Wednesday Journal 072022

W E D N E S D A Y

July 20, 2022 Vol. 42, No. 51 ONE DOLLAR @wednesdayjournalinc

@wednesdayjournal

JOURNAL @oakpark

of Oak Park and River Forest

Fostering Family

Hephzibah Children’s Association is in need of more foster parents like Molly Hamilton (right) as fewer step forward

REPORT BY STACEY SHERIDAN, PAGE 15

‘The Winter’s Tale’ in the heart of summer Page 10

Murder charges filed in fatal shooting of Oak Park teen A man and his teenage sister taken into custody in Chicago

By STACEY SHERIDAN Staff Reporter

Two Chicago residents have been charged with first-degree murder for the death of 18-year-old Jailyn Logan-Bledsoe. The Oak Park resident was fatally shot in the neck last month in the parking lot of the BP gas station at 100 Chicago Ave. Kenneth Elliott, 21, of the 1700 block of North Linder Avenue, was taken into custody Thursday in Chicago, as was his 17-year-old sister, Adrianna Vanzant of the 900 block of North Monticello Avenue. Vanzant, a minor, is being charged as an adult.

“While nothing can undo the tragic events that played out the morning of June 22, apALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

See MURDER CHARGES on page 16

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Wednesday Journal, July 20, 2022

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YOU DESERVE TO KNOW THE TRUTH...

The Israel Apartheid Lie

Contrary to all facts, Israel’s enemies maliciously accuse the Jewish state of South African-style discrimination against Arabs. Why do they tell this obvious lie?

Despite Israel’s exemplary civil rights record and its laws protecting all ethnicities and religions, colleges still host Israel Apartheid Weeks and some critics insist Israel is or will become an apartheid state. The truth quickly exposes the malign motives of these accusations.

What are the facts?

Apartheid in South Africa was enforced by dozens of laws that restricted where citizens of color could live, work, congregate and go to school—even whom they could marry. None of these laws—nor any like them—exists or ever has existed in Israel. How could this bizarre “Israel Apartheid” calumny spread so pervasively in Western academies and mainstream media? The answer is The Big Lie—the Nazi propaganda principle, recognizing that when a falsehood is repeated often enough, it becomes accepted as truth. Even former President Jimmy Carter—no friend of Israel—titled his book, “Palestine: Peace or Apartheid.”

What was South African apartheid? “Apartheid,” the DutchAfricaans term for separation, was the social order of the former South Africa. It meant that the Black majority of the nation, as well as the so-called Colored, were kept strictly apart in all aspects of life. White domination over the native population was fundamental. For instance: Non-Whites had to carry a “passbook.” Passbook infringement could lead to deportation to one of the Bantu “homelands.” Blacks and Coloreds were kept from a wide array of jobs. Black-White sex was a serious, jail-time criminal offense. Hospitals and ambu-lances were strictly segregated. Whites enjoyed free education until graduation. Not so for Blacks, whose education was strictly limited by the oppressive “Bantu Education Act.” By law, no mixed sports were allowed. Park benches, swimming pools, libraries, and movies were strictly separated. Blacks were not allowed to purchase or imbibe alcoholic drinks. This is only a small, partial list of the many abusive indignities that non-Whites suffered under the South African apartheid regime.

Israeli Equality. Even to hint that Israel practices apartheid is outrageous and hateful, since the exact opposite is the case. Not a single apartheid practice applies to Israel. Israel is by far the most racially mixed and tolerant nation in the entire Middle East. Israeli Arabs, who are about 20% of Israel’s population, enjoy, without exception, the same rights and opportunities in all fields as their Jewish fellow citizens. The total equality of all Israelis is assured in Israel’s founding document. All non-Jews—which means primarily Muslim Arabs—have full voting rights. At present, 13 Arabs sit in Israel’s Knesset (parliament), one of Israel’s Supreme Court judges is Arab, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) has Arab generals. Arabs are represented in Israel’s diplomatic service all over the world. Homeownership is higher for Arabs than Jews. Arab students study in all Israeli

universities. All children in Israel are entitled to subsidized education until graduation, with no restrictions based on ethnicity or religion. In short, Muslim Arabs and other non-Jews are allowed everything that Jews are allowed—everything that non-Whites were not allowed in apartheid South Africa. These facts should shame anyone who accuses Israel of apartheid.

But, yes, there is one difference: Jewish Israeli men and women are obligated to a multi-year stint in the IDF or community service; For Arab Israeli citizens, this service is voluntary.

Time to stop the Big Lie about apartheid in Israel.

Separation from Palestinian Arabs.

Some critics accuse Israel of segregation because it prevents Arab Palestinians who live in Gaza or the disputed territories of Judea and Samaria (aka the West Bank) from freely entering Israel. This of course is absurd. Arab Palestinians are citizens of the Palestinian Authority, not of Israel, and some 95% have never set foot in Israel. While Israel regularly allows about 85,000 Palestinian workers into its territory daily, Israel controls its borders strictly, just as the U.S. does.

Border enforcement is not apartheid.

What’s more, Israel has many times offered to cede its ter-ritorial rights in the West Bank to the Arab Palestinians for a state, but they have refused all offers, instead continuing terrorist and missile attacks against Israeli civilians, including Israeli Arabs.

Time to stop the Big Lie about apartheid in Israel. Too many people have been duped by the hateful language of Israel’s enemies. In fact, Israel is a beacon of freedom and enlightenment in the Middle East. It’s time for fair-minded people—and mainstream media—to broadcast the truth about Israel . . . and forcefully reject the apartheid label. Those who demonize Israel with this falsehood fully deserve the label of antiSemitism.

This message has been published and paid for by

Facts and Logic About the Middle East P.O. Box 3460, Berkeley, CA 94703 James Sinkinson, President Gerardo Joffe (z”l), Founder FLAME is a tax-exempt, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization. Its purpose is the research and publication of facts regarding developments in the Middle East and exposing false propaganda that might harm the United States, Israel and other allies in the region. Your tax-deductible contributions are welcome.

To receive free FLAME updates, visit our website: www.factsandlogic.org

Wednesday Journal, July 20, 2022

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‘Those days are behind us’

ast week, Kroger announced that it’s opening an 80,000-square-foot fulfillment center in Maywood, as part of its effort to establish a presence in the Chicago area, where it owns Mariano’s and Food 4 Less stores. Its Kroger brand stores are largely concentrated in central Illinois.

The company announced it plans to hire up to 180 workers at the Maywood facility, which seemingly rivals Amazon in its advanced technology. The warehouse features “more than 1,000 bots” whizzing around “giant 3D grids, orchestrated by proprietary air-traffic control systems,” Kroger officials explained in a statement.

Kroger is the largest grocery retailer in America, with (outside of its various subsidiaries) no brick-and-mortar presence in the country’s third-largest metropolis.

Its Maywood warehouse will deliver to customers in this metropolis who order products from Kroger online. And such a critical plant (Kroger is calling it a “hub”) will only employ 180 people?

I thought about this question in the context of the old American Can Company plant in Maywood, which once stretched 18 acres along St. Charles Road and employed, at any given point in its nearly century-long tenure in the village, between 1,000 and 4,500 people, according to the Chicago Tribune. The beer can producer left Maywood in 1975.

When the last vestiges of the massive American Can plant were torn down in the 1990s, the two companies that occupied the land in its place — Cintas Corp., a multibillion-dollar uniform rental and supply company based in Cincinnati, and Aetna Plywood Inc., a lumber products distributor — employed a total of about 160 people by 2005, the Tribune reported at the time.

It took lots of tax breaks to lure those two employers, but the jobs just aren’t the same. They don’t pay as well as the old, more plentiful ones, which means they don’t create downstream economies of small businesses where well-paid industrial workers can spend their hard-earned money.

My longtime neighbor, Robert Scales, worked for American Can for nearly 30

MICHAEL ROMAIN

years. He also served as a Maywood trustee in the 1970s.

Scales told the Tribune what he’s told me in casual conversation. Back then, Maywood had two movie theaters and two grocery stores — a Jewel and an A&P. Now, there are neither theaters nor grocers.

Business professor Scott Galloway points out in his penetrating 2017 book, The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, And Google, that in our current economy, it takes a lot fewer workers to get

filthy rich.

“While billions of people derive significant value from these firms [Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google] and their products, disturbingly few reap the economic benefits,” Galloway writes.

“General Motors created economic value of approximately $231,000 per employee (market cap/workforce),” he adds. “This sounds impressive until you realize that Facebook has created an enterprise worth $250 million per employee … or almost a hundred times the value per employee of the organizational icon of the last century.

Imagine the economic output of a G-10 economy, generated by the population of Manhattan’s Lower East Side.”

In 1964, when AT&T was the country’s most valuable company, it was worth $267 billion in 2015 dollars and employed nearly 760,000 people, the media scholar Robert McChesney and the journalist John Nichols explain in their 2016 book, People Get Ready: The Fight Against A Jobless Economy And A Citizenless Democracy.

In 2015, Google was the country’s second-most valuable company “doing much of what AT&T did fifty years earlier, and a lot, lot more.” Google, though, had a “market value of $430 billion and employed around 55,000 people, which is 7 percent of AT&T’s paid workforce in 1964.

For every Google employee today, AT&T had fourteen workers five decades ago.”

From 1970 to 2017, manufacturing as a share of total employment has fallen from about a quarter of all workers in the United States to just under 10 percent — a diminishment that has happened across the industrialized world.

What happened? The economic researcher Aaron Benanav provides what I think is a credible explanation.

NEWSPAPERS.COM CLIPPING

A Maywood Can Company help wanted ad published in the Chicago Tribune Jan. 19, 1953.

Benanav counters the widely held belief that artificial intelligence like the robots whizzing around Kroger’s 3D grid and the practice of offshoring jobs to other countries have been mainly responsible for this disappearance of industrialized work.

If anything, Benanav argues, they are symptoms of a deeper cause: Global competition (more firms in more countries saturating an increasingly integrated market with the same lower and lowerpriced goods).

Starting in the late 1960s, the rate of profit in the United States began to fall due to rising competition from firms in other countries that were catching up with the U.S. after World War II. The global competition led to a surplus of goods, or overcapacity, which meant lower margins. Lower margins meant less investment in capital, cuts to the cost of labor (which meant companies waging war with unions and chasing cheaper labor overseas), and increasing automation designed to discipline workers and eke out productivity rates in a world of increasingly diminishing returns.

Rising overcapacity, the author writes in his 2020 book Automation and the Future of Work, “explains why deindustrialization has been accompanied not only by ongoing efforts to develop new labor-saving technologies, but also by the build-out of gigantic labor-intensive supply chains — usually with a more damaging environmental impact.”

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The process of deindustrialization might as well be synonymous with economic stagnation, Benanav writes.

“When the growth engine of industrialization has sputtered due to the replication of technical capacities, international redundancy, and fierce competition for markets, there has been no replacement for it as a source of rapid growth,” he argues.

“Instead of a reallocation of workers from low-productivity jobs to highproductivity ones, the reverse takes place.

Workers pool in low-productivity jobs, mostly in the service sector. As countries have deindustrialized, they have also seen a massive buildup of financialized capital, chasing returns to the ownership of relatively liquid assets rather than investing long-term in new fixed capital.”

To wit, about a decade after American Can closed its Maywood plant, it transformed into Primerica, a financial conglomerate that would set the groundwork for the creation of the investment bank Citigroup. You may remember Citigroup was one of the big banks responsible for reckless mortgage lending that devastated Black and Brown communities like Maywood in the 2008 housing crash.

There was nothing glamorous about factory work and most workers knew it. Lots of people hated the work — despite the pay and the perks. Capitalists were cruel as capitalists always have been. But looking back on those days of American Can a half-century later, it’s hard to deny that at least society (meaning the majority of people) got something out of the deal.

Last year, my great-uncle died. He was around 80 years old. While we were cleaning out his Maywood home, I stumbled across his old American Can Co. employee manual. The booklet was among rumpled stacks of paper that included old Pan American Airways tickets to far-off destinations back when people could travel the world on a single blue-collar job that formed the basis of a life stitched into the fabric of a community — where the factory workers were also the village trustees, the deacons at your church, the coaches in local youth sports leagues. Back when you actually knew people who worked in the hulking warehouses in town. Nowadays, the buildings are just blank, impersonal behemoths.

“Those days are behind us,” former Maywood mayor Henderson Yarbrough, referencing American Can, told the Chicago Tribune for that 2015 article.

The big question now is what lies ahead.

CONTACT: michael@oakpark.com

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Wednesday Journal, July 20, 2022

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

BIG WEEK July 20-27

‘A Chocolate Spirit’ Release Party Monday, July 25, 6-8 p.m., Taco Mucho Release party for a new book by Jennifer Stoner about a 35-year interracial friendship and the emotional journey that follows. 220 Harrison St., Oak Park.

Sunday, July 24, 2 p.m., virtually through Jewish Geneaological Society of Illinois

Geneaologist Risa Daitzman Heywood speaks about how to enhance your family history research. Register for this free live webinar at https:// jgsi.org/event-4708491.

PureSoul Presents...

A Tribute To The Rolling Stones & More!

RISA DAITZMAN HEYWOOD

PURESOUL PRESENTS

Thursday, July 21, 8:30 p.m., FitzGerald’s Cameron Webb and Elsa Latrice will be paying tribute to a longstanding rock & roll institution, as well as contemporaneous bands like The Who. $15 - 20, 6615 Roosevelt Road, Berwyn.

THE LOCAL GROUP

Friday At Hemingway’s: Porch Concert With The Local Group Friday, July 22, 7-9 p.m., Hemingway Birthplace Museum

This live concert, featuring the vocals of Andrea Miologos and the guitar of Brian Burke, showcases familiar hits from different genres. 339 N. Oak Park Ave., Oak Park.

Gerald Dowd’s Song of the Month Club (with Grant Tye) Wednesday, July 27, 8:30 p.m., FitzGerald’s Gerald Dowd is a prominent Chicago drummer who once played for 13 hours straight with 16 different bands for a benefit show, which would qaulify him for some sort of world record. This show kicks off a residency with special guests and one new song never before performed. This month’s guest is Grant Tye, a local guitarist and singer who has played with acts ranging from Robbie Fulks to the late Otis Clay. 6615 Roosevelt Road., Berwyn.

The Power Of The Catalog: Unindexed Records And How To Find Them

Eighth Annual Irish-American Movie Hooley Sunday, July 24, 7 p.m., Lake Theatre This Irish film festival kicks off with a showing of the 1940 comedy The Great McGinty, written and directed

by Preston Sturges. There will be cocktails afterward at Victory Italian (100 S. Marion St. in Oak Park). $100 suggested donation, 1022 Lake St., Oak Park.

Oceans Of Snacks Friday, July 22, 4-5 p.m., Oak Park Public Library Kids ages 8 and up are invited to come in and tastetest a variety of snacks made from seafood and aquatic plants. 834 Lake St., Oak Park.

Noche de Loteria/ Loteria Night Tuesday, July 26, 6-7 p.m., Oak Park Public Library Loteria is known as “Mexican Bingo.” Enjoy a few rounds of this bilingual celebration, and win some prizes! 834 Lake St., Oak Park.

Listing your event in the calendar GERALD DOWD

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

Wednesday Journal, July 20, 2022

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School supply drive aimed to help families in need

By F. AMANDA TUGADE Staff Reporter

With the first day of school just around the corner, the local townships aim to make sure that children and teens have what they need to start the year right. This year, the Oak Park and River Forest townships’ annual school supply drive returns with a back-toschool social where families in need can grab stuffed backpacks, enjoy snacks and even get a haircut.

“School is important,” said Moriah Gale, an administrative assistant in the youth services department. “You should have all the tools that you need, and that’s what helps you succeed during the school year. I believe every child has the right to that.”

The drive – which began last month and runs until Aug. 5 – help families with children in preschool to 12th grade and are from Oak Park and River Forest. Suggested donation items include backpacks, bags, crayons, pencils, folders, glue and rulers. Donors can purchase items through an Amazon wish list where supplies can be sent directly to the township office, or they can drop off their items at the office. The office is located at 105 S. Oak Park Ave. in Oak Park and is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Last year, the National Retail Federation reported families with children in elementary school through high school would spend around $850 on school supplies, an amount likely to increase this year due to inflation.

“The price of life is going up, and so let’s try to help these kids, any families, by taking that burden off the table for them,” said Dominique Hickman, a township youth interventionist. “A child feels it when they’re not prepared for the first day of school. They feel it, [and] their friends, their classmates notice it.”

Last year, the township gave away 180 backpacks, which were packed with basic school supplies, but it hopes to exceed that number with a goal of 200, said youth services director Megan Traficano. Traficano told Wednesday Journal that her team has worked over the past weeks to spread the word about the drive and connect with other groups and organizations. Flyers posted across the communities also include a QR code, allowing people to find the Amazon wish list.

Traficano also spoke about the return of the back-to-school social, an event previously

coupled with the school supply drive that was paused during the pandemic. The event will be held from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Aug. 12 at the township.

“We have partners in the community that are coming and setting up tables, and some of them will have activities for kids and giveaways,” Traficano said, adding there will also be face painters and a barber who will be cutting children’s hair for free.

“We just want it to be a fun time, too,” she said about the social.

Apart from the collection drive and upcoming festivities, the township year-round accepts donations for its hygiene closet, which offers free personal care products for children and teens. Suggested donation items for the closet include face wash, deodorant, shampoo, socks, tampons and sanitary napkins, hairbrushes and soap bars. A complete list can be found on the township website at https://oakparktownship.org/ or through its Amazon wish list. Like the school supply collection drive, the township is only accepting personal care products that are new and sealed.

More ways to help Another organization is also looking to make an impact for families in need in Chicagoland. Cradles to Crayons (C2C), a nonprofit with locations in Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago, is planning on giving away 70,000 backpacks filled with school supplies for free for children in need in the Chicago area.

While the backpacks are already accounted for, C2C marketing and communications director Stephanie Held said the nonprofit is working on providing essential items such as clothes, backpacks and personal care products through its 70-plus network of partners, including New Moms in Oak Park and the Austin Childcare Provider’s Network.

Items needed are new underwear and socks and unopened diapers and pull-ups, as well as diaper wipes. The nonprofit is also looking for shoes for newborns up to an adult size 10, pajamas sizes 2T and up, new hygiene items and books for babies and young children up to age 12. An expanded list can be found on https://www. cradlestocrayons.org/chicago.

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Wednesday Journal, July 20, 2022

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A recipe for breaking ‘generational curses’

Dominican student promotes the ‘divine power’ of veganism

By F. AMANDA TUGADE Staff Reporter

While the news of a chronic disease didn’t rock Michelle Scott enough to change her lifestyle, the thought of possibly losing an organ did. The latter was the likely consequence of not heeding one doctor’s advice.

