Wednesday Journal 090121

W E D N E S D A Y

September 1, 2021 Vol. 42, No. 5 ONE DOLLAR @oakpark @wednesdayjournal

JOURNAL of Oak Park and River Forest

Census: ‘Multiracial’ fastest growing group in village

WELCOME WAGONS

Nearly 1K fewer people identify as Black in Oak Park

By MICHAEL ROMAIN Staff Reporter

After hours of meticulously charting Oak Park’s 2020 Census figures, Rob Breymaier started to become distraught by the story the numbers told.

According to Breymaier’s analysis of 2020 Census redistricting data made available by the University of Minnesota’s National Historical GIS, Oak Park’s total population went from 51,878 in 2010 to 54,583 in 2020 — an increase of 5%.

The data showed that people identifying as multiracial are the fastest growing segment of the population while people identifying as ■ Black are disappearing faster than any racial or ethnic demographic. It’s the latter that PAGE 14 has Breymaier concerned.

According to Breymaier’s analysis, people identifying as multiracial grew by 1,661, or 109%, while there were 823, or 7%, fewer Blacks in Oak Park between 2010 and 2020. There were also 230, or 1%, fewer whites, but 1,559, or 44%, more Latino and 467, or 44%, more Asian residents in the period between the two censuses.

For Breymaier — a former District 97 school board member and former executive director of the Oak Park Regional Housing Center — the village’s precipitous loss of Blacks, or at least people identifying as

High-rises drove population growth

See CENSUS on page 14

ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

Current students help families and incoming students move into their dorm rooms on Aug. 27, during Dominican University’s move-in day at Coughlin and Murray Halls on the River Forest campus. See story, page 6.

State’s vaccine mandate overtakes local schools talks Public schools, local colleges respond to Pritzker vax mandate

By F. AMANDA TUGADE Staff Reporter

Nearly a week ago, the Oak Park District 97 school board announced its pursuit of a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for their employees. But a new order from Gov. J.B.

Pritzker leaves no room for discussion, forcing school officials to act quickly and meet the governor’s guidelines.

By Sept. 5, all public and private school and university employees must receive a single-dose or the first dose of a two-dose COVID-19 shot, according to

an Aug. 26 announcement from Pritzker.

Individuals need to get the second shot of the two-dose within 30 days after the first dose. The vaccine mandate also applies to college students and healthcare workers.

See VAX MANDATE on page 17

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BENEFITING

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Is that new equity hire token or transformational?

his week, I reported on the take.’” rise of equity, inclusion Porras said she was drawn to and diversity professionDominican University, because of als across the country. (Full the institution’s explicit commitdisclosure: Having been ment to becoming a “social jusrecently named equity editor at tice, anti-racist organization … I Growing Community Media, I fall was like, ‘This is speaking to me.’” into this grouping).

Jennifer Rowe, the new director According to an analysis by of equity and belonging at Lyons Glassdoor, the employment webTownship High School (LTHS), site, these DEI hires shot up by said another critical aspect of 55% after George Floyd’s murder equity work is listening to stakein May 2020. That’s after the rate holders and learning about the loof DEI hiring had slowed by 60% cal history of a community. after the onset of the pandemic.

Rowe, who works in a district Commentary Of course, as with all things popwhose student population is 70 ular, the hiring trend invites suspicion. First, percent white, has a very unique task. How it’s important to point out that this is nothing does she bring people along who may be suspinew. cious of her intentions or may not know much Diversity hiring, particularly in Corporate about equity?

America and higher learning, has peaked and “I always think the best thing is when people ebbed at least since the Civil Rights Move- can speak with you and hear what the work ment. is,” she told me. “We always want to racialize Precious Porras, Dominican University’s equity work and that’s not where it should live chief diversity officer, explained that posi- and die. It connects into everything.” tions like minority affairs officers were creatEquity, she said, isn’t “something added to ed at colleges around the country in the 1960s. the plate, it is the plate. It’s the lens through But the positions rarely came with any kind which we look at all things.” of real authority to enact systemic That perspective has stuck with anti-racist and equitable change me. I’m realizing there’s a need to within institutions. differentiate between equity, as a ■ Many years and a few generageneral concept, and racial equity, tions of equity personnel later, the more specifically — despite the same stubborn problem remains, fact that the two terms are often Porras said. While some equity diused interchangeably.

PAGE 16 rectors hired nowadays sit at leadAnd reading Lawrence T. ership tables and are empowered Brown’s new book, “The Black to influence policy, many, like their Butterfly: The Harmful Politics forerunners from the 1960s, are still toothless. of Race and Space in America,” the key facI asked Porras to share with me some of the tors driving the differentiation may be place signs that an equity hire is more token than and history. transformational.

Directing equity in a space like LTHS is not “I would be looking at what is the position the same as directing equity in a space like description? What is it asking you to do? Is it Oak Park and River Forest High School. The anti-racism you’re working on? Is it coded lan- spatial and historical dynamics differ. guage like civil engagement and global citizenDirecting equity in Brookfield or LaGrange ship?” she said. “Or is it very vague, generic isn’t the same as directing equity in Chicago’s language that doesn’t specifically name any- Austin community. With respect to Black comthing and doesn’t give you an opportunity to munities, Brown writes, equity has a very spesay, ‘This job is a process, it’s a lot of give and cific prescription.

MICHAEL ROMAIN

Romain’s reporting on recent local equity hires.

“Racial equity is required to restore Black neighborhoods, underdeveloped by deliberate public and private policies, practices, systems, and budgets. An authentic racial equity strategy will foster healing from past harms and support collective self-determination for the future.”

Brown lays out five steps institutions must follow to implement “a robust racial equity strategy” at the Black neighborhood level (what he terms “spatial equity”): ■ “Obtain a deep understanding of historical trauma inflicted on Black neighborhoods.

■ “Identify and stop all forms of ongoing historical trauma affecting Black neighborhoods.

■ “Make decision making participatory and deeply democratic for existing residents in redlined communities.

■ “Ensure a meaningful community ownership and wealth-generating stake in all projects, programs, developments, and interventions using collective economics.

■ “Make corrective and equitable budget allocations and funding choices to repair the damage caused by ongoing historical trauma on redlined neighborhoods.”

Do you want to keep your public officials accountable?

I’ll venture to argue that, while this formula may not directly apply to white spaces, important parts of it extend to spaces everywhere.

Achieving equity in all forms requires identifying historical trauma inflicted on the marginalized — whether, for instance, we’re talking about a school district’s LGBTQ population or its low-income students.

A deep consideration and respect for why these inequities were brought about ought to guide the equity work.

Participatory and democratic decisionmaking, adequate and equitable budgeting and community ownership — those are also requisite components of any equity work in any space.

And, as Porras and Rowe both pointed out, the people helping to lead these efforts anywhere must be empowered to do the work.

But, as Rowe emphasized, people have to understand that equity isn’t just a Black and Brown thing, or something reserved for Black and Brown people.

The concept shouldn’t be alien or exotic, particularly for people who hold the most power and privilege in any given institutional context. They’re the ones who should be shouldering the heaviest burden when it comes to doing equity work.

But convincing people who have power of their responsibility to society and their role in various inequitable histories — related to gender, race, sex, wealth, etc. —may be the biggest hurdle facing equity professionals.

For instance, this is Porras describing her time working in a predominantly white institution before arriving at Dominican.

“I dealt with these challenges daily, it felt like,” she said. “For one, it’s convincing your colleagues that this work is necessary and important. When I went in, it was like getting to, ‘Yes, this is a problem and this is real’ … was a starting point.”

What I was hearing from Porras, and what the long history of DEI hiring suggests, is that it seems like a lot of equity work is just fighting to get to a place where the work can actually begin.

CONTACT: michael@oakpark.com

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BIG WEEK September 1-8

Try-It Thursday: Sharpie Tie Dye Tees Thursday, Sept. 2, 4 to 5 p.m., Scoville Park Students in grades 4-8 can try or create something new. Join in any and all events in this series on Thursday evenings. Brought by the Oak Park Public Library.

Register. Register/more: oppl.org/calendar

Midday Meditation Tuesday, Sept. 7, Noon to 12:30 p.m., Zoom with the Oak Park Public Library Discover the benefits of meditation for managing stress, boosting the immune system and increasing energy. The session starts with Kundalini breath practices to shift your state of mind and make meditation more accessible. No experience necessary; all welcome.

Register: oppl.org/calendar.

Native Tree & Shrub Sale Order through Sept. 10; pickup Saturday, Sept. 25, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., United Methodist Church Shop best-selling plants such as Wild Black Currant, New Jersey Tea, Kalm St. John’s Wort and Wahoo.

These versatile plants are compact and offer attractive blooms and seasonal color while providing food and shelter to beneficial insects, birds and other wildlife.

Brought by One Earth Collective and West Cook Wild Ones. Order/More: wild-ones-west-cook.myshopify. com. Pickup: 405 S. Euclid, Oak Park.

Sound Meditation

“Austrian Serenade” View through Labor Day, virtually with the Symphony of Oak Park – River Forest See a recording of the live concert performed in June at the Nineteenth Century Club by the Symphony. Enjoy works by Mahler, Schubert and Mozart. $15 per household. Tickets: symphonyoprf.org/2020-2021-season.

Thursday Night Out – Only Two Remain

Saturday, Sept. 4, 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., Ahimsa School of Sound Join facilitator Jay Taylor for an experience in sound.

As vibrations of the singing bowls and gongs interact with participants’ bodies on a cellular level, this meditation supports a state of deep relaxation. No skills, beliefs or prior experience required. $30; $25, Ahimsa Yoga Studio members; $0, Sound School members.

Register/more: ahimsayogastudios.com/ahimsaschool-of-sound-events. 441 South Blvd., Oak Park.

Through Sept. 9, 5 to 8 p.m., Downtown Oak Park (DTOP) More than 20 restaurants offer a variety of drinks, appetizers, entrees and desserts, available through ticket purchases and special menus. Diners may eat inside, take carry out or dine al fresco. Four dine-around tickets per $20 booklet. Each dinearound ticket buys one Thursday Night Out (TNO) menu item. Buy two ticket booklets, receive a $5 DTOP gift certificate for participating shops on any TNO. Booklets available at the tent on Marion near Lake. More: thursdaynightout.com

Supplies for Students in Music Ongoing, with PING! (Providing Instruments for the Next Generation) Help young musicians in D97, D90 and D200 get much needed supplies to kick off the school year through PING!’s new Amazon Wish List. PING! also accepts instrument donations to provide equitable access to band and orchestra for all students. More: pingoprf.org. Instrument donations: info@pingoprf. org. Wishlist: smile.amazon.com/hz/charitylist/ ls/25IF49F549AT4/ref=smi_ext_lnk_lcl_cl

“Coastal Disturbances”

Teen Space Grand Opening

Saturday through Monday, Sept. 4 – 6, 4 p.m., Ehlert Park See the Broadway hit play by Tina Howe brought by Habakkuk Theatre and Open Door Repertory. Bring a chair or blanket. $18. Tickets/more: brownpapertickets. com/event/5182232.

4338 Congress Park Ave., Brookfield TINA HOWE

Wednesday, Sept. 8, 3:30 to 5:30 p.m., Oak Park Public Library Check out a newly designed space and meet the four-member Teen Services team. Colorful tables and chairs, comfortable flexible furniture and a new big-screen are now in the southeast corner of the second floor - a dedicated destination intended for library patrons ages 13-18.

Chat with leaders on the Leading Edge Teen Advisory Board, meet dedicated staff and join in small group tours. Masks required, physical distancing encouraged. To-go drinks and snacks provided. All welcome. Registration recommended: oppl.org/calendar.

Storytimes in the Park Wednesdays, Sept. 8 through Oct. 27, 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 storytimes to neighborhoods. Share books, songs and more. For families with kids 0-5. Children under 14 must be accompanied by an adult. Bring your own blanket and hand sanitizer.

Limited to 20 families, with masks.

Sept. 8: Scoville Park, 800 Lake St. Sept. 15: Maple Park, 1105 S. Maple Ave. Sept. 22: Dole Park, 255 Augusta St. Sept. 29: Barrie Park, 1011 S. Lombard Ave.

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Historic Forest and Ontario corner going ‘back in time’ Lighting, pavers, plaques under review

By STACEY SHERIDAN Staff Reporter

Oak Park’s Public Works Department scored positive initial feedback from the Historic Preservation Commission for its traffic calming and landscaping project at Forest Avenue and Ontario Street. Village Engineer Bill McKenna, along with Brenda Kiesgen with Site Design Group, presented two different design proposals during the commission’s Aug. 26 meeting, where Commissioner Lou Garapolo and Chair Noel Weidner were the only members commission present.

The intersection of Forest Avenue and Ontario Street sits in the Frank Lloyd WrightPrairie School of Architecture Historic District and is adjacent to the Nineteenth Century Club, an Oak Park landmark. As such, the preservation commission was asked to provide early input on the historic aspects of the project prior to its full review by the commission on Sept. 9.

“When Lake Street was restreeted in 1988, there was a lot of work done on Forest and Ontario to deal with some of the traffic,” said McKenna referring to the decision to

ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

HISTORIC CORNER: Updates with a historic feel are planned for Forest and Ontario, adjacent to Austin Gardens. remove a failing pedestrian mall in downtown Oak Park and bring back auto traffic to Lake Street. “Like high-level streetlights were put in and it lost some of its residential character at that time.”

Residents in the area have expressed a desire to see the area’s historic character restored in addition to the implementation of traffic calming and safety improvements, according to McKenna. Public works collab-

orated with the engineers to identify ways to reestablish a historic presence.

“Public works wants to restore low-level pedestrian lighting using a light fixture with a ‘King Arthur look and feel to it,” said the village engineer. The fixtures will also have a fake patina to match the old copper ones throughout the rest of the village.

The project calls for the replacement of some sidewalks, primarily those corner

sidewalk ramps to bring them into compliance with current Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) guidelines. The village plans to use natural cast-iron detectable warning tiles in those areas.

“With the ADA improvements that are happening at the corners, we’ll be resetting the existing limestone wall,” said Kiesgen.

“That’s happening on the northeast corner of Ontario [Street] and Forest [Avenue].”

To fund the project, the village of Oak Park is using $340,000 that was contributed by the developers of the Albion apartment complex near the intersection. The sum was paid to the village of Oak Park as a compensating benefit for allowing the construction of the high-rise.

“With the current cost estimates, it wouldn’t cover the costs completely,” McKenna said. “Then we’re also going to be resurfacing the road.”

Ontario Street, as McKenna told the commission, is in very poor condition and with certain areas in various stages of deterioration, necessitating resurfacing. The village of Oak Park will pay for the balance of project’s cost, an estimated $500,000.

Another project component is the construction of a landscaped island out in front of the Nineteenth Century Club. The island See FOREST/ONTARIO on page 32

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Hot days for new beginnings

Move-in days at Concordia and Dominican filled with hope, some worry

By F. AMANDA TUGADE Staff Reporter

On a sweltering Thursday morning, Olivia Hitz paced from the parking lot to her room on the first floor of a campus residence hall.

Hitz, an incoming freshman at Concordia University Chicago, and her mother, Jill, capped off their nearly 15-hour drive from their home state of Texas by unloading their car, bursting with Hitz’s belongings.

Like most families on move-in day, the two emptied out the trunk and piled Hitz’s bags, one of which was labeled “winter clothes,” by the entrance of Kohn Hall.

“I was kind of nervous, but it’s been fun so far,” said Hitz Aug. 26, carrying an armful of items to her new room. A team of upperclassmen followed behind Hitz, muscling the rest of her things, including her lamp and a couple storage units.

Up on the third floor, Aniyah Jackson’s family tried to squeeze into her dorm room. Her parents, grandparents, aunt and two younger siblings were inside the small bedroom, surrounded by garbage bags and bins stuffed with Jackson’s clothes, cleaning supplies, toiletries and more. Gina Davis, Jackson’s mother, just climbed up flights of stairs, her daughter’s laptop and Tide detergent in hand.

“It’s great,” said Jackson, a college freshman from Chicago. Jackson, who briefly stepped out from her room to the hallway,

smiled, as she heard loved ones’ voices. “It’s the support,” she said.

Hitz and Jackson were just two of hundreds of students who moved to Concordia’s campus between Aug. 26 and 27, which kicked off the university’s Welcome Weekend, a two-day event packed with activities for new and returning undergraduates. The pair were excited to experience their first weekend away from home, which according to the Welcome Weekend itinerary, included orientation, DIY crafts, karaoke and late-night snacks.

The two were ready to start a new chapter of their lives – and hoping the COVID-19 pandemic wouldn’t hinder them from reaching any more milestones.

Last year, the River Forest university cancelled Welcome Weekend because of the pandemic, said Eric Matanyi, associate vice president of communications and marketing.

Students who lived on campus last year were only allowed to have single rooms.

“Now, we’re back to roommates,” Matanyi said.

Dominican University, which is also in River Forest, had similar restrictions. Mark Carbonara, director of advising and first-year experience, said resident students also lived in single rooms and had specific move-in times during the 2020-21 school year. Like Concordia, DU also held its move-in days and welcome celebration for new students over the same weekend, from Aug. 26 to Aug. 29.

“You couldn’t just show up, get your key and move in whenever,” Carbonara said, adding last fall, resident students could only bring one person to help them settle in.

Like most schools across the county, Concordia and Dominican were left with no choice

ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

Current students help families and incoming students move into their dorm rooms during Dominican University’s move-in day at Coughlin and Murray Halls on the River Forest campus.

ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

A NEW HOME: Freshman Olivia Hitz feels the welcoming warmth at Concordia University in River Forest. last year but to move their courses and social events online to help protect staff and students and slow the spread of COVID-19. There were so many students learning remotely inside their dorm rooms, said Matanyi.

