W E D N E S D A Y
August 3, 2016 Vol. 34, No. 51 ONE DOLLAR
JOURNAL of Oak Park and River Forest
@O @OakPark
Oak Park says cop shot ‘off duty’
They’re with her Visitors to the Oak Park Farmers Market on July 30 pose alongside a life-like cardboard cutout of Hillary Clinton, two days after she accepted her party’s nomination for president.
Village stopped paying wounded officer in May By TIMOTHY INKLEBARGER Staff Reporter
and village trustees in July approved a resolution and designated the 300 block of Keystone Avenue as Laurel and Dennis McMahon Way. With the Historic LAUREL MCMAHON Preservation ComLocal historian mission in fine hands, McMahon has stepped down from the
The early morning of May 3, 2015 seemed like any other for 27-year veteran Oak Park police Officer Johnny Patterson, a Chicago resident who usually left for work in the village around 5 a.m. But the night before, Patterson had parked his car in the front of his house in the 300 block of West 103rd Place. He had a habit of drinking a protein shake during the long drive to Oak Park and that morning was no different. He kept them in the garage behind his house, so he drove around to the alley, parked and stepped out of his patrol vehicle. After returning from the garage with his morning beverage, Patterson’s world was turned upside down. He noticed a man hiding behind a light pole. “He started running toward me with a weapon,” Patterson recalled during a recent interview. “I’ve got a shake in one hand and a key in the other and he’s got a gun in my face.
See LAUREL McMAHON on page 13
See COP SHOT on page 9
WILLIAM CAMARGO/Staff Photographer
River Forest loses preservation champion Laurel McMahon’s work vital in protecting the village’s historic homes By DEBORAH KADIN
L
Contributing Reporter
aurel McMahon and her husband, Dennis, could not agree how to restore the porch on their 1880s-era Queen Anne in River Forest. So she went to the Historical Society of Oak Park and River Forest on the chance that a historic photo of their house might be there. She found one. But little did she know that encounter would lead her to making a substantial impact on the quality of life in her community.
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McMahon became perhaps one of the most eloquent and passionate proponents for preservation of the community’s architectural and historic landscape. Along with a group of like-minded individuals, she helped convince the village board to establish a Historic Preservation Commission and adopt a governing ordinance. That measure was updated nearly a decade later, moving the community’s preservation efforts in to a new phase. This spring, the commission renamed its annual Restoration Award in her honor,
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