When Scott was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease in 2000, she was 24 years old and didn’t know how to take the news, except with an attitude and sheer denial. A doctor informed her then that the disease, an inflammatory bowel disease that affects the lining of the digestive tract and commonly leads to abdominal pain, severe diarrhea and malnutrition, would require the then-young Scott to “clean up” her diet and to do so immediately.

“That’s the only way you’re going to get better,” the Austin native, now 46, recalled the doctor saying. “I thought cleaning up my diet — that’s like eating air, the things he told me I would have to stop eating, and I’m just like, ‘Oh gosh. What am I supposed to eat?”

But it wasn’t until years later when Scott met a different doctor and decided to turn her life around. More than a decade after her initial diagnosis and without any real changes to her dietary lifestyle, Scott said another doctor told her the condition had only worsened.

He told her he would have to put her on 26 pills a day, Scott recalled. She replied, “Are you serious?” He said her chronic disease had gotten so bad they might have to take out her intestine.

The grim prognosis was pivotal for Scott, marking the start of her venture into veganism and the eventual launch of her own business, Thank God 4 Raw and Vegan Treats, in 2019.

Becoming vegan was hard, she said, especially in the beginning. She was simply trying to learn what she could and couldn’t eat.

Veganism requires staying away from meat, seafood, dairy products, eggs and honey and countless other food items that contain animal by-products.

Finding the right substitutes and making sure she was still eating regularly and healthily were not only crucial but also expensive.

“I’m feeding a majority of my family mem-

bers with regular food, and then I’m feeding myself with whatever I can,” she explained.

She quickly became a “carbo vegan,” turning to pasta and potatoes because it was easy to find and relatively affordable.

“Then it started getting really hard because my family didn’t understand what a vegan lifestyle was. When I would go to functions, everyone had meat, and what did I have? My salads. What else can I eat?”

That feeling of isolation and lack of acceptance by others stayed with Scott. As a Black woman whose family meals and childhood memories revolved around Southern staples, she felt disconnected. And if she were to present a vegan version of any of those beloved dishes, there was no room for mistakes.

“I had to perfect it, so they can enjoy it.”

“My family just wasn’t as educated about taking meat out of certain foods or taking dairy out of certain foods,” she said.

“Our biggest meals [include] macaroni and cheese, or cornbread, or greens, and to take meat out of your greens, who does that? To take dairy out of the macaroni, who does that?”

She began experimenting, looking up recipes online and following other vegan at-home chefs and dieticians online. And before Scott started touching those famous family dishes, she began tweaking her own snacks and desserts, which was the impetus for Thank God 4 Raw and Vegan Treats, an online business that offers a select menu of vegan sweets, such as glazed cinnamon doughnuts, cinnamon rolls, apple pie slices and cookies just to name a few.

Scott, who is currently pursuing a master’s degree in nutrition and dietetics at Dominican University, said classes at the River Forest-based college have deepened her understanding, not just about food but the impact of culture, environment and money on people’s access to health and wellness.

She also has ties to East Garfield Park and knows the West Side is a food desert, that grocery stores with fresh fruits and vegetables are hard to come by. She also knows it’s easier for some people, families especially, to get fast food because they’re busy with work and they get more bang for the buck.

COURTESY DOMINICAN UNIVERSITY/TWITTER

ENCOURAGER: Michelle Scott of Thank God 4 Raw and Vegan Treats.

When Scott talks to families of color about why she chose to become vegan, she is often met with skepticism. She hears from Black and brown clients, “Well, my grandma ate it, and my mom ate it, my cousin ate it, and they were fine,” or the closing argument, “Vegans die, too,” as if to say there’s no point to making changes anyway. Her clients aren’t always forthcoming to share the consequences — the health issues that arise, such as lingering heart problems, high blood pressure, diabetes, the so-called “generational curses.”

Scott said her mother was a diabetic, so they worked together to try to eat better.

That’s the challenge she has willingly taken on with Thank God’s vegan menu, which over the course of the pandemic expanded to include soul food and has reached clients beyond the city and Chicago suburbs. A mainstay at the Austin Town Hall City Market on Thursdays, Scott constantly talks to the people who pass her table, handing out samples first before even uttering the word “vegan.”

“I have to be humble and know how to work the crowd. When I say the crowd, you got to know who you’re dealing with. I know I’m dealing with African Americans who are not really susceptible,” she said, mimicking the question she usually gets from customers: “What is vegan?” And the reaction, “Ugh. It [sounds like it] tastes like tar.”

That’s why she always lets people try the food at the pop-up events.

“It’s more of being an encourager.”

On the spiritual front, the meaning behind her business’ name is daily gratitude.

She believes her decades-long journey to understand her own body and health has now transformed into an even larger mission of helping people on the West Side and beyond. That, she said, is the work of a “divine power.”

“This is my mantra: I am created to inspire, encourage and empower individuals to see their greatest potential,” she said, noting that Thank God 4 Raw and Vegan Treats isn’t about forcing people to be vegan.

“My focus is — and I always put my hand up to pretty much surrender to say — to help you to implement more fruits and vegetables, help you to embody what ‘plant-based’ looks like, to help you to change the dynamics, to help you to break the generational curses.”

For more information on Thank God 4 Raw and Vegan Treats, visit Michelle Scott’s website www.thankgod4rawvegantreats.com or find the business on Instagram under the same name, @thankgod4rawvegantreats. Thank God 4 Raw and Vegan Treats can also be found at the Austin Town Hall City Market, which takes place from 1 to 6 p.m. on Thursdays. The market is in the Austin Town Hall Park, 5610 W. Lake St. in Chicago.

Wednesday Journal, July 20, 2022

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

Local Rotary Club starts grant fund for middleschool girls

Grant created to help attend classes, camps

of the International Baccalaureate (IB) program. Trinity was the second school in the state and the first Catholic school to become an IB accredited school, Wednesday Journal previously reported.

By F. AMANDA TUGADE Both women died in October 2020, just Staff Reporter five days apart. Cassin, 96, passed away The Rotary Club of Oak Park-River For- Oct. 16, 2020, while Germanson, 76, died Oct. 21, 2020. Their deaths left a huge hole est is on a mission – to empower girls.

In a partnership with the Oak Park-River in the neighboring communities, especialForest Community Foundation, the Rotary ly among Rotary Club members, Sahagian Club is offering girls who are in sixth- said.

“They were both strong Rothrough eighth-grade and are tarians,” Sahagian said. “... We from Oak Park, River Forest really wanted to do something and other nearby suburbs up special.” to $600 in grants to cover the The club decided to name the cost of any educational class grant after the two women – or camp of their choice. Those the Cassin-Germanson Rotary classes or camps could range Fund Grant – and earlier this from arts, science and math, year awarded its first recipisports – whatever the girls want ents, two middle school girls to pursue, said Linda Sahagian, from Oak Park and River Forlongtime member of the local LINDA SAHAGIAN est.

Sue Quinn, Rotary Club chapter.

Rotarian president, said the girls are The grants are intended to eighth-graders, one of whom support families in need, and is from Percy Julian Middle applications for the next cycle School, the other from Roosof enrichment grants are open evelt Middle School. One of and due by Aug. 1. the girls, Quinn said, used her Sahagian said the idea for grant money to pay for sumthe grants was inspired by the life and work of two club members, the late Vir- mer-long pottery lessons at Terra Incogniginia “Ginie” Cassin and Sister Michelle to Studios and Gallery, while another used Germanson. A lifelong Oak Park resident, hers to attend NASA space camp.

Sahagian and Quinn said the point of Cassin became the first woman to serve as village clerk for Oak Park, a position she the grant is to give girls a chance to pursue held from 1973 to 1993, and the first woman their dreams and find their passions outto join the local Rotary, which began admit- side of school, and maybe even their own ting female members in 1988. An advocate hometowns.

“If you have any interest in any area of for equality, Cassin was key in helping land Oak Park’s housing ordinance, which humanities, sciences, arts that you would passed in 1968, according to the Historical like to pursue that you haven’t been able to Society of Oak Park and River Forest. She through school and through your own conalso chaired the Ernest Hemingway Foun- nection, name it. Apply for it. And let us dation of Oak Park and worked to restore help you achieve it,” Sahagian said.

For more information, visit the Oak the famed author’s birth home, according Park-River Forest Community Foundation to a Chicago Tribune article.

Germanson, too, left a legacy in next- at oprfcf.org and click the tab “Grants & door River Forest. For 26 years, from 1992 Scholarships” on the site’s homepage and to 2018, Germanson was president of Trin- scroll down to find the “Cassin-Germanson ity High School where she led the adoption Rotary Fund Grant.”

Israel/Palestine It’s All About Human Rights I am pro-labor, so I support Palestinian rights. I believe that Israeli occupation causes

• a Palestinian unemployment rate of 25%, with 54% unemployment in Gaza alone.

• 24% of employed people who live in the West Bank to live at the poverty level.

• Palestinian workers, who must go through checkpoints to work in Israel or illegal settlements, to have up to 16-hour work and travel days.

More information on this issue and others at cjpip.org/progressive-for-palestine and CJPIP on Facebook I AM PROLABOR, SO I SUPPORT PALESTINIAN RIGHTS.

“Apply for it.

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Fiore Pizza and Bakery opens grab-and-go market Mercato di Fiore brims with sweet treats and savory sandwiches

By MELISSA ELSMO Oak Park Eats Editor

The highly anticipated grocery annex, Mercato di Fiore, affiliated with Fiore Pizza and Bakery, 7407 Madison St., Forest Park, quietly opened to the public on July 9. The niche market, brought to life by Scott Harris Hospitality is situated on the east side of the building housing the pizza focused restaurant. The market embraces Old World tradition inside the bright modern space where a large communal table gives customers an opportunity to enjoy a meal onsite, but the counter service shop will undoubtedly appeal to consumers on the move.

The market offers a daily selection of five made-to-order sandwiches including marinated eggplant, caprese and tuna offerings. The traditional Italian sandwich features mortadella, capicola and salami with traditional trimmings including provolone, lettuce, tomato and mayo. The Chicago style sandwich gets a hyperlocal twist, however, with the addition of Honey G, a craft giardiniera developed by Jeff Mauro, River Forest resident and Food Network star. The addition of honey and agave in the peppery relish balances out the saltiness of the deli meats making a noteworthy

MELISSA ELSMO/Food Editor

CORNERING THE MARKET: Fiore’s Head Pastry Chef Erin Mooney shows off her buckwheat chocolate chip cookies.

MELISSA ELSMO/Food Editor

Chef Jonathan Court shows off a made-to-order sandwich at the newly opened market at Fiore in Forest Park.

difference on Fiore’s verA refrigerator along the sion of a traditional Italian north wall of the shop sub. boasts a modest selection of “I really think that Honey assorted house-made pasta G makes our Italian sandsauces as well as fresh prowich special,” said Chef duce like broccolini and Jonathan Court. “That asparagus. A smattering of sweetness makes a differantipasto fixings like olives ence.” and artichokes round out Chef Erin Mooney overthe refrigerated section. The sees pastry production at nearby freezer is a treasure Fiore and has brought an trove of meatballs, lobster arsenal of chef-driven cookstock and family-size lasaies, tarts and bars to the gnas suitable for both meat MELISSA ELSMO/Food Editor bakery case. Pay special lovers and vegetarians. attention to the buckwheat Blueberry cheesecake square and assorted bakery treats Chef Court worked his chocolate chip cookies – the way up at the Purple Pig made daily at Mercato di Fiore. grain imparts a nutty flaand Davanti Enoteca in vor while the addition of Chicago and cultivated an candied buckwheat groats on the exterior brings a burst understanding of high-volume production at Parlor Pizza of sweetness and intriguing texture to an otherwise tradi- Bar before making his return to Scott Harris Hospitality tional cookie. Folks are already raving about her frosted to lead the kitchen at Fiore. Court and Mooney are hopesugar cookies, s’mores bars and blueberry cheesecake ful Mercato di Fiore will become a neighborhood gathersquares. Quiche by the slice as well as salads and fresh ing place where the local community will come in to shop, sit and savor. pasta are also sold by the pound from the case.

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Wednesday Journal, July 20, 2022

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ART BEAT

No problem! A cool take on the lesserknown Bard

By DOUG DEUCHLER

W

Theater Critic

hether you like your Shakespeare dark and menacing, light-hearted, or even jolly and magical, The Winter’s Tale offers something for all of the above.

As one of the Bard’s lesser-known plays, this tale is one of the least produced works in the Shakespearean canon. It’s one of his so-called “problem plays,” which does not comfortably fit into a single genre. Late in his life, in his mid-40s, as his career was winding down, Shakespeare tried to deviate from longstanding formulas in his later plays.

Oak Park Festival Theatre has opened its 47th season with a solid, thoroughly enjoyable and accessible production of Winter’s Tale in Austin Gardens. Kevin Theis is a strong director whose cast brings much energy and emotion to a gripping drama of jealousy and forgiveness. Theis also adapted the script. The play (c. 1611) is presented in modern dress.

During much of the production, most of the dialogue is projected (like the subtitles at the Lyric Opera) onto the upper portion of the huge, impressive set designed by Ryan Fox. It’s a great idea, though in the first part of the evening before the sun went down completely, these projections were somewhat difficult to read. That should be remedied as the run moves into August.

KEN TRAINOR/Staff

Festival Theatre’s unusual set is one of the highlights of ‘The Winter’s Tale.’

The themes in Winter’s Tale focus on paranoid leadership and patriarchal abuse. Once-beloved King Leontes of Sicily (Mark Lancaster) accuses his pregnant wife Hermione (Rebecca Swislow) of having an affair with his longtime best friend Polixenes (David Gordon-Johnson).

The hysterical brute careens into tyrannical rule and seems to have lost his mind.

Leontes is scary in his passion and intensity. Initially his cruel jealousy may remind one of Othello but there is no Iago character to keep stoking the King’s anger. His paranoia is all his own.

Movie Hooley Fest

For the past eight years the Houlihan family of River Forest has been putting on the Irish-American Film Festival, honoring Irish-American filmmakers. The Houlihans have celebrated movie-making legends John Ford, John Huston, Preston Sturges, and others “who epitomize Irish-American pride, bravado, and legendary storytelling.”

This year the festival is moving from the Gene Siskel Film Center in the Loop to Oak Park’s Lake Theatre.

The classic 1940 political satire, The Great McGinty, will be screened.

Irish-American screenwriter/director Preston Sturges won the Oscar for Best Screenplay for this film. Fans of the 8th Annual Irish-American Movie Hooley Film Festival will have the opportunity to see the actual Oscar as well as the classic comedy itself next Sunday, July 24 at 7 p.m. at the Lake Theatre.

Tom Sturges, son of Preston Sturges, will introduce

the 1940 film and also show everyone his dad’s Oscar.

All are invited to a reception at Victory/Italian, 101 S. Marion St, immediately following the screening.

To purchase tickets, call 312-431-8700 or go to Hiberniamedia.org.

Doug Deuchler

As stoic, steely Queen Hermione, Swislow is first-rate.

Her quiet poise matches Leontes’ strength as she reacts to her husband’s false accusations and professes her love for him.

A shepherdess (Claire Yearman) discovers Queen Hermione’s baby girl Perdita (Georgia Dib), takes her in and raises her as a peasant girl. Years later she is wooed

by Florizel, Polixenes’ son (Brian Bradford).

Righteous but fierce Paulina, a lady-in-waiting who is unafraid to tell the king off, is played with strength by Barbara Zahora.

Camillo (North Rory Homewood), King Leontes’ trusted advisor, must make a fateful choice when confronted by the king’s madness. He and Paulina try to convince Leontes that he is not thinking clearly and should not go through with his punishments. Echoes of the Trump White House?

The second half of the play shifts mood: from dark tragedy to rustic comedy.

Belinda Bremner is the assistant director and properties designer.

The projected captions were created by August Forman.

The stage manager is Leigh Anne Barrett.

The Winter’s Tale is a fascinating drama that feels modern. We are fortunate to have such talented thespians in our community who bring us new takes on somewhat forgotten classics. It’s a tight production that rides like a roller coaster of emotion.

Austin Gardens is located at 157 Forest Avenue in Oak Park. The production runs through Aug. 20. Performances are Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 7 p.m. Festival Theatre’s box office can be reached at 708-445-4440.

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Wednesday Journal, July 20, 2022

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Wednesday Journal, July 20, 2022

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Experimentation at Persimmon Kitchen

Women-led startup aims to bring Korean ssamjang to Oak Park

By MELISSA ELSMO Oak Park Eats Editor

Oak Park resident and mom, Madeline Moon, met Rebecca Shim and Susanna Kim while their children attended Bulta Korean School in Chicago. A common background and mutual love of food and cooking fostered a friendship between the women who had all emigrated from Seoul at various points in their lives. Now the passionate home cooks are bringing a taste of Korea to Oak Park and River Forest.

The doting mothers shared concerns about the quality of the lunches being offered to their students during their weekly language and culture lessons, but rather than leave the lunches to chance they developed a parent-driven meal program that focused on cooking and serving healthy homestyle Korean meals to the students. The friendship evolved over time and Moon, Shim and Kim would often cook meals they could enjoy together. Over a home-cooked dinner one evening Moon, who arrived in the states in her late 20’s, mentioned the lack of Korean food in Oak

Park.

“We couldn’t understand what she was talking about at first,” said Shim. “We live in Chicago and have Korean restaurants and grocery stores, but when Madeline said she wished there was a good Korean restaurant in her neighborhood our idea grew organically from there.”

The cooks, operating under the name Persimmon Kitchen, turned their attention to developing a signature recipe for ssamjang—a pungent and addictive Korean condiment commonly served alongside barbecued meats wrapped in leaves. Made from fermented soybeans, spicy chilis and seeds, Persimmon Kitchen’s version of ssamjang can be used in a variety of ways. Equal parts dip, sauce and marinade, the “slow food” product is vegan, capitalizes on healthy bacteria growth, and relies on apple rather than cane sugar to bring a necessary sweetness to the well-balanced sauce.

“Our version of ssamjang is very family friendly,” said Moon. “Once you start dipping your vegetables in it you will be eating more and more. It is so good children will eat more vegetables, too.”

Moon, Shim and Kim have set up shop at River Forest Kitchen, 349 Ashland Ave. River Forest Kitchen, home to multiple food startups, provides the eager home cooks

MELISSA ELSMO/Food Editor

INNOVATORS: Persimmon Kitchen cooks (from left) Madeline Moon, Rebecca Shim and Susanna Kim. with a proper place to bottle their ssamjang and experiment with new ways for their customers to experience it. Persimmon Kitchen offers their ssamjang and other related dishes through monthly sales run through their website.

