Wednesday Journal 110922 by Wednesday Journal

W E D N E S D A Y

November 9, 2022 Vol. 43, No. 15

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of Oak Park and River Forest

Gerald Clay challenged Oak Park on educational equity Obituary, pages 24, 28

Stress levels rising, OPRF security staff tells school board Staff members ask for raise, more support from administration By BOB SKOLNIK Contributing Reporter

Pumpkin pitch

Belia Giannotti tosses a pumpkin into the bin during the pumpkin recycling event at Roosevelt Middle School in River Forest SEE MORE PHOTOS ON PAGE 19 ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

Four security guards, backed by 10 of their coworkers standing up alongside them, addressed the Oak Park and River Forest High School board of education Oct. 27 and voiced concerns about the stress of their jobs and suggested they are not getting enough support from OPRF’s administration. They also asked for a three dollar an hour raise. Union stewards Anissa Molette and Jeremy Powell said their jobs are more stressful than ever. They said that the campus safety and support team, as the security guards are officially See OPRF SECURITY on page 14

Wednesday Journal, November 9, 2022

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Don’t miss your chance to rock out and give back! This year’s Beyond Hunger Fall Benefit Concert features Drive-By Truckers with Chicago artist Nathan Graham. November 18th and 19th at Thalia Hall and Fitzgerald’s in Berwyn. At a time when we are experiencing a 30-40% increase in participation across our programs - your support and attendance helps us manage the exponential impact of our own rising food costs just as more and more community members are picking up groceries to help feed their families.

Drive-By Truckers L to R: Jay Gonzalez, Brad Morgan, Patterson Hood, Mike Cooley, Matt Patton Photo: Brantley Gutierrez

Photo: Matt Kosterman

GoBeyondHunger.org/events for tickets.

Mavis Staples and band, at the 2021 Beyond Hunger Benefit.

A portion of your ticket is tax deductible.

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The old is dying and the new cannot be born

’m writing this on the eve of Tuesday’s dreaded midterm election. In the weeks before Nov. 8, John Nichols, The Nation magazine’s national affairs correspondent who was invited to speak at Third Unitarian Church in nearby Austin last month, had described the election as the most important in history and possibly the last in which the country operates as a functional democracy (if it ever was one). “What’s at stake in 2022 is electoral democracy as we know it,” Nichols wrote in a Nov. 2 piece for Common Dreams. “That makes this the most consequential midterm election since 1862, when Congressional majorities aligned with the narrowly elected President Abraham Lincoln. In that distant election year, Lincoln acknowledged, ‘The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present.’” Regardless of Tuesday’s result, what Lincoln said still applies to our own stormy present — in fact, much more so. There are a few ways in which America’s Civil War years seem downright optimistic compared to now. Consider that the Republican Party was founded in 1854, directly as a result of the passage of Sen. Stephen Douglas’ KansasNebraska Act, which threatened to expand slavery into the new territories of Kansas and Nebraska. Within six years of its founding in Ripon, Wisconsin, the party had its first president, Lincoln, and two years later, after the 1862 midterm election — which was conducted during the War — a solid majority in the Senate. In other words, a singular issue, slavery, had radicalized politicians who had erstwhile strained neutrality on the issue up until it became impossible to avoid and demanded new political coalitions. The party system actually worked. War was not avoided, but American governance and the electoral and political system underlying it continued apace. Once firmly in power, the Republicans, at the time a party concentrated in the North, laid the groundwork for modern America and our current idea of progress. As Matthew Rosza wrote in Salon in August, Lincoln and his party of former northern Democrats and former Whigs dismantled the system of chattel slavery, passed the Reconstruction Amendments, created the Department of Agriculture,

funded the transcontinental railroad, created the first national parks and landgrant colleges, and passed the Homestead Act, which “made millions of acres of governmentheld land available at very low cost.” By 1870, less than a decade after Appomattox, Civil War veterans like William T. Nichols — who fought for the Union at Gettysburg and led a regiment that famously repelled Pickett’s Charge — were thriving. Nichols moved from his native Vermont to Illinois to form a development company that would turn into my hometown of Maywood. The Civil War, and the bloody years preceding it, undeniably constituted a national crisis, but ironically the young nation was economically dynamic and growing, pregnant with possibility. You might even think of the Civil War as a crisis conceived in success. Indeed, there would have been no need for North and South to compromise over slavery had the nation not been expanding its landholdings through conquest and genocide, and its population of white settlers, many of them slave-owners, had not been booming and settling further and further North and West. What’s more, the national project of white settler colonialism was never in doubt. Despite fears by southerners of “Black Republicans,” so-named for the new party’s anti-slavery stance, white supremacy was the supreme law of the land — North and South. Take, for instance, the stance of Rep. David Wilmot, well-known for his famous 1846 proposal to ban slavery from lands the country took from Mexico after the MexicanAmerican War. The proposal, called the Wilmot Proviso, failed but it helped heighten the national tensions that would ultimately lead to the Civil War. Proviso Township proudly takes its name from the Wilmot Proviso. Today, the township shares some of that history on its website. What is omitted from that online history, however, is the principal reason why Wilmot and other prominent white men like him objected to slavery. “As Wilmot explained,” historian Douglas R. Egerton writes in Year of Meteors, “he felt ‘no morbid sympathy for the slave.’ Rather, his objective was to ‘preserve to free white labor a fair country, a rich inheritance, where the sons of toil, of my own race and color, can live without the disgrace which association with negro slavery brings upon

MICHAEL ROMAIN

free labor.’” That, in essence, became the new Republican Party’s core platform from its formation, which “suggests the depth of racism among party organizers,” Egerton explains, before quoting a Republican minister who relocated to the territories to fight against slavery: “I kem to Kansas to live in a free state … and I don’t want niggers a-trampin’ over my grave.” In many ways, this is the same country. Capitalism is still dominant and the white supremacy that animated white southerners and northerners alike in the 19th century is still regnant and rampant — but recently, capitalism’s power as an unquestioned hegemonic force has been seriously challenged and the global project of white settler colonialism that stretches from the 1452 Doctrine of Discovery to now may be coming to its logical conclusion.

Our empty politics The American philosopher Nancy Fraser writes that hegemony “is a term for the process by which a ruling class makes its domination appear natural by installing the presuppositions of its own world view as the common sense” of the whole society. The organizational counterpart of hegemony, Fraser adds, is the “hegemonic bloc: a coalition of disparate social forces that the ruling class assembles and through which it asserts its leadership.” Since at least “the mid-twentieth century in the United States and Europe,” Fraser writes, the two blocs competing for capitalist hegemony have “been forged by combining two different aspects of right and justice — one focused on distribution, the other on recognition.” The two competing hegemonic blocs, reactionary neoliberalism and progressive neoliberalism, have in common the neoliberal politics of distribution centered on “finance, military production and extractive energy, all to the principal benefit of the global 1 percent.” But they have different politics of recognition that render their distributive politics palatable for their respective bases. For reactionary neoliberalism, recognition is based on “an exclusionary vision of a just status order: ethnonational, anti-immigrant, and pro-Christian, if not overtly racist, patriarchal and homophobic.” Progressive neoliberalism’s politics of recognition is rooted in “a real and powerful alliance of two unlikely bedfellows: on the one hand, mainstream liberal

currents of the new social movements (feminism, antiracism, multiculturalism, environmentalism, and LGBTQ+ rights); on the other hand, the most dynamic, high-end, ‘symbolic,’ and financial sectors of the U.S. economy (Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and Hollywood).” In the 1990s, progressive neoliberalism arose to dominate American politics, Fraser observes, adding “only when decked out as progressive could a deeply regressive political economy become the dynamic center of a new hegemonic bloc.” But now that hegemony has collapsed, hollowed out by deindustrialization, predatory debt, declining living standards and “the proliferation of precarious, lowwage McJobs.” Right now, “a sizeable segment of the U.S. electorate — victims of financialization and corporate globalization” are without a natural political home. Authoritarians like Trump and the current Republican Party are taking advantage of this national rootlessness. But unlike in the more economically and politically dynamic 1800s, the party system has, so far, failed to counter the authoritarian threat. A Gallup poll published last month showed that 56% of Americans believe the major existing political parties “do such a poor job that a third major party is needed.” But the most obvious counterhegemonic bloc that presents a viable alternative — what Fraser describes as a “robustly egalitarian politics of distribution” coupled with a “substantively inclusive, class-sensitive politics of recognition” — doesn’t appear to be in the offing. Earlier this year, some neoliberal Republicans and neoliberal Democrats united by Andrew Yang launched the Forward Party, which apparently has no platform or purpose beyond defeating partisanship. They remind me of the Constitutional Union Party, one of three parties the Republicans defeated in the 1860 election. During the Constitutional Unionists’ convention that year, one delegate pointed out the new party’s chief flaw, Egerton writes. “They believed ‘that political salvation so devoutly to be wished for’ might simply be achieved ‘by ignoring all the rugged issues of the day.’” That’s where American politics is at now. Stuck in an “empty, unoccupied zone,” Fraser writes, where the old is dying and the new cannot be born. CONTACT: michael@oakpark.com

Wednesday Journal, November 9, 2022

Film Screening: ‘Dune’ Friday, Nov. 11, 1-3 p.m., Oak Park Public Library Dune is a 2021 American epic science fiction film directed by Denis Villeneuve from a screenplay by Villeneuve, Jon Spaihts, and Eric Roth. It is the first part of a two-part adaptationn nk of the 1965 novel by Frank nt Herbert. Set in the distant future, the film follows Paul Atreides as his family,, he the noble House Atreides, is thrust into a war for the gisdeadly and inhospitable desert planet Arrakis. Regisrk. ter now at oppl.org/calendar. 834 Lake St., Oak Park.

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BIG WEEK November 9-16

Jamiah Rogers Friday, Nov. 11, 9 p.m., Harlem Avenue Lounge ge This blues guitarist has been nicknamed “Jamiah On Fire,” and with his Dirty Church Band, he explodes on stage with Hendrix-inspired blues-rock. 3701 S. Harlem, Berwyn.

Veterans Day Ceremony Nov. 11 at 11 a.m., Nineteenth Century Club ub ballroom, Oak Park All veterans, their families and friends, and all area rea residents are invited to attend the annual Veterans ans Day ceremony on Friday, Nov. 11 in the ballroom of the Nineteenth Century building (178 Forest Ave., Oak Park). The ceremony begins at 11 a.m. Illinois Senate President Don Harmon and Village President Vicki Scaman will give welcoming remarks. Officers from the Oak Park Police Department will post the colors. The History Singers will lead patriotic singing. A bugler will play “Taps” as wreaths are laid. The remarks this year will examine the origins and meaning of Veterans Day and will discuss the WWI and WWII origins of Irving Berlin’s iconic patriotic hymn, “God Bless America.” More broadly, the ceremony will recognize and honor all of our veterans who have served our country in wartime and in peace, especially those who have lost their lives in service to this country.

‘Growing Up Chicago’ Authors Visit: Jessie Ann Foley & Daiva Markelis, David Schaafsma & Roxanne Pilat Saturday, Nov. 12, 12-1:30 p.m., Oak Park Public Library Growi Growing Up Chicago is a collec collection of coming-of-age storie stories that reflects the divers diversity of the city and its metro metropolitan area. Authors Jessie Ann Foley and Daiva Marke Markelis will be joined by editor editors David Schaafsma aand Roxanne Pilat. Register now at oppl. org/calendar. 834 Lake St., Oak Park.

The Monday Enrichment Series Presents: Writing The Past

TechGirlz: Calavera Skull: Slicing & Design Using CAD Nov. 10, 4 - 6:30 p.m., Oak Park Public Library Are you a middle school girl interested in technology? Customize a 3D Calavera Skull and watch your creation print out in plastic! Students will learn about 3D printing principles, download designs onto 3D printing software, and print chosen objects in an Open Source 3D printing program for future printing. Materials and a snack will be provided. Please create a free Tinkercad account prior to the event. Register at oppl.org/calendar

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

Wednesday a week before your news needs to be in the newspaper. ■ Send details to Wednesday Journal, 141 S. Oak Park Ave., Oak Park, 60302 ■ Email calendar@wjinc.com

Monday, Nov. 14, 1:15 p.m., Nineteenth Century Charitable Organization Nin Five aauthors of historical fiction novels set in Eastern Europ Europe present a panel discussion of their novels, their ccraft, and the little-known histories that inspired them. Erin Litteken, Gabriella Saab, Amanda McCri McCrina, Marina Scott and Olesya Salnikova Gilmore will be joined by moderator Debb W. Hammond. Volun Voluntary suggested donation of $15. 178 Forest Ave., Oak Park.

Rayo De Luz Thursday, Nov. 10, 7 p.m., FitzGerald’s Traditional Mexican music band led by Erendira Izguerra. 6615 Roosevelt Road, Berwyn.

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ational news outlets can’t cover your local elections, restaurant openings, back to school festivities, or village and school board meetings We can. And we do. GCM, like newsrooms across the country, has been doing more with less. Now, more than ever it is critical that Oak Park and River Forest residents make community news sources like Wednesday Journal a philanthropic priority. GCM’s reader-supported journalism is a vital civic service worthy of public support.

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Oak Park Health Department requests ARPA funds 2023 considered COVID-19 ‘transition year’ By STACEY SHERIDAN Staff Reporter

Fiscal year 2023 is being considered a COVID-19 “transition year” by the Oak Park Public Health Department as the siege of the pandemic has been lessened of late but not yet defeated. To continue offering COVID-19 mitigation efforts, the department is requesting $303,000 in funding from the village’s American Rescue Plan Act moneys. The village board has $18.6 million in remaining ARPA funds, having already allocated $20.3 million to reimburse the village for pandemic-related expenses and to support community organizations impacted by COVID-19. Much of what the health department is requesting is currently being paid for by grants that will soon expire, including keeping the department’s epidemiologist for another six months. The epidemiologist is currently being compensated through a grant from the Illinois Department of Public Health, which expires in June. The health department is requesting $38,565 from ARPA coffers to keep the epidemiologist on the payroll through next December. The health department plans to continue

its COVID-19 vaccination clinics and testing, for which staff has requested $64,000 and $35,000 respectively. The majority of the amount requested for the testing site would be used to pay the part-time testing coordinator. The part-time testing intern would receive $5,000 of the requested amount in compensation. The health department brought on three contracted nurses during the pandemic. To continue employing those nurses through 2023, staff has requested $110,000. Staff also requested $64,000 to pay for an assistant for the health department’s emergency preparedness coordinator. Finally, the health department is requesting $30,000 for the implementation of the Illinois Project for Local Assessment of Needs. IPLAN is a community health assessment and planning process conducted every five years by local health departments in Illinois. Many of the requirements to remain a certified health department are satisfied through IPLAN. The plan involves assessing the organizational capacity of local health departments, as well as assessing the health needs of the communities served. The creation of a community health plan, which focuses on at least three major health problems, is the third essential element of the IPLAN. The village board is set to continue discussing ARPA allocations at its Nov. 17 meeting.

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New data portal shows suburban health outcomes

County officials announce $14M in grants to address depression, substance abuse By MICHAEL ROMAIN Staff reporter

Last month, Cook County health officials announced that they’d launched a new, publicly available data portal called the Cook County Health Atlas. The data shows nearly 1 in 5 adults in Oak Park and River Forest are living with depression. The ratio is similar across Cook County. The data also shows that roughly 24 percent of adults in Oak Park and River Forest reported binge drinking, defined as having at least five drinks for men and four drinks for women on occasion within the last month. That’s slightly higher than the 22 percent reported across the county. The data

is from 2019, before the pandemic. In Oak Park, the drug overdose mortality rate from 2013 to 2017 was 12 people per 100,000. The portal did not have similar data on River Forest. On Oct. 26, Cook County officials announced that they’ll be awarding $14 million in grant funding across four years to expand mental health and substance use prevention, treatment and support in the suburbs. Grants will range from $250,000 to over $1 million each, and are part of the Building Healthy Communities Behavioral Health Initiative, funded under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), officials said. “Today’s announcement demonstrates our commitment to the well-being of all Cook County residents,” said Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle in a statement. “This investment in behavioral health as part of our Building Health Communities Initiative ensures that we’re taking a holistic approach to healthcare that prioritizes

mental health, as well as physical health.” Applications for the grants are being accepted now through Dec. 7, and awards will be announced in January. For more information and to apply online, visit: cookcountypublichealth.org/bhcopencall/ County officials said on Oct. 12 that the new Health Atlas allows “residents, community organizations, policymakers, researchers and public health stakeholders” access to neighborhood-level health data from over 120 suburbs in Cook County. “In the Health Atlas, users can look at more than 100 indicators of health, and see them

visualized in maps, charts, graphs and tables of health-related data that matter to them,” they added. The public data spans six categories, including health outcomes, health behaviors, healthcare, demographics, socioeconomic status, and physical environment, officials said. The Cook County public health department developed the Health Atlas in collaboration with the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health (UIC SPH) and Metopio, a data, analytics and visualization platform.

Parking rates higher, free parking scaled back Oak Park board considers Jan. 1 hikes By STACEY SHERIDAN Staff Reporter

The ever-present issue of parking in Oak Park has returned to the village board, which is considering raising parking garage and meter rates in an effort to gnaw away at the $22.4 million the village owes in parking related bond debt. The amount of free parking time offered to people who park in the village-owned garages will also be scaled back. These potential changes are not at all supported by Oak Park’s small business community. “The main service that the village continues to chip away at is its parking downtown,” said Jason Smith, co-owner of the Book Table, 1045 Lake St. The first reading of the proposed ordinance to change parking costs occurred at the Nov. 7 village board meeting, where

Smith and others spoke out against changing the parking fee structure and expressed disappointment at not being given earlier notice of the potential changes. The second reading is scheduled for the Monday before Thanksgiving. The village plans to use revenue from its parking fund to pay off the debt, which must be complete by 2040. To do that, the cost of parking must be raised, according to village staff. The parking fund is an enterprise fund, which means it is managed like a business unlike the village’s other funds which gain revenue through taxation. Revenue from the parking fund is generated through user fees, such as people paying to park at a metered spot downtown. Currently, Holley Court, the Avenue and Lake and Forest parking garages allow 90 minutes of free parking. That will likely be changed to 45 minutes as of Jan. 1 and through fiscal year 2024, under the new ordiSee PARKING RATES on page 17

ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

A motorist drives into one of the parking garages on Nov. 7, in downtown Oak Park.

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Middle-schoolers, student leaders feel heard at conference Roosevelt, Julian students attend, OPRF students facilitate By BOB SKOLNIK Contributing Reporter

More than 20 students from Percy Julian Middle School in Oak Park and Roosevelt Middle School in River Forest were among the 120 or so middle-schoolers from the near west suburbs who attended the first ever Youth Leadership Conference Friday. The event, which was mostly run by 80 students from the Leadership and Launch class at Oak Park and River Forest High School, was hosted by the West Suburban Consortium for Academic Excellence and held at the Hodgkins Park District’s Recreation Center. After a morning of team building activities, the students met in breakout sessions in the afternoon and then ended their day by meeting in their school groups to discuss issues at their school that they thought should be addressed. “I thought it was a very amazing experience,” said Coralai Groulx, a seventhgrader at Julian who was at conference. Groulx said the conference was empowering.