In another effort to slow the spread of COVID-19, Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued a vaccine mandate for all public and private school and university employees, as well as college students and health care workers. Employees and college students must get the single-dose vaccine or the first dose of the two-dose vaccine

by Sept. 5, according to the new guidelines.

Those who do not get the COVID-19 shot or opt out because of religious or medical reasons must be subject to a weekly testing at their respective schools or healthcare facilities. Pritzker has also brought back a mask mandate, which requires all individuals over the age of 2 to wear masks indoors, regardless of their vaccination status.

The vaccine mandate is a changeup for CUC, which previously encouraged – but did not require – staff and students to get vaccinated before returning to campus for the 2021 fall semester. Dominican officials, however, imposed its own vaccination requirement for students and employees. Students and staff were required to be fully vaccinated and show proof of their vaccination status before returning to campus this fall.

Concordia is offering the two-dose Moderna vaccine and three vaccination clinic dates for staff and employees, starting Sept. 3, from 1 to 3 p.m. Appointments are available on a first come, first served basis, and pre-registration is required. For more information, visit www. cuchicago.edu/general-information/covid19-information.

As both universities open back up, some students worry about readjusting to another rou-

tine but have come away with lessons while living on their own during the pandemic.

Tyler Kara and Mack Gonzalez, both of whom are seniors at Dominican, have spent roughly a year and a half – since the second semester of their sophomore year – studying online. With in-person classes having begun on Aug. 30, Kara and Gonzalez said they’re excited and nervous about getting back into a routine and finishing out their final year.

“I just got so used to waking up 10 minutes before class, rolling out of bed and getting on my laptop,” Kara said, adding he is looking forward to going to class and being around other students. “I know I’m going to get a better education.”

Kara, a Las Vegas, Nevada native, said he was unable to fly home and be around his family when the pandemic first started. Gonzalez, who lives in nearby Berwyn, said he chose to stay back and live apart from family to limit any exposure to the novel coronavirus. For Kara and Gonzalez, their college years are widely different from what they imagined, but they claim the experience has allowed them to grow and come out of their shell.

On Aug. 27, Kara and Gonzalez were part of a crew of upperclassmen who pushed and pulled trolly cars, helping incoming students move into their dorm rooms. Underneath a blistering sun, they lugged personal belongings up and down a campus residence hall.

As Gonzalez looked around the parking lot lined up with new students and their families, he spoke about a lesson he learned as a college student during the pandemic.

“I can do it on my own,” Gonzalez said, adding it’s a lesson that comes in time and experience. “I don’t need the help of anyone else.

The fact that I can trust myself to take care of myself.”

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Police consultant chosen BerryDunn wins contract over Hillard Heintze

By STACEY SHERIDAN Staff Reporter

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As part of its goal to improve public safety, the Oak Park Village Board has chosen BerryDunn over Hillard Heintze to serve as the firm that will facilitate an independent assessment of the Oak Park Police Department. Despite early support for Hillard Heintze, BerryDunn became the obvious frontrunner and was awarded the contract during the board’s Aug. 31 meeting.

While the board found many similarities in the offerings of both firms, many trustees found the additional information provided

by BerryDunn regarding community engagement strategies and policing alternatives more compelling than Hillard Heintze.

“I don’t see a huge difference between the two. I go back to the original interview where I favored BerryDunn, and so that’s where I remain at this point,” said Trustee Susan Buchanan.

Trustee Jim Taglia had a complete change of heart since the board last discussed the two firms on Aug. 2.

“I ended the last meeting in support of Hillard Heintze, but upon reviewing their most recent response, as well as the most recent response from BerryDunn,” Taglia said, “I think I’m going to change over to BerryDunn as the firm I would support in terms of winning the RFP.” He told the board that the success of this initiative really hinges on engagement with the community.

“I feel more comfortable and there’s a higher chance of success using a firm that’s going to engage as robustly as possible with residents and get their input,” he explained.

Like Taglia, Trustee Ravi Parakkat was formerly on the Hillard Heintze bandwagon, but also like Taglia, he switched his support to BerryDunn because he felt the firm’s approach is more practical.

Trustee Lucia Robinson found BerryDunn and Hillard Heintz “in many ways very comparable.” What gave the firm an edge over the latter was BerryDunn’s “Community Co-Production Policing” model, which attempts to unify police agencies with the public through collaboration to develop shared responsibilities, better policies, and public safety priorities.

The model, according to BerryDunn, expands upon traditional community-oriented policing through the inclusion of a greater level of community participation and involvement in key policing strategies that affect the community.

While BerryDunn was the clear favorite for those three village board members, Trustee Chibuike Enyia found both firms unimpressive.

“I don’t think right now I’m leaning toward either,” said Enyia, who suggested the Citizen Policing Oversight Committee (CPOC) should have the opportunity weigh in on the decision and give a recommendation to the board.

“I think we need to look a little bit harder and make sure we’re giving all of our resi-

dents the justice of finding a true change for this,” said Enyia.

Hearing lukewarm responses to firms, he told the board, did not inspire his confidence in moving forward.

Village President Vicki Scaman reminded Enyia that CPOC’s role is to review allegations made against members of the police department, but that CPOC would be a part of the process of giving input and reviewing the scope of services laid out in the contract once the board chooses a firm.

Trustee Arti Walker-Peddakotla told the board she remained unsupportive of hiring a police consulting firm to steer the village of Oak Park in carrying out reforms. She has been unfaltering in that view since the suggestion was first offered to the previous village board during its June 22 meeting last year.

“It is so sad to me that we are about to spend $159,000, which is what I think BerryDunn originally proposed in the RFP, on hiring expolice officers to tell us how to reimagine community safety,” said Walker-Peddakotla.

The cost of services provided in BerryDunn’s proposal amounted to $159,250, while Hillard Heintze’s cost of services, as detailed in their proposal, totaled $115,599.60.

Walker-Peddakotla felt both firms’ proposals “were exactly the same,” offering a “newfangled model of community policing,” which she called “laughable.”

“Community policing is not a new model and their version is like community policing 5.0,” she said, before launching into a brief history of the origins of community policing to the board.

Neither BerryDunn’s “Community CoProduction Policing” model nor, as she called it, “Hillard Heintze’s community-whatever model” had the capabilities to reform the law enforcement system as neither address the actual problem. A lack of community control over policing, however, she does not see as the issue.

“The problem is the fact that the police system itself is built on white supremacy and racism,” she said. “You can’t community-police your way out of that.”

Walker-Peddakotla expressed her appreciation for Enyia’s desire to see CPOC involved in choosing a firm.

The meeting’s atmosphere turned testy when Scaman tried to interject that CPOC will have a presence in the process once after the village board selects a firm, as the village president and Walker-Peddakotla tried to speak over each other.

“I’m just so kind of appalled that I just got interrupted; I feel like I’m on the last board,” said Walker-Peddakotla.

Scaman apologized to Walker-Peddakotla before moving back to the matter at hand, stating that she had “every faith” the village board would push either firm to respond to the needs of the community.

With Scaman, Taglia, Robinson and Parakkat’s affirmative votes outnumbering the nay votes cast by Walker-Peddakotla and Enyia, BerryDunn was awarded the contract over Hillard Heintze.

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Triton faculty union sees board undercutting equity work Black, Brown administrators leaving, say critics

By F. AMANDA TUGADE

lenced’ and piled into a small board room on tended in solidarity.

Board meetings are not recorded, but the the third floor of a campus building.

During public comments, Leslie Wester, college’s minutes from the meeting in question briefly documented Carter’s presenAt a recent board meeting, Triton College a tenured faculty member and president of tation. From hosting focus Board Chairman Mark Stephens received an the Triton College Faculty Associgroups to creating a frameaward for his years of service in education. ation (TCFA), addressed Stephens’ work to focus on staff and Jim Reed, executive director of statements from a July students’ needs, Carter, who the Illinois Community College 20 board meeting. headed Triton’s DEI plans, Trustees Association, traveled Wester said Stephens talked about the work that interrupted Associate from Springfield to the college’s was done to help expand the Vice President Derrell River Grove campus Aug. 24 to mission, according to the Carter, while he was honor Stephens in person and minutes. In August, Triton leading a presentarecognize his commitment as an announced five new courses tion on the college’s educator for the last 30 years. that center on contributions diversity initiatives But the celebratory moment and experiences of Latin and commented that was quickly clouded as a group Americans, as well as Black, companies hired to exof Triton employees raised conIndigenous and People of Colamine those initiatives cerns over the school’s lagging MARK STEPHENS or (BIPOC) Americans. These were “out to make a diversity, equity and inclusion LESLIE WESTER Faculty union president courses, which are funded by buck.”

(DEI) efforts and some remarks a major grant, were faculty“This minimizes the work many Stephens made during a school board meetled and are an example of the ing over the summer. They called attention of us are doing to create an enviwork that Triton’s educators to the growing number of resignations and ronment at Triton College that retirements, especially among administra- embraces DEI,” said Wester, whose orga- are doing, said Wester in an interview after tors of color, and a culture of fear they al- nization is a chapter of Cook County Col- the meeting.

“I think our concern is that we’re putting leged was created by Vice President of Aca- lege Teachers Union, (CCCTU) Local 1600.

Members from the Mid-Managers Associa- all of this effort and energy into it,” she demic Affairs Susan Campos. said. According to the July minutes, SteFaculty and staff present donned red tion and the Classified Association, both of shirts with the slogan ‘We will not be si- whom are also chapters of CCCTU, also at- phens also “encouraged employees to treat Staff Reporter

“This minimizes the work many of us are doing to create an environment at Triton College that embraces DEI.”

everyone with respect and dignity so they have the opportunity to be successful.”

To Wester, that last remark felt dismissive.

She said the minutes from the July 20 meeting were “very watered down” and do not reflect “what was said” that evening.

“As the presentation continued, the presenter [Carter], a Black man, kept getting interrupted by the board with statements regarding treating all people better,” she said.

“They seem to ignore the concern at hand – that people of color, specifically, are not feeling respected or heard at Triton College.”

Stephens also mentioned the death of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Wester felt those remarks were “disgraceful,” misguided and maybe even threatening.

“A Black man is sharing a presentation focused on uplifting and supporting people of color at the college,” she said. “The board then ties into the conversation the assassination of a powerful Black man fighting for civil rights.

I can absolutely see that threat. I believe others have, too.”

Stephens responded to Wester by first saying he wants meetings to be recorded and offered to pay for the cost himself.

See TRITON on page 32

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Wednesday Journal, September 1, 2021

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How Old Gaffer’s Garden grows

A collection of gardens focuses on creating productive green spaces in our community

By MELISSA ELSMO Oak Park Eats Editor

Hamfast Gamgee, a hobbit brought to life by J.R.R. Tolkien in The Lord of the Rings, was the father of Samwise Gamgee. Known for imparting words of wisdom to his son, the Old Gaffer, as he was commonly known, served as gardener in the shire and passed along his profession to his son.

Berwyn resident, Holden Wilson took inspiration from the minor character when naming Old Gaffer’s Garden — a garden collective designed to increase greenspaces in populous areas and making fresh produce more readily available within urban communities.

“Overgrown and a little wild is definitely my style of garden; I pay attention to soil quality and want to keep things as close to nature as possible.” said Wilson, the farmer behind Old Gaffer’s Garden. “We are not certified organic, but all my gardening practices are organic and environmentally responsible.”

Established in 2020 at the height of the pandemic, Old Gaffer’s Garden is a vendor at both the Oak Park Farmers Market (Saturdays 7 a.m. to 1 p.m.) and the Riverside Farmers Market (Wednesdays 2:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.).

Wilson grew up around the culinary industry -- his parents owned The Hillside, a fiercely independent restaurant-diner in Dekalb. Known for serving upscale, seasonal, home-style fare, Wilson learned the business from top to bottom under his parents’ watchful eyes and entered the industry himself.

Wilson spent five years working as a breakfast and brunch sous chef at Little Goat Diner in Chicago before leaving the industry last year to focus on Old Gaffer’s Garden.

“My mother was a big gardener,” said Wilson. “But I didn’t think I was a gardener for a long time.”

Wilson’s work as a chef nurtured his natural curiosity

Photo by MELISSA ELSMO

KEEP GROWING: Holden Wilson walks his garden housed on a Riverside property — it is one of four that make up Old Gaffer’s Garden. about food sourcing and led him to become a hobby gardener.

He enjoyed the smaller plot gardening city living required and become passionate about no-dig, minimal-till and organic gardening practices. Once he felt he had established himself as a “legit” hobby grower, he decided to make moves to get out of the kitchen and into the garden full time.

He retained his Chicago garden plot and moved his family to Berwyn where he found it easy to work with village officials

to establish Old Gaffer’s Garden as a business. He converted the backyard of his Berwyn bungalow into a working garden including pollinator plants, tomatoes, zucchini, and assorted salad greens like arugula and spinach. He houses grow tables in the basement of his Berwyn property brimming with assorted microgreens including diminutive broccoli, sunflower and pea shoots. He grows microgreens for local restaurants including Autre Monde in Berwyn and La Barra in Riverside.

Despite feeling slightly rushed to get up to speed this year, Wilson expanded Old Gaffer’s Garden to include a garden in the yard of a private residence. Kylea and Tony Liese expressed interest in hosting a garden on the back quarter of their property. They give Wilson free reign to grow what he wants on the plot and he in turn sells the produce at farmers markets.

As for the families that host the gardens, Wilson is clear it takes a special kind of person to let him take over part of their yard. He has a second Berwyn location in the works and is open to more partnerships to increase the number of gardens in his collectives.

“I actually feel like I am behind the trend of collective gardening. Cities like Detroit really blazed the trail for this kind of farming,” said Wilson. “I am following good examples and farming in a way that fits into a city environment.”

For now, Wilson is the sole employee of Old Gaffers Garden and handles all planting, harvesting and sales. Old Gaffer’s Garden also offers weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly salad shares via local home delivery.

Though he is committed to Old Gaffer’s Garden, Wilson admits he is not done being a chef just yet and looks forward to the day he can marry his two passions in the future, but for now folks will find him roaming around and growing crops around town.

Wilson would surely make the Old Gaffer proud.

Welcoming White Crane

Harlem Ave. restaurant serves traditional, inventive Thai and sushi creations

By MELISSA ELSMO Oak Park Eats Editor

White Crane Creative Thai and Sushi, 819 S. Harlem Ave. in Forest Park, opened quietly last week. Bee and Sinchai Suptaveeying, the husband-and-wife duo behind the highly anticipated opening welcomed customers into their fully renovated restaurant space and began serving dishes born out of family ties and decades spent working in the culinary industry.

An eye-catching hand painted mural, featuring a sedge of dancing white cranes on a bright pink wall, anchors the otherwise subdued, yet modern dining room. The burst of color on the restaurant’s north wall serves as an advertisement of what White Crane aims to achieve through their cuisine.

“Creative is the key word in our name,” said Sinchai. “We are not just making traditional Thai. We like to add a creative touch on our dishes -- like making Pad Khee Mao

spaghetti or udon noodle Pad Thai.”

These subtle twists on tradition are at the heart of White Crane’s menu. A vibrantly colored crudo featuring an assortment of sashimi grade fish also includes the additions of both crunchy black salt and bright green edible seaweed called wakame.

“The black salt is the key ingredient in the crudo,” said Sinchai. “That crunch makes the dish.”

“My husband likes greens, but I like a little seaweed with my fresh fish,” chimed in Bee. “So we put a little of both in the crudo.”

The light and summery dish is reflective of the collaboration between the Suptaveeyings, but things are kept separate in White Crane’s kitchen. Bee handles all the wok cooking on one side of the kitchen while Sinchai makes sushi on the other.

Bee grew up in Nan, Thailand spoiled on her grandmother’s good cooking. Her mother also loved to cook and kept her daughter well fed.

“My grandmother and mother both loved to cook and had very special recipes, but I never wanted to learn to cook,” said Bee. “But when I came to the U.S. on a student visa it was very expensive to eat in restaurants. So, I taught myself how to cook Thai

COOKS IN THE KITCHEN: Bee and Sinchai Suptaveeying, the husband-and-wife duo behind White Crane, divide up duties in the kitchen. | Photos by MELISSA ELSMO noodles to save money.”

The budget conscious cook blossomed into a chef and became part owner in a duo of Chicago based restaurants including Thai

Spoon and Sushi in the Loop. Today, she is primarily focused on serving up a balanced See WHITE CRANE on next page

Wednesday Journal, September 1, 2021

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

11

Will you be the next D97 school board member?

Applications now open, available for Oak Park residents interested in vacant seat

By F. AMANDA TUGADE Staff Reporter

Applications to become the next Oak Park District 97 school board member are now open and up online on the district website, op97.org. The board is looking to fill a vacant position, as board Vice President Jeremy Duffy recently resigned from the board.

Duffy, a first-time candidate who was elected to the school board last April, announced Aug. 17 that he was leaving his post to take a new job at the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE). Duffy has been hired by the state board of education as a legal officer, where he will provide legal advice to the board and supervise the bargaining agreements between agencies and union employees, said Jackie Matthews, a spokes-

person from ISBE, in an email to Wednesday Journal.

Duffy, who among many things is an education attorney and former teacher, will also oversee the department that investigates misconduct by licensed educators, Matthews said. Duffy’s resignation took effect Aug. 31.

The board must appoint someone to fill Duffy’s seat until the next election cycle in April 2023, according to an email an-

nouncement sent Aug. 27.

Those interested in applying must meet the following criteria: Candidates should be at least 18 years old, a U.S. citizen, a registered voter and have lived in District 97 for more than one year. For more information on D97’s board policy, visit www.op97. org/boe/policies.