“Our goal is not to sell meals,” said Moon matter-of-factly. “Our goal is to sell meals that help people taste the ssamjang.”

Ultimately the trio hopes to get packaged Persimmon Kitchen Ssamjang into grocery markets and develop other packaged products (they are working on a lovely summer radish and turnip kimchee), but for now the

MELISSA ELSMO/Food Editor

Ssamjang, a dip for raw and cooked vegetables, is served in lettuce wraps with beef. Ssamjang (right) served street food style with rice and beef on a Korean sesame leaf.

business is in its infancy and the sauce is currently sold in seven-ounce jars via online monthly sales with local pickup. A limited number of fully prepared meals are offered at each sale that utilize the sauce in a creative way.

The cooks have offered Tteokgalbi sliders (Bulgogi inspired burgers) with pickled cabbage slaw and Hotteok, a sweet or savory street food pancake at prior sales. At their next sale, scheduled for Aug. 6, they plan to offer “Korean friendly quinoa” topped with a choice of locally sourced tofu or minced beef dressed with a citrus-ssamjang dressing and fresh herb salad.

Moon, Shim, and Kim are very clear they are not professional chefs and prefer to be known as home cooks with a passion for bringing dishes that reflect their background to the local community.

“We are very new and still figuring things out,” said Moon. “But I feel like we could start this here because Oak Park is very encouraging. My kids went to Lincoln and OPRF and I couldn’t think about starting this without the warmth of this beautiful community behind me.”

Slots are limited for the Aug. 6 sale and the online menu is expected to be updated in the coming days. Place your orders at www.persimmonkitchen.com and plan for pick up to be at River Forest Kitchen between 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. on the sale date.

Persimmon Kitchen is one to watch!

Wednesday Journal, July 20, 2022

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13

Vinho Verde from Trader Joe’s, a perfect summer sip

By DAVID HAMMOND

V

Oak Park Eats Blogger

inho Verde, a Portuguese wine, is selling at Trader Joe’s (485 N. Harlem) for $4.49/bottle. It’s one of the best wines you will buy for under $5, and it joins what used to be called Trader Joe’s “Two Buck Chuck” (a notoriously decent wine from Charles Shaw that was initially priced at $2 but now costs about the same as Vinho Verde).

Vinho Verde means “green wine.” That’s not because it’s young and unaged (though it is) but rather because it’s from the Vinho Verde region of Portugal, which is very lush and verdant. There are a lot of Vinho Verde wines, some light and fresh, others more full-bodied and complex. The Espiral they’re selling at Trader Joe’s is quite definitely of the lighter, fresher variety, with a slight sparkle, not a wine to ponder but rather one to quaff on a summer afternoon with foods that are not overly aggressive.

Trader Joe’s Espiral Vinho Verde comes in at 9% ABV (alcohol by volume). Compare that to the ABV of similarly priced and popular whites: Barefoot Pinot Grigio is 12.5% ABV and Sutter Home Chardonnay is 13.5% ABV. When enjoying some wine on the sunny deck, it’s probably prudent to dial down the alcohol, as simple summer thirst could nudge you into over-indulgence. To further lower the impact of the alcohol, consider adding some sparkling water; no, I would not consider doing that with a bottle of Domaine Leroy Musigny Grand Cru — were I ever to have one — but for a simple table wine like Vinho Verde, a little dilution on a

DAVID HAMMOND/Contributor

Vinho Verde with Popeye’s chicken sandwich.

hot day might be a good idea.

Reverse Wine Snob, a site for those of us who like wine but rarely spend over $20 a bottle, says the Espiral Vinho Verde from Trader Joe’s is highly recommended, and that it “begins with a pleasing aroma of green apple, citrus (especially lemon and lime), a bit of bread dough and a touch of tropical fruit. Taking a sip reveals a crisp, simple and tasty wine of the porch pounder

variety! It also has good acidity; just drink it cold as it loses some of its charm when it starts to warm up.”

Recently, I enjoyed a glass of Espiral Vinho Verde with a “classic” fried chicken sandwich from Popeye’s (fancy, I know!). The wine’s bit of sweetness and slight sparkle went well with the moderate spice of the sandwich (and the Cajun Fries!) — the fruitiness was a good match for the chicken and

OPRF Alumni Returns to Open Compass College Advisory Office

Sponsored Content

Compass College Advisory will help your teen attend a college that celebrates their uniqueness, nourishes their natural abilities and prepares them for adulthood

S

ymone Speech, an OPRF and Georgetown University Alumni, and retired professional volleyball player, returns to Oak Park as she opens the new office for Compass College Advisory.

“I am so excited to be back in Oak Park” states Speech. “I have been gone for 8 years, have been all over the world to places like Turkey, Italy, Germany, and Portugal and my heart still belongs to Oak Park.”

Compass College Advisory was founded by Pamela Ellis, MBA, PhD, The Education Doctor®. She is an awardwinning educational consultant whose experience includes advising school districts, community organizations, and institutes of higher education.

She has visited more than 500 colleges and universities internationally to gain insight into their varying cultures and to explore the range of academic and social opportunities available to students on campus.

Her research areas include high school to college transition,

its fried coating.

With chili-laden Szechuan or Mexican food, this Vinho Verde might tend to be submerged, losing some of its personality and functioning more as a palate cleanser, which is not a bad thing, but such pairings certainly don’t show the wine off to advantage. With mildly seasoned meat and fish, vegetables, and potato salad, Vinho Verde is a perfect summer sip.

of learning and helping kids thrive into successful, happy adults. “The vision came to me after becoming a mother, when I knew that I wanted to make higher education accessible, safe, and equitable for teenagers around the country, like my own, who were being undervalued in classrooms because of their race, gender, or socioeconomic background” states Dr. Ellis.

Since its founding, Compass College Advisory’s services have helped 95% of their students be accepted into their topchoice colleges as well as saved families over $30 million through scholarship awards.

SYMONE SPEECH Executive Director

parent engagement, AfricanAmerican males in education, and college completion.

She is a highly sought-after speaker and author of the best-selling book What to Know Before They Go: College Edition, which helps school leaders, counselors, mentors and parents/caregivers support teens toward higher education success. Dr. Pamela graduated from Stanford University and the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, and she earned a doctorate from the Stanford University School of Education.

The creation of the company was driven by her two passions

PAMELA ELLIS MBA, PhD, The Education Doctor®, C.E.O.

With the first office being opened in Dayton, Ohio, the company’s success has allowed them to expand. In addition to the virtual services and resources the company provides, Dr. Pamela and the Compass College Advisory team have opened a new location, 1010 Lake St Suite 200, as a place for the company’s clients to receive

essay coaching, SAT/ACT prep, and counseling. This location will be run by Symone Speech.

Symone will not only help Compass with the college recruiting process but she will be in charge of the NCAA recruiting process as well. As one of the top 100 recruits in the country in 2015, she was very heavily recruited by universities and fully understands the intensity of the process.

“I remember having a really hard time with the college process” states Speech. “When I went to OPRF it would have been huge to have access to something like this. I think I would have enjoyed the process more and would not have been nearly as stressed out as I was. I really think Compass will thrive here and I can’t wait to start working with our students in our new home.”

Symone’s college experience as well as time spent as a professional athlete overseas has made her an expert in this field. Not only will she be able to help your teen with managing the process when it comes to visits, calls, and making the best decision, she can also provide counseling when your teen is struggling mentally with things such as burn out, anxiety, and other mental stressors that can come with being a studentathlete.

For more information visit compasscollegeadvisory.com or call 312.805.7299

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Wednesday Journal, July 20, 2022

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Clean and Green: The lions that guard the entrance to the Art Institute were removed on June 14 and transported to the Conservation of Sculpture and Objects Studio Inc., at 900 Desplaines Ave. in Forest Park headed by conservator Andrzej Dajnowksi. There they received a deep cleaning and fresh coat of wax. Now they are “cleaner and greener than ever,” according to the museum. They were re-installed on July 19 at noon.

The public is welcoming the return of the “Lions of Michigan Avenue,” who will resume their vigilance over Michigan Avenue.

PHOTOS PROVIDED BY THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO

Wednesday Journal, July 20, 2022

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15

Hephzibah faces shortage of foster families Director: ‘Children are always coming into the system’

By STACEY SHERIDAN Staff Reporter

There are thousands of foster children in Cook County, but the number of available homes does not always match the need. This is currently the case for Hephzibah Children’s Association in Oak Park, which is facing a shortage of available foster homes – a heart-wrenching predicament.

“All kids deserve a home in which to live, in which to be supported, in which to grow,” said Merry Beth Sheets, Hephzibah’s executive director. “That’s why having a strong pool of foster parents is so critical for the children that we serve.”

Hephzibah presently has about 100 foster families in its system, which may seem like a sufficient number. However, Hephzibah places roughly 100 children into foster homes each month. There are approximately 3,468 children total in foster care in Cook County as of February 2022, according to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

“It’s a continuous need because more and more children are always coming into the system,” said Sheets.

The need for more foster parents is not an issue exclusive to Hephzibah, according to Nancy Silver, Hephzibah’s head of foster parent recruitment and support specialist.

That shared need led to the creation of the Chicagoland Foster Care Collective, a group of individual child welfare agencies that have banded together to recruit diverse, qualified foster parents. Hephzibah, Oak Park’s longest running children’s agency, is a member of the group.

To educate and perhaps inspire people to take in foster children, the collective is hosting a recruitment event Aug. 20 from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Thatcher Woods Pavilion, 8030 Chicago Ave. in River Forest. The familyfriendly event will have food and activities, as well as discussion panels featuring former youth in care. Hephzibah representatives will be at the event as well to answer questions.

“The stronger the pool of foster parents we have, the more kids we can serve and get into homes,” said Silver.

Hephzibah does not have any specific data

as to how long its foster children are placed with one family. Some children’s stay with a foster family is as short as one night, while certain children could bounce around until finding the right fit. Others live with one family for years, perhaps eventually being adopted.

The majority of Cook County’s foster children come from Chicago, making capable residents in Oak Park and River Forest uniquely situated to open their homes through Hephzibah.

“Many of our children have endured abuse and neglect in their families of origin, and so they need a safe, loving place,” said Sheets.

“We know there are many, many loving families out there, who are very experienced parents.”

One of Hephzibah’s seasoned foster mothers, Molly Hamilton, has taken in many foster children over the years but she recently became the adopted mother of her foster daughters –sisters ages 10 and 5. The younger has been in Hamilton’s care since birth.

Her reasoning for becoming a foster parent is simple. As a single woman with a teaching background, Hamilton did not want to wait until she was in a relationship or married to have children.

“I knew I had love to give and space in my life to take care of her children,” Hamilton said. “And I knew there was a need.”

In her six years fostering, Hamilton has housed as many as 20 children. She does not, however, wish to be glorified for doing so.

Rather, she wishes more would get involved in helping children.

“Foster parents aren’t superheroes or saints; we’re just people who said yes,” she said. “I’ve found that people like to elevate us and thus free themselves from the responsibility of caring for the most vulnerable in our community.”

Kateland Gough and Bryan Pravel began fostering with Hephzibah last July, the same month they got married. They’ve had their preschool-aged foster son for a little over a year now and the newlyweds are smitten.

“Of course, there are challenges when you’re raising a kid, but he’s just amazing,” said Gough. “We love him to pieces.”

Those challenges have been mitigated through the support of the couple’s family, friends and neighbors. Gough and Pravel realize that not every foster parent has that same privilege.

PROVIDED

Kateland Gough and Bryan Pravel, began fostering a child through Hephizbah last year.

Hephzibah offers support for foster families, including providing childcare during family emergencies or other situations that would temporarily prevent a foster parent from being able to care for their child. The agency’s monthly parents’ night out events have been “fantastic” for Gough and Pravel.

“Being newly married and new parents, I didn’t realize how much we would need to have that designated time,” Pravel said.

Gough and Pravel do not have any biological children of their own, and Pravel started looking into adoption before becoming interested fostering. With her “big heart for taking care of kids,” Gough was equally interested.

As much as they love their foster son, however, Gough and Pravel are not fostering with the goal of adopting. Their plan is to foster him until he is able to go back to his biological parents, which aligns with Hephzibah’s mission to reunify the children with their biological parents.

Before biological parents can have their children returned, they must go through training. Parental visitation with the child is also required to demonstrate if it is safe for the child to return home.

Since they began fostering, Gough and Pravel said their understanding and empathy has grown for the biological parents of foster children. As much as the children need compassion, so do their parents.

“The parents are also victims of systemic

issues within society that have led to the situation, in many cases over multiple generations, and do not have the resources to get out of the cycle and to break the cycle,” said Pravel.

When she started fostering, Hamilton’s views on foster children’s biological parents also changed. She ditched all the preconceived notions she had about parents whose children ended up in the system.

“They’re not people who don’t love their children,” she said. “They’re people, for whatever reason, were doing the best that they could do and were not able to give adequate care.”

The experience of taking in a foster child or children can be overwhelming and difficult, but so is raising any child, Hamilton said.

That should not stop people from considering fostering.

“In the same way that first time parents are never fully ready for a baby, you will never feel fully ready to foster,” she said.

If someone is interested in fostering, Hamilton recommends taking one step at a time – talking to a foster parent, going to an information session and taking Hephzibah’s training courses.

“Don’t wait for some magical, non-existent future when you have all your ducks in a row,” she said. “If I had waited for a husband, I might have missed out on what’s been the best decision of my life.”

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Wednesday Journal, July 20, 2022

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Safety of 24-hour gas stations questioned Oak Park chief keeps mother of slain 18-year-old informed and feeling supported

By STACEY SHERIDAN Staff Reporter

As of July 12, BP gas station, 100 Chicago Ave., is now closing nightly at 11 p.m. The change in hours is in direct response to the recent fatal shooting of 18-year-old Jailyn Logan-Bledsoe, who was found unresponsive in the gas station’s parking lot last month.

The violent and tragic nature of her murder has brought the safety of 24-hour gas stations under scrutiny in Oak Park, which the village of Oak Park committed to addressing at the board’s July 19 meeting.

“We have met with many of the gas stations, inclusive of the gas station at 100 Chicago [Ave.], and expressed and articulated our concerns about the violence,” said Village Manager Kevin Jackson.

Logan-Bledsoe was in the parking lot of BP shortly after midnight, June 22, when two subjects opened fire on her. the cause of her death was ruled by the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office as a gunshot wound to the neck.

Two Chicago siblings, one 17 years old, have since been charged with first-degree murder in connection with the incident. The minor is being charged as an adult.

The Oak Park Police Department has kept Logan-Bledsoe’s mother abreast of the investigation, giving her details prior to their release to the media, according to Interim Police Chief Shatonya Johnson, who says she is committed to being a source of support as the case makes its way through court.

“Although we have made arrests in this case, it doesn’t mean that we are going to stop our support that we provide Ms. Logan

MURDER CHARGES Brother and sister from page 1 prehending the individuals responsible for this senseless murder will hopefully provide some closure for Ms. Logan-Bledsoe’s family, friends and the entire community,” Interim Police Chief Shatonya Johnson said in a July 15 news release.

Johnson expressed gratitude for the outside law enforcement agencies that assisted Oak Park police in the investiga-

KENNETH ELLIOT

ADRIANNA VANZANT

tion, including the West Suburban Task Major Crimes Taskforce and the U.S. Marshals Taskforce.

because there is still a long way to go,” said Johnson.

“While she’s very thankful, we want to make sure that we continuously provide support throughout court proceedings because that’s when it’s going to get tough, when she has to relive the accounts of what occurred.”

Wednesday Journal could not reach Logan-Bledsoe’s mother for comment.

In an effort to combat further gas station violence, village staff is now “analyzing all the 24-hour gas stations in Oak Park,” according to Jackson. The results of that “comprehensive assessment” will likely go before the village board in early August.

To ensure safety in the meantime, the interim chief said police are continuously monitoring activities at the BP on Chicago Avenue with direct patrols in the daytime.

Officers are stationed at the gas station

beginning in the evening and through the night.

“We’re working with that gas station, as well as the other ones that have been identified in having more violent offenses, to talk about reduction of hours and other strategies to keep their patrons safe when they patronize the store,” Chief Johnson said.

The Oak Park Police Department carried out the investigation into Logan-Bledsoe’s murder with the assistance of the West Suburban Major Crimes Taskforce and the U.S Marshals Taskforce. Johnson thanked both agencies at the July 19 meeting, as well as the members of her department.

“I want to express my gratitude for my staff for the level of commitment and dedication that they provided during this investigation to provide closure to Jailyn’s family, friends and, particularly, the community.”

According to the Oak Park Police Department, Elliott and Vanzant were both carrying handguns when they approached Logan-Bledsoe from behind and began shooting at 1:50 a.m., June 22.

Vanzant then drove off in Logan-Bledsoe’s vehicle while her brother fled in a different vehicle. Logan-Bledsoe’s vehicle was later recovered in Chicago in the 200 block of North Kilbourn Avenue.

“The police department’s investigation is ongoing, but at this time there is no indication that the suspects were specifically targeting the victim,” Oak Park spokesperson Erik Jacobsen told Wednesday Journal.

Oak Park police previously identified two persons of interest in the investigation of Logan-Bledsoe’s death but declined to give their names at the time the news was released. Jacobsen has now confirmed Elliott and Vanzant were the two persons of interest.

Elliott appeared in Fourth Municipal District Court in Maywood, Friday morning. He is being held on $850,000 bond.

Vanzant, who was transferred to the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center, appeared in bond court Friday via Zoom.

Her bond has been set at $1.5 million. The brother and sister will return to court Aug. 5.

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17

Two Oak Parkers caught in stolen vehicle

Two Oak Park residents were arrested last Saturday after being found in a Chrysler minivan that was reported stolen, July 15, from the 400 block of South Humphrey Avenue. One of the offenders was found to be in possession of a firearm that he was not legally entitled to carry.

Nick Razzino, of the 400 block of South Ridgeland Avenue has been charged with possession of a stolen motor vehicle, as well as aggravated unlawful use of a weapon. Razzino’s companion, Harold J. Barnes, of the first block of South Boulevard, was charged with trespass to motor vehicle.

The two were arrested after an Oak Park detective spotted the vehicle being driven in the 400 block of Madison Street at 4:25 p.m., July 16. The detective subsequently pulled the minivan over and discovered 19-year-old Razzino in the driver’s seat and 23-year-old Barnes in the front passenger’s seat. The two were then transported to the police station and processed.

Barnes, who was also wanted on a warrant out of Forest Park for resisting arrest, was released on bail, while Razzino was held for bond hearings.