“I learned that it’s important to be a leader, especially as a young person,” Groulx said. Julian eighth-grader Maggie Fougere also enjoyed attending the conference. “It was really fun and I liked that students were able to share all their opinions and it was interesting to see how the schools, like, differed from ours,” Fougere said. Fougere said it was interesting meeting students from other middle schools. “A lot of them were really different from what I had imagined,” Fougere said. “There was a huge variety of people.” The Julian students discussed problems at their school including issues with lunch, the advisory period and dealing with mental health issues. “Students don’t feel safe to tell anyone anything,” Fougere said during the discussion among Julian students. “There is such a bad problem with judgment in our school.” The Julian students also talked with the two OPRF students assigned to their group as facilitators about what high school would be like sharing their hopes and fears that OPRF students addressed. Two OPRF students were assigned to each middle school group and acted as discussion facilitators. William Lee, the assistant principal at

BOB SKOLNIK/Contributor

LEARNING TO LEAD: Julian Middle School students (above) and Roosevelt Middle School students (below left) attend the first Youth Leadership Conference Friday at OPRF High School. Julian, attended the conference but mostly dents but treated students as if they were stayed in the background, speaking only back in elementary school. The boy was conoccasionally. cerned about gum chewing and candy eating Gwendolyn Brooks Middle School did in the school. not send any students to the conference. Roosevelt Assistant Principal Tina StekeBrooks Principal April Capuder did not tee attended the conference and participated respond to a phone call or email on Mon- in the discussions with Roosevelt students, day asking why Brooks did not participate but like Lee, mostly held back and observed in the conference. But a District 97 commu- except to answer questions and provide connications staffer replied by email. text and more information. “District 97 is committed to Steketee said concerns of the providing leadership opportuRoosevelt students centered nities to all of our students,” around student advocacy, comwrote Rebecca Bald from D97. munication, discipline and rules. “Our new superintendent, Dr. The Julian students who at(Ushma) Shah, first had the optended, seven girls and four boys, portunity to learn more about will meet with Supt. Shah to disthe WSCAE and its activities cuss their concerns and to talk when she attended their first about how Julian and the district meeting of the school year in Ocwill respond to the students contober, after registration was due. cerns. While the district was able to “I think there will be changes DR. USHMA SHAH coordinate participation for one once the superintendent and the D97 superintendent school this year, we are looking people in the district hear what forward to students from both of we had to say,” Fougere said. our middle schools attending this conference Julian seventh grader Carina Birriel is in the future.” hopeful that some changes will result from Roosevelt sent 11 students, 10 eighth grade the student input and that their suggestions girls and one seventh grade boy, who are part will be implemented. of the school’s service club. The Roosevelt “I really liked how student driven the activstudents expressed concerns about disci- ity was and we reached a lot of points where pline and the lack of time for students who we addressed them and I liked how we came have a lot of outside activities to complete up with ideas to fix these and I like how that their homework and other issues. One girl people are actually listening to us instead complained that teachers at Roosevelt held of just ignoring us and moving on,” Birriel students to the standards of high school stu- said.

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Neighbors get a win on Roosevelt Road nuisance BM Custom denied special-use permit By STACEY SHERIDAN Staff Reporter

The Oak Park village board denied a special-use request to operate a custom vehicle upholstery business at 6212 Roosevelt Rd., a portion of the former Associated Tire & Battery property. The denial delighted neighbors who have been beleaguered by noise and clogged alleys for well over a year. “We are very happy that the trustees finally heard our concerns and made the right decision to enforce their own rules. We are especially grateful to the trustees and village staff that took the time to meet with us and see for themselves the issues we’ve been dealing with,” said Katie Ingrao-Sniegowski, who helped to coordinate neighbors’ efforts. The board unanimously denied the special use permit at its Nov. 8 meeting. The vote was a bit unexpected as the board has been hard to read regarding the application and the nuisances affecting the neighborhood. “I was shocked that it was unanimous. It shows me that they didn’t take this lightly,” said a neighbor who lives on the north end of Lombard Avenue and wished to remain anonymous. The applicant, Jeremy Storey, had won a positive recommendation from the Zoning Board of Appeals, after convincing the commission his business was not responsible for the extreme noise and blocked alleys. The property has been split into three units to accommodate multiple tenants. Storey told the ZBA that it was the fault of one of the other tenants. That tenant was later identified as Brian Kamar, who had been using the property to store vehicles, which is against the zoning code. He was ordered to remove those vehicles from the property. Kamar did not return Wednesday Journal’s request for comment. The mysterious third tenant has been identified only as “Tony.” Tony, according to the unnamed neighbor, restores cars. “That’s all he does,” said the neighbor. Both Kamar and Tony have been polite and receptive to the neighbors’ concerns, even apologizing for any of the noise they have caused, the neighbor said. At the time Storey went before the ZBA,

village staff had recommended Storey be granted a special use permit to operate his business, BM Custom. Staff reversed its stance after it was found that Storey had been operating his business without the permit and had been cited several times, for which he was fined $600. Neighbors also told the village board he had been playing loud music at all hours and had gotten aggressive when confronted. The fear of retribution made neighbors wary of speaking publicly. Storey maintained that he was not causing the disturbances. The village board was made aware of these developments at its Oct. 17 meeting, but still tabled voting on the issue, requesting more information. In the weeks leading up to the vote, neighbors spoke with trustees, some of whom went to examine the property for themselves. Wednesday Journal has also gone to the property several times to try to speak with Storey without success. “I probably made many trips over in the last few weeks and the general impression I get is that the nuisance is coming from 6212 [Roosevelt Rd.],” said Trustee Jim Taglia. During one of his trips, Taglia told the board, music was being played so loudly at Storey’s workshop that it made the windows of Taglia’s car vibrate. In emails to the village board, the neighbors used such words as “mayhem,” “terror,” “misery,” and “suffering” to describe the situation, according to Taglia. Without a permit, BM Custom is essentially no longer a business. Storey will have to cease operations completely. Whether he will have to leave the premises is up to the building owner. He does have the opportunity to file a new application, but there is a two-year waiting period. Storey addressed the village board after the vote had been taken. He denied acting hostilely toward neighbors and stated that none had ever tried to speak with him. This was disputed by the unnamed neighbor to Wednesday Journal. “What he doesn’t realize is we’ve tried, and he was aggressive with us,” she said. “There’s so much negativity coming from him that he’s rendered himself unapproachable, sadly.” Still, the neighbor is not without sympathy for Storey, who will have to reconsider the future of his business. “I think he had a space that he liked and probably was making him money,” she said. “And I feel sad about that.”

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PREACHING ACCEPTANCE: Aaron McManus urges his fellow citizens to face and address gender violence.

Oak Parker draws attention to gender issues Aaron McManus uses education to challenge gender conformity By STACEY SHERIDAN Staff Reporter

Editor’s note: This story contains references to suicide, depression and sexual violence. Gender education is front and center this November for Aaron McManus, who has been working with two local organizations to bring greater awareness to the importance of living one’s authentic self and allowing others to do same. “The takeaway here needs to be that forcing gender onto people in any which way is harmful,” said McManus. Not everyone fits neatly into the gen-

ders assigned to them at birth, he says, but societal norms regularly reinforce those designations on individuals to the detriment of their mental and physical health. McManus is inviting people to examine this in greater detail so that, through empathy and understanding, the community can begin to dismantle the outdated idea that genitalia defines gender. “When I was a kid, I got the question all the time: ‘Are you a boy or a girl?’” McManus said. “That was always a hostile question and I learned very quickly that that was never going to be followed up with something friendly.” McManus is a nonbinary Oak Parker whose pronouns change depending on the occasion. For consistency and clarity, he has approved the use of they in this story. To help parents and caregivers raise children to view gender beyond the binary, McManus, who is a father, is co-hosting

Wednesday Journal, November 9, 2022

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Scientific studies have actually proven a virtual education workshop, Nov. 15, on gender identity and diversity through the reverse to be true. In forcing someFormerly Custom Fireplace Co. the nonprofit organization Oak Park Our one to use the bathroom that corresponds in Columbus, Ohio with his, her or their biological sex, that Whole Lives. in 1982 “Gender is a social role based on the person is put at a higher risk of being idea that how someone sexually reproduc- sexually assaulted or raped. That risk exes should determine all their behaviors tends to transgender teens as well. INSPECTIONS • CLEANINGS A 2019 study published in the medical through life and there’s nothing inherREPAIRS • IMPROVEMENTS journal Pediatrics found that 26% of the ently valid about that,” said McManus. on fireboxes, dampers, liners, gas starters & logs They are also working with the Oak 3,673 transgender and nonbinary middle CHIMNEY SWEEPING • RAIN CAPS/ Park Public Library on an exhibit in the school and high school students surveyed SCREENS • DRAFT INCREASE main library in recognition of the Trans- across the United States reported being Free site visit inspection gender Day of Remembrance, observed sexually assaulted in the last 12 months. with appointment by Chris Wessels annually on Nov. 20 to honor lives lost to That jumped to 35% among those who at• buckeye.chris@yahoo.com • 708-906-5027 tend schools that restrict access to bathtransgender violence. To put together the Idea Box display, rooms and locker rooms. Transgender McManus worked alongside Juanta Grif- girls are more than twice as likely to be at risk when they have to use fin, OPPL multicultural boys’ bathrooms, according learning coordinator, and to the study, which relied on Hal Patnott, OPPL rainbow data from the Human Rights services librarian and a Campaign and researchers transgender man. Griffin from the University of Concould not be reached for necticut. comment. Being BeingOnline: Online:AAHarm HarmReduction ReductionApproach Approachto to On top of those already The display will be ready Technology & Social Media Use in Families alarming rates, LGBTQ+ for viewing this week. In Technology & Social Media Use in Families youth are at greater risk of addition to honoring the Many parents are understandably concerned about the negative impact that Many parents understandably concerned about the negative impact that self-harm and suicide, actransgender people who Many parentsare are understandably concerned about the negative impact Many parents are media, understandably about negative impact technology, social and screen concerned exposure may have the on their children and that technology, social media, and screen exposure may have on their children and cording to a 2022 Trevor lost their lives to violence, that social media, and screen exposure may on their and families. These same things can also be essential tools to have help kidshave and parents technology, social media, and may their Many parents are technology, understandably concerned about the negative that families. These same things canscreen also beexposure essential tools to impact help on kids and children parents Project survey. The Trevor the display also provides inalike connect with family and peers, learn new skills, and express/expand their children and families. These same things can also be essential tools families. Theseand same things can also benew essential tools to help kids and to parents technology, social media, screen exposure may have on their children and alike connect with family and peers, learn skills, and express/expand their formation about discrimiProject found that 59% of Manyparents parentsare areunderstandably understandably concerned about negative impact Many concerned about thethe negative impact thatthat creativity. In this Talk, parents and caregivers will learn how to use a harm help kids and parents alike connect with family and peers, learn new alike connect with family and peers, learn new skills, and express/expand their creativity. In this Talk, parents and caregivers will learn how to use a harm These same things can also be essential tools to help kids and parents AARON McMANUS natory legislation against the transgender menfamilies. and technology, socialmedia, media, and screen exposure may have on their children technology, social and screen exposure may have on their children and and reduction framework to think critically and compassionately about their family’s reduction framework to parents think critically and compassionately about their family’s Gender awareness activist people who do not conform boys surveyed considered creativity. In this Talk, and caregivers will learn how to use a harm alike connect with family and peers, learn new skills, and express/expand their skills, and express/expand their creativity. In this Talk, parents and families. These samethings thingscan can also be essential tools to help and parents families. These also essential tools to help kidskids andthat parents technology andsame media consumption sobe they can enact concrete changes will technology and media sowill they can enact concrete that will to the idea that there is only suicide in the past year. For reduction framework toconsumption think critically and compassionately about family’s creativity. In this Talk, and caregivers learn howand to use a changes harm caregivers will learn how to uselearn alearn harm reduction framework to their think alike connect withfamily family and peers, new skills, and express/expand impact their parents families for the better. alike connect with and peers, new skills, express/expand theirtheir impact their families for the better. man and woman. nonbinary and gender-queer technology and media consumption so they can enact concrete changes that will reduction framework to think critically and compassionately about their family’s creativity. this parents and caregivers learn how to use a harm creativity. In this parents and caregivers willwill learn how to use a harm critically and compassionately about their family’s technology and media O u ru rS p eIne a k e rTalk, :Talk, “Until we can live in a youth, it’s 53%. And the figO Sp a ke r : for the impact their families better. technologyreduction and media consumption so they can enact concrete changes that will reduction framework think critically and compassionately about their family’s framework totothink and compassionately about family’s consumption so they cancritically enact concrete changes that willtheir impact their world in which we are not ure was 48% for transgenNicole is a licensed clinical social worker and Nicole is can a licensed clinical social worker and impact theirtechnology for the better. and media consumption soso they enact concrete changes thatthat will will technology and media consumption they can enact concrete changes Ofamilies u r S p e a k e r : being oppressed by the gender women and girls. Those Practice Manager of the Chicago Center for families for the better. Practice Manager of the Chicago Center for impact theirfamilies familiesforforthe thebetter. better. der binary, then none of us questioning their gender Psychotherapy. Nicole holds two Master's degrees O uexr S p eimpact a k e r :their Psychotherapy. Nicole holds two Master's degreesand Nicole is a licensed clinical social worker from the University of Chicago. She is trained and can truly be ourselves,” said Patnott. perienced similar percentages. O Ouurr SSppeeaakkeer :r : from the University of Chicago. She is trained and Practice Manager of the Chicago Center in Cognitive Behavioral Intervention Nicole is certified acertified licensed social worker and forfor for In both the workshop and the main li“There are lives at peril,” said Patnott. in clinical Cognitive Behavioral Intervention Psychotherapy. Nicole holds two Master's Nicole is a licensed clinical social worker and Trauma in Schools (CBITS), Trauma Focused CBT (TF-degrees Nicole is a licensed clinical social worker and Practice Manager the Chicago Center for Trauma inof Schools (CBITS), Trauma Focused CBT (TFbrary’s Idea Box display, McManus will McManus twice attempted to take their CBT), Highly Sensitive People (HSPs), is 40-hr Sexual from the University of Chicago. She is trained and Practice Manager of the Chicago Center for Practice Manager of the Chicago Center for Psychotherapy. NicoleSensitive holds two Master's CBT), Highly People (HSPs),degrees is 40-hr Sexual explore the ways misinformation, masked own life as a teenager. Assault Training certified by the Illinois Coalition Psychotherapy. Nicole holds two Master's degrees certified in Cognitive Intervention for Psychotherapy. Nicole holds two Master's degrees Assault Training certified byBehavioral the Illinois Coalition from the University of Chicago. She is trained and as scientific study, promotes the binary “I struggled at the time with the lanAgainst Sexual Assault (ICASA) and Resilience from thethe University of Chicago. She is trained and and Trauma in Behavioral Schools (CBITS), Trauma Focused CBT (TFSexual Assault and Resilience from University of(ICASA) Chicago. She is trained certified (formerly inAgainst Cognitive Intervention gender system, which excludes transgen- guage because I remember very distinctly Rape Victim Advocates) and is anfor ADHDcertified in Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for (formerly Rape Victim Advocates) and is an ADHDCBT), Highly Sensitive People (HSPs), is 40-hr Sexual certified in Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma inCertified SchoolsClinical (CBITS), Trauma Focused CBT (TFServices Provider (ADHD-CCSP). der, nonbinary and gender fluid people, telling the doctors my depression was sitTrauma in Schools (CBITS), Trauma Focused CBT (TFNicole Certified Clinical Services Provider (ADHD-CCSP). Assault Training certified by40-hr the Illinois Coalition Trauma in Schools (CBITS), Trauma Focused CBT (TFNicoleRea, Rea,LCSW LCSW CBT), Highly Sensitive People (HSPs), is Sexual She is Highly a mother of a tech-savvy non-binary 11 year who in turn suffer from isolation, bul- uational,” said McManus. “They kept tellSensitive People (HSPs), is 40-hr She is aHighly mother of aAssault tech-savvy non-binary 11 Sexual yearSexual Chicago Center for Psychotherapy CBT), Against (ICASA) andgames. CBT), Sensitive People (HSPs), isResilience 40-hr old whoTraining lovesSexual playing creating video Chicago Center for Psychotherapy Assault Training certified by and the Illinois Coalition Assault certified by the Illinois Coalition old who loves playing and creating video games. lying, depression, self-harm and abuse. ing me there was something wrong with (formerly Rapecertified Victim Advocates) is an ADHDAssault Training by the Illinoisand Coalition Against Sexual (ICASA)(ICASA) and Resilience AgainstAssault Sexual Assault and Resilience Their lives are further constricted and my brain.” Against Sexual Assault (ICASA)Provider and Resilience Certified Clinical Services (ADHD-CCSP). Nicole Rea, LCSW (formerly(formerly Rape Victim and isand an is ADHDRape Advocates) Victim NOVEMBER Advocates) an 2022 ADHD10, Compared to the rates of cisgender devalued by legislation that depicts them In-person (formerly Victim and is an ADHDShe is a Rape mother of NOVEMBER a Advocates) tech-savvy non-binary 11 year 10, 2022 In-person Services Provider (ADHD-CCSP). CertifiedCertified ClinicalClinical Services Provider (ADHD-CCSP). Chicago Center for Psychotherapy Nicole Rea, LCSW people, the difference is notable. Twenty-Nicole as depraved and violent. 7:00 8:30 PM CT Rea, LCSW Certified Clinical Services Provider (ADHD-CCSP). at the old who loves playing and creating video games. 7:00 8:30 PM CT Nicole Rea,atLCSW She is a of mother of a tech-savvy non-binary 11 year theShe is a mother a tech-savvy non-binary 11 year boys Center That has been perhaps most prevalent eight percent of cisgender men andChicago Chicago Center for Psychotherapy She is loves a mother of aand tech-savvy non-binary 11 year Oak Park Public Library for Psychotherapy old who playing creating video games. Oak Park Public Library old who loves playing and creating video games. Chicago Center for Psychotherapy with laws that prohibit transgender peo- and 37% of cisgender women and girls old who loves playing and creating video games. Veteran's Room, 2nd floor FREE Veteran's Room, 2nd floor FREEEVENT EVENT NOVEMBER 10, 2022 ple from using the restroom that affirms considered suicide in the last year. In-person 834 Lake St, Oak Park 834 Lake St, Oak Park NOVEMBER 10, 2022 For cisgender people, McManus asks their gender. These “bathroom bills” feed 7:00 -2022 8:30 PM CT In-person NOVEMBER 10, at the NOVEMBER 10, 2022 In-person In-person JOIN US! on fears that allowing transgender people not just for an acknowledgement of the 7:00 - 8:30 PM CT JOIN US! at the Oak Park Public Library 7:00 - 8:30 PM CT at the WWW.THRIVECC.ORG | (708) 383-7500 7:00 - 8:30 PM CT the right to choose which restroom to use expansiveness of gender. They ask not at the Library WWW.THRIVECC.ORG | (708) 383-7500 Oak Park Public Room, 2nd floor FREE EVENT will lead to increased sexual assault and just for understanding. They ask for ac- Oak ParkVeteran's Public Library Oak Park Public Library Veteran's Room, 2nd floor FREE EVENT 834 Lake St, Oak Park rape of cisgender people, despite little ceptance — true acceptance, especiallyVeteran's Room, 2nd floor FREE EVENT Veteran's Room, FREE EVENT 834 Lake St, Oak2nd Parkfloor from parents. credible evidence to support that claim. 834 Lake St, Park 834Oak Lake St, Oak Park JOINJOIN US! US! “If you want to be able to deliver uncon“The misinformation connects really WWW.THRIVECC.ORG | (708) 383-7500 JOIN US! nicely with the political need to create an ditional love to your kid, your constructs WWW.THRIVECC.ORG | (708) 383-7500 JOIN US! of gender can’t be in the way of that.” enemy,” said McManus. WWW.THRIVECC.ORG | (708) 383-7500 WWW.THRIVECC.ORG | (708) 383-7500

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“The misinformation connects really nicely with the political need to create an enemy.”

