Wednesday Journal 072821

W E D N E S D A Y

July 28, 2021 Vol. 41, No. 52 ONE DOLLAR @oakpark @wednesdayjournal

JOURNAL of Oak Park and River Forest

Family sues Oak Park, Forest Park police in death of suspect in custody Police don’t comment, family says dashcam video is proof

DIVERSITY CHIEF: Precious Porras takes on the chief diversity officer post at Dominican University as national debate over Dreamers continues.

Story on page 8.

By STACEY SHERIDAN Staff Reporter

The family of a man who died last August after being apprehended by police for a traffic violation has filed a misconduct lawsuit against the Oak Park and Forest Park police departments.

Filed July 19 in the Circuit Court of Cook County, the complaint alleges that 27-year-old Dajuan Gates exhibited multiple symptoms of an obvious medical emergency while being detained but police sought no medical attention despite being within 60 feet of the emergency room at Rush Oak Park Hospital, allegedly resulting in his preventable death.

“It is the primary responsibility of a police officer to protect the wellbeing of the citizens in custody,” said attorney Dan Kotin, of Tomasik, Kotin, Kasserman LLC, the firm representing Gates’ family.

Kotin told Wednesday Journal, Gates was suffering from hyperthermia caused by an overdose of PCP combined with the agitation of being detained, which resulted in his overheating.

“Then over the course of 20 minutes, his organs began to shut down,” said Kotin.

Representatives from the two police departments provided little in the way of comment but shared that neither department was aware of the filing.

See DAJUAN GATES on page 22

ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

OPRF eyes Dominican’s Priory Campus for expansion

School board expects to begin growth exploration

By F. AMANDA TUGADE Staff Reporter

District 200 school board officials are exploring the possibility of buying Dominican University’s Priory Campus, a 7.6-acre site in River Forest that in the

past was used to house the university’s graduate degree programs. Acquiring the land could help alleviate some of the challenges the high school district is facing with future renovation projects, said Karin Sullivan, district spokesperson.

“We are a landlocked campus, which has been a huge challenge,” Sullivan said. “We have a very old facility, over 100 years old in some sections, and we

have a lot of facility needs. And having this extra parcel of land would potentially allow us to address some of those needs.”

“Specifically what they are, we don’t know that yet,” she said.

The school board met Tuesday evening – after Wednesday Journal’s print deadline. It was expected to sign a letter of See OPRF PLAN on page 22

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Is there a ‘death gap’ in the suburbs, too?

new study published last month in the BMJ, one of the oldest peer-reviewed medical journals in the world, shows that the average life expectancy in the United States dropped sharply between 2018 and 2020.

In that short time span, the average American’s life expectancy was cut by nearly two years, to roughly 77 — nearly nine times the average decrease that 16 other “high income democracies” experienced during the same time.

The study, which utilized data from the National Center for Health Statistics and the Human Mortality Database, also shows that the gap between the U.S. and other rich nations widened to nearly five years, meaning the average lifespan of Americans is now nearly a half-decade shorter than the average lifespan in similarly high-income democracies like the United Kingdom, Spain and Commentary France.

But if the life-expectancy gap between the U.S. and the rest of the wealthy world is wide, then the gap between demographic groups within the U.S. is a chasm.

As Oak Park physician David Ansell explained in a 2017 Wednesday Journal article that was updated in February, life expectancy in Oak Park and River Forest is 83 years, but in Austin, life expectancy plummets to under 72. Ansell calls this racial disparity in life expectancy the “death gap.”

A new paperback edition of Ansell’s book, The Death Gap: How Inequality Kills, originally published in 2017, was released in June and features a foreword by Chicago Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot. That month, Lightfoot visited North Lawndale, where she shed light on the “death gap” between the city’s haves and have-nots, and declared racism a public health crisis.

But what if the “death gap” isn’t just between the U.S. and the rest of the wealthy world orr between Austin and Oak Park?

The BMJ study showed a sharp dip in average life expectancy in the U.S. from 2018 to 2020, and a particularly pronounced dip in average life expectancy among Blacks and Hispanics.

“Life expectancy in the U.S. decreased disproportionately among racial and ethnic minority groups between 2018 and 2020, declining by 3.88, 3.25, and 1.36 years in Hispanic, non-Hispanic Black, and non-Hispanic White populations, respectively,” the authors of the study note.

“In Hispanic and nonHispanic Black populations, reductions in life expectancy were 18 and 15 times the average in peer countries, respectively. Progress since 2010 in reducing the gap in life expectancy in the U.S. between Black and White people was erased in 2018-20; life expectancy in

MICHAEL ROMAIN

Black men reached its lowest level since 1998 (67.73 years), and the longstanding Hispanic life expectancy advantage almost disappeared.”

Nationally, Blacks died from COVID-19 at 1.4 times the rate of whites, according to t an analysis by the Covid Racial Tracker.

The racial inequity is also local. The medical examiner’s online database of m COVID-19-related deaths shows that of the C 662 COVID-19 deaths of Oak Park residents rreported to the medical examiner since March 2020, 28 of them (45%) were Blacks M (who make up about 18% of the village’s (w population). po Similarly, local studies jibe with the abundance of research showing a marked inda crease nationwide in what economists Anne cre Case and Angus Deaton termed “deaths of Ca despair.” des Consumed by the stress of unemployment C and/or underemployment, the breakdown of family units and other social ills, Americans — especially whites without college degrees — have increasingly turned to alcohol, drugs and suicide as palliatives. And a

stressful pandemic only compounds those problems that lead to “deaths of despair.”

A Cook County Department of Public Health report released in February showed that, from 2016 to 2020, Oak Park had among the highest rates of acute opioid exposure-overdose in suburban Cook County, according to an article I wrote in March.

“The report’s other key findings included the ‘sharp increase in opioid overdose mortality rates’ among middleaged Black men, ages 35 to 64, in suburban Cook County,” I wrote back then.

“This increase mirrors national trends also showing a marked rise beginning in 2016,” the report explained.

“Hospital and mortality rates were more than two times lower among Hispanic/Latinx residents compared to Black/African-American and white non-Hispanic residents” in Cook County’s suburbs.

Thanks to the hard work of people like Dr. Ansell, we know more about the life expectancy gap between Chicago’s West and South sides and its much wealthier and whiter neighborhoods like the Loop and suburbs like Oak Park.

But given this local data, I wonder whether we should also be looking at “death gaps” within suburbs.

CONTACT: michael@oakpark.com

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BIG WEEK July 28-Aug.4

“Re-Imagining Connection” Closing Reception & Conversation Friday, July 30, 5-7 p.m., 3D4D by Chicago Sculpture International (CSI) The CSI space, located in Bucktown, is a group exhibition that “showcases works expressing the sensibilities of our inherent human nature and our desire to connect.” It features nine Chicago-area artists, including Forest Park’s Gina Lee Robbins and Oak Park’s Michele Silvetti-Schmitt. Co-curated by Bryan Northup of Oak Park. Join six exhibiting artists, including Robbins, at the panel conversation to discuss the works and motivation of the artists. Gallery hours: Wednesdays through Sundays, 1 to 6 p.m.

More: 3d4dbycsi.org. 1912 N. Damen, Chicago.

Succulent and Cacti Sale Shop online July 30 through Aug. 13 Pick up in person at the Oak Park Conservatory Choose from a variety of rare and unusual succulents and cacti grown at the Conservatory. 615 Garfield St. Order/ more: pdop.org/parks-facilities/oak-park-conservatory/ succulentsandcactisale

Side Yard Sounds Friday, July 30, and Saturday, July 31, 7 to 9 p.m., Compound Yellow See the singer/songwriter duo Dowd & Drew on Friday and on Saturday, the Harry Tonchev Trio, featuring Tonchev’s jazz guitar. Next up - Friday, Aug. 13, Videokaffe: Northern Lights. $15. Tickets/ more: eventbrite.com/o/compound-yellow-24731643075. 244 Lake St., Oak Park.

Storytimes in the Park

How to Make a Memoir Series

Wednesdays through Aug. 18, 10 to 10:30 a.m., Various Oak Park Parks The Oak Park Public Library is partnering with the Park District of Oak Park to bring books, songs and more to neighborhoods this summer. For families with kids 0-5. Children under 14 must be accompanied by an adult. Bring your own blanket and hand sanitizer. Limited to 12 families, with masks. More: oppl.org Aug. 4: Taylor Park, 400 W. Division St. Aug. 11: Euclid Square Park, 705 W. Fillmore Aug. 18: Lindberg Park, 1151 N. Marion St.

Tuesday, Aug. 3, 6 to 8 p.m., Virtually with Oak Park Public Library Learn how to put your notes, life experiences and more into memoir form. In August, learn the specifics on how to write a memoir and Oak Park native Caitlin Garvey will share from her newly published memoir, The Mourning Report. Each session begins with discussion and ends with memoir-focused writing. Up next - Aug. 28, 2-4 p.m. Register: oppl.org/calendar

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Right decision on Pruitt-Adams contract

n a close vote by a vacationdiminished school board, Oak Park and River Forest High School did Joylynn PruittAdams the favor of turning down a plan by the new administration to keep her on the payroll as a consultant for the next school year.

I’ve been writing what are effectively mash notes to PruittAdams since I first watched her capture a room during a “listening tour” six years ago while she was still the school’s interim superintendent.

When she announced last fall she was retiring this June with a year left on her contract I was disappointed. So much left to do. So many compelling initiatives teed up ready to be executed.

But I respected her decision, knowing it has been hard to be in Chicago while the rest of her family is at home in St. Louis. Made harder, I’m sure, when her husband ended his own Oak Park-based retirement to take a job in policing in the St. Louis area.

My disappointment lessened in April when Oak Park and River Forest voters elected/ reelected school board members fully aligned with the equity projects the board had worked with Pruitt-Adams to undertake. And when the departing board announced their national search for a new superintendent had ended in the selection of Pruitt-Adams’ longtime assistant superintendent, Greg Johnson, my worries fully subsided.

Johnson has since gone on to make a series of very strong hires to remake and round out his administrative team.

That’s why I shook my head so hard when the agenda arrived for last Thursday night’s OPRF school board meeting and it included a vote on a consulting contract with PruittAdams.

It landed on me with a clang. A tone-deafness that undermined my confidence in Johnson and, likely I anticipated, in this board.

Pruitt-Adams chose to depart, to shave a year from her contract, to leave with the multiple pensions in place, to set up her successor for success. It ought to have been enough.

Thankfully, three of the five school board members at the meeting last week agreed that putting Pruitt-Adams on a consulting contract to, as the document stated, mentor Johnson, to mentor the newly promoted assistant superintendent/principal Lynda Parker and newly promoted assistant superintendent Laurie Fiorenza, was unnecessary. The language in the contract that said Pruitt-Adams would help the new team in “navigating politically-charged community issues,” was not a backhanded compliment to Johnson or his new A Team.

Fred Arkin, newly returned to the school board, said it well. Effusive in praising PruittAdams, he said, “We have to move on from the Dr. Pruitt-Adams era to the Greg Johnson era.” Arkin also correctly raised concerns the community might rightly have over the district adding to its administrative costs at a time many feel OPRF has become lopsided in administration.

If the vote had been held another night, a night when the full complement of school board members was present, maybe this contract would have been approved. I’m certain the three members who nixed this deal did Johnson a favor and steadied the deserved reputation Pruitt-Adams takes with her back to Missouri.

Would also hope that on a September afternoon when Greg Johnson is sitting in that handsome and spacious superintendent’s office on Scoville Avenue wrestling with a challenge, that he’d feel perfectly fine putting in a call to his friend and confidant Joylynn Pruitt-Adams.

I’m assuming she’d gladly take that call and not be on the clock.

DAN HALEY

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Housing Forward gets $100K grant from county

The nonprofit said the money will help pay for wrap around, other programs

By MICHAEL ROMAIN Equity Editor

A nonprofit with a considerable Oak Park footprint recently received a significant grant from Cook County that will go toward its mission of addressing housing insecurity in the west suburbs.

During a press conference July 23 in Oak Park, Cook County officials announced that Housing Forward was awarded a $100,000 grant through Cook County’s Justice Advisory Council (JAC).

The grant is part of $1.5 worth of investments the county is making in community-based organizations through JAC “aimed at creating stable and thriving communities throughout Cook County,” county officials said in a statement.

“We must invest in people and our communities if we hope to see positive change in our neighborhoods,” said Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle.

“This approach has the power to transform Cook County communities affected by an array of destabilizing factors, including housing instability, unemployment, mental health and crime,” she said. “Housing is a critical piece of the puzzle in this regard — we believe housing is a human right and today, we are taking another step in ensuring that everyone has a safe, stable place to lay their head at night.”

PROVIDED

FORWARD: Toni Preckwinkle, Cook County board president announces grant to Housing Forward as Lynda Schueler, executive director, looks on.

“Affordable, stable housing is the lynchpin to thriving communities, especially in my district where so many of our Black and Brown families also struggle with unemployment, food insecurity and health care disparities,” said First District Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson, whose district includes Housing Forward.

Lynda Schueler, Housing Forward’s executive director,

Community Foundation announces 7 recipients

West suburban nonprofits get Response and Recovery Fund grants

By MICHAEL ROMAIN Equity Editor

The Oak Park-River Forest Community Foundation recently announced recipients of its Response and Recovery Fund grants.

The grants, totaling $115,000, went to seven west suburban nonprofits, including: Leyden Family Service, Children’s Research Triangle, Taller de Jose, the Oak Park-River Forest Chamber of Commerce, the Oak Park Area Arts Council, the Oak Park Regional Housing Center, and the Farmworker and Landscaper Advocacy Project.

Tony Martinez Jr., Community Foundation president and CEO, said this most recent round of grants included organizations that provide mental health services, rent and utility assistance, vaccine education, and support for minority-owned businesses and arts organizations.

“The vaccination effort has allowed many in our community to get out and enjoy something close to pre-pandemic normal, but many others continue to struggle, and the long-term effects of the pandemic era are yet to be understood,” Martinez said.

The Rapid Recovery and Response Fund was launched in 2020 with a $50,000 investment from the Community Foundation “to provide desperately needed dollars to agencies fighting to provide daily, ongoing support to our most vulnerable neighbors: those struggling with food insecurity, permanent housing, and health concerns,” foundation officials explained in a statement released July 26.

In 2020, the 700 Block of Bonnie Brae’s LemonAid charity drive raised $30,000 for the fund, as well as over $500,000 “in a match challenge by longtime Oak Parkers Ken and Patty Hunt. The fund also received $250,000 from the Illinois COVID-19 Response Fund.”

“These grants could never have happened if it wasn’t for the heartfelt generosity of so many community members,” Martinez said.

said the JAC grant will help support the organization’s missions “and provides us with the space, capacity and flexibility to reach those goals.”

Schueler said the JAC grant will help fund the organization’s array of support programs for individuals experiencing homelessness in the west suburbs. Those programs include wrap-around support for people experiencing housing instability and providing permanent housing for residents in the area. Schueler said Housing Forward serves nearly 2,000 individuals and families each year.

The grant announcement comes on the heels of Housing Forward’s announcement in May that it plans on building 16 units of permanent supportive housing for individuals and families on a vacant lot at 1014-1020 W. Roosevelt Rd. in Broadview.

In March 2020, the nonprofit entered into a 1-year lease with the Write Inn, the 65-room hotel in Oak Park, in order to provide temporary housing for its clients experiencing homelessness.

“The leadership at Housing Forward pivoted on a dime early in the pandemic when our homeless needed to be housed immediately in order to keep them safe and others in the community safe,” said Oak Park Village President Vicki Scaman.

“This grant is a tremendous starting point for rebuilding lives and communities. The simple truth is that if you want solutions, you have to invest resources and provide opportunities to solve the problems. That is finally starting to happen,” said Illinois Senate President Don Harmon, Democrat from Oak Park.

CONTACT: michael@oakpark.com

Community Foundation announces new board member, leadership The OP-RF Community Foundation announced in a statement released July 12 that Bruce Wojack and Kelly Turner are the new chair and vice-chair of the board of directors.

In addition, the board welcomed its newest member, Ana Garcia Doyle.

Wojack, who lives in River Forest, is a senior vice president and wealth strategist at The Northern Trust and a former trust specialist with Merill Lynch. Wojack is also co-chair of the Professional Advisory Committee of the Chicago Community Trust, as a member of the Chicago Estate Planning Council, and is past president of the River Forest Tennis Club, foundation officials explained in the statement.

“I am proud and impressed by the leadership role the Community Foundation took during the COVID-19 lockdown in creating the Rapid Response and Recovery Fund to get resources to local organizations quickly and without fanfare,” Wojack said. “One of my goals as board chair is to raise awareness of the foundation and the initiatives it is undertaking to support individuals and organizations in western Cook County.”

Turner, who lives in Oak Park, is senior counsel with the American Arbitration Association (AAA) in its Chicago regional office.

Before that, she worked for more than 19 years

at the full-service international law firm of Locke Lord LLP. Turner is also on the board of directors of the Oak Park-River Forest Infant Welfare Society.

Doyle, has a professional background in digital marketing and publishing, is the co-founder and executive director of One Earth Collective, an Oak Park-based environmental nonprofit that produces the One Earth Film Festival.

She lives in Oak Park and has also been in involved in environmental sustainability initiatives at District 97 schools.

“I am thrilled and humbled to be a part of the Community Foundation board,” Doyle said. “I think the work being done now is critical — not just substantively but as a model of how organizations with a long legacy can build on that legacy to effect change.”

Each Community Foundation board member serves a 3-year term.

“The 2021 board of directors is grateful to its outgoing members, Cuyler Brown, John Hedges, Phillip Jiménez, Barbara Rohm Rossa and Eric Weinheimer, for their years of service, and for their unwavering dedication to improving the lives of community residents,” foundation officials said.

CONTACT: michael@oakpark.com

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After shooting, Oak Park eyes Airbnb regulations

Would require annual licensing process

By STACEY SHERIDAN Staff Reporter

The village of Oak Park may soon require residents to have a license to rent out their homes and condominiums through Airbnb and other rental platforms. The potential action would be largely in response to the shooting that occurred during a party May 24 at an Airbnb rental on South Lombard Avenue, resulting in one person sustaining a non-lifethreatening injury.

Village Manager Cara Pavlicek spoke of the growing trend of renting Airbnb properties for uses unrelated to lodging and called the shooting a “public safety incident” during the first reading of the potential ordinance at the July 19 village board meeting.

“Recently over the summer, we’ve seen a growing trend of Airbnb properties not being really rented for, say, the tourism industry or a family member coming to stay in the community but rentals for parties,” said Pavlicek.

As currently written, the ordinance would require Airbnb hosts to get the same type of license as bed and breakfast operators for an annual fee of $350.

Historically, the village has had essentially no authority to regulate Airbnb rentals and

the village board was widely receptive to granting itself regulatory authority by requiring hosts to have licenses to rent, so long as hosts have the opportunity to provide input regarding the ordinance.

As vacation rentals by owner and rental platforms began gaining traction in Chicago and the surrounding communities “close to 10 years ago,” the village elected not to license Airbnb rentals, allowing for the “free market to take effect and evolve,” according to the village manager.

Oak Park later added the requirement that Airbnb pay into the village’s hotel and motel tax, also known as the transient occupancy rental unit tax, which is four percent on the gross rental receipts of a hotel, motel or transient occupancy rental. Airbnb applies the tax through their platform and turns the money over to the village.