Candidates are required to submit a completed information packet, resume and cover letter, the email stated. The packet is

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Continued from previous page array of traditional and creative rice, noodle and curry-based dishes at White Crane.

Sinchai, grew up in Bangkok, came to the United States in 2000 and has amassed more 20 years of restaurant experience. He started working as a dishwasher, worked his way up the culinary ladder and ultimately went on to train under Japanese sushi chefs in Colorado. He uses his education to bring colorful and creative sushi options to White Crane’s menu. Sinchai’s orange-hued “Tigger Roll” features shrimp tempura, avocado, masago, salmon, ikura and a generous sprinkling of wispy bonito flakes.

Though the husband-and-wife team have deep roots in the culinary industry, they purchased the Harlem Avenue. property as an investment in 2018 with the intention of managing the building for the owners of Mom’s Place.

“This was not plan A, but everything happens for a reason.” said Sinchai. “The prior tenant closed the restaurant because of COVID and we realized it would be hard to find a new renter so we built our own restaurant.”

Residents have been eagerly anticipating the opening of White Crane. While the owners are excited to have opened their doors, they are hoping the community will be patient with their young business. Because of the industry wide staffing shortage, the Suptaveeyings are alone in the restaurant for the time being. While they have friends willing to pitch in during busy times, Bee and Sinchai are doing all the cooking while simultaneously waiting tables and handling the phones.

“We didn’t know much about the community when we bought the place, but we are falling in love with the people here.” said Bee. “It reminds me of my small village when I was little. Everyone is working together to help people succeed.”

White Crane Creative Thai and Sushi is open seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

available online or can be picked up at the Superintendent’s office, 260 Madison St. The office is open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. Applications are due by 3 p.m. on Sept. 13.

The board is expected to hold a special meeting later this month where applicants will be interviewed during a closed session, the email also stated. The board plans to appoint an individual no later than Oct. 30.

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ART BEAT

Nearly forgotten, OPRF resurrects ‘Book of Knowledge’ Relic from original entrance takes center stage in Commons

By MICHELLE DYBAL

I

Arts Editor

f there’s anything constant, it’s change.

And change is certainly afoot at Oak Park and River Forest High School where Phase 1 of the massive Imagine Oak Park remaking of the Scoville Avenue campus is focused this year on the core public area inside the main Scoville entrance, through the student common area, to the now rebuilt cafeterias and new library.

But there’s also much to be said for continuity.

It is right there in “The Commons,” between the main auditorium and the Little Theatre where, in a nod to its history, the school has resurrected the “Book of Knowledge” image, an architectural relic from the exterior of the school’s original 1907 entrance off Ontario Street, which was closed off in the late 1960s.

Before now, the Book of Knowledge had not seen the light of day for 50 some years. It was in pieces, covered by a tarp, and stashed in a

tunnel under the high school.

Dr. Greg Johnson, the school’s new superintendent, was newly hired in 2017 as associate superintendent when he visited his grandmother, an OPRF alumna, class of 1937. Geraldine (Nichols) Salchow gave him her senior yearbook. She flipped it open and asked if the Book of Knowledge still existed at the school.

He went to Fred Preuss, director of Building & Grounds, who showed it to Johnson, “stepping over pipes and ducking under other pipes” to reach it.

“What’s really interesting is a grad from 1937 … still remembered this as something really special and that took her back to her days as a high school student,” Johnson said.

“For her, this image of the staircase and The Book of Knowledge was an iconic symbol of the high school. It’s pretty nice to be able to bring it back.

“It’s taking this really nice image of history and putting it within a brand new context, meaning we always need to evolve and change, but it’s really important to know our history; it’s really important to know where we come from, and to cherish that, but not at the expense, of course, of not evolving and growing and doing what we need to do as a full

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CHANGE AND CONTINUITY: The Book of Knowledge sculpture anchors The Commons area at Oak Park and River Forest High School. (Below) The sculpture as seen in an OPRF 1930’s yearbook. learning organization,” said Johnson. “So embedding this old in the new encapsulates that to some extent, which I love.”

The hulking limestone architectural element encased in wood and glass sits near where it overlooked those teens of long ago entering the building.

Now, though hard to imagine, Ontario Street, which ends in a “T” intersection at Scoville where the current main entrance is located, continued through to the athletic fields west of the school. The original main entrance to the school, with its grand staircase was where the Little Theatre now stands.

In the mid- to late1960s, the original building, which had already gone through several modifications over the years, was connected to the athletic facilities south of Ontario Street. This addition added both the Little Theatre and auditorium, music instruction space, two cafeterias and more than 50 classrooms. It also meant the Ontario Street main entrance was demolished. The Book of Knowledge was saved, however, cut into pieces and hidden away for another day.

While the sculpture was reassembled from seven pieces in storage, part of it was missing — the center section, which appears to be the top portion of the book, surrounded by oak leaves. The solution is to put in another item of significance to students and alumni. An

etched glass OPRF crest will fill the void.

“If you think about this Book of Knowledge when it was still intact as being something that is emblematic of the high school, it’s a lasting symbol of the school for folks who graduated [then],” Johnson said. “The crest is equally that symbol, even though it’s not just in one location.”

The OPRF crest, which dates to 1908, has three main elements. Its oak leaves and acorn represent Oak Park. Wavy lines and three trees represent River Forest.

And Ta’Garista (ΤΑ Γ’ΑΡΙΣΤΑ) translates from Greek to “the best,” and relates to the school motto, “Those things that are best.” The school itself has origins dating back to 1873 and was located elsewhere (south of Lake Street on East Avenue) before moving to the current site.

“The idea is to incorporate another iconic image within this historic iconic image, which is special,” Johnson said. “Not all schools have a history like this.”

The glass-etched crest is expected to be put into place in the next few weeks. Also coming is a mural showing what the original 1907 façade looked like, with a plaque about The Book of Knowledge. Both will be in the waiting area alcove at the front entrance.

Wednesday Journal, September 1, 2021

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

13

ART BEAT

Voigt named music teacher of the year Piano instruction for over 50 years, Fair Oaks Church organist

By MICHELLE DYBAL

F

Arts Editor

or someone who has dedicated her life to teaching piano, mentoring other teachers, and working tirelessly to establish achievement standards for piano students across the state, being recognized as Teacher of the Year by the Illinois State Music Teachers Association (ISMTA) for 2021 should be no surprise.

Hannah Voigt has done all this and more.

Voight works with students starting at age 6 at her Hannah Voigt Piano Studio, located in her Oak Park home. While she will work with adults, most students are school age and only move on when they go off to college. She has taught as many as 40 students per week at times, but things slowed to 15 during the pandemic when lessons were held virtually. Voigt began teaching when she was a grad student in the 1960s. She continues to welcome new students.

Kristine Konrad, teacher and owner of Konrad Piano Studios of River Forest said that with a focus on more than just playing notes on a page, Voight is a “phenomenal teacher.”

“If you go to one of her students’ recitals, every student, from very young and up, they are very musical, artistic and expressive, and I think that is because they understand the music,” Konrad said. “They are KRISTINE KONRAD not just using their ear. They Piano teacher understand the harmonies; they understand the phrasing; and they understand why a composer may have written a piece a certain way because Hannah has all that knowledge and has a way of conveying it that will produce these incredibly musical sounds in her students. Even a very average student will sound incredibly expressive and artistic if they are one of Hannah’s students.”

Konrad also has been influenced by Voight. As a single mother starting her own piano studio in 1999, Konrad said Voigt took her under her wing and mentored her.

“I went to Hannah for all things piano-related,” she said. Voight sent students to her and gave her guidance from the beginning. She also encouraged Konrad — when she had “three little boys, at least one in diapers” — to attend Chicago Area Music Teacher Association meetings, the local chapter of ISMTA, and “it paid off,” she said. “My studio has grown tremendously and I attribute much of that to Hannah.”

Konrad also credits Voigt for encouraging her while she was working on her master’s in piano pedagogy at Concordia University. “She said, ‘Choose a topic where you can make a difference.’”

According to Konrad’s website, she followed Voigt’s advice and “spent over two years researching students with dyslex-

“Even a very average student will sound incredibly expressive and artistic if they are one of Hannah’s students.”

Alex Rogals/Staff Photographer

KEY INSTRUCTOR: Hannah Voigt in her “office” at home, where she continues to teach piano. ia.” Konrad’s master’s thesis, Teaching Piano to Students with Dyslexia, “argues that when intervention based on a multisensory approach is used, students with dyslexia can learn to play the piano by reading music. … “These intervention techniques are effective for teaching piano to students of all reading abilities,” she concluded.

Voigt has had a similar influence on roughly 10 other teachers in the area.

She also has been closely involved with ISMTA’s Achievement in Music (AIM) program, which is “a graded curriculum of aural, written and keyboard skills, with annual evaluations and rewards ... available to the students of teachers who are members of ISMTA,” according to Voigt. She has revised and promoted AIM so students “might achieve a full set of musical skills in addition to their ability to perform at the piano.”

The program is important because there is “no brickand-mortar building where a student can go and learn this program,” she said. Instead AIM provides what she calls, a “floating school.”

“If you go to me for lessons, I will teach you about music and you will be sure to get the same instruction you would get from another teacher in an entirely different place teaching the same program,” she said. “So there is a standard the

student must achieve every year, a certain set of skills.

“The administration of the annual examinations requires countless hours of scheduling and mounds of paperwork,” Voigt noted. It is coordinated by her, Konrad and the ISMTA AIM chair.

Voight’s dedication is such, that even while being treated for breast cancer, of which she is a survivor, she continued to work on her duties from her hospital bed.

“I can remember the yellow pad I was writing on — students’ names and their teachers and the names of their pieces,” Voight said, recalling that time in 1989. “The reason I did it was that if I didn’t, nobody would, and it had to be done.”

She continues to work on AIM because “it is so valuable” and she wants “to give her students this wonderful gift.”

Last week, one of her former students told her he is convinced it put him on a higher level than the other incoming freshman at Manhattan School of Music, a competitive music conservatory in New York. Hearing this, she said, made her feel like dancing.

Voigt is also an accomplished keyboardist. She has been the church organist and pianist at Fair Oaks Presbyterian Church, 744 Fair Oaks Ave. in Oak Park, for almost 50 years.

She is a highly skilled and recognized accompanist, too, according to Konrad. But perhaps the most important pairing was when Voigt began accompanying tenor Burt Andersen at Unity Temple. After being widowed, Voigt found love again with Andersen and they decided to accompany each other down the aisle six years ago. They continue to make beautiful music together.

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Wednesday Journal, September 1, 2021

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

CENSUS

category.

“I think it’s just an evolution of how we think about race,” she said, adding that more analysis of the data needs to happen.

But Breymaier pointed to nuances that from page 1 may complicate that perception. From 2010 to 2020, he said, the Black multiracial popuBlack, is a warning sign that Oak Park could lation in Oak Park increased by 325 — from be losing part of what has made the village 849 to 1,174. During that time, whites who so special. consider themselves multiracial increased Breymaier said he wonders if the appar- by 1,582 — from 1,298 in 2010 to 2,880 in 2020. ent exodus of Blacks from Oak Park is a re- People in the “both multiracial” category, sult of the village losing sight of the strate- which is the overlap in the white and Black gies and plans that helped make it a national multiracial counts, increased by 310 — from model, albeit flawed, of racial integration.

666 in 2010 to 976 in 2020.

“There are a lot of other places in the According to Breymaier’s analysis of the region that might consider themselves di- data, the number of Blacks who decided to verse, but their Black population is very switch from identifying as Black to identifysmall and the communities ing as “biracial” is not large aren’t as welcoming,” Breyenough to account for the maier said. decline in Oak Park’s Black “I wonder if there’s a population. Another indicachange in the mindset about tor of Black population loss, race in Oak Park that’s Breymaier said, is the declinmissing the fact that Afriing number of children uncan Americans face a qualider 18. tatively different level of ex“The overall change is negclusion than other groups,” ligible,” he said. “Both white he added. “It’s more intense. and Black child counts went It has a greater, much longer down while Latino, Asian history. I’m concerned mayand multiracial child counts be we’re losing sight of that, went up. The scale of the that over time it appears decline in Black children is we’re not as concerned 29%, an alarming rate and about these issues.” one that might indicate that But not everyone who has the Black population decline analyzed the Census data might accelerate.” sees the same picture. TamBreymaier said the nummie Grossman, development ber of Blacks in the village ROB BREYMAIER customer services director has been trending downward Former Housing director for Oak Park, reads the data since at least the last Census. differently.

“This is the second census “I’ve heard some people in a row where we’ve seen a say, ‘Well, we’re losing our loss of the African-AmeriAfrican-American populacan population,” he said. “I tion,” Grossman said. “I think it was about the same don’t know if that’s an accurate reflection. amount last time, so we’re seeing a pretty I think the Census officials allowed people significant decrease in the African-Amerito self-identify and a lot of people self-iden- can population in Oak Park.” tified as being multiracial.”

He said Oak Parkers “have got to ask ourGrossman said she isn’t surprised by the selves why this is and what we can be dogrowth of multiracial people in Oak Park, ing differently that would stop that outflow. since the Census options “aren’t black and Meanwhile, there are other things that are white anymore.” Since the 2000 Census, par- encouraging. We’re seeing a Latino populaticipants have been allowed to choose more tion rise in a way that is a bit more in line than one race. with the regional population.”

In August, NPR reported that “research by Breymaier said the village should pursue the Census Bureau has shown that how some an integration strategy similar to the famed people self-report their racial and ethnic Oak Park Strategy that was launched in the identity can change from census to census.”

1970s to stave off white flight and to careGrossman said the reduction in the popu- fully integrate the village. lation of people who identify as Black may “I’m not saying go back and do what we not necessarily equate to a flight of Blacks did in 1974; I’m saying be intentional, think out of Oak Park; rather, she said, more about it, invest in it, so it can become a realpeople who previously identified as Black ity,” he said. “I think it needs to be done in a may be checking another box in the race way that is updated for the times.”

Analyzing the numbers

“I wonder if there’s a change in the mindset about race in Oak Park that’s missing the fact that African Americans face a qualitatively different level of exclusion than other groups.”

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The Albion, 1000 Lake St.

Downtown high-rises correlate with Oak Park population hike In 2017, Anan Abu-Taleb, then the mayor of Oak Park, shared his vision for the village’s future during a March 24 meeting convened by Cook County Commissioner Richard Boykin.

“We set a goal, a numerical value,” the mayor said in 2017. “We said we wanted to bring in $600 million of new investment over the next 10 years, increase our sales tax revenue by 50 percent and increase our population by 3,000 people.”

Since then, it would appear that Oak Park has come wildly close to achieving the third of Abu-Taleb’s benchmarks.

According to raw data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the village saw an increase of 5.2 percent in its population from 2010 to 2020, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That multiplies out to 2,705 new residents.

Tammie Grossman, director of development customer services for the village of Oak Park, believes there is a direct cor-

relation between the growth in population and the construction of the village’s four high-rise apartment complexes, all of which were built under Abu-Taleb.

“I definitely think it’s probably due to those additional apartments that we added into the downtown area,” said Grossman.

Considered beloved or bemoaned additions to the community, depending on who you ask, the apartments are well leased, each boasting very high occupancy rates. Out of its 265 total units, the Albion, 1000 Lake St., is 98 percent occupied, as is the 263-unit Eleven33 building located at 1133 South Blvd. The Vantage building, 150 Forest Ave., has an occupancy rate of 96 percent for a total of 270 units. Meanwhile, the Emerson building, 1135 Westgate St., has the lowest occupancy rate at 94 percent but the highest number of units at 300.

Stacey Sheridan

Wednesday Journal, September 1, 2021

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

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Oak Park cop, village settle long-running retaliation lawsuit Village agrees to pay $175,000 to settle suit filed by Sgt. Rasul Freelain

By STACEY SHERIDAN

the village.”

Wednesday Journal has reached out to the village of Oak Park for comment.

Freelain made the initial complaint The long and drawn-out legal battle between Oak Park Police Officer Rasul Free- against Vardal within the police departlain and the village of Oak Park has come to ment in May 2012, citing incidents of reported sexual harassment dating as an end, with the parties agreeing far back as 2007. to settle a sexual harassment and One year later, in May 2013, retaliation lawsuit filed by FreeFreelain filed a lawsuit against lain against the village almost 10 the village of Oak Park and the years ago. police department, claiming that Fired by the village in 2017, Vardal threatened him nine days Freelain sued successfully to reafter he lodged the sexual hagain his post and was promoted rassment complaint. The lawsuit to sergeant last year. stated that Freelain was discour“We’re happy that we were aged from filing a battery comable to resolve the case in a manplaint. Two other officers, both ner that was satisfactory to our of whom claimed to have been client after such a long period of RASUL FREELAIN victims of Vardal’s abuse, were time. It was a long, hard fight,” listed as potential witnesses. said Freelain’s attorney Robert Vardal was placed on paid administrative Robertson, of Robertson Duric. leave in November 2014, following the susAs part of the agreement, the village of pension of a male probationary police offiOak Park will pay $175,000, with $80,000 of that amount going to Freelain and the re- cer the previous month. Wednesday Journal reported that the officer was alleged to have maining $95,000 to Robertson Duric.

Throughout the years, Freelain has main- been placed on administrative leave after betained that he was subjected to harassment ing questioned regarding details of his relaand retaliation within the police depart- tionship with Vardal. She resigned from the ment after rejecting the unwanted sexual force Aug. 12, 2015, following a nine-month advances of a female superior, former Sgt. paid leave of absence.

Seven days later, Aug. 19, 2015, a second Dina Vardal.

The agreement, reached Aug. 3, states that officer, Anthony Paul Razzino, filed a comboth parties acknowledge that the settle- plaint against Vardal with the Equal Emment is not an admission of liability or mis- ployment Opportunity Commission and the conduct “by or on the part of the village or Illinois Department of Human Rights.