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With patchwork, OPRF gets its West Pool reopened

Permanent pool resolution linked to capital improvement plan By JAMIE O’TOOLE Contributing Reporter

After being closed for eight months, the West Pool at Oak Park and River Forest High School reopened Nov. 1. The latest repairs do not permanently solve the pool’s structural issues and ongoing leaking, but the expensive patches might carry the school’s aquatic program for now as debate continues over the future of swimming pools and physical education facilities at the school. The 94-year-old pool was deemed inoperable in February 2022 following an inspection that determined the pool was in need of urgent structural repair. There were efforts to repair the pool before the 2022-23 school year began, but it began to leak again, according to an October update from the school. Early this year, the District 200 school

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board approved $1,174,007 in repairs for both of the school’s pools. The amount spent as of August was $377,921, according to the school. The costs of the additional repairs will not be available until the end of November. To address leakage, a pool liner was added and gutters were treated, along with the replacement of valves, and sealing of the ba-

sins below the pool drains, said Ronald Anderson, operations director at OPRF. A major concern about the pool was water accumulating below the pool slab, Anderson said – causing water to fill the space between the pool structure and exterior wall and creating further damage, so weep holes were installed in the base of the pool to allow the

water to escape into the drain. “That stopped the walls from leaking, which makes the integrity of the pool a lot better now because we won’t get moisture on the rebar,” Anderson said. Anderson said with the age of the pools, however, it may not be possible to fully prevent leaking on a permanent basis, and the weep holes are only a safety measure. Planning and discussions about the future of the indoor athletic facilities on the south end of the Scoville Avenue campus are underway. The school recently received a detailed architectural schematic and price estimate on replacing the current building and building new. The price tag was just under $100 million. That plan currently includes a single new 25-yard by 40-yard pool with a spectator balcony to replace the 550 seats along the two current pools. Pool critics continue to argue that the planned pool is oversized and too expensive. The school board and administration are assessing the new plan and will discuss options for financing any project over the next several months.

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OPRF earns ‘exemplary’ status in state rankings of high schools Places among top 10% of high schools in Illinois By ASHLEY BROWN Contributing Reporter

Oak Park and River Forest High School has been named “an exemplary school” by the Illinois State Board of Education as part of the release of this year’s school report card. The news came on Oct. 28 and placed OPRF in the top 10% of all Illinois high schools based on a range of measures including graduation rate, SAT scores in math and English, and the level of chronic absenteeism. The state’s rating scale ranges from exemplary to school’s needing “comprehensive support.” The rating system was inaugurated in 2018 and to this point OPRF had been rated as a “commendable” school. Lynda Parker, OPRF’s principal the past two years, explained how excited she was when she heard the news. “We were working towards this but never thought it would happen this year,” she said. In a note to the community from Supt. Greg Johnson, he said the school’s strategic plan includes a goal to achieve exemplary status by 2024. “Meeting that goal two years ahead of schedule was certainly not a given,” he wrote. Parker said the school has a range of plans to further improve the learning environment. Those include this year’s overhaul of the freshman curriculum “to prepare freshmen for classes later on in school and encourage them to strive high” she said.

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OPRF has also focused on reducing a rising rate of chronic absenteeism, one of the matters measured in the state report card. Absenteeism had reached a 5-year high of 20.5% in 2021. Parker said a range of responses including hallway sweeps, stricter tardy policies, one minute warning music, and an Attendance Matters campaign brought that number to 13.6%, a five year low on the current report card. The school, said Parker, offers a variety of opportunities for students to recommend ways to make the school better. A mental health period was offered just last month which instructed students on breathing and mindfulness exercises and included group discussions. Though not well received by all students, the school plans to continue events like these in the future in hopes of creating a more productive school environment.

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Erika Eckhart, the head of OPRFs English department has been at OPRF for 5 years. She said the English department has plans “to create a curriculum that increases equity.” Eckhart said news of the exemplary status created excitement and surprise among teachers. Maria Kunigk-Baker, a 16-year-old junior at OPRF, said she found the news honestly surprising. She said she doesn’t find many of the techniques used by OPRF helpful but does think there are many intelligent students at OPRF and great teachers who help make OPRF a better school. Parker said attention to small details and the success they bring “is what pushed us over the edge to become exemplary,” she said. Ashley Brown is a student at OPRF and a contributing reporter for Wednesday Journal.

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OPRF SECURITY No weapons involved from page 1 called, is asked to do more and more. “The number of physical altercations are increasing and even though we are short staffed even at full capacity, and even though we no longer have an SRO (school resource officer), we have managed to get to the fights in a timely manner,” said Molette, speaking before a large fight inside the school resulted in the entire school being put on a soft lockdown for nearly an hour on Nov. 1. Molette told the school board the job has become tougher since students returned to the school after remote learning during the pandemic. “After two years they didn’t return the same,” Molette said. “We did a lot more deescalating, coddling, hand holding, to say the least we became more of a support staff than a safety staff. We lost focus on what we are actually here in the building to do.” Molette said some students don’t treat the security guards with respect and some of her coworkers are quitting. “We’ve been dealing with verbal and physical abuse from the students, lack of support and a lack of growth in our department,” Molette said. “Because of that we have lost, and will continue to lose, great, dependable, seasoned officers.” Security officers have had to occasionally monitor classrooms because of a shortage of substitute teachers. Powell said the job has changed since he

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started at OPRF years ago. “We are not just security anymore,” Powell said. “We are counselors, we are mentors, we are father figures, mother figures, sisters, aunties, however you want to look at that.” On Nov. 4 OPRF sent an email to parents addressing rumors about the Nov. 1 fight. “First, only OPRFHS students were involved in the altercation,” wrote Karin Sullivan the school’s communications direc-

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tor. “Outsiders did not access the building nor participate in the fight. “Second, there were no weapons involved — no guns, knives, or other weapons of any kind. “We take any threats to school safety, including this incident, extremely seriously. As we stated previously, physical violence is not an acceptable way of handling conflict and has no place in our school. All 10 students who were directly involved are receiving consequences in alignment with our Behavior Education Plan.” Sullivan said there have been seven fights at OPRF since the school year began in August. OPRF has been stressing restorative justice and has moved away from zero tolerance policies and, like many schools these days, rarely gives out suspensions. It has been shifting from harsh consequences for small infractions. School officials and many community members are concerned about Black students being disciplined more often than white students and entering what is called the school to prison pipeline. In a presentation before the school board at the Oct. 27 meeting Janel Bishop, director of Employment Relations and Recruitment, who served for many years

as a dean at OPRF, said OPRF students of color are overrepresented in the school’s discipline figures relative to their percentage of enrollment. Bishop also said students of color fight more at school then other students. “Our students of color are fighting more than other students,” Bishop told the school board. Board member Gina Harris praised the moves the school has made around discipline and trying to be a welcoming place for all students. She said it is a misnomer that restorative justice means that there are no consequences for bad behavior. The security guards, who are members of SEIU Local 73, are currently in the middle of a five-year contract that doesn’t expire until 2024. As of the start of the contract in 2019 the starting wage for a security guard at OPRF was $19 an hour. OPRF currently has 33 Campus Safety officers, 48 percent of whom who identify as Black according to Sullivan. Molette said they need a raise to compensate them for the added stress of the job, to retain employees and to keep pace with inflation. “We are struggling mentally and financially,” Molette said. “The cost of living is steadily increasing.”

Wednesday Journal, November 9, 2022

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OPRF prioritizes restorative responses in student discipline

Students involved in Nov. 1 fight disciplined under school’s restorative plan By STACEY SHERIDAN Staff Reporter

Students involved in what school officials called a “significant student fight” on Nov. 1 are being disciplined in accordance with Oak Park and River Forest High School’s “Behavior Education Plan,” according to OPRF spokesperson Karin Sullivan. The plan prioritizes restorative responses over punitive consequences. The fight broke out between multiple students on the high school’s third floor the morning of Nov. 1, prompting the school to go under a soft lockdown, now known as secure and teach mode, at 9:50 a.m. to clear the hallways. The school lifted the secure and teach at 10:57 a.m. after students involved in the fight were removed from the building. An Oak Park police officer was on the scene at the time of the fight as part of prep for the school’s planned emergency drills, which were rescheduled for Nov. 7.

The police summary report details that a female student was battered by a male student while she was involved in a fight with an “unknown number of female students.” Another female student, also involved in the fight, reported that a male student pulled her by the hair and threw her to the ground. Both the female students were uninjured. Sullivan did not share the exact measures taken by the school regarding the students who partook in the physical altercation. However, instances of fighting can elicit response levels two through five under the Behavior Education Plan. Those responses progress in seriousness. Level two requires students to spend a day in “in-school reflection,” while students can be suspended for up to four days “and/or recommended for expulsion” under the level five response. School personnel are trained in restorative conversation practices, peace circles, mediation and student reentry. The school is not sharing any further details regarding

the fight to protect the privacy of its students. Wednesday Journal will not be posting smart phone footage of the fight, which has been circulating online and through the community “There’s no doubt that smartphones and social media mean school fights in general are more documented, even if they’re not necessarily more frequent,” said Sullivan.

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West Siders settle on plan for redeveloping Mars factory Community members agree that a mixed-use development would be best for the factory after it closes in 2024 By JAMIE O’TOOLE Contributing Reporter

When it comes to what community members want to replace the Mars candy factory 2019 N. Oak Park Ave. in Galewood once it closed in 2024, the people have spoken. Residents have settled on a mixeduse development for the site. During the fifth and final public meeting about the site’s future development held on Oct. 19 at the new elementary school at Riis Park, 6100 W. Fullerton Ave. in Belmont-Cragin, community members saw some conceptual designs presented by representatives with Teska Associates, a landscape architecture firm based in Evanston. Scott Goldstein, a principal with Teska, presented three design proposals at the fourth public meeting on Oct. 8 at Austin Town Hall, 5610 Lake St. in Austin. Attendees then selected the one they liked the most. “So this is a factory with walls,” Goldstein said on Oct. 8. “Now we’re trying to create a community without walls.” The design proposal that the majority One of the proposed designs presented at the Oct. 8 meeting at Austin Town Hall. of community members recommended during the fourth meeting features a will allow trucks to travel to the urban the report. “boulevard” design, which is a style farming or business areas, eliminating Hahn said the Mars factory site is that provides lots of green space and is residential traffic on the other side of the considered an orange-rated building, bifurcated into seven different areas. meaning it has significance within a site, Goldstein said. One area includes During the fourth neighborhood context. She said the roughly three acres meeting on Oct. 8, determination of landmark status is a designed for neighborhood Kandalyn Hahn, six- to 12-month process. commercial or healthcare She said the commission has met with representing the historic uses. Another seven preservation division Mars representatives to notify them of acres is split in two, with of the Commission on the building’s orange-rated status. A one side dedicated to a Chicago Landmarks, said consultant has begun examining the training, education or she’s confident that once a building’s history and architecture to recreation space. The status report is complete, determine if it meets at least two of the other half would house the city will focus on seven criteria for landmark status. offices and a business Brian Hacker, the West Side coordinating preserving the factory’s incubator. SCOTT GOLDSTEIN original facade dating to planner for the Chicago Department of Additional acreage Teska Associates principal Planning and Development, said the Mars 1929. will be divided into a site would likely need to go through a “The majority of space housing an outdoor landmark preservations series of zoning changes to accommodate classroom, a wildlife only concern the exterior,” the proposed design changes. habitat space and an Hacker said the site is within the she said. “That means area dedicated to urban farming and whatever you want to do to the interior — Armitage industrial corridor and renewable energy, among other uses. also comprises the 15th Planned you can do it.” A landscaped boulevard path will Whether or not the site will become a Manufacturing District. Any uses within stretch throughout the areas for access landmark, however, comes down to a City the area that fall outside of manufacturing and a service road along the railroad Council vote following the completion of and industry would require amending

“So this is a factory with walls. Now we’re trying to create a community without walls.”

PROVIDED

the city’s current zoning ordinances that govern the Mars site’s development. The zoning changes need to go through extensive departmental reviews and public hearings before making their way to the City Council for approval. Hacker said more public meetings will happen over the course of the factory’s redevelopment. The design recommendation made by attendees over the course of the five meetings will be reviewed by Mars executives, who will make the final decision about the factory’s future. Following this decision, Mars will communicate with the community on a quarterly basis to update residents on the decision and buildout process, said Ben Anders, the sponsorship and engagement manager at Mars. The updates will be posted via “various channels” to reach a wide audience, Anders said, adding that he doesn’t know yet what exactly those channels will be.

CONTACT: michael@austinweeklynews.com

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Earn more interest. ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

PARKING RATE

Revenue to pay off debt from page 7 nance. Originally, the village board intended to allow only 30 minutes of free parking time but raised it slightly in light of complaints from the business community. The cost goes up from there, with a $2 fee to park between one and two hours. The cost to park in those garages increases based on the number of hours parked. Parking for 10 to 24 hours will cost $16. Quarterly permit parking fees for those garages will also be increased by $25 by April 1. By fiscal year 2025, there will be no free parking at those three garages under the proposed plan. People will have to pay $2 to park for an hour or under. The parking fees will continue to rise from there, going up to $18 to park for 10 to 24 hours. For the village’s 1,500 metered and pay-byplate parking spaces, people pay $1 per hour currently. Village staff has recommended raising those rates as well to $2 per hour for the first three hours and then to $6 per hour for each hour there. Staff has also recommended increasing pay-by-plate parking rates by $0.25 per 15 minutes in high-demand parking areas effective Jan. 1. Staff used comparison parking fee data from Forest Park and Evanston during its presentation to the village board. Smith called that comparison out while making his public comment. “Those are our competition,” he said. In making it more difficult to park in a vil-

lage where parking is already difficult, many of the businessowners expressed fears that people would be less likely to patronize their businesses out of inconvenience. It was also argued that the proposed new structure precludes people from spending whole days exploring the offerings of Oak Park’s downtown and downtown-adjacent districts. “Let’s take a step back a moment and talk about why businesses are located downtown in the first place,” said Smith. “It was the idea that you could see a movie, go to a restaurant, shop at one or more stores, do lunch and just wander around and shop.” Members of the business community took issue that the village was not taking their interests into account when considering changing the parking ordinance. The village board first directed staff Oct. 3 to develop an amendment to the ordinance, but staff was criticized for doing limited community outreach. Staff had a call with business owners last Friday to discuss the changes, but for some, it was too little too late. “I personally feel a little blindsided by this,” said Michael Schiff, owner of Stride Fitness, 1004 Lake St. “I know there have been meetings and discussions, but certainly nothing to this extent has been presented to the whole of the community.” The village board will resume the parking discussion Nov. 21, where it will have to weigh the needs of Oak Park’s business community with their duties to be fiscally responsible. “There’s nothing that’s ever going to make everybody happy,” said Village President Vicki Scaman. “Trust me, it’s the first thing that you learn after you are elected.”

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Wednesday Journal, November 9, 2022

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Wednesday Journal, November 9, 2022

Pile ’o pumpkins Roosevelt Middle School students (top left) Maria Brennan, Jack Kolozak and A.J. Stierwalt wheel a pumpkin to the dumpster during a post-Halloween recycling effort the school hosted in partnership with the River Forest District 90 Green 4 Good Committee and Lakeshore Recycling Services on Nov. 5. The Park District of Oak Park hosted a similar recycling event at Barrie Park that day. PHOTOS BY ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

Wednesday Journal, November 9, 2022

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The Target in downtown Oak Park was the site of an aggravated robbery last Thursday a few hours before the store closed for the night. The male offender pointed an unknown object at a Target employee working the register, according to the Oak Park Police Department. The man walked into the Target, 1100 Lake St., then approached the register and pointed the unknown object at the employee at 7:51 p.m., Nov. 3. He then demanded the employee hand over cash from the register. An unknown amount of money was placed into a bag and given to the man.

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An Oak Park resident’s left eye was injured by orange paintballs after he was approached by four or five men armed with black paintball guns, who shot him approximately four times, at 7:31 p.m., Oct. 31 in the 200 block of North Scoville Avenue.

Motor vehicle theft

SERVING OAK PARK AND RIVER FOREST SINCE 1976

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■ A 2016 Kia Optima was removed from the first block of Superior Street between 8 p.m., Nov. 5 and 1:55 a.m., Nov. 6. ■ A 2016 Hyundai Elantra was taken from a rear lot in the 400 block of South Maple Avenue between 2 p.m. and 3:30 p.m., Nov. 3. Chicago police recovered the vehicle in the 4500 block of West Jackson Boulevard in Chicago at 6:26 p.m., Nov. 3. ■ Two men were seen entering the victim’s unattended and running 2008 Toyota Yaris at 4:55 p.m., Nov. 3 in the 1100 block of South Humphrey Avenue. ■ A 2013 Hyundai Elantra was taken between 10:15 p.m., Nov. 1 and 5:41 a.m., Nov. 2 from the 600 block of Van Buren Street. ■ A 2017 Kia Soul was taken between 8:30 p.m., Nov. 1 and 6 a.m., Nov. 2 from the 1100 block of Pleasant Street. ■ A 2021 Kia Seltos was taken between 5:30 p.m., Nov. 1 and 7:23 a.m., Nov. 2 from the 300 block of South Harvey Avenue. ■ A 2020 Kia Optima was taken from the 800 block of South Cuyler Avenue between 9:04 a.m. and 9:33 a.m., Nov. 1.

Attempted motor vehicle theft

■ Someone broke the rear passenger’s side window of a Kia Sorento and peeled the vehicle’s steering column between 6 p.m. and 6:15 p.m., Nov. 4. ■ The rear passenger’s side window of a 2013 Hyundai Elantra was shattered, and the ignition damaged between 8 p.m., Nov. 2 and 6:30 a.m., Nov. 3 in the 1100 block of South Cuyler Avenue. ■ Someone broke the rear passenger’s side window of a Hyundai Sonata then damaged the vehicle’s steering column between 12:01 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., Nov. 2 in the 400 block of South Elmwood Avenue. ■ A 2015 Hyundai Elantra was taken between 9 p.m., Nov. 2 and 4:35 a.m., Nov. 3 from the 800 block of South Scoville Avenue. ■ Someone broke the rear passenger’s side window of a 2015 Kia Soul then damaged the vehicle’s steering column between 5 p.m., Oct. 29 and 9:28 p.m., Oct. 31. ■ Someone broke the rear passenger’s side window of a Kia Forte then peeled the vehicle’s steering column between 4:30 p.m., Oct. 30 and 9:44 a.m., Oct. 31.

Theft The catalytic converter of a Toyota Prius was cut between 10 p.m., Nov. 3 and 3 p.m., Nov. 4 on the 900 block of North Blvd.

Criminal property damage Someone slashed the two front tires of a Saturn Aura parked in the 300 block of South Taylor Avenue between 1:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m., Nov. 5. These items, obtained from the Oak Park Police Department, came from reports, Nov. 1-7, 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

Wednesday Journal, November 9, 2022

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

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f you do, you should know how important foot care is. Over time, diabetics risk developing foot complications. When the nerves are damaged from chronic high blood sugar, feet can become numb or painful with burning or tingling. This is called diabetic neuropathy. When diabetes affects the arteries, circulation to the legs and feet may be compromised. Either of these conditions may lead to serious problems including ulceration, even amputation.

The key to prevention is early diagnosis of diabetes, and regular foot exams from a podiatrist. Diabetics who receive regular foot care, including paring of calluses and debridement of thick fungal toenails, are almost four times less likely

to undergo an amputation than those who do not seek treatment. Medicare and some private insurances cover 1 pair of diabetic shoes and 3 pair of protective insoles each calendar year. Dr. Lambert has been a supplier of diabetic shoes since 2002. The shoes come in 30 different styles each for men and women. These include boots, lightweight colorful athletic shoes, and dress shoes. Even patients who are not diabetic love the look and comfort of the footwear. Diabetic socks, slippers and compression hosiery are also available. Protecting your feet with appropriate footgear is an important aspect of preventive care for diabetics.