The idea to have Airbnb hosts weigh in on the ordinance came from Trustee Lucia Robinson with support echoed by Trustee Chibuike Enyia.

“Because we don’t license, we don’t know who the Airbnb [hosts] are,” said Pavlicek.

Pavlicek suggested the village host an open invitation townhall meeting for anyone who chooses to participate.

Development Customer Services Director Tammie Grossman told the board that staff would put out notices, host the meeting over Zoom and ask Airbnb owners to voluntarily identify themselves and work with the village.

We’re hiring!

Digital publishing and technology manager We are seeking a leader in digital and technology innovation and execution for our independent nonprofit community newsroom.

There are many aspects to this role and so we are looking for a special individual who sees the interconnectivity and finds the possibilities invigorating (and, yes, sometimes a little overmuch).

Our candidate will have a passion for community journalism and the technology skills to lead (push) a long-time print focused newsroom into the light of digital first storytelling.

We also seek a curious person excited to help create a nonprofit community journalism model that is sustaining and builds storytelling growth and the methods of telling those stories. And, also, yes, to advertising and sponsorships, to video and podcasts, to improving the funnel of new readers and members, to using analytics to grow readership and drive monetization.

Maintaining and expanding the technology we use to reach readers and connect them to sponsors and advertisers is vital. We have newly remade websites for our four flags using a WordPress platform backed

by Google and called NewsPack. It is built for independent community newsrooms.

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“We can also communicate with Airbnb directly,” said Grossman.

Trustee Jim Taglia noted the large source of revenue Airbnb provides the village, sharing that Oak Park had seen almost 16,000 nights of lodging through the company in 2019 at an approximate nightly rate of $125.

“That’s a lot of individuals renting units,” Taglia said. “What is the primary concern of the village when we look to regulate and license it.”

Echoing Pavlicek, Grossman told Taglia the concern was born out of the South Lombard Avenue shooting. In that late night incident, witnesses reported 15-20 young people leaving what may have been a graduation party. Multiple shots were fired and police recovered 22 shell casings from the street.

Grossman added that in other instances the village has received complaints of Airbnb guests parking in undesignated spaces, people overcrowding in rentals, loud noises and unclean guests.

Regulating rentals also allows the village to inspect rental homes and condominiums for potential safety and health issues, according to Grossman.

Trustee Ravi Parakkat wanted to know if Airbnb has created impact on the affordability of living in Oak Park, to which Grossman replied that she thinks it has posed “somewhat of problem.”

“People are holding on to condos, for example, that maybe they could put back into

the market or maybe they could rent on a traditional lease on a more affordable rate,” she said.

Having a number of vacation rentals, Grossman said, is also helpful but communities need to strike a balance between long-term and short-term rentals.

“I think this licensing and regulation will help us figure out what the right balance is,” she said.

Trustee Arti Walker-Peddakotla said “there has been a number of studies that have come out” that have found Airbnb to have a similar effect on communities as gentrification in that an increased number of short-term rental units causes overall rental rates to grow, pushing out low-income and middle-income longterm residents.

Walker-Peddakotla told the board she would support increasing the tax collected from Airbnb, stating that it is smaller than that of other Illinois municipalities.

She called “excessive” the portion of the ordinance that requires property owners looking to rent their homes to provide the village proof of homeowners insurance or host protection insurance in the amount of at least $500,000.

Walker-Peddakotla suggested making the amount proportional to home value, the possibility of which Grossman said she’d research.

The ordinance will return to the board for a second reading, typically two weeks after the first. Adoption of the ordinance usually occurs in the same meeting as the second reading.

Growing Community Media deliver critical breaking newsletters to our 12,000 subscribers – newsletters which incorporate ads and sponsors and convert readers into members/donors. Our social media reach is growing. How do we maximize its impact? How do we best serve ads to readers and track the data that will be compelling to those sponsors.

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Our hoped for skills include technical proficiency in: • WordPress/NewsPack • Google Ad Manager • Mail Chimp/Constant Contact • Photo/video editing • Social media including FB, Twitter and Instagram.

Send resumes, portfolio links and a brief note telling us why you’re the one we’re looking for.

Dan Haley. Publisher. Growing Community Media. dhaley@wjinc.com

Development and Sales Coordinator Growing Community Media is seeking an enthusiastic and versatile marketer to be an integral member of both our development and sales teams for our independent nonprofit community newsroom. This cross functional role will help create and implement our pioneering blended advertising and philanthropic revenue model to fund the ongoing work of Growing Community Media. Our candidate will have strong marketing and customer service skills, the ability to communicate clearly, be organized and attentive to detail, and able to work efficiently under deadline pressure. You will use your ability to work both independently and as part of cross-functional teams. Your technical skills should include proficiency with MS Office and Google Workspace.

Familiarity with Google Ad Manager and WordPress are a plus. If you appreciate local community journalism and want to play a part in ensuring the Austin Weekly News, Wednesday Journal, Forest Park Review and RB Landmark remain vibrant sources of hyperlocal news, send your resume to email@ growingcommunitymedia.org.

Editor/Lead reporter Growing Community Media, an independent non-profit community news publisher, is hiring a full-time editor/lead reporter for our Forest Park Review.

You will be reporting on village government, local public elementary and high schools, business and community life.

Your reporting will be published on digital, print and social platforms.

We are looking for a person who loves community journalism and sees its power and its storytelling connections in an engaged community. Bring your energy and ideas, strong

work ethic and enjoy a sense of ownership in your work. You’ll need to work independently and also collaboratively in our small, supportive newsroom.

Growing Community Media is a non-profit created in 2020 as the successor to Wednesday Journal, Inc., a 40-year-old for profit community publisher. We also publish on the city’s West Side in Austin, in Oak Park and River Forest and in Riverside and Brookfield.

Send us a cover letter explaining why you are interested. Please include your resume and clips.

Send to dhaley@wjinc.com

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Making ‘good trouble’ at Dominican University DU’s new chief diversity officer, Precious Porras, talks support for staff, students

By F. AMANDA TUGADE

on undocumented students and those who have loved ones that are undocumented, Porras said.

“That disruption in their lives – I mean, When Precious Porras heard that a federal judge in Texas recently declared the that is their lives,” she said. “Everything else Deferred Action for Childhood Programs becomes secondary. That’s frustrating to me (DACA) illegal, she was upset and frustrated. to see how their lives are just put on pause.”

Porras, who became the university’s chief Over the last 9 years, since 2012, the program diversity officer in March, felt has sought to protect undocucompelled to reach out and exmented immigrants who came tend her support to staff, faculty to the United States as children and students, who may have felt from deportation. Now, district shaken by Hanen’s decision. In a court Judge Andrew Hanen’s statement released by the univerruling, which aims to block new sity days after the ruling, Porras applicants from receiving that wrote that she and Barrington same relief, has threatened the Price, vice president of student lives of hundreds of thousands success and engagement, were of people, thrusting them into saddened by the news and reaflimbo. firmed their commitment to the “This has been a back and forth PRECIOUS PORRAS DU community, including those for so long, especially in the last 5 who may face “uncertain futures years and under the last adminisbecause they are undocumented.” tration,” said Porras, Dominican Porras and Price also shared that DU reUniversity’s newest chief diversity officer, newed its Sanctuary Campus Covenant, in a Zoom call.

Created under the Obama administration, which vows to “do what it can, within the the DACA program has helped more than boundaries of the law, to protect residents 600,000 young undocumented immigrants, from deportation.” Under the covenant, the known as “Dreamers.” The program grants university has sought to create a safe space recipients work permits but does not offer a for undocumented students to gather and find pathway to citizenship. Recipients must ap- community and provide access to legal aid for help with filing renewals or financial asply for renewals every 2 years.

“I know the impact that [the ruling] has” sistance, as well as mental health resources.

Staff Reporter

For Porras, releasing the statement was one of many steps she hopes to take in continuing the university’s mission of inclusion. In fact, she believed the ruling itself served as a reminder to educate people “on the systems” in the U.S. that have been built to “uphold whiteness, white supremacy and to oppress other folks.”

Porras said the Texas federal court’s decision was one that not only impacted people from marginalized communities, but it was a “legal decision made in our legal system.”

That system, she said, can only be dismantled if people get involved, participate and advocate.

At Dominican University, Porras sees herself as just that – someone who isn’t afraid of taking a closer look at DU’s policies that may affect staff and students, including those of color. She is also working on building better relationships with other university leaders such as the provost, the dean’s office, members of incoming President Glena Temple’s cabinet and several other program directors.

“I am one person,” Porras said. “I don’t have staff. I cannot fix every single problem by myself. I need to have my community behind me.”

Porras comes to DU with nearly two decades of experience in diversity and leadership in higher education. Before Porras made her way to suburban River Forest, she was at the University of Kansas, where she took on

several different roles in the Office of Multicultural Affairs before becoming the assistant vice provost of equity and inclusion.

Aside from administrative work, Porras poured herself into initiatives that often sought to build a positive, welcoming and supportive environment for university staff and students. That included leading workshops or training on cultural education, creating mentoring programs for students and working with the Office of Admissions to recruit more students of color.

Reflecting on her years in higher education, Porras said her work and passion are driven by personal experience. Porras, who is biracial, grew up in a single parent household and was from a rural town with less than 200 people. In school and in her community, she was the only student of color.

“I experienced racial discrimination daily, including being called racial epithets daily,” said Porras, whose mother is white and father is Black. “I remember thinking like I didn’t have anywhere to go with that as a child.”

“That was really hard because my mom – my white mom – didn’t understand. My family didn’t understand,” Porras said, adding it was only when she reached college that she saw an opportunity to be part of a change.

Porras said she is often reminded of the reasons why diversity is important and why it is necessary to talk about, think about and build upon. And why it is her life’s work.

Almost. Not quite on in-person meetings at Oak Park village hall

Will remain virtual until Aug. 21

By STACEY SHERIDAN Staff Reporter

The village of Oak Park has conducted village board and citizen commission meetings remotely for well over a year due to COVID-19 and will continue to do so until at least mid-August. The village of Oak Park was set to return to holding in-person village board and commission meetings July 26, but a disaster proclamation from Gov. J.B. Pritzker allowed for a change of plans.

Issued July 23 and set to expire Aug. 21, the proclamation allows for the continuance of virtual meetings in municipalities, among other steps enacted to prevent further spread of COVID-19.

Upon the proclamation’s expiration, it is unclear whether the village of Oak Park

will proceed with the same measures for in person meetings that were laid out in the July 19 village board meetings, such as having no seating for the public inside meeting chambers.

“At the time that in person meetings are permitted, the [village manager’s office] with the Public Health Director will review current mitigation measures and announce parameters for in person meetings, therefore, I can’t say at this time what may change,” Village Manager Cara Pavlicek wrote in a July 26 email to Wednesday Journal.

Responding to a request from Wednesday Journal that its reporter be permitted to attend all in-person meetings, Vicki Scaman, village president, said the Journal will be allowed in the meeting room.

Pritzker’s last disaster proclamation, issued June 25, included language directing municipalities to prepare for the return of inperson meetings. “[A]s the number of fully vaccinated individuals in Illinois continues to increase, I do

not expect to make this finding again, and public bodies should plan on its expiration as of July 24, 2021,” the proclamation reads.

During the July 17 village board meeting, Pavlicek gave the board an overview of the in-person meeting guidelines, including requiring village board members and citizen commissioners to social distance while in meetings, which were to be held in room 101 of village hall, as previously.

“Public seating would not be available in the room, but there will be a place at the entrance for public comment to be made,” said Pavlicek.

The public would have had the opportunity to observe the meeting from a television outside the room. Trustee Arti Walker-Peddakotla asked the board to consider giving the public the option to submit their public comments electronically to be read by the village clerk.

“I would certainly be in favor of that,” said Scaman.

In public comment, resident Greg Kolar asked the village to continue recording com-

mission meetings, at least in an auditory capacity, and archiving the material on the website, which was supported by Walker-Peddakotla, who in turn asked if all commission meetings would be televised.

“If so, I think that’s great and we need to do that,” she said.

Pavlicek said the village could continue to broadcast and archive commission meeting footage going forward. The village manager told the board that the village’s static camera could record commission meetings. For village board meetings, a member of staff controls the camera, allowing for multiple angles.

Prior to the pandemic, the village only regularly recorded and archived footage from five of its 20 commissions. Every village board meeting is also recorded and archived. Walker-Peddakotla noted that the pandemic provided for greater government transparency as it prompted the village to begin recording and archiving all commission meetings. She felt that the village should maintain that practice.

Wednesday Journal, July 28, 2021

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Rush mandates vaccinations for all staff, volunteers

COVID-19 cases continue to rise locally

By STACEY SHERIDAN Staff Reporter

Rush University System for Health has enacted a mandate requiring all staff, volunteers and contractors of Rush Oak Park Hospital and Rush University Medical Center to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Oct. 1, as cases continue to rise across the United States, proving that the pandemic is not over in Oak Park, River Forest and elsewhere.

“Universal COVID-19 vaccination will

strengthen our ability to protect the health and safety of our staff, help safeguard members of our community who are at the highest risk of developing serious disease from the coronavirus and bring us another step closer to resuming full operations,” reads the statement from Rush released July 26.

The village of Oak Park reported July 21 that there have been 16 new positive cases of COVID-19 since July 14. The previous week, it was reported that there had been 20 new cases.

Since March 2020, Oak Park has had 3,247 residents test positive for COVID-19.

The increase stresses the need for people to get vaccinated, which the Oak Park Public Health Department is encouraging eligible residents to do, if they have not already. The

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that all authorized vaccinations are effective in thwarting all circulating mutations of the COVID-19, including the Delta variant, the most dominant strain.

Oak Park has a rolling seven-day average positivity rate of 2.84 percent while River Forest’s is at 2.59 percent, per Northwestern University’s Illinois COVID data dashboard.

Two-thirds of the eligible Oak Park population has gotten vaccinated – well below Evanston and other communities, according to the Oak Park Public Health Department. Of the roughly 30,000 residents who have gotten the vaccine, 29,103 are fully vaccinated and 29,962 have received at least one dose.

The Cook County Department of Public

Health (CCDPH) has reported 73.4 percent of River Forest’s population has received at least one vaccination dose with 61.2 percent having completed a full vaccination series. River Forest has had 838 positive cases cumulatively as of July 26, according to the CCDPH. As Oak Park has its own health department, unlike River Forest, CCDPH does not track Oak Park’s infection rate. The Oak Public Health Department does not provide the information either.

Deaths from COVID-19 have occurred in both villages. Cook County Medical Examiner data indicates River Forest has had 3 deaths and Oak Park 62 cumulative since March 16, 2020.

No longer ignored, Asian-American history comes to school Local Asian Americans celebrate state’s TEAACH Act

By F. AMANDA TUGADE Staff Reporter

When Ayesha Akhtar learned that Illinois recently became the first state in the nation to require public schools to teach Asian American history, she was excited. A firstgeneration Pakistani American, Akhtar said she hopes the new curriculum will finally shed light on more Asian countries and figures that have largely been ignored in history classes and textbooks.

“I feel like a lot of people just don’t recognize how vast Asia is and how many subcultures there are,” said Akhtar, a longtime Oak Park resident and mother of two teens.

Earlier this month, Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the Teaching Equitable Asian American History Act, or TEAACH for short.

The act – which will take effect Jan. 1, 2022, – includes studying the important events in Asian American history in the United States, as well as in Illinois and the Midwest. Lessons will also center on how Asian Americans contributed “toward advancing civil rights” since the 19th century and how their communities continue to shape the U.S. economy, society, culture and more according to the legislation.

The legislation also stated that the Illinois State Superintendent may provide instructional materials, and local school boards will have the chance to determine how time will be devoted to teaching Asian American history.

“Asian American history is American history. Yet we are often invisible,” said state Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz (D-Glenview), the act’s lead sponsor, in a statement.

“Empathy comes from understanding. We cannot do better unless we know better. A lack of knowledge is the root cause of discrimination, and the best weapon against

OFFICE OF GOV. J.B. PRITZKER /TWITTER

LAW OF THE LAND: Oak Park Asian Americans have a strong response to law signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker mandating inclusion of Asian-American history in Illinois classrooms. ignorance is education.”

The advocacy group, Asian Americans Advancing Justice of Chicago, first introduced the act, which came at a time when the nation saw a sudden rise in anti-Asian hate crimes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

There were 6,603 incidents of hate reported between March 2020 and March 2021, according to the national coalition Stop AAPI Hate.

In a statement to Wednesday Journal, Eboney Lofton and Tawanda Lawrence, administrators at Oak Park Elementary School District 97, said the act aligns with their mission to “create a more inclusive school environment for all students.” Expanding the school’s curriculum to include the Asian American experience will move the

fight forward “against negative stereotypes and racism,” said Lofton, the district’s chief academic and accountability officer, and Lawrence, senior director of curriculum, instruction and assessment.

Mary Grace Bertulfo said she was 20 years old when she first learned the U.S. colonized the Philippines, her home country – “and that was because I took an elective in Asian American Studies at UCLA.” Up until that point, the only thing she really knew about the Philippines came from an excerpt in an encyclopedia, which haunted her. The excerpt read, “Ferdinand Magellan was killed in the Philippines by savages,” Bertulfo, another Oak Park resident, said via Facebook. “It broke my heart, and my sense

of identity.”

When Bertulfo became a mother, she built her own library in her basement, chock-full of stories on Filipino Americans, as well as the history of the Philippines, for her son.

She also donated those kinds of books to the Oak Park Public Library, so her son and “other kids would see positive, accurate representations of Fil Ams.” For Akhtar, she mostly learned about her cultural heritage at home. Akhtar, whose parents came to the states in the 1970s, recalled dinner times were special. They would gather around the table, eating Pakistani food almost every night and talking in their mother tongues, Urdu and Punjabi. Akhtar said her grandmother also lived with her parents and her siblings, so stories about the homeland never seemed too far away.

“I was just immersed in it from Day 1,” she said. “... It was just part of my identity.”

K, who lives in Oak Park, echoed Akhtar and spoke about how her father was instrumental in teaching her about their Japanese culture.

K, who asked her name to be withheld for privacy reasons, said her paternal grandmother was a Nisei, a second-generation Japanese American, who lived in California.

As a child, K’s father told her stories about his own mother’s experience as a Japanese American, growing up in a newly integrated suburb of Los Angeles. Outside her home, K remembered a school librarian, who was also Japanese American, had helped her find resources, bridging any gaps in understanding her racial identity.

Even as adults, K and Bertulfo shared their continuing efforts to discover more about Asian American history, and they hope the next generation, Asian Americans and nonAsian Americans alike, won’t have to face the same challenges.

“I’m thrilled that Asian American history will be taught across Illinois,” Bertulfo said.

“Hopefully, funding for the materials will be roundly supported.”

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Wednesday Journal, July 28, 2021

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OPRF grad wants to put village on the hip hop map Charles Donalson and Anthill Sound Production want to turn Oak Park into musical bastion

By MICHAEL ROMAIN Equity Editor

At 22, Charles Donalson is still that teenager you saw rhythmically walking the halls of Oak Park and River Forest High School in the 2018 documentary “America To Me.” Throughout the film, Donalson’s headphones were omnipresent, like another pair of ears.

