Park Regional Housing Center, said her organization has offered to host that meeting as part of its mission to bring Austin and Oak Park people together for honest conversations.

Deborah Williams said those gathered Saturday asked the station owners to reduce their LOURDES NICHOLLS/Staff 24-hour service, to add security guards, possiPolice process the scene of a shooting at the BP gas station at bly armed, to upgrade 100 Chicago Ave. in Oak Park on June 22. security cameras and

add signage.

Deborah Williams said that Jailyn LoganBledsoe had been “raised around us” in the NAACP branch. She said Logan-Bledsoe had helped run the phone room the chapter organized around the 2020 census. “This really hit close to us,” she said.

Athena Williams shared with the Journal a message received from Phyliss Logan, “We want and need to take our time to grieve and understand what happened.

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers,” wrote Logan.

At Monday’s village board meeting 18 Oak Park residents submitted or read passionate statements during the first hour of the board’s meeting. The powerful public comments left many in tears, including Village Clerk Christina Waters, who was tasked with reading some of the letters, and Oak Park Sustainability Coordinator Marcella Bondie-Keenan, who was there to present an update on the village’s climate action plan.

Scaman gave her “sincerest condolences” to Logan-Bledsoe’s family and friends.

“I am working with colleagues local and state, and will continue to listen to residents, to consider all options for safety at gas stations,” she said. “The discussion of overnight gas stations has been an ongoing dialogue before this extremely tragic incident.”

A witness reportedly told police two men approached Logan-Bledsoe from behind, fired one shot, took items from her and then fled in her dark Chrysler vehicle, according to a news release from the Village of Oak Park. The police department has not responded to Wednesday Journal regarding whether or not security footage from the gas station or nearby areas had been obtained by police.

Logan-Bledsoe was a student at Oak Park and River Forest High School and part of the class of 2022. She was also a former member of the student-led organization Revolutionary Oak Park Youth Action League (ROYAL).

ROYAL posted a brief tribute about LoganBledsoe on Facebook, calling her a “fierce and brilliant young leader” who cared about her community. Cynthia Brito, an OPRF parent who oversees ROYAL and knew LoganBledsoe, said the young woman was courageous, confident, bold and unafraid to speak her mind.

Activism aside, Logan-Bledsoe was also a dog lover, a writer and like most teens, enjoyed hanging out with friends, Brito said.

“She unconditionally loved her friends, and they loved her back. They could count on her, so it’s a huge loss for them,” Brito added.

Anthony Clark, a special education teacher at OPRF and community activist, said he knew Logan-Bledsoe as a student and described her as charismatic — someone who had an “exuberant, uplifting” spirit. Clark said Logan-Bledsoe had an irrepressible sense of humor, often keeping the jokes rolling whenever they interacted.

High school District 200 released a statement and encouraged staff and students who may be in distress to reach out to the school’s grief support team. Those interested should contact counselor Joe Herbst at jherbst@ oprfhs.org.

“Please keep Jailyn’s family in your thoughts during this difficult time,” the district said.

The West Suburban Major Crimes Task Force is assisting the Oak Park Police Department in the investigation. Anyone with information related to the shooting should contact the police department at 708-386-3800.

Those interested in providing information anonymously can do so through the village of Oak Park website at oak-park.us/crimetip or calling 708-434-1636.

Education reporter F. Amanda Tugade contributed to this report.

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Wednesday Journal, June 29, 2022

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Racial equity toolkit reviewed by Oak Park Village Board Will require explicit consideration of racial equity in all village decision making

By STACEY SHERIDAN Staff Reporter

The Village of Oak Park is expected to begin measuring its policies and practices based on a newly developed racial equity toolkit as early as this fall. The toolkit will be used as an instrument to determine the effectiveness of current and future village procedures and practices related to achieving a racially equitable community.

“Our goal isn’t just about reducing the gaps between white people and people of color, but it’s really about raising the bar for everyone and giving everyone an opportunity to succeed,” Assistant Village Manager Kira Tchang explained to the board at its June 27 meeting.

“When we talk about equity, we’re talking about eliminating racial disparities and im-

DAYCARE

Families struggle from page 5 inequity through economic and developmental consequences as parents struggle to keep their jobs, care for their young children, and provide a structured, intentional setting for our population’s youngest age group.”

In recent months, as cases surged due to the omicron variant, Lisa, Paula and many other parents have dealt with the news of the nursery’s closures mostly on the fly and learned to cobble solutions together. They called upon family members to babysit, begged employers to extend the company’s work-from-home option or took days off. But after more than two years of making do and with COVID measures softened, Paula, who helped write the letter, asked when daycares in Oak Park would be next for eased restrictions.

“All these days that she’s home, we’re having to scramble to find somebody,” Paula said, running through the limited choices most parents have. “Either we sit her here in front of the TV for the whole day, but [when] you’re talking about five days, you can’t do that. We ship her out to her grandparents, which requires a two-hour commute for us to do that, or we hire somebody, which is on top of the

proving outcomes for all,” she said. “What that means is that our strategies need to be targeted based on the needs of specific groups who may need more support or different support.”

The toolkit itself is not “a very fancy document,” according to Tchang, but was created based on materials from the Government Alliance on Racial Equity (GARE), which pleased Trustee Arti Walker-Peddakotla.

GARE is also the racial equity education agency of the village’s Community Relations Commission.

The village’s racial equity toolkit is intended “to force the reviewer to delve more deeply into the specific equity aspects” when analyzing existing or future decisions, policies, budgetary items, programs and practices.

The village board was widely pleased with the toolkit, the implementation of which will begin over the remainder of the summer and the start of the fall, beginning with a meeting of the Community Relations Commission next month. The village’s human resources department will train village department heads and other decision makers in using the

toolkit.

By October, the board will begin seeing the tool’s impact analysis on agenda items and

by November, the village will begin reviewing existing policies, programs and practices.

Village staff also hope to have a director of diversity, equity and inclusion hired in the next four to six weeks.

“This is going to be a process,” said Tchang.

Some trustees raised a few concerns about the toolkit. Trustee Lucia Robinson asked for some questions to be revised to examine unintended inequities. She also flagged that “equity” and “racial equity” seemed to be used interchangeably throughout the presented materials.

“It’s really important to recognize that racial equity is not the same as equity,” she said.

Trustee Walker-Peddakotla, however, said that racial equity “gets at underlying equities at the root of law and at the root of government,” she said.

Citing an increase in the local Hispanic population, Trustee Ravi Parakkat asked that the word race itself be more clearly

defined so as to include those residents.

He said currently their inclusion was not “coming through in his reading” of the toolkit.

Trustee Chibuike Enyia disagreed with Parakkat, saying he does not believe the racial equity toolkit highlights any one particular race over another.

“It should be pretty clear that it covers all races,” he said. “In my reading, that’s what I assumed.”

The ultimate goal of the toolkit, Enyia reiterated, is to eliminate disparities among “all of the minorities that have a gap” to create an environment where every individual can succeed. Citizen engagement, he said, plays a critical role in reaching that ultimate outcome.

“Part of what we need to focus on when we are trying to bridge this gap is the engagement process and figuring out, ‘Hey, how do we standardize the engagement process so that no stakeholders are left out of the conversation,’” he said. “If we achieve that, then we know that we are truly bridging the gap and getting to the goals at hand.”

tuition we’re already paying for the daycare.”

Chapple-McGruder and Cari Christoff, executive director of The Day Nursery, told the Journal they empathized with area families and the challenges they continue to face during the pandemic but shared the reasoning behind closures, including the one over the Memorial Day holiday, and other restrictions.

“I understand that people are looking at the mitigations as the problem, but it’s really not the mitigations that are the problem,” Chapple-McGruder said. “It’s the fact that we’re removing the mitigations that is [contributing to] increasing cases and increasing needs to implement the harsher mitigations.”

The two shared there are some major differences between schools and daycare centers.

According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, a school outbreak is defined as multiple cases impacting at least 10% of teachers, staff and students within a core group, or individuals “who were together during the exposure period.” Three COVID cases within a “specified core group” also makes up an outbreak. So, what does that mean for the Day Nursery and other centers who deal with mostly unvaccinated children and have small classroom sizes?

“When you have a classroom of 10 [and] one person tests positive, you have to close the classroom. It’s considered an outbreak,” Christoff said, noting shutting down a single classroom is meant to prevent the spread of

COVID-19 and protect other staff and children.

“The Day Nursery is responsible for 25 staff members and those staff members’ families, and the 77 potential families and the children that are there,” she said. “The decisions – what we do – impacts a lot of families.”

Christoff told the Journal that close contacts are bound to crop up in daycare classrooms, especially because of the way children and staff interact with each other.

Children at the nursery eat at least four meals, take naps and play together. Masking inside the daycares is recommended by the public health department, though ChappleMcGruder noted childcare centers can tighten restrictions as they see fit. At The Day Nursery, staff and children are still required to wear masks indoors.

Chapple-McGruder added that SHIELD, a free weekly COVID testing program, is only available to schools, not daycare centers. Frequent testing, she explained, helps detect the virus in its early stages before it spread to more people.

“Without that kind of layer, we see more outbreaks, and daycare centers have definitely had more number of cases and larger classroom outbreaks than schools because of that layer of protection not being there,” she told the Journal.

But that still leaves parents like Lisa and

Paula in a bind. Paula said she felt nursery staff did not communicate news of closures well to families and did not understand all the guidelines placed by local health officials.

Christoff, however, told the Journal that she and other staff have remained transparent with families, often sharing weekly COVID updates. The nursery is now offering free BinaxNOW COVID self-test kits, which can be administered by daycare staff.

Just weeks ago, COVID-19 vaccines became available for children 6 months to 4 years old, another set of news Lisa had longed for.

While Lisa said she’s excited to get her daughter vaccinated, she’s still a worrier.

What if her daughter experiences symptoms because of the vaccine? Would she be able to take more time off to care for her? Lisa said she had other lingering concerns like what if parents with younger children choose not to get vaccinated or decide to wait? How will that impact the cases at The Day Nursery?

Lisa said she knows vaccinated people can still get COVID-19 and the vaccines act as a “buffer” for the virus, and the pandemic, overall, “sucks.” “There’s no real other alternatives.”

“There’s no equity across the board,” Lisa said. “I know some families hire a nanny or can afford an au pair or something to watch [their children]. … This pandemic has really hurt lower income families with children at any age. I mean, it’s just rough.”

Wednesday Journal, June 29, 2022

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

Customers must request single-use foodware

River Forest Village Board approves ordinance, 4-0

By ROBERT J. LIFKA Contributing Reporter

Distribution of single-use foodware by River Forest restaurants to take-out and delivery customers will be limited following action by the Village Board of Trustees on June 27.

Under the ordinance, which was proposed by the Sustainability Commission, River Forest restaurants will no longer give customers single-use foodware unless specifically requested. Customers who want plastic utensils, condiments and more would need to ask for them. The ordinance was approved 4-0. Trustee Ken Johnson did not attend and Trustee Bob O’Connell abstained.

According to the commission, the ordinance requires establishments that sell food and beverages to provide these items for take-out and delivery orders at the customer’s request only, meaning customers would have to “opt-in” to receive them. Village officials stressed that the proposed ordinance would not tax nor prohibit the distribution of single-use foodware. Rather, the purpose of the ordinance is to limit the unnecessary distribution of single-use plastics, which generates a significant amount of waste, they said.

The ordinance was expected to be approved at the May 23 village board meeting, but the matter was tabled after Village President Cathy Adduci said representatives from the McDonald’s at 624 Harlem Ave. had raised concerns regarding drive-thrus. McDonald’s is the only drive-thru in the village.

In a memo to village officials, Sara Phyfer, management analyst, said a McDonald’s representative met with staff members and Sustainability Chair Eric Simon, June 6, to discuss safety concerns regarding the drivethru as well as to share some of the company’s sustainability initiatives, which are expected to be announced in the near future.

In response to a request to meet with the Sus-

tainability Commission to discuss the drivethru matter, a special meeting was held on June 22, but the McDonald’s representative was unable to attend.

Phyfer said the version of the ordinance that was approved June 27 is “largely the same” as what was proposed on May 23. The only changes were replacing “Styrofoam” with “polystyrene foam,” plus title language to clarify the purpose of the ordinance.

The River Forest ordinance is modeled after one implemented by Chicago in January. According to village officials, not only is Chicago the only municipality in Illinois to implement such an ordinance, but also no other municipality is known to be considering such a step.

Trustee Lisa Gillis, liaison to the commission, said Adduci brought back the idea for the ordinance from a PlanIt Green meeting in January. After consultation involving herself, Murphy, and Village Attorney Greg Smith, Adduci brought the matter to the commission, Gillis added.

PlanItGreen is a sustainability planning and implementation project seeded by the Oak Park-River Forest Community Foundation’s Communityworks Partnership that has engaged residents, businesses and institutions in developing a two-community, 10-year sustainability plan for the villages of Oak Park and River Forest.

The proposed ordinance defines a singleuse food item as any eating utensil or other item to be used as part of food or beverage service that is designed and intended by the manufacturer for only one usage before being discarded, including straws, forks, spoons, sporks, knives, chopsticks, other eating utensils, stirrers, drink stoppers, splash sticks, cocktail sticks, toothpicks, napkins, wet-wipes, cup sleeves, beverage trays, disposable plates and condiment packets.

Not considered to be single-use foodware are beverage lids or items used to contain or package food or beverages for delivery or take-out orders.

C O R R E C T I O N

Due to an editing error, in a profile last week of Edith Kause we regrettably misspelled her last name. On the cusp of her 100th birthday, Ms. Kause told us the secret to a good life is to stay busy and try to make others happy.

Good advice to which we’d add, always double check the spelling of names.

Our apologies and a happy birthday to Edith Kause.

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OPRF Chamber luncheon draws crowd in comeback

Future owner of West Sub among panelists

By STACEY SHERIDAN Staff Reporter

The Oak Park River Forest Chamber of Commerce’s economic luncheon has made a big return, following a two-year hiatus due to complications presented by COVID-19.

Roughly 136 attendees turned out to listen to a discussion on the future of technology and the economy by panelists Hasheem Alsaket, machine learning engineer at Siden; Sandra Kaufmann, director of Loyola University’s School of Dance; and healthcare professional Manoj Prasad, who is soon to become the owner of West Suburban Medical Center.

“We were also very intentional about our topic this year: embracing this new economy and taking a deep dive into how tech innovation will impact and drive the economy of the future,” said OPRF Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Liz Holt of the June 23 event.

“The future is on our doorstep and we want to be ready for it.”

Moderated by Ruby Rose Strategies’ DaRondal Bevly, the panelists hit on the matters across the broad economic and technological spectrum in the age of COVID-19 summed up best by Prasad, who told the crowd of professionals that “we will have to rely more on technology” in coming years.