Aggravated vehicular hijacking

Aggravated assault

A rideshare driver was carjacked by three male passengers after driving them to their destination in the 700 block of South Lyman Avenue at 1:55 a.m., July 15. The passengers were all sitting in the backseat, when the driver stopped to let them out. The first passenger, who said he had a gun, exited the vehicle then opened the driver’s side door, and ordered the driver out of the gray 2021 Honda Insight, while the other two grabbed the victim from behind in the backseat. The victim complied and the three offenders fled eastbound on Jackson Boulevard in the victim’s vehicle. The estimated loss is $30,000.

An unknown man brandishing a knife approached a Forest Park resident and threatened to kill him and his dog but was pepper sprayed by the victim at 2:30 a.m., July 11 in the 1100 block of South Boulevard. The offender fled on foot northbound through an alley.

Aggravated assault arrest Chicago resident Roberta Walker, 48, was arrested for aggravated assault after she used what was believed to be a knife to threaten a witness that confronted her for stealing a package in the 800 block of North Austin Avenue at 4:26 p.m., July 17.

Burglary ■ Someone broke into a garden apartment by pushing in a window air-conditioning unit and removed a black Glock handgun, a 43-inch Roku television, a brown and red Gucci purse and a brown and orange Coach purse from the victim’s bedroom, as well as a 58-inch RCA television and a Singer sewing machine from the living room, between 4:30 p.m., July 10 and 4:30 p.m., July 11 in the 1100 block of Washington Boulevard. The loss is estimated at $3,205.

■ Someone broke into an apartment by breaking the glass of a rear kitchen window and reaching inside to unlock the

door, then ransacked the apartment and took a silver 13-inch MacBook Pro laptop, an 18-karat gold chain, a gold and sapphire ring, as well as other rings, chains, necklaces and beads, between 1 p.m. and 2:46 p.m., July 11 in the 900 block of Ontario Street. The estimated loss is $2,700.

■ A green and silver Trek bicycle and a silver Milwaukee sander were taken from an open garage in the 700 block of South Scoville Avenue between 3:30 and 5:30 p.m., July 13. The estimated loss is $500.

These items, obtained from the Oak Park Police Department, came from reports, July 12-18, 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

SINGLE FAMILY HOMES

Saturday, July 23 | Sunday, July 24 ADDRESS ............................................................................. REALTY CO.......................................... LISTING PRICE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . TIME 2806 N 75th Ave., Elmwood Park. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Baird & Warner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $438,000. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sat 10-12 107 Home Ave., Oak Park . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Baird & Warner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $619,000. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Sun 11-1 337 Marengo Ave., Forest Park . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jacknow Realty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $699,000. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sat 3-6 719 Belleforte Ave., Oak Park . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . RE/MAX In The Village . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $850,000. . . . . . . . . . . . Sat 12:30-2

CONDOS

ADDRESS ............................................................................. REALTY CO.......................................... LISTING PRICE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . TIME 1700 Riverwoods Dr., Unit 521, Melrose Park. . . . BHHS Chicago. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $240,000. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sun 12-2 1700 Riverwoods Dr., Unit 501, Melrose Park . . . BHHS Chicago. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $285,000. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sun 12-2 1700 Riverwoods Dr., Unit 317, Melrose Park. . . . BHHS Chicago. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $422,900. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sun 12-2

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Wednesday Journal, July 20, 2022

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

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Homes

Inventor of the future

Wednesday Journal, July 20, 2022

19

Author Alec Nevala-Lee holds up a tensgrity structure – a term coined

by Buckminster Fuller to describe “self-tensioning structures composed of rigid structures and cables, with forces of traction and compression, which form an integrated whole” – made out of chop sticks and wire.

Oak Park author explores Buckminster Fuller in new biography

ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

By LACEY SIKORA

A

Contributing Reporter

lec Nevala-Lee grew up in the San Francisco Bay area with an interest in futurist and designer Buckminster Fuller. As an adult living in Oak Park, the 2019 Hugo and Locus Awards finalist says that devoting his most recent book to Fuller is a dream project.

The biography, “Inventor of the Future: The Visionary Life of Buckminster Fuller,” makes its debut on Aug. 2 and provides new insight into Fuller while also drawing parallels between Fuller and some of today’s visionaries.

Nevala-Lee says that Fuller’s focus on telling people what the future would be like intersects with his own interest in science fiction, which he explored in his previous book “Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction.”

In addition to his curiosity about Fuller, Nevala-Lee says another motivation in writing about Fuller was the fact that there had never been an in-depth biography focused on Fuller’s whole life. Stanford University has a large archive on Fuller, and Nevala-Lee dove into research, spending three years to create the book.

During his research, Nevala-Lee found his own perceptions of Fuller changing. He notes that much of

the previous record on Fuller was provided by Fuller, who was not a reliable source.

“He’s a much more complex figure than he has been represented before,” said Nevala-Lee, who calls Fuller a mythmaker. “Before starting the book, my picture of him was uncritical -- that he was kind of a benign genius. This is an image he created.”

Nevala-Lee goes on to say that a good analogy is to liken Fuller to Steve Jobs if Jobs had been born in 1895.

He notes that society and media are much more critical of public figures now. Given the era, Fuller was able to make claims that became accepted as fact over time.

See FULLER on page 20

20

Wednesday Journal, July 20, 2022

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

FULLER

Man vs. myth from page 19 “The myth takes over the reality,” Nevala-Lee said. “I find these kinds of people interesting.”

Born in 1895, Fuller was the fifth generation of his family to attend Harvard, and Nevala-Lee posits that this privileged background made it easier for Fuller to take the risks that would define his life.

After college, Fuller entered the housing trade but was frustrated by the time constraints and bureaucracy inherent in the construction industry.

In the 1920s he had the idea to mass-produce housing by making home-building an industrialized process. During this period, he conceived his ideas for a Dymaxion Car and the Dymaxion Wichita House, which was an autonomous, selfsustaining singlefamily dwelling that would be composed of prefabricated elements, could be mass-produced and shipped around the world.

It wasn’t until the late 1940s that Fuller’s idea for a geodesic dome finally earned him potential commercial success. Ford Motor Company ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer built the first commercial dome, and Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome, his most famous example of the design was a tensgrity structure (top), found commercial success by coverused for Disney’s ing the Ford Rotunda and was used for Disney’s Epcot Center.

Epcot Center as well as many mili- Oak Park author Alec Nevala-Lee (above) has written the first tary installations in-depth biography on the visionary architect. across the country.

Fuller finally achieved the notoriety he sought, and Ne- Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Through it all, Nevala-Lee says, Fuller’s vala-Lee says through this, he became an personal life was “messy.” Married for 60 influencer of his time. Labelling himself a futurist garnered more attention to his years, Fuller had numerous affairs with work. young proteges.

Fuller popularized the terms “synergy” “These patterns repeated themselves and “Spaceship Earth.” Late in life, he was three or four times. He was a charismatic the world president of Mensa, appeared guy with magnetic charm,” Nevala-Lee. “A on the cover of Time and was awarded the big part of the book is untangling all the

PHOTO BY POET ARCHITECTURE / (PUBLIC DOMAIN) VIA FLICKR

Author event at Oak Park Library One of Buckminster Fuller’s many celebrity encounters was with Frank Lloyd Wright. The two met in the 1930s.

According to Alec Nevala-Lee, author of the new Fuller biography “Inventor of the Future,” Fuller saw Wright as a role model due to the famous architect’s “huge cultural footprint.” Fuller sought Wright out.

“Their relationship was very deliberate,” Nevala-Lee said. “Fuller claimed that Wright would ask him for engineering advice. There were two big egos at play here.”

On Saturday, Aug. 13 at 11 a.m., Nevala-Lee will be discussing his book with Sarah Holian of the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust in the Veterans Room of the Oak Park Public Library, 834 Lake St. To register to attend the event, visit oakpark.librarycalendar.com/event/author-visit-alec-nevala-lee

threads.”

Nevala-Lee says that Fuller saved all of his letters and these, along with thousands of documents in the Stanford archives, gave him a lot to work with.

In addition, he says that tackling the

project when he did was crucial because he was able to write the book when people who knew Fuller personally were still alive to share memories of him.

“There was a moment in time when this book was possible,” Nevala-Lee said.

Wednesday Journal, July 20, 2022

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

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1 BR + den, 2 BA .........$240,000

Unit 501

2 BR, 2 BA ........$285,000

Unit 317 is the

largest 2BR, 2 BA in the building .......$422,900

The Residences of Riverwoods in an Active Adult Community for Ages 55 and older. It is made up of 1, 2 and 3 bedroom condo units. All the units have balconies. The building is tucked against the Thatcher Woods Forest Preserve.

It includes a party/clubhouse room with adjoining outdoor patio, exercise room, ½ mile walking path, and a roof top hot tub with a view of the Chicago skyline. The building has adequate reserves, a full-time custodian and a very responsive association management company.

20% of the residents can be under 55 and 20% of the units can be rented.

We are not close to 20% in either category.

Donna M. Serpico | 708.565.5262 realtor@dserpico.com 101 N. Oak Park Avenue, Oak Park, IL 60301

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UNDER CONTRACT

726 PARK AVE, RIVER FOREST :: $579,000 :: 3 BED, 2 1/2 BATHS Classic center entrance colonial. Beautiful screened in porch, mint condition

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SERVING OAK PARK AND RIVER FOREST SINCE 1976

RESIDENTIAL — COMMERCIAL — RETAIL — CHURCHES — SCHOOLS

139 S GROVE, OAK PARK $1,179,000 :: 6 BED :: 4.5 BATH

Majestic Victorian in central Oak Park Historic District

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SOLD

846 KENILWORTH, OAK PARK $674,000 :: 4 BED :: 2.5 BATH

American Four Square, a great family home

708.772.8040 708.772.8041 tonyiwersen@atproperties.com

21

22

Wednesday Journal, July 20, 2022

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

House Hunting?

Find a Realtor.

Find a home.

Get a list of Open Houses.

ELMWOOD PARK

ELMWOOD PARK

Amazing newer construction condo with pristine wood floors, an open concept layout, and rare outdoor space.

Beautifully maintained brick 2-flat. Nicely updated.

Fantastic 50’ x 125’ lot with a lovely fenced yard.

2 BR, 2 BA ................................................................................................................$260,000

4 BR, 2 BA ................................................................................................................$435,000 Tagger O’Brien • 708-456-6400

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Now in our Second Century of Service OAK PARK Pristine wood flooring, loads of sunlight, and modern updates grace this beautiful 2-Level duplexed condo.

3 BR, 2.1 BA .............................................................................................................$279,000 Steve Scheuring • 708-369-8043

To find a local expert, go to oakparkrealtors.org

Wednesday Journal, July 20, 2022

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

P R O P E R T Y

Oak Park home sells for $990,000

T R A N S F E R S

The following property transfers were reported by the Cook County Clerk from March 2022. Where addresses appear incomplete, for instance where a unit number appears missing, that information was not provided by the clerk.

OAK PARK ADDRESS

PRICE

SELLER

BUYER

1185 S Lombard Ave 1409 N Harlem Ave 951 Lake St 1116 Washington Blvd 155 S Oak Park Ave 344 N Kenilworth Ave 312 N East Ave 510 N East Ave 258 Washington Blvd 527 N Elmwood Ave 321 Home Ave 1104 S Humphrey Ave 1050 N Taylor Ave 934 Gunderson Ave 130 Le Moyne Pky 1140 S Oak Park Ave 746 Gunderson Ave 310 S Lombard Ave 111 S Taylor Ave 908 Wenonah Ave 523 Wesley Ave 943 N East Ave 428 S Grove Ave 1022 Wisconsin Ave 216 S Ridgeland Ave 833 Clinton Ave 822 N Cuyler Ave 935 Clarence Ave 1224 N Oak Park Ave 801 N Marion St 1123 Gunderson Ave 541 S Lyman Ave 1158 Wenonah Ave 949 Columbian Ave 615 S Lombard Ave 638 Gunderson Ave 1104 S Oak Park Ave

Unknown Unknown $71,370,000 $1,365,500 $1,085,000 $990,000 $924,000 $839,500 $800,000 $795,000 $712,500 $705,000 $705,000 $704,000 $695,000 $669,000 $620,000 $610,000 $599,000 $595,000 $592,000 $585,000 $575,000 $575,000 $560,000 $555,000 $555,000 $550,000 $550,000 $540,000 $535,000 $514,000 $500,000 $495,000 $481,000 $478,000 $470,000

Intercounty Judicial Sales Corp The Judicial Sales Corp Oak Pk Ps Ltd Ps Pmg 1116 Wash Llc Hm-Opbc Llc Gilmore Carl De Priest William Mann Bridgette C Tr Ropro 7 Llc 258 Washington St Giardina David Benak Robert Zebra Crew Prop Solutions Llc Plan Z Dev Llg El Dorado Consult Llc Nelsen Kathryn Lindsay M & C Home Designs Llc Ross Ellen M 310 S Lombard Llc Hartman Kim M Thierauf Jay E Deutsche Bk Natl Trust Co Tr Hugh Peter A Richert Wayne K Wolfe William A Tr Salazar Maria Rosa Moore Michael A Tr Trumbell Michael Montgomery Robert H Keovan Gollie Varkey Anita Pisani Danie W Hassler Daniel M Glavin Matthew Bostwick David E Richert Jeffrey C Greed Robert T Larson Annette Tr

Us Bk Trust Natl Assn Tr Us Bk Natl Assn Tr Pref Forest Pl Llc 1116 Washington Llc Rsm Star Llc Gilmore Helen Bare Bradley D Tr Purvis Michelle Alana Felfle Paul Richter Manual Bassett Jacqueline E Gansauer Christopher Flaugher William Jimenez Mark Pugh Joseph Michael Lafranco Frank Gruber Paige M Finnegan Kara L Logan Joshua Gee Richard Rezalla Anne Pilarski Kelly M Lane Connor Quinn Michael E An Seungwon Egger David Krieg Erie Torres Crispin Powell Charles G Iii Peipert John D Salinas Eric A Sorensen Marek Roy Callahan Sean P Buchner Zachary J Pickard Diana Castro Matthew Strachan Kathleen C

344 N. Kenilworth Ave., Oak Park

OAK PARK ADDRESS

PRICE

SELLER

BUYER

640 S Euclid Ave 644 S Taylor Ave 34 Le Moyne Pky 300 Adams St 704 N Ridgeland Ave 1000 Home Ave 1131 Home Ave 435 S Taylor Ave 127 N Taylor Ave 532 Clarence Ave 1043 N Humphrey Ave 836 Wisconsin Ave 1027 Mapleton Ave 448 Berkshire St 812 N Lombard Ave 1177 S Euclid Ave 1152 S Grove Ave 1041 Chicago Ave 1015 Wisconsin Ave 829 S Maple Ave 1013 N Humphrey Ave 141 Francisco Ter 126 Wright Ln 617 S Humphrey Ave 620 S Cuyler Ave 130 Wright Ln 1164 S Harvey Ave 949 N Harvey Ave

$469,500 $465,000 $460,000 $460,000 $450,000 $445,000 $440,000 $440,000 $435,000 $430,000 $430,000 $419,500 $416,000 $415,000 $392,500 $389,000 $388,000 $387,500 $385,000 $365,000 $365,000 $365,000 $360,000 $355,000 $349,000 $344,000 $325,000 $325,000

Bone Meredith F Munoz Jairo Villalobos Latting Kelley M Duggan Christopher Michael Revel Prop Llc De Groot Johannes Gerardus Newman Charlotte Zaander Brian Charles Witt Nancy E Mullins Mark Haynes Joyce Timothy R Baker Mara J Claire Carol S Tr Acosta George A Stewart Felicia P Tr Teichen Marc B Hansen Kyle F Johnson Zachary Ebright Linda Howe De Olis Monica P Alvarado Honeybadgers Holdings Llc Basuel Christopher R Kircher Patrick K Hassler Daniel M Wood Joshua D Sallette Mare Northrup Susan W Extr La Susy Llc Sojoodi James Wilson Seth Stankevitz James H Dunn Delano Harris Daniel J Cao Yi Chicago Title Land Trust Co Tr 10815 Gratus Llc Oconnor Maureen Patricia Amey Mark P Castrejon Maria S Tinoco Elizabeth Hauser Chris Draves Jamin Verpil-Greer Johanne M Del Prado Anna Duram Cid Ryan Thomas Michael Romberg Amy E Gabbett Keith Tr Elliott Samantha Caswell Craig R Alexander Erik K Curran Eileen Redmond Tory Anderson Shawna L Fondow Grace Lyons Joseph P Hollenberg Anna R

See PROPERTY TRANSFERS on page 24

23

24

Wednesday Journal, July 20, 2022

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

P R O P E R T Y

T R A N S F E R S

Continued from page 23

OAK PARK

RIVER FOREST

ADDRESS

PRICE

SELLER

BUYER

ADDRESS

PRICE

SELLER

401 S Grove Ave 915 S Highland Ave 815 N Harlem Ave 739 S Cuyler Ave 104 N Oak Park Ave 943 N Harvey Ave 221 N Kenilworth Ave 817 S Cuyler Ave 702 N Humphrey Ave 224 S Oak Park Ave 400 S Maple Ave 231 S Maple Ave 427 S Taylor Ave 318 -320 N Maple Ave 1217 N Harlem Ave 930 Ontario St 1021 Washington Blvd 440 S Maple Ave 644 Lake St 1030 S Lyman Ave 1025 Washington Blvd 1029 Washington Blvd 717 Washington Blvd 1027 Washington Blvd 248 S Marion St 419 S East Ave 344 N Austin Blvd 222 Washington Blvd 940 Washington Blvd 415 S Lombard Ave 929 S Oak Park Ave 511 N Humphrey Ave 109 S Elmwood Ave 1103 Washington Blvd 210 N Oak Park Ave 2 Le Moyne Pky

$320,000 $319,000 $300,000 $295,000 $290,000 $286,000 $271,000 $268,000 $247,500 $245,000 $235,000 $225,000 $220,000 $215,000 $209,000 $206,000 $205,000 $190,000 $185,000 $185,000 $180,000 $180,000 $177,500 $177,000 $168,000 $152,500 $148,500 $145,000 $140,000 $125,000 $115,000 $107,500 $102,000 $102,000 $98,500 $70,000