Donalson may be all grown up, but he’s still listening intently, with much of what he hears informing his own music. He’s currently signed with Anthill Sound Production, an independent recording company formed in the Oak Park and Galewood area that has a goal of making Oak Park and Chicago’s West Side the next bastion of inventive hip hop.

“We’re trying to get Oak Park artists — rappers and singers — to come through,” Donalson said recently. “If you have a project you want to do, come to us and we’ll help you put that project out. Aside from copyright and other legal stuff, we’ll also help you with getting your cover art together and other marketing business.”

Donalson said he’s Anthill’s proof of concept, its franchise player, if you will, who has utilized the company to put out his own music, including two singles that were released on Apple Music, Tydal, Spotify and YouTube (“wherever you listen to music”) last week.

The new music comes roughly two years after Donalson partnered with his friend and Anthill’s creative head, Antown Billups, to release an album in 2019 called “For Whatever You Do.” Donalson said his newest material is less heady than his 2019 content and it takes him

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WROTE FIRST RAP AT 4: Charles Donalson, remembered from “America To Me,” focusing on music and film. back to his OPRF days.

One single, “Mixed Signals,” is about getting stood up on dates,” he said. “I feel like in high school, I would ruin my chances with girls I wanted to talk to, because I’d write songs about them. I’m back doing that.”

The other single, “Am I Wrong,” is less than two minutes, which is itself a critique.

“It’s a real song, but it’s a minute-anda-half,” Donalson said. “I remember a few years ago when Lil Pump dropped ‘Gucci Gang’ and people were talking about how short that song was. The song is only two

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minutes and people were saying, ‘Oh, these rappers are so lazy.’

“I love music and history, and so I was listening to Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers,” Donalson added. “His biggest hit, ‘Why Do Fools Fall in Love,’ is not even two-and-ahalf minutes. That was recorded in 1955. I’m like, ‘Y’all was lazy back in the ‘50s!’”

Donalson said his relationship with Anthill is less like a celebrity signed to a major record label. He’s technically an independent contractor who juggles his music along with other gigs. He said he’s also working

with some friends who are trying to develop two projects for TV—one of them a docuseries and another an anime production.

Eventually, Donalson said, he wants all of his checks to come from music and production. For him, there’s really no other option.

“I think I wrote my first rap when I was like 4 years old after I heard ‘Many Men’ [a 2003 song by rapper 50 Cent],” he said. “I heard that song and was like, ‘Naw, this is what I’m doing for the rest of my life.’”

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Library offers food for thought, and for butterflies Pollinator gardens planted outside Main Library and Maze Branch

By STACEY SHERIDAN Staff Reporter

grow and require little in the way of maintenance because they are indigenous.

The monarch butterfly is protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Its population has plummeted from 1.2 million in the 1990s to fewer than 2,000 in 2020 due to global warming, pesticides and development, according to the nonprofit organization Center for Biological Diversity.

“We’re an important area for the monarch butterfly,” said Horkavy.

Oak Park is well positioned to help the ailing monarch population. Milkweed is indigenous to the Corn Belt, which covers Illinois and several other Midwestern states, making the region an important pitstop in the butterfly’s multigenerational migration from Mexico to Canada.

At the request of the local environmental club, Earth Action Team, the Oak Park Village Board passed a proclamation Feb. 8 declaring 2021 the “year of the butterfly” to inspire the community to create healthy habitats for monarchs.

The Oak Park Public Library (OPPL) has joined the effort by planting two pollinator gardens on library premises to support monarch butterflies, whose numbers have decreased dramatically in recent years.

“It’s important for us to provide natural habitats so we can keep our indigenous plants and animals,” said Dean Horkavy, children’s services assistant at OPPL. Horkavy spearheaded development of the library’s pollinator gardens, one of which is on the ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer southeast corner of the Main Library, tak- HABITAT: A bee checks out one of the flowers at the Maze Branch ing up about 500 feet, pollinator garden. and the second on the south side of the “They’re here probably in June in the MidMaze Branch, covering a little more than 200 feet. Both contain a variety of different native west; then they lay their eggs and keep moving on,” said Horkavy. plants, including several different species of The region’s substantial agriculture inmilkweed — the most important food source dustry has led to the decimation of wild for monarchs.

Monarch butterflies lay eggs on the milk- milkweed, resulting in a dwindling habitat weed leaves, which contain poison. Upon for butterflies. As part of its conservation efhatching, the monarch caterpillars eat the forts, OPPL intends to give willing residents leaves and become poisonous to their preda- packets of milkweed seeds to plant in their tors. Adult butterflies also drink the nectar yards.

“Maybe you start with one milkweed plant from the milkweed flowers.

“They could not exist without milkweed,” and just see how it goes,” said Horkavy.

“Then your kids will get super-excited by the Horkavy said.

The plants in the two library gardens were monarch butterfly that visits.”

The word “diversity” is common in converchosen by Horkavy’s friend, Oak Parker Doug Chien, who sits on the board of West sations about Oak Park, used as a descriptor Cook Wild Ones, a nonprofit dedicated to pre- for the demographics of the village’s resiserving and supporting natural ecosystems dents. But diversity also extends to Oak Park’s through responsible landscaping. Purchased biological environment. Planting pollinator from Midwest Groundcovers LLC, the entire gardens, or even just milkweed, presents an cost of the plants totaled about $960, paid for opportunity to nurture a more diverse landscape, supporting a multitude of different naby OPPL. With the help of some family members, tive plant, insect and animal species.

“Gardens are like communities — diverHorkavy and Chien volunteered their time to plant the gardens on May 22. The plants sity makes them healthier,” said Horkavy. haven’t yet reached full maturation, but all “There’s always value in diversity.”

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Wednesday Journal, July 28, 2021

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Wednesday Journal, July 28, 2021

Celebrating Sr. Michelle

More than 400 people turned out Wednesday, July 14 as Trinity High School remembered Sr. Michelle Germanson, its longtime president. Germanson died Oct. 21, 2020 but any public memorial was delayed by COVID-19 restrictions.

The ceremony, held outside on the River Forest campus, included several speakers who recalled Germanson’s broad contributions to the school and her energetic, charismatic personality.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF TRINITY HIGH SCHOOL

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Oak Park begins budget discussions with a primer

Staff explains ins and outs of funds accounting

By STACEY SHERIDAN Staff Reporter

With the hazy summer heat, it may feel difficult to imagine January, but the village of Oak Park has already begun planning for the new year’s budget, which will likely be passed in December. The village board held a preliminary budget discussion during its July 27 meeting. There was a brief appearance by a special guest who stole the show, adding excitement to the otherwise formal meeting.

“Basically, this evening, what we want to be able to do is provide some basic information about requirements under the municipal code and state statute related to the budget preparation,” said Village Manager Cara Pavlicek.

Village code establishes the fiscal year as Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, with the requirement that the village board adopt the budget prior to the beginning of the new year. It is preferable to adopt the fiscal year budget in early December due to a number of filing requirements with which the village’s finance department must comply under state law, according to Pavlicek.

The code also requires the village manager to submit a budget proposal on or before the village board’s first meeting in November, which is scheduled for Nov. 1 this year. The proposal must contain estimates of revenues, as well as recommended expenditures and the associated funds, in accordance with good fiscal management practice. Copies of that recommended budget are made available to the public 10 days in advance of the meeting. The board is required to hold at least one budget public hearing.

State law requires the village to employ fund accounting for revenues and expenditures; fund accounting is among the basic principles of generally accepted accounting principles in government.

Pavlicek gave an outline of the village’s several funds of various classifications. The village’s primary operations are covered in its general fund. The village also has three enterprise funds, which account for business-like activities, such as environmental services.

The village also has capital funds, internal services funds, grant funds and special revenue funds.

The village manager then handed the reins to Chief Financial Officer Steve Drazner, who walked the board through basic financial information, including a summary of expenses per fund for this fiscal year.

“In total, for the current year, our total expenditures equal about $151 million and of that $151 million, approximately $61 million is for the general fund,” said Drazner.

A combination of personnel services and benefits make up the vast majority of general

fund expenditures, according to the numbers provided in Drazner’s presentation. Those expenditures include pension contributions, salaries, health insurance and anything related to the cost of having employees, according to the CFO. During Drazner’s review of historical property tax and sales tax data, he said the tax year is always in arrears, meaning one year behind the fiscal year As such fiscal year 2021 equates to tax year 2020. The village of Oak Park’s total property tax levy for the fiscal year 2021 falls at just under $35 million, with $17.6 going to the general fund and $4.2 million going to the debt service fund. The remaining money is being allocated between police and fire pension funds.

“In addition to that, the county automatically adds either three or five percent,” said Drazner. “That’s to cover any properties that do not pay their property taxes.”

Typically, the village collects anywhere from 98 to 100 percent of its property tax levy, according to Drazner.

At the end of this fiscal year, the village will have a total outstanding debt of about $94.4 million, If the village does not issue any new debt, the village will end fiscal year 2022 with about $88.2 million in debt. The debt figures do not include pensions.

“I wish it did,” the CFO conceded.

During the core services section of the budget meeting, where directors of each department gave basic outlines of their operations, Village Clerk Christina Waters, who has been out on maternity leave, not only shared the responsibilities of her department but the new addition to her family.

“Are you going to let us see Vivienne?” Village President Vicki Scaman asked the clerk.

The infant’s face was nestled into the shoulder of her mother, who gamely turned her around for everyone to see and baby Vivienne instantly became the star of the meeting, eliciting coos from staff and board members alike.

“She’s beautiful, Christina! Congratulations,” Trustee Arti Walker-Peddakotla said.

Waters continued her presentation, explaining the clerk’s role as public information officer and keeper of village board proceedings, while holding her small daughter. Upon Waters’ departure from the virtual meeting, attention was still on Vivienne. Scaman called her presence “a special treat,” while Pavlicek thought the baby was a tough act to follow.

“No one can compete with Vivienne,” the village manager said.

Come September, the village board will begin discussing the section of the budget related to capital improvement projects. Following its adoption tentatively scheduled for October, the board will begin discussing the recommended budget in full, hosting two public meetings in November with the goal of adopting the plan in December.

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Wednesday Journal, July 28, 2021

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D200 school board turns down Pruitt-Adams as consultant It’s time to move on to the “Greg Johnson era,” says board member Arkin

ing politically-charged community issues.” Pruitt-Adams is a person of incredible charThe latter is a task that administrators may acter, and she will certainly be still available come across, and it’s one that Pruitt-Adams for us when we need her because of [our] has dealt with during her time at District friendship and caring for each other.”

As a consultant, the contract indicated 200, Johnson told Wednesday Journal in a Pruitt-Adams could work up to eight hours phone call after the meeting.

The contract also called for Pruitt-Adams a week – a total of 288 hours during the to work with Assistant Superintendent and 2021-22 school year. Had her contract been approved, she would have been Principal Lynda Parker and paid at a rate of $175 an hour for Assistant Superintendent for her services.

Learning Laurie Fiorenza. UnBoard member Fred Arkin, der those tasks, Pruitt-Adams one of three members who cast would step in and assist them in a dissenting vote, spoke on why building more relationships with he did not see the need to rehire students and staff, as well as exPruitt-Adams. Arkin said he bepanding their roles to include a more “district-wide focus.” lieved Johnson has already put “Over the past several years, together a solid team, stacked Dr. Pruitt-Adams had served as with “highly competent” educaa mentor to all three of us,” said tors and professionals.

JOYLYNN Johnson, noting their new posi“I understand the need for tions were ones “we never had mentoring, and my vote has PRUITT-ADAMS before.” Parker had previously nothing to do with Dr. Pruitt-Adserved as the school’s director of ams,” he said. “I think that the student services, while Fiorenza was the di- things that she brought forth and she did for rector of student learning. this district are just amazing, but I think we “This was really just a way to utilize her have to move on from the Dr. Pruitt-Adams services in a formal way [in the] next school [era] to the Greg Johnson era.” year, as we progress into these new roles,” Arkin also voiced concerns on the money Johnson said. “On the flipside, too, I under- Pruitt-Adams would have earned. stand any time you’re talking about allocatThe other two “no” votes came from board ing fiscal resources in a school district, this vice president Tom Cofsky and member Keis something that a board has to weigh and breab Henry. consider very carefully. I also know that Dr. In an email to Wednesday Journal, Cofksy

By F. AMANDA TUGADE Staff Reporter

Since June, District 200 Superintendent Greg Johnson has received full support from the school board, building out a new administrative team through a series of promotions and recruitment efforts. But at a school board meeting last week Johnson was unable to convince board members to bring back a familiar face – his predecessor, Joylynn Pruitt-Adams as a paid consultant.

In a 3-2 vote, the board decided against hiring Pruitt-Adams as a consultant to Johnson and other administrators. Board secretary Ralph Martire and member Gina Harris were absent from the meeting.

Prior to becoming the superintendent this summer, Johnson served as the school’s assistant superintendent working under Pruitt-Adams, whose run with the district ended this June with her decision to retire.

The consulting contract sought to continue the connection, with Pruitt-Adams offering Johnson support in his new role. PruittAdams would provide feedback on existing and new projects and guidance on “navigat-

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explained why he turned down the contract.

Echoing some of Arkin’s sentiments, Cofksy wrote that he believed the new administrators are qualified, and that “we need to let them lead the district and do their work.”

Board president Sara Dixon Spivy and member Mary Anne Mohanraj were the two members who cast a “yes” vote.

While Spivy respected her colleagues’ opinions and the board’s final decision, she shared her thoughts on the contract, along with her “yes” vote, in an email to Wednesday Journal.

“Professional development and mentorship are proven to increase retention and recruitment of staff of color, which has historically been a struggle for the district,” Spivy said in an email. “Dr. Pruitt-Adams was unparalleled in providing mentorship to her administrators, especially women of color.”

Among nearly a dozen newly hired or promoted staff, a majority of them are Black men and women, including Parker and Fiorenza. Based on Pruitt-Adams’ contract, she would be available to Parker and Fiorenza, as well as Johnson, on an as-needed basis.

“We have many newly hired or promoted administrators and their success, and our students’, are aligned,” Spivy wrote. “I want them to have every opportunity to thrive in our district but to ensure that we must also recognize the challenges unique to women and people of color in high-pressure leadership roles.”

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Started in London, Blackout Baking Co. finds an Oak Park home

E-commerce cookies to make Pleasant District debut this fall

By MELISSA ELSMO Oak Park Eats Editor

Shana Taveras, founder, creative director, and chief cookie maker at Blackout Baking Co., took an unlikely path to owning a boutique bakery. The e-commerce business, focused on one-bite, distinctly American cookies, was conceptualized in London, but a series of twists and turns led Taveras to Oak Park.

If construction goes smoothly, Blackout Baking Co. is expected to open a brick-andmortar location in the Pleasant District, 210 S. Marion St., as early as September.

A background in design and textiles led Taveras to New York and a career in the fashion industry working for Tommy Hilfiger. Thanks in part to the good example set by her parents, Taveras always had ambitions to own her own business, but knew early on starting her own fashion line wasn’t her goal.

“I loved my job, but it is a capital-intensive industry,” said Taveras. “I felt like I knew too much about industry pitfalls and that made the idea of starting my own line scary.”

Taveras’ husband opted to pursue his MBA abroad and the couple relocated to London. Taveras continued making SHANA TAVERAS Owner of Blackout Baking Co. connections in the fashion industry, but also had more time available to explore her new European home.

“London has such a great food scene that represents a mix of cultures,” said Taveras.

“But I would go into bakeries and see stereotypical versions of American cookies that were not representative of America to me.”

The cookies Taveras came across were monstrously sized and usually M&M laden — they didn’t capture the truly American feeling that comes with enjoying a warm chocolate chip cookie fresh from the oven. Seeing an opportunity to bring a more authentic representation of cookies from across the pond to her adopted city, Taveras set out to create the best versions of American cookies in London.

As a food lover Taveras wants to try a little bit of everything and shrinking the cookie down to one thoughtfully crafted bite was

“The space is bright and beautiful and I am excited to be in this community.”

ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

BITE-SIZED: Shana Taveras crafted best versions of American cookies to be consumed in a single bite. Now she’s working on a bricks-and-mortar bakery on Marion Street. the self-taught baker’s first step in redefining American cookies. She envisioned diminutive cookies capable of causing a “blackout brought on by deliciousness” — in that moment Blackout Baking Co. was born.

Blackout Baking Co. was gaining steam in London by 2016.

After developing her own recipes, Taveras brought her cookies to city markets and capitalized on catering and corporate gifting opportunities. Just as business momentum began to build, however, Brexit brought the couple back stateside. Taveras and her husband settled in Chicago. After the birth of their son the couple bought a home in River Forest, but Blackout Baking Co. was still on Taveras’ mind.

“I realized I would be sitting in a hole until I got the idea out into the world,” said Taveras.

“I designed my website at the River Forest library, and we were off to the races. It turns

out my background in the technical side of design made me uniquely suited to baking.”

Taveras launched her website in 2018 and worked out of a shared commercial kitchen.

She participated in artisan markets, delivered locally, and shipped nationwide.

The Blackout Cookie is Taveras’ signature offering. The chocolate-on-chocolate-onchocolate cookie is an ode to the retro Brooklyn Blackout Cake created by Ebinger’s Bakery in New York.

The chocolate ganache filled chocolate cookie features milk chocolate chunks and flaked sea salt.

Blackout cookies join peanut butter, sugar, chocolate chip, shortbread and brown butter chocolate chip on the regular menu. Seasonal cookies like strawberry shortcake and orange honey bourbon cookies are added monthly to enhance menu offerings. Blackout Baking Co. uses organic eggs, Belgian chocolate and

avoids artificial flavorings. The bakery also caters to customers with dietary restrictions.

Positive word of mouth sustained the business through its infancy and before long Taveras went in search of a permanent home for Blackout Baking Co. The Marion Street space is ideal according to Taveras who hopes to create a community-oriented bakery and café with a vibrant e-commerce business. In addition to serving her popular cookies, Taveras is planning to sell brownies, breads and scones.

Blackout Baking Co. will serve Irving Farm Coffee and will represent the first café in Chicago to serve coffee from the New York based roastery. Taveras is also looking forward to local collaborations with neighboring businesses including Carnivore and Anfora Wine Merchants. Taveras already has cookies available at Anfora.

“I don’t do anything halfway and I have a vision for what Blackout Baking Co. can be,” said Taveras. “Once I get my feet under me, I envision the space being an incubator for other local artisans. The space is bright and beautiful and I am excited to be in this community.”

18

Wednesday Journal, July 28, 2021

We would like to say thank you to the Oak Park – River Forest Community Foundation and the Women Leaders in Philanthropy for funds to support older adults in Creating Connections.

As our world shut down, older adults were supported with easy to use devices which allowed them to connect with:

Friends • Family • Community News • Entertainment

If you would like to donate to sponsor a monthly subscription for an older adult go to oakparktownship.org 130 S. Oak Park Ave, Oak Park 708-383-8060

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MELISSA ELSMO/Food Editor

THAI DESSERTS: Ussanee Sanmmueangchin and her husband Jumpol Prasitporn welcome customers to their Forest Park sweet shop on Madison.

Habraé brings sweet treats

By MELISSA ELSMO Oak Park Eats Editor

Berwyn residents, Ussanee Sanmmueangchin, known to all as Au (pronounced “oo”), and her husband Jumpol Prasitporn, known as Jump, are inviting the community to explore the delicious world of Thai sweets at Habraé, 7230 Madison St. in Forest Park.