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Wednesday Journal, November 9, 2022

SPORTS Newhart leads Huskies cross country to 5th at state OPRF boys post best team finish since 1980 By BILL STONE Contributing Reporter

Oak Park and River Forest High School boys cross country runner Liam Newhart set the tone for a great senior year by finishing 2021 with a then lifetime-best time at his first IHSA Class 3A state meet. His significant improvement came within a second from becoming the Huskies’ first state champion on Nov. 5. Newhart battled down the long final stretch at Peoria’s Detweiller Park and briefly led before finishing second to Hinsdale Central junior Aden Bandukwala (14:46.15 to 14:46.31 for 3.0 miles) in the closest Class 3A finish since 2013. “I did put everything out there the entire race and I couldn’t have done anything more, so I’m very happy,” said Newhart, 45th in 2021 in 15:04.3. “If you asked me at Bella Daley the end of last year, I would not tell you top three, second place or possibly win. This season just really changed my perspective.” The Huskies’ huge team gains for their first state berth since 2016 earned fifth place (233 points) to equal their second-best finish from 1980. The 1963 team was fourth. “We had an amazing year. I’m really proud of what they did,” OPRF coach Chris Baldwin said. Junior Michael Michelotti (36th, 15:40.72), seniors Nick Parrell (40th, 15:41.17) and Owen Augustine (102nd, 16:11.16), juniors Lewis O’Connor (111th, 16:13.83) and Daniel Johnson (148th, 16:25.15) and sophomore Andrew Harmon (207th, 16:54.51) made their state debuts. Newhart equals the highest OPRF individual finish by 1980 junior Larry Head.

Detweiller’s course was sloppy after steady rain during the day’s opening races, but Newhart still closed strong as he had when he won sectionals and regionals. Bandukwala won his first major race after finishing third at conference and fourth at regionals and sectionals. In the Class 3A girls race, OPRF junior Lenny Sterritt was 111th (19:19.20), improving upon 2021 (200th, 19:28.34) when the team qualified. In Class 2A, Fenwick High School senior Bella Daley (17th, 18:39.22) and junior Nate McKillop (18th, 16:01.37) repeated as all-state performers. The Fenwick boys were 10th (312) as a team. Daley (23rd, 18:07.24 in 2021), joins Olivia Ryan (201114) as the girls program’s only multiple all-staters. Daley bested the all-state finish of sister Briana (22nd in 2011), who cheered her on Saturday. McKillop improved from 20th in 2021 (15:17.35) to become the boys third multiple all-stater. Other Fenwick boys finishLAURA DUFFY/Contributor ers were senior Grayden Rill (33rd, 16:22.28), junior Dean O’Bryan (59th, 16:41.88), sophomores Benicio Carideo (144th, 17:21.66) and Finn Munley (158th, 17:34.32) and seniors Chris Bajda (212th, 18:14.30) and Jake Leonardi (223rd, 18:34.98). Rill and O’Bryan also were part of last year’s Class 2A state championship lineup. Rill, eighth in 2021, has recently battled illness that delayed his season debut to Sept. 24. Trinity freshman Molly McGreal (107th, 20:07.51) warmed up with seniors Amanda McGreal, her sister, and Ella Miller, her big sister teammate. As a state qualifier, McGreal shared the school’s traditional running through the halls the day before the state final race with Amanda. “It was really fun, a really nice community to have support me,” McGreal said.

LAURA DUFFY/Contributor

OPRF runner Liam Newhart (left) battles Hinsdale Central junior Aden Bandukwala down the stretch during the IHSA Class 3A cross country state finals at Peoria’s Detweiller Park on Nov. 5. Newhart briefly led before finishing second overall to pace the Huskies, who placed fifth as a team.

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S P O R T S

Wednesday Journal, November 9, 2022

Naz halts Fenwick’s march to volleyball state finals Defending state champ Roadrunners fend off Friars in sectional final By MELVIN TATE Contributing Reporter

The Fenwick High School girls volleyball team led late in the second set against Nazareth Academy during the title match of the IHSA Class 3A Little Village Sectional Nov. 2, needing one more point to force a deciding third set. Unfortunately, that point never came. The Roadrunners, the sectional’s top seed and defending 3A champions, rallied to take the set and win the match 25-19, 27-25. Nazareth advanced to the Trinity Supersectional, where they beat St. Viator for their third consecutive trip to the state finals. “It’s a tough one,” said Fenwick coach Kathleen O’Laughlin. “It was a great match

by all the kids. Nazareth has a great team and hopefully they go on to win it; we’ll be pulling for them.” Fenwick (17-20), the No. 2 seed at Little Village, started the match by scoring the first four points. But Nazareth (20-16) responded with six consecutive points of its own and gradually took control, partly due to a few uncharacteristic hitting errors by the Friars. In the second set, Fenwick again took an early lead, but again the Roadrunners came roaring back. However, this time the Friars countered with a strong push that gave them a 24-21 lead. Fenwick served for the set, needing one last point to force a deciding final set. But Nazareth ran off four consecutive points and wound up with a match point. After the Friars fended off that point, the Roadrunners’ Lauren Salata and Tori Sarin came up with consecutive kills to clinch the sectional title. “I was hopeful we’d get the second set,”

O’Laughlin said. “We got caught in one of their best rotations, and it was easy for them to take advantage. If we had gotten to that third set, anything could’ve happened.” Senior Erin East led Fenwick with 10 kills. Senior Shannon O’Laughlin (Kathleen’s daughter) had six kills and nine digs, senior Maeve Welsh 15 assists, and senior Annie Larson four blocks. The loss ended up being the last match for O’Laughlin as the Friars’ coach. She had announced her retirement earlier this year. “She’s done amazing things for girls high school volleyball,” Nazareth coach Melissa Masterson said. “Fenwick has been an unbelievable program, and Kathleen’s retiring gave them added motivation. It definitely wasn’t the team we wanted to play.” The Fenwick job is sure to be coveted thanks to the efforts of O’Laughlin. Whoever takes over next fall will have a solid nucleus to build around as six players return, including juniors Hazel Davis and Lola Tortorello.

CAROL DUNNING/Contributor

Fenwick senior Shannon O’Laughlin bumps the ball during the IHSA Class 3A girls volleyball sectional finals against Nazareth Academy on Nov. 2. O’Laughlin had 6 kills and 10 digs in the Friars’ season-ending 19-25, 25-27 defeat.

Fenwick advances 3 relays, 7 individuals to state swim meet

Murphy, Dee, Walby heading downstate for OPRF By MELVIN TATE Contributing Reporter

Under the direction of coach Renee Miller, the Fenwick High School girls swimming and diving program developed into a dominant force in Illinois, turning out with multiple state champions. Last year was a rarity for the Friars as they saw Oak Park and River Forest High School win the IHSA sectional meet in their home pool. But the IHSA Leyden Township sectional Nov. 5 saw Fenwick end in a familiar spot -- as champions. The Friars’ 303 points were 31 better than the runner-up Huskies (272). It’s the 19th sectional title in program history. “It feels great,” said Fenwick coach Steve Thompson. “[The seniors] were here two years ago during COVID-19 when we won, but really weren’t able to celebrate it. They got to enjoy it in the pool this time.” Fenwick won all three relays. Sophomores Evelyn Mulvihill and Anna Doherty along with seniors Baileigh Racky and Kailyn McHugh took the 200-yard medley relay in

a time of 1:45.90. The 200 freestyle relay of senior Annie McCarthy, McHugh, Mulvihill and senior Cailey Peele was victorious in 1:37.82. And the 400 freestyle relay of Doherty, McHugh, Peele and Racky had a winning time of 3:33.37. “We focused on the relays specifically,” Thompson said. The Friars were also victorious in a pair of individual events. Racky took the 100 butterfly in 56.56 seconds, while Doherty won the 500 freestyle in a time of 5:09.06. Racky also qualified for state in the 100 backstroke as her second-place time of 58.29 seconds met the qualifying standard. “Last year, Baileigh sacrificed one of her events so that we could get three relays (to state),” Thompson said. “The depth we’ve built on this year’s team allowed us to get all three relays and Baileigh’s two events.” In addition, Doherty qualified for a second state event, taking second in the 200 individual medley with a time of 2:08.67, as did McHugh, who was second in the 100 freestyle (52.76). Fenwick also had two divers advance downstate. Senior Anastasia Lerma was third with a score of 384.70 points, while sophomore Viktoria Castillo took fourth with 366.80 points. Other medalists for the Friars were Mul-

vihill (2nd, 24.89) and McCarthy (3rd, 24.91) in the 50 freestyle; junior Alexandra Lefko (3rd, 1:59.21) and freshman Claire Wood (6th, 2:01.20) in the 200 freestyle; freshman Regan McDonald (6th, 2:21.47) in the 200 IM; senior Hannah Schubkegel (5th, 1:02.05) in the 100 butterfly; Peele (3rd, 54.46) in the 100 freestyle; Mulvihill (4th, 59.01) in the 100 backstroke; and McCarthy (4th, 1:11.33) in the 100 breaststroke. Fenwick now turns its attention to the IHSA state championships, which take place Nov. 11-12 at FMC Natatorium in Westmont. “We want to get some all-staters and allAmericans,” Thompson said.

the 200 IM; senior Eleanor Raidt (6th, 1:02.97) in the 100 butterfly; Lane (4th, 55.28) in the 100 freestyle; Li (3rd, 5:23.70) and senior Cassidy Jones (6th, 5:32.53) in the 500 freestyle; Dee (3rd, 58.46) in the 100 backstroke; and Boland (3rd, 1:10.09) in the 100 breaststroke. OPRF’s three relays each placed third. The 200 medley relay of Dee, Walby, senior Victoria Evans and junior Natalia Chlebek had a time of 1:49.84; the 200 freestyle team of Lane, Li, Chlebek and Murphy finished in 1:40.06; and the 400 freestyle unit of Murphy, Li, Lane and Dee timed in 3:39.28.

OPRF

The Blazers finished eighth at the Leyden sectional with 81 points. All three relays earned medalist honors as each placed sixth. Trinity’s 200 medley relay of junior Katerina Krysan, senior Madeline Halloran, sophomore Mia Sznewajs, and sophomore Sarah Falkenholm clocked a time of 2:11.47. Sophomore Emma Steadman, along with juniors Ava Weiler, Nellie Dargis and Jessica Amstadt made up the 200 freestyle relay (2:08.56). Sznewajs, Krysan, Halloran, and Falkenholm comprised the 400 freestyle relay (4:21.04).

Sophomore Sadie Murphy continued her strong season for the Huskies, winning the 200 IM (2:05.81) and the 100 backstroke (56.88), which she considers her stronger of the two. Murphy will be joined downstate by senior Rebecca Dee, who won the 50 freestyle in a time of 24.86, and sophomore Kate Walby, who took the 100 breaststroke in 1:08.14. Other medalists for the Huskies were sophomore Jessica Li (2nd, 1:58.56) and senior Amanda Lane (4th, 2:00.77) in the 200 freestyle; freshman Hailey Boland (4th, 2:14.71) in

Trinity High School

Wednesday Journal, November 9, 2022

Gerald Clay, 81 Founded APPLE and Black-White Dialogues

Dr. Gerald L. Clay, 81, died peacefully on Friday, Nov. 4, 2022. Dr. Clay was a longtime resident of Oak Park and was active in numerous Oak Park civic and community organizations. He was the founder of African-American Parents for Purposeful Leadership in Education (APPLE) and co-founder of the community forum, Black-White Dialogues with Lanny Lutz. He served in both the U.S. Army and the U.S Navy where he achieved the rank of Lieutenant Commander. Dr. Clay is survived by his wife of 58 years, Ret. Judge Evelyn Clay (nee Brown); his daughter, Tracy-Elizabeth Clay; his son, Dr. Lamont G. Clay (Jill); and three grandchildren, Hannah (19), Isaac (15) and Harper (9). Visitation will take place from 4 to 7 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 11 at Peterson-Bassi Funeral Home, 6938 W. North Ave. Interment will take place at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 12 at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery (20935 Hoff Road, Elwood). The funeral service will take place at noon on Saturday at Living Word Christian Center, 7600 W. Roosevelt Road, Forest Park. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Dr. Gerald L. Clay Scholarship Fund at www.scholarships4oprfhs.org.

Christine Burdick, 72

Longtime head of Downtown Oak Park Christine Burdick, 72, the longtime head of the Downtown Oak Park business district as it evolved from the former Oak Park Mall in the late 1980s, has died in Florida at 72. Burdick was hired in 1988 as executive director of the newly created Downtown Oak Park Corporation. Her arrival coincided with the village government’s decision to reverse course and tear out the 14-year-old pedestrian mall that stretched along Lake Street from Harlem to Forest avenues.

O B I T U A R I E S It was a costly and controversial decision — just as the choice to close Lake Street and Marion Street to remove cars and create a park-like shopping experience had been in 1974 when the Oak Park Mall was created. “What we are trying to convey is a feeling of inviting people in, rather than creating a barrier to keep them from coming. The street will be a 24-hour advertisement for the stores,” Burdick told the Chicago Tribune in November 1988 as the street reopened just before the holiday shopping season. Burdick went on to work for the city of Chicago during the Richard M. Daley era and also chaired the International Downtown Association. She was hired to revitalize the Lincoln Road Mall in Miami and then went on to a long and successful stretch as president and CEO of the Tampa Downtown Partnership. She led that group from 2002 to 2017. During her tenure, Tampa’s downtown core underwent “a near total overhaul” with new condominiums, a waterfront park and two new museums, according to her obituary in the Tampa Bay Times. Andrea Zelman, Tampa’s city attorney and a member of the downtown partnership board, described Burdick as “a warm, gracious, intelligent, thoughtful person.”

Ida Shahnaz Saleh-Kirsch, 68 A citizen of the world

With her husband Ken and daughter Alia by her side, Ida Shahnaz SalehKirsch, 68, lost her second round with breast cancer at her Oak Park home on Sept. 21, 2022. Born of Iraqi parentage in Tehran, Iran on March 25, 1954, she was the daughter of Nessim and Teffeh Saleh. She attended the Tehran Community School and U.S. International University locations in San Diego, London and Evian-les-Bain, France. Fluent in English, French, Farsi and Arabic, she returned to Tehran to work for Pan American Airways. Due to political unrest, she immigrated to New York City in 1978 and quickly grew to love her adopted city. Through her love of skiing, which she learned in Iran, she met her life mate and future husband in the mountains of Vermont when she crashed a New Year’s party at his share house. Luck had it that both lived in New York City work-

ing across the street from each other. Fate was set in motion and three years later on New Year’s Eve 1993, he proposed in Puerto Banus, Spain and they were married at Temple Israel in Manhattan on May 22, 1993. Their Arizona honeymoon began a 30-year journey of traveling across the U.S. and international destinations. She treasured the annual Fish Creek trip in Door County, Wisconsin with sunsets at Sunset Point and bonfires at the cabin. This was the “real America” she had heard about from Americans who told of a beautiful country with endless plains, large lakes and shining seas. She loved the backyard garden where she enjoyed its changing flowers all season long. Chicago winters were rough for her, and she was known to wear a winter coat until June, even indoors. Her warmth, easy-going style and “light up the room” smile had a huge impact on friends near and wide, co-workers, neighbors, and extended family in the United States, Israel, Spain, and the United Kingdom. On Sunday, 3 p.m., Nov. 13, at Oak Park Temple B’nai Abraham Zion a memorial will be held and available on Zoom at the Temple’s website, www.oakparktemple.org. Arrangements were handled by Kopicki Family Funeral House in Berywn. Donations to Everytown USA, the Oak Park Conservatory, Oak Park Temple Caring Committee, and asilverliningfoundation.org would be appreciated in keeping with the causes she cared most about. Zecher Tzadeket Livracha - May her memory be for a blessing.

Beatrice Gibbons, 92 Ascension parishioner, West Sub volunteer

Beatrice Gibbons, 92, of Oak Park, died on Oct. 22, 2022. She was a proud Ascension parishioner for 63 years, where she served as Minister of Care and lector. She also was a very well-regarded volunteer at West Suburban Hospital. Beatrice was the wife of the late Patrick Gibbons; the daughter of the late James and Jane Foy of Oak Park and sister of the late Jane Foy Kaczor; the mother of Catherine (Lawrence) Sujak, Elizabeth, James (Emily), Mary Alice Farrell and John (Elizabeth); the grandmother of Peter (Stephanie), Mark Sujak (Orlando Perez), Mary Beatrice Sujak, Sarah, Patrick and Lydia Methe, Jack, Kevin and the late Brendan Farrell and Thomas and Ann Marie Gibbons; and the great-grand-

mother of Patrick, Malachi and Camellia. A funeral Mass was celebrated at Ascension Church, 800 S. East Ave., Oak Park on Oct. 28. In lieu of flowers, the family would greatly appreciate donations in her name to Giant Steps, a therapeutic day school for individuals with autism. Her grandson Brendan, whom she loved dearly, and who preceded her in death by hours, greatly benefited from his many years there.

Brendan Farrell, 26 Lived a full life with autism

Brendan Francis Farrell, 26, of Oak Park, died suddenly on Oct. 21, 2022. Born on Oct. 4, 1996 to Mary Alice (Gibbons) Farrell and Shaun T. Farrell, Brendan had autism, but thrived in so many ways from the richness of his life in Oak Park. Though he had an out of district placement at his day school, Giant Steps, he had every imaginable support from District 97 and District 200. He loved his summers at the pools and was a familiar sight on his adult trike about town, especially to his favorite destinations: Friday visits to the library, trips to the Conservatory to see the fish, and rides up to the main fire station. He was sweet and gentle, happy and goofy, loving and affectionate. Brendy was nonverbal but he had brilliant and memorable ways of communicating — when he appreciated someone, he conveyed it with more clarity than the most adept speaker. He touched the lives of many people, and many contributed to the brightness and fullness of his life. He attended Giant Steps from kindergarten until his graduation at 22, and absolutely loved attending their adult day program, Canopy. He will be greatly missed by his mother, Mary; his father, Shaun; his brothers, Jack and Kevin; his stepmother, Annmarie Dore; his grandma, Pat Farrell; and his aunts and uncles and cousins, all of whom had a special place in their hearts for him. His maternal grandmother, Beatrice Gibbons, who loved him dearly, followed him just hours after his passing. The Farrell family would like to express their gratitude for the incredibly prompt response by the Oak Park Police Department and the Oak Park Fire Department, and for their diligence and kindness. In lieu of flowers, the family would greatly appreciate donations in his name to Giant Steps, https://give.mygiantsteps.org/general-donation.

Wednesday Journal, November 9, 2022

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

Time is running out to save local news

ocal journalism is a cornerstone of democracy and a vital source of information for communities across the country, with newsrooms covering local politics, high school sports, local business openings, cultural events, and other matters that help a community remain vibrant and connected. But the industry is facing an existential crisis because of the unyielding power of Big Tech platforms such as Google and Facebook. With less than four weeks left in this Congress, now is the time for the Senate to pass the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA) (S. 673 and H.R. 1735). The JCPA was favorably reported out of committee on Sept. 22 with strong bipartisan support and now must head to the floor for a vote. The JCPA will hold tech giants accountable and provide a necessary lifeline for local papers, requiring Big Tech to compensate small and local outlets for the use of their content. Big Tech benefits tremendously from journalism content, yet they refuse to pay local publishers fairly for the journalistic content that fuels their platforms. As a result, local papers are being replaced by tech platforms using black box algorithms designed to keep users inside their walled gardens — all while charging exorbitant ad fees — up to 70 percent of every advertising dollar. Since 2000, U.S. newspaper circulation has dropped by half, with 31 million fewer daily newspapers in circulation in 2020. The vast majority of U.S. counties with no regular newspaper — news deserts — are in rural areas. Despite record audiences, since news outlets transitioned to digital, revenue has drastically declined. The tech giants have built their empires by profiting off the hard work of journalists without fairly compensating them. And as local publications struggle to stay afloat, Big Tech has only doubled down on their anticompetitive practices, further consolidating their control over the flow of information. This is fundamentally unfair, and the JCPA will bring about much-needed change. The JCPA will benefit small and local publishers exclusively and impose severe penalties if the tech platforms do not negotiate with them in good faith. The bill has a limited scope of six years to address a broken marketplace, while the broader competitive landscape is fixed through other legislation and the courts. The JCPA also incentivizes publishers to hire more journalists and protects our Constitutional freedoms of speech and the press.