Krieg Eric Meacham Tamara Buddhiraju Manokiran Meagher Mark Jmpr Llc 2349 Cambridge Series Cusack Nancy R Tr Pederson Steven L Tr Us Bk Natl Assn Tr Pietrini Lauren R Extr Wakefield Donna S Weaver Jacqueline Romero Patricia D Price Daniel Zarlenga Jillian V Manderson Monique L Clauss Robert A Haroun Zubeir Londres Perla G Chicago Title Land Trust Co Tr 4192 Sunzere Frank Extr Brady Dorothy C Zdziarski-West Paula G Mushinsky Paige E Williams Ann E Tr Clark Abby M Cole Patricia Anderson Robert A Kerin Pascal Tr Herrington Nalana Howard Dorothy N Tr Abegunde Olufunmilayo B Swaggerly Elizabeth A Blissful Prop Llc- 109 S Elmwood Watkins Gay D Ho Lily Greene Debra J

Macoun Michael John Van Dyke William Roberts Alan Lin-Luse Michelle Steffen Jason Ramirez Mike Patel Sanjay Truong Joey Peralta Miguel Aviles Silver Kimberly A Klasen Kyle Lomax Maurice Honer Madison A Lapointe Nicholas Gijokola Eldion Waitkus Luke Hanneman Peter Smrt Steven Presmy Jennifer 1st Amer Investors Llc Saviday Prop Llc Isgor-Arsin Zeynep Roy Keith Corbert Erica Casillas Rocio Kumar Rajeev Schultz Gregory A Thompson Marc Spicer Samuel A Desarden Miriam E Alba Blanca E Sanchez Fredy Velasquez Fernando Alberto Reblora Cherry Ross Cynthia Joy Linear Dwain

942 William St 435 Williams St 7606 Vine St 512 Park Ave 335 Gale Ave 320 Lathrop Ave 7200 Greenfield St 435 Williams St 1539 Franklin Ave 1417 Bonnie Brae Pl 434 Clinton Pl 7320 Lake St 8009 Lake St 7429 North Ave

$600,000 $540,000 $532,000 $530,000 $507,000 $490,000 $460,000 $350,000 $235,000 $180,000 $173,500 $160,000 $157,000 $112,000

Chicago Title Land Trust Co Tr 8002345494 Hanley Sean M

601 Franklin Ave 7227 Thomas St 1037 Bonnie Brae Pl 1139 Lathrop Ave 1330 Monroe Ave 1038 Forest Ave 1331 Jackson Ave 311 Gale Ave

Unknown Unknown Unknown $1,415,000 $1,347,500 $1,280,000 $860,000 $689,000

RIVER FOREST Intercounty Judicial Sales Corp Concordia Univ Concordia Univ Romans Christopher D Gadsby Jon R Valente Michael S Tr Rojas Mary Ann Tr Stephany Michael J

Us Bk Na Tr Bremen Prop Llc Chicago Prop Grp Llc Mensah Ekow K Tibrewala Anjan Tr Weston Tyler Melville-Gray Ryan James Ketcher Timothy J

Faherty Clare Tr Blumenthal Jordan Mrkvicka Michael J Boggess Thomas P Tr Zeidman Marian Hartley John Martin Extr Thornton Delmar E Genovese David B Najera Isabel Chicago Title Land Trust Co Tr 041544 Wulatin Kalyn Tr Sauvey Cheryl L Diab Mary

BUYER Martin David Tuzzalino Phillip Prah Amy M De Reu Hilary E Janulis Patrick F Janicek Katherine Welindt Richard Tage Jr Harkins Laura Pytel Liliya Howe-Ebright Linda Wulatin Kalyn Mamon Kurt Xhemo Aldi

FOREST PARK ADDRESS

PRICE

SELLER

BUYER

7500 Madison St 7436 Warren St 7428 Franklin St 1104 Hannah Ave 7428 Franklin St 1520 Hannah Ave 841 Dunlop Ave 215 Des Plaines Ave 937 Circle Ave 845 Marengo Ave 919 Dunlop Ave 631 Ferdinand Ave 1125 Troost Ave 812 Lathrop Ave 7235 Franklin St 909 Marengo Ave 1108 Lathrop Ave 232 Lathrop Ave 7737 Taylor St 1331 Marengo Ave 7230 Elgin Ave 1314 Marengo Ave 7314 Randolph St 140 Marengo Ave 7443 Washington St 1012 Marengo Ave 315 Des Plaines Ave 1133 Elgin Ave 7443 Washington St

$2,750,000 $701,000 $605,000 $605,000 $600,000 $600,000 $565,000 $540,000 $485,000 $440,000 $435,000 $390,000 $355,000 $350,000 $331,000 $326,000 $305,000 $299,000 $290,000 $289,000 $285,000 $235,000 $170,000 $167,500 $159,000 $125,000 $113,000 $110,000 $107,000

7500 Ind E Llc Survance Jeremy Tr Gordon Jones Llc 1104 Hannah Ave Llc Gordon Jones Llc 1540 Hannah Llc Borowska-Beszta Elzbieta Lathrop Holdings Llc Series C Oxley-Hase Sloan Tohtz Kristine L Tr 1415401 Healy Walter Witiandy Timothy C Tr Auld Rhoda F Lexicon Government Services Llc Burge Michael Clark Hunt Anthony Mchugh Brandon P Mtd Prop Grp Llc Stevens Edward M Patel Rashmikant K Bray William P Barsotti Aaron Zimmerman Betty F Tr Shalloo Marilyn B Tr Shah Vie Soto David Kanji Abdullah Crunch Const Co Arnold Maisha

Purely Cold Storage And Warehousing Llc Swearingen Stacey Syed Osmaan White Claybourne A Worth Jeremiah M Jendy Llc Malito Stephen Lew Blake Fields-Mcdowell Johnathan Troy Timothy James Crawford John Tello Hector Ramirez Kudla Jadwiga Graham Ariana Puentes Johnson Tobi Velicia Paton Laura El-Bey Zakar Ali Christopher Weaver Jacqueline Vanichachiva Janvit Quartz De Vera Grace Deguire Jesse A Sharon A Barsotti Trust Rotundo Cheryl Chicago Title Land Trust Co Tr 001180 Spanm Sharon J Herrera Jaqueline High Archie Anderson Consult Llc Horton Gloria J

Wednesday Journal, July 20, 2022

25

SPORTS OPRF meets Fenwick to kick off football season

Teams playing one another for the first time since 1989

By MELVIN TATE Contributing Reporter

The year was 1989. George H.W. Bush was president of the United States, gasoline averaged $1.06 per gallon, a loaf of bread cost 67 cents, a dozen eggs cost 95 cents and a postage stamp was 22 cents.

That year was also the last time that Oak Park and River Forest and Fenwick High Schools met on the football field. Until this year, that is, as the Huskies and Friars will open the season with a head-to-head matchup.

The head coaches -- Matt Battaglia of Fenwick and John Hoerster of OPRF -- expressed their enthusiasm during recent phone interviews with the Wednesday Journal.

“It’s a great rivalry, and I’m proud that I can be a part of it on the football end,” said Battaglia. “I hadn’t been alive the last time these two schools played each other so it’s an honor to be the head coach leading the Friars into this matchup.”

“I know in other sports we have the opportunity to play Fenwick, and it’s nice to have the rivalry continue on the football field as well,” said Hoerster.

Both coaches said their players were fired up when the game was announced this offseason.

“There are a lot of common relationships between the programs,” Hoerster said. “A lot of the kids know each other through youth sports or the neighborhood. I know a lot of their kids and I think there’s a healthy rivalry there.

Our kids are excited about the opportunity.”

“In the offseason, [Fenwick athletic director] Scott Thies told me he was talking with Nicole [Ebsen, OPRF’s athletic director],” Battaglia said. “I told them I thought it’d be great for the school, student body and community if we could get something rolling. We were all excited when we were able to agree on terms for a contract. The whole team as well as our student body have been really excited, and it’s provided energy heading into the season.”

Going into his 12th season, Hoerster aims to return OPRF to the postseason. The Huskies narrowly missed out last season, losing in Week 9 at York in the final seconds. That, along with seeing Fenwick win a state championship last fall, has motivated this year’s OPRF team.

“The exciting thing about our kids is that they love to play football,” said Hoerster. “Adding the game against Fenwick surely gets their interest spiked. All in all, the energy in practice throughout camp has been really

good, and it’s typical of what we see from the kids coming into the season.”

Fenwick lost 30 players from last season’s IHSA Class 5A state champion due to graduation, so the Friars have plenty of holes to fill. But Battaglia is confident about where the program is entering his third season, thanks to the work and development being done at the lower levels by freshman coach Dan O’Keefe and sophomore coach Mark Vruno.

“Our guys are doing a great job going back to work and making a commitment to building something unique fo r this team and not living off the coattails of the previous team,” he said.

OPRF/Fenwick athletic contests tend to result in intense, raucous environments. Students from both schools

turn out in large numbers to support their teams.

“I’m hoping our student bodies have good, competitive fun and do nothing too crazy,” Battaglia said. “There’s a lot of positive energy around this game and I hope that it’s a huge success. Hopefully, we can do this every year.”

“It just makes sense,” said Hoerster. “If things go well -- and I have no reason to believe they won’t, it’s a great opportunity for both schools. People have been wanting to see this for a long time, and anything that gets the community excited for football is good for football. It’s a net positive.”

The Huskies and Friars are scheduled to meet Saturday, Aug. 27 at SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview, with kickoff set for 9:30 a.m. Ticket information will be announced soon.

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Wednesday Journal, July 20, 2022

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

Garcia appointed aquatics director at Fenwick Spanish teach was standout water polo player in high school, college

By MELVIN TATE

In a press release issued by the school, Garcia, who played water polo at Brother Rice and later at Queens College in New Fenwick High School Athletic Director York, said he wants to maintain the proScott Thies has been busy the last few gram’s rich tradition of excellence.

“I realize with such a legendary swimweeks with hiring new leaders for some ming, diving, and water polo of his programs. program that there are high After introducing Kyle standards and expectations,” Kmiecik as the new head basesaid Garcia. “My personal ball coach July 7, Thies anopinion is, as coaches, we are nounced on July 12 that Beto in the business of building Garcia, a Spanish teacher at athletes into local champions the school, is the new aquatics and national competitors.” director. Garcia will oversee Garcia had a stellar playing the Friars’ swimming and divcareer in water polo. He was ing as well as water polo provoted Most Valuable Freshgrams. man on Brother Rice’s 1998 Former aquatics director BETO GARCIA Steve Thompson, who spent state championship squad, the previous two years in the and the Crusaders added a position, will remain as head coach for second-place trophy in 1999 and a fourththe boys and girls swimming and diving place trophy in 2000. teams.

At Queens College during his freshman Contributing Reporter

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season in 2002, Garcia helped lead the Knights to the Eastern College Athletic Conference championship, a Northern Regional title, and a third-place finish in the NCAA Division I tournament.

The following year, Queens won the Division II championship.

Garcia started up water polo programs at Little Village High School and De La Salle Institute in 2007 and 2008, respectively. He joined the Illinois Water Polo Association in 2001 and has been an aquatics coach in the Chicago Park District since 2008.

In his coaching tenure, Garcia has coached three state Most Valuable Players and more than 50 players who went on to achieve all-state status.

Fabbrini named Fenwick hockey coach On July 8, Fenwick introduced Nick Fabbrini as the new head boys hockey coach.

Fabbrini, a Forest Park native and 2004 Fenwick graduate, is part of an overhauled staff NICK FABBRINI that includes seven coaches who played hockey after high school. Among them is Oak Park native Joe Corvo, who attended Fenwick and had an 11-year career as a defenseman in the National Hockey League.

“All of them have played hockey at a high level, have a development mindset, and know each other from playing and coaching hockey in Illinois,” said Fabbrini in a story on Fenwick’s website.

“Together we have coalesced around the goal of returning Fenwick hockey as a highly successful program. We are excited to get started.”

“Bringing an individual like Nick into our program -- or back into the program -- adds a layer of both consistency and credibility,” said Fenwick hockey director Bryan Boehm. “Nick checks off all of the right boxes for what we

were looking for. He has club, high school, college and international coaching experience. This skill set is hard to match.”

Fabbrini comes to Fenwick from the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign, where he spent 10 seasons as head coach of the club hockey team that competes in American Collegiate Hockey Association Division I. He was a two-time finalist for ACHA Coach of the Year and won the 2018 Central States Collegiate Hockey League Coach of the Year.

He was also the director of coaching and served as bantam level coach for the Champaign-Urbana Youth Hockey Association.

Fabbrini was an assistant coach on the 2017 and 2019 U.S. men’s national university teams which competed in Kazakhstan and Russia. He began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Illinois in 2008, then served as an assistant on Fenwick’s junior varsity and varsity teams for two seasons under Virgil Rutili (2010-12).

He also had an outstanding playing career. In high school, he helped the Friars win back-to-back Chicago Catholic League, Kennedy Cup and AHAI championships in his junior and senior seasons (2003, 2004).

At the college level, Fabbrini was part of Illinois teams that reached the ACHA national semifinals four consecutive years, and the Illini won national championships during his freshman and senior seasons -- including a perfect 38-0 record in 2008.

Fenwick girls named all-state Fenwick girls soccer players Kate Henige and Abbie Rogowski, a pair of recent graduates who helped the Friars finish fourth in the IHSA Class 2A state tournament this spring, were named to Chicagoland Soccer’s all-state team July 13.

Henige, a forward, led Fenwick in scoring with 26 points (19 goals, 7 assists). Rogowski, a defender, led a stout defense that posted 11 shutouts during the season.

Wednesday Journal, July 20, 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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Remembering Cliff Johnson, immensely talented, immensely troubled p. 33

How did we get here?

Violence is a part of America’s culture. It is as American as cherry pie.

L

Jamil Al-Amin/aka/H. Rap Brown

ike most Americans, I am baffled by the recent violent eruptions of young white males who indiscriminately kill and maim innocent people. In fact, I still can’t wrap my head around why these so-called “lone wolves” decide that slaughtering innocent people is their only option. I keep wracking my brain to find some explanation for this evil trend.

And then it dawned on me. I was looking in all the wrong places for causation. I was looking past the obvious clues. I finally realized that it wasn’t so much “nature versus nurture” as it was the impact of cultural and technological dynamics. Specifically, through sophisticated video games that reward players points for killing humanoid-like creatures, along with the emergence of violent one-on-one sporting events, as well movies and TV shows, we have become desensitized to the sanctity of human life.

Young men are not the only ones being desensitized — they are being egged on to commit heinous acts of mass killings. Before they go out and wantonly murder innocent people, they have spent hours upon hours killing “zombies” in their basement or bedroom. In addition to zombies as killing targets, games like Call of Duty (COD) and Grand Theft Auto (GTA) give the player the opportunity to kill drug dealers, cops and civilians and insurgents and civilians. So the thin line between a video game killing and killing real people is blurred in their minds.

However, unlike the video game, the real-life victims cannot be rebooted. Too many parents have turned over parental responsibility to the computer or television.

We would never hire a babysitter without a background check. Yet we allow these violent video games to babysit our children. It’s like we say to ourselves, “Well, they’re out of my hair” and seem to be enjoying themselves.

The real question is, “What are they enjoying?” Are they enjoying saving lives or taking lives? Are they simply playing a game or practicing how to transfer their

KWAME SALTER

See SALTER on page 34

IGOR STUDENKOV/Staff Reporter

SPEAKING OUT: The March 6 anti-war rally at Daley Plaza

A

Fighting for the Russian soul

s the war in Ukraine approaches its fifth month, Vladimir Putin and his United Russia Party isn’t just appealing to patriotism, but the idea that their vision of Russia is the only real Russia.

It’s a nationalistic vision that elevates Russian culture while blotting out over 100 ethnic groups native to current-day Russia, a vision that makes Tatars, Buryats, Kalmyks, Karelians, Chuckchi and so many others feel unwelcome their own country. It’s a vision that refuses to admit that Russia ever made mistakes — even Stalin’s purges are excused away. It is a vision that doesn’t just glorify violence, but delights in the humiliation of anyone who doesn’t toe the line. And most importantly, it’s a vision firmly rooted in the past, in the contradictory mishmash of nostalgia for the Soviet Union and visions of

the lost Russian Empire — a vision of a Russia that doesn’t grow, doesn’t mature, doesn’t look to the future.

The fact that many Russians have earnestly embraced this vision isn’t enough.

Slowly at first, but with increasing speed since 2011, United Russia tightened restrictions against free assembly and free media.

As the war started, it criminalized reporting any facts that contradicted the official line — or even calling a war a war. Putin spokesperson Dmitriy Peskov and other officials have outright said that anyone who doesn’t support the war isn’t just unpatriotic, they are not really Russian.

In this environment, it’s hard to tell how many people earnestly support Putin’s vision, and how many

IGOR

STUDENKOV One View

See STUDENKOV on page 34

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Wednesday Journal, July 20, 2022

O U R

V I E W P O I N T S

V I E W S

Dr. Shah and possibility

S

ometimes we focus too much on the exit interview.

Where did things go awry? What miscommunications might have been avoided? What expectations were unclear?

This time let’s remember and review the first conversation between Dr. Ushma Shah, the new superintendent of Oak Park’s District 97 elementary schools, and F. Amanda Tugade, education reporter for the Journal.

In that interview, Shah talked about the first course she ever took in education, taken on a whim at Knox College. Not a methods course but a course in the history of public education in America. What a relevant course that would be right now in an America so divided on whether public education is for purposes of closing or opening young minds.

Shah remembers her professor asking three questions, the second of which was, “What kind of a society do you think we should live in?”

For Shah the answer was a society or a community seeking to “reflect our highest values.”

Now after time in the classroom and extended tours near the top in two of Illinois’ largest school districts — Chicago and Elgin — Shah takes on her first superintendency in Oak Park.

In her conversation with Tugade, Shah said something direct and clarifying. “Equity must be front and center or nothing else will change.”

It is a plain-spoken answer. No jargon.

And then she went on to explain how this conversation on equity, a conversation that leaves a good number of self-affirming Oak Park liberals baffled or squirming, might commence.

“We need to slow down and talk to each other and approach things with more curiosity and more commitment to our service to students.”

Then she said, “All of us, self included, checking egos in that process.”

If Oak Park is to succeed in building an equitable community, it will need to figure out how to better talk about equity. What is equity?

Why does it so threaten white people? How can we celebrate successes and failures in our innovation toward equity? Can we see the additive power of equity and leave behind the singular fear of loss?

In this moment, in this first conversation, we are hopeful that Ushma Shah can help us check our egos, focus on our children and embrace possibility.

Nothing but pain

As promised by interim Police Chief Shatonya Johnson, arrests in the purposeless murder of Jailyn Logan-Bledsoe in an Oak Park gas station late last month were the department’s top priority.

After earlier announcing it had focused on two persons of interest, the department last week announced it had arrested two young people, a brother and his teenage sister, as the alleged murderers.