“When I met her, she couldn’t even make rice and I had a rice cooker,” laughed Prasitporn. “But now Au puts her mind to making Thai desserts in the way that respects homestyle recipes. I am so proud.”

The couple met when Sanmmueangchin, an account executive in Thailand, came to Chicago to study English. Looking for a place to stay led her to a spare room for rent in Prasitporn’s Berwyn home.

Homesickness left her craving a simple Thai dessert — black beans in coconut milk over sticky rice. The rich and creamy concoction was hard to come by in the area but proved to be simple to make for the amateur cook. She continued to recreate Thai desserts in Prasitporn’s kitchen challenging herself to master more complicate recipes.

Despite the fact that love was blossoming between the roommates, she returned to Thailand to take classes at UFM Baking & Cooking School in Bangkok. The couple maintained their relationship while she learned the valuable Thai and French cooking techniques. In 2018, the couple traded in their long-distance relationship for wedding banns and set a goal of opening a Thai sweet shop.

“After I finished school, when I would make desserts and my friends would try them, they would say it was good and they wanted to buy them,” said Sanmmueangchin. “I knew I was ready to open the shop after that.”

The couple explored several properties before settling on the Forest Park location.

They were drawn to the open-mindedness of

residents both locally and in the surrounding communities. The owners undertook a 16-month renovation to bring the space to life, and design elements in the café are inspired by open-air Thai markets. In fact, the word Habraé refers to a merchant who carries homemade goods to market in a basket known as a hab.

Today, slices of airy pandan chiffon cake, purple-hued sibling steamed buns, and charcoal puddings beckon customers as they enter Habraé. Colorful khanom chan are molded into delicate floral shapes and arranged in dainty boxes behind the counter. The jelly-like cakes can be enjoyed chilled or warmed and should separate into layers with ease.

“Children like to pull them apart, so they are fun to eat,” said Prasitporn.

“If the cakes don’t separate when you pull them, it means they have too much flour in them.”

Sanmmueangchin has an arsenal of approximately 50 sweets she plans to rotate in and out of Habraé’s menu. She currently features 16 sweets per day, but the menu is fluid for the moment as the couple waits to see what treats resonate most with customers.

Though Sanmmueangchin and Prasitporn have plans to introduce savory street food elements to Habraé’s menu, the focus will always remain on sweets. Some of the recipes she uses are 400 years old. The couple is eager to share their culture and educate newcomers about the sweets they have brought to Forest Park.

“We would really like Americans to know more about these desserts,” said Sanmmueangchin. “Thai restaurants are mostly savory, and we think Thai desserts can be a very special thing in this town.”

Habraé is currently open Tuesday through Sunday from 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m. Follow Habraé on Facebook to stay up to date on daily and weekly specials.

Wednesday Journal, July 28, 2021

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ART BEAT

Art activist reclaims the lens

By ALIYAH YOUNG

B

Guest author/editor

efore introducing, “I Am Why” and the book Reclaiming the Lens, I must start off by introducing myself. I am a Black woman and a Chicago-based activist who lives in Oak Park. I began my activism at the age of 14 at Oak Park and River Forest High School where I was president of the club called Students Advocating for Equity (SAFE). We changed the dress code to make it culturally inclusive and gender expansive. During my last year, I drafted an application to create the current Racial Equity class at OPRF. I modeled it after the Self Defense and Step Back courses. After I graduated, my classmates continued my mission and helped the class become a reality.

This period of my life was incredibly important because I experienced an awakening of sorts. It wasn’t one single moment but several laced together, each one disarticulating things I thought I knew and replacing them with a desire to learn and grow.

During this time, I was introduced to “A Long Walk Home,” an organization dedicated to ending the racial oppression and genderbased violence against Black women and girls. This organization helped me branch out my work from my small high school arena to the city of Chicago. This is where I first

IMAGES PROVIDED

STARTING POINT: Aliyah Young has learned to blend art with activism as she moves forward in her career. learned about art-based activism and began to appreciate the works of so many activists before me.

I initially began my work with I Am Why through its partnership with A Long Walk Home. I Am Why’s mission is to bring young women and gender-expansive activists together with researchers and other partners to increase young activists’ individual and collective power. I participated in their art-intensive workshop in Chicago in August 2018.

During this workshop, we spent time learning more about prominent art activists

and their role in several movements, as well my piece was included in this chapter, but as creating our own art pieces. These piec- because I feel a special connection to the es were meant to convey who we were and role history and culture play in activism. what we stood for. Then we each created an This is why I have chosen to study AnI Am Why statement, explaining our pieces. thropology, African and Black Diaspora, My piece is about generational trauma and and Latin American and Latino Studies at healing; I felt it to be the reason why I be- DePaul University. Perhaps it is because I came an activist and remain one to this day. have felt so stripped of it in the past, that I There were several other workshops in am celebrating it today. I am grounded in my different cities with different present, joyous and expectant of organizations. The art that apmy future, but my life is dedicated to the past. These words came pears in Reclaiming the Lens was to me during a moment of refleccreated in these workshops. tion when creating this book and The book was a small idea, will remain with me for the rest stowed away for another day, of my life. but COVID-19 took everyone by The book is just the starting surprise. Our organization is point. I now work with I Am Why currently national, but we probas a research consultant and Raably would have met in person ALIYAH YOUNG cial Justice team lead. We are at least with the people in the Art Activist continuing the work, fighting for cities and states nearby. Instead, policy change and working with nearly everything became virtuyoung people across the country al. So the founder of I Am Why, to create an intergenerational, Francine Sherman, and other I non-hierarchical organization Am Why consultants, decided to and world. create Reclaiming the Lens. I was To order “Reclaiming the Lens” and invited to participate in this process and I learn more about I am Why, go to: iamwhy. eagerly accepted.

Every part of the book was meticulously com. Join the “Reclaiming Our Power by planned, every art piece, every word. We Reclaiming the Lens” webinar Tuesday, spent months analyzing each art piece and Aug. 3, 5 to 6:30 p.m. to hear the process of organizing them all into chapters. After di- how the I am Why workshops led to a book, viding the book into chapters, we each took how the book led to an exhibit, and what a chapter to focus on. I heavily curated the was learned about power, voice and commu“Origins” chapter and I also wrote the chap- nity during the global pandemic. Register: ter introduction, book dedication and intro- https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/ duction. I chose “Origins” not only because WN_ZPyGRbplQ5-M-GSIS2MXMg

“The book is just the starting point. ”

Wednesday Journal, July 28, 2021

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D97, D90 continue to work on plans for reopening Guidelines from CDC, state, county public health officials offer more clarity on how to welcome staff, students back safely

remain vigilant of the virus and do everything possible to keep our transmission levels low,” Wernet and Powell said.

As of July 23, River Forest has had a total of 837 confirmed COVID-19 cases, and 61% of River Forest residents have gotten vaccinated, according to reports by CCDPH. Like Wernet and Powell, District 90 Superintendent Ed Condon recently reached out to families to share the progress of school reopening plans. In an email to D90 families,

By F. AMANDA TUGADE Condon wrote how he and his colleagues are Staff Reporter reviewing all the guidelines carefully, piecWith Illinois schools fully reopening this ing together a plan that meets the needs of fall, many administrators are still figuring their staff and students.

“We ask for your understanding and paout what safety measures they need to take tience as we strive to develop school reopening before welcoming staff and students back plans that are thoughtful and appropriate,” he on campus. Earlier this month, roughly 300 superintendents signed a letter, asking state said in an email to families. “We will commuand public health leaders to offer more clar- nicate all planned protocols to the D90 community as timely as possible.” ity and guidance on keeping school employSchools cannot legally require their emees and students safe during this upcoming ployees or students to be vaccinated, as vacschool year. cines were only authorized for The Cook County Department emergency-use by the U.S. Food & of Public Health (CCDPH) has Drug Administration, said Karin now released a list of school Sullivan, director of communicasafety guidelines, set by the tions and community relations at Centers for Disease Control and Oak Park and River Forest High Prevention (CDC) and adopted School, in a previous interview by the Illinois Department of with Wednesday Journal.

Public Health (IDPH).

The CCDPH also proposed that At the top of the list, Cook masks should be worn by all unCounty health officials are envaccinated individuals, includcouraging staff and students ing children as young as 2 years who are eligible to receive the old, while indoors. When unvacCOVID-19 vaccine to get the cinated people wear their masks shot. The two-dose Pfizer COcorrectly and consistently – that VID-19 vaccine is available for means masks go over the nose children 12 years and older. and mouth – they are able to “Vaccination remains the protect themselves and others, ED CONDON leading public health strategy county health officials said in D90 superintendent to prevent COVID-19,” county the release. health officials said in a news Other recommendations inrelease issued July 23. clude practicing social distancAt this time, officials at Oak ing, promoting good hygiene Park Elementary School District 97 and Riv- such as frequent handwashing or using er Forest School District 90 are finalizing hand sanitizer, and increasing the schools’ their plans around safety mitigations and ventilation systems to reduce the transmisplan to share them with families in the com- sion of the coronavirus. Schools are still ening weeks. couraged to host testing programs, as a way Patricia Wernet and Griff Powell, co-in- to monitor COVID-19 cases or outbreaks. terim superintendents at District 97, said The CDC also updated the definition of they are working with the Oak Park Public “close contacts,” people who were at least Health Department to put the right proto- six feet away from an individual with COVcols in place, especially as new COVID-19 ID-19 for more than 15 minutes in a 24-hour cases have occurred in the community. period. Under the new guidance, staff and Oak Park public health officials have re- students who are masked and within three cently reported 57% of residents have been to six feet away of a confirmed case are no fully vaccinated. In a joint statement, Wer- longer considered “close contacts.” net and Powell said they also just learned “Consistent and correct mask use from Oak Park health officials that the com- will decrease the number of students munity is currently experiencing a “moder- needing to quarantine at home in case of ate level of transmission.” exposure,” county health officials said.

“We believe that it’s more important than “With masking, fewer students will miss ever for our community to work together to in-person instruction.”

“We ask for your understanding and patience as we strive to develop school reopening plans that are thoughtful and appropriate.”

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Wednesday Journal, July 28, 2021

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DAJUAN GATES Lawsuit filed from page 1 “We have not been served as of yet, which means our attorney has not reviewed the lawsuit,” said Forest Park Police Chief Tom Aftanas. “For those reasons as well as the fact that the Illinois State Police Public Integrity Unit has not completed their investigation I can’t comment at this time.”

Oak Park spokesman David Powers said the village could not comment on matters relating to pending litigation as a matter of policy.

The police incident in question occurred the afternoon of Aug. 22, 2020 when a Forest Park police officer pursued Gates at approximately 4:12 p.m. after observing him drive through a stop sign without coming to a complete stop, according to the complaint.

“Then Dajuan made his only mistake, which was being afraid of police, and he ran,” Kotin said.

Eight minutes later, Gates was handcuffed for the traffic violation by an Oak Park police officer, the complaint states, with his arms behind his back on the southwest corner of Madison Street and Maple Avenue in Oak Park. He remained in that position for the next 21 minutes according to Kotin.

Between “4:20 and 4:22 p.m., while in control of Oak Park and/or Forest Park police officers, DAJUAN GATES became unresponsive, and could not stand or sit up,” the complaint reads.

Instead of taking him to the emergency room, the complaint states officers put Gates in the back of a Forest Park police vehicle, ignored his condition and taunted him, say-

PROVIDED

(Left) Dajuan Gates and his children in photo provided by family lawyers. (Right) In a screenshot from police dashcam video, a handcuffed Gates was placed on a curb outside the Rush Oak Park Hospital ER after being taken into custody by Oak Park police. ing, “Don’t play these dramatic games,” and, “You’re being a pain in the ass.”

“Everything that’s in the complaint is verifiable down to the minute based on the dashcam,” Kotin said.

Wednesday Journal has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to obtain the police dashcam footage from Aug. 22.

At 4:27 p.m., a Forest Park officer drove an unresponsive and handcuffed Gates approximately 60 feet into the driveway of the Rush Oak Park Hospital Emergency Depart-

ment, according to the complaint, which stated that Gates’ speech was incomprehensible and slurred and he was unable to lift his head or sit upright.

The complaint argues that paramedics arrived to assess Gates at 4:41 p.m., but earlier medical intervention would have saved his life.

“Paramedics will testify that by the time they got to Dajuan, he was essentially brain dead in the back of the car in full cardiac arrest,” Kotin said.

OPRF PLAN

condition of the buildings there? How is it zoned? Are there health/safety issues? Are there any environmental issues that need to be remediated?”

Since 2002, Dominican University has from page 1 owned the property known as Priory Campus.

The River Forest-based university bought the intent with Dominican which would begin land from the Dominican Friars religious a negotiation that could end in the purchase order. The Priory building, which sits on the of Priory Campus, 7200 Division St. in River site, is approximately 102,941 square feet. The building was constructed in Forest. The site has been qui1924 and expanded in 1964. etly on the market for some Around the campus, there time as Dominican’s use of are athletic fields, which have the facility has withered over Find coverage of the OPRF long been leased by Fenwick past years. It is about two school board meeting where High School from the Dominimiles away, or a six-minute this issue was discussed after can Friars. drive, from the high school, our print deadline at “We haven’t specified a de201 N. Scoville Ave. in Oak mand price [for Priory CamPark.

OakPark.com pus],” said Mark Titzer, vice The school was drawing up president of finance and adthe letter of intent on Monday.

It was to be finalized and shared after the ministration at the university.

DU recently partnered with Jones Lang meeting, Sullivan said. She said the letter of intent allows “us to begin formal nego- LaSalle (JLL), a real estate company in Chitiations to potentially purchase the Priory cago, as its commercial broker, Titzer said.

Campus” and learn more about the proper- In a previous interview with Wednesday ty’s condition.

Journal, former DU President Donna Car“It essentially gives us time to do some roll said JLL had initially valued the site at fact-finding,” Sullivan said. “What is the $8 million.

Gates was put on life support but died the following day, leaving behind five children, the youngest of which had not yet been born. His family is seeking in excess of $50,000 in damages from the two police departments, but Kotin said his firm believes the damages are worth far more.

“Hopefully, the lawsuit will provide some accountability for what happened and offer some compensation for these kids because there’s nothing else that our system can do to help right a wrong.”

Greenfield St.

Start of a process

William St.

DDominican i i University U i i Priory Campus

Harlem Ave.

UPDATED ONLINE

Division St. GOOGLE MAPS

OPRF WEST? District 200 expects to begin exploration of acquiring seven acres at Division and Harlem from Dominican University. The athletic fields outside the lined area are under a long-term lease between the Dominican Friars religious order and Fenwick High School in Oak Park.

Wednesday Journal, July 28, 2021

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23

C R I M E

Police arrest man 18 months after armed robbery

A Chicago man was arrested at 3:35 p.m., July 22 after being identified as the alleged offender in an armed robbery that took place over a year and a half ago in Oak Park. The 32-year-old suspect also has an active warrant in Kane County for driving on a suspended license.

The armed robbery for which he was arrested took place in the 200 block of Madison Street at 7:27 p.m., Dec. 19 in 2019, when a Palatine resident met the alleged offender to sell a four-carat diamond wedding ring.

The offender allegedly showed a black handgun and demanded the ring as well as money from the victim’s wallet, according to the police incident report. The estimated loss was valued at $7,900.

Burglary ■ A pink and white bicycle was taken from a residential garage with an unlocked service door in the 1100 block of South Taylor Avenue around 5:34 a.m., July 23. The estimated loss is $200.

■ A pair of Apple AirPods was taken from a white 2006 Chevrolet cargo van with an open front driver’s side window between 9 a.m. and noon, July 19 in the 1100 block of South Lombard Avenue. The estimated loss is $170.

July 20 in the 500 block of Lake Street. The estimated loss is $100.

■ Someone used a brick to break the 5-feetby-6-feet front window of Metro PCS, 6319 North Ave., then removed an iPhone Pro on display and $100 from the cash register once inside at around 2:25 a.m., July 22.

Motor vehicle theft ■ Someone broke into a 2016 Honda Civic by smashing the front passenger’s side window then removed from inside two large purses, which contained the victim’s wallet, miscellaneous cards, a backpack, Adderall prescription and make up between 11:30 p.m., July 19 and 8 a.m., July 20 in the 600 block of North Boulevard. The estimated loss is $795.

■ A specialized white, black and teal women’s road bicycle and a specialized green bicycle were removed from a garage with an unlocked service door in the 300 block of South Cuyler Avenue between 8:15 a.m. and 8:40 a.m., July 20. The estimated loss is $1,372.

■ A black drawstring bag, containing a pair of TOMS shoes and a white phone charger, was removed from an unlocked 2018 Jeep Cherokee between 1:30 p.m. and 1:35 p.m.,

Someone removed a tan 2012 Chrysler Town and Country, left running with the keys in the ignition, at around 11:19 p.m., July 22 in the 900 block of South Boulevard.

Recovered stolen auto The 2010 silver Toyota Camry reported stolen July 15 from the 200 block of Home Avenue was recovered by Illinois State Police at 12:52 a.m., July 22 on Sacramento Boulevard at the I-290. No apprehensions.

Theft A large rainbow pride flag was removed from a fixed flag post on the front porch of the victim’s residence in the 300 block of South Lombard Avenue around 4:12 a.m., July 22. The estimated loss is $225.

Criminal property damage

■ A man was observed via video surveillance punching the plexiglass window of a Green Line train car belonging to the Chicago Transit Authority, causing the window to shatter, between 7:41 p.m., July 20 and 2:53 a.m., July 21 at 728 South Blvd.

The estimated damage is $2,329.

■ Someone broke the rear kitchen window of a residence in the 100 block of South Austin Boulevard between 5 p.m., July 20 and noon, July 22. The estimated damage is $200.

These items, obtained from the Oak Park Police Department, came from reports July 20-26 and represent a portion of the incidents to which police responded. Anyone named in these reports has only been charged with a crime and cases have not yet been adjudicated. We report the race of a suspect only when a serious crime has been committed, the suspect is still at large, and police have provided us with a detailed physical description of the suspect as they seek the public’s help in making an arrest.

Compiled by Stacey Sheridan

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Homes

Porchfest reunion for former residents of ‘Fertile Acres’ Musician returns to boyhood Gunderson home for special gig

By LACEY SIKORA

W

Contributing Reporter

hen Dennis O’Brien’s family moved to 701 S. Elmwood Ave. in 1955, he was a few months old.

The eighth of what would become a family of 10 sons, O’Brien says his family lived in the home until 1969.

He recalls at least four families on the block had nine or 10 kids living in their Gunderson-designed houses. There were so many kids that the Oak Leaves wrote a story about the 700 and 800 blocks of South Elmwood and dubbed the neighborhood Fertile Acres.

PBS featured the O’Brien family in a special called The Pill, using them as an example of what families looked like before the advent of certain methods of birth control.

Notoriety aside, O’Brien says his family was tight-knit and loved living in Oak Park.

He has memories of painting the house with his brothers every summer and never quite finishing. He thinks that his father paid $16,000 for the house in 1955 and sold it for $32,000 in 1969. O’Brien says he loved growing up on Elmwood Avenue and was not very pleased when his father moved the family to St. Charles.