The reliance on technology has already been heightened with the onset of the virus, which caused the majority of the workforce to pivot from traditional shared office spaces to working from home.

Prasad’s directive was echoed by Alsaket, who said it remains to be seen whether

working from home will ultimately impact the world positively or negatively.

“But technology is the only thing that allows the workforce to do that,” he said.

“That really excites me.”

It is already clear that working from home offers differing levels of success depending on industry. For many, it eliminates the time and stress of commuting; workers in America spent an average of 60 to 90 minutes commuting, according to Alsaket.

“That’s one way,” he clarified.

For healthcare, Prasad conceded that certain conditions allow for staff to work from home, but much is lost when a medical professional only does technical work instead of being in front of a patient.

To public officials, Prasad asked that they begin thinking about the health and wellness of community segments rather than viewing it on an individual basis by

supporting programs related to all aspects of health, not just physical ailments.

That directive was heard by a number of public officials who were in attendance, including Oak Park Village President Vicki Scaman, Oak Park Village Trustee Chibuike Enyia and River Forest Village Trustee Respicio Vazquez.

Kaufmann, meanwhile, touched on the shrinking availability of workers and how it relates to her efforts.

As the current workforce ages into retirement, however, she believes, the workforce will have to change to draw in younger generations as they have no desire to take part in the traditional 9-5 system. This, Kaufmann said, has already become apparent with the return of students to campus.

“Students are no longer interested in being told what to do,” said Kaufmann.

Coming out of COVID-19, she noticed that students and young members of the

Do you want to keep your public officials accountable?

workforce have an “urge to dismantle hierarchy” to create a more balanced relationship between supervisors and those working underneath them.

“The idea of any inequity is so painful to them,” she said.

It is not that younger generations just do not want to work either, said Kaufmann.

Rather, she believes they want to work hard but with the understanding from management that their voices will be heard and respected. Younger generations are looking for agency within organizations and competency from management.

“Are you willing to listen to their ideas or are you putting them in a box? Are you willing to consider their ideas?” she asked the crowd. “Do you have a mission?

They’re not so interested in working for money anymore. They want to feel like their precious life is working toward a goal.”

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Wednesday Journal, June 29, 2022

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S A N K O F A

A R T S

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F E S T I VA L

PHOTOS BY BUZZ MCBRIDE

O

n June 26, community members enjoyed the annual Sankofa Arts Festival at Scoville Park in Oak Park. Juanta Griffin, the Oak Park Public Library’s multicultural learning coordinator (shown bottom left), organizes the annual event, which is an opportunity for African Americans to “call on our ancestors as we go back to our African roots, to bring forth all the greatness of our past and manifest it in our future,” the library states on its website.

Sankofa celebrates Black excellence through music, dance and art, with performances by Snake Doctors, Kuumba Kids Dance, Keli Stewart and Sydney Jackson, Just Cause Dancers, and Uneq’ka.

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Wednesday Journal, June 29, 2022

ABORTION

Village could offer refuge from page 1 ments to set abortion policies in a state.

In his concurring opinion, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote he believed it is unconstitutional for a state to bar its residents from traveling to another state to obtain an abortion legally. This does not, however, prohibit states from doing so.

Abortion is legal in the state of Illinois, but neighboring states are already rolling back abortion access. Missouri enacted a ban on all abortions within minutes of the Supreme Court’s ruling, becoming the first state to do so. Missouri’s ban leaves no exceptions for rape or incest.

“We are going to see and already are seeing a huge influx in people that are seeking abortion services in the state and those people are going to need help, they’re going to need places to stay, they’re going to need so much,” Arti Walker-Peddakotla told Wednesday Journal.

“And the protections that Illinois has aren’t enough, especially for patients and providers who travel from other states.”

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has committed to keeping the state a “safe haven” for reproductive rights, calling the Supreme Court’s

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM decision “abhorrent” in a June 24 press conference. The state is expecting to receive as many as 30,000 abortion seekers from neighboring states.

Walker-Peddakotla believes the entire state of Illinois should be designated a sanctuary for abortion seekers to avoid a “patchwork” of individual sanctuary cities.

The Roe v. Wade reversal has many ramifications for many in the United States as it leaves no national safeguards for victims of rape and incest. The Supreme Court’s action also does not leave any federal allowance for terminating a pregnancy for medical reasons. Based especially on comments by Justice Clarence Thomas, it also puts a number of other legal precedents into question, such as gay marriage, access to contraception and consensual homosexual conduct. The decision now makes the legality of in vitro fertilization, which did not exist before 1973, murky.

Walker-Peddakotla requested support for the sanctuary community ordinance in an email to her fellow village board members on June 25, one day after the Supreme Court’s ruling was announced. She also asked Village Manager Kevin Jackson to have staff begin to draft such an ordinance.

A self-proclaimed police abolitionist, Walker-Peddakotla cited the criminalization of abortion as one of her prevailing concerns

in the email sent to the village board and to Wednesday Journal.

Enyia differs in his views on law enforcement but shares Walker-Peddakotla’s desire to see abortion seekers and their allies protected.

“While I don’t identify as a police abolitionist like Arti, on this particular issue, I agree with Arti’s motion and stand firmly in support,” Enyia said.

This is not the first time such an ordinance has been brought forth in Oak Park, as Walker-Peddakotla noted in her email. One month after President Donald Trump’s inauguration in 2017, the village board unanimously passed an ordinance designating the village a sanctuary community for immigrants.

That particular ordinance prohibited village employees from assisting in investigations of “the citizenship or immigration status of any person unless such inquiry or investigation is required by an order of a court of competent jurisdiction.”

It also dictated that the Village of Oak Park will not accept requests made by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on federal immigration enforcement operations.

“We protected people in our village,” Walker-Peddakotla said.

The village now has an opportunity to further protect people in Oak Park, she said.

A number of civil rights organizations,

as well as medical journals and professional groups have condemned the Roe v. Wade reversal. In a statement, Human Rights Campaign Interim President Joni Madison said the Supreme Court’s decision “fulfills an extreme, out of step, ideological agenda” not in line with the will of the nation.

“When the Supreme Court is willing to throw 50 years of precedent out the window, it proves that we are at an exceedingly dangerous, unprecedented moment,” Madison said.

An editorial by the New England Journal of Medicine said state bans will not reduce the number of abortions but increase maternal mortality rates by shrinking opportunity for safe procedures. The medical journal also blasted states for limiting reproductive rights “based on fig-leaf justification” and “disingenuous rhetoric.”

It is unclear when the abortion sanctuary ordinance will go before the village board for a vote, but both Walker-Peddakotla and Enyia have urged village staff to make haste. The ordinance will have a first reading at a village board meeting then go up for a vote at a subsequent meeting.

In the meantime, Walker-Peddakotla urges anyone wishing to assist women seeking abortions to donate to the Chicago Abortion Fund, a non-profit organization that provides financial, logistical and emotional support for abortion seekers.

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Wednesday Journal, June 29, 2022

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A subdued 10th anniversary for Big Guy Sausage Stand

Staffing shortages force temporary closure of Berwyn counter-service spot

By MELISSA ELSMO Oak Park Eats Editor

Big Guys Sausage Stand, 7021 Roosevelt Rd. in Berwyn, will mark a decade in business on July 13. An anniversary of this magnitude should be a time for boisterous celebration, but the fast-food stand is set mark the milestone with a subdued re-opening after staffing shortages forced the restaurant to temporarily close its doors.

Owner Brendan O’Connor has started a GoFundMe to help better position his counter-service establishment to return to business as usual and survive the coming months. To date, 600 donors have contributed more than $30,000 dollars to the GoFundMe campaign.

O’Connor said things “first went sideways” in April 2021 when staffing issues began impacting the business. It takes eight full-time employees to run the Berwyn sausage stand.

Four core employees, including O’Connor and his cook who has been with him since opening in 2012, join two others with who have been with Big Guys for two years. The remaining four workers have become nearly impossible to retain. Some well-qualified employees left the business for higher wages in the city as workers became scarce during the pandemic, while others have proven to be unreliable and depart without offering reasons or giving little or no notice.

“I have really great long-term employees, but there are only four of us here now,” said O’Connor. “Two of my employees, including my cook are out recovering from surgery. I had no other choice than to temporarily close the restaurant.”

The closure itself puts Big Guys in a financial bind, but it is just another issue among many plaguing the decade old establishment. When restaurant dining rooms reopened after pandemic related closures, sales slumped significantly.

O’Connor notes they were busy during the height of the pandemic when people were looking for family meals and carry out fare, but now that people are dining inside again demand for Big Guys’ family meals evaporated and fewer walk-in customers visit the Veltway mainstay. When business picks up staffing shortages make it impossible to keep up with demand. In response O’Connor said he has been forced shut

ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

BURGER GUY: Big Guys owner Brendan O’Connor, despite challenges, is celebrating a decade on Roosevelt Road in Berwyn. down delivery apps and stop taking phone orders.

Large scale catered events, a lucrative aspect of Big Guys’ business model, suffered throughout the pandemic leaving the restaurant cash poor. Resulting cash flow issues forced O’Connor to defer maintenance on the HVAC system and ventilation hood — today the system is limping along and temperatures in the kitchen often soar above 120 degrees.

Rising prices on everything from food to paper goods have also added to the problems facing the Berwyn business.

“Look, I used to pay $500 a month for paper goods and now I am spending $500 a week for the same items,” said O’Connor matter-of-factly. “And then when you have employees just up and leave without notice I become chained to the register and the grill leaving no time for anything else.”

The sudden need to man the kitchen often pulls O’Connor’s focus away from administrative tasks on a moment’s notice -- and that, too comes at a cost to the struggling business. For example, O’Connor posted a job listing to Indeed, a popular employee-hiring platform when a sudden shift in staffing levels forced O’Connor back into the kitchen for a couple of days straight.

“Of course, I totally forgot about that job posting; by the time I got back to it I had like 70 applications,” said O’Connor.

“That might sound like a good thing, but we have to pay $8 for every application we receive. So, I ended up with a $600 Indeed bill and not one of those 70 applications produced an actual employee.”

Outside of their mortgage, Big Guys was debt free as recently as 2019. The business was thriving thanks to a boom-

ing catering business, robust staffing and manageable expenses. With Big Guys’ “emergency fund” used up to help narrowly survive the pandemic the business owner admits he has taken on significant debt to keep from closing. He has put $20,000 of his own money into the business and has amassed $60,000 in credit card debt over the past few years.

Current business is down 50% from its 2018-2019 “heyday” according to O’Connor.

“Over the last 10 years this has been the most challenging year of business. More stressful than launching with two babies and an 8-year-old, harder than operating for a year while battling cancer, and worse than two years of Covid,” wrote O’Connor in his GoFundMe appeal While Big Guys is facing a perfect storm of diminished business capacity, compounding backend work, deferred maintenance and staffing shortages, O’Connor is confident he and his scrappy team can make it through this time with community support. He will use the donated funds to take care of glaring repairs and will reopen when his two core employees have recovered fully from their medical procedures – he anticipates that will be in early-to-mid July.

In the meantime, O’Connor has been focused on tailoring the Big Guys menu to highlight their most popular items. Expect a reopened Big Guys to be more burger-focused with a few sausages and rotating seasonal specials thrown into the mix.

“We need to recession proof the restaurant and that means we can’t do the foo-foo stuff anymore,” said O’Connor. “I just want a nice consistent flow of business with healthy margins. I don’t need to make a lot of money on this place.”

Big Guys GoFundMe: https://gofund.me/4a847615

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

Wednesday Journal, June 29, 2022

Taste the Town — in person at FitzGerald’s

Takeout 25 gathers restaurant lovers for an afternoon of food and music

By MELISSA ELSMO Oak Park Eats Editor

On Sunday afternoon, a capacity crowd gathered on the patio at FitzGerald’s Nightclub, 6615 Roosevelt Road in Berwyn, for the first ever in-person Taste the Town event.

Brought to life by Takeout 25 and several MELISSA ELSMO/Food Editor generous sponsors, the food focused gathering brought out hundreds of supporters who TASTY: Surf and Turf trifle offered by collectively raised approximately $22,000.

Babygold Barbecue.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better venue and the crowd was amazing,” said Ravi Parakkat, Takeout 25 founder and an Oak Park fered up a memorable surf and turf trifle village trustee. “It felt like we all knew each boasting layers of cheesy potato salad, other even though this was the first time smoked beef brisket, smoked shrimp, fresh chives and a dash of hot sauce. Paired with many of us had met in person.” a Babygold Cold Beer from the cash bar, the Sunday’s Taste the dish set the tone for the Town event brought sunny afternoon where the virtual world to guests were treated also life — Takeout 25 is a to tastings of beet salad, largely online commurich gumbo, cauliflower nity and the three prior tacos, chicken tikka, Taste the Town events, poke bowls, salted caraorganized at the height mel cheesecake and of the pandemic, ofstuffed cookies. fered carry out fare for “By all measures I pick up. The in person have this was a huge gathering pushed the success,” said Paraknon-profit in a new dikat. “The event aprection allowing supMELISSA ELSMO/Food Editor pealed to all ages porters to enjoy a meal groups, the music antogether for the first Takeout 25 founder Ravi Parakkat and time. A carry out and his wife, event organizer Amy Hoffman chored the whole thing and people all had difdelivery option was in- Parakkat, at Taste the Town. ferent favorites among cluded to augment the the food options.” in-person experience.

Funds raised through ticket sales and More than 250 guests sang and danced to the charismatic sounds of Gerald Mc- sponsorships from Byline Bank, Delivery Clendon, “the Soul Keeper,” as they savored First, Sean Olis of Guaranteed Rate, West generous tasting portions of an array of res- Side Garage and Cadence Group covered the cost of the event and remaining proceeds taurant dishes. Despite the large number of guests, the vibe at FitzGerald’s was laid back were divided between Takeout 25 and parthroughout the afternoon. Food was read- ticipating restaurants: Amerikas, Babygold ily accessible allowing guests to have a well- Barbecue, Kettlestrings Grove, Khyber Pass, paced experience as they listened to tunes Poke Burrito, Surf ’s Up Oak Park, Schweet

by Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye and Otis Cheesecake, and Twisted Cookie. Additional donations totaling $700 were collected for BeRedding.

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Wednesday Journal, June 29, 2022

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C R I M E

Chicago man arrested for stabbing CTA passenger

Oak Park police arrested Chicago resident Luther D. Clark Jr. for attempted murder after he reportedly stabbed a 60-year-old man in the shoulder with a knife Saturday morning. The victim, who is also from Chicago, sustained non-lifethreatening injuries in the attack.

Clark, 24, has been charged with attempted murder and aggravated assault by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office. Police say there is no known connection between Clark and the victim, according to Oak Park spokesperson Angela Schell.

Police were called to the CTA Blue Line station at Oak Park Avenue at 8:54 a.m., Jan 26 following reports that a passenger had been stabbed. Clark attempted to flee police but was apprehended near the entrance of the Blue Line. He was arrested after being positively identified as the perpetrator.