The complaint claimed Razzino was any of its future, current or former officers, agents and employees and shall not serve as subjected to discrimination on the basis of his sex and suffered retaliation by police evidence of wrongdoing by or on the part of Staff Reporter

officials. As legal counsel, Razzino retained the services of attorney Robert Robertson, the same attorney representing Freelain.

A lawsuit was never filed, Robertson told Wednesday Journal.

In addition to Vardal, Freelain claimed that other superior officers engaged in the retaliation after Freelain made the sexual harassment complaint. The lawsuit states that Freelain was refused time to care for his wife, who was battling breast cancer, in violation of the Family and Medical Leave Act. The lawsuit argued that in an effort to punish Freelain for reporting Vardal for sexual harassment to the village’s human resources department, the village “misclassified his leave from work; prevented his opportunity of income and promotion; subjected him to investigations; refused his ‘light duty’ request; denied his scheduling requests; subjected him to a fitness for duty exam; delayed the grant of his Family and Medical Leave Act time; and refused to permit him to sign a criminal or internal complaint.”

The case was dismissed in U.S. District Court on Nov. 3, 2016, with U.S. District Court Judge Manish S. Shah stating in his decision that Freelain and his counsel failed to prove that Freelain had been the subjected to retaliation by his superiors.

While that case was on appeal, Freelain was fired from the police department in May 2017. Freelain filed a second lawsuit in response, claiming his termination was also an act of retaliation by Anthony Ambrose, then police chief.

The termination lawsuit claimed that

Freelain was officially fired because he accessed his own police reports in two cases – the first being the use of excessive force against an Oak Park resident during a domestic battery arrest in November 2013, for which Freelain and the Oak Park Police Department were accused and eventually found guilty.

The second case mentioned in the termination lawsuit involved the 2014 murder of Oak Park resident Sheila von Weise-Mack carried out by her daughter Heather Mack and Tommy Schaefer, her daughter’s boyfriend, while the three were vacationing in Bali.

The murder recently made headlines again, when it was announced that Mack will be released from prison in Indonesia in October, shaving three years off her 10-year sentence.

Freelain’s sexual harassment lawsuit claims that Freelain had attempted to report to former Oak Park Police Chief Rick Tanksley that Weise-Mack feared her daughter would kill her. Freelain said he was instructed against doing so as the chief “was ‘tired’ of [Freelain] and ‘[didn’t] want to hear’ from him.”

The village of Oak Park was ordered to reinstate Freelain and reimburse him for lost wages in May 2019 after arbitrator Peter R. Meyers ruled in Freelain’s favor. Freelain is still serving on the Oak Park police force and was promoted to the rank of sergeant about a year ago, according to Robertson, who added that his client is ready to move forward.

“At the end of the day, he’s been through a lot,” said Robertson.

C R I M E

Uber driver victim in armed carjacking Rideshare drivers have become something of a target for carjackers in Oak Park as of late, with Wednesday Journal reporting two separate occurrences in last week’s print edition. A third incident occurred in the village on Aug. 23 when an Uber driver was confronted by an armed carjacker posing as a passenger.

The driver, a Berwyn resident, picked up the offender in the 100 block of South Lombard Avenue at 6:03 p.m. that evening. The offender confronted the driver with a black gun and demanded the driver exit his white 2018 Nissan Rogue.

Upon the victim exiting the car, the offender drove off in the vehicle, inside of which sat the victim’s wallet, Samsung cell phone and gray Apple iPad. The loss is estimated at $38,530.

The vehicle was last seen traveling eastbound on Pleasant Street from Lombard Avenue.

Discharge of a firearm

Police received numerous reports from callers who heard five to seven gunshots in the vicinity of the 400 block of South Taylor Avenue at 12:31 a.m., Aug. 27. Responding officers found six shell casings in the alley behind the block. Officers located no damage or victims.

Burglary ■ Someone broke into a 2014 Buick LaCrosse and removed from inside the vehicle a blue tote bag, containing a black SIG SAUER P365 9-millimeter handgun, Illinois driver’s license and credit cards, between 8:45 p.m., Aug. 25 and 6:30 a.m., Aug. 26 in the 300 block of North Austin Boulevard.

The estimated loss is $600.

■ Someone broke into a residential garage with an unlocked side service door and re-

moved a DEWALT Sawzall, Tacklife circular hand saw, BOSCH orbital sander and a RYOBI hand sander between 11:30 p.m., Aug. 23 and 9 a.m., Aug. 24 in the 900 block of South Lombard Avenue. Estimated loss is $500.

■ Someone broke into a residential garage with an unlocked side service door and removed an electric Kobalt lawnmower, snowblower, weedwhacker and leaf blower with Kobalt batteries and charging stations, as well as a Dremel circular saw and a miter saw between 10 p.m., Aug. 22 and 2:46 p.m., Aug. 24 in the 900 block of Mapleton Avenue.

The estimated loss is $1,675.

■ Someone used a garage remote left in an unlocked car to open a residential garage then removed a time trial racing bicycle, RIGID compound miter saw, a PORTER-CABLE saw, and a Craftsman circular saw from the garage between 7 p.m., Aug. 23 and 4:40 p.m., Aug. 24 in the 700 block of North Lombard Avenue.

Theft

The catalytic converter of a black 2008 Honda CRV was cut while the vehicle was parked in the 700 block of Hayes Avenue between 11:30 p.m., Aug. 22 and 8 a.m., Aug. 23.

These items, obtained from the Oak Park Police Department, came from reports Aug. 23 through Aug. 27 and represent a portion of the incidents to which police responded.

Anyone named in these reports has only been charged with a crime and cases have not yet been adjudicated. We report the race of a suspect only when a serious crime has been committed, the suspect is still at large, and police have provided us with a detailed physical description of the suspect as they seek the public’s help in making an arrest.

Compiled by Stacey Sheridan

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Wednesday Journal, September 1, 2021

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Equity hiring is all the rage

As the field grows, practitioners are still figuring things out

By MICHAEL ROMAIN Equity Editor

According to a recent analysis by Glassdoor, the employment website, job postings for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) roles in the United States rose by 30% in 2019.

A month after the George Floyd murder in May 2020, DEI-related job openings started to rise by 55% after falling by 60% at the start of the pandemic in March.

A quick search of DEI job openings on indeed.com returned 111 listings in the Chicago area alone.

Oak Park’s public schools have been at the vanguard of this trend in DEI hiring.

Oak Park Elementary School District 97 created a senior director of equity position back in 2017. Two years later, Oak Park and River Forest High School District 200 hired its first equity director.

But as Glassdoor’s analysis shows, the hiring trend gained significant momentum after Floyd’s death prompted mass demonstrations across the country and a national racial reckoning.

Institutions were eager to issue equity statements and vote on equity policies.

For many, these equity-related hires represent the next logical step in their organization’s evolution.

In the last year, new equity administrators have been hired at institutions across the suburban region that Growing Community Media covers.

Lyons Township High School District 204, which covers part of Brookfield, hired a new “director of equity and belonging” earlier this month.

The Oak Park Public Library announced in July that it’s seeking an “equity and anti-racism director.”

Within the last several months, Proviso Township High School District 209 hired an executive director of student services and equity.

And Fenwick hired its first director of diversity, equity and inclusion in September 2020.

Jennifer Rowe, the new equity director at LTHS, said while equity-related hires are growing, the field is still getting its sea legs.

Rowe said she’s currently in a consortium of school equity professionals across the northwest suburban region, which includes suburbs like Oak Park.

There are about 15 members of the consortium — “we’re all African American except for one Latina” — and they’ve been meeting for the last year to talk shop.

But the consortium is so new, Rowe said, they’re still working on a name for it.

“We are really fresh,” she said.

Precious Porras, who was hired earlier this year to become chief diversity officer

for Dominican University in River Forest, explained the growth of equity hires across the country.

“In the last year, it’s been prompted by the murder of George Floyd and the protests from last summer,” she said.

“In the last five or six years, it’s been the Black Lives Matter movement emerging, coupled with the violence against Black bodies. Perhaps institutions are realizing they need to respond and act.”

Equity administrators have been rather common in institutions of higher learning for a while now, Porras said.

This recent wave of hires is commensurate with a cycle that’s been happening since at least the Civil Rights Movement.

Whether or not they’re effective, though, is another story, she said.

“After the 1960s, you see the creation of minority affairs positions, where that person is in leadership, but generally is almost always a director of Black Studies or Minority Affairs or Urban Affairs,” she explained. “They’re managing student demand, but nobody is addressing structural issues of higher education.”

The 1970s and 1980s brought equity within the academic realm, with the creation of women and racial centers, she said.

Porras said this new wave of equity hiring, which extends below the university, large nonprofit and corporation level down to local school districts and libraries, may be the point at which institutions realize that equity work is really structural, as opposed to individualistic.

“I absolutely think it’s a step in the right direction because at minimum these positions require a financial commitment and more often these directors are being given opportunities to actually implement policy. For instance, my position reports to the president. These positions need to be part of leadership; however, that’s still not the case in a lot of these new hires.”

That may be the biggest bright spot with this local wave of equity hires, particularly in Oak Park. Most, if not all, of them, including Rowe’s position, are executive leadership jobs. The Oak Park Public Library has also said they intend for their new equity director to be part of the executive director’s leadership team.

“People want to do the right thing and they want to do this work, but it’s how you do it,” Rowe said, adding that doing the right thing often means hiring the person for the job and giving them the power to make change.

Porras made a similar point.

“If [institutions] get the right person who asks critical questions, pokes holes and demands action, then change is inevitable,” she said.

CONTACT: michael@oakpark.com

Photos by ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

Meals on Wheels (Above) Attendees line up for Mexican food from Mario’s on Aug. 28, during the Rotary Club of Oak Park-River Forest’s annual food truck rally at Keystone Park West in River Forest.(Below) Kids, no surprise, patronize the ice cream truck while live music is performed on stage.

Wednesday Journal, September 1, 2021

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VAX MANDATE Schools scramble from page 1 Those who do not get the COVID-19 vaccine or opt out for medical or religious reasons will be tested at least once a week.

In addition to the vaccine mandate, Pritzker reimposed a mask requirement, which took effect Aug. 30. Illinois residents over the age of 2 must wear face masks when indoors, regardless of their vaccination status. Pritzker issued a universal mask order early last month for K-12 staff and students in all public and private schools, as well as daycare centers.

The new directives came just days after Illinois schools, including District 97, began to reopen for full-time in-person learning amid reports of a recent uptick in COVID cases and hospitalizations, especially in areas with low vaccination rates, surfaced. Since Aug. 1, local health departments across the state have reported 27 COVID-19 outbreaks at schools and are monitoring hundreds of schools for potential COVID-19 exposures, according to a news release issued by the governor’s office.

“The quick spread of this disease in Illinois and across the country is holding us all back from the post-pandemic life we so desperately want to embrace, and it’s harming the most vulnerable among us,” Pritzker said in a statement. “We are running out of time as our hospitals run out of beds. Vaccination remains our strongest tool to protect ourselves and our loved ones, to restore post-pandemic life to our communities, and most crucially, to maintain our healthcare system’s ability to care for anyone who walks through their doors in need of help – and Illinois is taking action to keep our communities safe.”

In Oak Park, 68% of residents (37,077) are fully vaccinated, and 72% (39,691) have gotten the first dose of a two-dose Covid shot, according to an Aug. 24 report from the Oak Park Department of Public Health. Though Oak Park public officials stated that the number of residents vaccinated against COVID-19 continues to grow, it is increasing at a slow rate.

ed about plans to work with their school administrators and collective bargaining units on enforcing a possible vaccine mandate for all D97 employees.

“We are still engaging in negotiations with our unions,” Siegfried said, adding the district has also consulted their attorneys to develop a plan on the new requirements.

In nearby River Forest, school officials are also looking over Pritzker’s latest order.

“We’ve been following the governor’s mandates from the beginning,” said Dawne Simmons, a communications and community outreach coordinator at D90.

Unlike District 200 and District 97 in Oak Park, District 90 officials had not “embarked” on any prior conversations to enforce its own Covid vaccine mandate for district faculty

and staff, Simmons said. Like most school districts, D90 followed and maintained safety mitigations, as released by the governor, Illinois State Board of Education, Illinois Department of Public Health and Cook County Department of Public Health, she said.

River Forest is also home to Dominican University and Concordia University Chicago.

Before Pritzker ordered a Covid vaccine mandate for university employees and students, Dominican set its own rule for staff and students to be fully vaccinated before returning to campus. Students living on campus had to complete their Covid vaccinations and provide proof of their vaccination status before moving into their residence halls for the 2021-22 school year, stated a newsletter on the university’s website.

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Concordia officials, however, “strongly encouraged” faculty, staff and students to get the shot, but did not require them. According to their COVID-19 guidelines for the 2021-22 school year, the university said, “We trust the science related to the vaccine but also respect each individuals’ right to make the best personal choice for themself.”

At this point, Concordia’s emergency response team and administrators are “awaiting receipt of the related formal executive order,” according to an email sent Aug. 26 to university faculty and staff.

“The university will review the order, determine next steps for the university community and distribute any necessary updates to the university’s COVID-19 policies and procedures as soon as possible,” the email stated.

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One step at a time Prior to Pritkzer’s Aug. 26 announcement, District 200 and District 97 leaders, administrators and union representatives were working on a plan that could have led to a Covid vaccine mandate for faculty and staff.

D200 employees received an email Aug. 25 -- the day before Pritzker’s press conference –from the human resources department about facing a possible Covid vaccine mandate, said Karin Sullivan, director of communications and community relations at OPRF. The email also notified employees that those who are unvaccinated could be subject to mandatory testing.

Sullivan said district officials are currently reviewing the governor’s order and “will have procedures in place to ensure that we are in compliance with the deadlines in the order.”

Amanda Siegfried, senior director of communications at District 97, echoed Sullivan and said that the District 97 school board issued a similar statement to staff and families.

In an email sent Aug. 20, elected officials talk-

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Wednesday Journal, September 1, 2021

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Unity Temple celebrates UNESCO designation To mark being named World heritage Site, lecture series returns

PHOTOS BY JAMES CAULFIELD

By LACEY SIKORA

A

Contributing Reporter

fter a two-year, $25 million restoration process, Oak Park’s Unity Temple re-opened to the public in 2017 and was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in July of 2019.

While the honor firmly cemented Unity Temple’s place among highly esteemed architectural sites around the world – UNESCO states that the designated sites contain cultural and natural heritage considered to be of outstanding value to humanity – due to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the installation of the honorary plaque and in-person celebrations were curtailed.

Unity Temple Restoration Foundation

Executive Director Heidi Ruehle says the honor will finally be celebrated on Saturday, Sept. 25 at 10 a.m. when an honorary plaque on the northeast corner of the building is unveiled.

Barbara Gordon, chair of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, will give a speech on the importance of the designation and what that distinction means for the village of Oak Park.

After the unveiling, guests who have not yet had a chance to tour the restored building can walk through Unity Temple, 875 Lake St. The event is free to the general public, and advanced registration is required. Register at utrf. org/event/worldheritage.

See UNITY TEMPLE on page 20

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Wednesday Journal, September 1, 2021

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UNITY TEMPLE

munity, Sustainability and The Skyscraper: Can They Co-Exist?” That will be followed on Nov. 18

by Dr. Richard Condit, who will discuss the “Epidemiology of Chicago School Architecture.”

The series will resume on Feb. 17, 2022, when from page 19 Amy Coffman-Phillips and Rachel Hahs present “Architectural Well-Being: How the Built Environment Can Enable Healthier Lifestyles.”

Finally, on, April 21, 2022 Erin Aleman will Break::the::Box lecture series returns deliver a lecture on “Live/Work Architecture: Also this fall, the Unity Temple Restoration Designing for a New Way of Living.”

Foundation relaunches its Break::the::Box lec“Each lecture is very different,” Ruehle said. ture series, including four lec“There will also be a Q&A eletures with keynote speakers ment. We really want it to be a following the theme “Healthy Arconversation.” chitecture: The Impact of Design As such, she says that welcomon Human Well-Being.” ing attendees into Unity Temple Ruehle says Break::the::Box will add to the experience. was originally launched years “I’m so excited. It’s sad not to ago but went on hiatus when the see people in the space,” Ruehle organization began to focus on said. “It’s the people inside the restoration efforts in 2013. building that really bring Unity “The intention was to bring Temple to life.” it back in 2020, but we all know She stresses that safety and what happened there,” Ruehle health precautions will be folsaid. “Interestingly enough, the lowed. People attending will theme of healthy architecture wear masks and be seated with was something we chose preHEIDI RUEHLE appropriate spacing. For those COVID.” who are not comfortable attendThe series of lectures will explore concepts ing in person, the events will have a livestream and theories by professionals examining the video component. role architecture has in sustaining human wellMore information on the lectures and ticket being in relation to economic development, his- reservations can be found at.utrf.org/breaktoric preservation, nature-inspired design and the-box. Tickets cost $25 per lecture. Unity modern live/work culture.

Temple Restoration Foundation members can On Sept. 16, Dr. Antony Wood presents “Com- attend at no cost.

In-person lectures

JUST LISTED

Three named Wright Spirit Award winners In other Wright news, Heidi Ruehle, of the Unity Temple Restoration Fund; Jeff Goodman, of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation; and Eric Rogers, of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, were recently named recipients of the 2021 Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy Wright Spirit Award, which recognizes owners and stewards of Wright buildings and others who have demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to preserving and restoring the remaining built works designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and enhancing appreciation of Wright’s legacy.

The trio won in the Public Category for their Wright Virtual Visits, which they developed and executed to bring Frank Lloyd Wright’s designs to an audience during the pandemic.