We mourn the brutal slaying of Logan-Bledsoe, a newly celebrated graduate of OPRF, recall her exemplary life of service and activism, and grieve her stolen potential as a freshman this fall at Howard University.

But as we consider the devastation they allegedly wrought, we also think about the self-immolation of the lives of the two alleged perpetrators.

Loss and devastation at every turn. Guns in too many hands.

Callousness toward the lives of an innocent and toward their own precious lives. It is all too much.

L

Lin Brehmer signs off

in Brehmer said goodbye Friday afternoon, possibly for good, which would be bad. Either way, it’s sad.

He’s taking a leave of absence for “extended chemotherapy” because his cancer has spread, despite radiation, biopsies and drug therapies. He’s been in this fight for several years. Everyone hopes he’ll be back.

I didn’t know all this until Charlie Meyerson mentioned it last Wednesday in Public Square, his excellent email aggregation of essential news.

Brehmer (pronounced Bray-mer), who turns 68 in August, is described as a “mainstay” at WXRT-FM since 1991 — mostly the morning show, but he switched to midday in 2020, maybe because of the pandemic, maybe the cancer, maybe both. He probably doesn’t like the term “institution” but that word also applies. If he doesn’t come back, it’s a big loss for his listeners.

As “air personalities” go, he has the best personality I’ve ever encountered. Wry, ironic, funny without ridicule or unnecessary sarcasm. He never takes anything too seriously, least of all himself. His art is taking things just seriously enough, never underselling or overselling. His touch is just right. Leavened.

Lively. Light-hearted but full of heart. I became acquainted with his shows way too late, and I don’t listen to the radio much, only in the car, so I missed most of his “Lin’s Bin” segments, a regular feature of his show — and a form of literature in their own right, unique in all the world — which I hope to God are being archived in the Library of Congress.

Each consisted of his response to a listener’s question, his replies incorporating snatches from his encyclopedic knowledge of rock and roll, interwoven with masterful prose, unexpected from a guy who “spins records” for a living. Much of it was funny, of course, but sometimes serious, frequently touching, even poetic, and always underpinned by that warm tone of wry irony.

Pete Crozier, his former producer, describes him as “the smartest person I’ve ever known. Hell, he’s the smartest person you’ve ever known and I don’t even know you.” Brehmer has done what most would say is impossible, elevating a radio show to the level of art. WXRT in general has given rock and roll a kind of “classical music” status, at least within its genre.

Listening to Brehmer’s selections in particular raised my respect level for rock. XRT is unlike any other rock-and-roll station.

His message on Friday’s show, repeated more than once, was, “Take nothing for granted. It’s f-ing great to be alive.” A friend and I listened to the last hour, while eating lunch in the parking lot before taking a hike in Fullersburg Woods. My hiking partner turned it on hoping to catch “Lin’s Bin.” Instead we

caught the last hour before his departure.

Timing is everything.

His voice sounded different, perhaps impacted by the cancer treatments, but his spirit was intact. The songs were some of his favorites, containing messages. He played Van Morrison’s “Into the Mystic”: Hark, now hear the sailors cry Smell the sea and feel the sky Let your soul and spirit fly into the mystic And when that fog horn blows I will be coming home And when the fog horn blows I want to hear it I don’t have to fear it And I want to rock your gypsy soul Just like way back in the days of old And magnificently we will flow into the mystic …

He mentioned that one of his co-workers asked him to autograph boxes of Kleenex before this show because his colleagues knew the listening wouldn’t be easy. He protested, “I’m not going to make you cry … well, maybe a little,” then played Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now,” the one with the lyrics, “Well, something’s lost but something’s gained in living everyday.”

I don’t know how his co-workers were holding up, but I was having trouble swallowing my tomato soup because my throat was so constricted.

His sendoff song was from back in 1976, sung by Robert Gordon of the Tuff Darts, when Brehmer was just beginning to spin records in his first (low-paid) radio station gig. He recited the lyrics first: I don’t care about the money I ain’t seen none And I don’t care about the women ’Cause I just need one The reason I say it, you really ought to know It’s all for the love of rock ‘n’ roll It’s all for the love of rock ‘n’ roll.

And then he was gone. Annalise Parziale, who follows him on the afternoon show, dedicated to him a song by the New Radicals, which happens to be one of my favorites: But when the night is falling You cannot find the light You feel your dreams are dying, hold tight You’ve got the music in you Don’t let go, you’ve got the music in you One dance left, this world is gonna pull through Don’t give up, you’ve got a reason to live Can’t forget, we only get what we give.

A timely message for all of us.

But Lin Brehmer’s message is timeless: “Take nothing for granted,” he said. “It’s f-ing great to be alive.”

KEN

TRAINOR

V I E W P O I N T S

N

Ode to joy

o, not Beethoven’s. Yours. Mine.

Ours.

A friend once asked if I was “happy.” I responded that I found that word shallow and pursuing it not worth the effort. Fulfilled? Yes. Satisfied? Yes. Content? Yes. Life demanded something more substantial, more meaningful, something bigger than being “happy.”

Happy is like “nice.” You don’t aspire to be “nice.”

You expect it. It’s the bare minimum. So where’s the high bar?

You could try “Joy.” That’s a word that needs explanation.

“When stuff, people, and the problems they bring fall away, there is stillness. Only in that stillness can we ever find the joy that resides in each of us, dependent on nothing external in order to exist. As such, joy comes when you make peace with who you are, where you are, and why you are.” (Sandra Brown, Psychology Today, 2012) Years ago when I owned a cabinet shop on Marion Street in Oak Park, I was sitting at my desk near the open front door when two couples walked by. “They do some really nice things here,” one person said to the group. When I heard this, there was this immediate, incredible flush of warmth completely surrounding my heart.

It lasted for only a few seconds but the memory Ludwig van Beethoven has lasted decades. It was a feeling of complete peace, contentment, and joy. My “heart light” had burst into full radiance.

I’ve had this same experience maybe three of four times in my life, under similar circumstances. I cannot summon or re-create it. And there have been a lot of similar circumstances that did not provoke it.

I asked a cardiologist/customer about it, but he decidedly ignored my question. Years later, I mentioned it to a friend who practiced Reiki and talked of chakras and similar things I considered nonsense.

“That’s your heart chakra,” she said. “You were connecting with that person.”

My background is science and construction and

my tools are saws, drills, and hammers.

Things some consider nonsense — ghosts, miracles, UFOs, Bigfoot … and chakras — remain nonsense until we experience them personally, visually, viscerally, firsthand in a way that shocks the system.

Then denials dissolve. Our world expands.

Our minds open up. “Stuff ” falls away.

The satisfaction of a job well done, a difficult problem solved, a day well spent, a good deed done — these give me that internal sense of joy. Here is where I “make peace with who I am, where I am, and why I am.”

What gives you joy? What produces that warm glow, that momentary feeling of peace, acceptance, stillness for you? Maybe it’s a walk in the woods, a long run, an intimate conversation with a great friend, photographing a scene at the exact moment the light is right, following a new recipe where the results vastly exceed your expectations, working at a food pantry.

ET’s heart-light lit up when he realized the mothership was coming back for him, and when he felt the love of his earthly friend. For each of us there is a switch that turns ours on.

I will never forget a conversation with another local business owner about how best to go about hiring a new person: “I always ask them to tell me about their hobbies,” he said.

I thought that was odd, but he explained that someone without a real hobby, without something that took them away from “stuff, people, and problems,” was just too self-absorbed in life’s demands or career opportunities to be a complete person. They would not play well with others.

Think about it. What activities fulfill a deeply personal interior need or desire for you? What brings you that “stillness” where you are at peace with “who you are, where you are, and why you are?” Inside of each of us there is a Ninth Symphony waiting to be experienced. When we discover it, we can each sing our own “Ode to Joy,” and maybe, just maybe, experience the intense warmth of our heart-light.

BILL SIECK

One View

Wednesday Journal, July 20, 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 Our mission is to lead educated conversation about the people, government, schools, businesses and culture of Oak Park and River Forest. As we share the consensus of Wednesday Journal’s editorial board on local matters, we hope our voice will help focus your thinking and, when need be, fire you to action.

In a healthy conversation about community concerns, your voice is also vital. We welcome your views, on any topic of community interest, as essays and as letters to the editor. Noted here are our stipulations for filing.

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

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

LETTER TO THE EDITOR ■ 250-word limit ■ Must include first and last names, municipality in which you live, phone number (for verification only)

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Wednesday Journal, July 20, 2022

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

Critique, yes, but also celebrate America I remember as a kid chasing candy on Ridgeland Avenue during the parade, playing with glow sticks at Scoville Park before the fireworks show, and seeing American flags waving from many Oak Park homes.

However, this year’s 4th of July was the most underwhelming Independence Day I have experienced in Oak Park. The parade was noticeably short, lacking key participants like groups from the high school and popular businesses. And while the fireworks were rightfully canceled after the Highland Park shooting, there seemed to be no urgency to “un-cancel” them after the shooter’s arrest.

It has become common practice in Oak Park to “hate on” the U.S. I saw more kids my age — recent graduates of high school — posting on Instagram reasons to not celebrate Independence Day than to celebrate it.

Yes, I’m in the minority of my peers celebrating the 4th.

I think it is important to differentiate between critiquing and despising America. Cri-

tiquing America is one of the most patriotic things you can do. Every good change in our country’s history came from those who refused complacency.

So when I hear my classmates say they hate America, I don’t understand. With its non-complacency spirit in mind, America is the country you want to be in to fight major issues you care about.

This growing trend to hate America has been led by progressives. And while I understand their intentions are good, many young people have turned away, including myself, from their anti-American rhetoric.

I advise them to pair their critiques with patriotic optimism. Think of Barack Obama — running on a relatively progressive agenda for the time — announcing, “Yes we can!”

Or Muhammed Ali, who showed that one of the most outspoken critics of America could proudly represent the same country during the Olympics.

Until the progressive movement picks

ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

CELEBRATING AMERICA: Kids scoop up candy thrown during the Oak Park Fourth of July Parade in Oak Park. up patriotic optimism, policy that our town needs will not be enacted.

I celebrated the 4th of July this year. I enjoyed honoring a country that has bred the many activists who have strengthened the

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V I E W P O I N T S

Wednesday Journal, July 20, 2022

The CTA is in crisis

Stop pretending and start doing something

I

start by saying I do understand the Chicago Transit Authority’s staff shortages and resource difficulties.

That said, it’s very clear that, to get riders back, CTA must police its transit facilities, particularly its trains. I can’t tell you how many friends and family are anywhere from disgusted to extremely fearful riding on CTA trains right now. Trust in CTA’s system is fast disappearing.

It isn’t just criminal activity. It’s what seems to be a growing defiance of appropriate public behavior and in-your-face violation of the CTA’s own rules for riders. There was a time when I would personally tell people to stop smoking. I don’t dare do that now. And nobody else does either. When does smoking occur? On, for example, every trip I take in the midday heading downtown from Harlem on the Green Line.

Every trip. People get on the train and head for the cubbyholes at the ends of cars, hike themselves up on the window ledge, and smoke away. I emphasize: every trip, not just occasionally. People are also visibly shooting up in those cubbyholes.

There is constant passing back and forth between cars, with people calling codes indicating drug sales on the Green Line.

The line has become an open drug market.

On the Red and Blue lines, friends and relatives who have depended on those services for transportation to work, medical appointments and other important things now refuse to ride those lines because of the behavior they encounter on every trip — not just on the occasional trip, every trip.

It’s important to note that most of the riders I know have alternatives. I can’t imagine how people who have absolutely no choice must feel when they must constantly ride in that threatening environment, never mind in fear of crime and violence.

I haven’t seen a single instance in the past several months of anyone pushing the button to call the operator to report the activities we all observe. For one thing, the train would be constantly delayed while the operator dealt with the situations or while waiting for the police to arrive. For another, people — me included — have no idea how a miscreant would react.

And let me add that the Blue and Orange lines are significant modalities of introduction to our city for visitors from outside Chicago, including travelers from abroad. I cannot imagine how terrible their first impression must be.

It’s time for CTA President Dorval Carter to cease issuing the usual boilerplate “the safety of our customers is paramount” memoranda to the public — as he has to me when I’ve written on this topic to CTA directly. If our safety is paramount, take measures to provide safety!

Unarmed private “security” people make no difference at all, never mind that we’ve never seen one of them. Even if CPD/Transit Police are currently highly stressed and shortstaffed, even if neighborhood gun violence is atrocious, some attention must be paid to the city’s transit system so that people can trust it again and so that visitors don’t go away warning people away from Chicago.

Ed McDevitt is a resident of River Forest.

31

I’m not sure what facts or figures the writer of the piece “Give up on ‘capping’ the Ike” [Viewpoints, July 13] uses to form the seemingly baseless opinion that “the portion of Oak Park south of the Eisenhower Expressway has not suffered a loss of equity due to the expressway.”

What level of success has the Eisenhower corridor had in developing and maintaining successful business districts? Just look at the strip mall and empty storefronts along Garfield, and volatility of stores along Oak Park Avenue, south of the highway. That “gap” breaks up the business district and has made it far more difficult for businesses.

Look at the statistics of violence and crime brought into our neighborhood and escaping from our neighborhood via the highway. Neighbors/friends only a block away seem much further when our children are forced to travel to and across busy village roads to cross the highway.

All in all, Capping the Ike, if proven viable in funding and engineering, is in no way throwing “good money after bad.” Additionally, the updates planned for the highway will only worsen the break within our neighborhood, with higher exit ramps and potential broad walls visually isolating us from each other.

The piece is little more than opinion without much fact to support it. I believe our village should do everything it can to improve all segments of Oak Park, and using available funding to regain a swath of land stripped away from our land-locked community would be a gain for all of us, providing great opportunities for development.

My name is Lachlan, and I am 11 years old.

I am concerned about our country, in that I do not often see people wearing masks or clear protection against COVID-19.

I would prefer if the U.S. government (or any authoritative or influential figure) shared these and similar concerns, but unfortunately I am not so lucky.

I personally would quite like to have a life, but for some reason the force that is supposed to step in and do things in emergencies is currently imploding under political division and inactivity to care about COVID. So it is up to us to do what we can to fight this pandemic, and at that task, we have failed. So far.

I strongly encourage you to do some work helping people recover/protect themselves from the coronavirus, and I have provided a list of things that you can do to help: ■ Pressure the government to do everything they can do: ■ Ensure mask mandates ■ Buy and provide Omicron vaccines, high quality (KF-94/N-95) masks and tests on as large a scale as possible ■ Improve COVID safety in federal and state buildings by installing COVID-killing UV lights and/or a better ventilation system ■ Donate money to trustworthy COVID charities (feel free to explore yourself): https://www.hearttoheart.org/ https://www.directrelief.org/ https://www.nfid.org/ ■ Take safety measures if you haven’t already (if you are susceptible, please take extra precautions): Wear a mask (KF-94/N-95) Get you and your kid(s) (if you have any) vaccinated (if possible) Get tested as much as possible/you are comfortable with ■ In your house/any buildings you own, within reason and comfort, take the steps indicated earlier for federal and state buildings ■ Convince people to do any of the things listed above.

Conclusion: Stop pretending COVID is over and do something.

Oak Park

Forest Park

ED MCDEVITT One View

FILE

Eisenhower Expressway

Capping the Ike would benefit south Oak Park

Michael Baldwin

Lachlan Poirier

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F

Wednesday Journal, July 20, 2022

Second tax bills issued later than normal

or most of the last decade, Cook County’s second installment tax bills were issued at the end of June and were due by Aug. 1. But for the 2021 taxes (paid in 2022), the issuance and due dates of second installment tax bills are expected to be much later than normal. It is not yet clear when the second installment bills will be issued, but estimates range from mid- to late-fall of 2022, with the due dates coming 30 days after the bills are issued.

Before second installment tax bills can be issued, all Cook County assessment appeals must be resolved — first by the Cook County Assessor’s Office and then by the Cook County Board of Review.

Unfortunately, this year there were compatibility problems between a new computer system used by the Assessor’s office and an older system used by the Board of Review.

These compatibility problems led to significant delays in the Oak Park transmission of data between the Township Assessor county appeal agencies, and the result is that second installment bills will be late.

Oak Park’s experience with 2021 appeals (the results of which appear on bills paid in 2022), provides a good example of what has been happening. On June 16, 2021, Oak Park’s appeal period with the Cook County Assessor’s office ended. But due to the computer compatibility problems, the county assessor’s appeal results and final valuations for Oak Park were not released until November of 2021. As a result, Oak Park’s appeal period with the Board of Review, which usually begins in the summer, did not start until December of 2021.

Taxpayers may appreciate that the second installment of 2021 tax bills will not be due until sometime toward the end of 2022. But they should be aware that they will have far less time to prepare for the first installment of 2022 taxes, which should be due around March 1, 2023. There may be just a few months between the payment deadlines for these two bills.

In addition, the delays in issuance of the tax bills may create difficulties for public schools, municipalities, and other local taxing districts that depend on property tax revenue. Taxing districts with large fund balances may be able to handle the delays in tax bills, but some districts with smaller fund balances may have to borrow money to meet payroll and cover other expenses.

Taxpayers seeking updates about the status of second installment tax bills should feel free to call Ali ElSaffar at the Oak Park Township Assessor’s Office at 708-383-8005 or check the Township’s website, aelsaffar@oakparktownship.org.

ALI ELSAFFAR

V I E W P O I N T S

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

The time for OPRF to move forward is now I agree with Laura Huseby’s letter [Improving OPRF facilities is way past due, Viewpoints, July 13] regarding the need for, and urgency of, embarking on Imagine Project 2 at OPRF High School. While Project 1 has thankfully addressed improvements of critical learning and common spaces at the school, there is equal need to address physical education, performing arts, and related infrastructure at the school.

I believe staff and administration at OPRF have done their very best over decades to make outdated and inadequate facilities as useable and functional as possible in their current configurations. Our present circumstances are not a result of misuse or neglect, rather the passing of time and changes in needs and functionality.

I am hopeful proposed field reconfigurations and collabo-

ration with the park district will address some of the needs of track team members, not to mention the multitude of other users, including marching band.

As someone who participated in track at OPRF, I never imagined a quarter-mile oval was possible in the west fields, and I hope it happens. While this doesn’t solve all the issues with the field house or needed indoor improvements, the new track and fields provide resources we have never had before, also much needed with the inability to use Concordia in the future.

Imagine Project 2 is an extension of this work, and I also believe the time to move forward is now.

Peter Ryan Oak Park

A century of capital improvements at OPRF I’ve enjoyed Harriet Hausman’s columns for years. Recently, I came across her excellent book, Reflections: A History of River Forest. In it, she describes the first OPRF High School building, and how it expanded. Her book puts into perspective the multi-phase Imagine work underway today.