The victim was taken to Loyola University Medical Center, where he was treated and released.

Aggravated vehicular hijacking An Uber driver was carjacked at gunpoint by three passengers between 11:30 p.m. and midnight, June 21 in the 700 block of Lyman Avenue. Upon arriving at their destination, one of the three passengers grabbed the Uber driver around his neck while another pointed a handgun at him. He was then forced out of his black 2018 Chrysler 300, which the three subjects drove away in. The estimated loss is $35,000.

Criminal sexual abuse

After following the victim into the victim’s apartment building, a man exposed himself and grabbed the victim, who then fled from the man, between 9:11 p.m., June 23 in the first block of Washington Boulevard. The offender then exited in an unknown direction.

Robbery Two men robbed another passenger of a fishing pole while on a CTA train car at 6:02 a.m., June 20 at the Austin Boulevard stop, 720 Austin Blvd.

Motor vehicle theft ■ Someone removed a 2022 Hyundai Tucson, left unattended and running, between 9 p.m. and 9:15 p.m., June 22 in the 800 block of North East Avenue. The vehicle was recovered in Evanston shortly after.

■ A gray 2019 Volkswagen Tiguan was removed from the 800 block of South Boulevard between 9:40 a.m. and 9:50 a.m., June 24. The estimated loss is $23,825.

Theft ■ The

catalytic converter was cut from a silver Acura TL between 8 p.m., June 18 and 5:30 p.m., June 20 in the 1000 block of North Elmwood Avenue.

■ A FedEx package was removed from the front steps of an apartment building in the first block of Iowa Street at about 10 a.m., June 23.

■ A secured Cannondale SuperSix EVO bicycle with carbon wheels and a bicycle GPS was taken from the back porch of a residence in the 1100 block of Washington Boulevard between 8:30 p.m., June 19 and 7:30 a.m., June 20. The estimated loss is $6,400.

■ The catalytic converter was cut from a 2015 Honda CRV parked in the 900 block of South Boulevard between 6:30 a.m., June 22 and 7:20 a.m., June 24.

Criminal property damage

■ The glass window of a little free library was shattered after someone threw a rock at it between 8:45 a.m. and 9 a.m., June 20 in the 400 block of North Elmwood Avenue.

The estimated damage is $100.

■ Someone shattered the glass front entry door to a building in the 100 block of

Harrison Street between 9 a.m., June 17 and 7 a.m. June 23. The estimated damage is $500.

These items, obtained from the Oak Park Police Department, came from reports, June 21-27, and represent a portion of the incidents to which police responded. Anyone named in these reports has only been charged with a crime and cases have not yet been adjudicated. We report the race of a suspect only when a serious crime has been committed, the suspect is still at large, and police have provided us with a detailed physical description of the suspect as they seek the public’s help in making an arrest.

Compiled by Stacey Sheridan

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PRIDE 2022

Wednesday Journal, June 29, 2022

17

ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

Drag queen Angel Lebare entertains the crowd during the drag show during the Forest Park Pride Fest.

PRIDE FEST IN FOREST PARK

AUSTIN LGBTQ ADVOCATE ZAHARA BASSETT

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE PRESIDENT DARIEN MARIONBURTON

PAGE 19

PAGE 22

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Forest Park, somewhere over the rainbow Seven drag queens energize an audience of 300 at Constitution Court

By TOM HOLMES

T

Contributing Reporter

he Public Works Department installed 70 rainbow banners along Madison Street, which created a stunning streetscape; Joana Fischer at Twisted Cookie baked rainbow cookies; and Connie Brown made rainbow ice cream, but what the 300 people who packed Constitution Court will remember is the show seven drag queens put on last Thursday evening.

As the crowd gathered and set up lawn chairs in the parking lot, the DJ pumped up the volume with disco music. Several teenage girls showed off their dance moves and residents greeted their neighbors and

ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

OPALGA members hand out pride wristbands.

ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

Drag queen Harlet Wench performs during the drag show at Forest Park Pride Fest, Constitution Park, on Madison Street.

friends from out of town. One man wore platform sneakers with 5-inch rainbow soles and several women wore rainbow dresses When the host of the show, Angel LeBare, appeared in drag, the crowd of SLGBTQS (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer and Straight) people in the audience responded with smiles, hoots and hollers. LeBare had responded to an interview question a week earlier by saying, “I am excited to be hosting the inaugural Forest Park Pride Fest.

I hope the day will be filled with love and inclusion.”

She wasn’t disappointed, and the crowd was on her side.

The seven drag queens — LeBare, Fox E. Kim, Britney Taylor, Harlet Wench,

Aleyna Couture, Mariela Duarte and Monique Greene — strutted their stuff. Audience members, including little kids, ran to the stage and gave the queens dollar bills.

Some even busted a few moves with the performers.

A poignant moment came when Aleyna Couture danced to the song by Young MC titled, “Bust a Move.” Lyrics like “You’re on a mission and you’re wishin’ someone could cure your lonely condition … Looking for love in all the wrong places” put into words feelings everyone in the audience could identify with.

Before the performance, the drag queens had each gone to a business on Madison Street, including Brown Cow, Twisted Cookie, Jimmy’s Place, Fiore, Team Blonde,

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PRIDE 2022

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Attendees hand over dollar bills during the drag show and show their appreciation in more traditional ways (below).

Play it Again Sports and MacDaddy Salon.

At each business, people could chat with the queens, ask questions and get their pictures taken with a queen by Dexter Cura from Escape Factor.

The queen hanging out at Twisted Cookie was Harlet Wench who shared why she got into drag. She said even as a little boy she enjoyed dressing as a girl and going drag and performing is a like a refreshing break from reality which, as everyone knows, can be tough sometimes. She explained that each queen creates her own persona which informs how they dress and perform.

Erich Krumrei, who opened Play It Again

Oak Park Temple celebrates our diverse community 1235 North Harlem Avenue, Oak Park, Illinois 60302 708-386-3937 • oakparktemple.org

Sports, a year ago organized the event for the village in just three weeks. “I was talking to the mayor,” he explained, “and at one point he brought up that they were looking to do some sort of Pride event, but he was in the middle of planning for Juneteenth, so I offered to do it.”

“Part of my business model and philosophy,” he added, “is to fully integrate as much as I can with the community. I met a guy named Dan Walsh who is part of a group called Art Reach, and he helped me plan, organize and coordinate an event for this year.”

Krumrei hopes the Pride Stroll, as he

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Wednesday Journal, June 29, 2022

PRIDE 2022

PFLAG celebrates the 7th anniversary (6/26) of Obergefell v. Hodges

Please join us - Our work is not yet done!

Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, Bisexuals and Transgender Serving the Oak Park area for 21 years

We meet on the 4th Sunday First United Church of Oak Park 848 Lake Street, Oak Park (at Kenilworth) 3 pm - 5 pm This is a place of confidentiality.

708.386.1738 • pflagoakpark@pflagillinois.org ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

Forest Park Mayor Rory Hoskins addresses those who attended Pride Fest.

Support....Education...Advocacy Come to our annual bake sale, OP Farmers Market, Saturday, September 3rd Back to in-person meetings!

called it, will become an annual event in the village along with Juneteenth, the St. Patrick’s Day Parade and German Fest.

Performance tables were set up, where information and swag were available for PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), OPALGA (Oak Park Area Lesbian and Gay Association) and the Howard Brown Health Center, which provides “Access to LGBTQ-affirming primary care.”

The Forest Park Chamber of Commerce and local businesses participated in one way or another because they share progressive values. “Here at the Brown Cow Ice Cream Parlor,” said owner Connie

Brown, “we pride ourselves in our diverse organization and our strong stance on social issues, like diversity, inclusion and sustainability. Proceeds from the sale of our rainbow products go toward the Brave Space Alliance in Chicago — a local nonprofit organization providing resources and community for LGBTQ+ young people.”

They also participate because, frankly, it’s good for business. Any event that brings people to the street exposes them to the many unique shops in town. Business owners felt it would attract customers rather than put them off, because they have their finger on the pulse of the community.

Forest Park has the second highest percentage of LGBTQ residents in the entire state of Illinois.

Krumrei reported that there were a few negative comments on social media, but the response leading up to the event had been overwhelmingly positive.

That the event was designed to be family friendly was evidenced by the number of children present in Constitution Court, posing for pictures with the queens and even running up to the stage to tip the performers.

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LGBTQ advocate brings critical resources to Austin

Zahara Bassett, founder of Life is Work in Austin, brings her personal story to West Side organization

By SAMANTHA CALLENDER

A

Community Narrative Reporter

lack of community concern and aid is what prompted longtime West Side resident Zahara Bassett to found Life is Work, a Black and Brown trans social service agency at 5463 W. Chicago Ave. in Austin.

Bassett and her life partner initially sought to launch an initiative to feed people experiencing homelessness, but they soon realized that there weren’t many resources available for the transgender/nonbinary (TGNB) community.

“There are many social services agencies on the West Side, but none seemed to care about being of service to us,” Bassett

said. “No one wanted to place a safe haven on the West Side for TGNB folks,” said Bassett. “I come from a background of people who take action, so I knew I had to do something for my people.”

That something bloomed into what is now the Life is Work Community Resource Center, which provides a range of services, including housing referrals, career readiness wear and job training, among others.

Bassett, who is CEO of the center, said the organization soon plans to provide HIV and STI testing and resources as well.

“Black and Brown people in this city already struggle with inequalities related to food, housing and jobs, and for those who are also trans and non-binary it’s even more of a challenge,” Bassett said. “It’s important that when providing services to these groups that you have a certain level of cultural competency and empathy in order to be able to truly help.”

Another element of Life is Work involves creating a community for TGNB people and their allies on the West Side.

Many Austin residents share the senti-

ment that creating a community is a challenge. Bassett echoes the sentiment, especially when it comes to rallying around for trans lives.

“We only seem to get visibility in the news when a trans person is murdered, but there’s never any action to follow that media sensation,” the West Side CEO said. “It cycles out of the news and we’re forgotten about until another one of us is killed.”

Bassett said that trans murders on the West Side go largely unreported and of those that are reported, only 23% are solved. Bassett believes that these statistics are why people are unafraid to take trans lives.

“When I was younger I was involved in a bad relationship with a guy and he told me that he could kill me and no one would care,” she said. “And the most frightening thing about that was that he was right. People don’t really care when we are killed.”

She added that connecting and engaging with the West Side is important to her, since the cultural divides ultimately lead to the violence among trans folks, especial-

ly Black trans women.

“My vision is to have a united West Side.

We’re all Black and Brown people. There’s not a lot of unity,” Bassett said. “We [trans people] are your people too. We are here.

We are human.”

CONTACT: samantha@austinweeklynews.com

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23

Authenticity through the eyes of Darien Marion-Burton Youngest, Blackest, gayest Chamber leader

A

By KATE HESTERMAN

s a kid, Oak Park native Darien Marion-Burton was never known to raise his hand in class. He was too fearful of the consequences of being wrong — too many eyes glued on him, looking at how he acted. Today you can find him advocating for the business community as the “youngest, Blackest and gayest” Oak Park-River Forest Chamber of Commerce President in board history.

What caused this dramatic shift in confidence? Marion-Burton attributes his success to channeling his true authentic self.

While he says he is still growing and learning about himself, he always gets positive results when he leans into who he truly is.

“I started being myself. I started authentically being the Darien I wanted to be, and people loved it,” said Marion-Burton.

Throughout high school, Marion-Burton says he kept busy to distract himself from figuring out who he was. He worked at Buzz Café, managed OPRF football and basketball teams and enjoyed taking restaurant classes the school provided. Support came from his “teacher-moms” who taught him the importance of “existing” — a phrase he references while breaking down barriers, despite current obstacles.

“I think simply existing, being a businessman in our community and being the chamber president, it really is just simply doing those roles and excelling at them. I am opening up the door and showing little Black kids and little gay kids and everybody that you don’t have to fit into this box that the world thinks you’re supposed to be in,” said Marion-Burton.

Marion-Burton graduated from Augustana College in 2015 with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Management. He gained experience interning at the Multicultural Student Life Office at Augustana, finding a passion for diversity services. Eventually he returned to Oak Park to pursue sales.

cess. He chooses team members that align with his values, hold a solid definition of inclusion and bring different identities to the table. To organically amplify LGBTQ voices, Marion-Burton created the campaign “Get Gay.” The campaign advocates for Pride marketing created by members of the LGBTQ community, resources to promote LGBTQowned businesses and provides Pride marketing courses. Marion-Burton loves this time of year to celebrate the right and the ability to be yourself but wants to see these efforts continue throughout the year.

“I think we all as people try not to do the wrong thing, and I think that’s how we end up doing the wrong thing. But if we just act in our true natural ways, I think that all takes care of itself,” said Marion-Burton.

ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

Darien Marion-Burton started the ‘Get Gay’ campaign.

Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and

Parents,Parents, Families Families and Friends and Friends of Lesbians of Lesbians and and Gays, Bisexuals and Transgender Gays, Bisexuals and Transgender Gays, Bisexuals and Transgender Serving the Oak Park area for 21 years Parents, Families Friends and Serving the Serving Oak and Park the Oak area Park for of 2area 1 Lesbians years for 21 years meet on the 4th Sunday Gays,We Bisexuals and Transgender th First of Oak We United meet We onChurch the meet 4thon the 42Park Sunday Serving 1Sunday years Serving the the Oak Oak Park Park area area for for 21 years 848United Lake Street, Oak Park (at Kenilworth) First First Church United of Church Oak Park of Oak Park th th We meet on 4 Sunday 3 pm - the 5 pm We meet on the 4 Sunday 848 Lake 848 Street, Lake Oak Street, ParkOak (at of Kenilworth) Park (at Kenilworth) Parents, Families and Friends Lesbians First Church of Park and ThisUnited is a place of confidentiality.

First United of- Oak Oak 3 pmChurch -5 pm 3 pm 5 pmPark Gays, Bisexuals and Transgender 848 Oak 848 Lake Lake•Street, Street, Oak Park Park (at (at Kenilworth) Kenilworth) 708.386.1738 pflagoakpark@pflagillinois.org This is athe place This aconfidentiality. place Serving Oak Park area forconfidentiality.

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With a background in marketing and a dream in mind, Marion-Burton took a leap and opened a digital marketing agency called D.M. Burton. His local digital marketing agency specializes in crafting social media plans and web designs for small to 3 pm - 5 pm medium-sized businesses across the Chicath This is a of confidentiality.

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25

Full circle

Wright’s granddaughter reflects on summers spent with her famous grandfather

By LACEY SIKORA

N

Contributing reporter

ora Natof didn’t meet her famous grandfather, Frank Lloyd Wright, until she was 12 or 13. Her mother, Frances Wright Caroe was one of Wright’s six children from his first marriage to wife Catherine.