“The creativity that Heidi, Jeff and Eric brought to the idea of launching Wright Virtual Vis-

its came at a dire time for public Frank Lloyd Wright sites who had to shut down because of the pandemic just as they were beginning to launch their critical spring and summer touring seasons,” said Barbara Gordon, executive director of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy.

“By the end of 2020, the social media program generated more than 90,000 cumulative views from the around the world to the over 20 participating Wright sites,” Gordon added. “They built amazing relationships between the sites and introduced new people to the Wright sites around the country.”

This year’s Wright Spirit Awards will be presented during the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy’s annual conference, held this year in Buffalo, New York.

The awards ceremony, underwritten by Ron and Jan Scherubel, will take place at the conference’s closing gala on the evening of Saturday, Oct. 16, and will stream live online.

Full conference details, including schedule and free access to the gala livestream, will be available at savewright.org/conference.

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SPORTS Wheaton South too much for Huskies in season opener

Tigers QB tosses 4 TD passes to spark 42-28 win over OPRF

By MELVIN TATE Contributing Reporter

For the first time since October 2019, the Oak Park and River Forest High School football team played a game fully open to the public.

But despite providing the capacity crowd with thrilling moments, the Huskies dropped their season opener to Wheaton-Warrenville South 42-28 on Aug. 27 at Oak Park Stadium.

“It was awesome,” said OPRF coach John Hoerster of returning to a normal game-night atmosphere. “It put things in perspective. As much as we would’ve liked the outcome to be different, we got to be out here, and that’s something we’ve got to be grateful for.”

The game got off to a very fast start as WWS scored just two plays into the game, with quarterback Matt Sommerdyke connecting with Danny Healy on a 62-yard touchdown pass for a 7-0 lead.

However, the Huskies immediately responded on their first drive as Demetrius Dortch (9 rushes, 115 yards; 5 receptions, 110 yards) darted down the Tigers’ sideline for an 85-yard score to even things up just 1:20 into the game.

“We had some guys that really worked hard, and Demetrius is one of them,” Hoerster said. “He’s a great kid who’s a special athlete and competitor. I couldn’t be more proud of how he played.”

OPRF then surprised WWS with a successful onside kick, and used more trickery on the following drive as Anthony Brown gained a first down on a fake punt. But a holding pen-

ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

OPRF quarterback Jack Gooch completed 18 of 41 passes for 209 yards and 1 TD during the Huskies’ opening season loss against Wheaton-Warrenville South on Aug. 27 at Oak Park Stadium.

ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

OPRF running back Kelby Gray (22) grinds out some of his 92 yards rushing on 14 attempts during the Huskies 42-28 loss to Wheaton-Warrenville South on Aug. 27. Gray also scored two touchdowns, including one on a 41-yard scamper. alty stalled things and the Huskies eventually punted.

WWS scored on its next two possessions, a pair of touchdown runs by Lance Kottke to take a 21-7 lead after the first quarter.

However, late in the second quarter, OPRF embarked on an 82-yard scoring march of 11 plays, capped by Kelby Gray’s two-yard dive up the middle to cut the deficit to 2114 at the half.

The Huskies continued the momentum as the third quarter when Gray (14 rushes, 92 yards, 2 TD) again found the house, this time from 46 yards out to tie things up at 21.

“We’re fortunate that we have a handful of running backs that have a great work ethic and are unselfish,” said Hoerster.

But Sommerdyke countered with a 14-yard touchdown pass to Brandon Bell on the ensuing drive to give the Tigers the lead for good. Then on OPRF’s next possession, a fumble by Eric Locke (5 receptions, 45 yards) was recovered by WWS, who took immediate advantage when Sommerdyke tossed a 26-yard touchdown pass to Quentin Spencer for a 35-21 lead after three.

“We were right there; we had some opportunities and were just a bit off,” Hoerster said. “Hat’s off to WheatonWarrenville South; they’re a good program and made a

few more plays than we did.”

WWS put the game away midway through the final quarter when Sommerdyke threw his fourth touchdown pass, 34 yards to Bell. OPRF quarterback Jack Gooch (18-for-41, 209 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT) tossed an 11-yard touchdown pass to Ryan Martin late for the final scoring.

“I told [the players] that Week 1 is the ugliest game we’re going to play all year,” said Hoerster. “We have to make a commitment to learn from this and get better.”

The Huskies will host Hinsdale South on Sept. 3. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m.

Fenwick breezes past Morgan Park 35-12 Fenwick opened its season in impressive fashion with a 35-12 rout of Morgan Park Aug. 27 at Triton College.

The Friars tallied three touchdowns in the first quarter to take a 21-0 lead and coasted from there.

Quarterback Kaden Cobb ran for one score and threw for two others -- 14 yards to Cam Coppage and 44 yards to Bryan Hunt Jr. He also connected with Max Reese on a 55-yard pass to set up one of two touchdown runs by Danny Kent.

Fenwick hosts Niles Notre Dame Sept. 3 at Triton, with the kickoff set for 7:30 p.m.

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Fenwick boys soccer off to strong start Bero tallies four goals in first three matches

By MELVIN TATE Contributing Reporter

The Fenwick High School boys soccer team is off to a 2-1 start this season after defeating Homewood-Flossmoor 3-2 in overtime Aug. 28 at the Windy City Classic, thanks to a hat trick by senior forward Ryan Bero.

Bero has started the season well with four goals in three games. Other Friars expecting to make an impact on the pitch include senior midfielders Jack Powers, a four-year starter who made the all-conference team during the spring, Zach Hernandez, Luigi Mollo, senior defender Will Jancewicz and senior goalkeeper Greg Price.

With the loss of 17 players from the spring season, Fenwick coach Craig Blazer is hoping the returning players can help set a foundation for what will be a young and inexperienced roster.

“We graduated an outstanding group of seniors that’s going to be hard to replace,” said Blazer, in his second season. “The challenge of doing that with the group we have is pretty exciting, and we do have quality senior leadership.”

The Chicago Catholic League Blue figures to be another challenge for the Friars this season. Moreover, Fenwick will participate in the PepsiCo Tournament as well as have tough non-conference affairs with Riverside-Brookfield and Oak Park-River Forest.

The latter contest takes place Sept. 25 at the

ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

Fenwick’s Ryan Bero scored a hat trick to key a 3-2 overtime win over HomewoodFloosmoor on Aug. 28 at the Windy City Classic Tournament. Bero (above) leads the Friars with four goals in three matches so far this season.

Dominican Priory, and Blazer senses the team is especially eager for the matchup.

“They love their rivalry with [OPRF],” he said. “I don’t think the seniors have ever hosted a game with them because of different scheduling, but we’re really looking forward to it.”

While the daunting schedule could mean the Friars take a few lumps, Blazer feels it will be worth it come the postseason.

“It’s going to be an interesting process just to get these guys playing better and being more effective. But we’re optimistic,” he said.

“We think that come the end of the year this group is going to look very good.”

OPRF tallies 2 wins at Indy tourney Oak Park and River Forest High School

got its season off to a good start with a pair of wins Aug. 28 at the Great Midwest Classic in Indianapolis.

The Huskies shut out Indianapolis Shortridge 5-0 in their first game as Easton Bogard notched two goals. Josh Dennis added a goal and an assist, while Lindsey Foster had three assists.

OPRF defeated North Central 3-1 in the second game, with Bogard again tallying two goals. The sophomore is picking up where he left off in the spring, when he had a season-leading nine goals.

In his sixth season as head coach, Jason Fried is glad to have a true season this fall, and he’s optimistic about the Huskies’ outlook.

“We have a great group of players this year,” he said. “As long as [they] commit to just keep improving throughout the season, they’ll be very competitive. We all have high expectations.”

Other OPRF players to keep an eye on are midfielders Isaac Cummings and Alex Hauck, defenders Jadyn Hsieh-Bailey, Eric Jackson and Ben Nisbet and goalkeeper Sam Pecenka.

OPRF will take part in the PepsiCo Tournament and face crosstown rival Fenwick Sept. 25 before embarking on the unforgiving West Suburban Silver conference schedule, which features several of Chicagoland’s top programs.

“Every team is competitive,” Fried said.

“We’re lucky because it makes all of our teams better. I feel we definitely can compete for the title this year, but every game will be tough.”

Parenti steps down as OPRF baseball coach Leaves with a 83-40 record after four years as Huskies’ skipper

By MELVIN TATE Contributing Reporter

Joe Parenti has had plenty of success during his 14 seasons on the baseball staff at Oak Park and River Forest High School, including the last four as head coach. But Parenti decided in July to step out of the dugout in order to spend time with his wife and two young children, he told Wednesday Journal “Looking at the future for myself and my family, we decided to re-prioritize some things in our lives, and the main focus is going to be on the kids,” said Parenti, who amassed an 8340 record in his tenure, including a sectional title in 2019. “Baseball takes up a lot of time, not just during the season, but also the offseason, and I wanted to be with the family a little more.”

Parenti found it hard to determine which team was his favorite to coach or be a part of,

mainly because all of those teams awesome, and I don’t think you were largely successful. But he could replicate it. I can’t recall said he enjoyed helping his playthat many people being at OPRF. ers develop and grow.

The seniors were a good group to “I have a lot of positive memogo out with.” ries and there were a lot of good He’s optimistic about next seakids I worked with over the son’s team, which returns good, years,” said Parenti, who was an young players like Mason Phillips assistant coach for the Huskies’ and Calvin Proskey.

2012 IHSA Class 4A state cham“They’re going to be great. pionship squad. “It’s been a good There are a lot of guys coming JOE PARENTI run.” back,” he said. “Whoever takes Parenti particularly was proud over is going to have great sucof the 2021 team that competed well through cess. The program’s in a great place, and I’ll the COVID-19 pandemic. OPRF made it to the be cheering for those guys to make a run.

IHSA sectional final before falling to New There’s no reason why they can’t.”

Trier 9-8. He lauded the Huskies for the chemKarin Sullivan, OPRF’s director of commuistry they developed. nications and community relations, said the “Those four playoff games were some of process of finding a replacement for Parenti the best and most intense ones I could remem- is ongoing. ber. They were a ton of fun,” Parenti said.

For his part, Parenti hopes someone on the “That atmosphere at the New Trier game was current staff gets an opportunity, because

that would mean a seamless transition, something he believes would be great for the program and players.

“I’ll put in a good word [for my assistants],” he said.

Throughout his time, Parenti eagerly looked forward to the playoffs, maintaining the Huskies’ standards established by predecessors. He said that while winning a West Suburban Silver conference title was always important, he felt making a deep postseason run was even more so because fans remember how a team finishes the season.

But he also said that he’ll miss being around the players the most. To him, they became a virtual second family.

“It’s more than just baseball, it’s about relationships,” he said. “Not just coaching [players] on the field, but getting to know them.

We’ve had a lot of great kids come through the program, and I hope I’ve had a positive impact on their lives.”

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Wednesday Journal, September 1, 2021

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Wednesday Journal, September 1, 2021

VIEWPOINTS

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Anti-vaxxers: Ignorant but not stupid p. 27

Teaching requires connection and empathy

E

very year, parents, educators, and community members worry about “summer learning loss.” During the pandemic, these worries have taken on new dimensions: What can we do about all the knowledge and skills students have supposedly lost over the past year and a half ? How will we structure classrooms and schools to make up for this lost learning? And what will be the impacts of this learning loss on students’ eventual careers and our economic prospects as a society?

This fall, we need to set aside these worries, which are ultimately detrimental to young people. They will learn what they need to learn if we teach how we should teach. Instead, we must focus on a different kind of learning loss — the prospect that we adults will forget the lessons we learned from the pandemic.

In some ways, this forgetfulness would feel natural. We are all eager to put this experience behind us, to get back to the lives we were living before March 2020. And teachers are eager to get back to the way they were teaching. But we know that the ways most teachers and schools were teaching were not working for many, many students — in particular for Black, Latinx, and poor students, whose identities and experiences do not match those of most of their teachers.

The pandemic took the endemic crises of schooling and made them visible. Classrooms that don’t engage students? Teachers who don’t spend enough time building relationships? Schools that expect students to ignore their personal challenges and just focus? In person, teachers and schools can use a mix of disciplinary policies, rewards, and the pressure of proximity to push many students to do the work anyway. In virtual learning, students simply don’t log on, or they log on and don’t interact. Teachers in every district where virtual learning was tried faced these challenges.

It is vital that we internalize the lessons of the pandemic, so we can reshape schools as communities that foster the brilliance of our students, as spaces that breed enthusiasm for learning, rather than simply using the tried-and-true pressures of school to make students do what we want.

First and foremost, teachers and administrators must recognize that they are both responsible for creating engaging classroom and schoolwide environments and are capable of doing so. Educators have the agency to shape spaces where students recognize themselves, their identities, and their interests. Teachers can create classes and lessons that are both interesting and vital for students.

Second, and in service of the first lesson, educators must place relationships at the center of their classrooms, their curricula, and their schools. Education is at its heart about relationships. The teacher must always hold connection as their primary concern. The relationship must never take second place to the curriculum, to the textbook, to the perceived needs of the school or district. The relationship has value in and of itself, and it is also the connection along which the learning process occurs.

Finally, educators must draw on and create new reserves of empathy for their students and for the adults who teach them. Schools must be environments that generate empathy between all the members of the school community, and that empathy must be extended first and foremost from adults to children.

This is our responsibility as educators: to create classroom and school environments that draw students into learning, joy, and wholeness. The pandemic showed us that we need to shift our practices. Let’s pay attention to these lessons, and address the kind of learning loss that really matters — our adult desire to return to how things used to be. Instead, let’s make small, important shifts that move us towards something new: schools and classrooms that lift up each of our students.

Jim Schwartz is an Oak Park resident, an educator, and a blogger at Entwining.org.

JIM

SCHWARTZ One View

T

Global consequences of denying climate truth

he climate-change deniers are forever stubborn among us. Their refusal to accept the truth is both amazing and confounding. To add to the already existing, convincing evidence that “Our Common Home” is in the most intense battle for its very life that it has ever faced, a new U.N. report essentially confirms that battle is being lost by the inaction of many nations and corporations over past decades.

The report on the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is “terrifying,” says the New Yorker. The thrust of the report is that inaction has set in motion an irreversible sequence that will result in the planet’s warming intensifying over the next 30 years. The report dispenses with any doubt about who or what is responsible for global warming.

The unjustifiably willful ignorance so many of our fellow humans insist on maintaining, in the face of the greatest threat to life in human history, is frustrating beyond all understanding.

Devastating consequences continue to take life and property.

In his encyclical letter “Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home,” Pope Francis six years ago described the human origins of the ecological crisis — how human life and activity have gone awry, to the serious detriment of the world around us.

Much has been written about the global climate condition, but nothing seems to change. And yet no other “life issue” supersedes its urgency.

So what causes the consistent confusion, and even malice, that motivates the denialism of so many within our human family to disregard the existential threat to us and all life on the planet? Their chosen spin doctors and fiction narrators have them believing otherwise.

Is the deniers’ behavior part of what Freud calls the “death drive,” that inherent and often unconscious tendency toward self-destruction? Or is it simpler: people’s inability to think on such an enormous scale — no ability to comprehend? Or do people simply not want to think about it?

The IPCC report offers those with eyes and ears a grim reality check. The result of pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere for over a century is that the planet has warmed close to 2 degrees Centigrade since the 19th century. The scientific conclusion is that what we’ve been witnessing in recent years, in terms of extreme droughts, heat waves, wildfires, flooding and other destructive weather phenomena, will worsen in the years ahead.

More troubling are the long-term consequences

TOM LYNCH

One View

See LYNCH on page 31

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Wednesday Journal, September 1, 2021

O U R

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V I E W P O I N T S

V I E W S

Growing Oak Park

ecades back Oak Park was in a competition with Skokie for the made-up title of “World’s Largest Village.” It was nip-and-tuck until it wasn’t. Oak Park got smaller. Skokie grew. And Oak Park began comparing itself to Evanston.

Now with new 2020 Census numbers beginning to arrive, Oak Park has bragging rights that its population is once again growing. Oak Park is up 2,705 residents from a decade back. That’s good for a number of reasons. One is that it clearly proves out the four high-rises constructed in and around downtown Oak Park during the tenure of Anan Abu-Taleb as mayor have boosted the local population.

Tammie Grossman, director of development customer services at Oak Park Village Hall, agrees there is a clear correlation. “I definitely think it’s due to those additional apartments we added into the downtown area,” she said.

Those new units brought thousands of new customers for downtown businesses, made a success of “transit-oriented development” strategies and added to Oak Park’s tax base.

Another note for the skeptics who doubted that all those new and highend apartments could be absorbed by the market. Occupancy rates among Albion, Vantage, Eleven33 and the Emerson range from 94 percent to 98 percent. Spectacular numbers.

There are many other numbers to sort out from the Census and we will continue to report those stories.

Finally, a Freelain settlement It took a decade but Oak Park’s village government has finally settled with Rasul Freelain, an Oak Park police officer who has been through the wringer with multiple lawsuits, a wrongful termination and reinstatement, and most recently and remarkably, a promotion to sergeant.

The monetary settlement isn’t overly large, coming in at under $200,000.

And like most such settlements, it has the legal mumbo jumbo about no one acknowledging wrongdoing.

Well, wrong was done. This all started with Freelain’s claim that he was being sexually harassed by a female sergeant. The department denied it though there were other officers with similar complaints. It took years, but that sergeant ultimately left the force after a seven-month investigation. There are any number of other odd turns in this story.

We are left with admiration for Freelain’s perseverance and note his attorney’s comment this week to the Journal that his client is ready to look ahead. We expect the department is also ready to move forward.