NEWS MEDIA ALLIANCE One View

See LOCAL NEWS on page 31

VIEWPOINTS

Remembering Gerald Clay, community activist p. 28

The path through the forest

ing. I was so moved by our spiritually charged y guidance counselor seemed worexperiences with community, especially on ried about me. He had called me retreats, that I then majored in community into his office early in my senior development in grad school, after SIU. Some year, inquiring about how I was years later, I added a doctorate in Political Scidoing. I told him I was disappointed ence, with my policy interests still focused on that I hadn’t achieved much after having how to further community development. transferred to Morton West from Fenwick. He I became a father while I was starting my observed, “You sound like you think your life first job as a professor. That was 10 years into my career. is already over!” The experience of fatherhood sharpened my broad He said that going to college could give me a fresh start concern for community development. I began to focus on and asked me if I knew where I wanted to go. I responded the roles of families in it. I published and lectured about that I didn’t know. He pressed: “Well, what is it you really family-based community development, among other like to do?” I said, “I like to fish and to walk in the woods.” subjects, while doing my best to practice it as a dad. I’d He posed, “How about Forestry? They’ve got a good program at SIU.” That surprised me and sounded pretty good. come from having no path to a sure path, over time, with family having assumed a primary place in my underI replied, “OK.” And that was it. I applied to SIU and only standing of it. SIU, got accepted, and among other courses, registered for Finding the right path through life is a blessing. CerWood Science for the fall. tainly, you can get lost; a job you thought was the right But once in Wood Science, I learned that while I liked one might go sour. A trail you’re navigating, like a coltrees, I didn’t want to get all analytical about them. Studylege major or training program, might require courses ing variables like “brittleness,” scientifically, wasn’t what for which you weren’t prepared. I had in mind. Enrolled in that class were smart young Or the path might abruptly head sideways into the men and women from rural areas and smaller places bramble, the weeds, and the mess of the dense forest “downstate,” away from the Chicago area. They seemed — maybe an organizational right for forestry. I didn’t. crisis erupted. Going uphill, At night, away from classes, I’d go running on trails when others won’t embrace through the campus woods your ideas, proposals, or with my dorm’s resident assomething about you, might sistant, Gary, who had grown drain your enthusiasm. up in Oak Lawn. Gary was And there’s that point a devout Christian, and an where the trail exits the active member of Intervarsity woods. You did your best. You Christian Fellowship. He was retire or find the next path, or a couple of years older than both. me. He knew that I was trying We face direct obstacles and to figure out what to major in. encounter subtle diversions We’d stop during a run, sit on that are potentially discoura bench under the trees, talk aging, testing our faith in and pray. ourselves and the rightness He had a style of personal of the road we’re on. But PROVIDED prayer that I hadn’t encounmy experience has taught Path in the woods at Austin Gardens tered in my Catholic upbringme that God, smart friends, ing in Berwyn. He’d pray insightful writers, caring aloud for me, asking that Jesus provide me guidance in teachers, loving family members, and our own dedicamy search. Modeling Gary, I’d ask the Lord to guide and tion can steer us back onto the right track. strengthen him in his work as an R.A. We’d thank God for Now retired and a grandfather, I walk this morning our friendship. And we’d run some more. on a familiar path through the lovely woods at Austin It wasn’t long after those runs through the forest began Gardens. But there was that time, over 50 years ago, that I started to lock into an academic path, with a major when I needed help in just finding the forest’s edge. My in Psychology. The fellowship I experienced with Gary’s counselor’s suggestion of a career in Forestry didn’t pan friends, and then with priests and friends at the Catholic out; but his compassion, confidence in me, and pointed Newman Center, led me to learn about community buildquestions got me started on the journey.

RICH

KORDESH One View

Wednesday Journal, November 9, 2022

O U R

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OPRF’s ‘jaw dropping’ Project 2

e’ll round up and call the $99,464,830 estimate to rebuild the indoor athletic facilities at OPRF a $100 million plan. And we’ll agree with Tom Cofsky, the president of the District 200 school board, who called the proposal made to the board on Oct. 27, “jaw dropping.” Once we get our jaws reset, though, it will be time for a long, hard, interesting conversation at the board table and in the community about what is essential in this plan, what is aspirational, what a middle ground will look like, and how does it all get paid for. We are firmly on board with the reality that the current athletic facilities on the south end of the Scoville Avenue campus are functionally obsolete. And it is not just the two 94-year-old swimming pools that are beyond reclaiming. This is a 100-year-old portion of school building that has never been invested in beyond some spit and polish. It was built in an era before, happily, girls sports ascended. Locker rooms have no privacy or accommodations for the realities of this more gender fluid time. There are fully inadequate provisions for any student with a disability. So this is a major project that has to be tackled, and it can’t be pushed off for yet another generation. Can’t be done with nickels and dimes. But this Project 2 portion of the Imagine OPRF capital investment project also has to be realistic in scope and in price. A hard look at what was imagined in Projects 3, 4 and 5 will also need to be considered in light of the high costs of this current effort. We have confidence that the current school board will be responsible in investing in this essential community asset while being prudent with limited financial resources. The discussion on options for financing what comes next needs to be extraordinarily transparent. And demands that voters have the opportunity to be heard on the scope of the project and its costs are inevitable and reasonable.

Consequences from Mt. Carmel Long, long past time that Oak Park recognized and honored the history of Mt. Carmel Baptist Church, a Black congregation and a Black community centered in what is now downtown Oak Park. A century ago on Westgate Avenue, Mt. Carmel stood as the hub of Oak Park’s small Black neighborhood. Built in 1905, the church burned on Christmas Day 1929 in uncertain but suspect circumstances. The land was quickly cleared and rebuilt as part of a new commercial corridor at Lake and Harlem. A late-October ceremony unveiled a historical marker at the site and it also unveiled a powerful collaboration among Black Oak Park leaders and others making plain that what was taken a century ago had consequences which must now be acknowledged and compensated for.

V I E W P O I N T S

A new addition to the world’s beauty

two grandsons. You will teach me how a elcome to the one and only girl grows into a woman. world we know, Charlotte The cycle begins anew. So much ahead Quinn Trainor — Charlie, … for all of us. If all goes well, I may see as you will be known, a babe 20 years of your life, maybe more. Joseph in swaddling clothes. Friday Campbell said life is like arriving at a night, holy night. God incarnated pays movie after it has begun. We’re all trying the world yet another visit. to figure out what we missed — without I woke up just after midnight, checked pestering everyone else with too many my phone, and there you were in all your questions — and we leave before the endglory, all 8 pounds, 12 ounces of you, ing, which we hope will be happily ever despite being three weeks early — twofisted, eyes shut against the blinding light after. of this vast new dimension that just goes It’s OK, by the way, to pester me with on and on, so different from your ninequestions. I’ll do my best to answer month cloistering, so peacefully dark them, though you’ll figure a lot of it out and comfortable and nourishing inside for yourself and with the help of other your mom. Life gets … more complicated people. Your path is yours alone, but we from here. But you have tools to navigate with. Eyes all share the road, as a wise man once observed: that can see — and there is so much to see, so much The Road goes ever on and on beauty in this world, to which you just added, immeaDown from the door where it began. surably, yours. Now far ahead the Road And ears to hear the music has gone, of that world; a nose for its And I must follow, if I can, myriad scents; a mouth and Pursuing it with weary tongue to taste food and to feet, wrap around words; hands Until it joins some larger that, once unclasped, will way, reach and grasp and caress Where many paths and erand release. With these five rands meet. sensors you will come to And whither then? I cannot know life’s extraordinary say. immediacy and its nearly I will share the road infinite goodness. with you as long as I can, PROVIDED And two gifts more: a mind wondering all the while Charlotte Quinn Trainor, aka Charlie and a voice. Your mind the what you might get to see tip of the iceberg of conafter I depart. Life can be sciousness, which we dearly hope is infinite. Look hard, but it is good. Deeply good. Sometimes so deep what you’ve already learned in less than a day — how you’ll think its goodness is buried. But it’s not. It’s to find the source of nourishment, how to root and all around, waiting to be seen with your eyes, heard drink the milk of mother’s kindness, and how to with your ears, tasted with your tongue, smelled swallow. What a sensation that must be. with your nose, touched with your hands, understood And your voice, oh my, that voice. I called your with your mind and memory, and celebrated with that dad at the hospital and, in the background, before marvelous, full-throated voice. I encountered the rest of you, I met your robust If all goes well, you will see the 22nd century, and complaint as you momentarily lost track of your I hope live much longer than that. If you do, it will nutritional connection. The power of that cry of mean that, against all odds, we saved this planet and deep hunger startled me, awoke in me the ferocious made it more livable, hopefully for all its inhabitants cry of life longing for itself. That was your gift to me. and for all time. Maybe you’ll even travel to other Our acquaintance: The robust voice of someone who worlds — hopefully not by necessity. intends never to be taken for granted. It’s true you have been born into a troubled world, None of this can be taken for granted. Each time but many of us are trying to defend its beauty and life re-incarnates, the miraculous is reborn. Wonder make it a better place. And every time we get a little is reborn. Perhaps you have been reborn. Anything discouraged and wonder if our dreams might not seems possible right now. come true, along comes someone like you to make us When I held you for the first time on Sunday, you realize we just haven’t tried hard enough. were so small and yet so large, eclipsing everything And that we can’t afford to fail. else in the universe. Thanks, Charlie, for coming into our crazy, beautiYou are the first girl on my branch of the family ful world. tree in four generations. I have five brothers, a son, How sweet it is to fall in love again.

KEN

TRAINOR

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

by Marc Stopeck

Wednesday Journal, November 9, 2022 W E D N E S D A Y

JOURNAL of Oak Park and River Forest

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

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

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

Support for OPRF Project 2 We are residents of Oak Park with a current OPRF rather than only listening to a vocal opposition group. The pools are of particular concern; the ability to student and one starting in 2024. We strongly support Imagine OPRF Project 2: upgrading the athletic and PE swim is a critical life-saving skill, the teaching of which is being cut short starting this year due to the continued facilities in the southeast corner of the school. We believe that PE spaces are classrooms and cur- closure of the West pool. Units in PE have been cut down by weeks to address the lack of ricular spaces, deserving the same space, impacting students and their investment as any other classroom ability to learn to swim. space at OPRF High School. PE is This is also an equity issue, as mandatory in Illinois for six semesparents with limited swimming ters in high school; 3,400 students skills often have children who are pass through these old and dilapinot proficient swimmers. Providing dated facilities every day. The pools swim units in PE means providing are far beyond their lifespan, the locker rooms are inadequate and an equitable education that may have a host of issues, the dance save lives. PROVIDED space has safety issues, and the We need to bring the athletic spaces are not accessible for stu- Exterior schematic design for Imagine and PE facilities and curriculum dents with disabilities. spaces into the 21st century, as we OPRF Project 2. These spaces are also used by have other parts of the building the 29 athletic teams at the school; that have already been successthere is a proven correlation between academic success fully updated in Project 1. and athletic participation that should be supported by Our students in Oak Park and River Forest are losing our towns. Having visited other area schools, we can say out on valuable instruction and athletics with the current that ours are clearly among the oldest PE and athletic PE and athletic facilities, and it’s time to remedy that. facilities. Becky & John Fuller We urge the school board to look at the larger picture, Oak Park

About Viewpoints Our mission is to lead educated conversation about the people, government, schools, businesses and culture of Oak Park and River Forest. As we share the consensus of Wednesday Journal’s editorial board on local matters, we hope our voice will help focus your thinking and, when need be, fire you to action. In a healthy conversation about community concerns, your voice is also vital. We welcome your views, on any topic of community interest, as essays and as letters to the editor. Noted here are our stipulations for filing. Please understand our verification process and circumstances that would lead us not to print a letter or essay. We will call to check that what we received with your signature is something you sent. If we can’t make that verification, we will not print what was sent. When, in addition to opinion, a letter or essay includes information presented as fact, we will check the reference. If we cannot confirm a detail, we may not print the letter or essay. If you have questions, email Viewpoints editor Ken Trainor at ktrainor@wjinc.com.

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ADDRESS 141 S. Oak Park Ave., Oak Park, IL 60302 ■ PHONE 708-524-8300 EMAIL Dan@OakPark.com ■ ONLINE www.OakPark.com Wednesday Journal is published digitally and in print by Growing Community Media NFP. The newspaper is available on newsstands for $2.00. A one-year subscription costs $48 within Cook County and $60 outside of Cook County. Advertising rates may be obtained by calling our office. Periodical rate postage paid at Oak Park, IL (USPS 10138). Postmaster, send address corrections to Wednesday Journal, 141 S. Oak Park Ave., Oak Park, IL 60302. © 2022 Growing Community Media, NFP.

V I E W P O I N T S

Wednesday Journal, November 9, 2022

‘O

Dr. Gerald Clay’s impact on Oak Park

ak Park is not what it purports to be.” These were words spoken by Dr. Gerald L. Clay at one of the gatherings aimed at addressing diversity issues some 17 years ago. Gerald Clay passed away on Friday, Nov. 4, 2022, from a debilitating illness. He leaves his wife, Evelyn, and his children, Tracy and Lamont, to grieve and celebrate his life and accomplishments. The historical traces and footprints left in the wake of his passing prompts me, and hopefully inspires others, to learn more about him, to engage his unfinished work of making plain, still-needed efforts to ensure equity, diversity and fairness for all who struggle to create and maintain shared visions of our beloved community of Oak Park. From my perspective, Dr. Clay was most notably associated with three critically im-

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portant civic engagements in the village of Oak Park. The projects in which he was involved have undoubtedly helped to enhance quality of life in the Oak Park community. In 1988, an inspired group of Black Longfellow Elementary School parents, too numerous to name here, joined with Clay to establish African American Parents for Purposeful Leadership in Education (APPLE). The organization sought to address District 97 and District 200 education issues — most prominently, the metastasizing effects of the African American achievement gap. Clay also participated in and provided leadership to create a ceremony called Rites of Passage to celebrate Black male youth passage into manhood. Whenever I meet men who participated, and are husbands and fathers now, they speak of it as a major turning point in their lives.

GEORGE BAILEY One View

Clay, and Lenny Lutz also established and hosted Black/White Dialogue. This forum afforded citizens and community activists a space to gather and discuss racial issues. In recent years, the Clay family established the Gerald L. Clay Scholarship, a merit/needs-based fund to assist students in pursuing their academic goals. Wayiaki Abdallah, the 2019 recipient of the scholarship said, “The award set me on an academic path I could have never realized.” I wholeheartedly endorsed the vision and the clear-eyed practicality that brought these organizations into being. Although Clay’s involvements were situated within these organizations, his influence and participation extended far beyond them. The influence of his reach extended into complex social dynamics, crisscrossing the deep structural, socio-cultural issues that continually afflict real lives of those residing at the margins of our nation and our community. The people who resided in the spaces he influenced are

the people Clay endeavored to teach how they might help themselves. Since first hearing his declaration about Oak Park, after struggling to reconcile what meaning, efficacy and force the sentence carried within my own experience of living Black as an Oak Park resident, I have come to understand Dr. Clay’s claim as a gift, a compass to interrogate reigning and entrenched orthodoxies. In lieu of flowers, please contribute to the Dr. Gerald L. Clay Scholarship, OPRF Scholarship Foundation. George Bailey is a longtime Oak Park resident and a retired Columbia College professor.

See Gerald Clay’s obituary on page 24

Any policeschools IGA must safeguard student rights

he village is in discussions to up the police presence at both OPRF High School and the elementary schools by reviving an intergovernmental agreement (IGA). Amongst other things, apparently the proposal would allow officers to question children about criminal acts without the presence of a parent, guardian, or counsel. Anytime we talk about crime, the community seems to forget that children are children. Kids can’t sign an iPhone contract without parental consent, but when their very liberty interests are at stake and they are accused of a crime that will have lifetime consequences for them, everyone seems fine to let kids fend for themselves. Unless, of course, it is your child. But for those who support this IGA, it almost certainly won’t be your child. It will be the Black and Brown children who will be disproportionately questioned and accused by police. That’s just historical fact in this village and everywhere. Let’s be clear: It is not the police’s job to ensure the comfort and best interests of the accused child. It is the police’s job to solve crime. That’s certainly a worthy endeavor.

However, history also tells us that when police question children about crime, they often don’t get reliable information. A decade ago, CBS’ 60 Minutes rightfully called Illinois the False Confession Capital. That’s because police have repeatedly interrogated Black and Brown children to the point where they force them to confess to serious crimes they did not commit. In the instances profiled in those cases, the consequences were decades-long sentences in adult prison until DNA exonerated them. I know because I represented some of those very individuals who falsely confessed under police questioning and were profiled in the story. The problem is far from resolved, as the story of a 15-year-old Waukegan false confessor earlier this year highlights. But beyond the idea that any policy that leaves children isolated during police interrogation has questionable effectiveness, it is also likely unconstitutional — at least for most children. For one, in 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court held that children questioned by police in a school setting need to be warned of their right to remain silent and counsel pursuant to the famous Miranda v.

Arizona decision. So Oak Park police better be trained to Mirandize these kids and equipped with resources to get them counsel delivered to the school if they invoke their rights. But the problem does not stop there: Police don’t just have to read the child Miranda rights, there needs to be proof that the child understands those rights for the subsequent questioning to comply with the Constitution. The research repeatedly demonstrates that children cannot and do not understand the right to remain silent or counsel when accused of a crime. And that’s just common sense. Children are taught repeatedly to respect their elders — parents, teachers, principals, and, of course, police. When these same adults summon a child to the school office and ask to talk to him about a criminal incident, Miranda

JOSHUA TEPFER One View

rights or not, it is a rare child who would actually have the knowledge and wherewithal to tell these adults that they don’t want to talk to them without an attorney. Without that wherewithal, there is no valid Miranda waiver. There are no easy solutions to solving crime generally, or crime committed by youth. But it takes community engagement with all stakeholders. That, of course, includes partnerships between school officials and law enforcement, but leaving parents, guardians, and ultimately the accused child out of that partnership is not the answer. It will continue to decrease community engagement and trust with law enforcement and is a huge step backwards. Ultimately, it will be the same marginalized communities that will suffer most. Joshua Tepfer works for Exoneration Project Chicago.

Emailed every Friday morning!

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Wednesday Journal, November 9, 2022

Russia is a pariah nation Uncovering the deep roots of racism When Australia proposed deeming Russia a “pariah nation” after Russia’s military attack of Ukraine, it seemed excessively harsh. But it was not only because they started a war. It is also for conducting genocide of a neighbor nation. In April 2022, Russians withdrew from Bucha, a small city near Kyiv. According to news reports, the retreating Russians left the mangled remains of 458 civilians, victims of brutal torture and murder. Among the casualties were 86 women, and nine children under the age of 18. Since then, Ukrainians have been meticulously gathering and documenting evidence of the Russian army’s atrocities throughout Ukraine. The evidence includes boxes of extracted teeth from torture victims. I empathize with Ukrainians, especially the children. In my childhood, I too was traumatized by Russian atrocities. In 1941, near the city of Sauliai in Lithuania, more than 50 Lithuanian political detainees were tortured and slaughtered by Russians, just prior to their retreat from the German Army. I was 8 years old and could not comprehend either the intent or the purpose of the atrocity. It made no sense to me. Although we lived 190 kilometers from Sauliai, the horror traumatized me and inflicted permanent scars on my psyche.