Caroe was estranged from her father for a period, and Natof remembers being first introduced to Wright in New York City, where has living at the Plaza Hotel with his third wife, Olgivanna.

For several years when Natof was in her teens in the early 1950s, she was permitted to spend summers at Taliesin. She recalls her mother being concerned about her being the only teenage girl there among the architectural fellows studying, but says some of her male cousins were there at the same time.

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT

ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

Nora Natof says summers at her grandfather’s Taliesin compound in Wisconsin “probably influenced me a lot.” She would later co-found a Montessori school in New Jersey, worked as a nurse and as an activist, advocating for the environment and civil rights.

Now 87, Natof says those summers “probably influenced me a lot.” The community aspect of Taliesin is one she recalls in detail. At that point, she says, the home in Spring Green, Wisconsin was an “almost” sustainable community with vegetable gardens and farm animals. Wright’s apprentices served people during meals.

Most of all, she recalls the arts, which she thinks were Olgivanna’s influence at work. “On weekends, we had theater productions, and everyone dressed very formally,” Natof said. “We had a quartet, a chorus and actors. It was a very self-contained cultural community in that sense.”

On Sundays, Wright addressed the 75 to 80 architects who were in residence each summer. Natof recalls that her grandfather was held in high regard.

See NATOF on page 26

COURTESY OF FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT FOUNDATION

Natof spent summers in her teens at Wright’s Wisconsin home and studio, Taliesin (above), in the early 1950s.

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Wednesday Journal, June 29, 2022

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NATOF

No regrets from page 25 “People would do anything for him,” she said. “My grandfather was sort of the feudal king of the roost.”

While the experience at Taliesin was positive one, Natof states that her relationship with her grandfather was not at first.

At one meal together in the private dining room at Taliesin, he mocked the way she ate to the extent that she left the room in tears. She calls that night a “very powerful experience.”

As a young adult, Natof says she was embarrassed to tell people she was related to him, but said, “People did find out, because I had this rather odd furniture in my house.”

Natof ’s mother was a single mom after leaving her alcoholic husband when Natof was young, and Natof recalls a stormy relationship with her.

“I realize now how hard her life had to be as a single mother in 1935, but I did not at that time,” she said.

LIS

D TE D E

T T LIS IS L ST J U ST JU JU

ST

Caroe worked as the executive direc- as the Red Oak School, the institution retor of America House, Aileen Vanderbilt cently celebrated its 50th anniversary in Webb’s shop in New York City that offered Morristown, New Jersey. When the Natof high-quality crafts from across the country family moved to Pennsylvania, Natof became involved in protests over a for sale. Due to these connections, proposed nuclear power plant Natof was sent to private high and founded an environmenschool and two years at Brital group. arcliff College, where she Natof later studied to learned cartography. be a nurse, and when At 21, Natof was workshe and Stuart divorced, ing at the Geological she worked as a nurse Survey in Washington for decades, until she D.C., where she marwas 77. Over the years, ried her first husband, she lived in Texas and a student, in 1956. He Pennsylvania.

Two died in 1958. In 1959, years ago, she moved Caroe, Natof ’s materinto Mills Tower in Oak nal grandmother CathePark to be closer to her rine and Wright himself son, Lloyd. all died.

Oak Park has been a Natof married Stuart good fit. After a lifetime of Natof in 1958, and their civic involvement, including marriage lasted 30 years. The the efforts in the Civil Rights couple lived for a period in New FRANCES WRIGHT Movement and the Women’s Jersey, where her two children, CAROE March for Peace, she enjoys Maginel and Lloyd, were born. the diversity and progressive During her time in New Jersey, politics of her new hometown. She goes to Natof found her first community calling.

Quaker meetings and just joined an organiWith a few other couples, the Natofs zation called Compassion & Choices, which school.

Now known founded a Montessori

“My grandfather was sort of the feudal king of the roost.”

NORA NATOF

advocates for medical aid in dying.

“I like to be a part of something that’s useful,” she said.

Noting that “the Wrights can very bombastic. We’re all strong personalities,” Natof says there are still strong family ties to this day. There is a regular Lloyd family reunion, and she’s enjoyed the ease of being able to speak to far-flung relatives via Zoom.

For Natof, it has been a life with many acts and many satisfactions.

“It never occurred to me in anything I did that it wouldn’t happen,” she said. “It all worked out. I don’t have any regrets. I’ve had a very interesting life.”

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1032 Fair Oaks Ave Oak Park | $939,900 Patricia McGowan

1019 Woodbine Ave Oak Park | $899,000 Kim Wojack | Anne Ferri

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196 N Marion St Oak Park | $695,000 Patricia McGowan

2132 N Harlem Ave Elmwood Park | $599,000 Hannah Gillespie

846 S Elmwood Ave Oak Park | $579,000 Mary Carlin

28 Ashland Ave River Forest | $529,000 Sheila Price

1040 Clinton Ave Oak Park | $519,000 Arrick Pelton

421 S Ridgeland Ave Oak Park | $498,000 Steve Green

3742 Gunderson Ave Berwyn | $485,000 The Dita Group

604 Woodbine Ave Oak Park | $479,900 Elizabeth O’Connell

1636 Oak Park Ave Berwyn | $439,000 The Dita Group

923 Home Ave Oak Park | $419,000 Swati Saxena

1640 N 76th Ave Elmwood Park | $380,000 Kenneth Van Santen

213 Augusta St Oak Park | $369,000 Bobbi Eastman

1921 Wisconsin Ave Berwyn | $335,000 The Dita Group

6830 29th Place Berwyn | $333,000 The Dita Group

324 N Marion St #2N Oak Park | $318,000 Carla Taylor

3833 Wenonah Ave Berwyn | $309,900 Roberta Ruiz

1407 N Harlem Ave B Oak Park | $295,000 Saretta Joyner

Oak Park | River Forest | 1037 Chicago Avenue Oak Park, IL 60302 Source: BrokerMetrics® LLC, 1/1/2019 - 12/ 31/2019Detached and Attached only. Chicagoland PMSA

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Wednesday Journal, June 29, 2022

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

SPORTS OPRF grad helps Northwestern softball to College World Series Shortstop Maeve Nelson will return for final year with Wildcats in 2023

By MELVIN TATE

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Contributing Reporter

he Northwestern University softball team had a remarkable season this year, winning the Big 10 Conference championship with a 45-13 record and advancing to the College World Series in Oklahoma City for the first time since 2007.

A key figure in the Wildcats’ performance was shortstop Maeve Nelson, a River Forest resident and 2018 graduate of Oak Park and River Forest High School. Nelson batted .279 with 12 home runs and 42 RBI, with an onbase percentage of .422 and a slugging percentage of .570.

In a phone interview with the Wednesday Maeve Nelson Journal, Nelson believed Northwestern’s cohesive chemistry was vital to the team’s success.

“The biggest thing about our team was that we enjoyed being around each other and playing together,” she said. “With a lot of teams, the biggest thing that keeps them back is a lack of camaraderie. I don’t think I realized that until this year because of how special this team was. We were all truly best friends, and we played as a unit.”

This was manifested in perhaps one of

Northwestern’s biggest wins this spring.

The Wildcats rallied Feb. 18 in Clearwater, Florida, for a dramatic 6-4 extra-inning victory against the UCLA, a perennial Top 10 program.

Nelson ended things with a walk-off threerun homer against UCLA ace Megan Faraimo, one of the nation’s top pitchers.

“What made it great was coming to home plate and seeing how happy my teammates were for me,” she said. “Everyone wanted everyone to do well, and the UCLA game was a team effort. It was important because it showed us we can hang with anyone if we work at it, and it set the standard and expectations for the season.”

Nelson had a few other highlights this spring.

She hit two homers and drove in eight runs in a 10-2 Northwestern victory over visiting Purdue on April 17. And she went 3-for-4 with a go-ahead RBI single at Arizona State on May 29 as the Wildcats rallied from a 5-0 deficit to defeat the Sun Devils 8-6 in an NCAA super regional, NORTHWESTERN ATHLETICS allowing Northwestern to advance to the College World Series.

Nelson was a top player on OPRF’s back-toback IHSA Class 4A championship teams in 2016 and 2017. She has plenty of fond memories playing for the Huskies as well as with the Oak Park Windmills program.

“Oak Park was awesome,” she said. “If there’s one thing I can accredit Oak Park for, it’s all the resources and great people I’ve met along the way that have taught me life values. I’m proud to say my career started with the Oak Park Windmills, and I am

NORTHWESTERN ATHLETICS

Maeve Nelson of Northwestern University’s softball team connects during a game this season.

The 2018 graduate of Oak Park and River Forest High School batted .279 with 12 home runs and 42 RBI to help the Wildcats win the Big Ten Conference regular-season championship and advance to the College World Series for the third time in program history. fiercely loyal to them.

“OPRF set the standard for success, and I was blessed to have a great high school career. I was hanging out with Fiona [Girardot], Chardonnay [Harris] and all of the other Division I softball players.”

Nelson hasn’t been able to see OPRF play since being at Northwestern. But she keeps regular contact with Girardot and Harris and said Huskies coach J.P. Coughlin sent her a text during the Wildcats’ postseason run.

Retired OPRF coach Mel Kolbusz attended Nelson’s game against Notre Dame this spring.

“I learned a lot of leadership skills from Mel and I appreciate how much he valued my opinion,” Nelson said. “It gave me a good stepping stone to come into Northwestern and become part of the leadership. Mel and I had a mutual respect and understanding of each other and for the game.”

This season was the third time in program history Northwestern qualified for the College World Series (2006 and 2007 were the others). Although the Wildcats were eliminated early, losing to eventual national champion

Oklahoma and UCLA, Nelson enjoyed living out an experience she had dreamed of.

“It was surreal,” she said. “You dream about that growing up, and it’s really weird seeing it come to fruition. As a kid, it’s something that’s so far-fetched and you never really think you’re going to get there. But then you’re there as a 22-year-old and you’re like, ‘I belong here, I deserve to be here.’ It shows the growth you make as a player and a person, and it was really cool sharing it with my best friends. It’s what you work for in your career; you’re seeing your work come full circle.”

The NCAA granted student-athletes an extra year of eligibility after the 2020 season was canceled. Nelson plans to come back next year for a fifth season and says Northwestern has one thing in mind -- a return to Oklahoma City with a different outcome in mind.

“Now that we’ve been there, it’s going to be hard not to expect a return,” she said.

“Myself and four other seniors are returning, and I think that’s cool because we’re not returning just to be returning; we’re returning because we want to go back to the World Series and win it.”

Wednesday Journal, June 29, 2022

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

VIEWPOINTS

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Pride Month and overturning Roe p. 33

A G I N G D I S G R AC E F U L LY

Can Liz and Caroline save us from Trump Redux?

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an a blonde country-club Republican and a beautiful cop save us from Trump Redux?

I’m not predisposed to like Liz Cheney; I’m old enough to remember her father, Dick Cheney. We called him Darth Vader back when he was Bush 2’s vice president. On top of that, all on her own, she disowned her gay sister who is married to a woman. And she recently described herself as pro-life (so am I, but I favor the life of the already-born.)

Case closed? Maybe not. For one thing, she has reconciled with her sister. For another, she voted to impeach Trump. Twice.

At this time and in this year, Liz Cheney is showing that she’s “got game” on the level of Steph Curry.

She is definitely the one to watch as the House committee investigates the crazies behind the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021, and their crazy potentate, Donald Trump. (Now that I’ve used the word “potentate,” I realize that Donald Trump should never have risen above the level of a Shriners parade, that combination of grandeur and absurdity, chubby men in tiny cars and fezzes.)

Cheney has lost a group of consultants for her upcoming primary, apparently because they were told by other Republicans that they’d be out of work if they worked for Cheney. Since she’s from Wyoming, she’ll probably lose the Republican primary anyway. If she wins the Wyoming Republican primary, could she be in the running in the Republican presidential primary?

“Will we be so blinded by partisanship that we throw away the miracle of America?” Ms. Cheney has demanded of her fellow Republicans. “Do we hate our political adversaries more than we love our country and revere our Constitution?” Yes, Liz, they will and they do. Or maybe

MARY KAY O’GRADY

See O’GRADY on page 33

ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

TRIGGER LAWS: Oak Park and River Forest High School students march to call for stricter gun laws, May 25, one day after the mass school shooting at a Texas elementary school.

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Change is happening too slowly

lmost every American who was over the age of 10 in 2001 can tell you where they were when 9/11 happened. We weren’t alive in 2001, but we can tell you where we were when the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting happened in 2018.

It was Valentines Day and we were all in middle school, whispering about crushes and anxiously awaiting the day when we would get a valentine of our own. We were sitting in class when news began to break about an active shooter in a high school in Parkland, Florida. The positivity of Valentines Day quickly turned into widespread fear among students and teachers across the country.

We planned walkouts and protests and begged for change. There have been over 100 K-12 school shootings since then and still we find ourselves pleading with lawmakers to increase gun regulation in the United States.

On May 24, 2022 an 18-year-old killed 19 students and 2 teachers using an AR-15-style rifle at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. We find ourselves once again disturbed, angry, and heartbroken. We decided to organize a protest at Scoville Park to give kids in our community an outlet to express their emotions regard-

ing the shooting. While we spoke, we looked out into the park and saw faces of teenagers who have been traumatized by years of lockdown drills, news clips of shootings, and empty prayers from guilty lawmakers.

Gun violence and mass shootings have been a constant throughout our lives. Gun advocates argue that mass shootings are caused by “a few bad apples,” and are not a good enough reason to change gun laws. The reality is that it’s 2022, and firearm-related injuries are the leading cause of death for children and teenagers in the U.S. When 9/11 revealed issues with our air travel safety, President Bush swiftly created TSA, added more air marshals, and drastically increased safety measurements in airports. When drinking and driving became a major issue in the ’80s, the federal government withheld highway funds from states to encourage them to raise their minimum drinking ages to 21. When car crashes became a prevalent safety concern, Volvo invented the V-type three-point safety belt.

Why can’t this kind of immediate and reactive change happen when children are being shot at school?

GRETA KIRBY & GRACE HOUREN One View

See GUN CONTROL on page 33

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Wednesday Journal, June 29, 2022

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V I E W P O I N T S

Calling all women … again

V I E W S

An abortion sanctuary

ak Park has a reputation, mostly deserved, for leading on complex social issues. Voters here passed a ban on handguns, which was enforced until overturned by the courts. Oak Park passed the first domestic partnership registry in the state to recognize a new status for gay and lesbian residents in committed relationships. Oak Park approved the first Open Housing ordinance in Illinois as it grappled with a path toward racial integration. Oak Park declared itself a sanctuary village, defending and welcoming immigrants in the community and protecting immigrants from federal policing actions. And Oak Park declared itself a Nuclear Free Zone in what was certainly its most performative public exhibition.