Things we like The Oak Park Residence Corporation, a public-private partnership focused on maintaining diversity in well maintained apartments across Oak Park, has a new and admirable program. Last month it awarded scholarships to two recent OPRF graduates who live in ResCorp buildings.

Charmir Akins is headed to Triton where she will pursue either business or nursing course work. Josiah Turner is heading to Ball State in Indiana and intends to study architecture.

The $2,000 scholarships can be renewed for up to three years if the young people continue on in their education.

ResCorp is a gem and we love to see them celebrate the accomplishments of their young residents.

Also at OPRF, we’re suckers for marking the institution’s history. So while the first phase of the Imagine OPRF capital project is all about upgrading classrooms, the library, the cafeteria, we’re enthused by the resurrection of a long-stored architectural relic from the school’s early years.

The Book of Knowledge once graced the main entrance but was removed to make way for a major expansion decades ago. It wound up in pieces and under tarps deep in the bowels of the school. Now the very large limestone piece has been reassembled and given a prominent place in the center of the remade Commons area off the school’s main entry.

A fitting spot for this piece of OPRF history.

Anne’s vision of a different world

W

hen I first heard about back here unfairly heaping scorn on the collapse of the the Biden administration. Most of Afghan government and these critics haven’t given Afghanimilitary, my first thought stan a second thought for the past was for the women of 20 years, yet from the arrogance Afghanistan. My second thought was of their easy-chair ignorance, now for Anne Smedinghoff, the U.S. Foreign fancy themselves experts in extractService public diplomacy officer, ing citizens from a war zone, which who was killed in 2013 at the age of only exposes their shallow, callow 25 by a suicide bomber while deliverthinking. ing textbooks to a school for girls in I’m not qualified to comment on Afghanistan. The Taliban claimed this 20-year chapter either, but Anne responsibility.

Smedinghoff made Afghanistan real Smedinghoff, a graduate of Fenwick for me. She was one of us, a talented, High School, grew up in River Forest. idealistic young woman who had She majored in international studies at the courage to put herself in harm’s Johns Hopkins University then joined way for her principles. She did not the State Department right out of college. One of survive but those principles do. I have thought her favorite projects in Afghanistan, according to of her and her family often whenever I pass her her obituary, was promoting the Afghan national house in River Forest, and I want her sacrifice women’s soccer team. But empowering girls to have real meaning. I’m sure the families of through education was her true cause. those who fought and died in Afghanistan feel In the aftermath of the Afghan government’s the same, as do all of those who served over total capitulation, the apparent fraud that was there, valiantly, with the best of intentions. our 20-year nation-building project I believe their efforts do have was laid bare. One of the few bright meaning; it’s just hard to see that spots of our occupation of that disright now. But if any good can come tant land — through the temporary from our Afghanistan involvement, bubble created by our military presit will come from the education and ence — was education for Afghan empowerment of women in this land women. An entire generation of girls of toxic patriarchy and murderous grew up without the stranglehold of feudalism. Our country, meanwhile, the Taliban. The American military’s has its own toxic patriarchy to work presence allowed a 20-year breathing through. Anne Smedinghoff ’s legacy space during which that generation can serve as inspiration in that work could be schooled, which may turn ANNE SMEDINGHOFF as well. out to be the only hopeful outcome “The world lost a truly beautiin this sorry saga for which so many ful soul today,” Tom and Mary Beth Americans sacrificed life and limb.

Smedinghoff posted on April 6, 2013, the day she Anne Smedinghoff played a small but impordied. “Our daughter, Anne, a U.S. Foreign Service tant role in that story. The question is whether officer, died in the service of her country as she the women of Afghanistan will become a force for was traveling with a group to deliver books to a real change — like Malala Yousafzai, the young local school in the Zabul Province of Afghanistan.

Pakistani woman who survived a Taliban bullet … Working as a public diplomacy officer, she parto her head and became a change agent, appearticularly enjoyed the opportunity to work directly ing before the U.N. in 2013 to promote the imporwith the Afghan people and was always looking tance of education for girls. N.Y. Times columnist for opportunities to reach out and help to make a Nicholas Kristof distilled her message as, “A girl difference in the lives of those living in a country with a schoolbook studying under a tree or in a ravaged by war. We are consoled knowing that mosque … will, on average, have fewer children, she was doing what she loved, and that she was be more likely to hold a job and exercise more serving her country by helping to make a positive influence; her brothers and her children will be difference in the world.” less likely to join the Taliban.”

Anne Smedinghoff left home to help make a As Yousafzai said during her United Nations better world. She brought that mission home address: “We cannot all succeed if half of us are to us when she died, a potentially better world held back.” where half of us will no longer be held back.

The Taliban is probably incapable of governAs for the blame blatherers who seem so eager ing Afghanistan. In the past, they could only to show off just how little they understand that terrorize people into submission. Will they world, a little humility is in order. We all need recognize that they need these educated Afghan to learn from the mistakes this country made women if they hope to run a country? Or will over the past 20 years in our rush to vengeance following 9/11. Propping up governments with they return to the same old oppression, which military might doesn’t work. didn’t work and never will? We won’t know the It has never worked. It never will. We did the answer for some time. best we could.

Still, I can’t help hoping that something good It wasn’t enough. It has always been up to the might come of all this awfulness — for the sake people of Afghanistan to build a nation. of the service men and women who sacrificed I dearly hope the women of Afghanistan will so much, as well as their families, and for Anne teach that lesson to the rest of the world before Smedinghoff and her family. the end of this story is finally written.

I have very little respect for the blame-layers

KEN

TRAINOR

V I E W P O I N T S

The pain-in-the-butt Tree of Heaven

I

awoke to the sound of numerous trucks idling last week. Two of them were in the alley, directly behind my garage.

The third was blocking the alley at the “T”. The fourth was parked on the next street over. Reading the name on the trucks told me all I needed to know. It was a tree removal service.

I’ve been in my house for 32 years now.

During the first five of those years, a number of garages near me mysteriously burned. One fire damaged my garage so badly that I had to put in a claim. That claim reimbursement is what allowed me to have vinyl siding put on my garage, shingles instead of that rolled roofing material installed and replace the swing-out barn doors with an overhead door controlled by an opener.

Over the years, the different people who owned the house across the alley from me ignored the weed plants that grew on the side. The trees’ favorite spot are the narrow spaces on the side of the garage and any tight spot near a fence. I’ve included a picture, because though the majority of us know this tree, it is also called a number of names. I’ve learned the name Milkweed is incorrect. But Weed Tree is appropriate. And if you’re old enough, it was the perfect tree for granny to get a switch. The actual real name is: Tree of Heaven. It should be more like Tree of Hell!

I sat on my deck, mesmerized by the process as a team of at least 12 men began the process of taking those trees down. In my estimation, they were at least 50 feet tall. Earlier this year one of the branches had fallen and

landed on the neighbor’s garage roof. Although it didn’t do any damage, we could see from the top of it that the thing was slowly dying. And although I assumed it was just one huge tree, as the removal process began, I saw that it was a total of about six trees.

Four of the trees had all managed to live in the narrow space on the side of the garage and the fence. The other two had grown on the side of the fence more toward the middle of the backyard.

I haven’t run into the neighbor who owns that property. But based on what I know about tree removal, he had to have spent at least five grand, minimum. Tree removal is not cheap. But had somebody been vigilant when those trees were little seedlings, and addressed the problem immediately, it could have saved a lot of money.

Mr. Rat update: My neverending saga with the city of Chicago’s pests continues. I think I’m winning. I used quite a bit of the steel netting, to close off the rat hole that was on the alley side. I then used additional netting in between a wood fence and a chain link fence because Mr. Rat had chewed his way through. I even mixed broken glass into the dirt to dissuade him from continuing his freeloading lifestyle under my garage.

As of this writing, the dirt on the alley side has not been disturbed. It’s going to take me a couple of weeks in order to declare victory.

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

ARLENE JONES

To anti-vaxxers and other ignorant folk … cifically the due process Mandated masks and clause). vaccinations are just comPerhaps in time Jacobmon sense and do not vioson and Zucht might be late your constitutional superseded by subsequent rights. In 1905, in the case rulings. But in the meanof Jacobson v. Massachutime, can we all just apsetts, the Supreme Court ply some common sense upheld the Cambridge here? Can we conscienCounty’s authority to tiously wear our masks at mandate smallpox vacciall times in public (with nations during a smallpox noses covered please) and epidemic. Today smallpox get our vaccinations (then has been virtually eradiboosters when the time cated due to smallpox vacPROVIDED comes)? cinations.

MASKED: People didn’t resist in 1918.

People were wearing A mandated vaccinamasks even back in 1918 tion requirement for during the worldwide inschool children was upheld by the Supreme Court in a unanimous decision fluenza pandemic! (Even the family pet was wearing a in 1922, in Zucht v. King, where the court found that mask in the accompanying photo!) the San Antonio, Texas school district could constituBefore you ignorant folk out there get insulted by my tionally exclude unvaccinated children from attending use of the word “ignorant,” I didn’t call you stupid. Stuschool. (Ironic isn’t it, given the Texas governor’s pres- pid implies a lack of intelligence. Ignorant is a hopeent stance and that of his fellow legislators!) ful word. Ignorant according to the dictionary means It is certainly true that the law evolves. Not all rulings “lacking knowledge or awareness, uneducated.” are good or stand the test of time. Without question, the Ignorant implies that a change is possible. An ignointerests of public health versus private liberties is a rant person can learn. For my part though, based on balancing act. Consider the 1927 Supreme Court case, what I’m seeing so far in this country, my fingers are Buck v. Bell, which supported a state’s right to forcibly crossed on that one. sterilize a “feeble-minded” young woman, stating that Louise Mezzatesta this did not violate her 14th Amendment rights (speRiver Forest

Wednesday Journal, September 1, 2021

W E D N E S D A Y

JOURNAL of Oak Park and River Forest

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

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Wednesday Journal, September 1, 2021

I second the motion!

Acting on the climate crisis

I want to enthusiastically support Jim Dickert’s proposal in last week’s paper [Covering the climate crisis, Viewpoints, Aug. 25] that Wednesday Journal provide coverage of local responses to the climate crisis.

It can be difficult for me to remember: Every time I adjust the thermostat, or jump in the car instead of running an errand by bicycle, or accept a plastic bag at the grocery store, I am making a decision which, multiplied by billions of similar decisions, impacts the health and safety of our children, our grandchildren, and the health of the planet itself. It is only by leveraging the efforts of individuals and local organizations, in support of global initiatives, that we will be successful in changing the direction of the planet.

There is lots going on in the Oak Park-River Forest community, and in the Chicago area, to address climate change. Coverage of all these activities by Wednesday Journal can educate more of us, and encourage us to be even more proactive, as we address climate change together.

Wednesday Journal contributes to this community in many ways; this is an opportunity to make an even more profound contribution. Please carefully consider how Wednesday Journal can urgently address this critical issue.

I have recently moved to Oak Park from Boston where I was an extremely active member of a climate group, Elders Climate Action. The group’s mission was to educate and motivate people to act. We also advocated directly with state legislators to pass bills to support the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions to zero by 2050. We succeeded. I have learned that being tenacious in talking to, calling or emailing the state government can be fruitful in achieving some of what must be done to prevent many of the horrific consequences of climate change.

Once I arrived here, I did a search to learn if there were any climate groups I could join in Oak Park.

There were none! How is that possible in such a progressive community? I was also very disappointed to see that coverage of this crisis is very sparse in Wednesday Journal. The crisis is real, and it’s here now.

Because the public’s consciousness must be raised so that people and our local government take action now before it is too late, I fully agree with James Dickert’s letter in the Journal, Aug. 25, where he requests that one of your journalists report weekly on Oak Park’s work in response to this climate crisis.

It is critical to educate both our local officials and the community about the deeply serious consequences for all of us if we don’t act quickly. We have no choice.

Oak Park

Oak Park

Art Spooner

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

Businesses, don’t post this in your windows

It seems as if every year Oak Park businesses get roped into plastering their front windows with posters for Shen Yun. I suspect if business owners investigated the group behind this presentation they would be less inclined to do so.

I won’t parrot the Chinese government’s condemnation of Falun Gong, the group behind Shen Yun. I will, however, mention that selling tickets for this performance supports one of the most fakest of the fake news sites, The Epoch Times. So there is a direct link between the posters placed in the windows of Oak Park businesses and the fact-free machine propping up Donald Trump and his lies.

It isn’t even a local performance! So, Oak Park businesses, please think before you post this in your window.

Don Anderson Oak Park

Stupicide is as stupid does

Definition of stupicide: Death of a person through that person’s own stupid actions. Examples include not wearing a motorcycle helmet or not getting vaccinated.

Corey Gimbel

Hinda Blum

River Forest

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Wednesday Journal, September 1, 2021

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The people of Illinois deserve better

e: 2020 Census and Adjustments to the General Assembly Redistricting Act of 2021 To: 102nd General Assembly House and Senate Redistricting Committees Hearing Date: August 26, 2021 Proponent: Christopher J. Donovan Committee Chairpersons, Vice Chairpersons, and Republican Spokespersons: I am respectfully submitting this as my written testimony regarding the 2020 Census and Adjustments to the General Assembly Redistricting Act of 2021, in lieu of making my public comments in person during the hearing scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 26, in Room N-600 of the Michael A Bilandic Building.

It is my opinion that the legislative maps approved by the respective chambers of the 102nd General Assembly and by statute on June 4 is flawed and not in the interest of the people of the state of Illinois. The flaws are made apparent in the complaints

made by the Republican Party of Illinois and the lawsuit filed by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF).

At issue in their complaints is the malapportionment of voters in the new districts by the use of estimated population counts from the American Community Survey rather than the actual U.S. Census Bureau data, released on August 12. I support those arguments and await a final decision by the federal courts on the map adjusted due to use of that data.

As a resident of the state of Illinois and a voter, it is my belief that the complaints and resulting federal judicial action would have been avoided had the Democratic Party leadership of the Illinois Senate permitted a vote on SJRCA4 2019 during the last legislative session, rather than let the bill fail by “Session Sine Die” on Jan. 13.

The bipartisan legislation was co-sponsored by 37 of 59 state senators, including 18 Democrats.

The Senate Bill would have established a nonpartisan independent commission for mapping the new legislative districts. The Senate Bill was essentially the same as HJRCA58, passed on May 3, 2016 by a bipartisan supermajority 105-7 vote in the Illinois House. Any reconciliation of differences between the Illinois House and Senate versions of the legislation could have been resolved, received final passage by both chambers, and signed into law by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, with the independent redistricting committee members appointed, the new legislative maps drawn by the committee, presented and passed by both chambers of the Illinois General Assembly, and signed into law by the Governor, all well before the June 30 deadline mandated by the State Constitution.

Instead, there is an impasse possibly result-

CHRIS

DONOVAN One View

Condo owners deserve fairness, too

As reported in Wednesday Journal, Aug. 25, commercial property taxes in Oak Park are expected to rise by approximately 12% for tax year 2020 (payable in 2021).

According to Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi, this increase is intended to shift a greater portion of property tax payments away from residential property owners to the owners of commercial enterprises.

According to Wednesday Journal, the median residential property tax bill in Oak Park is expected to rise by 2.4% for 2020. What neither Wednesday Journal nor Assessor Kaegi states is that this rate of increase is not applicable to owners of condominium units. Tax payments for condominium units have increased more substantially.

I am president of a 78-unit condominium association located near downtown Oak Park. In 2020 our association received notice of a 31% assessment increase. Our association appealed this increase to the Assessor’s Office, but our appeal was rejected.

According to the County Treasurer’s Office, the owners in our association, most of whom are middleincome seniors, have received a 24% property tax increase, even after the application of the homeowners and senior exemptions. Why are they being treated so unequally? Shouldn’t the owner of a $300,000 condo be treated the same as the owner of a $300,000 free-standing house?

Assessor Kaegi has recently announced his intention to run for a second term and his campaign is promoting his efforts on behalf of residential property owners. Mr. Kaegi should be running on his full record and not just some cherry-picked highlights that cast him in a good light. The residents of Oak Park’s condominium associations, many of whom supported his initial candidacy, expect as much.

Edward Solan

President, Kenilworth Terrace Condominium Association

ing in formation of a committee divided equally by partisan members of the state legislature, with the party drawing the map quite possibly determined by the flip of a coin, with the final map ultimately determined by the state courts, if not the federal courts.

The people of Illinois deserve better.

I can only hope that upon adjustments made to the map due to careful scrutiny of the U.S. Census data, the legislative redistricting will assure the people of fair and inclusive representation in the Illinois General Assembly.

And when this impasse is resolved, that the Senate and House members reconvene to consider and pass new versions of HJRCA58 and SJRCA4, establishing an independent mapping commission for redistricting before the 2030 U.S. Census, to avoid any future impasse on mapping of new legislative districts in 2031.

Chris Donovan is a resident of Oak Park.

How quickly Biden’s attackers forget The President, in a call to a grieving Gold Star widow, stunned her with these words: “He knew what he signed up for … but when it happens, it hurts anyway.” Those were cold and brutishly callous words. It was Trump who said them in October 2017, not Biden last week. Back then, the only GOP outrage expressed was against the widow and the congresswoman who made it public. The responsibility for his death, Trump implied, was the dead man’s. Not his, of course. And should Trump have accepted any blame? He would have scoffed at the very thought. “Not my fault!”

That was then, this is now. Nearly two dozen Republican Senators and Representatives have demanded President Biden’s resignation or removal because of the tragic deaths of 13 of our service members, among so many others both killed and wounded. Though Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois claims he dodged it, the President repeatedly said he takes “full responsibility” for what happened in Kabul, including the loss of those precious lives. He didn’t shift responsibility to them or to anyone else. And as for blame, ISIS-K bears it. In fact, they proudly and loudly claim it.