After I heard the stories, my father’s strong embrace quelled my fear, but my contempt for the Russians became permanent. I shudder and as I pause, I realize that the incidents of torture and murder of civilians by Russians in Ukraine are not anomalies of misconduct. The staggering body counts, the perpetration of tortures in all Russian-occupied regions in Ukraine, along with methodology, and a consistent modus operandi, reveal a systematized approach. In conjunction with targeting civilians by rocket and artillery fire, Putin has deployed specifically trained and equipped legions to inflict indescribable brutality. The gruesome tasks are carried out by teams of operatives in predictable, systematic ways. The war in Ukraine has lasted for more than nine months. There have been numerous locations with hundreds of mangled bodies of civilians discovered. However, the purpose of torturing and murdering civilians as a war tactic remains a secret. The brand of “pariah nation” imposes a shunning, an isolation, a quarantine. But it has not deterred Putin’s aggression, and his avarice for dominance. Ukraine’s survival as a free nation must be the ultimate outcome.

Fred Natkevi Oak Park

Leave the leaves

One of the most important things we can do to protect pollinators and other invertebrates is to provide the winter covering they need to thrive, and yet this seems to be the hardest thing for us to do. The annual leaf collection saddens me each year. The village spends thousands and thousands of dollars on leaf collection, and we have noise and gas pollution. Why do we do it? Habit? Social conditioning? A habit from our parents’ message that if you take care of your property, it must be neat and leaf-free?

Most butterflies overwinter in our lawns in the form of egg, caterpillar, chrysalis or adult. Leaves are also “free mulch” enriching the soil for next year. Treating leaves like trash — taking it out to the curb — takes all the butterflies and moths we spent all year trying to attract. Rake in late spring. Leave the leaves!

Roberta Jannsen

Master naturalist Oak Park

ichael Romain’s Oct. 26 column, “An empowering history of residential segregation,” stuck a chord with me — a mixture of shock, shame, and regret. To read the passage from “a restrictive covenant drafted for the Chicago Real Estate Board in 1927,” was to realize that this was the mindset of the culture in which I grew up. The covenant spells out in legal language the strict barriers against residences being “sold, given, conveyed, or leased” to “negroes,” and then, with additional insult and injustice, limits access to said properties to those negroes who are employed by white owners and occupants for service roles (lowercase “n” as quoted from the covenant). It is a blatant proclamation of white supremacy. Growing up in an all-white community in the northwest corner of Chicago, I gave little thought to the subject of race. It rarely came up in conversation in the home, church, school, and community environments that made up my world, but it was there in the silent underground. It came to the surface when school busing was being considered for the Chicago school system. When I inquired of adults in my family why there were no Negroes in our neighborhood, I was told in a tone of authoritarian finality, that “they would not be happy here.” Such was the assumption, based on no knowledge of Black people or what they wanted that closed the door to further questioning. Intuitively, I sensed that something was missing in my life and somewhere in my teens I made a private decision that I would seek a racially integrated community when I became old enough to choose for myself. The opportunity came when I married at age 21 and moved to Hyde Park, where my husband had a fellowship for graduate work at the University of Chicago. Subsequent moves were to South Shore and then to Oak Park. I broadened my horizon as I made friends from various groups and countries, and began to learn about racism, tribalism, and other -isms that divide us from our fellow humans. Of course, the safety of white privilege and economic security went with me into these experiences. I naively thought that racism would be solved if people just got to know one another. This would result in questioning and then changing one’s own racist attitudes. Common humanity would prevail

over narrow-minded biases. Mutual understanding would correct false stereotyping of others. There is some truth to this, but the next level of learning made me see that it would take far more than personal attitude change to begin to touch the deep roots of racism. The restrictive covenants in real estate contracts, now outlawed, are one small example of how embedded racism is in our societal and global institutions. In her remarkable book, Caste: The origins of our discontents, Isabel Wilkerson identifies the obstacles to looking at systemic injustice. A main obstacle is that steps toward autonomy and achievement by lower caste individuals or groups often evoke an automatic fear reaction by those in the dominant caste. She writes: “In the zero-sum stakes of a caste system upheld by perceived scarcity, if a lower-caste person goes up a rung, an upper-caste person comes down. The elevation of others amounts to a demotion of oneself, thus equality feels like a demotion.” From anthropologist Melvin Konner comes the concept of “structural violence.” Structural violence includes slavery, warfare, torture, severe punishment of minor offenses, squashing of dissent, confiscation of property, displacement of people, and other forms of suppression. It goes further with the discriminatory policies and practices that target certain individuals and groups; the barriers to equal access built into political and economic structures such as elections, finance, education, housing, health care, law enforcement, and the law itself. Buried in these institutions, this violence is covert. Because it is systemic, it is difficult to locate particular individuals or groups that are responsible. The learning process confronted me with the question of my own responsibility. How do I inadvertently participate in systems of discrimination? In what ways have my advantages in life come at the expense of those who were excluded from the opportunities I enjoy? What could I do about it? These are not easy questions, but I know many people who think about them, and I find in the culture of Oak Park, and in the pages of the Wednesday Journal, a level of thoughtfulness and dialogue that adds to my own discernment process. Stephanie Ferrera, an Oak Park resident since 1971, is a partner in the Center for Family Consultation.

STEPHANIE FERRERA One View

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Wednesday Journal, November 9, 2022

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We need our police and need them to treat everyone fairly

have watched with interest the “Defund the Police” and the replace-policeofficers-with-mental-health-professionals movement clamoring here in the village. I find this point of view out of place in a wealthy village directly adjacent to a crimeridden neighborhood full of chop shops, pawn shops that buy stolen property, openair drug markets, and streets with frequent shootings and robberies. I live a half-block east of Columbus Park and during years living here have suffered three home invasions, one blocked home invasion which led to damage to my house, theft of all of my bicycles, hand tools, lawn mower, and said car from my garage. Honestly, what keeps me here in Oak Park is our excellent police force, which I believe is the reason why crime is not worse in Oak Park. Leave your garage door open and the police will call you. Call 911 by mistake and a police officer will come check on you. Have your home security alarm sound and

in 1-3 minutes a police officer will come. Make a stupid driving mistake in the view of a police officer and you will get pulled over and in most cases get educated on driver safety. Have a fender-bender and a police officer will come to take a report and will try to find the lowest difficulty response for both drivers. Oak Park police officers are maintainers of order, crime preventers or stoppers, arbitrators, violence and crisis interveners, first-aid providers till the paramedics arrive, and far more. We need a fully-staffed 126 sworn personnel force under an equitable and fair union contract to provide the citizens of Oak Park with the services that we have come to expect and deserve. We also need a police force that treats anyone on the streets of Oak Park with fairness, equitability, respect and justice. We need police officers who know when to call in a clinical social worker, a crisis-intervener or other

D O O P E R ’ S

mental health professional when the issue involves drugs, alcohol and mental health. We need police officers who do not pre-judge persons who are Black, Brown, non-English speaking, Indigenous persons, Latino or other racial, ethnic or religious minority. I know a bit about what I speak. I was the president of our neighborhood organization, which worked with our beat cop on quality-of-life and safety issues. I worked as a mental -health substance abuse licensed clinical emergency room social worker in the military, VA, and tertiary level trauma emergency room with frequent interactions with police, DCFS, community trauma and police social workers, rape victim advocates and various EMS personnel. As a member of the Community Relations Commission, I heard minority citizen complaints about Oak Park policing. Simply put, we could not survive without adequate policing. But also simply put, we

FRANK VOZAK

One View

M E M O R I E S

The attic or the basement

y uncle Gene came to live with us in 1948 and stayed until he lost his life in an accident in 1961. My uncle Hubert lived with us from 1948 until he married and moved to the North Side of Chicago in 1951. Gene’s bedroom was in the attic, and when Hubert moved in, he slept in the third-floor bedroom. Gene was the plant manager of Victor Gasket on Central and Roosevelt, and he had to get to work at 7:30 a.m., Monday-Friday. Hubert was a buyer with the Chicago Board of Education and didn’t have to be at work until 9 a.m. Gene was a very neat person, but Hubert was not. Hubert liked to read in bed at night, but Gene needed eight hours of sleep. It wasn’t long before these men were arguing at night, and the sound of their voices annoyed the rest of the family. The solution to the problem was that Gene and Hubert flipped a coin to

discover who would sleep on the third floor and who would move to the basement. Gene remained on the third floor, and a bed that had been stored in the attic was moved to the main room in the basement where Hubert now stayed, a solution that did not sit well with him, and he grumbled through it. On the weekends, Gene would often work on his car or make necessary electrical or other repairs in the house or he would perform his hobby, which was woodworking. Gene’s woodworking area was in the basement separated from Hubert’s sleeping area by a thick wooden wall. Gene usually began work around 9 a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, and even if he wasn’t working directly in the basement, he would have to come in and out of the work area to pick up and return tools. This did not work out well with Hubert because he liked to sleep late on weekend mornings because the only activities he had on the weekends was

JOHN

STANGER

playing cards with three of his longtime buddies on Saturday evenings and seeing his fiancee on Sundays. Hubert was always awakened much earlier than he wanted to on weekend mornings by Gene’s work, and I believe this may have caused him to speed up his marriage to his fiancee of six years and move to Chicago in 1951. We now had a vacant bed in the basement, and I thought that Gene would move to the basement to be closer to his workroom and to escape the summer heat in the attic, but he opted to stay on the third floor, and he bought a window air conditioner. We kept the bed in the basement until 1955, so that there would be a place for my cousin Linda [Gene’s daughter] to sleep when she came from Omaha each summer for 10 years to visit us. After 1955 she stayed in the bedroom left vacant by my grandfather’s death. In the fall of 1955, we sold the bed in the basement to our next-door neighbor, and over the next 18 months, Gene and I [mostly Gene] converted the main part of the basement into a recreation room.

must assure as a community that policing is proportional, fair, equitable, and just for all persons who live and transit through Oak Park. We must ensure that community emergency mental-health professionals are called in when appropriate and necessary, and that they be trained to function as part of a community policing team with the rights privileges and respect they deserve. I saw in-person the respect and effectiveness of the Proviso Mental Health/police teams when I worked in the ER of a major teaching hospital in Proviso Township, and I am told that Thrive Center fills this role in Oak Park Township. We need our police but we need them to practice a form of policing consistent with community values and the reality of our multi-racial, multi-sexual identity, multiethnic, multi-religious, multi-economic status, multi-political philosophy, birth to 100 community. Frank Redin Vozak is a longtime resident of Oak Park.

Home Avenue Bridge should allow all traffic

Regarding the proposed re-do of the Eisenhower Expressway overpass at Home Avenue, I suggest we rethink the use of this bridge. While it is very tempting to build an attractive pedestrian-only bridge with cutting-edge design that architects and designers will talk about, remember that this is a bridge over a dirty, loud, and smelly artery of the transportation industry. No one lingers on this bridge to take in the visual, aural, or olfactory beauty of the day. The goal for pedestrians is to pass safely and quickly. Oak Park south of the expressway is functionally connected (pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists) to Oak Park north of the expressway every quarter mile except in the western third of Oak Park, where motorists must navigate to Harlem or Oak Park, and cyclists must slowly zigzag up and down the ramps of the Home pedestrian bridge. Instead of beautiful design as a pedestrian bridge photographically suitable for Architectural Digest, I suggest we build a highly functional bridge that can handle pedestrian, bicycle, and automobile traffic, the way it is already being done at East and Lombard avenues. This would give better automobile, police, fire, and cycling access, and safer pedestrian access (up on a sidewalk, away from cyclists). Kevin Shalla, Oak Park

Wednesday Journal, November 9, 2022

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

Reject increased density on Home Avenue

The application to increase the zoning density from R-5 (2 units) to R-6 (16 units) for the two parcels of land located at 327 Home Ave. should again be declined as the representation that it is for four units is not credible. When last attempted, the developer showed his hand, producing a rendering of the project that maximized the units under the sought-after zoning – 16 units. This time the application shows a drawing of four rental townhomes but, if approved, the zoning would allow 16. The developer’s architect curiously disclaimed the 4-unit drawing as the work of another architect (not present at the Plan Commission hearing), and took no responsibility for it; instead he asked the commis-

sion for approval of a zoning change allowing up to 16 units and based his argument on the four-unit drawing. If approved, however, any future developer can, by right, develop up to 16 units. The Oak Park Historic Commission has pointed out the inconsistent location within The Ridgeland Oak Park Historic District, an area of architecturally significant single-family homes, including Pleasant Home at 217 Home Ave., the “Garland Home” at 241 Home Ave. (arguably Oak Park’s oldest residence), and the George W. Smith House at 400 Home Ave., a Frank Lloyd Wright home — all listed on the National Register of Historic Places. When I moved to 305 Home Ave. in 1998, the zoning at my residence was R-1 — most

Is it fair?

not look favorably upon politicians who threaten their financial security. There are solutions to this problem. Congress could: 1) increase the FICA tax on incomes above $147,000 (the current cap) 2) subject 100% of benefits to federal income tax to increase inflows 3) increase the full retirement age from 67 to 69 to slow outflows 4) contribute money from general revenue through a loan or a one-time payment (this would contribute to the national debt). Any of these solutions or a combination of them would require political compromises. Unfortunately, compromise is a rare commodity in today’s Congress.

Are all historic districts at risk to appease/ please the whims of greedy developers? If the R-5 zoning on South Home Avenue is voided, what confidence will residents have regarding other zoning restrictions in our village statutes? Zoning rules were created to address multiple issues: personal safety, garbage and pollution control, parking restrictions, preservation of historic districts, noise annoyances, neighborhood cohesion, and more. How will this proposed building enhance anything but the developers’ bottom line? When the village board votes on this issue, we should know exactly who voted for or against this request and why.

The Oak Park Village Board’s decision on Nov. 21 about whether to grant the rezoning request for the lots at 327 and 329 Home Ave. — both within the designated historic district — is really all about fairness. Is it fair, for example, that a developer with no ties to the village, who bought the lots in question knowing the zoning only allowed two-unit buildings and that any request to change it would be, as it has been, met with universal opposition, receive a dispensation out of left field to cram 16 units into the middle of a historic district? We live directly across the street, and we can’t replace failing windows with vinyl because of the historic district, but some random developer can waltz in and willy-nilly plop down 16 units? Is it fair that our neighborhood alone should bear the price on a day-to-day basis of increased traffic, more parking congestion, and more heat, light and noise — especially during construction — so the village at large can potentially obtain increased tax revenues? Is it fair that our neighborhood pays the price and someone else — the village and the developer — reaps the benefits? Is it fair that the views and interests of scores of long-term neighborhood residents and property owners should be disregarded in favor of outside interests who are simply interested in making a dollar? Is it fair for the village, just to satisfy the whims of one developer, to grant a re-zoning request that will set a village-wide precedent, virtually ensuring that every other quiet residential lot that borders on a more densely zoned area will also be eligible for re-zoning, nibbling away at our duly-established and much-lauded historic districts from the outside in? Is it fair for the village to enforce its land-use laws in an arbitrary and capricious fashion that smacks of favoritism, in effect throwing its own Comprehensive Plan out the window? On Nov. 21, we will find out.

River Forest

Oak Park

Is Social Security safe?

According to the latest polls, over half of millennials (age 21-36) believe they will not receive any Social Security benefits when they retire. Thirty percent of the Gen-Xers (age 37-52), and 15% of the Baby Boomers (age 53-72) felt the same. They point out that for many decades three workers paid to FICA (payroll tax) for every beneficiary; by 2035 the figure is expected to decline to 2.3 workers. Last year, for the first time, the Old Age and Survivors Insurance Trust fund paid out more money than it received. If Congress fails to act in the next 10 years, benefits would be reduced by 23%. This reduction would be a disaster for the 25% of the beneficiaries who depend on Social Security for 90% of their income. How likely is it that Congress will fail to act? Social Security is called the third rail of American politics. Retirees do

protected. Though now R-5, that protection remains valid as it documents the village’s responsibility and intent to protect my home and others like it from encroachment. In keeping with the neighborhood character, I donated my home’s façade to the Department of the Interior to preserve the Victorian architecture. My guess is that when a developer converted the existing 327 Home residence from 1 to 4 units, the justification was that it was spread over two lots. The village board has a duty to future generations to follow historic precedent and preserve architecturally significant pockets of the village’s historic character and reject the petitioner’s application. Brian Lantz, Oak Park

LOCAL NEWS

Important legislation from page 25 The bill’s scope is limited to compensation and does not allow for negotiations around up/down ranking or display — it serves only to ensure fair compensation for local news outlets. The JCPA has strict transparency requirements on the terms of each agreement reached between tech platforms and journalism providers and establishes clar-

Al Popowits

Don’t appease greedy developers

ity in how news outlets spend the funds they receive. News publishers around the world are being compensated by Big Tech. Australia passed a similar policy to the JCPA, the News Media Bargaining Code, for media organizations to bargain for payment, which has produced significant revenue (billions of dollars, if translated to the U.S. market) for hundreds of publications of all sizes. One Sydney journalism professor noted that she hadn’t seen her industry so financially robust in decades. There are so many open positions for reporters, they cannot all be filled, a signal of the improved economic

Shelly Uslenghi

health of the industry. The swift and clear successes of the Australian Code — and efforts in other countries such as Canada, the UK, European Union, and more — should serve to encourage the passage of the JCPA in the United States. Thousands of hometown papers from across the political spectrum, as well as both Democrats and Republicans in Congress, support the JCPA. Moreover, in these highly polarized times, polling data found that 70 percent of Americans support the JCPA. The JCPA has such broad support because ultimately, it is about basic fairness. Local papers cannot afford to endure sev-

Charles & Barbara Watkins

eral more years of Big Tech’s use and abuse, and time to take action is dwindling. If Congress does not act soon, we risk allowing social media to become America’s de facto local newspaper. The Senate must advance the JCPA to the Senate floor for a vote before the end of the year to rein in Big Tech and restore fairness to local journalism — one of the most important checks and balances we have against corporate power and government corruption — before it’s too late. The News Media Alliance is a trade association representing approximately 2,000 newspapers in the United States and Canada.

Wednesday Journal, November 9, 2022

Growing Community Media

Deadline is Monday at 5:00 p.m.