Now, with a radically politicized Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade and Casey v. Planned Parenthood, Oak Park’s elected leaders are preparing another action in response to this appalling and backward court decision.

Led by Trustee Arti Walker-Peddakotla, we expect the village board will soon consider an ordinance marking Oak Park as a sanctuary community for abortion. She has already lined up Trustee Chibuike Enyia as a supporter. And Village President Vicki Scaman has declared her “1,000% support” for the measure.

We’ll add our strong support for this community leading on defending what has been a bedrock right to privacy and personal choice for a half-century across America. The high court’s decision, arrived at by bald lies by Trump nominees during confirmation hearings, the theft of President Obama’s rightful pick of a nominee by Sen. Mitch McConnell and the weak-kneed acquiescence of senators such as Susan Collins and Joe Manchin, have brought us to this low point in our splintering history.

By its action, this court has intentionally wrought chaos and division as it allows states to choose their own restrictions on abortion rights. Rightly there is focus on the giddy efforts of red states to reach the most extreme positions possible — no exceptions for rape or incest, threats of prosecution of people seeking abortions or providing abortion services, bans that would prevent people from crossing state lines to obtain an abortion.

These are staggering and un-American concepts.

As important, though, is to focus on decisive actions by blue states such as Illinois and a majority of other states to explicitly protect the right to an abortion, to welcome people to our state for this reproductive health care treatment.

And within a state such as Illinois, it is essential that clearminded communities such as Oak Park make entirely clear that it stands with women, that it stands for reproductive rights without exception. This is within the Oak Park progressive tradition. It will reinforce Oak Park’s leadership on critical issues at moments of inflection.

We also believe it will inspire other communities to take the same declarative action. And that is all to the good.

In the wake of the Supreme Court’s precedent-demolishing decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, I’m revisiting a column that ran on Jan. 3, 2018, followed by some afterthoughts:

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he year 2017 was the Year of the Woman, but not the one many predicted. It should have been the first year of our first woman president. Hillary Clinton lost (sort of) to a self-absorbed misogynist pig, so everyone thought the dream had been deferred yet again. But if Hillary had won (actually, she did, making it all the more galling), women might have been lulled into complacency, believing the system still works.

Instead, the Trump travesty mobilized women in ways that otherwise would not have been possible.

It started with the Women’s March on Washington (and elsewhere), an in-your-face act of defiance aimed at everything that’s wrong with this country, particularly patriarchal dominance.

The marches represented everything that’s best about this country, the outburst of creative sign-making slogans being a high point.

Then the “#MeToo” movement blew the lid off sexual harassment. Our Groper-in-Chief awakened the fierce power of the feminine. Just in time. It’s pretty obvious the out-of-touch (but way too touchy) patriarchy will destroy this country and our planet if allowed to go unchecked much longer.

We don’t deserve it, but men need women to ride to the rescue. Men have proven that, left in charge long enough, the results will be disastrous. Somehow women must grab the political wheel.

It needs to happen soon. We’re running out of time.

I’ve been a feminist since the late 1960s, when I was 16 and came across the book, The Natural Superiority of Women, by anthropologist Ashley Montagu. Here’s the way goodreads.com described it: “Among the central issues of the modern feminist movement, the debate over biology and culture, over sex and gender, over genetics and gender roles has certainly been one of the most passionately contested. Making revolutionary arguments upon its first publication in 1953, The Natural Superiority of Women stands as one of the original feminist arguments against biological determinism. An iconoclast, Montagu wielded his encyclopedic knowledge of physical anthropology in critique of the conventional wisdom of women as the ‘weaker sex,’ showing how women’s biological, genetic, and physical makeup made her not only man’s equal, but his superior.

Also a humanist, Montagu points to the emotional and social qualities typically ascribed to and devalued in women as being key to just social life and relationships.”

Feminism has been gaining momentum for 50 years, and this may finally be the breakout moment. Women are discovering the power of their collective voice. What a gift — to men as well as women.

A shift to matriarchy isn’t the answer. Dominance

KEN

TRAINOR

by one gender is the problem, and gender equality is the answer.

Carl Jung described a healthy psyche as a balance of male and female, or as he called it, the animus and anima. The best way for that to happen politically is for more women to run for elected office and more men to support and vote for them. Men need to get a clue and women need to get elected — with the active support of every man who wants to change the “good old boy” school of American politics. ***

Well, the “good old boy” network is still around and it’s hard to see overturning Roe v. Wade as anything other than part of an ongoing effort to disempower women. But women’s empowerment cannot be undone. It will prevail.

This is epitomized by the surprising emergence of Liz Cheney over the last three years as an authentic American hero, a genuine profile in political courage. She refused to trade her integrity for her career and serves as a shining example of a politician who demonstrates that in a time of crisis, country comes before party loyalty.

I may disagree with Cheney’s politics, but I admire her commitment to telling the truth, on full display right now as co-chair of the January 6 Commission hearings. I don’t know where she stands on abortion and reproduction rights, but I do know where she stands on women’s empowerment: front and center.

She and her fellow commission members are showing the entire country how extreme and ruthless the Republican Party — which extends to their judicial affiliate, the Supreme Court — has become.

I hope Cheney decides to run for president in 2024 because she would give what remains of the center right in this country someone to rally around. But she isn’t the only standout. Many other women are ready to lead, with many more to come. Women are gaining and this awful court decision will only intensify the surge.

They must and will have reproductive justice.

Women, all human beings for that matter, must be able to decide what happens to their own bodies. The state cannot decide for them. That right is pre-eminent and inalienable. If we do not have bodily autonomy, then we have no rights at all.

How we treat life in the womb, anti-abortion extremists say, is a measure of society’s morality. But how we treat children and women beyond the womb is a more accurate measure. Morality minus love is immoral, and there is no love in this court decision. The hidden agenda is disempowering women.

But women will only grow stronger because they are endlessly resourceful, imaginative, and strong. You cannot stop them.

And in this November’s midterm elections, I believe, with our active support, they will prevail.

V I E W P O I N T S S H R U B T O W N

by Marc Stopeck

Wednesday Journal, June 29, 2022 W E D N E S D A Y

JOURNAL of Oak Park and River Forest

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

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

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

About Viewpoints

Why it’s important to improve OPRF facilities

I’m writing in strong support of improvements to the physical education (PE) and athletics facilities at OPRF High School. Renovations to these spaces are long overdue, and I hope the District 200 Board of Education acts soon to move forward with the badly needed work.

Like everything at our high school, PE and athletics happen on a massive scale. Nearly every OPRF student uses the PE spaces nearly every day, all school year. While many of these spaces are also used by athletic teams and other extracurricular activities before and after school, their primary purpose is for the daily, nearly constant PE instruction of all OPRF students.

And physical education facilities at OPRF do serve all our students, regardless of race, gender identity, income status, or academic ability. Some people claim that the desire for new PE facilities is actually just a way to build a new pool for white athletes from affluent families. In actuality, OPRF is proposing to rebuild multiple gyms, locker rooms, classrooms, elevators, office spaces, weight rooms, dance rooms,

and more — and these spaces will serve everyone.

As a realtor, I can tell you that our high school is the most important driver of property values in our two towns; every property owner should want to maintain excellence at OPRF. And young families have an even greater interest: if your child currently attends elementary or middle school, moving ahead now will mean these long overdue renovations will be complete for your child’s time at OPRF. As an alumni of the high school, as well as my mom as an alumni, and our children as graduates of OPRF, we all have benefitted from the physical education facilities and know it provides important life lessons. These lessons are valuable for the future students attending the high school in addition to the priceless asset to the community.

Our kids deserve more. Our community demands more. I strongly support the OPRF administration’s efforts to solve this problem, and I hope the D200 board will take action soon.

Kimberly Wojack Oak Park

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.

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

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V I E W P O I N T S

You can go green and save green

The signs of climate change are all around us – extreme heatwaves, huge storms, and … high gas prices? Climate change drives ecological and geopolitical instability that contributes to rising prices for our everyday goods. As the planet gets hotter, this will only intensify. Fortunately, there are many steps we can take that are both good for the environment and our pocketbooks.

Buildings are a significant source of carbon emissions in Oak Park. Switching to electric appliances can make a big dent in a building’s carbon footprint and provide better air quality. As more renewable energy powers Illinois’ electric grid, electric appliances are greener than gas ones. And studies show gas appliances release pollutants like carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, and fine particulate matter, which can worsen respiratory conditions like asthma.

Coupled with improving your building’s insulation, switching to electric appliances will reduce utility bills, protect you from volatile fossil fuel prices, and help you breathe easier. The village has resources and funding available for this at www.sustainoakpark.com.

Transportation is another big source of carbon pollution. Fortunately, electric vehicles are becoming increasingly common and affordable. Many new

multi-unit residential buildings already have charging stations onsite. But more multi-unit residential and commercial buildings should install charging stations to help promote further adoption of EVs. Solar is another great option for Oak Parkers. You can take advantage of the village’s rooftop solar grant program, as well as some great incentives from the state. Local environmental nonprofit Seven Generations Ahead can guide commercial buildings and tenants through their solar options. Reach out to Mark Burger at solar@sevengenerationsahead.org. Are you in a multi-unit building or not quite ready to put panels on your roof ? Community solar is a fantastic option.

It’s easy to sign up online to support a grid-scale solar project in Illinois. A credit is applied to your monthly electricity bill, so you can go green and save green.

Whether you’re a homeowner, a building manager, a renter, or a tenant in a commercial building, there are many ways to help make Oak Park a healthier, more sustainable community. The time to act is now.

Mark Burger

Renewables Consultant

Liz Lukehart

Communications Director Seven Generations Ahead

Appreciating Jim Wojcik’s artistic touch Earlier this spring, Ascension Church was specially decorated for the 50-Day Easter Season. And the Sunday after Pentecost, the Trinity icon was placed prominently on the altar. Gazing upon those decorations reminded me of an important person in our community, Jim Wojcik.

Jim truly loved being involved at church. He oversaw the Art and Environment Committee, whose primary role was to get the decorations in place for the various liturgical seasons. He was involved in other liturgical ministries, too. His involvement increased when

he joined the Ascension Parish staff. He spent several hours at church on Sunday mornings to help with preparations for Mass and then ensuring everything ran smoothly, particularly for special occasions.

As someone who is involved at Ascension in a variety of ways, I got to know Jim very well. I could see that he was, and still is, a tremendous blessing in our community because he is a person of great faith and is so devoted to participation in church life at Ascension.

Paul Rubio Oak Park

Make way for ducks

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

A gun buy-back program would help

If we knew we had a killer in our midst, what might we do to protect ourselves and our children? Because we do have a killer in our midst. The indisputable statistical evidence that this is true are gun deaths, sufficiently prevalent to alter life expectancy in some demographics. It is now the greatest cause of death among children — children! — in the United States. Although fear for our safety might prompt us to buy a gun, the truth is that the gun makes us less, not more, safe.

A laudable movement is underway to regulate the sale of guns, but it is powerfully and professionally opposed by advertising, employing seductive messages to vulnerable adolescents that the “manly” thing to do is own a gun.

The idea that “guns don’t kill people, people kill people” is a popular myth, but it is hard to imagine how a toddler, fascinated by and playing with an unsecured gun can accidentally kill a sibling except with a gun. What is the killer here?

While the problem of gun violence is complex, the prevalence of guns is simply the most important element of the danger. I therefore urge consideration of efforts not only to minimize gun sales and eliminate military-style weaponry but also to reduce the huge number of guns in homes, some for many years, many unused and unwanted, and I applaud and urge efforts such as gun buy-backs and programs like Guns to Gardens as good riskreduction efforts. The goal would be to reduce the level of gun ownership in this country to that in other countries where the toll is not so great.

The village of Oak Park and the Oak Park Police Department could host such programs.

Although it is common for some remuneration to be of fered for turning in a gun, the greater reward is to have improved one’s personal safety and the collective safety of the community.

Sandra Shimon

Member of Gun Responsibility Advocates Oak Park

We need Neighborhood Watch

My husband and I are in the process of planting a new almost-all-nativeplants garden in our front yard. When we came home yesterday afternoon, we found three ducks waddling around there. Lived here 30+ years, never saw a duck before.

I have been a proud homeowner in Oak Park for 33 years. I strongly support our police department, but they cannot be everywhere. I am concerned, as I am sure others are, about the increasing crime in our community, especially of a violent nature. I am thinking it might be time for an active Neighborhood Watch program, possibly including foot patrols. I do not intend this proposal to create vigilantes or act as law enforcement but merely to have concerned citizens work with the police to deter and react to crimes. I think the fact that there are citizens watching may be deterrent enough. I honestly do not know if this already exists in the village or not. If it does, then I think residents should get the details. If not, let’s start it. We should not be passive about the increasing criminal activity.

Oak Park

Oak Park

Susan Messer

Larry Passo

V I E W P O I N T S

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

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Pride Month, families, and overturning Roe

hen one of my sons came out as gay at age 14, I first yelled, “Mazel Tov!” (I was — and am — very proud of him). But the second thing I yelled, Jewish mom style, was “and if you ever want biological children, I know all about assisted reproductive technology (ART)!”

Granted, this was not what a 14-year-old wants to hear, but as a parent with a long fertility journey who had conceived this very child (and his twin) through in-vitro (IVF) and as a law professor focusing on ART laws, I had to share.

But now, as Pride Month winds down, we find ourselves looking at the Supreme Court overturning Roe, which, in addition to destroying other rights and freedoms, could also have a devastating impact on various types of ART. I want to emphasize that not everyone in the beautiful LGBTQ+ rainbow wants to be a parent or wants biological children. And, of course, many cis-gender, straight individuals and couples need ART themselves. But for many in the LGBTQ+ community, building a biological family requires some intervention. In some of these cases, IVF is needed. But IVF requires the creation of embryos, and in order to be truly effective, often involves creation of more embryos than will be implanted: leftover embryos are saved (frozen), or donated, or given to science. This process requires the legal view that an embryo is not

a human: state laws on embryos differ, but other than outlier Louisiana, state laws do not define embryos as human beings.

However, the leaked SCOTUS opinion of Dobbs (which would overturn Roe) uses language that discusses an embryo as “potential life.” Moreover, the opinion rewrites longstanding legal protections of bodily autonomy. All of this could embolden states to enact more restrictive laws on disposition of embryos, or regulating — or trying to ban — IVF altogether.

And again, Dobbs threatens so much more than this, but as we talk about the impact of the case, we need to be aware of all the consequences.

So why should Oak Park care about this? Well, obviously, Oak Park tries to be an inclusive and welcoming community. I know that my son was embraced and empowered by growing up in the Oak Park area “bubble,” and we proudly fly our pride flag all year (the bubble extends even into River Forest, where we live).