The President’s attackers make no mention of the hordes of Afghans desperate to escape the Taliban who caused the chaos at the airport. They had been left defenseless by a government and a military that simply vanished overnight.

The blame is really theirs. Nor do the critics give so much as a passing nod to the unprecedented success of the evacuation of great numbers, now more than 100,000 and counting, mostly on American planes, on orders from the President.

Why isn’t that signal achievement acknowledged?

What a stark contrast in how the President is treated!

Republicans demanded respect for the presidency when Trump was in office, insisting that we must present a united American front on the world stage. Now that Biden is there, they grasp at this despicable terror attack to reverse course totally. The sad result? They give fodder to our foreign adversaries, and fire up right-wing militants and terrorists within.

They have no shame.

Fred Reklau Oak Park

Oak Park’s food fortune

We Oak Parkers are food fortunate. People from around the world come here to open cafes and restaurants. They provide us with tasty, healthy cuisines developed over decades or centuries. This makes it easier for us to eat our vegetables that are easily purchased at our Farmers Market and various grocery stores. We have many healthy, international food choices.

Research continuously shows that the healthiest people eat a plant-based diet from Mediterranean to vegan to the Seventh Day Adventist Bible diet. Health means fewer doctor bills and therefore more wealth. Dr. Fuhrman’s book, Eat to Live, presents a nutrition-based food pyramid with lots of supporting research. The China Study by Colin Campbell shows the results of a huge research project correlating non-communicable disease with diets. It supports a plant-centered, low-animal-pro-

tein diet and explains why you have not seen this information.

We live in the opposite of a nutrition desert. Dr. Fuhrman, director of the Nutritional Research Foundation, has written the book Fast Food Genocide. He says eating lots of highly processed, fast food causes disease, obesity, illness, early aging, fast food addiction, fast food malnutrition, chronic inflammation, brain nutrition deficits, and excess calorie malnutrition.

Fuhrman states, “Americans have abandoned natural foods such as vegetables, fresh fruits, and other plant foods in favor of a dizzying array of chemically altered, nutrient-deficient Frankenfood substitutes.”

Michelle Obama said it’s critical to increase marketing for foods that are healthy. I agree.

Robert Sullivan Oak Park

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Wednesday Journal, September 1, 2021

Point out all the conflicts of interest

T

his is in response to the Aug. 18 Wednesday Journal editorial titled, “Priory bidding is a closed circle.”

It is right for our local paper to call out actual and potential conflicts of interest that our community leaders may have. Ignoring even potential conflicts undeniably weakens any board and the institutions they represent. Lawyers particularly and laypersons alike understand this concept.

However, in this case the Priory bidding process is between Dominican University, and potential buyers of the Priory property. Statements such as “It’s a free country. Developers, make your bids and we’ll consider them” will encourage creative bids and signals a willingness to be flexible. Existing and agreed upon village board long-term strategic plans that value green space should be followed. Ongoing zoning discussions are a vital part of such strategic visions for any village and surely will continue.

We are all hopeful the bidding process produces the best outcome for River Forest and surrounding communities as the process moves forward.

In this instance, our local paper seemed to quickly criticize and call out a local volunteer leader for saying, “It’s a free country.

Developers, make your bids and we’ll consider them.” Such statements will bring creative value to the process and help our communities in the long run. Yet WJ went as far as to suggest a government and school volunteer leader should have already resigned her school board position due to a conflict. School is just starting, and I would think local school boards need all the energy and volunteers they can find.

Various board discussions and documents will offer insight as to the timing of negotiations, interested parties, contracts and actual agreements regarding the Priory property. There may

indeed come a time for recusing or resigning, which President Adduci understands and acknowledges.

She would do so to retain the integrity of both of the boards on which she serves. To suggest that such a time has already come in this process and that something nefarious has already happened seems a tad aggressive.

Which brings us to another community high school a few blocks north of Fenwick. I hope this paper is an equal opportunity conflict-of-interest “pointer-outer.” I applaud one OPRF High School board member who recently resigned a position based upon a potential conflict around fundraising. However, there are other active OPRF board members who have teacher union interests, including financial, that could pose conflicts when negotiating such contracts. Our community should understand these conflicts just the same. I am hopeful our community paper offers the same level of scrutiny and can help our community understand these issues as well.

Looking forward, OPRF has an important upcoming teacher union contract to negotiate. Will our local and independent paper be so quick to ask conflicted board members to resign or refuse support from teacher unions? Is it already too late, as was suggested in this case? I hope that honest constructive criticism and praise is offered toward both our local high schools by our independent and local nonprofit newspaper. We would all benefit from such reporting.

Let’s keep everything on the up and up and live by our own school motto: Those Things That are Best. Before anyone suggests I have a bias for Fenwick, please note that I am a proud OPRF alumnus.

Ross Lissuzzo is an Oak Park native and River Forest resident.

ROSS

LISSUZZO One View

Bring Home a Taste of Some of your Favorite Moments

RibFest Every Day!

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

The new leper colonies

There was a time when the disease of leprosy existed. There was no cure or treatment, so the infected were sent away to colonies separate from the general public.

I wonder how many would have refused a treatment if one were available.

Well now we have new leper colonies. They are the hospitals and ICUs. Over 90% are filled with those who have refused a treatment that does exist. They are more afraid of the vaccine than the virus. I wonder what a leper would have said about this. The real shame in this is the mutant variances caused by them not getting the shot.

I am amazed at the misinformation that is out there. Amazing turn of events!

Pray for the kids under 12 this fall.

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Rick Klaus

Oak Park

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Wednesday Journal, September 1, 2021

31

Good food and lower tax increases Hey, hey! Oak Park has Illinois’ best piemaking emporium, The Happy Apple. Other food reporting included Taco Mucho opening in the arts district, La Boora Cafe opening at Lake and Marion, and at North Avenue and Oak Park, David Hammond gives props to the “Dorilocos” at Linda Michoacana. Beer was featured regarding the 14th annual Oak Park Micro Brew Review bash on Marion St. Food writer Melissa Elsmo wrote about Takeout 25 and its upcoming confab at Barrie Fest.

The issue thus bordered on becoming a de facto micro edition of Bon Appetit Magazine. Eat, drink and be merry at these gustatory locations. But make it soon, as the mask mandate is back and another shutdown is likely to become a dreadful case of deja vu all over again.

Another case of déjà vu — for myself at least — was the page 3 analysis of property taxes having increased the most for 2020 in the nearby suburbs of Berkeley, Bellwood, Maywood, Broadview, Stone Park and Hillside. I’ve seen this movie before. Racism in housing? Well, not everywhere. In comparison, Oak Park and River Forest saw increases much, much lower than those other ’burbs. This scenario comes down to how predominantly Black and Brown districts are exploited. As usual.

The article notes there was legislation

passed in 1968, which outlawed discriminatory real estate practices. The Fair Housing Act would — according to the chart accompanying the article — seem not to be working very well. Anti-discriminatory laws are worthless if they are not enforced. Apparently that is the case, and decades after the act was passed, minorities get shunted to areas with the broken glass glitter of littered empty lots.

Who knew that racism was so ingrained in our society? Uh, well, the Blacks and Browns certainly know. For them it goes back cen-

No more climate denial from page 25

Sources: NCR, Daniel Horan; NY Times on IPCC Report to U.N.; Pope Francis: “Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home.”

Tom Lynch, an Oak Park resident, is the founding board chair and former CEO of Visit Oak Park.

Joe Harrington Oak Park

Block Parties of the Week!

LYNCH

of our failure to act: the enormous ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica will continue to melt through the end of this century. Global sea levels will continue to rise for at least 2,000 years.

Francis in his encyclical talks of the need for intergenerational solidarity and justice — the impact he has in mind. He says the notion of the common good extends to future generations. He states our present lifestyle is precipitating catastrophe. The cataclysmic effects can only be reduced, he says, by our decisive action, here and now.

We have an accountability for those who will be enduring the dire consequences.

The IPCC report reveals we are exercising the opposite of intergenerational solidarity, condemning future generations to a world Francis bluntly referred to as “desolation and filth.”

The IPCC report is described by the U.N. Secretary General as a “code red for humanity,” adding: “The alarm bells are deafening.”

We have little time and few options to make any meaningful impact on the course of planetary history, but we can try.

If deniers will not be convinced by the blunt facts expressed by the global scientific community, then what will? How do we answer for the gravity of our willful “ecological sin,” an action or omission against God, neighbor, community and environment?

turies, not decades. America has been, and likely will always be, inherently racist. Our Founding Fathers typically owned slaves.

Hey, as the twig is bent, so grows the tree.

Can this discrimination be fixed?

I doubt it. But on the upbeat, I assume visitors from those over-taxed enclaves are welcome to come to Oak Park. Grab a craft beer and some tacos. Happy Apple Pie for dessert. Maybe even check our real estate listings.

700 block of Kenilworth Avenue

Our thanks to the neighbors from 700 Kenilworth and 700 Bonnie Brae

700 block of Bonnie Brae Avenue Want to get your September block party in the pages of Wednesday Journal? Contact Jill at 708-613-3340 or jill@oakpark.com. Keep in mind, we can only go to one party per week, so reserve your spot today.

32

Wednesday Journal, September 1, 2021

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

TRITON

Faculty frustration from page 9 “I’m not going to have my words purposely twisted [or] strangled up by any purpose,” he said, before clarifying his comments about King.

“There is no greater figure in the 20th Century than Martin Luther King, and I think I indicated that,” Stephens said to Wester, adding “you didn’t listen well or you didn’t want to.” “Here’s a man who had the courage of his convictions who didn’t make a dime out from what he was doing.”

‘Are we there yet?’

PROVIDED

Map location and renderings of the proposed Forest Ave. and Ontario St. upgrades.

FOREST/ONTARIO Looking backward from page 5 will deter drivers from speeding. The landscaping on existing traffic islands nearby will also be restored.

The project calls for the construction of new brick crosswalks that will fit in better with the neighborhood’s aesthetics, as well as the addition of limestone columns with mounted bronze plaques. The plaques are intended to serve as identifiers of the historic district.

Public works was looking for the preservation commission’s input on those two project components in particular.

For the crosswalks, the plans call for doing away with the concrete pavers currently in use and replacing them with red-toned clay pavers to evoke the red brick of the Nineteenth Century Club.

Drechsler, Brown & Williams Funeral Home

Since 1880

The columns will sit at Forest Avenue and Ontario Street, as well as Marion Street and Ontario Street and will have a limestone cap and base with veneer brick that mimics that which will be used in the crosswalk. The Public Works Department will have LED downlights put into the columns, as well as the bronze inlays.

The stained-glass windows prevalent in Frank Lloyd Wright structures served as the inspiration of the plaques, for which Kiesgen shared two designs – the first modeled after the Darwin D. Martin House and the second after the Frederick C. Robie House. Neither are located in Oak Park.

“Generally, I think this is a great idea and good improvements,” said Weidner, before asking why the stained-glass at Unity Temple wasn’t considered as inspiration for the bronze identifiers.

McKenna and Kiesgen agreed to look into modeling designs after Unity Temple prior to the commission’s review of the project in September.

Cassandra Hutchinson, a web analyst at Triton, joined Wester and told the board of trustees that at least 7 administrators, most of whom are people of color and in critical roles, have either resigned or retired over the last few months.

Their departure has left a “gaping hole in the fabric of leadership at Triton,” she said.

Carter, who is among the small pool of staff leaving, was hired as the vice president for strategic marketing at Stephens College in Missouri and is expected to start his new role Sept. 1, according to a news report issued by the college in early August.

“Diversity, equity, inclusion – are we there yet?” Hutchinson asked, adding the DEI committee will be “dead on arrival” because there does not seem to be an urgency to find a replacement for Carter or to focus on the work that “needs to be done to achieve” the mission at Triton.

“As trustees and administrators, you set the policies that influence and shape the leadership at Triton,” Hutchinson said.

“This institution needs to be worthy of its staffers.”

Also at the meeting, TCFA Vice President Daniele Manni told the board of trustees that 88% of the faculty association’s members were not confident that

Susan Campos, vice president of academic affairs, could carry out her duties and lead the academic departments.

“It’s a sad day for Triton College,” said Manni, noting Campos was a former union executive and that “arriving at the point of holding a vote of ‘no confidence’ was a difficult decision and one that gives us no pleasure.”

Manni, who read a statement to the board, claimed Campos has a “retaliatory attitude,” bullied staff, faculty and administrators, and not shown support for the chairs of academic committees, all of which has led to multiple resignations and retirements of key staff.

Manni said the TCFA previously warned the trustees about Campos’ leadership and “damaging actions” toward faculty and staff, as well as appointing her without conducting a job search. The organization even sent a letter of concern, which was also shared with President Mary Rita Moore, he said.

Near the end of the meeting, after the board discussed other matters on the agenda, Moore replied to Manni and TCFA members, thanking them for opening up and drawing their attention to Campos.

“I have heard what you said this evening, and I know that Dr. Campos shares with me an opportunity to see the concerns,” Moore said. “We will digest that and be open to a conversation.”

In an interview with Wednesday Journal following the meeting, Wester and Manni said they felt somewhat optimistic, after hearing Moore offer a sit-down conversation and address their concerns with Campos. A date and time has yet to be determined, they said.

“We want positive change. We want to work together,” Wester said. “We want to build upon the years of wonderful work that our faculty has done, and it’s not just our faculty. It’s all the units there. We all work well together, and we’re all about our students, but we need support.

“We need folks to be building us up and not putting us down, and that’s a huge culture shift. And I think that it is time for us to be really focusing on that and moving forward.”

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Wednesday Journal, September 1, 2021

Growing Community Media

33

HOURS: 9:00 A.M.– 5:00 P.M. MON–FRI Deadline is Monday at 5:00 p.m.

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

HELP WANTED Village of Brookfield

Imagine being a role model to children in the local community! If you are at your best in a child and student centered environment, when promoting learning and fun, are safety minded and you aim to make a difference in the lives of kids; please take the next step and apply to one of these exciting part-time roles in the Recreation Department:

• STARS Instructor, Before & After School Program ($11-$14 per hour)

PAID-ON-CALL FIREFIGHTER

• Lead Teacher, Tots Prep Program ($12-$14 per hour) • Assistant Teacher, Tots Prep Program ($11-$12 per hour) Apply through the Careers link on the Village of Brookfield homepage.

Hephzibah Children’s Association Hephzibah Children’s Association is a social service agency in Oak Park, IL with a variety of programs including Residential Group Homes. Our mission is “To help children thrive and families flourish through innovative community-based programs”.

Join our team now and you will be eligible for a signing bonus paid in installments (must be active at time of payout).

Residential Counselor - full time and part time positions - Signing Bonus

Residential Supervisor - full time and part time - Signing Bonus

We are currently seeking candidates to work in our residential Group Homes program. You will provide physically and emotionally nurturing care to children who have trauma histories in a structured therapeutic environment that provides consistency and predictability in a community-based setting.

We have a several part time and full time shifts available including, overnight, mornings, afternoons/evenings and weekend shifts.

Shifts include: • Full time weekdays -4-10 hours shifts: Noon-10:00 pm and every third weekend • Full time overnights - Saturday-Tuesday 9:00pm-7:00 am • Part time weekends - flexible, but includes morning & evening shifts on Saturdays & Sundays • Part time: Friday and Saturday, noon-10pm and Sunday, 7:00am-noon Flexibility to work additional shifts if needed, is desired.

Requirements include: • Bachelor’s degree • Must be at least 21 years old • Experience working with special needs children • Experience writing Medicaid notes a plus • Valid IL drivers license • Sensitivity and responsiveness to the cultural differences in the staff and client populations

We are currently seeking supervisor candidates to work in our residential Group Homes program. You will provide supervision to the staff and physically and emotionally nurturing care to children with trauma history in a structured therapeutic environment that provides consistency and predictability in a community-based setting.

We have a several part time and full time shifts available including, overnight, mornings, afternoons/ evenings and weekend shifts.

Shifts include: • Full time overnight – Wed-Saturday 9:00pm-7:00am • Part time – weekends Friday, Saturday, Sunday days • Part time – various days/times Flexibility to work additional shifts if needed, is desired.

Requirements include: • Bachelor’s degree • Must be at least 21 years old • Supervisory experience • Experience working with special needs children • Experience writing Medicaid notes a plus • Valid IL driver’s license • Sensitivity and responsiveness to the cultural differences in the staff and client populations

Equal Opportunity Employer Hephzibah Children’s Association is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome qualified applicants from all backgrounds to apply. We value, advocate for and support an inclusive, respectful, multicultural, environment for employees and the clients we serve.



PART TIME DRIVER ASAP

Local company looking for part time driver/warehouse. Must be drug free & have valid IL DL. Must be able to lift 75lb. $13/hr Email resume to HR@SIEVERTELECTRIC.COM

Job Title: Paid-on-Call Firefighter Description: The Village of Riverside Fire Department is seeking applicants for the position of Paidon-Call Firefighter.

Additional Status Information: This is not a full-time position.

Qualifications: - In good physical condition - Reside within 1.5 miles of the boundaries of the Village of Riverside at time of appointment - Be 18 years of age at the time of application - Possess a high school diploma or GED - Possess a valid driver’s license with a good driving record Miscellaneous Applications are reviewed in October 2021.

Application deadline is Friday, October 8th, 2021.