PART-TIME ASSISTANT FACILITIES MANAGER

First United Methodist Church of Oak Park 324 N Oak Park Ave, Oak Park

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

HELP WANTED

HELP WANTED • NETWORK SPECIALIST Class specifications are intended to present a descriptive list of the range of duties performed by employees in the class. Specifications are not intended to reflect all duties performed within the job. DEFINITION To perform various network/system administration, computer support, and operational activities for the Village including computer system setup, configuration, and testing. SUPERVISION RECEIVED AND EXERCISED Reports directly to the Information Technology Services Director. EXAMPLE OF DUTIES: Essential and other important duties and responsibilities may include, but are not limited to, the following: Essential duties and responsibilities 1. Ensure that best in class customer service is provided to both internal and external customers and also embrace, support, and promote the Village’s core values, beliefs and culture. 2. Configure, test, and deploy network systems, such as, firewalls, routers, switches, wireless equipment, network servers and storage arrays. 3. Configure, test, and deploy system servers, such as, file, print, Internet, e-mail, database, and application servers. 4. Configure, test, and monitor server and end-user systems for security, such as, user accounts, login scripts, file access privileges, and group policy management. 5. Configure, test, and deploy end-user systems, such as, workstations, laptops, mobile devices, printers, and software. 6. Test, configure, deploy, and support security systems, such as, facility access system, video & audio system. 7. Monitor and auditing of networks, systems, and user activities to ensure security and efficiency of systems. Create scripts and reports of detail activities for regular review. 8. Perform and participate in disaster recovery activities, such as, backup procedures, data recovery, and system recovery planning. 9. Assist end-users with computer problems or queries. Troubleshoot systems as needed and meet with users to analyze specific system needs. 10. Ensure the uniformity, reliability and security of system resources including network, hardware,

software and other forms of systems and data. 11. Prepare, create and update user/technical procedure documentations and provide computer training. 12. Assemble, test, and install network, telecommunication and data equipment and cabling. 13. Participate in research and recommendation of technology solutions. Other important responsibilities and duties 1. Train users in the area of existing, new or modified computer systems and procedures. 2. Participate in the preparation of various activity reports. 3. Travel and support remote facilities and partner agencies. 4. Operate, administer and manage the Village and Public Safety computer systems, including E-911 center, in-vehicle computer systems. 5. Prepare clear and logical reports and program documentation of procedures, processes, and configurations. 6. Complete projects on a timely and efficient manner. 7. Communicate effectively both orally and in writing. 8. Establish and maintain effective working relationships with those contacted in the course of work. 9. Perform related duties and responsibilities as required. QUALIFICATIONS Knowledge of: Principals and procedures of computer systems, such as, data communication, hierarchical structure, backups, testing and critical analysis. Hardware and software configuration of. computers, servers and mobile devices, including computing environment of Windows Server and Desktop OS and applications, Unix/Linux OS, VMware, iOS/Android. Network protocols, security, configuration and administration, including firewalls, routers, switches and wireless technology. Cabling and wiring, including CAT5/6, fiber network, telephone, serial communication, termination, and punch-down. Telecommunications theory and technology, including VoiP, serial communication, wireless protocols, PBX, analog, fax, voicemail and auto-attendant. Principles and methods of computer programming, coding and testing, including power shell, command scripting, macros, and

VB scripts. Modern office procedures, methods and computer equipment. Technical writing, office productivity tools and database packages. Ability to: Maintain physical condition appropriate to the performance of assigned duties and responsibilities, which may include the following: - Walking, standing or sitting for extended periods of time - Operating assigned equipment - Lift 50 pounds of equipment, supplies, and materials without assistance - Working in and around computer equipped vehicles Maintain effective audio-visual discrimination and perception needed for: - Making observations - Communicating with others - Reading and writing - Operating assigned equipment and vehicles Maintain mental capacity allowing for effective interaction and communication with others. Maintain reasonable and predictable attendance. Work overtime as operations require. Experience and Training Guidelines Experience: Three years of network/system administration in the public or private sector, maintaining a minimum of 75 Client Workstation computers. AND Training: Possession of a Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university with major coursework in computer science or a related field. Certifications in Microsoft Server Administration, Networking, Applications and Cisco Networking. Possession of a valid Illinois Driver License is required at the time of appointment. Vaccination against COVID-19 strongly preferred. WORKING CONDITIONS Work in a computer environment; sustained posture in a seated position for prolonged periods of time; continuous exposure to computer screens; work in and around computerized vehicles outdoor and garage facility; lifting heavy equipment, communication cabling and wiring into walls and ceilings.

ACCOUNT CLERK II

The Village of Oak Park is seeking qualiﬁed candidates for the position of Account Clerk II. This position performs a variety of accounting clerical duties involving ﬁnancial record keeping and/or transactions including accounts payable and receivable and to provide a variety of accounting support to the Development Customer Services Department. Applicants are encouraged to visit the Village of Oak Park’s website http://www.oakpark.us/jobs. First review of applications November 4, 2022.

NURSERY SUPERVISOR AND CHILDCARE COORDINATOR

Unity Temple Unitarian Universalist Congregation is looking for a warm, welcoming and experienced Nursery Supervisor and Childcare Coordinator to work with the youngest among us on Sunday mornings in the nursery as well as coordinate babysitting for congregational events outside of Sunday mornings. This is one job with two different roles. As Nursery Supervisor, this person will provide a compassionate and consistent presence in caring for our babies and toddlers during the Sunday morning worship service times, supervise, train and schedule other nursery staff, maintain the nursery as a safe and clean environment, welcome and orient new families to the nursery, and build relationships with and communicate effectively with parents. The nursery hours are Sundays from 9:30–11:30am, and approximately one hour outside of Sunday morning worship service. You can ﬁnd more information about the position at https://unitytemple. org/job -postings/. To apply, send a cover letter and résumé to jobs@ unitytemple.org indicating “Nursery Supervisor / Childcare Coordinator” in the subject line.

PARKING ENFORCEMENT OFFICER

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

First United Methodist Church is seeking a part-time Assistant Facilities Manager to work the following hours: - Sunday mornings 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM - Two Mondays per month from 6:00 PM to 9:30 PM - Every Wednesday evening from 6:00 PM to 8:30 PM The position will also cover additional hours for weekdays and occasional weekend hours as needed. Responsibilities of this position include: - Opening and closing procedures on Sunday mornings and at the end of other church or guest events. - Locking and unlocking appropriate doors for each event - Overseeing the loading and unloading of bulky items through church doors - Setting up and breaking down tables - Directing guests to legal parking options - Providing security for church events - Contacting emergency medical, police or ﬁre personnel when required - Ensuring snow removal contractors arrive in time to clean sidewalks, or removing snow on private sidewalks if needed - Accessing items in storage as needed, such as power strips, proper tape - Handling minor repairs and contacting the Facilities Manager, Trustees or directly calling contractors when necessary - On occasion there is some cleaning required of spaces used This individual must present himself/ herself to the public in a professional manner as a representative of our church.

HELP WANTED

room, and perimeter clean.

Pay is $13.00 per hour to start. The hours an attendant is on duty are 9 – 11 and 12 – 5 on weekdays, 9 – 11 and 11:30 – 4 on Saturday and Sunday. Looking for Wednesday through Sunday. If you are mechanically inclined please mention it. Please come to 7343 Roosevelt Rd. in Forest Park to pick up an application. 708-771-2945. Thank you Developer, Assistant Vice President Neuberger Berman Group LLC (FT; Chicago, IL; Option to work remotely w/in commutable distance from worksite). Dev enterprise data platform used to deliver biz solns. RQTS: BA deg or foreign equiv in CS, CE, EE, or rel + 5 yrs of progressively resp exp in pos’n offd, or as a S/ware Arch, or rel. Must have 5 yrs of exp w/: Dvlpg data feeds for Portfolios, Securities, Positions, Tax Lots, & Transactions across Equities, Fixed Income, & Alt Investments asset classes; Matching & mastering mkt data using Markit EDM; DB modeling & dev of MSSQL DBs using Visual Studio & SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT); Modeling data warehouse data using star & snowﬂake schema dsgns; Using T-SQL to create MSSQL stored procedures for implmtg data loads; Exporting data to external accting & trading systems utilizing Informatica & Markit EDM; Scheduling & orchestrating data loads utilizing Cisco Tidal; & Using Agile/Scrum framework to plan & execute dev activities. Must also have 3 yrs of exp w/: Release mgmt using Azure DevOps CI/CD pipelines; & Utilizing Git for source code mgmt. APPLY: https://nb.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/ NBCareers & Search Jobs by Job # R0007616. EOE/M/F/D/V.

  

May ﬁll in when needed for the Facilities Manager or the Custodian This position reports to the Facilities Manager, Trustees or the Pastor as needed. Must be willing to serve on rotation for emergency response from our Burglar system or the Fire Department. Successful completion of background checks must be completed prior to work. Covid vaccinations are required. Pay - $20 an hour. Resumes can be sent to LKMasters47@gmail.com.

FULL 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

Custom Frame Company

Clean, safe, fun work with graphic display frames that you’ll see in Wal-Marts, Verizon stores, CTA stations, all over US. Manufacturing No weekends, no evening hours, great pay and benefits. Top rated firm, Alpina Manufacturing LLC, founded in 1992, locally owned beautiful campus in Galewood, near Mars candy, 3 blocks north of Oak Park. We build and sell display framing systems to customers nationwide including Wal-Mart, Verizon, Circle K, Hospitals, CTA.

Apply in person M-F 8am to 4pm • Alpina • 6460 W Cortland St Chicago, IL 60707 www.fastchangeframes.com

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

Wednesday Journal, November 9, 2022

CLASSIFIED

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

MARKETPLACE

CARS WANTED

R E N TA L S

OFFICE/RETAIL FOR RENT

CLASSICS WANTED CLASSICS WANTED Restored or Unrestored

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

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

$$ Top $$ allWANTED makes, Etc. CLASSICS WANTED TO BUY Collector James

Restored or Unrestored WANTED MILITARY ITEMS: 630-201-8122 Helmets, medals, patches, uniforms, weapons, ﬂags, Cars & Vintage Motorcycles photos, paperwork, Also toy soldiers – lead, plastic – other misc. toys. Domestic / Import Cars: Call Uncle Gary

Mercedes,708-522-3400 Porsche, Corvette, Ferrari’s, Jaguars, Muscle Cars, NOVENAS NOVENAS Mustang & Mopars

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

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

630-201-8122

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.

HOME SERVICES

OFFICE/RETAIL FOR RENT

OAK PARK THERAPY OFFICES:

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.

Therapy ofﬁces available on North Avenue. Parking; Flexible leasing; Nicely furnished; Waiting Room; Conference Room. Ideal for new practice or 2nd location. 708.383.0729 Call for an appt.

RIVER FOREST–7777 Lake St. * 1116 sq. ft. * 1400 sq. ft. Dental Office RIVER FOREST–7756 Madison St. * 960 sq. ft. OAK PARK–6142-44 Roosevelt Rd. * 3 & 5 room office suites FOREST PARK–7736 Madison St. *2500 sq. ft. unit Strand & & Browne Strand Browne 708-488-0011 708-488-0011

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

OAK PARK & FOREST PARK

708-386-7355

MMpropMgmt.com FOREST PARK 3BR

3 BR 1 BA 2ND ﬂoor w/ 2 parking spaces. Central heat & air. Laundry on site. Close to River Forest Jewel. $1700 + 1 mo security. 7544 Brown Ave. Available now! Call 708-790-1914

FLOORS KLIS FLOORING INC.

New hardwood ﬂooring installation & pergo. Sanding, re-ﬁnishing, staining. Low prices, insured. Call: 773-671-4996 • www. klisflooring.com

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

CEMENT

MAGANA

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

COMMERCIAL INDUSTRIAL RESIDENTIAL

708.442.7720

CURT'S HANDYMAN SERVICE

'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(

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

FREE ESTIMATES LICENSED, BONDED & INSURED

708-296-2060

Free estimates Excellent References No Job Too Small

708-488-9411

HAULING BASEMENT CLEANING Appliances & Furniture

Removal Pickup & Delivery.

773-722-6900

ELECTRICAL Ceiling Fans Installed

ELECTRICAL

A&A ELECTRIC

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Wednesday Journal, November 9, 2022

CLASSIFIED

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

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: Y22009778 on October 25, 2022 Under the Assumed Business Name of SP TECH with the business located at: 1020 N DES PLAINES AVE SUITE 410, FOREST PARK, IL 60130. The true and real full name(s) and residence address of the owner(s)/partner(s) is: DELONDON C HAWTHORNE 1020 N DES PLAINES AVE SUITE 410, FOREST PARK, IL 60130

PUBLIC NOTICES LEGAL NOTICE

Published in Forest Park Review November 9, 16, 23, 2022

PUBLIC NOTICE Notice is hereby given, pursuant to “An Act in relation to the use of an Assumed Business Name in the conduct or transaction of Business in the State,” as amended, that a certiﬁcation was registered by the undersigned with the County Clerk of Cook County. Registration Number: Y22009773 on October 20, 2022 Under the Assumed Business Name of INFINITE HEALING TINCTURES AND CO. with the business located at: 7000 WEST FOREST PRESERVE DR. #1061, NORRIDGE, IL 60706. The true and real full name(s) and residence address of the owner(s)/partner(s) is: TENNILLE TENARD 1543 FRANKLIN AVE UNIT B RIVER FOREST, IL 60305, USA. Published in Wednesday Journal October 26, November 2, 9, 2022

PUBLIC NOTICE Notice is hereby given, pursuant to “An Act in relation to the use of an Assumed Business Name in the conduct or transaction of Business in the State,” as amended, that a certiﬁcation was registered by the undersigned with the County Clerk of Cook County. Registration Number: Y22009754 on October 18, 2022 Under the Assumed Business Name of WRAP THAT UP with the business located at: 4232 EDGEWATER AVENUE, HILLSIDE, IL 60162. The true and real full name(s) and residence address of the owner(s)/partner(s) is: STEEVE KIDD 4232 EDGEWATER AVENUE HILLSIDE, IL 60162, USA Published in Wednesday Journal October 26, November 2, 9, 2022

STATE OF ILLINOIS) COUNTY OF COOK )ss Circuit Court of Cook County, County Department, Domestic Relations Division. In re the marriage of Allocation of ERICA KENYATTA THOMAS, Petitioner and DERRON ANDRE BARNETT, Respondent, Case No. 2022D005669. PETITION FOR TEMPORARY AND PERMANENT SOLE ALLOCATION OF PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITIES, CHILD SUPPORT, AND CONTRIBUTION TO CHILD-RELATED EXPENSES 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 Temporary and Permanent Sole Allocation of Parental Responsibilities, Child Support, and Contribution to Child-Related Expenses; 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 November 30, 2022, default may be entered against you at any time after that day, and a judgment for Temporary and Permanent Sole Allocation of Parental Responsibilities, Child Support, and Contribution to Child-Related Expenses entered in accordance with the prayer of said Petition. IRIS Y. MARTINEZ, Clerk. Published in Wednesday Journal November 2, 9, 16, 2022

PUBLIC NOTICE NOTICE TO BIDDERS Sealed separate bids will be received by the Board of Education, Oak Park Elementary School District 97 (the “Board”) for the following project: OAK PARK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL DISTRICT 97 SD97 - SUMMER 2023 LIFE SAFETY WORK OAK PARK, IL 60302 BID GROUP 1 – ELECTRICAL, MECHANICAL, PLUMBING, ROOFING, GENERAL TRADES Bids will be received until 2:00 p.m. CST on Tuesday, November 15, 2022 at the Oak Park Elementary School District 97 Administrative ofﬁces, 260 Madison Street, Oak Park, IL 60302, and will be read at 2:15 p.m. CST on that date. Bids shall be submitted in an opaque sealed envelope clearly marked: Oak Park Elementary School District 97 260 Madison Street, Oak Park, IL 60302 Attention: Bulley & Andrews Project: SD97 - SUMMER 2023 LIFE SAFETY WORK Bid Opening will be held at 2:15pm CST within the board room: Scope of work for Bid Group 1 generally includes: Electrical, Mechanical, Roofing, Plumbing &

PUBLIC NOTICES

General Trades All bids must be submitted in accordance with the bidding instructions contained in the Bidding Documents for the project. Bid security in the form of a bid bond in an amount equal to ten percent (10%) of the base bid amount shall be submitted with the bid. Should a bid bond be submitted, the bond shall be payable to the Board of Education, Oak Park Elementary School District 97, 260 Madison Street, Oak Park, IL 60302. All documents and information required by the bidding instructions contained in the Bidding Documents for the project shall be submitted with the bid. Incomplete, late or non-conforming bids may not be accepted. No bids shall be withdrawn, cancelled or modiﬁed after the time for opening of bids without the Board’s consent for a period of ninety (90) days after the scheduled time of bid opening. The Bidding Documents for the project (which include the bidding instructions for the project and other related documents) will be available Thursday October 27th, 2022 and are available for viewing/download online without cost or purchase on the Bulley & Andrews, LLC One Drive, located at the following link. No username or password is required.

Village of Oak Park PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD for the: Community Development Block Grant Program Year 2021 CONSOLIDATED ANNUAL PERFORMANCE AND EVALUATION REPORT Date of Publication: November 9, 2022 Village of Oak Park, 123 Madison Street Oak Park, IL 60302, (708) 383-6400 PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD Notice is hereby given that the Village of Oak Park Program Year 2021 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Draft Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report (CAPER) will be available for public review beginning Thursday, November 10, 2022. The CAPER is the City’s annual CDBG report to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). It will reflect the Program Year 2021 results, which began October 1, 2021 and ended September 30, 2022. The Village of Oak Park invites comments on the CAPER. The public comment period will begin

The site will be available for visits by appointment to be coordinated with Bulley & Andrews, LLC. Interested parties may inspect the existing conditions. Schedule an appointment with Michael Damato of Bulley & Andrews in advance if you wish to visit the sites. All bidders must comply with applicable Illinois Law requiring the payment of prevailing wages by all Contractors working on public works. If during the time period of work, the prevailing wage rates change, the contractor shall be responsible for additional costs without any change to the contract amount. All bidders must comply with the Illinois Statutory requirements regarding labor, including Equal Employment Opportunity Laws. For additional information on the project, contact Michael Damato of Bulley & Andrews, LLC at mdamato@bulley.com or 847-6029512. Dated: 10/25/22 Michael Damato Bulley & Andrews, LLC Published in Wednesday Journal November 2, 9, 16 2022

Written comments can be sent to the address to the attention of Development Customer Services, CDBG Department or may be emailed to grants@oak-park.us. Reasonable accommodations will be made for persons with disabilities and non-English speaking persons, as needed. Any public comments will be submitted with the CAPER to the Village Board and HUD.

Published in Wednesday Journal, November 9, 2022

https://tinyurl.com/ysfudxfr The Board reserves the right to reject any or all bids or parts thereof, or waive any irregularities or informalities, and to make an award that in the Board’s sole opinion is in the best interest of the District.

November 10, 2022, and end November 28, 2022 at 5:00pm CST. The report will be available by visiting the Village of Oak Park, 123 Madison Street, Oak Park, IL 60302 and at: www.oak-park.us/ cdbg.