We are a vocal community, we protest, we march, and we are agents of change. So as we, as Oak Parkers, even in our bubble, even in very blue Illinois, think about the impact of Roe overturned, let’s not forget: This case could deprive some of us — and our children — of building families, and that heartbreaking reality needs vocal opposition.

Sonia Bychkov Green is a proud mom of four college/grad school-aged sons, a longtime resident of River Forest, and a professor at UIC Law.

SONIA GREEN

One View

O’ GRADY from page 29 they just can’t stand to lose and go back home.

Can you imagine having to make nice all the time with a bunch of your fellow right-wing Republicans?

Is it possible that Trump and his wretched “Band of Buffoons” didn’t see their siege of the Capitol as a plot to overturn the government? Perhaps they were just responding to their hero and his pathetic need to remain in power at any cost. No, Trump actually likes violence. Most cowards do. No, they knew what they were doing. Who would have stopped them from hanging Mike Pence? No one in that crowd.

Getting back to blondes, Caroline Edwards, the Capitol police officer who testified at one of the first televised hearings, was riveting.

Wednesday Journal, June 29, 2022

It was hard to look away as she described what she saw happen to her fellow officers and what happened to her. (She more than compensated for the recent low-rent spectacle of the Johnny Depp/Amber Heard trial.) The January 6 Committee described her actions: “Even after suffering a traumatic brain injury, Officer Edwards patrolled the Capitol’s West Plaza and prevented many rioters from entering the Capitol building.” Imagine slipping in a fellow officer’s blood.

I’m old and I still care deeply about my country’s future. I quake when I read about people like former Missouri Governor Eric Greitens, who recently posted a violent video in which he brandishes a rifle and simulates a SEAL raid on RINOs (Republicans In Name Only).

So Liz, thanks for doing the Republican unthinkable, but you really ought to switch parties.

And Caroline, there are no words. I hope you can resist doing a cosmetics commercial, but even if you do, you won’t lose my respect.

33

Electrify for our health

Fighting global climate warming and saving money are not the only arguments for replacing gas-powered appliances with all-electric: your gas-powered cooktop and oven may be hazardous to your health.

Decades of scientific study have shown that gas stoves are a major source of indoor air pollution. Inside a home, the toxins carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide can reach levels that would violate current clean-air standards for outdoor air: nitrogen dioxide in particular can reach concentrations that are 50-400% higher than electric stoves. These indoor pollutants increase risks for many adverse health conditions, including lung and heart disease. Children are especially vulnerable: those living in homes with gas stoves are 42% more likely to suffer asthma than those in homes with electric stoves.

According to new research from MIT, combustion emissions from the building sector now contribute to the largest share — 37% — of premature deaths associated with air pollution, more than other sectors like transport, industry, and power generation.

Clean-running electric burners, in contrast, are more efficient than gas, with induction burners in particular a staggering three times more efficient. The price of induction ranges is falling as they become more popular, and celebrity chefs rave about their benefits, including more precise control over cooking temperatures and cooler working conditions in commercial kitchens.

For everyone’s health, it’s time to switch to all-electric cooking.

We need to mandate that all new buildings be all-electric and rapidly transition existing buildings to all-electric systems, including stoves.

Wendy Greenhouse Oak Park

GUN CONTROL from page 29 After Columbine, lawmakers should have raised the age to purchase a firearm from 18 to 21. After Virginia Tech, lawmakers should’ve stopped accepting money from the NRA. After Sandy Hook, lawmakers should’ve banned the sale of assault rifles to civilians. After Parkland, lawmakers should’ve enacted red flag laws. It’s been a month since the shooting in Uvalde, and lawmakers need to pass HR-8, a universal background check bill passed in the house over a year ago. If these measures had been implemented after shootings occurred, kids’ lives would have been saved from the epidemic that

is gun violence.

Due to the inaction of lawmakers, 19 kids from Uvalde, 14 kids from Parkland, and hundreds of others will never get to walk the stage at graduation. They’ll never get their driver’s licenses, and they’ll never get to wait anxiously for a valentine of their own. We implore those reading this to call their representatives and ask them to support stronger gun-regulation measures and especially to vote out politicians who do not prioritize the safety and well-being of American children.

Greta Kirby & Grace Houren OPRF High School hope that four years from now they will see more change than in the previous four years. This was written before the recent gun legislation — which did not raise the age for purchasing firearms from 18 to 21 — was passed by Congress.

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Wednesday Journal, June 29, 2022

V I E W P O I N T S

Impeach corrupt justices The first clause in the Bill of Rights states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” I learned about the separation of church and state in grade school. We learned that the immigrants who founded the United States of America left their homes and came here precisely for the religious freedom it offered.

Government-sponsored religion was and is anathema to democracy. My own ancestors fled Europe to escape the clutches of religious intolerance. Sadly, most of the sitting Supreme Court justices never learned this fundamental foundation of our democracy, or they simply have no intention of upholding the U.S. Constitution.

At least two of the Supreme Court justices, illegally appointed by the previous president, perjured themselves during their confirmation hearings. This is ample grounds for their impeachment.

Neil Gorsuch acknowledged that the Supreme Court had held that a fetus is not a person for the purposes of the 14th Amendment’s due process clause, a legal underpinning of Roe v. Wade. Senator Durbin asked him, “Do you accept that?” Gorsuch replied, “That is the law of the land. I accept the law of the land, Senator, yes.” This was flat-out perjury.

Brett Kavanaugh lied repeatedly during his confirmation hearings about the credible testimony by several women he raped in college. To his apologists, no, you are not innocent unless proven guilty when you are applying for a life-long appointment

to the most powerful position a judge can have, where you will be able to interpret law for 330 million Americans. Kavanaugh told Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, that he considered Roe to be “settled law.” Senator Gillibrand summarized, “Every single one of them said they would not undermine a settled precedent; every single one of them said under oath, that they would actually preserve Roe.” This applies also to Chief Justice Roberts.

Their dishonesty is grounds for impeachment. However, more serious than that is their flagrant disregard for the United States Constitution. There is no pretense that their decisions are based in the Constitution. They are simply dictating their own personal religious beliefs to every American citizen. They violate their oath of office every day.

Clarence Thomas lied during his confirmation hearings about his notorious sexual predation. Thomas and his wife participated in the attempted coup to overthrow democracy, Jan. 6, 2021; this treason alone is sufficient grounds for impeachment.

Alito, Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, Coney Barrett, Roberts, and Thomas must be impeached and removed. Apologists may whine that this would be unprecedented.

However, it is unprecedented that corrupt justices who represent a tiny radical fringe attempt to eliminate the Constitutional rights of all Americans and force their own religious beliefs on the rest of us.

Galewood needs a library

so, it wasn’t obvious.

At these meetings, grand plans were presented with promises of high-end grocers and a health club. No business names were given; the alderman didn’t know either. It seemed odd that community questions weren’t being answered by the property owner.

As the Sears building was being taken apart, Seritage sold the property. All these months later, the site is a huge, dusty vacant tract with numerous reasons for nothing being built.

The only Chicago development is in the building phase at 6700. Once again a North Avenue library is in the works, but the same issues as before are becoming a block to the library. North Avenue needs the library to attract residential development.

Galewood, as a community, needs this library.

In the not-too-distant past, a joint effort by Chicago and Oak Park produced a North Avenue revitalization plan. Oak Park made progress with several small residential developments.

Mayor Emanuel promised a library on North Avenue. Seritage, aka Sears, executives met with the community about a planned development on the Sears property. They promised to listen to the local homeowners.

Was this a smoke-and-mirrors illusion? I don’t know, but it seems that way now. The library was quickly a no-go! There were several community meetings about the North and Harlem property. The developer and the contractor answered the attendees, not Seritage.

Was Seritage present at all the meetings? If

Tom DeCoursey Oak Park

Fran Sapone

Longtime Galewood resident

O

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

How will Fenwick prevent further abuse?

n April 7, Chicago media reported that the investigation of a Fenwick High School teacher accused of sexual abuse was “nearly complete.” The reporting added that a letter from school officials said they are “well prepared to take prompt and decisive action based on the findings and the facts.”

It has been almost three months and we have yet to hear a word from the school administration about how it plans to respond to the multitude of reports by Fenwick students of sexual abuse and inappropriate behavior occurring over decades of time.

On April 5, Jack Crowe wrote a column in Wednesday Journal that warned we shouldn’t “look to Fenwick and the Dominicans for justice. It’s not in their DNA.” He said they see sexual assault “as a public relations issue as opposed to a justice issue.”

Follow the money. Bad publicity leads to fewer students enrolling. The administration has a reputation and a funding stream to protect.

In 2017, I received a letter of apology from Fr. James Marchionda, prior provincial and member of the Fenwick Board of Directors for the abuse I experienced while a student at Fenwick in 1970. Through social media, I was able to confirm that I was not the only student abused by this priest, so I wrote Fr.

Marchionda at that time not expecting anything but to make him aware.

He said in his letter, “I believe we are doing our best to serve those who have been abused and to prevent further abuse on our watch, as well as in the future.”

Really? Here we are five years later. What has been done to “prevent further abuse?”

After the school went co-ed in 1992, what training was done with teachers and staff to prevent sexual harassment or abuse?

How does Fenwick monitor its Title IX (sex discrimination) compliance? What education was done about appropriate touch, consent or how to report incidents of abuse?

Last but not least, what are the consequences for abusers and what are the plans for restorative justice for the many survivors?

The Catholic Church has proven itself totally and criminally incapable of policing itself. It will take third-party intervention to see any justice done. It continues to hide behind statute of limitation laws. At what cost to children will Fenwick continue to guard its precious reputation? When will we ever see this institution, and the church as a whole, held accountable for all the damage done over generations?

Paul McLennan, a former Fenwick student, not lives in Decatur, Georgia.

PAUL MCCLENNAN One View

Danny Davis doesn’t represent us Jacob Drews, who identified himself as a high school student, gave a rousing endorsement of Danny Davis, who is seeking his umpteenth term as the 7th Congressional District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, last week in Viewpoints.

Reading his letter was akin to the language I have encountered in numerous pieces of campaign literature that infest my mail box these days. It was quite the slick and sleek bit of wording that extolls numerous personal and political virtues upon whomever pays for such rah-rah rhetoric. Mr. Drews seemingly has a future as a PR flack. Just a high schooler, and thus not even born when Davis first took his current office, but somehow he believes the 80-year-old rep is still worthy of another two years, youthful progressive chal-

lengers be damned.

We’ll see what lies ahead in 4-plus months.

I hope younger, energetic progressives get elected. The entrenched, long-in-the-tooth Democrats certainly are not serving “we the people.”

I doubt Kina Collins will beat Davis in the primary, he being part of a corporatized national body politic with lots of campaign cash. If a teenager like Jacob has already bought into this tired repetition of re-electing antique actors in a Democrat Party that clearly has no intention of giving the working class the help they need, in spite of having complete control of our national government, then the future looks bleak.

Joe Harrington Oak Park

Wednesday Journal, June 29, 2022

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

More power to the press

“I was in fear for my life.” When a police officer on trial for murder uses this defense for killing a citizen, more often than not he walks out of the courtroom, free. Never mind that he — yes, almost always a man — has been trained to keep his head in emotionally charged situations, and to use deadly force only as the last resort.

But when a woman, who has been abused beyond bearing, claims this was finally her only choice — to kill her partner — far too often the “justice” system finds a way to condemn her act of desperation and imprison her. The excellent front-page article in a recent Sunday Chicago Tribune brought this vividly to life.

Kudos to Annie Sweeney, the reporter, and to the editors of the Tribune for doing what only print journalism can do: bring lengthy, in-depth stories to a wide audience that needs to hear them. More power to you!

35

O B I T U A R I E S

Gary Gould, 81 Gary C. Gould, 81, of Oak Park, died on June 21, 2022, after courageously fighting glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) for 15 months. Born on Feb. 19, 1941, in Rock Island, Illinois, he grew up in Chillicothe, Illinois.

He ventured west to California and then returned to the Midwest to begin his career with the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad in 1961 but was drafted into the Army and served from 1963-65. He was a military policeman, first stationed at The Presidio in San Francisco, before finishing his service

in Vietnam. Upon his return, he resumed working as a structural ironworker for the C&NW, which would later become part of Union Pacific Railroad. Over the course of his 54 years, he worked on bridges throughout the Midwest and Plains states, eventually becoming a foreman and ARASA (American Railway and Airway Supervisors Association) member before retiring in 2015.

An avid do-it-yourselfer, Gary and Carol remodeled their home and helped many family members and friends with their projects. A fan of all Chicago sports teams, he could most often be found cheering on the athletic pursuits of his grandchildren. He also enjoyed traveling with his wife to places such as Italy and Hawaii, making regular trips to Cabo San Lucas and Alaska.

And he was a loyal parishioner of St. Bernardine Parish.

He is preceded in death by his parents, Carroll and Helen (Kain) Gould; his in-laws, Raymond and Susan Strebel; his sisters,

Jeanette Cox and Sandra Grisham, and his brothers-in-law, Peter Strebel and Jerry Strebel.

Gary is survived by Carol Strebel Gould, his wife of 55 years; his children, Eric Gould (Cindy), Monica Luczak (Mark), Jennifer Zarosl (Matt), and Shawn Gould (Faith); his grandchildren, Charlotte and Audrey Gould, Brandon, Connor and Hannah Luczak, Abby, Jessica and Ella Zarosl, Samantha and Jameson Gould; his brothers, Ron (Iris) Gould, Dennis (Nancy) Gould, Carol Ann Pence, Norman (Carol) Gould, and Bruce (Diane) Gould; his brothers-in-law, John Strebel and Charles (Judy) Strebel; 15 nephews and nine nieces.

Visitation was held on June 27 at Woodlawn Funeral Home in Forest Park. A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated on Tuesday, June 28, at 11 a.m. at St. Bernardine Church.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Glioblastoma Foundation at Glioblastomafoundation.org.

Roy McDonnell, 67

Dennis Toolan, 76

Roy W. McDonnell, 67, of River Forest, formerly of Elmwood Park, died peacefully on June 17, 2022. He served proudly in the U.S. Army as a sergeant with the Military Police and received medals for Good Conduct, Army Service and Army Achievement. He will be remembered for his extraordinary sense of humor, his love of football, and his enjoyment of a great meal.

For 25 years, he was the loving partner of Mary Ellen Hanrahan. He was the son of the late William and the late Finni McDonnell and the brother of the late Brian McDonnell. He also leaves behind many wonderful lifelong friends.

Memorial visitation will be held on Wednesday, June 29, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at Zimmerman-Harnett Funeral Home 7319 W. Madison St., Forest Park. Then family and friends will convene at the Queen of Heaven Cemetery Office at 12:45 p.m. for a graveside service and interment.

Dennis Toolan, 76, of Cocoa Beach, Florida, died on June 21, 2022. Born May 9, 1946, to the late Eugene and Marguerite Toolan, he was a lifelong resident of River Forest, attending St. Luke School and Fenwick High School.

He graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1968 and received his MBA from Purdue University in 1969. He was drafted in 1969 into the Army, where he served in Vietnam.

Upon returning, he embarked on a 40+ year banking career in Chicago, including working for Continental Bank, Credit Agricole, Conagra, and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago. A great mentor and colleague to many, whether he had just met you or knew you for years, he went out of his way to help anyone who needed it.

He reveled in traveling to South Bend to watch the Fighting Irish. A season ticket holder, he rarely missed a game and tailgating with the great Class of ’68. Come game day, there will be one heavenly, reunion

party with his ND classmates Above all else, he loved his wife, Mary Lou, and his family. Throughout his life, he made a lasting impression on the people he touched. Kindhearted, compassionate and funny, his presence will be greatly missed but his memory long remembered.

Dennis is survived by his wife, Mary Lou (nee Deane); his children, Danny (Deirdre), Katie, Sean (Kari), and PJ; his stepchildren, Marty, Jim (Lisa), Richard (Nancy); his grandchildren, Amelia, Sarah, Quinn, Reid, and Beau; his step-grandchildren, Ceally, Emma, Natalie, Melanie, Faith, Jim, and Luke; and his step great-grandchildren, Xandria and Bodhi. He was brother-in-law and uncle to many. He is predeceased by his wife, Geraldine; his stepfather, Edmund Guinane, and his brother, David (survived by wife Susan).

Visitation will be held on Wednesday, June 29 from 3 until 8 p.m. at ConboyWestchester Funeral Home, 10501 W. Cermak Road, Westchester 60154. All will meet Thursday, June 30 for a 10 a.m. funeral Mass at St. Luke Catholic Church, 7600 Lake St. River Forest 60305. Entombment will take place on July 1 at Cedar Grove, Notre Dame in a private ceremony.

In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts can be directed to Lewy Body Dementia Association www.lbda.org.

Arrangements were handled by Peter B. Kennedy & Co., Funeral Directors.

Railroad foreman

Fred Reklau Oak Park

Pool fooled

It is with great interest that I read the recent letters supporting the proposed improvements to the physical education facilities at OPRF High School. The writers argue that the facilities are in poor repair and obsolete. They also paint those of us who have consistently opposed the proposed overly large and expensive swimming pool replacements through the past 10 years as anti-pool and anti-improvement.

Nothing could be farther from the truth.

We have worked tirelessly and consistently to persuade the public, the school board, and the OPRF administration to consider the implementation of a more reasonably-sized competition swimming pool with much lower cost than the Phase 2 proposal. We have asked to consider the 8-lane pool proposed by the Stantec Study. We have asked to look into covering Ridgeland Common’s Olympic-sized pool. We have asked to look into collaboration with the park district in the new community recreation center. Yet, the board and the administration continue to insist that the only alternative is a 16-lane pool.

Taxes are high and most of us are having to make hard choices on how we spend our money, often foregoing buying a nice car or taking a nice vacation. We ask our elected board to also make the hard choices.

Leslie Sutphen Oak Park

U.S. Army sergeant

Banker, Domer

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Wednesday Journal, June 29, 2022

Growing Community Media

Deadline is Monday at 5:00 p.m.

BY PHONE: (708) 613-3333 | BY FAX: (708) 467-9066 BY E-MAIL: EMAIL@GROWINGCOMMUNITYMEDIA.ORG HOURS: 9:00 A.M.– 5:00 P.M. MON–FRI

HELP WANTED ANIMAL CONTROL OFFICER

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

software and other forms of systems and data.

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

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

13. Participate in research and recommendation of technology solutions.

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

2. Participate in the preparation of various activity reports.

3. Travel and support remote facilities and partner agencies.

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

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

6. Complete projects on a timely and efficient manner.

7. Communicate effectively both orally and in writing.

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

9. Perform related duties and responsibilities as required.

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

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

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

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

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

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

VB scripts.

Modern office procedures, methods and computer equipment.

Technical writing, office productivity tools and database packages.

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

Maintain reasonable and predictable attendance.

Work overtime as operations require.

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

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

Vaccination against COVID-19 strongly preferred.

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

The Village of Oak Park is seeking qualified candidates for the position of Animal Control Officer in the Health Department. This position will perform a variety of duties involved in enforcing Village ordinances governing the care and keeping of animals in the Village; and to impound, care for and assist with redemption of animals as appropriate. Applicants are encouraged to apply using the following link: https://secure.entertimeonline.com/ta/6141780.careers?ApplyToJob=218333253. For additional information on the position please visit the Village of Oak Park’s website http://www.oak-park.us/jobs.

This position is open until filled.

BUSINESS LICENSE OFFICER

The Village of Oak Park is seeking qualified candidates for the position of Business License Officer in the Development Customer Service Department. This person will perform a variety of technical duties in the processing and approval of business licenses and permits; and provide assistance and support to the Department. Applicants are encouraged to visit the Village of Oak Park’s website http://www.oak-park.us/jobs. First review of applications will be May 9, 2022.

PARKING ENFORCEMENT OFFICER

The Village of Oak Park is seeking qualified candidates for the position of Parking Enforcement Officer in the Police Department Field Services Division. This position will perform a variety of duties and responsibilities involved in the enforcement of Village parking regulations; and to provide general information and assistance to the public. Applicants are encouraged to visit the Village of Oak Park’s website http://www.oak-park.us/. Interested and qualified applicants must complete a Village of Oak Park application.

SEASONAL FARMERS’ MARKET ASSISTANT

The Village of Oak Park is seeking qualified candidates for the position of Seasonal Farmers’ Market Assistant in the Health Department. This position will provide administrative support to the Farmers’ Market Manager to allow growers and producers of food to sell directly to the public within established guidelines. This position requires work in inclement weather conditions; some heavy lifting of up to 50 pounds; walking or standing for sustained periods of time. Applicants are encouraged to visit the Village of Oak Park’s website at http://www.oakpark.us/jobs. Interested and qualified applicants must complete a Village of Oak Park application. Open until filled.

PARKING ENFORCEMENT OFFICER FOREST PARK, IL

The Forest Park Police Department is seeking Part-Time Parking Enforcement Officer(s); Shifts to be filled are 8:00pm – Midnight or Midnight – 6:00am. The position is a rotating schedule assigned by the Supervisor – 4 days on and 4 days off which includes weekends and some holidays. Eligible candidates will be required to pass an aptitude test and an extensive background check.

Qualifications include high school diploma (or equivalent), a valid driver’s license, knowledge of basic parking regulations, and good verbal and written skills.

Open until filled. Applications are available at Village Hall, 517 Desplaines Ave. or at www.forestpark. net and should be returned Attn: Vanessa Moritz, Village Clerk, Village of Forest Park, 517 Des Plaines Avenue, Forest Park, IL 60130. Email: vmoritz@forestpark.net.

PARK DISTRICT OF OAK PARK LANDSCAPE SPECIALIST The Park District of Oak Park is hiring a Part-time Landscape Specialist with an hourly pay rate of $15.00. To view the full job description and apply online please click the following link: https://www.paycomonline.net/v4 /ats/web.php/jobs/ViewJobDetails?job=66642 &clientkey=41D830018490 6117978771C10E755DC6

HELP WANTED

Pharmacy Operations Coordinator in Chicago, IL to Function as an oprtns & prog leader dedicated to provdg support of medictn use systs & deliv of optimal medictn therapy; Resp for coord’g specialty pharm serv, med eqpt instaltn, use & oprtns; Coord pharm practice progs, medic use systs, & qlty initiatives; Prov clinical pharm serv & integrtd pharm oprt’l serv & systs in collabtn w/pharmacists, pharm techs, physicians, nurses, & outside agencs. Dsgn & implmt new pharm workflows, qlty improvmt chngs to oprtns, & continous qlty assurace initiatives to adv the org’s med-use systs & promote optimal patient outcomes. Lead pharmctl care actvties, assume spl resp for drug utiliztn progs, track & benchmark the outcomes of pharm progs against locl & nat’l best practices to assure seamless operations, clinical qlty, & fin’l efficiency. Monitor active utiliztn of pharm automation, & oversight of medictn dispensg progs, ensurg that medictn prep, prescriptn fillg, dispensg, & comptrzd systs are in accord w/established policies & proced; Promote collab plang, coord & integrtn of Pharm oprtns & systems, as well as w/other clinicians, affiliates, & outside agcs. Observe that staff religiously pract safe work habits, comply w/safety, healthy, & envrmtl rules & regs; maintain eqpt in proper workg conditn, & keep neat, clean & safe work area. Oversee traing & competency prog, exprt’l educ, & practice advncemt for all pharmacy staff, medictn safety systs, patient qlty & outcomes progs, & rgulatry complnce assurance. Identify prac rltd issues which reqr evaltn & facilitate improvmt projs, qlty initiatives, or healthcr provider eductn. Reqd: Bach or Foreign Equiv Deg in Pharmacy, Medical Lab Sci, or Bio Sci, 2yrs exp as Pharmacy Operations Coordinator, or Mgr in Pharmaceutical, Medical Eqpmt, or Laboratory Tech Service Operations. Exp must incl: pharm coordtn w/lab testg for antibiotics & chemotherapeutic drugs (precision medicine); gen specialty pharm oprtns & regultry compliance; prof growth & dvlpmt actvties incl research, traing & continuing eductn, overseeg, &/or actg as trainer, resource person, or mentor to aide & support new &/or less exp staff; Excelt skills in time mgmt, probl solvg, & team leadrshp. Send CVs to Jawad Hamdan, Pres., Mexicare, Inc. dba Mexicare Pharmacy, 3200 W 26th St, Chicago, IL 60623.

Software Engineer wanted by Egencia LLC in Chicago, IL. Dsgn, implmt & debug s/ware for comps incl algorithms & data structures. Must have a Master’s deg in Comp Sci, Comp Engg, Comp Info Systems or a rltd field + 1 yr of exp in the job offd or rltd occupation. Add’l reqmts for the position may be found on our career website through the link below: Apply online: https://www.amexglobalbusinesstravel.com/careers/ Reference no. J-52347 Software Engineer wanted by Egencia LLC in Chicago, IL. Dsgn, implmt & debug s/ware for computers incl algorithms & data structures.

Must have a Master’s deg in Comp Sci, Comp Engg, Info Systems, or rltd technical field + 1 yr of work exp in job offd or in a s/ware engineer-rltd occupation. Add’l reqmts for the position may be found on our career website through the link below: Apply online: https://www.amexglobalbusinesstravel.com/careers/ Reference no. J-52342

Wednesday Journal, June 29, 2022

CLASSIFIED

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

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Ideal for new practice or 2nd location.

708.383.0729 Call for an appt.

RIVER FOREST–7777 Lake St. * 1116 sq. ft. * 1400 sq. ft. Dental Office RIVER FOREST–7756 Madison St. * 960 sq. ft.

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

MARKETPLACE

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

CARS WANTED

Chicago Austin

ESTATE SALE 5945 W. MIDWAY PARK THU 6/30 9AM--4PM FRI 7/1 10AM--4PM EVERYTHING’S OLD!

60 drawer card catalog from a library; sewing machines; books; souvenir collectibles; chairs; end tables; mirrors; batiks; African sculptures; Flow Blue China; Raggedy Ann; vintage clothing & hats; Chinese decorative art; canning supplies; brass items; milk bottles; bench plane; Duncan Phyfe sofa; Birk Bros. beer glasses and so much more. For photos go to candacesantiques.com.

HOME SERVICES

A/C AIR CONDITIONING AND APPLIANCE EXPERT Air Conditioning Install & Repair Refrigerators Ranges • Ovens Washer • Dryers Hot Water Heaters Rodding Sewers Lic/Bonded 25 yrs experience

FREE SERVICE CALL WITH REPAIR AND SENIOR/VETERAN DISCOUNT. 708-785-2619 or 773-585-5000

FLOORS KLIS FLOORING INC.

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

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

HANDYMAN

C O N C R E T E C O N S T RU C T I O N “QUALITY IS OUR FOUNDATION” ESTABLISHED IN 1987

COMMERCIAL INDUSTRIAL RESIDENTIAL

708.442.7720 '5,9(:$<6 )281'$7,216 3$7,26 67(36 &85% *877(56 6,'(:$/.6 612: 3/2:,1* 67$03(' &2/25(' $**5(*$7( &21&5(7( FREE ESTIMATES LICENSED, BONDED & INSURED

ELECTRICAL Ceiling Fans Installed

ELECTRICAL

A&A ELECTRIC

Let an American Veteran do your work

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

708-409-0988 • 708-738-3848

HANDYMAN

HANDYMAN Mike’s Home Repair Roofing Repairs Concrete Repairs • Drywall All types of handiwork Call For Free Estimates Ask for John

or Unrestored Cars &Restored Vintage Motorcycles Domestic / Cars & Vintage Motorcycles Import Cars:

MAGANA

Sr. Discounts • 30 Yrs. Exp. Servicing Oak Park • All surrounding suburbs • Chicago area

773-637-0692

CLASSICS WANTED CLASSICS WANTED Restored or Unrestored

CEMENT

CEMENT

Drywall H Painting H Tile Plumbing H Electric H Floors Windows H Doors H Siding Ask Us What We Don’t Do

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

708-296-2060

Starting a New Business?

Mercedes, Porsche, Corvette,Cars: Ferrari’s, Domestic / Import Jaguars, Muscle Cars, Mustang & Mopars Mercedes, Porsche, Corvette, $$ Top $$ all makes, Etc.

Ferrari’s, James Jaguars,• 630-201-8122 Muscle Cars, Collector Mustang & Mopars

$$ Top $$ allWANTED makes, Etc. CLASSICS Collector James Restored or Unrestored Cars630-201-8122 & Vintage Motorcycles Domestic / Import Cars:

Publish Your Assumed Name Legal Notice in • Austin Weekly News Wednesday Journal • Forest Park Review • Riverside/Brookfield Landmark Call the Experts Before You Place Your Legal Ad! Call Stacy for details: 773/626-6332

Free estimates Excellent References No Job Too Small

708-488-9411

38

Wednesday Journal, June 29, 2022

CLASSIFIED

HOME SERVICES

HAULING BASEMENT CLEANING

Appliances & Furniture Removal Pickup & Delivery.

708-848-9404

LANDSCAPING BRUCE LAWN SERVICE Spring Clean-Up Aerating, Slit Seeding Bush Trimming, Lawn Maintenance brucelawns.com

708-243-0571

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

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

cat calls

Oak Park’s Original Pet Care Service – Since 1986

Daily dog exercising Complete pet care in your home House sitting • Plant care Bonded References

708-524-1030

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

PUBLIC NOTICES

PUBLIC NOTICES

PUBLIC NOTICES

PUBLIC NOTICES

PUBLIC NOTICES PUBLIC NOTICE OF COURT DATE FOR REQUEST FOR NAME CHANGE

PUBLIC NOTICE SECTION I REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS

Manager and plainly marked “BID PROPOSAL FOR THE TREE TRIMMING SERVICES CONTRACT 2022” on the outside of the envelope.