Today, O’Brien works in real estate and dabbles in music. In 2019, he was scoping out a theater to play a gig in Oak Park when he heard about a new community event called Porchfest, where local musicians played outdoor concerts on Oak Park porches. After visiting the theater, he worked up the nerve to stop by his boyhood home and rang the doorbell.

Stefanie Glover, who with her husband Alex Harris, bought the home in 2011, invited him in. O’Brien noticed Harris’ guitars and suggested that the two of them should play together sometime and talk to the Porchfest organizers about a possible concert on the porch.

When Glover and Harris purchased the house, which was the original home of developer Seward Gunderson, the front porch had been enclosed. The couple worked to restore and renovate the home, and in the process opened up the wide porch, which created a perfect spot for scores of people to gather on Friday, July 16 for a Porchfest concert featuring O’Brien’s and Harris’ bands.

Cheryl Wisniewski says that in 2019 she, Tara Dull and Jason Baker were inspired by similar concerts in Lakeview and wanted to bring the concerts to Oak Park and they be-

Photo provided by Cheryl Wisniewski

WELCOME BACK: Dennis O’Brien (above, second from left) grew up at 701 S. Elmwood Ave. in the 1950s. In 2019, he connected with the home’s present owner -- a fellow musician -- and on July 16 played a Porchfest concert on the front porch of his boyhood home in front of scores of current and former residents of the block once known as “Fertile Acres.” gan the popular porch music series.

“Oak Park really lends itself to this with the beautiful homes and lawns and our love of block parties,” Wisniewski said.

The event on July 16 became a block party and a reunion of sorts. Not only did current block residents turn out in droves for the concert, but many former residents made it back as well. O’Brien says there were eight O’Brien brothers in attendance along with close to 60 other family members.

Harris, who says the porch is his favorite part of the house, said, “There was a big portion of O’Briens there, and then the neighSee O’BRIEN on page 30

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Wednesday Journal, July 28, 2021

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O’BRIEN

Return to his roots from page 27 borhood just wrapped around that. It was so fun. It was really a great way to have a spontaneous neighborhood concert.”

Harris says that there were other former residents of the house at the concert as well, bringing at least four previous or current families back to the house. Other houses on the block had representation also, with former residents returning for the concert.

Wisniewski says that the concert captured the spirit of Porchfest.

“It’s true Oak Park, with different generations and the community coming together,” she said.

Wisniewski notes that given the pandemic, which cancelled the summer events of 2020, this concert felt special.

“I had one woman who told me, ‘This feels almost like before times again,’” Wisniewski said. “She was right, it felt so good and so normal.”

Harris gives his wife credit for spearheading both the restoration of the porch, which provided the site for the concert, for giving him music lessons at the Old Town School of Folk Music, and for helping to organize the concert.

“The heart of this event was Dennis [O’Brien],” Harris said. “We just provided the place.”

For O’Brien, coming back to his boyhood home has been the high point of his music career. He plays 50 to 70 gigs a year, and says he thought that performing at the Cavern Club, where the Beatles played in Liverpool, was the highlight of his career, but Porchfest changed his mind.

“I have to say, this eclipsed that because it was just so emotional,” O’Brien said. “Oak Park has so many great memories for me.”

Photo provided by Cheryl Wisniewski

PORCH ROCK: Alex Harris (above left), who now owns Dennis O’Brien’s boyhood home on Elmwood Avenue, plays guitar with his band as part of the twin-bill Porchfest concert on July 16.

Block Party Gets Photo in Newspaper!

Are you having a Block Party this summer? Invite the Wednesday Journal! We’ll come with some donuts, a few newspapers and we’ll snap a shot of your group for publication.

We can only do one party per week, so reserve your shot today!

Contact Jill Wagner at 708-613-3340 or Jill@OakPark.com

Wednesday Journal, July 28, 2021

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SPORTS

A

It’s nearly August and football is just around the corner

s I’ve gotten older, I’ve noticed that time has flown by faster and faster. It doesn’t seem long ago that we were ringing in a New Year and, yet, we’ll be in August at this time next week.

But there’s one good thing about August -- football -- my favorite sport to cover and watch, which is upon us.

So, during these dog days of summer, I thought I’d offer my take on the local football scene: high school, college and the Chicago Bears.

Let’s start with the team that opened training camp on July 27, the Bears. I honestly don’t know what to make of this team. Head coach Matt Nagy has led the Bears into the playoffs in two of his three seasons and has a solid record of 28-20.

But since his debut season of 2018 when the Bears won the NFC North with a 12-4 mark, the team has followed up by going 8-8 during each of the next two years, and got a gift playoff berth when the National Football League added an extra team from each conference last year.

Moreover, the Bears are 0-2 in the playoffs under Nagy. Who can forget Cody Parkey’s “double-doink” that led to a home playoff loss to Philadelphia in 2018? And the Bears were

MELVIN TATE

TATE’S TAKE clearly outclassed by New Orleans in last year’s postseason.

Nagy came in from the Kansas City Chiefs, who are coached by one of the top offensive minds in the game, Andy Reid.

Nagy had a reputation as an offensive genius, but that’s taken a severe beating since he arrived. He couldn’t develop Mitchell Trubisky at quarterback, and the No. 2 pick in the 2017 NFL draft was released this off-season.

Now, Andy Dalton is going to be the starting quarterback Week 1 this season. But, I would rather Nagy give the Bears’ top pick this year, Justin Fields of Ohio State University, a chance. I’ve seen Fields play numerous times, and he’s the most NFL-ready of all the quarterbacks drafted this year in my opinion.

This franchise needs a huge jolt of positive energy, and I think Fields would provide it. You’re only going to learn by playing, not by sitting on the bench. If the offense continues to struggle with Dalton, not only do I feel the calls for Fields will grow stronger, Nagy and General Manager Ryan Pace could very well lose their jobs.

With a 17-game season this year, my early take on the Bears is a record of 8-9 or 9-8 unless the offense takes a large step forward.

In college football, the Big Ten Conference had its Media Days last week. I think both Northwestern and Illinois have a

SHE SNORES MORE THAN I DO, MORE BUTSHE I STILL SHE SNORES SNORES MORE LOVEI DO, MY BUT HUMAN. THAN ITHAN STILLI DO, BUT I STILL — BANDIT LOVE MY HUMAN.LOVE MY HUMAN. adopted 11-26-09 — BANDIT adopted 11-26-09

— BANDIT adopted 11-26-09

chance for good seasons.

Under Pat Fitzgerald, Northwestern has become a very respectable program, making it to the Big Ten title game twice in the last three seasons. With a hard-hitting defense and a solid and balanced offense, I expect the Wildcats to be in the thick of things again in the league race.

As for my dear alma mater the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, unfortunately things didn’t work out the last five years with former Bears coach Lovie Smith at the helm. However, he left an experienced base of talent for new head man Bret Bielema, who has had success in the Big Ten when he was coaching Wisconsin.

I think the Illini will do better than what experts are predicting. I’ve looked at the roster, and it’s not bad. If Bielema can develop a system that fits the players better than the previous one, Illinois could surprise a lot of folks.

Finally, before you know it, high school football will be here.

Practice begins Aug. 9, and I’m interested to see how both Oak Park and River Forest and Fenwick high schools look on the gridiron under more normal circumstances.

I admit the past season -- moved to the spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic -- lacked the usual pizazz and excitement with no state postseason to play for and teams limited to conference-only opponents. But now that there should be a normal season (fingers crossed), I want to see if Matt Battaglia’s “Fenwick Fast” offense can fully develop. And I also want to find out if John Hoerster can get OPRF back into the state playoffs for the first time in three years.

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

Wednesday Journal, July 28, 2021

VIEWPOINTS

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Bloody Mary’s Bloody Mary p. 38

Life in the Losers Bracket

O

f the 16 teams who played in the opening round of the No Gloves Nationals last Thursday, half wind up in the Losers Bracket after just one game.

I have empathy for those eight teams because for most of my life I’ve been a loser when it comes to sports. I still have nightmares about an interception I threw in ninth grade when we were on the opposing team’s 5 yard line. In my three-year career as a quarterback in middle school, we lost every game we played.

My record as a pitcher in high school was 2 wins and 5 losses, and I was the losing pitcher in a game that knocked us out of the state tournament. I’d always get what my father called “butterflies” in my stomach — nervous, anxious about winning or losing — before those games.

In contrast I’d never get those butterflies in the basketball games six of us would play in Paul Anderson’s driveway on Sunday afternoons. We didn’t keep track of who won and who lost. In fact if one 3-man team won by too big a margin we’d switch players because it wasn’t any fun.

But the news we heard when the 16-inch tournament was over was not about how much fun the teams had, but who won.

“Our culture is obsessed with winning: just look at the amount of money cities invest in sports teams,” wrote Lisa Kentgen in an April 2017 post. “A reverence for winners favors a narrow outcome over desirable personal qualities and long-term solutions. This obsession confuses striving for excellence with a drive to stand out compared to others.”

You all know Vince Lombardi’s famous quip: “Winning isn’t everything. It’s the only thing.”

I know. I know. The argument goes that competition promotes excellence. And it does. Aaron Rodgers has risen to the top of the very competitive sport of pro football. Good for him, but not so good for my self-worth when I compare my performance to his.

My problem is that this obsession with winning we have promotes excellence in things that I do not value highly. Kentgen argues that our cultural obsession with winning ■ Fosters unhealthy relationships: “The motivation to win values the self (or a proxy for the self) above others, inescapably inhibiting cooperation. This limited view cannot appreciate others for who they are and for what they bring to the table.”

■ Wastes valuable resources: “It generates energy and passion. But, like eating junk food, the cravings are only temporarily alleviated. The hunger for the win itself leads to an inability to see the forest through the trees, and the big picture is lost.”

■ Narrowly defines self-worth: “The only way to prove our worth is dependent upon a narrow outcome. This creates a feardriven, Us vs. Them world view.”

■ Promotes short-term gains at the expense of long-term solutions: “Great leaders are developed and complex problems are solved by adeptly moving through gray areas. Masterful

TOM HOLMES

See HOLMES on page 42

F

What are you?

or seven years, I wore white shirts, sat behind desks, burned through four jobs, and was headed nowhere. So I took my problems to a therapist who listened for a few sessions then summarized me in words I still remember some 42 years later. “You need to put your hands around what you have done each day.” Then came the choice: “Your job doesn’t allow that, so to keep your job, you will have to change who you are.

Otherwise you will have to choose a different job.”

Easiest decision I ever made in my life.

I changed jobs.

I dig holes and put plants in them, buy 2x4s and drywall and build rooms, design and install custom furniture. I create stuff, objects I can put my hands around at the end of each day. Product, not process.

Something solid, not ephemeral.

We live in a world of things we can touch. Things with substance. They bind us to our everyday reality.

On a macro scale, we have our planet, sun and moon.

Really big stuff. In the oceans, we have Blue whales that are 80 feet long and weigh 300,000 pounds; In the Sequoia National Forest, the General Sherman redwood tree stands 275 feet tall and is 36 feet wide at its base; in Egypt there’s the great pyramid of Khufu

— 755 feet wide along each side of the base, 480 feet high, and built with 6 million tons of stone. Animal, vegetable, mineral. Solid objects all.

On a daily basis, we have our homes, our cars, our morning coffee cups, the screens on which you are reading this essay, or the paper you are holding in your hand. Our hands wrap easily around these solid objects.

Our hands are solid objects too. Each hand and wrist contains 27 bones, 34 muscles, and 100 tendons and ligaments. Complicated. Effective. Solid. Right?

So one day I got curious about the makeup of solid things; the kind of “curious” that kills cats and inspires writers. We all know, stored away in the basement boxes of our minds, that all objects are made up of atoms, nature’s Lego set — 118 different shapes and colors from which we make everything else.

Let’s look at three of those Lego-atoms. Hydrogen is the most common, oxygen is necessary for life, and we are all carbon-based organisms. When we combine two atoms of hydrogen with one atom of oxygen (H2O), we get water. We carbon-based organisms cannot survive without oxygen and water. So this is

BILL SIECK

One View

See SIECK on page 42

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Wednesday Journal, July 28, 2021

O U R

V I E W P O I N T S

V I E W S

OPRF and the Priory

T

uesday evening, after our print deadline, the school board at Oak Park and River Forest High School will meet and is expected to sign a “letter of intent” to begin exploring the purchase of 7 acres of land at Division and Harlem in River Forest. The property, commonly known as the Dominican Priory, is owned by Dominican University.

In June we reported that Dominican had hired a commercial real estate firm to quietly shop the property, which it acquired in 2002, to house expanded graduate programs. Those needs have changed and the university is unwilling to spend money to upgrade the building on the campus. We also know the village of River Forest has made clear it will not rezone the property to allow residential or commercial development. That severely limits potential buyers.

At this moment there are nothing but questions regarding OPRF’s intentions. What use would they put the site to? Would they rehab the priory building and for what purpose? Is the building notable enough that it must be preserved?

We get that OPRF is totally landlocked at Scoville and Lake. We agree with Supt. Greg Johnson that this makes it a unique and rare opportunity. So while we will hear that all of this is simply exploratory, we know that Dominican is a motivated seller with very few prospects and that OPRF has an excess of cash on hand and a desire to grow its campus.

The challenge may be to slow this down enough to make sure OPRF’s plan is solid and thoroughly thought out.

What happened to Dajuan Gates?

The lawsuit has just been filed. Representatives of the villages of Forest Park and Oak Park say they have yet to see the suit or that they won’t comment on any lawsuit or that the Illinois State Police Public Integrity Unit is continuing its investigation.

All responses we’d expect. That we are 11 months out from the death of Dajuan Gates ought to create a sense of urgency in understanding and acknowledging what happened to this 27-year-old Chicago man after he failed to make a complete stop at a Forest Park intersection.

His attorney acknowledges that Gates took off on foot.

Police reports confirm that he was apprehended a few moments later by Oak Park officers at Madison and Maple, just 60 feet outside the ER at Rush Oak Park Hospital. Gates was cuffed and positioned on the curb with multiple officers observing.

Dashcam video and audio released by Gates’ lawyer shows portions of what happened over the next 20 minutes. There were no bodycams in use. It appears Gates was having a reaction to drugs in his system. Finally, after putting Gates in a squad car, officers drove the quarter block to the ER’s ambulance entrance.

Gates wound up on life support and died the following day.

The state police investigation needs to have an end date and a public reporting mechanism. The lawsuit will move slowly forward. We need to understand what happened to Mr. Gates, what actions our officers took and did not take to protect a suspect in their custody.

A

Writing about race

reader emailed last week sounding frustrated by my recent column on reparations.

“Great article on white guilt,” he wrote, “if you’re 22 and just coming out of journalism school. When did you have this epiphany? Or did you always feel this way and, if so, why were you so late in expressing your views? Did you write like this 40 years ago, 30 years ago or even 20 years ago? I really don’t want to believe you jumped on the bandwagon, so help me out and prove your beliefs. If you did come to this conclusion late in life, why? You’re an intelligent guy. What were you blinded by?”

I love challenges.

I’m guessing most people don’t read my column every week. So they miss a lot, and even those who do are bound to forget many of them, especially when you’ve been doing this as long as I have.

Even I forget, which is why I recently went through 30 years of Wednesday Journal columns to catalogue them. So when I received this challenge, I was able to provide a list, a portion of which (due to space limits) I’m including here.

I certainly don’t expect you to look all these up and read them. I don’t even expect you to read through the entire list. I’m including it in order to make a couple of points. I’ll meet you on the other end.

12/9/92 – Discussions on integration (Project Unity) 12/30/92 – Oak Park diversity on display 2/24/93 – Race and communication (Project Unity) 5/26/93 – Wanted: People building bridges (Dialogue: Racism) 9/14/94 – OPRF Black teacher fired, pop quiz 4/19/95 – Affirmative action is a two-way street 10/18/95 – Our national lie: bridging the great divide 5/15/96 – To know where we’re going, know where we’ve been (Vision 2000) 12/4/96 – Jaslin Salmon was good for these villages 4/16/97 – You can avoid Austin, just don’t ignore it 6/25/97 – Act 1, Scene 1 in our conversation on race 3/4/98 – Filling the glass with tolerance 7/15/98 – Back to school: Race relations 101 9/30/98 – Julian centennial needs Black input 9/22/99 – Oak Park’s role: More middle-class African Americans 12/15/99 – Oak Park has a great model to follow on race: itself 2/23/00 – Whites also have a Black history 9/20/00 – Take ‘racism’ out of our lexicon 2/7/01 – Oak Park needs a gospel choir 2/14/01 – A Symphony of Place (celebrating the Fair Housing Ordinance) 3/14/01 – Diss integration and get disintegration 3/21/01 – Conversation on diversity in Oak Park, RIP 4/4/01 – We can do better on race 6/25/03 – The high cost of For Sale signs 7/16/03 – White people’s lament: Don’t blame me 9/3/03 – The achievement gap is not just one race’s problem 3/3/04 – Declare Austin our sister city 3/24/04 – Living together and getting along 9/7/05 – Austin could be our ‘labor of love’ 1/18/06 – Oak Park: controlled racism?

2/6/06 – Myopia and the minority achievement elephant 12/13/06 – Make a mistake, own up to it (“gang sign” controversy) 9/12/07 – We can solve the achievement gap

12/12/07 – Assumptions, counter-assumptions on the achievement gap 4/2/08 – 40 years after King, a divide unbridged 4/9/08 – Don’t change what works (For Sale signs and integration) 4/30/08 – When we chose the road less traveled (40th anniversary of Fair Housing) 11/18/09 – Time for an uprising, Oak Park and Austin 10/13/10 – Our migration as one people (Isabel Wilkerson’s “Warmth of Other Suns”) 12/3/14 – What Ferguson, Missouri taught me 1/6/16 – How much do Black lives matter?

11/15/17 – Race and education 4/4/18 – From many flags, one people (the Robinets and MLK) 8/22/18 – The ‘America to Me’ docuseries and OPRF 11/21/18 – Thankful for ‘America to Me’ 5/22/19 – Revising our Diversity Statement, again 10/9/19 – Whose back are you sitting on? (OPRF educational equity) 3/18/20 – Project Unity’s place in history 6/10/20 – Race to justice 12/2/20 – A crisis of labeling 12/9/20 – An apology and then some The full list is 75 columns long (I haven’t catalogued 2021 yet). I found this a useful exercise in tracing the evolution of my thinking on race and racism, much of which was naïve early on and sometimes just plain dumb. The low point was “Take ‘racism’ out of our lexicon” (9/20/00, my apologies to Charles Whitaker). But I don’t apologize for changing. My thinking about race needed to evolve. Writing about it helped me clarify it. And I still have a long way to go.

I, went from wanting to lead “courageous conversations” on race to listening and learning — from sowing the seeds to being the fertile soil in which those seeds can germinate. It has been a humbling journey.

But it is a necessary journey and, for all its challenges and difficulties, it’s a journey I enjoy. I am better for taking it. What could be more important, especially for white Americans? Overcoming racism is the central work of our lifetime. That means reducing our own racism and then helping to dismantle the system that perpetuates white superiority and Black inferiority.

Seventy-five columns on race and racism is a lot.

Obviously this has been much on my mind, and I’m not alone. Dan Haley has been at it even longer. Michael Romain is now contributing terrific columns each week that make mine pale by comparison.

My second point is for those who criticize us for our insensitivities and mistakes. I don’t mind the criticism, but I do mind the lack of historical context. This newspaper has been addressing race and racism since it began in 1980. We aren’t neophytes.