The Village of Riverside is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

BUDGET & REVENUE ANALYST

The Village of Oak Park is seeking qualified candidates for the position of Budget and Revenue Analyst in the Finance Department. This position will Serve the public with professional administrative and analytical duties in the areas of budget preparation, purchasing, payroll, data analysis and process improvement. Provides, prepares and maintains records, and financial and statistical reports and analysis which assist in the Village’s ability to improve business processes and gain efficiencies through better use of technology. Budget duties include assisting in the development, analysis and application of performance measures with regard to Village services and resources; preparing, modifying, tracking and monitoring Village expenses and transfers; grants, and conducting budget-related research and analysis. Applicants are encouraged to visit the Village of Oak Park’s website http://www.oak-park.us/jobs.

Interested and qualified applicants must complete a Village of Oak Park application. First review of applications August 27, 2021.

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

PARKING ENFORCMENT OFFICER

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

PART TIME HELP WANTED

SPOTLESS CARWASH at 7343 Roosevelt and 7802 Madison St in Forest Park is in need of an attendant. We are looking for someone who likes to be outside and is friendly and likes people.

The duties are to meet and greet customers, make change, sell tokens, automatic and self serve wash instructions, keep the lot, equipment room, and perimeter clean, and empty garbage cans.

Pay is $11.00 per hour. The hours an attendant is on duty are 9 – 11 and 12 – 5 on weekdays, 9 – 11:30 and 12 – 4 on Saturday and Sunday. If you can fit any of these hours on a part time basis we can work with you.

Please come to 7343 Roosevelt Rd. in Forest Park to pick up anapplication. 708-771-2945.

HIRING BONUS!

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

CROSSING GUARD

The Forest Park Police Department is seeking qualified individuals for the position of Crossing Guard.

This position requires flexible hours during days when schools are in session. A background investigation and drug screening will be conducted prior to consideration for the position. Applications available at Village Hall, 517 Desplaines Avenue or on-line at www.forestpark.net and should be returned to Vanessa Moritz, HR Director, at Village Hall.

For additional information, contact Dora Murphy at 708-615-6223 or write dmurphy@forestpark.net.

Adnet 090121 LIMS DEVELOPERS

Applications accepted until position is filled. EOE. LIMS Developers sought by Merieux NutriSciences (Chicago, IL) to create, optimize & mntn SQL queries that support applctn fncnlty & oprtnl activities, etc. Deg'd applicants exp'd w/dvlpng database objcts and using SQL & PL/SQL, etc. send resume to megan.mccarty@mxns.com

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

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

Thank you

HIRING BONUS! 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

Find Help Wanted & Marketplace listings on the next page!

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

34

Wednesday Journal, September 1, 2021

CLASSIFIED

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

MARKETPLACE GARAGE/YARD SALES

ITEMS FOR SALE

R E N TA L S & R E A L E S TAT E CARS WANTED

MUST SELL CANTILEVER PATIO UMBRELLA - TOO BIG FOR OUR PATIO

Oak Park

GARAGE SALE ALL ITEMS FREE 635 N EUCLID

TAN “SUNNYGLADE DELUXE” 10X13 FT UMBRELLA. INCLUDES 4: SQUARE, BASE PLATE WGT.BY “BEST CHOICE PRODUCTS” $200 CALL (708) 488-8122

(Garage accessible from street) SAT 9/4, 9AM-1PM FIRM Kids toys/bikes, yard/garden, assorted housewares, games/toys, other. All items will be FREE! (Optional donations accepted to Beyond Hunger) Oak Park

GARAGE SALE 639 N RIDGELAND (PARKING PAD ACCESSED FROM ALLEY) SAT 9/3 AND SUN 9/4 • 9AM TO 3PM

WANTED TO BUY WANTED MILITARY ITEMS: Helmets, medals, patches, uniforms, weapons, flags, photos, paperwork, Also toy soldiers – lead, plastic – other misc. toys.

Call Uncle Gary 708-522-3400

Furniture, cooking and baking utensils, flatware, glassware, assorted household items

OFFICE SPACE FOR RENT THERAPY OFFICE OAK PARK

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

Mercedes, Corvette, Mercedes,Porsche, Porsche, Corvette, Ferrari’s, MuscleCars, Cars, Ferrari’s,Jaguars, Jaguars, Muscle Mustang && Mopars Mopars Mustang $$ Top $$ all makes, $$ Top $$ all makes,Etc. Etc.

Collector James Collector James 630-201-8122 630-201-8122

CLASSICS WANTED

R E N TA L S & R E A L E S TAT E Restored or Unrestored SUBURBAN RENTALS CarsSUBURBAN & Vintage RENTALS Motorcycles Domestic / Import Cars: BERWYN DELUXE 5 RMS

Apartment listings updated daily at:

OFFICE /RETAIL FOR RENT

Deluxe 5 RMS, 2 BDRMS, close to train and hospital. Includes heat, water, all appliances, laundry facility, parking. Just painted, new blinds. $1200/mo.

Sec. dep. 1 mo. Credit Check.

BROKER

Mercedes, Porsche, Corvette, Ferrari’s, Jaguars, Muscle Cars, 708-347-2500 Mustang & Mopars

630-201-8122

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

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

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

Forest Park Townhouse

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

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

ROOMS 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

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

SUBURBAN REAL ESTATE

FSBO • Principals ONLY

3 BR, 3 BA Desirable townhouse in Forest Park. 2 car heated, attached garage with extra storage. Many upgrades. Ceiling fans with lighting included. Gas & wood burning fireplace. End unit with extra windows.

Hardwood floors. Close to public transportation. $418,000 • 2500 square feet Call (708) 712-8932 for info

SERVICES FLOORS

HAULING

KLIS FLOORING INC.

BASEMENT CLEANING

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

FREE ESTIMATES Excellent References No Job Too Small

708-488-9411

HANDYMAN Roofing Repairs Concrete Repairs • Drywall All types of handiwork Call For Free Estimates

773-637-0692 Ask for John

Appliances & Furniture Removal Pickup & Delivery.

708-848-9404

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

708-243-0571

NEIGHBORHOOD CLEAN UP

Evergreen trimming & more. Clean-ups.

Garden weed removal.

Storm Branch Tree Removal.

708-447-1762

PAINTING & DECORATING CLASSIC PAINTING

Fast & Neat Painting/Taping/Plaster Repair Low Cost

708.749.0011

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

cat calls

Oak Park’s Original Pet Care Service – Since 1986

Daily dog exercising Complete pet care in your home )PVTF TJUUJOH t 1MBOU DBSF Bonded References

524-1030

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

Reach the people making the decisions.

Place an ad in GCM Classified!

Call 773/626-6332

Wednesday Journal, September 1, 2021

CLASSIFIED

35

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

Let the sun shine in...

Public Notice: Your right to know

In print • Online • Available to you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every day of the year OakPark.com | PublicNoticeIllinois.com NOVENAS PRAYER TO ST. JUDE May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be adored, glorified, loved & preserved throughout the world now & forever.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, pray for us.

St. Jude worker of miracles, pray for us. St. Jude helper of the hopeless, pray for us. Say this prayer 9 times a day for 9 days. By the 8th day your prayer will be answered. It has never been known to fail .Publication must be promised. Thank you Jesus.

Thank You St . Jude. R.B. PRAYER TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN (NEVER KNOWN TO FAIL) Oh, most beautiful flower of Mt. Carmel, fruitful vine, splendor of heaven, Blessed Mother of the Son of God, Immaculate Virgin, assist me in my necessity. Oh, Star of the Sea, help me and show me, herein you are my mother. Oh, Holy Mary, Mother of God, Queen of Heaven and Earth. I humbly beseech you from the bottom of my heart to suc cor in my necessity (make request).

There are none that can withstand your power. Oh, show me herein you are my mother. Oh, Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee (3 times). Holy Mary, I place this prayer in your hands (3 times). Say this prayer for three consecutive days and publish; your request will be granted. R.B. NEVER FAIL NOVENA May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be praised, adored and glorified throughout the world, now and for-ever. Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, I put my trust in you. Holy Mary Mother of Jesus, pray for me. St. Theresa child of Jesus, pray for me.

St. Jude, helper of hopeless causes, pray for me and grant this favorI ask.

Say this prayer 9 times a day for 9 days .R.B

PUBLIC NOTICES INVITATION FOR BID Sealed proposals will be received by the Oak Park Residence Corporation at 21 South Boulevard, Oak Park, Il, 60302 until 2:00 p. m. local time on Tuesday, September 21, 2021 at which time they will be opened and read. The sealed bids will be received for the following project: Reroofing and attic access stairs at the Farrelly-Muriello Apartments 435 South Humphrey, Oak Park, IL. Drawings and Project Manual are available at no cost in PDF electronic format from Heitzman Architects, 213 South Euclid Avenue, Oak Park, IL 60302, telephone (708) 2671352, email frank@heitzman.org, or printed drawings and Project Manual may be obtained at the direct cost of reproduction from Imperial Reprographics and Supply, 823 South Oak Park Avenue, Oak Park, Illinois 60304, telephone (708) 848-1030.

Bidders are encouraged to attend the pre bid meeting on Tuesday, September 14, 2021 at 9:00 a.m. on the first floor Farrelly-Muriello Apartments 435 South Humphrey, Oak Park, IL. Bidders having questions or needing further information may call Ken Southward at (708) 3869322, extension 134.

Bid Security: Each bid must be accompanied by a bid bond in the amount of 5% of the base bid or a certified check in the same amount payable to the Oak Park Residence Corporation. Checks of unsuccessful bidders will be returned as soon as practicable after the opening of the bids.

Performance Bond: The Contractor, before commencing the work, shall furnish a Performance Bond for contracts over $100,000.00.

The Performance Bond shall be in an amount equal to 100% of the full amount of the Contract Sum as security for the faithful performance of the obligations of the Contract Documents. Such Bond shall be issued by a Surety satisfactory to the Owner and shall name the Owner as primary Co-Obligee.

The Oak Park Residence Corporation reserves the right to award the contract to its best interests, to reject any or all proposals, to waive informalities in bidding, and to hold the three lowest proposals for a period of sixty (60) days after bid due date.

This project is subject to Federal Regulations including Fair Labor and Prevailing Wages. The Oak Park Residence Corportion, in an effort to reaffirm its policy of non-discrimination, encourages the efforts of Contractors and Sub-Contractors to take affirmative action in providing for Equal Employment Opportunity without regard to race, religion, creed, color, sex, national origin, age, protected Veteran status or handicap unrelated to ability to perform the job. The Owner encourages General Contractors to employ minority subcontractors and suppliers.

Due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, required distancing and masks will be required.

Ken Southward Director of Housing (708) 386-9322, ext. 134 Published in Wednesday Journal September 1, 2021

PUBLIC NOTICES PUBLIC NOTICE Notice is hereby given, pursuant to “An Act in relation to the use of an Assumed Business Name in the conduct or transaction of Business in the State,” as amended, that a certification was registered by the undersigned with the County Clerk of Cook County. Registration Number: Y21007543 on August 5, 2021 Under the Assumed Business Name of TOBY ZUCKER JEWELRY DESIGN with the business located at: 202 N KENILWORTH AVE STE 2, OAK PARK, IL 60302. The true and real full name(s) and residence address of the owner(s)/partner(s) is: TOBY SHORE 202 N KENILWORTH AVE STE 2, OAK PARK, IL 60302, USA. Published in Wednesday Journal August 18, 25, September 1, 2021

PUBLIC NOTICE Cellco Partnership and its controlled affiliates doing business as Verizon Wireless (Verizon Wireless) is proposing to install three replacement light pole telecommunications facilities within River Forest, Cook Co., IL 60305 near the following addresses: (1) 31-foot light pole near 7777 Lake St. (6121006552); (1) 32-foot light pole near 424 Park Ave. (6121006553); and (1) 25-foot light pole near 752 Ashland Ave. (6121006557). Public comments regarding potential effects from these sites on historic properties may be submitted within 30 days from the date of this publication to: Project 6121006552, 6553, 6557 - MH c/o EBI Consulting, 6876 Susquehanna Trail South, York, PA 17403, mholtkamp@ebiconsulting.com, or via telephone at (785) 760-5938.

Published in Wednesday Journal September 1, 2021

PUBLIC NOTICE OF COURT DATE FOR REQUEST FOR NAME CHANGE STATE OF ILLINOIS, CIRCUIT COURT COOK COUNTY. Request of STEFAN WLADYSLAW SUCHAN Case Number 2021 CONC 001009 There will be a court date on my Request to change my name from: STEFAN W SUCHAN to the new name of: STEVE W SUCHAN The court date will be held: On November 5, 2020 at 1:30 p.m. at Daley Center in Courtroom # 2503 via Zoom.

Published in RB Landmark August 18, 25, September 1, 2021

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

In re the marriage of ADEKUNLE AYANNEYE, Petitioner and KOWAII MATTHEW Respondent, Case No. 21D630026.

The requisite affidavit for publication having been filed, notice is hereby given to you, the above named Respondent, that a Petition has been filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, by the Petitioner, for Dissolution of Marriage and for other relief; and that said suit is now pending.

Now, therefore, unless you, the said Respondent, file your response to said Petition or otherwise make your appearance therein, in the Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, Room 802, Richard J. Daley Center, 50 West Washington Street, in the City of Chicago, Illinois, on or before September 20, 2021, default may be entered against you at any time after that day, and a judgment for Dissolution of Marriage entered in accordance with the prayer of said Petition.

DOROTHY A. BROWN, Clerk.

Published in Wednesday Journal August 18, 25, September 1, 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: Y21007583 on August 11, 2021 Under the Assumed Business Name of BILL & GILL’S PROPERTY MAINTENANCE with the business located at: 4112 SUNNYSIDE AVE, BROOKFIELD, IL 60513. The true and real full name(s) and residence address of the owner(s)/partner(s) is: MATTHEW DAVID GILL 4112 SUNNYSIDE AVE, BROOKFIELD, IL 60513, USA WILLIAM JOSEPH PRASCH, 2240 TERRY LN W, BROADVIEW, IL 60155, USA. Published in RB Landmark August 18, 25, September 1, 2021

PUBLIC NOTICES

PUBLIC NOTICES

PUBLIC NOTICES EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY

PUBLIC NOTICE OF INTENT REQUEST FOR THE RELEASE OF FUNDS On September 9, 2021 the Village of Oak Park (Village) will request the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to release federal funds under Title I of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 (PL 93383), as amended, for various activities pursuant to the Program Year (PY) 2021 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program, including: public facilities and improvements $38,862, lead hazard reduction $99,150, single family rehab loan program (revolving loan fund) $175,000, small rental rehab program $90,950, ADA sidewalk improvements $365,609, street/sidewalk ramp improvements $400,000, water line lead improvement $50,000 and alley improvements $400,000.

These activities will take place within the Village of Oak Park, Illinois at a total cost of $1,619,471.

An Environmental Review Record covering CDBG programs has been made by the Village, which documents the environmental review of the activities.

This Environmental Review Record (ERR) is on file at the below address and is available for public examination and copying upon request from September 2, 2021 to September 9, 2021, 5 p.m. The ERR is also available on the HUD Environmental Review Online System (HEROS) at: https://www. onecpd.info/environmental-review/ environmental-review-records The Village of Oak Park will undertake the activities described above with grant funds from HUD, under PL 93-383. The Village of Oak Park and Lisa Shelley, in her official capacity as Interim Village Manager, and Tammie Grossman, in her official capacity as Development Customer Services Director, consent to accept the jurisdiction of the Federal courts if an action is brought to enforce responsibilities in relation to environmental reviews, decisionmaking, and action, and that these responsibilities have been satisfied.

The legal effect of the certification is that upon its approval, the Village may use the grant funds, and HUD will have satisfied its responsibilities under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969.

HUD will accept an objection of its approval of the release of funds and acceptance of the certification only if it is on one of the following bases: (a) that the certification was not in fact executed by the responsible

entity’s Certifying Officer; (b) that the responsible entity has failed to make one of the two findings pursuant to Sec. 58.40 or to make the written determination required

by Secs. 58.35, 58.47 or 58.53 for the grant activity, as applicable; or (c) that the recipient or other participants in the development process have committed funds, incurred costs or undertaken activities not authorized by Sec. 58.75 before release of funds and approval of the environmental certification by HUD. Objections must be prepared and submitted in accordance with the required procedure (24 CFR Part 58) and may be addressed to HUD at 77 West Jackson Blvd., Chicago, Illinois 60604. Objections to the release of funds based on other than those stated above will not be considered by HUD. No objection received after 5 p.m., September 23, 2021 will be considered by HUD. Send objections to HUD at: CPD_COVID-19OEE-CHI@hud.gov Notice is also given that CDBG Tier 1 Broad Reviews were conducted for the following proposed projects - Village of Oak Park Public Works Infrastructure construction projects (4) that will: 1) make Sidewalk 2) make Sidewalk Ramp Improvements to improve the mobility of persons with disabilities and Street Improvements in low and moderate income (LMI) areas to replace deteriorated infrastructure; 3) make Alley Improvements in LMI areas to replace deteriorated infrastructure; and 4) make Water Main service line improvements to eliminate water main lead-based paint hazards. Further Tier 1 Broad Review projects - Village of Oak Park Housing Programs projects (3) that will: 1) reduce lead-based paint hazards for LMI homeowners; 2) rehabilitate single-family homes for LMI homeowners; and 3) rehab rental-buildings with 1-7 units to primarily benefit and improve affordability for LMI renters. Tier 2 Site Specific Reviews will be completed for those laws and authorities not addressed in the Tier 1 Broad Reviews for each address under the Oak Park CDBG program when addresses become known.

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

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

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

To complain of discrimination, call HUD toll free at: 1-800-6699777.

Wednesday Journal • Landmark • Forest Park Review

Lisa Shelley, Interim Village Manager, and Tammie Grossman, Development Customer Services Director, Certifying Officers 123 Madison Street Oak Park, IL 60302

Published in Wednesday Journal September 1, 2021

Let the sun shine in..

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

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Wednesday Journal, September 1, 2021

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