PUBLIC NOTICES LEGAL NOTICE ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS RIVER FOREST, ILLINOIS

QUESTIONS, CHANGES, CLARIFICATION Any questions that arise must be made in writing and shall be directed by electronic mail to Carl Muell, Director of Public Works and Services, 8820 Brookfield Avenue, Brookfield, Illinois 60513 CMuell@brookfieldil. gov. The written questions, along with the Village’s response, shall be circulated to all known potential bidders without identifying the party submitting the questions. The cut off for receipt of additional questions shall be 3:00 P.M., Central Daylight Savings Time on Thursday, July 14, 2022, in order to facilitate preparation of any addenda. No inquiry received after that time will be given consideration. Replies and/or addenda will be electronically mailed to all known potential contractors by 4:00 P.M., Central Daylight Savings Time on Friday, July 15, 2022. Receipt of any addenda must be acknowledged in writing as part of the Bidder’s Proposal. Bidders shall be responsible for ensuring that they have received any and all addenda. The Village of Brookfield shall not assume responsibility for the receipt by the Bidder of any addenda.

Public Notice is hereby given that a public hearing will be held by the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) of the Village of River Forest, County of Cook, State of Illinois, on Thursday, July 14, 2022 at 7:30 p.m. in the First Floor Community Room of the River Forest Village Hall, 400 Park Avenue, River Forest, Illinois on the following matter:

STATE OF ILLINOIS, CIRCUIT COURT COOK COUNTY. Request of Vance 2022CONC000446.

Clark

Jr.

There will be a court date on my Request to change my name from: Vance Clark Jr. to the new name of: Lavance Williams The court date will be held: On August 11, 2022 at 10am Via Zoom ZOOM MEETING ID:986 9592 1385 ZOOM PASSWORD: 539505 CALL IN: 3126266799 Published in Wednesday Journal June 29, July 6, 13, 2022

PUBLIC NOTICES PUBLIC NOTICE OF COURT DATE FOR REQUEST FOR NAME CHANGE STATE OF ILLINOIS, CIRCUIT COURT COOK COUNTY. Request of Kennedie Lynann Carlson 20224002734.

There will be a court date on my Request to change my name from: Kennedie Lynann Carlson to the new name of: Kennedie Carlson Gill The court date will be held: On 08/09/2022 at 11am at 1500 Maybrook Dr., Maywood, Cook County in Courtroom #0112 Published in Forest Park Review June 15, 22, 29, 2022

PUBLIC NOTICE SECTION I REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS NOTICE TO PROPOSERS: A Request for Qualifications (RFQ) packet is available at the City Clerk’s Office, City Hall, 6700 W. 26th Street, Berwyn, IL 60402, or at https://www.berwyn-il.gov/sites/all/ files/pdfs/RFPs/SOQ_PhaseI_Engineering_Services_34thStreet.pdf Sealed Statement of Qualifications (SOQ) will be received at the City Clerk’s Office, until the time and date specified below, for: PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERING SERVICES – PHASE I DESIGN ENGINEERING 34TH STREET UTILITY AND ROADWAY IMPROVEMENTS ADDRESS THE STATEMENT OF QUALIFICATIONS TO: Attention of the City Clerk’s Office, City Hall, 6700 W. 26th Street, Berwyn IL 60402, on or before the submittal date specified below. The SOQ shall be sealed and clearly marked on the front “Engineering Statement of Qualifications for Engineering Services”.

FAXED OR EMAILED SOQ WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED. THE STATEMENT OF QUALIFICATIONS IS DUE NO LATER THAN: 10:00 a.m., on June 30, 2022. Proposers shall submit four (4) copies of their SOQ. Published in Wednesday Journal June 15, 22, 29 2022

NOTICE TO PROPOSERS: A Request for Qualifications (RFQ) packet is available at the City Clerk’s Office, City Hall, 6700 W. 26th Street, Berwyn, IL 60402, or at https://www.berwyn-il.gov/sites/all/files/pdfs/RFPs/ SOQ_PhaseI_Engineering_Services_26thStreet.pdf Sealed Statement of Qualifications (SOQ) will be received at the City Clerk’s Office, until the time and date specified below, for: PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERING SERVICES – PHASE I DESIGN ENGINEERING ACCESS TO TRANSIT 26TH STREET UTILITY AND ROADWAY IMPROVEMENTS ADDRESS THE STATEMENT OF QUALIFICATIONS TO: Attention of the City Clerk’s Office, City Hall, 6700 W. 26th Street, Berwyn IL 60402, on or before the submittal date specified below. The SOQ shall be sealed and clearly marked on the front “Engineering Statement of Qualifications for Engineering Services”.

FAXED OR EMAILED SOQ WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED. THE STATEMENT OF QUALIFICATIONS IS DUE NO LATER THAN: 10:00 a.m., on June 30, 2022. Proposers shall submit four (4) copies of their SOQ. Published in Wednesday Journal June 15, 22, 29 2022

PUBLIC NOTICES NOTICE TO BIDDERS AND INVITATION FOR BIDS VILLAGE OF BROOKFIELD TREE TRIMMING SERVICES CONTRACT - 2022 RECEIPT OF BIDS The Village of Brookfield will receive sealed proposals for tree trimming services of approximately 1,000 trees per year, twice renewable for annual terms at the option of the village until 11:00 A.M. Central Daylight Savings Time, Tuesday, July 19, 2022, at the Office of the Village Manager, Village of Brookfield, 8820 Brookfield Avenue, Brookfield, Illinois, immediately after which time bids will be opened and publicly read aloud. The Services consists of the trimming of trees from parkways and roadsides of the Village and returning the areas to a neat and orderly appearance.

CONTRACT DOCUMENTS Specifications and bid forms may be obtained from the Office of the Village Manager at 8820 Brookfield Avenue, Brookfield, Illinois 60513.

No bidding documents will be issued after 4:30 P.M. on Tuesday, July 12, 2022. Bid proposals must be submitted on the forms provided. Submission of a bid shall be conclusive assurance and warranty that the bidder has examined the site of the work and the local conditions affecting the contract and understands all of the requirements for performance of the work. The bidder will be responsible for all errors in its proposal resulting from failure or neglect to conduct an in-depth examination. The Village of Brookfield will, in no case, be responsible for any costs, expenses, losses or changes in anticipated profits resulting from such failure or neglect of the bidder. The bidder shall not take advantage of any error or omission in the plans or proposal. Sealed envelopes or packages containing bids shall be addressed to the Village

BID SECURITY Each proposal shall be accompanied by a proposal guaranty in the form of a bid bond, executed by a corporate surety company, a bank cashier’s check or a certified check payable to the “Village of Brookfield” for not less than five percent (5%) of the amount of the proposal. The proposal guaranty checks of all, except the two responsive, responsible proposers which the village determines in its sole discretion to be the proposers with whom the village desires to commence negotiations for a contract, will be returned after the proposals have been checked and tabulated.

The proposal guaranty checks of the two responsive, responsible proposers will be returned after the contract and the contract bond of the successful proposer have been properly executed and approved. Bid bonds will not be returned.

RIGHT TO REJECT BIDS The Village of Brookfield reserves the right to waive technicalities and to reject any and all proposals for any reason deemed in the best interest of the Village of Brookfield.

AWARD OF CONTRACT Unless all bids are rejected, the contract award will be made to the lowest responsive responsible bidder that the Village of Brookfield in its sole discretion determines to be in the best interest of the village. In determining who the lowest responsive, responsible bidder is, the Village of Brookfield will consider all factors that it, in its discretion, deems relevant.

Village of Brookfield, Illinois Doug Cooper, Finance Director Timothy C. Wiberg, Village Manager Published in RB Landmark June 29, 2022

The ZBA will consider an application for a major zoning variation submitted by Stewart Weiner, owner of the property at 138 Keystone Avenue, who is proposing to demolish an existing detached garage building, and not construct a replacement structure.

Section 4-8-5 of the Village Code provides the Zoning Board of Appeals jurisdiction to hold public hearings and offer recommendations to the Village Board concerning variations to Zoning Ordinance.

The applicant is requesting a major variation to Section 10-9-8 that requires the provision of two enclosed parking spaces.

The legal description of the property at 138 Keystone Avenue is as follows: THE NORTH 50 FEET OF LOT 2 AND THE EAST 1/2 OF VACATED ALLEY LYING WEST OF AND ADJOINING SAID LOT IN BLOCK 6 IN GALE AND BLOCK’S SUBDIVISION OF THE WEST 1/2 OF THE WEST 1/2 OF THE SOUTHWEST 1/4 OF SECTION 12, TOWNSHIP 39 NORTH, RANGE 12, EAST OF THE THIRD PRINCIPAL MERIDIAN, IN COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS. A copy of the application will be available to the public at Village Hall and on the Village’s website at www. vrf.us/zoningvariation no less than 15 days prior to the public hearing.

The Zoning Board of Appeals meeting packet will also be available at www.vrf.us/meetings no less than 48 hours prior to the public hearing.

All interested persons will be given the opportunity to be heard at the public hearing. For public comments to be considered by the Zoning Board of Appeals and Village Board of Trustees in their decision, they must be included as part of the public hearing record.

Interested persons can learn more about how to participate in the hearing by visiting www.vrf.us/ zoningvariation.

PUBLIC NOTICES

PUBLIC NOTICES

LEGAL NOTICE

LEGAL NOTICE The Village of Oak Park will receive sealed bids from qualified contractors at the Public Works

The Village of Oak Park will receive bids from qualified fire and burglar alarm monitoring service companies for alarm monitoring services at Villageowned buildings. Bids will be accepted at the Public Works Service Center, 201 South Boulevard, Oak Park, Illinois 60302, until 11:00 a.m. local time on Friday, July 22nd, 2022.

Village of Oak Park Fire and Burglar Alarm Monitoring and Maintenance Services for Village-owned Buildings Bid Number: 22-300BM Issuance Date: 3/23/2022 Bid Due Date: 6/29/22 There will be a pre-bid meeting at the Public Works Center on Friday, July 8th, 2022 at 11:00 a.m. Bid forms may be obtained by calling 708-358-5710 or by e-mailing vics@oak-park.us between the hours of 7:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. M-F. The Village of Oak Park reserves the right to issue proposal documents and specifications only to those contractors deemed qualified.

No proposal documents will be issued after 4:00 p.m. on the working day preceding the date of proposal opening.

Center, 201 South Boulevard, Oak Park, Illinois 60302 Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. local time until 3:00 p.m. on Friday, July 15th 2022 for the following: Village of Oak Park Village Wide Street Sweeping Services Requests for Prices Bid Number: 22-123 Bid documents may be obtained from the Village’s website at http://www.oak-park.us/bid. For questions, please call Public Works at (708) 358-5700 during the above hours.

Published in Wednesday Journal June 29, 2022

THE VILLAGE OF OAK PARK Published in Wednesday Journal June 29, 2022

Starting a New Business?

Sincerely, Clifford Radatz Secretary, Zoning Board of Appeals Published in Wednesday Journal June 29, 2022

Publish Your Assumed Name Legal Notice in • Austin Weekly News Wednesday Journal • Forest Park Review • Riverside/ Brookfield Landmark Call the Experts Before You Place Your Legal Ad! Call Stacy for details: 773/626-6332

Wednesday Journal, June 29, 2022

CLASSIFIED REAL ESTATE FOR SALE

REAL ESTATE FOR SALE

Let the sun shine in...

Public Notice: Your right to know In print • Online IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS COUNTY DEPARTMENT - CHANCERY DIVISION CITIZENS BANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION F/K/A RBS CITIZENS, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION SUCCESSOR BY MERGER TO CHARTER ONE BANK, F.S.B SUCCESSOR BY MERGER TO HINSDALE FEDERAL BANK FOR SAVINGS Plaintiff, -v.CARL T. GROESBECK, LEIGHTON HOLDINGS, LTD., UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Defendants 16 CH 009347 331 N. TAYLOR AVENUE OAK PARK, IL 60302 NOTICE OF SALE PUBLIC NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale entered in the above cause on March 19, 2019, an agent for The Judicial Sales Corporation, will at 10:30 AM on July 18, 2022, at The Judicial Sales Corporation, One South Wacker, 1st Floor Suite 35R, Chicago, IL, 60606, sell at a public sale to the highest bidder, as set forth below, the following described real estate: Commonly known as 331 N. TAYLOR AVENUE, OAK PARK, IL 60302 Property Index No. 16-08-109-0110000 The real estate is improved with a 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,

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

REAL ESTATE FOR SALE

Available to you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every day of the year • OakPark.com • RBLandmark.com • ForestParkReview.com • AustinWeeklyNews.com PublicNoticeIllinois.com

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.

Where a sale of real estate is made to satisfy a lien prior to that of the United States, the United States shall have one year from the date of sale within which to redeem, except that with respect to a lien arising under the internal revenue laws the period shall be 120 days or the period allowable for redemption under State law, whichever is longer, and in any case in which, under the provisions of section 505 of the Housing Act of 1950, as amended (12 U.S.C. 1701k), and subsection (d) of section 3720 of title 38 of the United States Code, the right to redeem does not arise, there shall be no right of redemption.

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. 14-16-08522 Attorney ARDC No. 00468002 Attorney Code. 21762 Case Number: 16 CH 009347 TJSC#: 42-2162 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 # 16 CH 009347 I3196890

Selling your home by owner?

Advertise here!

Call: 708-613-3342

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.

Restrictions or prohibitions of pets do not apply to service animals.

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

GROWING COMMUNITY MEDIA

De-Clutter.

Advertise your garage sale for just $25 in Wednesday Journal, Forest Park Review and Riverside-Brookfield Landmark

Call Stacy at 708.613.3342

39

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Wednesday Journal, June 29, 2022

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NewsDiningGovernmentActivismArts EducationEventsRealEstateNonprofits Dear reader, We are so close to meeting our end of the year Match Fund of $10,000.

Since last Monday readers like you have donated $7,577. By my calculations that means we need to raise $2,423 between now and midnight Thursday when our fiscal year wraps up.

These are important funds for us.

Generous donations from engaged readers like you help pay our journalists and critical freelancers, but your gift will also pay the camera repair bill I approved a few minutes ago. And while fixing a camera isn’t glamorous, the images our staff photographer Alex Rogals captures are a powerful and essential part of our weekly news coverage.

You know what we do isn’t free.

This is one of those moments in the year when we ask you to jump in. Please don’t assume that someone else is going to carry the weight of the independent community journalism you want to see.

Please join us and double the value of your donation today.

With gratitude, Dan Haley Editor and Publisher Growing Community Media

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