Historically, this has been Wednesday Journal’s defining issue because it is Oak Park’s defining issue. We may be right, wrong or clueless, but we have stayed focused on it for 41 years now. My columns, which cover 30 of those years, are evidence of commitment, if not always wisdom.

Yet we will persist into the unforeseeable future.

As for the reader who challenged me, and others of like mind, I can only say, join us.

This journey is so worth taking.

KEN

TRAINOR

V I E W P O I N T S

W

$38 million in ARPA funding, now what?

hat would you do with $38 million? That is how much the village of Oak Park received from the federal government in the wake of the COVID pandemic.

If you weren’t aware, you are not alone.

There has been little coverage of the fact that Oak Park is receiving the fourth largest payout from the federal government in Cook County through the America Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). While other municipalities and counties have conducted town halls and spent months engaging their communities about how to spend their funds, Oak Park trustees have not. At the Monday, July 19 board meeting the trustees placed one-third of the $38 million in the village’s General and Parking funds. Is that what you would have wanted?

The America Rescue Plan Act was signed by President Biden in anticipation of several factors that were impacting the lives of Americans through the pandemic. Oak Park is among the largest recipients of ARPA funds in Illinois, and as we emerge from the pandemic, this is the moment to unburden Oak Park’s taxpayers and set Oak Park on a strong trajectory for the future.

Placing the money into the General and Parking funds has already lost accountability for the largest federal

W E D N E S D A Y

JOURNAL of Oak Park and River Forest

grant to our village that many of us will ever see.

The process for deciding how to use these funds should address priorities of the community: Creating resiliency for future pandemics, safety for our families, and attractiveness to diverse businesses. There are few restrictions on the use of these funds. So we should see them used to make the community better, not just to fill budget gaps.

Cook County and Evanston have both held multiple meetings each to get community input on how their funds are going to be used.

Most importantly, through community engagement they reduce the chance that funds will be spent on redundant or unnecessary projects. How do we know that Oak Park isn’t spending its $38 million on something that Cook County is already spending its $1 billion in ARPA funding on?

Now is the time to tell the board how you want to use these funds and to convene meetings with community leaders, commissions, and nonprofits. The trustees need to show that they have the vision Oak Parkers deserve and that they are willing to be transparent with this and future federal grants that the village receives.

Stephen Morales recently ran as a candidate for the Oak Park Village Board.

STEPHEN MORALES One View

Make our villagers whole Our country and village are experiencing the compounding crises of climate change and a pandemic — the effects of which will be felt for generations. These crises cannot be solved by individuals alone. They are systemic problems that require significant investment.

Recognizing the scale of these issues, the federal government created the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to empower municipalities to invest in their recovery and build a more resilient future.

Oak Park is receiving $38.9 million in aid, one of the largest allotments in Illinois. This aid represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity. If invested wisely, these funds would transform lives in our village. Regrettably, the village of Oak Park board is squandering this opportunity.

Instead of investing in our community first, the board voted to direct $14 million of our aid to fill budget gaps, which have alternative remedies. In doing so, some board members believe they are “making the village whole,” to borrow President Scaman’s words. But they are not making our villagers whole.

To address our villagers’ needs, their decision process would have to adhere to the principles of equity,

Wednesday Journal, July 28, 2021

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

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

About Viewpoints

community engagement, and transparency that many board members purport to champion. To date, they have not engaged the community nor held a conversation with our residents most impacted by the hardship of the last 18 months.

The board’s decision also flaunts federal guidance.

The U.S. Treasury’s answers to frequently asked questions states that ARPA funds cannot be used to pay debt because debt payments do not “address the needs of pandemic response or its negative economic impacts.”

Yet, the village plans to pay debt with its ARPA funds via a fund-transfer shell game that undermines the spirit and intent of the law.

The village board must seize this transformative opportunity. The remaining $24.9 million must go toward community recovery programs because we cannot recover from these crises alone. Our board must recognize our situation and partner with the community to imagine a better future. In collaboration, we can invest the remaining aid in our people and create a plan that truly makes our community whole.

Alicia Chastain

Oak Park

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

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.

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

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Scotch … in a Bloody Mary?

But … in a Bloody Mary? ational Scotch Day is July 27. It is a The cocktail for this year’s holiday I strictly observe.

National Scotch Day festivities In the past, on this momentous day, I is a Scotch Bloody Mary, so with have enjoyed Scotch on ice; the frozen a good quality Bloody Mary mix, cubes help bring down the “heat” of and my bottle of Bruichladdich, Scotland’s signature sip.

I made myself a Scotch Bloody When I heard that the smokier expressions Mary. of the spirit make for a good Bloody Mary (!), Every time you eat or drink I was more than a little dubious. The woodsy something, there are inevitable smoke flavors of peat in the Scotch seem at expectations that come to mind. odds with the summer smells of a new-mown The spirit used in a Bloody Mary lawn, tomatoes ripening on the vine, and other is usually vodka, considered a cliched seasonal scents. colorless, odorless, and somewhat So I got a bottle of Bruichladdich Port flavorless spirit (not a 100% acCharlotte Scotch whisky, advertised as “heavily Local Dining curate characterization, but close). peated.” Here’s a thumbnail of how “peating” & Food Blogger Scotch, especially peated Scotch, happens: to create Scotch, barley is first wais on the other end of the flavor tered down; the grains sprout, sugars develop, spectrum from vodka: dark in and then the sprouted grains are subjected to color, smelling of smoke and the sea, tasting heat (traditionally from peat fires) to arrest the sprouting; of barley and the barrel it was aged within, the now smoky-flavored grains are mashed up, watered Scotch has a lot of personality, with dominant down, and fermented, and the fermented liquid is distilled notes of caramel, vanilla, and chocolate. before going into barrels to age.

Vodka and Scotch are very, very different Bruichladdich Distillery is on Islay, the southernmost spirits. So expectations must be adjusted. island of the Inner Hebrides, and the place is covered with The job of vodka in most drinks is to peat, the compressed organic matter laid down over the disappear into the mix; Scotch is not going millennia and traditionally dug out to warm homes, cook to disappear. Strong in flavor on its own, foods … and make Scotch whisky. the power of the Scotch matches the spicy power of the Peat gives Scotch whisky some of its characteristic Bloody Mary mix, balancing smoke with acidity, slightly flavors — including saltiness, iodine, and leather — and it sweet flavors of the barrel-aging with the spice. It was by creates a heaviness on the palate that many Scotch drinkfar the most complex Bloody Mary I’ve ever sipped. ers enjoy. I do.

DAVID

HAMMOND

PHOTO BY DAVID HAMMOND

Scotch in a Bloody Mary? Bloody well right! And right now, the cocktail *pairs* quite well with atmospheric smokiness wafting over from the Pacific Northwest.

Davie Hammond’s blog posts can be found in Oak Park Eats at oakpark.com.

SHOP LOCAL Support our local economy!

So many ways to shop. online. in-person. shop local oprf digital giftcard.

learn more about the Chamber and our programs @oprfchamber.org

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Where is the balance?

I consider myself to be a political moderate. Just as I do not believe that everyone holding conservative viewpoints is a wild-eyed, MAGAhat wearing zealot intent on destroying democracy, I also do not believe that everyone holding liberal viewpoints is a crazed Communist intent on massive wealth redistribution and the destruction of our inner cities. My life experiences have shown me that those stark stereotypes are found, if anywhere, in the media, and very few people that I have known could be remotely defined by either of those caricatures.

In order to better advise myself of the day’s events, every morning I visit the CNN, Fox, and BBC websites. I will not say that I read each story — I have trouble understanding why Britney Spears’ conservatorship should be relevant to me, for example — but I read many of the stories, and I always read all of the headlines. Often, the CNN and Fox sites seem to be describing two different worlds, as an issue that merits a top headline on one site won’t even be mentioned on the other.

I raise that last point because I think many people seek out only the news presentations that reinforce their political beliefs. That limited approach to consuming the news inhibits a wider understanding of the issues of the day. As my father taught me long ago, you will learn much more by listening to those with whom you disagree than you ever will by listening to those with whom you agree.

Finding balance, then, takes some work. Unfortunately, Wednesday Journal does little to provide that balance. Each week, I find well-written, fact-based stories on the events transpiring in Oak Park and its environs, and I find Michael Romain’s thoughtful and thought-provoking (but decidedly left-of-center) column, and … nothing to balance that viewpoint.

That’s ironic, because back in April, Mr. Romain quoted National Public Radio to the effect that an element of his new job as ombudsman is to “investigate complaints and concerns about … balance.”

Consider this letter and expression of such a concern.

Tom Healey Oak Park

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The importance of voting for down-ballot boards

Thank you, Michael Romain, for your column linking the Oak Park Public Library’s One Book program to the recent and ongoing travesty at the Niles Public Library. Only after reading your column and the link to bookriot.com did I fully realize the importance of knowing the ethics and motivations of the candidates we vote for as library trustees.

The library board is not just a down-ballot body

of little consequence; it can have a serious impact on the policies of our beloved community resource.

Oak Park voters, let us all do our homework before the next local election to ensure that we continue the library policies we value, and let us be equally vigilant about the candidates we select for our other local boards as well.

Ann Bolan

Oak Park

Eye on the Net

Woke talk

I am not saying the new woke talk is wrong. To me, in truth, woke talk is basically paraphrasing the Communist Manifesto.

Here is how woke talk and the Communist Manifesto fit together: Overthrowing white bourgeois supremacy and white bourgeois systemic oppression with political power by the Black proletariat and allies will result in more equable distribution.

I observe there is a new category of job in America called “equity specialist.

They are basically racism exorcists.

Found while browsing online: Lessons in life will be repeated until they are learned.

Submitted by Kwame Salter

Robert Sullivan Oak Park

Block Party Gets Photo in Newspaper!

Are you having a Block Party this summer? Invite the Wednesday Journal! We’ll come with some donuts, a few newspapers and we’ll snap a shot of your group for publication.

We can only do one party per week, so reserve your shot today!

Contact Jill Wagner at 708-613-3340 or Jill@OakPark.com

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Children suffer the sins of their parents

cannot disagree. Simone Biles is GOAT (greatest of all time)! As I watch her soar through the air during her routines, I can’t help but wonder where are all the other Simone Bileses that we will never know about?

Biles’ backstory is not emphasized as much as it should be. That story is emblematic for a lot of stories within the black community. Her biological mother struggled with drug and alcohol addictions, which is not uncommon within a certain portion of the black community. Her mom was also a single mother — another far too common occurrence as well. At some points during Simone’s early years from the age of 2-5, she was sporadically placed in foster care because of her mother’s inability to care for her and her siblings. That, too, is an unfortunate reality occurring far too often, even though we are the most “social serviced” people ever.

According to news reports, Simone’s mother’s father, Ron, would be notified every time his grandkids were put into the system. At some point, he stepped in and rescued all four children and had them come live with him in Texas. One would think that with the children finally in a stable environment, their mom would want the best for them. And she probably did. However she managed to convince the two oldest to return to Ohio with her and those two oldest were eventually adopted

by Ron’s sister. Simone and her sister continued to live with Ron and were eventually adopted. The grandparents became the parents.

Simone and her sister ended up in a stable environment. A daycare trip to the gymnasium began her journey into the world of gymnastics. But even more than that, she was in an environment

that allowed her to pursue her interest. Is there anybody who believes Simone would be the athlete she is today if she had remained with her mother? I don’t! If the black community suffers from anything, it is the numerous children who have had their dreams and interests squashed because they have drug- and alcohol-addicted parents. How many children cannot fulfill their dreams because the instability of the household doesn’t permit it?

Why do people who cannot take care of the children that are already here, continue to have more? Why are they even having children?

More interesting is that as the details came out regarding her past, Simone’s mother got indignant in the way that her father portrayed her. But isn’t that also a common problem within the black community? People never want to hear about the errors of their ways. And if they have to hear it, they want it painted in a more suitable light. But why? You do your dirt, why should we make it clean dirt? Why should struggles with drugs and alcohol be tolerated when in reality those two vices are the result of personal choice?

Growing up, I always wondered why in church we were told that the sins of the father were suffered by the children. I remember how unfair that felt. But I see it now. The mistake parents make directly affects their children. And the careless procreation by adults brings forth children who suffer those consequences. I am sure that there are other children who could flip just like Simone or even better. Those children suffer from never having had the opportunity. They suffer their parents’ sins.

Arlene Jones writes a weekly column for our sister publication, the Austin Weekly News.

ARLENE JONES

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Boys of summer (will be boys) With the Cubs in transition, we thought some nostalgia was in order. Here’s a column about the Cubs from 2017:

I

love baseball on the radio, and it has come to my attention that many of those reading are unacquainted with this particular art form. Radio baseball, properly executed, reaches its absolute peak when it becomes apparent to the listener the hosts have gotten so into their tangential discussion that they are, at best, only peripherally aware that 1) there is a baseball game going on in front of them, and 2) they are supposed to be describing the action therein. Ideally, it’s a bit like sitting with your grandpa and his friends at the VFW, listening to them talk while watching a ballgame on a tiny soundless TV over the bar.

Pat Hughes and the much-missed Ron Santo were the all-time best I’ve ever heard at this. (For a slightly different take, dial in 620 AM during a Brewers game to hear the one-man band, Bob Uecker.) For those of you unacquainted with Pat & Ron, here is a fictionalized, but highly realistic, “tran-

TOM HOLMES

Winning and losing from page 35 problem-solvers view setbacks as inevitable and do not define them as failures.”

Edmund Lau, in a January 2017 post, said that participating in debate taught him a lot of good things, then confessed, “But debate also taught me a bad habit — one that ironically made it more difficult for me to communicate effectively at home and at work.

Debate taught me to argue every point and

SIECK

What are we made of? from page 35 good. But we will also not survive if we continue to combine one atom of carbon and two atoms of oxygen (CO2), creating more and more greenhouse gas. So this is bad. On a lighter note, our jewelry uses atoms of gold and silver; our phone batteries use atoms of lithium. (See how much fun this is? Who knew?)

Here’s where the original curiosity goes off the rails. If you remember your basic — and I do mean basic — chemistry, every atom has a nucleus of one or more protons and one or more neutrons.

Orbiting around this nucleus are one

Pat: We’re back on WGN Radio here at Wrigley Field on a beautiful summer afternoon in Chicago. Cub closer Jose Veras on the mound to start the top of the ninth to face Pittsburgh leftfielder Starling Marte.

Ron: Looks like Jose has a new haircut.

Pat: It sure does, Ronnie.

Handsome job, too. Strike one to the hitter. Wonder who his barber is?

Ron: We had a guy in the clubhouse who did them, back when I was playing. You’d go to the locker room and get a trim between innings.

Pat: A good haircut can make you feel, strike two, 10 years younger.

Ron: Oh man, that’s the truth. I had a haircut a couple of weeks ago that still makes me feel good today. My grandson went with me. He got a gumball from that machine.

Pat: Your barber has a gumball machine?

Ron: Oh yeah. One of the oldfashioned kind, with the round top.

[Modest crowd noise] Pat: Struck him out. I haven’t seen a real old-fashioned penny gumball machine in years, Ronnie.

Ron: They’re not a penny anymore. The one at the barber is a quarter. You believe that? A quarter!

Pat: Twenty-five cents for a gumball?

[Crack of the bat, crowd noise increases] Ron: [Over the crowd] It’s a big gumball. I remember when 25 cents would’ve kept me in gum for a month.

Pat: Ruggiano makes the catch to retire Walker. Two gone and that brings up Pedro Alvarez. Twenty-five cents used to get you a lot more. I remember buying two candy bars with a quarter.

Ron: Oh, I’d’ve thought you could get more than that, but I don’t eat much candy anymore, y’know.

[Both chuckle] Pat: No you don’t, Ronnie, and it’s saved you a lot of money.

Ron: I wonder how much I’ve saved on candy in my life.

Pat: Enough to keep you in haircuts for a long time!

[Both chuckle] Ron: I wonder what Jose paid for his haircut.

Pat: Speaking of Jose, the count is twoand-two to Alvarez.

Ron: If he had it done in the clubhouse like I used to, it wouldn’t have cost him anything!

Pat: I wonder if they still do clubhouse haircuts, grounder to Castro at short, the throw over to Rizzo and that’s the game.

We’ll have to ask them during the postgame show, coming up next, on the Cubs radio network!

strive to win every argument. It taught me how to keep arguing even if I didn’t believe my position. And it taught me to never admit that my opponent was right.”

Christian Coon, a Methodist pastor in River Forest, wrote a book titled, Failing Boldly in which he argues that the fear of failure has paralyzed the church [and many of us] from taking the risks necessary if we want to make the changes we need to make to keep up with a changing world.

I grew up 40 miles from Green Bay, so I’m a Packer fan. And I agree that Rodgers and Tom Brady and several other quarterbacks are at the top of their game. But

personally, I hope he doesn’t sign with the Packers for this upcoming season. They’ll lose more games without him but they’ll regain my respect.

First, because I don’t like the game he’s playing. He’s only making $21.5 million a year and is now reportedly pushing for — are you ready? — $45 million.

Do you remember Ernie “Let’s play two” Banks? In his Hall of Fame 19-year career Mr. Cub earned an estimated $680,500.

Mr. Rodgers, $680,500 divided by 19 equals $35,816 a year. Whether or not you think the Cubs organization exploited him is not my point.

In contrast to Rodgers, I’m a big fan of

Banks — whom I got to see play once at Milwaukee County Stadium — because as the Britannica website notes, “Banks was known for his enthusiasm and love of the game, his trademark cry of let’s play two! reflecting the pure enjoyment he took in baseball. In 2013, Banks was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.”

Second, as a religious person, my main concern really is not whether you win or lose but how you play the game. That’s not how the world, i.e. our culture, sees it, but then again my community of faith has always seen itself as “in the world but not of it.”

Tom Holmes writes a regular column in our sister publication, the Forest Park Review.

or more electrons — just like planets orbiting around the sun. Now there’s an awful lot of empty space between our planet and the sun. What about between those orbiting electrons and their nucleus? So I did what any cat would do and googled “how much of an atom is empty space?”

99.9999999%, I repeat, 99.9999999% of an atom is empty space. And the electrons flying around in their orbits are not really solid objects but rather waves of energy. Make a fist, pound on a table, stomp your foot. Still feel solid? The Blue whale, the General Sherman redwood, the great pyramid? 99.99999% empty space.

My house, my car, my coffee cup, and Oh no! My phone? Yep. Me? Everything: the earth, the moon, and every plastic lego — 99.9999999% empty space.

The wonder of it all is that we can do

everything we do with only .0000001% of us being “stuff,” solid, something we can put our hands around. Complacent in what we think we see, we look right through the beautiful, amazing truth of everything around us.

We used to think that what separates us from any other creature in the animal kingdom is our ability to make and use tools. We now know animals do that.

Or maybe our ability to learn and to solve problems, but animals can do that, too. Our ability to communicate? Both animals and plants do that. Our ability to care about others? Some animals do that too. No, what separates us from every other living organism is our capacity for wonder, and to imagine what else we might not know — and to go looking for it.

The .0000001% that is genuinely solid pays the bills, puts gas in our cars, orders

coffee and plays with our phones. But after the bills, gas, coffee, and phone, we need to find just a little bit of time for wonder.

Distinctly human, it’s rare, precious, and worth nurturing.

Look down at your hands. Right now.