OPRF was built via a bond issue in 1905 and then enhanced through multiple phases of construction over two decades. The original building was expanded multiple times — in 1913, again in 1920, and again in 1925. Meanwhile the athletic facilities were erected: first the stadium, in 1924, and then the field house and girls’ gymnasium in 1928.

Three decades later, a new multi-stage period of improvements began. Hausman writes that in 1958-9 new labs, art, industrial arts, and classrooms were constructed; 1960 brought more new classrooms, labs, and counseling offices. By 1962, construction work included a new health center, additional classrooms, and study halls. And in 1965, the district passed a bond issue to construct the performing arts facilities, work Hausman says “was completed in time for the school’s obser-

vance of its 100th anniversary in 1973.”

Three takeaways from Hausman’s very brief summary of a century of OPRF capital improvements: First, each previous “wave” of facilities construction was performed over the course of decades (1905-1928, 1958-1973).

Second, each of these waves consisted of multiple shorter projects. New facilities were built, reconstructed, or renovated in a series of projects, over a long period of time.

Third, each wave included a bond issue … but not necessarily at the outset of that wave. (In the ’60s, the bond issue supported the fourth stage of work.)

To anyone doubting today’s Imagine capital improvements, both those just completed and the projects still to come: our community has done this before. Twice, in fact.

The multi-stage, long-term renovations contemplated by the Imagine plan are quite literally how our community has addressed the school’s needs throughout its entire existence.

Tim Brandhorst

River Forest

Dangerous paving equipment location We’re happy to see the paving on Harlem Avenue. Why the bulk of the Harlem/290 section was paved during morning rush hour, causing residents to drive around active machines, over hot asphalt, without someone directing traffic, is another matter. Why not do that at night?

Lately the company doing the paving has parked their massive equipment extremely close to the intersection of Harlem and Harrison, adjacent to the U Haul store there.

It’s been like this for many days now. This causes the westbound lane to be more than 60% blocked so that cars turning off of Harlem nearly strike anyone at the intersection trying to turn left toward I-290. Eastbound Harrison is sort of down to 1.5 lanes at the moment.

This is dangerous and inconvenient. I’m wondering why they aren’t on the Oak Park side near the Post Office

where there’s a massive amount of space available along the street?

Last night, my wife and I were returning from the city to our home. After turning onto Harrison, I accidentally blew the stop sign because all this equipment almost completely blocks the view of the sign. I was paying attention to avoiding the equipment so I did not see the other sign, located on the opposite side of the intersection. I’ve driven this area hundreds of times at this point but still made that mistake. What if there had been a car exiting the lot behind the equipment?

This equipment should be immediately moved or a temporary flashing stop sign should be installed.

Stephen Garrett

Forest Park

V I E W P O I N T S

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

I N

M E M O R I A M

Cliff Johnson’s comeback

By BILL DWYER

and John Pazdan in Pezband in early 1972.

With Johnson’s voice and Betinis’ lead guitar out front, Pezband became a fixture Editor’s Note: Cliff Johnson’s recent on the Chicago music scene. By mid-1974 death brought back a lot of memories for the group was playing before up to 2,000 local lovers of live music. So we decided to fans a night at venues from New Jersey reprint Bill Dwyer’s feature from Dec. 12, to California. Then the demons haunting 2007 in lieu of a traditional obituary.

Johnson’s psyche made their first serious appearance. With a record deal imminent hroughout the 1970s, OPRF High and the band headed to Los Angeles to School alum Cliff Johnson was lead play a showcase gig at Whiskey a Go-Go, singer for two high-profile Chicago Johnson suddenly quit. bands, Off Broadway and The decision devastated his Pezband. Both groups friends, who never saw it cominked record deals — Pezband ing. after Johnson left, Off Broad“There was a lot of resentway with Johnson as their ment,” said Betinis. “I was front man. Neither reached resentful for years.” the national status expected “It knocked us off our pins.

We had to recreate the band,” of them, despite exceptional said drummer Mick Rain. talent.

Johnson, Betinis recalled, A year ago it was a good bet “was an ever-blossoming vine he wouldn’t be alive today, let that was crawling up wherever alone singing onstage. he could.” But the golden boy CLIFF JOHNSON There have been three conwho functioned so effortlessly stants in Cliff Johnson’s life onstage, who appeared so fearuntil this year — alcohol, mood swings, less, so cool, was a roiling emotional mess and music. The first two eventually led to inside. bankruptcy, divorce and nearly death. The “There was a cacophony underneath it third is now at the center of a life Johnson all,” Johnson said of his outward appearsays he’s committed to rebuilding, thanks ances. A psychic stew of fear, resentment to the gift of sobriety. and anxiety boiled inside even as he accomplished things others only dreamed of.

“I was, for some inexplicable reason, out ‘My new best friend’ to destroy everything at the same time,” he Johnson recalls drinking for the first said. “I went all the way with Pezband to time in seventh grade — splitting a sixthe point where they were about to make pack of malt liquor with a friend. records, and I quit. Then I got d’Thumbs “I loved the feeling alcohol gave me imtogether and we brought that to fruition mediately,” he said. “I thought it was so where it was about to take off, and I left.” cool. It was like my new best friend.”

The pattern continued after Off BroadHe became such good friends that his way signed a lucrative deal with Atlantic blood alcohol level was once measured at Records and released “On!” in 1979. The six times the legal limit for drivers. album, filled with muscular power pop But before alcoholism, there was manic gems, crowned by Johnson’s marvelous depression. Johnson recalls spending voice, sold over 250,000 copies in the Chimuch of his early grade school years cago area. in detention for an array of outrageous Johnson, however, was both the band’s attention-seeking behaviors caused by greatest strength and its Achilles heel. undiagnosed bipolar disorder and hyperac“I was told that I was the reason (Atlantive attention deficit disorder. tic) signed Off Broadway,” he said. “I was “I liked everything to come to me now, also the reason they dumped us.” fast, and easy,” he said. “I didn’t want to By 1981 it was all over. work at anything.” Music came easy, and Guitarist Mike Redmond, who joined Off was his savior and his passion. After leadBroadway in 1997, has watched Johnson ing a popular band called the Rising Suns since the late ’70s, when he was a sound in high school, Johnson hooked up with man and roadie for Soundz Music. He’s good friend Mimi Betinis and other fellow seen both the excitement and the damage Oak Parkers Mick Rain, Mike Gorman Johnson’s unhinged behavior created.

T

“It was the good, the bad and the ugly,” Redmond said. “There were a ton of great shows, and some that sucked.” Others were just flat-out embarrassing.

Hitting bottom for the last time Johnson can’t remember all the times he’s hit bottom, as alcoholics call the phenomenon of facing their addiction. But he remembers the final time last January.

“The darkest, deepest most devastating bottom of all the alleged bottoms I hit,” he said.

He’d been isolating in his apartment for weeks, shades drawn, not answering his phone, staying loaded on a steady diet of vodka, cocaine, Vicoden and the sleep medication Ambien. That led to setting his kitchen on fire in a mental haze. Soon thereafter, unable to keep food down, throwing up blood, he lost the will to live — but not his craving for alcohol.

“I’d basically given up on life. I just felt like I’d totally failed. That it was too hard, and I couldn’t make it work,” he said.

“I wasn’t going to take my life. But I was just going to sleep my life away,” he said.

But something happened on which he hadn’t planned. The following morning a prescription medication he’d been taking the previous three weeks for severe depression took effect.

“I felt like getting up,” he recalled. He walked out his apartment door wearing the grungy sweat clothes he’d been sleeping in for three weeks and took a peek outside.

“It felt kind of good,” he said.

The anti-depressant wasn’t all that took hold. Bits of wisdom he’d acquired from previous attempts at recovery also took effect. The guy who’d mocked those who sat through 12-step meetings talking about turning their lives over to a higher power, now reached out to some of those same people for help. Little by little, bolstered by a newfound humility, Johnson moved away from the darkness and back toward life, putting an end to what he calls “40 years of assault with a deadly weapon on myself.”

Johnson had to literally practice walking and talking the first few weeks of his recovery. He realized sobriety was the only thing that mattered, the one pre-requisite for having anything good in his life. So he worked diligently for it.

“I never worked anything so honestly or sincerely in all my life as my recovery,” he said.

His hard work at maintaining sobriety has been richly rewarded with an array of unanticipated gifts. Calmness. Acceptance.

Self-awareness.

“I was willing to get out of [my own]

Wednesday Journal, July 20, 2022

33

way,” he said. “And now all these wonderful things are happening to me.”

With alcohol out of his system, doctors were able to diagnose his bi-polarity and attention deficit disorder. For the first time in his life, he enjoys mental clarity. He was, he said, always focused on what had happened and worried about what was going to happen next.

“I didn’t get what was happening in the moment,” he said. “I used to be baffled. I made simple things complex.”

Free from fear and anxiety and resentment. Free from the tangled webs he routinely wove to rationalize his addictions.

“They say drinking is a career,” he noted.

“It’s just so much hard work to be a drinking alcoholic in denial. I had to tell lies, to cover up why I wasn’t showing up, not doing what I said I’d do.”

Those around him are amazed at the transformation. “He’s so back on track it’s unbelievable,” said Redmond. “The guy we used to be able to get to come to a rehearsal for maybe a half hour or an hour before he’d blow out of there, is now there first and leaves last.”

“I can show up for things now,” said Johnson. “I want to show up for things now. I was so self-centered,” he said. “I can remember feeling everything was coming exclusively from me, [that] I’m entertaining a crowd and it’s all about me.

“It’s not all about me,” he said. “Now I feel I’m a part of something bigger. It’s a real reciprocating thing, a mojo, that’s going on at a performance.

“One of the greatest rewards I’ve ever gotten through sobriety is to find calm in the moment,” he said. “To actually get what’s going on now.”

No longer afraid, Johnson says he’s willing to hold his personal foibles up for all to see if it will help another person begin their own recovery.

“I have nothing to hide now,” he said.

“Look, there’s a hopeless drunk, with [attention deficit] and bi-polar disorder who’s coming to grips, who is actually beginning to find joy in life and have a balance for the first time ever.”

Johnson’s bandmates are also benefiting.

“He’s as amazing to me now as he was in high school, when I first saw this kid singing this stuff,” said Betinis. “I mean, he was so good.

“As an entertainer, Cliff ’s the best he’s been in a long freakin’ time.”

Simple, Johnson has discovered, works best. Stay sober. Make music. Love life.

“That’s what we’re gonna do,” said Betinis.

“That’s how simple it can be,” said Johnson. “Why complicate it?”

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V I E W P O I N T S

Wednesday Journal, July 20, 2022

SALTER

Cultural violence from page 27 game killing skills into real life? Monitoring what young people are doing when we don’t see them has become a necessary role that today’s parents must assume.

Even with this parental diligence, we still have to be aware that there are other societal factors desensitizing all of us.

The fastest growing professional sports like UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) and WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) are unbridled examples of primitive violence. Conventional boxing matches now appear dull compared to these exhibitions of raw violence.

Watching participants punch, kick and choke each other is not my idea of good entertainment. Still, people spend millions on pay-for-view access to watch this mayhem.

In addition to watching this primitive exhibition of unconstrained violence, many fantasize about pummeling or killing a family member, friend, or stranger.

I genuinely believe that these outlets do not minimize violence — instead they celebrate it. Even our traditional sports have allowed and encouraged violent behavior. Hockey has long been a sport that incorporated and allowed violent and dangerous outbursts to be part of the game. Basketball, aka “malice at the palace,” has had its share of violent episodes. Football, violent by nature, has witnessed players beating each other across the head and shoulders with their helmets. In baseball, dugouts are emptied as players rush onto the field to confront each other. Yet people are glued to their televisions and phones, soaking in and titillated by these fights and confrontations.

I would submit to you that watching these violent events has rewired our brains — making us think that this is “normal” behavior.

As usual, I don’t have the answer. What I do have is a plea that we get a grip on what’s going on in our society and culture. We still have time to pivot and guide our society to a place/space that values human life.

Kwame S. Salter is president of The Salter Consulting Group LLC and a former Oak Park resident.

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

STUDENKOV Russia’s soul from page 27 are just trying to get through their day.

But the fact remains that, even as the restrictions continue to tighten, the inconvenient contradictions of that vision refuse to disappear.

It’s organizations like the Vesna (Spring) movement, which continue to try to organize protests and circulate petitions denouncing the war and repression, even as its members continue to get arrested.

There are media outlets like Bumaga, a lifestyle publication in my native St. Petersburg, which was never afraid of covering protests and opposition politicians. They called a war a war and got blocked in Russia for their trouble. It would have been easy for them to back away, to simply talk about new restaurants and new developments, but they continue covering the war along with lifestyle things, and so far the donations from their readers have kept them afloat.

It’s businesses like Vse Svobodny (Everybody is Free) bookstore in downtown St.

Petersburg, where it’s still possible to get books dealing with less savory aspects of Russian history, anti-war books, and books with LGBTQ themes, It remains a place where people who want to help out political prisoners can provide support.

It’s the artists behind projects like Russian Oppositional Art Review, an online journal of essays, poetry and art that forms a defiant response to the war, which released its first issue in late April.

It’s activists like Dmitriy Skurihin, who has been painting his store in the village of Russko-Vyborskoye in anti-Putin, antiinvasion of Ukraine slogs all the way back in 2014 and hasn’t stopped, even amid the escalating penalties.

It’s the people who don’t make the news, like the volunteers who help Ukrainian refugees who ended up in Russia (voluntarily or otherwise) to reach Europe, and generally offer support. It’s people who donate money to bail funds and send care packages to prisoners. It’s people who use VPNs to get independent news.

So long as they exist, Putin’s vision can advance, it can cause harm, but it cannot triumph.

Not as long as any of us are still breathing.

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Wednesday Journal, July 20, 2022

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V I E W P O I N T S

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O B I T U A R I E S

Fighting climate change at home

Richard Behrends, 69 WWII re-enactor, model car enthusiast

The environmental benefits of switching from natural gas to sustainably generated electricity are clear. Removing fossil fuels from our homes reduces carbon emissions, helps fight climate change, and makes our homes healthier to live in.

According to Oak Park’s recent 2020 Greenhouse Gas Inventory, 91% of the emissions from village buildings comes from natural gas use. Not surprisingly, building electrification is central to the village’s Climate Action Plan.

Many of us have gas-powered dryers, stoves, hot-water heaters, and furnaces in our homes. The expense of replacing them all with electric appliances may seem daunting. But as each gas appliance ages out, we have an opportunity to move closer to going gas-free. If we buy equipment that uses natural gas, we push the chance to make that switch out another 15-20 years, until the appliance ages out again.

A new electric appliance will cost roughly the same as the replacement gas-powered device, but it may save us money over time. Over 10-20 years, we can convert all our appliances without increasing our budget, while making our homes healthier and helping fight climate change as well. The electricity grid is relying on renewable energy more and more and will be 100% renewable within the next two decades.

As we know, hot water heaters and furnaces in particular often fail without warning. They also seem to fail at the most inconvenient times, such as the dead of winter, forcing us to make split-second decisions about replacement equipment. So, if we want to get off gas, we have to be prepared when that unexpected moment arrives.

Researching options for new appliances using unfamiliar technology — such as an induction cooktop or heat pump HVAC system — needs to be done in advance. So, too, does ensuring that our electrical service is upgraded with the capacity these new electric appliances and systems need. Upgrading your electrical service now is one more way to spread out the cost of achieving a fossil-fuel-free home.

With the consequences of our failure to address climate change ever more obvious and Illinois’ 2050 deadline for net-zero carbon emissions looming, the time to start electrifying is now. To get started, visit https://www.rewiringamerica.org/electrify-home-guide.

Wendy Greenhouse

Richard John Behrends, 69, of Jeffersonville, Indiana, died on June 3, 2022 at home, surrounded by family. Born on July 1, 1952 in River Forest, he was the son of the late Elmer and Lillian (Burns) Behrends.

A talented auto mechanic, he was a member of World War II reenactment unit 14th Armored Re-creations, based in Shepherdsville, Kentucky, where he found his “tribe.” He also enjoyed building model cars and loved to make his friends and family laugh.

Richard is survived by his wife, Deborah (Martindale) Behrends; his daughter, Ashley (Terry) Higgins; his step-children, Katrina, Andrew and Jessica McDaniel; and seven grandchildren, Kaylie, Natalie and Easton Higgins, Emily, Trinity and Nora McDaniel, and Braylen Botts.

Visitation took place on June 7 at Legacy Funeral Center, 921 Main St., Jeffersonville, Indiana 47130. Funeral service was held on June 8, followed by burial at Walnut Ridge Cemetery in Jeffersonville.

M E M O R I A L

S E R V I C E

Carolyn Poplett, 92 Known as ‘The Gentle Force’

Carolyn Poplett, 92, of River Forest, died peacefully at home on May 18, 2022. She was married to the late Ray E. Poplett, an attorney. She is survived by her sons, John and James, and her daughter, Allison Ruth Poplett. Carolyn was an advocate for mental health and social well-being in her community. Donations may be made in her memory to Nineteenth Century Charitable Association, https://www.nineteenthcentury.org.

Her memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. this Saturday, July 23, at First United Church of Oak Park.

Arrangements were handled by Chicagoland Cremation Options of Schiller Park.

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36

Wednesday Journal, July 20, 2022

Growing Community Media

Deadline is Monday at 5:00 p.m.

HELP WANTED RIVERSIDE, IL - POLICE OFFICER

Application deadline: Aug. 15, 2022 4 P.M. (CST) Find more detail at IO Solutions at https://iosolutions.com.

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.

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.

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

EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS AND RESPONSE COORDINATOR

The Village of Oak Park is seeking qualified candidates for the position of Emergency Preparedness and Response Coordinator in the Health Department/Village Manager’s Office.

This position will coordinate disaster response, crisis management and medical countermeasure dispensing/ distribution activities for the Village of Oak Park, provide disaster preparedness training, and prepare emergency plans and procedures for natural (e.g., floods, earthquakes), wartime, or technological (e.g., nuclear power plant emergencies, hazardous materials spills, biological releases) or disasters. This single class position is also responsible for the complex administrative duties required for state, federal and local response processes and grant management.

Applicants are encouraged to visit the Village of Oak Park’s website http://www.oak-park.us/jobs. Interested and qualified applicants must complete a Village of Oak Park application. First review of applications will be August 5, 2022.

CROSSING GUARD

The Forest Park Police Department is seeking qualified individuals for the position of Crossing Guard. This position requires flexible hours during days when schools are in session.