The ones you use to hold your coffee in the morning, to hold your phone all day, to shake in greeting others, to wave hello and goodbye. The hands that are 99.9999999% empty space, and tell me you are not in awe of what they can do. Welcome to a world filled with wonder where we can still discover amazing things that have been hiding in plain sight.

My therapist got it half right. It took me another 42 years to discover that everyone’s hands, no matter what they do or what they wrap around, are wonder — full.

Bill Sieck is a longtime Oak Park resident with a wondering mind.

script.”

ALAN

BROUILETTE

It’s like electronically transmitted Xanax.

So perfect.

Alan Brouilette writes a monthly column for our sister publication, the Forest Park Review.

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O B I T U A R I E S

Ralph Schuler

Teacher, tennis player, Sox fan Ralph Alfred Schuler died peacefully at his home in River Forest on July 13, 2021, in the company of his wife, sons and daughters. He loved and pushed them all and wanted everyone to know that his parents, Ralph and Martha, started by loving and pushing him.

A career educator, he taught high school history first at DePaul Academy and then for countless years at East Leyden High School.

Besides teaching and being incredibly involved as a teachers union negotiator, he coached high school tennis for both boys and girls. When he retired, he was chairman of the History Department.

He raised his family in the same home he grew up in on Lombard Avenue in Oak Park.

He attended Ascension and Fenwick, but all his kids and grandchildren attended Oak Park and River Forest High School. He loved the south Oak Park neighborhood because of its proximity to Barrie Park for his kids, Famous Liquors on Roosevelt Road for himself, and La Majada restaurant for everyone.

His passions besides history and teaching were tennis, poetry and reading. He instilled that same passion for tennis and the Oak Park Tennis Club for many family members and friends. His poetry, which did not always rhyme, was most often composed in Nags Head, North Carolina and usually after a couple of frosty beers. He loved his reading group, the Old Bulls, and their discussions. One of his favorite quotes was, “Don’t let a few facts get in the way of a good story.” His stories were as legendary as his jokes were bawdy. No story would be complete without a mention of his lifelong best friend, Don Gancer. Ralph and Don met at Ascension School and were still sharing beers just days before he left us. He had way too many friends to mention but he did want a shout-out to his best man, Terry McCarthy.

His wife Donna was the love of his life. They shared many interests, their top priority being their five children, whom they exposed us to historical places, battlefields, presidents’ homes, great music, copious amounts of food, great friends and mentors and most importantly their love for the ocean and Nags Head,

North Carolina, where his children and most of his grandchildren are headed for over the 50th time this summer.

He was compassionate, interesting, funny, an incredible host, a great listener, a better storyteller, an advocate for civil rights, and a prolific White Sox fan.

His last White Sox game was won in the 10th inning and he celebrated with ice cream.

Ralph is survived by his wife, Donna Rae; his sister, Jane Cutt; his children Rich, Laura (John) Reardon, Bill, Stephen (Mary Jo) and Stacy (Eric) Wettstein; his 11 grandchildren, Matt, Nate and Ellen (Schuler), Keith, Audrey and Caroline (Reardon), Andrea and Ryan (Schuler) and Julia, Henry and Anna (Wettstein); and his great grandchild, Presley Reardon.

He will be remembered at a celebration of life in late August at the Oak Park Tennis Club, where great stories will be told, memories shared, and of course, a little tennis played. He will be watching.

In lieu of flowers, here are a few charities he supported: Oak Park River Forest Museum (oprfmuseum.org); the ACLU Foundation, American Civil Liberties Union; and the River Forest Public Library Foundation (rfplfoundation.org).

in 1980 with a degree in English language and literature, she worked for several years in the business sector in Taiwan. She then came to the United States to study and subsequently received her M.A., M.Ed., and Ph.D. degrees in Education at the University of Illinois UrbanaChampaign. She had a lifelong interest in reading and her curiosity about things unfamiliar brought her from East to West and sustained her ongoing learning in many areas. In addition to her academic pursuits she had a deep interest in botany and was an avid gardener.

She adored Shakespeare.

She taught reading and literacy development at both the undergraduate and graduate levels in the Department of Education at Saint Xavier University and later at North Central College. She was a respected teacher for many enthusiastic students to whom she taught the Chinese language, the English language, and reading.

Dr. Leu is survived by her husband, Ralph R. Kazer; three sisters; one brother; and her three stepchildren, Auben, Lena, and Max, and by two step-grandchildren, James and Lily.

Donations in her honor can be made to the Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Foundation at Northwestern.

Funeral services will be held privately.

Joanne Selden, 77

Loretta Troyer, 85

Joanne Selden, 77, a resident of Oak Park since 1975, died in hospice at Seasons Hospice on April 8, 2021. She loved Oak Park and was a lover of painting. She had an M.S. in Physics from the University of Illinois and worked for City Colleges of Chicago for many years. She was a frequent contributor to the Wednesday Journal Viewpoints section.

She suffered from bipolar disorder her whole life. She was a member of NAMI. She was on dialysis for many years. After a severe stomach ulcer, she gave up on dialysis.

She had no children, but Murrell, her husband of 53 years, loved her always.

Joanne requested cremation and bravely said she put her faith in Almighty God beforehand.

Loretta (Lorrie) Edwards Troyer, 85, a longtime Oak Park resident, died on July 14, 2021. Born in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, on Nov. 13, 1935, to Raymond Edwards, and Lee (Lina) Feindert, she graduated from Cuyahoga Falls High School and studied nursing at Pennsylvania College for Women (now Chatham University) in Pittsburgh, where she met William (Bill) G. Troyer Jr., a University of Pittsburgh medical student.

They married in 1959 and soon moved to multiple new cities where they made lifelong friends and their children were born, including Oklahoma City; Durham, North Carolina; and Adelphi, Maryland, outside Washington D.C., where she was accepted to Catholic University for a Master’s in Nursing program. After Bill’s discharge, the family moved to Madison, Wisconsin. She returned to D.C. the next year to finish her degree before joining the faculty at the University of Wisconsin’s Nursing and Rehabilitation teaching hospital.

In 1974, the family moved to Oak Park, where she continued her career, first at the University of Illinois School of Nursing and later with the Oak Park Health Department.

Later the couple traveled extensively, including to Egypt, China, Hong Kong, and Tibet.

She loved visits with her grandchildren.

Lorrie Troyer was preceded in death by her

A lover of painting

Shwuyi Leu, 59

Taught reading and literacy Shwuyi Leu, 59, died on July 23, 2021 at her home in Oak Park, following a brief illness.

She was born in Taipei, Taiwan on Feb. 4, 1962, the second daughter of the late Mau-Chi Leu and Mei-Yu Lee Leu, of Taiwan.

After graduating from Tamkang University

Taught nursing

parents and her brother, Howard Edwards.

She is survived by her sister, Alberta King and brother, Robert Edwards; her children, William (Bill) G. Troyer III, Steve Troyer (Presley Stokes), Judy Deogracias (Richard); and five grandchildren, Wade Troyer, Amelia Troyer, George Troyer, and Raymond and Lourdes Deogracias; and her great-granddaughter, Seraphina Loretta O’Leary, who arrived three days after her passing.

A celebration of life will be held in late August in the Oak Park area at a location to be determined. Donations in lieu of flowers may be given to Thresholds, https://www.thresholds. org/about.

Maureen Murray O’Bryan, 84 Company A member

Maureen Murray O’Bryan, 84, a lifelong resident of Oak Park, died on July 16, 2021 after a long battle with dementia.

A graduate of Trinity High School (1954), Rosary College (1958) and a proud member of Company A for over 60 years, she was a woman of profound faith and leaves behind a legacy of joy: love of family and friends and devotion to her Catholic faith. Deeply loved and appreciated, she will never be forgotten.

Maureen is now reunited with her daughters, Deirdre Haefner and Kathleen Kurrle, who predeceased her in 2014. She is survived by her sons, Tommy (Mary), Danny (Pia), Patrick, Timmy (Renee), Dennis, Robert (Kathleen) and Kevin (Marie); her grandchildren, Tommy (Katherine) and Carolyn (Matthew) Gaspari, Vivienne, Eloise and Charlotte, Lee and Dean, Danielle, Bryan, Terry, Peter, Deirdre, and Eva, Maureen, Marni, Dennis and Bridget, Ben, Avery, Faye, Joe, Finn and Rhett, Dorie and Mary, and Niklas, Patrick, and Liadain; her greatgrandchildren, Eleanor and Henry; her siblings, Kathleen (Frank) Gazzolo, Denis (Pat) Murray, Carol (Jim) Bracewell, Michele (Carter) Eckert, Dan (Pat) Murray, Deirdre (Phil) Collins, and the late Robert (Jean) Murray; and many nieces and nephews. She was the daughter of the late Robert and Dorothy Murray, and the former mother-in-law of Martha, Molly, Bruce and Jochen.

A funeral Mass was celebrated July 23 at St. Edmund Church with interment at Queen of Heaven Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations in Maureen’s name may be made to Misericordia.com.

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

See OBITUARIES on page 44

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O B I T U A R I E S

Lanny Lutz, 79, Actor extraordinaire

Charles Allan (Lanny) Lutz, a man of prodigious intellect and theatrical talent, died on Jan. 5, 2021, in Los Angeles after an extended illness. Born on Jan. 1, 1942 to Ruth Flarida Lutz and Allan Barr Lutz in Washington D.C., the family moved to Birmingham, Michigan after the war and in 1953 to Darien, Connecticut.

In high school, he excelled in competitive sports. He was an avid sailor and won numerous races on Long Island Sound.

A 1964 graduate of Yale University, he majored in English while his love for theater flourished in Yale dramatic productions. He was an accomplished pianist and also a student of French, which he spoke fluently. He took a year off from Yale to explore France, and in Paris he met and married Katia Brillie.

After returning to finish his B.A. at Yale, he taught English at Milford Academy. In 1967, he and his wife moved to New York City where their daughter, Natalie Cybèle, was born and where Lanny devoted himself to acting full-time. In 1969, he and his wife moved to London where he attended the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). Charles, as his RADA friends refer to him, graduated with the Honours Diploma and won the highest and most prestigious honor the institute conferred, the Bancroft Gold Medal, for his entire career at RADA, including a memorable performance of the title role in Tartuffe.

A classmate, Canadian writer Alexandra Sellers wrote, “He was a brilliant, intense actor, and the pity was that as an American he wasn’t allowed to work in the UK … all the connection with West End directors and casting agents was sadly wasted.”

In 1971, the family relocated back to New York City, where Lanny continued to study acting. He moved to Los Angeles and, after a divorce, relocated to the Chicago area, where he lived in Oak Park for more than 20 years.

He was involved in numerous pursuits in Oak Park, as an actor, founder in about 1996 with Gerald Clay of Black-White Dialogue,

host of a radio show, passionate spokesman for sugar maples, and a distributor of L tz Wine, for which he sponsored numerous wine-tasting parties in homes and river boat cruises, as well as supporting Oak Park Festival Theatre by purchasing display ads in their programs. He was a member of the Festival Theatre Board of Directors for several years and founded a contractor’s reference service, Lanny’s List. He was also proud of having passed the stringent requirements to become a licensed 18-wheeler truck driver. He loved fine wine and good meals with friends and a good debate. Possessing a booming laugh, Lanny was to some a modern Zorba the Greek.

In 2005, he performed to acclaim the lead role in All My Sons at Oak Park Festival Theatre and in 2006 reprised his RADA performance in the title role of Tartuffe. A member of the Actors’ Equity Association and Screen Actors Guild/American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, he played a small, but significant role in the film Batman, the Dark Knight.

In 2016 he left the full life he had lived in Oak Park and returned to Los Angeles to pursue his dream. He had a full and adventuresome life, dedicated to his passion, acting. He dreamed of becoming the publicly recognized great actor that his theater friends claimed was his due and continued to pursue that dream throughout his life, without achieving stardom, which saddened him and his many friends, but without compromise, regret, or self-pity.

He was happy to be free, referring to himself as a gypsy, and chose and enjoyed the life he wanted, always living according to his values.

Lanny Lutz was content with the life he led.

A Zoom celebration of Lanny’s life on Jan. 30 organized by his daughter, Natalie, was attended by dozens of family and friends from France, England, Canada, and the U.S. with beloved tales of a well-lived life from his youth to his studies at RADA to his years in Oak Park.

Lanny was predeceased by his parents, Ruth and Allan Lutz. He is survived by his daughter, Natalie Lutz; his ex-wife, Katia Lutz; his sister, Carolyn Gibson (Vero Beach, Florida); his dear friend from Oak Park, Janet Bohler; his two grandchildren, Loic Tatischeff, 27 (wife Summer), and Magalie Tatischeff, 25; his nephew, Ian Gibson, and niece, Elizabeth (Liz) Gibson.

As Lanny would say: “Tally Ho, Daddio!”

W E D N E S D A Y

JOURNAL of Oak Park and River Forest

Thomas Joslin, 87 Worked for Aon Insurance

Thomas J. Joslin, 87, of Elmwood Park died on July 19, 2021, peacefully at home surrounded by family and friends. Born on Jan. 22, 1934 to the late William Murray and Mary Catherine (née Kallal) Joslin, he was a spirited, kind and generous man, a natural athlete who loved running and golf and spending time with good friends and his family. Growing up in Oak Park, he attended St. Giles Grammar School, Oak Park and River Forest High School, and Loras College. He built a long and successful career in the insurance industry, retiring in 2011 from Aon after 50 years of service.

He was the husband for 61 years to the love of his life, Veronica (née Hanley); the father of Jennifer “Jena,” Maureen

(the late Jeff) McCoy, Patrick (Wendy), Erin (Ron) Oesterlein and Peter (Colleen Morrissey); grandfather (“Boppy”) to Erin (Brian) Turner, Emmett, Chris and Connor McCoy, Ian and Ben Joslin, Brody and Keelin Oesterlein, and Fiona and Thomas Joslin; great-grandfather to Charlotte and Nate Turner; and brother of Chuck (Margaret), Mary Catherine (the late KJ) Phelan, John (Carol), the late Barbara Wilkie, and Bill (Mary Jane) Joslin.

A visitation was held July 23 at Drechsler, Brown & Williams Funeral Home. A funeral Mass was celebrated on July 24 at St. Vincent Church, River Forest, followed by interment at Mt. Carmel Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers donations can be made to the Alzheimer’s Association. (http://act.alz.org/goto/TomJJoslin1934)

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

Please include a photo if possible.

Wednesday Journal, July 28, 2021

45

Let the sun shine in...

Public Notice: Your right to know In print • Online • Available to you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every day of the year OakPark.com | RiverForest.com | PublicNoticeIllinois.com

Deadline is Monday at 5:00 p.m.

HOURS: 9:00 A.M.– 5:00 P.M. MON–FRI

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

PUBLIC NOTICES

PUBLIC NOTICES

PUBLIC NOTICES

NOTICE TO BIDDERS AND INVITATION FOR BIDS VILLAGE OF BROOKFIELD VETERAN’S MEMORIAL FOUNTAIN RECEIPT OF BIDS The Village of Brookfield will receive sealed proposals for the Veteran’s Memorial Fountain project until 10:00 A.M. Central Daylight Savings Time, 28th day, July, 2021, at the Office of the Village Manager.

Bids will be opened and read in the Edward Barcall Hall in the Municipal Building, 8820 Brookfield Avenue, Brookfield, Illinois, on 28th day, July, 2021, at 10:00 A.M., Central Daylight Savings Time. The Project consists of the following work: VILLAGE OF BROOKFIELD VETERAN’S MEMORIAL FOUNTAIN CONTRACT DOCUMENTS The bidding forms and documents are available from the Village website at www.brookfieldil.gov or from Accurate Repro, Inc., 2368 Corporate Lane, Naperville, IL 60563, 630-428-4433, www.hitchcockplanroom.com. A non-refundable fee equal to Accurate Repro, Inc.’s charge for printing the documents will be charged for each requested bid package. The Bid Package may also be examined at the Office of the Village Manager, at 8820 Brookfield Avenue, Brookfield, Illinois 60513. No bidding documents will be issued after 4:30 P.M. on Friday, July 23, 2021. Bid proposals must be submitted on the forms provided. Submission of a bid shall be conclusive assurance and warranty that the bidder has examined the plans, the site of the work and the local conditions affecting the contract and understands all of the requirements for performance of the work. The bidder will be responsible for all errors in its proposal resulting from failure or neglect to conduct an in-depth examination.

The Village of Brookfield will, in no case be responsible for any costs, expenses, losses or changes in anticipated profits resulting from such failure or neglect of the bidder. The bidder shall not take advantage of any error or omission in the plans or proposal. Sealed envelopes or packages containing bids shall be addressed to the Village Manager and plainly marked “VETERAN’S MEMORIAL FOUNTAIN” on the outside of the envelope.

QUESTIONS, CHANGES, CLARIFICATION Any questions that arise must be made in writing and shall be directed by electronic mail to the Timothy C. Wiberg, Village Manager, Village of Brookfield at twiberg@brookfieldil.gov. The written questions, along with the Village’s response, shall be circulated to all known potential bidders without identifying the party submitting the questions. The cutoff for receipt of additional questions shall be 12:00 Noon, Central Standard Time on Friday, July 23, 2021, in order to facilitate preparation of any addenda. No inquiry received after that time will be given consid-

eration. Replies and/or addenda will be emailed to all known potential contractors by 4:00 P.M., Central Standard Time on July 26, 2021.

Receipt of any addenda must be acknowledged in writing as part of the Bidder’s Proposal. Bidders shall be responsible for ensuring that they have received any and all addenda. The Village of Brookfield shall not assume responsibility for the receipt by the Bidder of any addenda.

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

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

AWARD OF CONTRACT Unless all bids are rejected, the contract award will be made to the lowest responsive responsible bidder that the Village of Brookfield in its sole discretion determines to be in the best interest of the Village.

In determining who the lowest responsive, responsible bidder is, the Village of Brookfield will consider all factors that it, in its discretion, deems relevant in determining who the lowest responsive responsible bidder is.

LEGAL REQUIREMENTS Work performed under this contract shall be in accordance with Illinois Prevailing Wage Act (Illinois Compiled Statutes, Ch. 820, Act 130, Sections 1-12), Employment of Illinois Workers on Public Works Act (Illinois Compiled Statutes, Ch. 30, Act 570, Sections 1-7), Drug Free Workplace Act (Illinois Compiled Statutes, Ch. 30, Act 580, Sections 1-11).

Village of Brookfield, Illinois ____________________________ Timothy C. Wiberg, Village Manager

Published in The Landmark July 28, 2021

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING VILLAGE OF OAK PARK ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS HEARING DATE: August 17, 2021

due to the COVID-19 outbreak during Governor JB Pritzker’s TIME: 6:00 p.m. or as soon current disaster proclamation. It is thereafter as the Agenda permits also not feasible to have a person present at the public hearing due to CALENDAR NUMBER: 13-21-Z public safety concerns related to the APPLICATION: The Zoning Board COVID-19 outbreak. of Appeals (“Board”) will conduct a public hearing on a special use All interested persons will be given permit application filed by the an opportunity to be heard at the Applicant, JD North Blvd Holdings public hearing. Interested persons LLC, to operate an existing craft may provide written evidence, brew lounge, Beer Shop, pursuant to testimony and public comment on Section 8.3 (“Table 8-1: Use Matrix) the application by email to Zoning@ of the Oak Park Zoning Ordinance oak-park.us or by drop off in the at the property located at 1026 Oak Park Payment Drop Box across North Boulevard, Oak Park, Illinois, from the main entrance to Village Property Index Number 16-07-126- Hall, 123 Madison Street, Oak Park, 011-0000, in the DT Downtown Illinois, to be received no later than 5:00 p.m. on August 17, 2021.

Zoning District.

An individual’s name and their A copy of the application and testimony or comment will be read applicable documents are on file aloud into the record at the public and are available for inspection at hearing if received no later than Village Hall, Development Customer 30 minutes prior to the start of the Services Department, 123 Madison public hearing. Interested persons Street, Oak Park, Illinois 60302, may also sign up to participate in Monday through Friday between the hearing to cross examine the 8:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. applicant and its witnesses, present evidence, testimony or public The Board will conduct the public comment by emailing Zoning @ hearing remotely with live audio oak-park.us before 5:00 PM on the available and optional video. The day prior to the public hearing to meeting will be streamed live and sign up. Individuals who sign up to archived online for on-demand participate in this manner will receive viewing at www.oak-park.us/ an email from Village staff with commissiontv as well as cablecast information about how to join the on VOP-TV, which is available to meeting online through Zoom webComcast subscribers on channel conference means or by phone.

6 and ATT U-Verse subscribers on channel 99. The remote public The public hearing may be hearing is authorized pursuant to adjourned by the Board to another Section 7(e) of the Open Meetings date without further notice by public Act. The Village President has announcement at the hearing setting determined that an in-person public forth the time and place thereof. hearing is not practical or prudent Published in Wednesday Journal July 28, 2021

Starting a New Business?

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 Mary Ellen for details: 773/626-6332

PUBLIC NOTICES

PUBLIC NOTICES

SECTION 000020 – LEGAL NOTICE VILLAGE OF BROOKFIELD 8820 Brookfield Avenue Brookfield, Illinois 60513 KIWANIS PARK BOAT LAUNCH

es minority business firms to submit bids on this project and the successful contract bidder to utilize minority businesses as sub-contractors for supplies, equip- ment, services, and construction.

The Village of Brookfield does hereby invite sealed bids for redevelopment construction of Kiwanis Park Boat Launch. Work will include site clearing, earthwork operations, storm sewer, concrete walks and paving, and planting and seeding.

Questions should be directed to Andy Howard or Steve Konters, Hitchcock Design Group at 630.961.1787 ahoward@hitchcockdesigngroup.com or skonters@ hitchcockdesigngroup.com.

Project manuals, including bid form and specifications, and construction documents are available after 11:00 AM on July 22, 2021 from Accurate Reprographics, 2368 Corporate Lane, Suite 100, Naperville, Illinois 60563, 630-428-4433 www.hitchcockplanroom.com. Bidding documents are available for down- load and print at the non-refundable cost of reproduction.

Bids will be accepted at the Village of Brookfield, 8820 Brookfield Avenue, Brookfield, Illinois 60513, during regular office hours. All bids must be submitted in a sealed envelope marked with the Contractor’s name and address, and “Bid for Kiwanis Park Boat Launch,” on the face of the envelope. Bids must be received no later than 11:00 AM August 5, 2021. Bids will be opened on August 5, 2021 at 11:01 AM at the Village of Brookfield, 8820 Brookfield Avenue, Brookfield, Illinois 60513. All bidders will be re- quired to submit Bid Security in the form of a Bid Bond, Certified Check, Cashier’s Check in the amount of 5% of the Base Bid, payable to the Village of Brookfield.

The successful bidder, as determined by the Village of Brookfield, shall be required to pay, and to agree to pay no less than the Prevailing Rate of Wages, pursuant to the Illinois Prevailing Wage Act (820 ILCS 130) for the locality of the Village of Brookfield (Cook County), to each laborer worker, or mechanic needed or used to complete the work as detailed in the contract to be let. The successful contractor, and all subcontractors shall be required to submit, to the Village of Brookfield, certified payrolls no later than the tenth day of each calendar month for the immediately preceding month.

The Village of Brookfield reserves the right to reject any and all proposals, parts of any and all proposals, or to waive technical errors or omissions in submitted proposals.

No submitted bid may be withdrawn until a period of sixty (60) days after the bid opening date, without written consent of the Village of Brookfield.

The Village of Brookfield encourag-

This project is being financed, in part, with funds from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, “Boat Access Area Development” (BAAD) grant program.

END OF SECTION 000020 Published in RB Landmark July 28, 2021

PUBLIC NOTICE Notice is hereby given, pursuant to “An Act in relation to the use of an Assumed Business Name in the conduct or transaction of Business in the State,” as amended, that a certification was registered by the undersigned with the County Clerk of Cook County. Registration Number: Y21007364 on July 20, 2021 Under the Assumed Business Name of TOTALLY LEGIT CARD CO. with the business located at: PO BOX 5292, RIVER FOREST, IL 60305.

The true and real full name(s) and residence address of the owner(s)/ partner(s) is: ELAINE D LUTHER 7723 ADAMS ST, FOREST PARK, IL 60130, USA Published in Forest Park Review July 28, August 4, August 11, 2021

Let the sun shine in..

Public Notice:

REAL ESTATE FOR SALE IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS COUNTY DEPARTMENT - CHANCERY DIVISION DEUTSCHE BANK NATIONAL TRUST COMPANY AS TRUSTEE FOR HIS ASSET SECURITIZATION CORPORATION TRUST 2007OPT1, MORTGAGE PASSTHROUGH CERTIFICATES, SERIES 2007-OPT1; Plaintiff, vs.

CHARLES T. GRANT; JUANITA J. GRANT AKA JUANITA LACOURT; PRAIRIE PLACE AT 6436 ROOSEVELT CONDOMINIUM ASSOCIATION; UNKNOWN OWNERS AND NON RECORD CLAIMANTS; Defendants, 19 CH 14415 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 17, 2021 at the hour of 11 a.m. in their office at 120 West Madison Street, Suite 718A, Chicago, Illinois, sell at public auction to the highest bidder for cash, as set forth below, the following described mortgaged real estate: P.I.N. 16-18-428-043-1019 & 16-18428-043-1064.

Commonly known as 6436 Roosevelt Road, Unit 311, Oak Park, IL 60304.

The mortgaged real estate is improved with a condominium residence. The purchaser of the unit other than a mortgagee shall pay the assessments and the legal fees required by subdivisions (g)(1) and (g)(4) of Section 9 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 Law Clerk at Plaintiff’s Attorney, The Wirbicki Law Group, 33 West Monroe Street, Chicago, Illinois 60603. (312) 3609455. W18-0641 INTERCOUNTY JUDICIAL SALES CORPORATION intercountyjudicialsales.com I3171912

Your right to know In print • Online

Available to you 24 / 7 / 365

OAKPARK.com PublicNoticeIllinois.com



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

46

Wednesday Journal, July 28, 2021

CLASSIFIED

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

HELP WANTED

MARKETPLACE

River Forest Public Schools District 90

District 90 is seeking qualified and experienced applicants for the following positions:

• Speech and Language Pathologist (Roosevelt Middle School) • English Language Learners Teacher (Full-time at Roosevelt Middle School and Part-time FTE 0.50 at Lincoln Elementary School) • School Social Worker (Part-time FTE 0.50 at Lincoln Elementary School & Part-time FTE 0.50 Willard Elementary School) • Speech and Language Pathologist (Roosevelt Middle School) • Grade 1 Teacher (Lincoln Elementary School) • Grade 4 Teacher (Willard Elementary School) • Physical Education Teacher (Willard Elementary School) For detailed qualifications requirements and job duties, please visit our website at https://www.district90.org/about/ employment for our complete list of employment opportunities.

Interested candidates should complete the online application available at www.district90.org. Please do not send hard copies of supporting documentation, i.e. cover letters, resumes, licensure, etc. to River Forest Schools District 90; instead, upload these materials onto the online job application system for proper processing.

GRANTS SUPERVISOR The Village of Oak Park is seeking qualified candidates for the position of Grants Supervisor in the Development Customer Services Department. This position will perform a variety of responsible for developing. Administering and coordinating activities related to Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and other grant-funded programs for the Village. Applicants are encouraged to visit the Village of Oak Park’s website http://www.oak-park.us/ jobs. Position opened until filled.

ANIMAL CONTROL OFFICER 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 visit the Village of Oak Park’s website http://www.oak-park.us/jobs. Interested and qualified applicants must complete a Village of Oak Park application no later than August 3, 2021.

Part Time Positions Available for 2021-22 school year After-School Recreation / Day Care Worker Youth Development Specialist on site at Oak Park public schools The Day Care Program of Hephzibah Children’s Association is accepting applications for nurturing individuals to provide care and supervision of 5-11-year-old children in the After School Day Care program on site at Oak Park public schools. The days and hours are Mon – Fri from 2:30-6:00 PM and 2:00-6:00 PM on Wednesdays.

Plan and supervise arts and crafts, indoor & outdoor play, games, sports, homework help and more.

Requirements include: -previous experience working with children -6 semester hours in education, recreation, social work or related college courses desired

PARK DISTRICT OF OAK PARK EARLY CHILDHOOD COORDINATOR Join our team to help lead our program take its next steps! Beginning in early August, the Early Childhood Coordinator will assist teachers and enrichment staff utilize an emergent curriculum to develop thinkers and doers that are innovative, resilient, and compassionate. Partner with the Early Childhood Supervisor to provide a wonderful educational experience for our young students and their families.

Program starts mid-August and runs through the 2021-22 school year.

The ideal candidate has a passion for early childhood education, is nurturing, creative, responsible, communicates well with parents and colleagues, and collaborates with our team to provide a positive learning environment.

TEACHER AND TEACHER AIDE MINI ME BUNCH seeks teacher and teacher aide to enhance and expand daycare serving children ages 6 weeks to 5 years. Teacher must have at least Associates’ degree in Early Childhood Education. Minimum 1 year experience preferred in each position. Must love children and be outgoing, patient, flexible. Contact 773-521-9499

Director qualified according to Illinois DCFS regulations.

This is a part-time year round position, $17.50/hour, 28 hours/wk.

To view full job description and to apply. Go to www.pdop.org/jobs HEPHZIBAH DAY CARE PROGRAM SITE SUPERVISOR Hephzibah Children’s Association offers after school day care on site at each of the Oak Park elementary schools.

The Day Care Program is accepting applications for a Site Supervisor for the 2021-2022 school year to provide supervision to childcare staff as well as care and supervision of 5-11-year-old children.

Regular days and hours are Monday through Friday from 2:30 6:00 PM, Wednesday 1:30 – 6:00 PM. Additional hours on school closing days, in coordination with the school district calendar. May work other hours during school holidays and for staff meetings.

Associate degree in child development or early childhood education, or the equivalent in child development or education desired.

Previous experience working with children required.

Program starts mid-August and runs through the school year.

Additional hours for staff meetings and on school closing days in coordination with the school district calendar.

Contact MJ Joyce at: mjjoyce@hephzibahhome.org Equal Opportunity Employer We are an inclusive employer and welcome people from all backgrounds to apply

Contact MJ Joyce at mjjoyce@hephzibahhome.org Equal Opportunity Employer We are an inclusive employer and welcome people from all backgrounds to apply

Forest Park

GARAGE/YARD SALES

WANTED TO BUY

GARAGE SALE 7661 MONROE ST

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

off the alley behind Dunkin Donuts

SAT 8/31 9AM TO 5PM

Antique furniture, tables, chairs, dishes, glasses, light fixtures, baby toys, crib.

Oak Park

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

CARS WANTED

WHOLE BLOCK YARD SALE 1200 BLK FAIR OAKS SAT 7/31 9AM TO 2PM

Musical instruments, clothes, some furniture, shoes, toys, computer items and much more!

ART SALE Brookfield

ANNUAL ART MARKET ART & THE UNUSUAL’S, 18 LOCAL ARTIST LAURA ATWOOD STUDIO BEADS & TRADING CO. 9142 BROADWAY SAT 8/7 10AM TO 6PM

Lots of Unusual things from around the World, Jewelry, Paintings, Pottery,Glass, Lotions, Candles, Collections& to much to list. Please Join Us!

CLASSICS WANTED CLASSICS WANTED

Restored or Unrestored Cars & Vintage Motorcycles Domestic / Import Cars: Mercedes, Porsche, Corvette, Ferrari’s, Jaguars, Muscle Cars, Mustang & Mopars $$ Top $$ all makes, Etc. Collector James Mercedes,630-201-8122 Porsche, Corvette,

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

Ferrari’s, Jaguars, Muscle Cars, Mustang & Mopars

CLASSICS WANTED $$ Top $$ all makes, Etc. Restored or Unrestored James Cars Collector & Vintage Motorcycles Domestic / Import Cars: 630-201-8122

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

$$ Top $$ all makes, Etc. Collector James

630-201-8122

MAINTENANCE Hiring one Maintenance position at private health club in Oak Park.

Hours will be variable between 20 and 32 per week and may include some night and/or weekend hours.

Adult applicant should be out of high school and able to work with common power tools, including snow blowers, lawn mowers, drills and sanders.

Applicant should be competent in painting, basic repairs and janitorial duties.

This job requires climbing ladders and some heavy lifting- please do not apply if you cannot do physical work.

Interested parties, please email your skills and contact information to: Lisa Tanzer at: LisaT@tenandfit.com

PART-TIME ELECTRICIAN’S HELPER Must have own transportation.

For more information CALL 708-738-3848

Hire Local.

Place an ad on Wednesday Classified’s Local Online Job Board.

Go to OakPark.com/classified today!

Contact Mary Ellen Nelligan for more information.

(708) 613-3342 • maryellen@oakpark.com

Wednesday Journal, July 28, 2021

CLASSIFIED

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

SUBURBAN RENTALS Apartment listings updated daily at:

R E N TA L S & R E A L E S TAT E SUBURBAN RENTALS

ROOMS FOR RENT

DOWNTOWN OAK PARK 1BR

OFFICE /RETAIL FOR RENT

Large Sunny Room with fridge, microwave. Near Green line, bus, Oak Park, 24 hour desk, parking lot. $125.00. New Mgmt.

312-212-1212

OFFICE SPACE FOR RENT THERAPY OFFICE OAK PARK Free wifi; flexible leasing, and offices nicely furnished right down to the Kleenex. Secure building & friendly colleagues, often giving referrals to other office mates. Shared Waiting room, Conference room & option to join Peer Supervision Group. Ideal for new practice or 2nd location.

708-383-0729

Small 1BR apartment in DTOP. Renovated and freshly painted. Harwood floors. Walking distance to El. No pets. $850/mo, utilities included.

708-657-4226

SUBURBAN REAL ESTATE FOR SALE

OFFICE /RETAIL FOR RENT

RIVERSIDE 3 FLAT FSBO

Find your new apartment this Saturday from 10 am – 4pm at 35 Chicago Avenue.

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

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

Three above grade 2BR apts. Unfinished basement w/ laundry & 1/2 BA. 4 car brick garage. Zoned for residential and office, if desired. Well maintained. $529,000

BY APPOINTMENT ONLY 708-446-1324

OAK PARK & FOREST PARK

708-386-7355

MMpropMgmt.com

CITY RENTALS AUSTIN RENAISSANCE APARTMENTS

A HUD subsidized affordable Apartment property announces the opening of its waiting list for both One and Two Bedroom Apartments! Resident rent is approximately 30% of gross household income, some restrictions apply. Our property is located on Washington Blvd in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood.

Apartments offered with an occupancy of one to four persons. Properties feature modern kitchens, include appliances, and offer onsite maintenance. Austin Renaissance will accept requests for application packages by U.S. Mail postmarked no later than , September 15, 2021. Send or email a written request for an application package that includes your name, mailing address. Daytime telephone number, Email address, and the number of persons in your household to: Town Center Realty Group LLC, PO Box 64, Huntley IL 60142-0064 or Email requests to mrpaul.tcrg@gmail.com Application packages available by mail or email delivery only. No walk-ins accepted.

Town Center Realty Group LLC

47

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

COMMERCIAL/RETAIL SPACE FOR RENT 2 SPACES FOR RENT IN SHOPPING CENTER: From 1,000 Sq. Ft.(END CAP) TO- 1,635 Sq. Ft. BOTH: Very good Condition. Recently Updated. *Heavy traffic area; Serious inquires ONLY. **Special Discounted Rates-Limited Time!

If Leave message, Include: Your Name, Phone Number and Type of Business.

TEXT or CALL: (708)828-6491

HOME SERVICES CEMENT

CEMENT

MAGANA

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

COMMERCIAL INDUSTRIAL RESIDENTIAL

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

ELECTRICAL Ceiling Fans Installed

ELECTRICAL

A&A ELECTRIC

Let an American Veteran do your work

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

708-409-0988 • 708-738-3848

AIR CONDITIONING AIR CONDITIONING AND APPLIANCE EXPERT Air Conditioning Automotive A/C Refrigerators Ranges • Ovens Washer • Dryers Rodding Sewers Lic/Bonded 25 yrs experience

FREE SERVICE CALL WITH REPAIR AND SENIOR/VETERAN DISCOUNT.

708-785-2619 or 773-585-5000

FLOORS

LANDSCAPING

KLIS FLOORING INC.

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

Low prices, insured.

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

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

708-296-2060

CURT'S HANDYMAN SERVICE

NEIGHBORHOOD CLEAN UP

Evergreen trimming & more. Clean-ups.

Garden weed removal.

Storm Branch Tree Removal.

708-447-1762

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

PAINTING & DECORATING

708-488-9411

Fast & Neat Painting/Taping/Plaster Repair Low Cost

FREE ESTIMATES Excellent References No Job Too Small

HAULING BASEMENT CLEANING

Appliances & Furniture Removal Pickup & Delivery.

708-848-9404

CLASSIC PAINTING 708.749.0011

PLASTERING McNulty Plastering & Stucco Co.

Small & big work. Free estimates.

Complete Plaster, Stucco & Re-Coating Services

708/386-2951 • ANYTIME Work Guaranteed

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

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

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

PublicNoticeIllinois.com

YOUR WEEKLY AD

REACHES SIX SUBURBAN COMMUNITIES:

OAK PARK, RIVER FOREST,FOREST PARK, BROOKFIELD, RIVERSIDE, NORTH RIVERSIDE, AND PARTS OF CHICAGO

48

Wednesday Journal, July 28, 2021

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

SHRED IT AND FORGET IT! Saturday, September 11, 2021 from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon

Forest Park Bank, the locally owned and managed community bank, is pleased to continue the tradition of sponsoring the Annual FREE Sensitive Document Shredding Event in its Madison Street parking lot.

The Bank has, again, engaged a professional shredding service to shred your sensitive documents with an industrial shredder—while you watch.

Forest Park Bank and Forest Park Police Department personnel will be on site to discuss identity security issues, including ways to protect your identity and what to do if you become a victim of identity theft or financial scams.

You may bring up to two 12” X 12” X 18” boxes of documents to be shred at no charge.

Three-ring notebooks and binders with large metal rings cannot be shredded. Staples are allowed.

If you have questions about this event, please call Don Offermann at 708 222 2836.

7 3 4 8 W E S T M A D I S O N S T R E E T, F O R E S T PA R K , I L 6 0 13 0 F O R E S T PA R K B A N K . C O M

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708.222.2800