A background investigation and drug screening will be conducted prior to consideration for the position. Applications available at Village Hall, 517 Desplaines Avenue or on-line at www.forestpark.net and should be returned to Vanessa Moritz, HR Director, at Village Hall. For additional information, contact Dora Murphy at 708-615-6223 or write dmurphy@forestpark.net.

Applications accepted until position is filled. EOE.

Orientation and written test is Sep. 17, 2022, 8 a.m. at Riverside Township, 27 Riverside Rd. Riverside, IL. Supply Management Specialist (Chicago, IL) Responsible for supply chain initiatives, incl vendor qualification & mgmt, procurement strategy & vendor negotiations; analyze data to generate demand planning & forecasting report to achieve efficient product & supply distribution; work w/ sales to dvlp strong sales & fin’l forecasts; manage inventory balance btwn customer demand, internal stock levels, & mfg capacity; negotiate the best prices, service, quality, & turnaround/delivery terms & apply strategic considerations to purchasing decisions; improve transportation & warehousing n/work to achieve the most cost-effective solutions, improve operational performance & on-time delivery rate. Bach deg in any major reqd. M-F, 40 hrs/ wk. Send resumes (by mail only) to Vedat Karacan, Cozy Inc, 1633 N Clybourn Ave, Chicago, IL 60614.

  

  

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

Wednesday Journal, July 20, 2022

CLASSIFIED Cicero

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

MARKETPLACE

R E N TA L S

GARAGE SALES

SUBURBAN RENTALS

MOVING SALE - EVERYTHING MUST GO! 5222 W. 23RD ST SAT JULY 23 • 8AM-4PM ONE DAY ONLY!

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

All items are priced to sell, no reasonable offer refused.

GARAGE SALE 621 ELGIN AVE FRI JULY 22 & • SAT JULY 23 9:00AM – 3:00PM • RAIN OR SHINE!

Furniture, antiques, vintage collectibles, Fenton Glass, Hummels, old comic books, hardware, grill, walkers, lots of toys (new and vintage), 1990’s American Girl Doll (dolls, clothing, furniture & accessories), large selection of women’s clothing (+ shoes, accessories, purses), home décor (modern & antique), wall art, board games, kitchenware, glassware, holiday decorations (Halloween, Christmas & Thanksgiving), and much more!

Oak Park

RUMMAGE SALE BENEFITTING SRI LANKA 515 CARPENTER AVE FRI JULY 22 & SAT JULY 23 • 8AM-2PM

HOME SERVICES OAK PARK & FOREST PARK

708-386-7355

Furniture, Dining Rm Set, Kitchen Tables, Desks, Bed, Household items and much more. No clothing. After 53 years in this house, we have a wide variety of stuff!

Forest Park

37

MMpropMgmt.com

OFFICE/RETAIL FOR RENT OAK PARK THERAPY OFFICES:

Therapy offices available on North Avenue. Parking; Flexible leasing; Nicely furnished; Waiting Room; Conference Room.

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

WANTED TO BUY

CARS WANTED

COMMERCIAL INDUSTRIAL RESIDENTIAL

CURT'S HANDYMAN SERVICE

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

A&A ELECTRIC

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

CLEANING LADY FOR HIRE

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

Experienced cleaning lady happy to clean your home!

Call Beata at 708-513-8756

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

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

Riverside-Brookfield Landmark

$$ Top $$ allWANTED makes, Etc. CLASSICS Collector James

Call Stacy at 708.613.3342

Mustang & Mopars

Restored or Unrestored Cars630-201-8122 & Vintage Motorcycles Domestic / Import Cars:

Mercedes, Porsche, Corvette, Ferrari’s, Jaguars, Muscle Cars, Mustang & Mopars

$$ Top $$ all makes, Etc.

ELECTRICAL

Let an American Veteran do your work

CLEANING LADY

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

Mike’s Home Repair

“QUALITY IS OUR FOUNDATION” ESTABLISHED IN 1987

C O N C R E T E C O N S T RU C T I O N

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

CLASSICS WANTED CLASSICS WANTED Restored or Unrestored

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

Ceiling Fans Installed

De-Clutter.

CEMENT

MAGANA

ELECTRICAL

Something for everyone. Everything must go!

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

CEMENT

FLOORS KLIS FLOORING INC.

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

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

708-296-2060

Drywall Repair • Painting Fans Installed • Carpentry Trim Gutter Cleaning • Window Repair

Free estimates Excellent References No Job Too Small

708-488-9411

HAULING BASEMENT CLEANING

Appliances & Furniture Removal Pickup & Delivery.

773-722-6900

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

38

Wednesday Journal, July 20, 2022

CLASSIFIED

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

Let the sun shine in...

Public Notice: Your right to know 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 PUBLIC NOTICES

PUBLIC NOTICES

PUBLIC NOTICE Notice is hereby given, pursuant to “An Act in relation to the use of an Assumed Business Name in the conduct or transaction of Business in the State,” as amended, that a certification was registered by the undersigned with the County Clerk of Cook County. Registration Number: Y22009340 on June 28, 2022 Under the Assumed Business Name of SHE SPEAKS THE WORD with the business located at: 318 N. SALEM AVE APT !A, ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, IL 60005. The true and real full name(s) and residence address of the owner(s)/partner(s) is: SHE SPEAKS THE WORD, 318 N. SALEM AVE APT !A, ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, IL 60005

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

Published in Wednesday Journal July 6, 13 & 20, 2022

PUBLIC NOTICES PUBLIC NOTICE OF COURT DATE FOR REQUEST FOR NAME CHANGE STATE OF ILLINOIS, CIRCUIT COURT COOK COUNTY. Request of Maylee Cruz Case Number 20224003032 There will be a court date on my Request to change my name from: Maylee Cruz to the new name of: Roxas Amajiki The court date will be held: On August 30, 2022 at 11:00 a.m. at 1500 Maybrook Drive, Maywood, Cook County in Courtroom # 0112 Published in Forest Park Review July 6, 13 & 20, 2022

PUBLIC NOTICE Notice is hereby given, pursuant to “An Act in relation to the use of an Assumed Business Name in the conduct or transaction of Business in the State,” as amended, that a certification was registered by the undersigned with the County Clerk of Cook County. Registration Number: Y22009334 on June 24, 2022 Under the Assumed Business Name of HELPFUL TECH MEDIC with the business located at: 805 LAKE ST PMB 401, OAK PARK, IL 60301.

The true and real full name(s) and residence address of the owner(s)/ partner(s) is: MELVENA L SANDERS 805 LAKE ST PMB 401 OAK PARK, IL 60301, USA Published in Wednesday Journal July 6, 13, 20, 2022

STATE OF ILLINOIS, CIRCUIT COURT COOK COUNTY. Request of NYCHOLAS XAVIER DIAZ 2022CONC000964.

There will be a court date on my Request to change my name from: NYCHOLAS XAVIER DIAZ to the new name of: NYCHOLAS XAVIER RODRIGUEZ The court date will be held: On October 7, 2022 at 10:30am at Via ZOOM: Meeting ID: 958 9492 1843 Password: 226532 Cook County in Courtroom # 1707 Published in Wednesday Journal July 20, 27, August 3, 2022

PUBLIC NOTICES PUBLIC NOTICE Notice is hereby given, pursuant to “An Act in relation to the use of an Assumed Business Name in the conduct or transaction of Business in the State,” as amended, that a certification was registered by the undersigned with the County Clerk of Cook County. Registration Number: YY22009347 on July 1, 2022 Under the Assumed Business Name of THE BALANCED MYSTIC with the business located at: 830 S. AUSTIN BLVD APT. 3J, OAK PARK, IL 60304.

The true and real full name(s) and residence address of the owner(s)/ partner(s) is: CRYSTOL MARIE DEJOHNETTE 830 S. AUSTIN BLVD APT. 3J OAK PARK, IL 60304, USA Published in Wednesday Journal July 13, 20, 27, 2022

PUBLIC NOTICES

LEGAL NOTICE The Village of Oak Park --Office of the Village Engineer, 201 South Boulevard, Oak Park, Illinois 60302-- will receive electronic proposals until 10:00 a.m. on Thursday August 11, 2022 for Project: 22-6, Pavement Preservation Program. Bids will be received and accepted, and bid results posted via the online electronic bid service listed below. In general, the improvements will require the following construction: Asphalt surface patching, Fiber modified crackfilling, Maltene based Rejuvinating, microsurfacing, thermoplastic pavement marking, and all appurtenant work thereto. The work will take place in various locations throughout the Village of Oak Park.

Plans and proposal forms may be obtained via the electronic service starting on Thursday July 21st, at 4:00 p.m. Plans and proposal forms can be found at https://www.oak-park.us/yourgovernment/budget-purchasing/ requests-proposals or at www. questcdn.com under login using QuestCDN number 8258129 for a non-refundable charge of $30.00. The Village of Oak Park reserves the right to issue plans and specifications only to those contractors deemed qualified.

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

The work to be performed pursuant to this Proposal is subject to the Illinois Prevailing Wage Act, 820 ILCS 130/0.01 et seq.

THE VILLAGE OF OAK PARK Bill McKenna Village Engineer Published in Wednesday Journal July 20, 2022

PUBLIC NOTICES

PUBLIC NOTICES

LEGAL NOTICE proposal forms can be found at The Village of Oak Park --Office https://www.oak-park.us/yourof the Village Engineer, 201 South government/budget-purchasing/ Boulevard, Oak Park, Illinois requests-proposals or at www.

60302-- will receive electronic questcdn.com under login using proposals until 10:00 a.m. on QuestCDN number 8258128 Thursday August 11, 2022 for Project: 22-3, Sidewalk for a non-refundable charge of Improvement Program. Bids $30.00. The Village of Oak Park will be received and accepted, reserves the right to issue plans and bid results posted via the and specifications only to those online electronic bid service listed contractors deemed qualified. below. In general, this contract No bid documents will be issued includes sidewalk angle-cutting, after 4:00 p.m. on the working day removal and replacement of preceding the date of bid opening. public sidewalk, parkway and This project is financed with carrage walks, combination curb local Village funds and federal and gutter, driveways, and PCC Community Development Block basecourse; pavement adjacent Grant (CDBG) funds and thus to curbs, adjustment of drainage is subject to all federal rules, structures, buffalo boxes and regulations and guidelines, all appurtenant work thereto. including Davis-Bacon and Sidewalk sequencing during Related Acts, Section 3, and Equal the work and adherence to the Opportunity requirements. Locally completion date is of emphasis for funded phases of the project are this project as outlined in the plans subject to the Illinois Prevailing and proposal forms.

Wage Act, 820 ILCS 130/0.01 et Plans and proposal forms may seq. be obtained via the electronic THE VILLAGE OF OAK PARK service starting on Thursday Bill McKenna July 21st, at 4:00 p.m. Plans and Village Engineer Published in Wednesday Journal, July 20, 2022

PUBLIC NOTICE Legal Notice State of Illinois County of Cook PUBLIC NOTICE ID HEREBY GIVEN that a public hearing on the adoption of the proposed Annual Budget and Appropriations Ordinance of the Park District of Forest Park, County of Cook, Illinois for the fiscal year beginning May 1, 2022 and ending April 30, 2023 will be held at the Administration Building, 7501 Harrison Street, Forest Park, IL 60130 on July 28, 2022 at 5:00 p.m.

Jackie Iovinelli Park District Board Secretary Dated this July 18, 2022

PUBLIC NOTICE Attention CASMIERA SMITH & EXETER FINANCE, you are the last indicated owner or lienholder on file with Illinois Secretary Of State. Our records show, your 2015, DODGE, DART with the following VIN 1C3CDFBB9FD241810 was towed to our facility. The current amount due & owing is $1965.00. If payment is not received within 30 days, Nobs Towing Inc. will intent to enforce a mechanic’s lien pursuant to Chapter 770 ILCS 50/3. Sale of the aforementioned vehicle will take place at 1510 Hannah, Forest Park, IL, 60130 on 8/26/2022.

Published in the Forest Park Review July 20, 2022

NEWS FLASH!

Published in Forest Park Review July 20, 2022

PUBLIC NOTICES

PUBLIC NOTICES

LEGAL NOTICE The Village of Oak Park --Office of the Village Engineer, 201 South Boulevard, Oak Park, Illinois 60302-- will receive electronic proposals until 10:00 a.m. on Thursday August 11, 2022 for Project: 22-12, Austin Boulevard and Roosevelt Road Water Main Abandonment. Bids will be received and accepted, and bid results posted via the online electronic bid service listed below.

In general, the improvements consist of excavating and shoring at the intersection of Austin Boulevard and Roosevelt Road to allow for the City of Chicago to cut and cap an existing 12” water main. The project will also include filling two vaults, pavement patching, traffic control, and all appurtenant work thereto.

Plans and proposal forms may be obtained via the electronic service starting on Thursday, July 21, 2022 at 10:00 a.m., which can be found at https://www.oak-park. us/your-government/budget-

purchasing/requests-proposals or at www.questcdn.com under login using QuestCDN number 8258702 for a non-refundable charge of $30.00. The Village of Oak Park reserves the right to issue plans and specifications only to those contractors deemed qualified.

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

All prospective bidders must prove they are pre-qualified by the Illinois Department of Transportation by providing a certificate of eligibility to the Engineering Division at which time a password will be issued for access to the online bid documents.

The work to be performed pursuant to this Proposal is subject to the Illinois Prevailing Wage Act, 820 ILCS 130/0.01 et seq.

THE VILLAGE OF OAK PARK Bill McKenna Village Engineer

Published in Wednesday Journal, July 20, 2022

NOTICE OF PUBLIC MEETING On Thursday, July 28, 2022 at 9:00 a.m., a meeting conducted by Brookfield-LaGrange Park School District 95 will be taking place at S.E. Gross Middle School, 3524 Maple Ave. in Brookfield, in the 2nd Floor Conference room. The purpose of this meeting will be to discuss the District’s plans for providing special education services to students (who reside within the boundaries of Brookfield-LaGrange Park School District #95) with disabilities who attend private and home-schools within the District for the 2022-2023 school year. If you have further questions pertaining to this meeting, please contact Dean Pappas, Director of Student Services, at 708-588-8863 or dpappas@ district95.org Published in RB Landmark July 20, 2022

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PUBLIC NOTICE Notice is hereby given, pursuant to “An Act in relation to the use of an Assumed Business Name in the conduct or transaction of Business in the State,” as amended, that a certification was registered by the undersigned with the County Clerk of Cook County. Registration Number: Y22009380 on July 12, 2022 Under the Assumed Business Name of SHABBYFLY with the business located at: 738 HIGHLAND AVE, OAK PARK, IL 60304. The true and real full name(s) and residence address of the owner(s)/partner(s) is: KAREEM PRICE 738 HIGHLAND AVE OAK PARK, IL 60304, USA Published in Wednesday Journal July 20, 27, August 3, 2022

Wednesday Journal, July 20, 2022

CLASSIFIED

39

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

Let the sun shine in...

Public Notice: Your right to know 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

Starting a New Business?

REAL ESTATE FOR SALE

REAL ESTATE FOR SALE

IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS COUNTY DEPARTMENT - CHANCERY DIVISION TVC FUNDING IV, LLC; Plaintiff, vs.

NETWORK CONNECTION, LLC; BOBBY JONES; UNKNOWN OWNERS AND NON RECORD CLAIMANTS; Defendants, 20 CH 2792 NOTICE OF SALE PUBLIC NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale entered in the above entitled cause Intercounty Judicial Sales Corporation will on Tuesday, August 9, 2022 at the hour of 11 a.m. in their office at 120 West Madison Street, Suite 718A, Chicago, Illinois, sell at public auction to the highest bidder for cash, as set forth below, the following described mortgaged real estate: P.I.N. 16-08-104-004-0000.

Commonly known as 53 Chicago Avenue, Oak Park, Illinois 60302.

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

For information call The Sales Department at Plaintiff’s Attorney, Diaz Anselmo & Associates, P.A., 1771 West Diehl Road, Naperville, Illinois 60563. (630) 453-6925. F19120231 INTERCOUNTY JUDICIAL SALES CORPORATION intercountyjudicialsales.com I3197556

IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS COUNTY DEPARTMENT - CHANCERY DIVISION MILLENNIUM TRUST COMPANY, LLC AS CUSTODIAN FBO PRIME MERIDIAN NPL, LLC; Plaintiff, vs.

52ND AVE., LLC - 841 LOMBARD LLC, AN ILLINOIS LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY; FOSTER CHAMBERS; UNKNOWN OWNERS AND NON RECORD CLAIMANTS; Defendants, 21 CH 4618 NOTICE OF SALE PUBLIC NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale entered in the above entitled cause Intercounty Judicial Sales Corporation will on Tuesday, August 9, 2022 at the hour of 11 a.m. in their office at 120 West Madison Street, Suite 718A, Chicago, Illinois, sell at public auction to the highest bidder for cash, as set forth below, the following described mortgaged real estate: P.I.N. 16-05-303-023-0000.

Commonly known as 841 N. LOMBARD AVENUE, OAK PARK, IL 60302.

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

For information call Mr. Ira T. Nevel at Plaintiff’s Attorney, Law Offices of Ira T. Nevel, 175 North Franklin Street, Chicago, Illinois 60606. (312) 3571125. 21-02137 INTERCOUNTY JUDICIAL SALES CORPORATION intercountyjudicialsales.com I3197560

REAL ESTATE FOR SALE 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

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

Selling your home by owner?

Advertise here!

Call: 708-613-3342

40

Wednesday Journal, July 20, 2022

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

1323 JACKSON AVENUE, RIVER FOREST

1323JACKSONAV.INFO

139 S GROVE AVENUE, OAK PARK

139SGROVE.INFO

Beautiful French Normandy home on an oversized lot. Short distance to blue

This majestic Victorian home commands attention with its impressive wrap-

ribbon schools. $1,325,000

around porch and grand entrance. $1,179,000

HASEMAN/CURRAN

•

708.606.8896

•

greer.gps@atproperties.com

TONY & KATHY IWERSEN

•

708.772.8040

•

tonyiwersen@atproperties.com

1011 SOUTH BOULEVARD

1250 LATHROP AVENUE, RIVER FOREST

1250LATHROP.INFO

422 S LOMBARD AVENUE, OAK PARK

422SLOMBARD.INFO

Gorgeous Art Deco-influenced Georgian Buurma built in 1935 on a

This incredible home offers a large open-floor plan with a newly updated

66x180’ lot.

kitchen at its center stage.

$1,150,000

BRIAN BEHAN

•

312.480.1244

•

bb@ at prope rt ie s .com

CLAUDINE CANTU

•

$699,900

708.848.0200

•

claudine@atproperties.com

Stop looking, start finding® atproperties.com