LEGAL NOTICE The Village of Oak Park will receive proposals from qualified mechanical engineering firms to conduct a building envelope assessment and design a new geothermal system for the north fire station located at 212 Augusta in Oak Park, IL. Proposals will be accepted at the Public Works Service Center, 201 South Boulevard, Oak Park, Illinois 60302, until 10:00 a.m. local time on Friday, December 9th, 2022. Professional Mechanical Engineering Services for The Village of Oak Park North Fire Station Geothermal Project Proposal Number: 22-133 Issuance Date: 11/9/22 There will be a pre-bid meeting at the north fire station, located at 212 Augusta, Oak Park, IL on Wednesday, November 16th, 2022 at 9:00 a.m. Bid forms may be obtained by calling 708358-5710 or by e-mailing vics@ oak-park.us between the hours of 7:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. M-F. The Village of Oak Park reserves the right to issue proposal documents and specifications only to those firms deemed qualified. No proposal documents will be issued after 4:00 p.m. on the working day preceding the date of proposal opening. THE VILLAGE OF OAK PARK Published in Wednesday Journal November 9, 2022

Notice of Public Hearing Park District of Oak Park November 17, 2022, 7:30 p.m. 2023 Budget and Appropriation Ordinance Notice is hereby given that the Board of Commissioners of the Park District of Oak Park will conduct a public hearing concerning the adoption of the Park District’s 2023 Budget and Appropriation Ordinance on November 17, 2022 at 7:30 p.m. at the John Hedges Administration Building, 218 Madison St, Oak Park, IL, during the Board of Commissioners’ regular board meeting. Dated: November 9, 2022 By: Commissioner Chris Wollmuth Secretary, Board of Commissioners Park District of Oak Park Published in Wednesday Journal November 9, 2022

REAL ESTATE FOR SALE

IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS COUNTY DEPARTMENT - CHANCERY DIVISION SELENE FINANCE LP Plaintiff, -v.LARSENIA HORTON, NEIL SMITH, ASSURANCE RESTORATION & CONSTRUTION, INC., PRAIRIE HOUSES OWNERS ASSOCIATION, UNKNOWN OWNERS AND NON-RECORD CLAIMANTS Defendants 18 CH 12736 14 DIVISION STREET, # 14 OAK PARK, IL 60302 NOTICE OF SALE PUBLIC NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale entered in the above cause on December 16, 2019, an agent for The Judicial Sales Corporation, will at 10:30 AM on December 7, 2022, at The Judicial Sales Corporation, One South Wacker, 1st Floor Suite 35R, Chicago, IL, 60606, sell at a public sale to the highest bidder, as set forth below, the following described real estate: Commonly known as 14 DIVISION STREET, # 14, OAK PARK, IL 60302 Property Index No. 16-05-127-0480000 The real estate is improved with a brown brick, three story townhouse, attached one car garage. Sale terms: 25% down of the highest bid by certified funds at the close of the sale payable to The Judicial Sales Corporation. No third party checks will be accepted. The balance, including the Judicial Sale fee for the Abandoned Residential Property Municipality Relief Fund, which is calculated on residential real estate at the rate of $1 for each $1,000 or fraction thereof of the amount paid by the purchaser not to exceed $300, in certified funds/or wire transfer, is due within twenty-four (24) hours. No fee shall be paid by the mortgagee acquiring the residential real estate pursuant to its credit bid at the sale or by any mortgagee, judgment creditor, or other lienor acquiring the residential real estate whose rights in and to the residential real estate arose prior to the sale. The subject property is subject to general real estate taxes, special assessments, or special taxes levied against said real estate and is offered for sale without any representation as to quality or quantity of title and without recourse to Plaintiff and in “AS IS” condition. The sale is further subject to confirmation by the court. Upon payment in full of the amount bid, the purchaser will receive a Certificate of Sale that will entitle the purchaser to a deed to the real estate after confirmation of the sale. The property will NOT be open for inspection and plaintiff makes no representation as to the condition of the property. Prospective bidders are admonished to check the court file to verify all information. If this property is a condominium unit, the purchaser of the unit at the foreclosure sale, other than a mortgagee, shall pay the assessments and the legal fees required by The Condominium Property Act, 765 ILCS 605/9(g)(1) and (g)(4). If this property is a condominium unit which is part of a common interest community, the purchaser of the unit at the foreclosure sale other than a mortgagee shall pay the assessments required by The Condominium Property Act, 765 ILCS 605/18.5(g-1). IF YOU ARE THE MORTGAGOR (HOMEOWNER), YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO REMAIN IN POSSESSION FOR 30 DAYS AFTER ENTRY

OF AN ORDER OF POSSESSION, IN ACCORDANCE WITH SECTION 15-1701(C) OF THE ILLINOIS MORTGAGE FORECLOSURE LAW. You will need a photo identiﬁcation issued by a government agency (driver’s license, passport, etc.) in order to gain entry into our building and the foreclosure sale room in Cook County and the same identiﬁcation for sales held at other county venues where The Judicial Sales Corporation conducts foreclosure sales. MCCALLA RAYMER LEIBERT PIERCE, LLC Plaintiff’s Attorneys, One North Dearborn Street, Suite 1200, Chicago, IL, 60602. Tel No. (312) 346-9088. THE JUDICIAL SALES CORPORATION One South Wacker Drive, 24th Floor, Chicago, IL 60606-4650 (312) 236SALE You can also visit The Judicial Sales Corporation at www.tjsc.com for a 7 day status report of pending sales. MCCALLA RAYMER LEIBERT PIERCE, LLC One North Dearborn Street, Suite 1200 Chicago IL, 60602 312-346-9088 E-Mail: pleadings@mccalla.com Attorney File No. 20-04687IL_613739 Attorney ARDC No. 61256 Attorney Code. 61256 Case Number: 18 CH 12736 TJSC#: 42-1079 NOTE: Pursuant to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, you are advised that Plaintiff’s attorney is deemed to be a debt collector attempting to collect a debt and any information obtained will be used for that purpose. Case # 18 CH 12736 I3204167

EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY

All real estate advertising in this newspaper is subject to the Fair Housing Act, which makes it illegal to advertise any preference, limitation or discrimination based on age, race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status or national origin, or intention to make any such preferences, limitations or discrimination. The Illinois Human Rights Act prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental or advertising of real estate based on factors in addition to those protected under federal law. This newspaper will not knowingly accept any advertising for real estate which is in violation of the law. All persons are hereby informed that all dwellings advertised are available on an equal opportunity basis. Restrictions or prohibitions of pets do not apply to service animals.

To complain of discrimination, call HUD toll free at: 1-800669-9777. GROWING COMMUNITY MEDIA

Wednesday Journal, November 9, 2022

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Homes

Property Transfers p. B8

November 9, 2022

New association aims to unite local condo boards Increased communication can solve problems, share information

By LACEY SIKORA

Contributing Reporter

ondominiums make up nearly 20 percent of Oak Park’s housing stock, according to the Institute for Housing Studies at DePaul University. Condominium buildings are governed by their own homeowners associations (HOA), but in general each board operates on its own without input from other similarly situated buildings. Until recently, HOAs were left to grapple with issues on their own, often reinventing the wheel each time a problem arose or they needed to find a new service provider. Richard Willis wants to change that. The longtime Oak Park resident and owner of multiple condominiums recently formed the Oak Park River Forest Condominium Boards Network (OPRFCBN.) He hopes other local condo boards will join forces to share knowledge. As the board president for a condominium association, Willis says he was inspired to form the network so associations could share information. “I’ve found there’s no communication amongst the boards,” he said. He says there have been multiple situations in his recent tenure that would have benefitted from crowdsourcing and shared contacts among local boards. For example, he recalls what he describes as a “dog situation” with a neighboring building. It was a small issue that would have been readily resolved, but his board couldn’t figure out how to contact the board at the building where the fourlegged offender resided. “It was a minor issue that would have been so much easier to coordinate across a

ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

Richard Willis (above) formed the Oak Park River Forest Condominium Boards Network as a way to help condo associations navigate issues they all face without having to reinvent the wheel for each development. group,” Willis said. He cites other instances, such as a building engineer retiring or finding an insurance company, as other examples of times it would be helpful to use a hive mind and increased experience to help out all boards in a consortium. Willis says he was inspired to form the

board after a personal encounter. He was introduced to someone who said she was a member of a local condominium board. Willis asked her who her building used for HVAC services and found she had a great recommendation. While the network is just getting off the ground, he thinks that the group’s benefits

will go well beyond sharing contractor recommendations. He sees a possibility to leverage the power of numbers in any number of transactions that condo boards take part in regularly. See CONDO BOARDS on page B3

November 9, 2022 ■ Wednesday Journal/Forest Park Review

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CONDO BOARDS

Group purchasing power from page B1 One area that he feels is ripe for collaboration is banking. “Every one of these condo associations, if they’re well run, has a fair amount of money in the bank,” Willis said. “What if we all got together and tried to get a better rate? This would benefit all of us.” He sees this mindset of applying to any number of services used by condo associations, from plumbing to budgeting and accounting. “There’s a lot of benefit to group purchasing,” he said. In the future, Willis thinks the network could negotiate with local hardware stores or big-box stores to get the same discounts that contractors receive for their large-scale purchases. He anticipates that he will do the initial legwork to make contacts with stores and hopes the network grows enough to make group collaboration the norm. Willis says both condo boards and individual unit owners are encouraged to join. He expects that there will be a formalized agreement in place before boards can negotiate with banks or service providers, but says the group also has a more constructive purpose that can already be accessed. The Facebook page for the group, facebook.com/OPRFCBN, is up and running and allows members to share rec-

OPRFCBN.COM

ommendations for contractors and service providers as well as ask questions of the group. Willis has also launched a website at OPRFCBN.com. Willis thinks the utility of the group will be quickly evident. “As people cycle on or off boards, you can lose their knowl-

edge, so we want to keep the group open to boards and individual owners,” he said. Emphasizing the large portion of Oak Park housing that is made up of condominiums, he says that condo owners can be overlooked in decision-making of local government. He’s hoping the OPRFCN will change that too.

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November 9, 2022 ■ Wednesday Journal/Forest Park Review

OAK PARK

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Open every day for tours and to meet the wonderful staff. To learn more or see their gorgeous new community, visit their website at americanhouse.com/oak-park or call (708) 622-9251. B4 View more at OakPark.com/Real-Estate ■ November 9, 2022

Q+A with Andy Gagliardo

What Motivated You To Get Into Real Estate?

Most important Real Estate tip you have:

My grandmother and father started their real estate brokerage

My most important tip is to be prepared. Timing is everything in

business in 1958 so Real Estate has been in my blood from

this business for both buyers/sellers and brokers. If you are not

an early age. Helping others fulfill their lifelong dreams of

prepared you cannot react in a timely and positive way when it’s

owning a house while running my own business was always

needed most.

appealing to me. It’s great to deal with people from all facets of business careers.

Can you elaborate on the recent merging of the Gagliardo Group and Compass?

What was the highlight of 2022? My daughter, Nicole Gagliardo, got her real estate license this year. I had her join a Compass team in the city close to where she lives. Nicole has had a very successful first year and now

To provide a bit of clarity, our group did not sell, but instead

has decided to join our Gagliardo Group. I’m very excited to

partnered with Compass. Our recent affiliation allows the

have her working with me and look forward to watching her real

Gagliardo Group greater access to real estate systems &

estate career grow. She is the fourth generation realtor in the

technology that are needed in today’s marketplace. Partnering

Gagliardo family.

The Gagliardo Group is a team of real estate agents affiliated with Compass, a licensed real estate broker and abides by federal, state and local Equal Housing Opportunity laws. 7375 W North Ave, River Forest, IL 60305.

of the Gagliardo Group

with Compass is a benefit to not only our clients, but to our brokers as well. It’s a win-win for everyone.

What makes your team unique?

How can we contact the Gagliardo Group? The Gagliardo Group | Compass gagliardogrp.com

What makes The Gagliardo Group unique is that we have

info@gagliardogrp.com

always had some of the strongest ties in our community and

708.771.8040

now we have the capabilities of blending our local expertise with the expansive network of the Compass Chicagoland community.

November 9, 2022 ■ Wednesday Journal/Forest Park Review

bairdwarner.com

Homegrown. We make real estate easier.

1200 N East Avenue Oak Park | $825,000 Hannah Gillespie

324 N Taylor Avenue Oak Park | $675,000

Catherine Simon-Vobornik

1053 Troost Avenue Forest Park | $649,000 Patricia McGowan

107 Home Avenue Oak Park | $599,000 Patricia McGowan

3742 Gunderson Avenue

2109 Highland Avenue Berwyn | $355,000 The Dita Group

912 S Maple Avenue Oak Park | $325,000 Swati Saxena

Catherine Simon-Vobornik

917 S Oak Park Avenue Oak Park | $239,900 Theresa Jurgus

1040 Washington Blvd G

Berwyn | 479,000 The Dita Group

Oak Park | $169,000 Swati Saxena

1009 Bonnie Brae Pl 2B River Forest | $629,000

Kim Wojack | Anne Ferri

416 Washington Blvd Oak Park | $600,000 Michael Lennox

203 N Kenilworth Ave 2J

827 Dunlop Avenue Forest Park | $360,000 Arrick Pelton

1409 Cuyler Avenue Berwyn | $359,000 Margarita Lopez

717 Hayes Avenue Oak Park | $285,000

923 Dunlop Avenue Forest Park | $279,900 Hannah Gillespie

2410 Oak Park Avenue Berwyn | $275,000 The Dita Group

222 Washington Blvd 107

6445 18th Street 2 Berwyn | $121,000 Bill Geldes

104 S Austin Blvd 3C Oak Park | $105,000 Swati Saxena

Oak Park | $369,000 Ann Keeney

Oak Park | $159,000 Bethanny Alexander

Baird & Warner Oak Park/River Forest | 1037 Chicago Ave. Oak Park, IL 60302 | 708.697.5900 | oakpark.bairdwarner.com Source: BrokerMetrics® LLC, 1/1/2019 - 12/ 31/2019Detached and Attached only. Chicagoland PMSA

B6 View more at OakPark.com/Real-Estate ■ November 9, 2022

Opportunity

(op ‘er-too’-ni-te) noun. Applying persistence to the possibilities. A chance for advancement.

SINGLE FAMILY HOMES

CONDOS

Sunday, November 13 ADDRESS............................................................................. REALTY CO.......................................... LISTING PRICE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . TIME 107 Home Ave, Oak Park . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Baird & Warner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $599,000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sun 11-1

ADDRESS............................................................................. REALTY CO.......................................... LISTING PRICE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . TIME 1200 N East Ave, Oak Park . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Baird & Warner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $825,000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sun 12:30 -2 1053 Troost Ave, Forest Park. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Baird & Warner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $649,000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sun 12-2 923 Dunlop Ave, Forest Park . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Baird & Warner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $259,000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sun 10:30 -12

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November 9, 2022 ■ Wednesday Journal/Forest Park Review

P R O P E R T Y

Oak Park home sells for $1,600,000

T R A N S F E R S

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

OAK PARK ADDRESS

PRICE

SELLER

BUYER

610 Madison St 431 Linden Ave 647 Linden Ave 430 N Scoville Ave 1101 N Grove Ave 407 N Scoville Ave 528 N Cuyler Ave 914 N Kenilworth Ave 1100 N Kenilworth Ave 624 N East Ave 174 N Taylor Ave 934 Columbian Ave 426 Clinton Ave 815 Linden Ave 708 Gunderson Ave 167 N Elmwood Ave 135 S Taylor Ave 1221 Linden Ave 735 N Humphrey Ave 115 S Euclid Ave 1107 N Grove Ave 846 N Kenilworth Ave 629 Fair Oaks Ave 850 Linden Ave 417 S Humphrey Ave 944 Wesley Ave 233 S Cuyler Ave 343 S Harvey Ave 451 Greenfield St 920 N Lombard Ave 326 N Humphrey Ave 1006 S Euclid Ave 615 N Ridgeland Ave 1013 Clinton Ave 643 N Harvey Ave 229 S Lombard Ave 1211 Edmer Ave

$3,045,000 $1,700,000 $1,600,000 $1,056,000 $1,000,000 $975,000 $930,000 $839,000 $805,000 $803,000 $789,000 $785,000 $780,000 $770,000 $737,000 $700,000 $699,000 $695,000 $690,000 $675,000 $662,500 $660,000 $640,000 $635,000 $630,000 $625,000 $616,000 $612,000 $575,000 $571,500 $565,000 $550,000 $550,000 $543,000 $536,000 $530,000 $525,000

Haberkorn Co Inc - Ii Srinivas Rajesh Moser Sean M Schoenmeyer Joel Korf Sarah Well Tr Rockey Christopher D Shah Amit Jindas Behr John J Partipilo Peter Francesco Tr Andreoli Lisa Welsh Michael F Jr Brozek Christopher J Rodriguez-Nelson Caroline 815 N Linden Llc Angelini Peter M Jr Stephens Donna J Tr Summers Monte A Tr Arvanites Matthew Bear Stream Llc Sheridan Bruce Kruszynski Maureen Hegarty Tr Stirling Jerold Stukel Thomas J Tr Cater Matthew Moehlmann Jason Tr Pych Daniel J Nespeca Lisa M Gingrich Alicia J Kasons Prop Inc Deysach Seth L Lashmanov Valerii Ortega Elias Madden Daniel C Wallace Christyanna R Ortino Kathleen P Tr Heilman Emily D Wagner Mark J Tr

Ap Illinois Dev Llc Williams Rodney Hartenbower Halley Burandt Anna Gorman Robert Gerson Pablo Chapman Christopher Greene William Darley William Leonard Gupta Manya J Leung Vincent H Delpurgatorio Daniel Carson Joshua Brinkman Kacie Jay Ferrick John R Jr Geil Erica Lynn Hansen Tr Parente Abigail Lechowicz Scott Rodriguez Brian A Comm David E Frost Peter Jackson Kevin Weiner Mark Mcnulty Matthew Santella Donna Chiu Alice Niekamp Arnold Cleveland Kelly Maher Sarah Mavrelis Peter Anthony Oldani John Dsouza Edmund Lindsay Katherine Bernardin Sloane Tirotta Robichaud Julie Ann Odwyer Richard J Pokorney Thomas J

B8 View more at OakPark.com/Real-Estate ■ November 9, 2022

647 Linden Ave., Oak Park

OAK PARK ADDRESS

PRICE

SELLER

BUYER

514 S East Ave 514 S Harvey Ave 810 S Lombard Ave 532 S Ridgeland Ave 311 Wesley Ave 730 Hayes Ave 644 S Lombard Ave 1124 Gunderson Ave 1141 Linden Ave 1019 S Humphrey Ave 1117 Hayes Ave 105 Bishop Quarter Ln 808 N Humphrey Ave 740 Woodbine Ave 701 Hayes Ave 1122 S Humphrey Ave 1101 S Ridgeland Ave 253 Washington Blvd 306 N Taylor Ave 611 S Lyman Ave 414 Superior St 125 Francisco Ter 229 S Maple Ave 819 Washington Blvd 220 S Maple Ave 1182 S Cuyler Ave 831 Clinton Ave

$525,000 $520,000 $495,000 $489,000 $489,000 $484,000 $482,000 $475,000 $460,000 $455,000 $440,000 $430,000 $420,000 $413,500 $412,500 $410,000 $400,000 $375,000 $370,000 $365,000 $329,000 $325,000 $310,000 $287,500 $284,500 $280,000 $279,000

Airato Scott Hruszkewycz Stephan Lestrang Christian H Tr Bitoy Rafael C Smith Cara Lefevour Tr Ira Harth Hummel Philip T Sehic Nadan Goldberg Michael B Extr Murphy Michelle Finelli Amanda Adrian Thomas E Fitzpatrick James Gordon Mark Martin David H Tr Klette Patrick J Paice Chelsea Haynes Albert Iii Weinstein Tatiana Maria Everett Carolyn Tr Sharpe Robert C Troelstrup William Toper Gdn Daly Robert John Chicago Title Land Trust Co Tr 9716 Gertz Joshua L Grandview Cap Llc Intercounty Judicial Sales Corp

Conrin Sean Seligman Katya Michael Kyle Newton Grygo Kevin Sheffieck David M Sabarese Gregory John Alwawi Nedaa Oswald Nichole Ashley Bonzak Stephen M Gomez Daniel Ritzman Toterrence Gingrich Alicia Zavala Steffani Bajowala Reena Arensmeier Sarah Seaton Collen Joy Dawkins Russhane Redmond Michelle Jones Joshua Jack Smith Matthew Hall Casey Daniel Xavier Paez Jose F Rodriguez Babcock David Porter Fairbanks Josh Brozek Anna K Kolawole Jamiu Jkkiv Llc

P R O P E R T Y

T R A N S F E R S

OAK PARK ADDRESS

PRICE

SELLER

BUYER

122 S East Ave 1180 S Lyman Ave 227 S Maple Ave 18 Division St 426 Wisconsin Ave 949 Pleasant St 240 Flournoy St 1025 Randolph St 425 Home Ave 301 W Chicago Ave 201 S Maple Ave 1127 Erie St 414 S Elmwood Ave 938 North Blvd 426 S Lombard Ave 415 Wesley Ave 414 S Scoville Ave 660 Washington Blvd 511 N Humphrey Ave 1161 S Ridgeland Ave

$275,000 $270,000 $257,500 $246,000 $240,000 $235,000 $225,000 $205,000 $188,000 $138,500 $136,500 $127,500 $120,000 $115,000 $115,000 $105,000 $99,000 $94,000 $70,000 Unknown

Hollenbeck Pau Rodriguez Louis Briscoe Thomas A Williams-Hicks Bernadette Varadarajan Srnivasan Muccianti Edward Becker Mary Mendez Karina T Joshi Mary Rose Jones Garrett T Johnson Lauren Gorbonos Alex Mazariegos Angel Salter Lerone Barbosa Maria A De Sousa Bentefour El Hassane Hyer Brian Largenterprises Llc Fenske Michael W The Judicial Sales Corp

Blauw Amelia Grimm Lewis Claudia Maria James Latasha Johnson Carmencita D Gomez Benjamin Huzaifa Muhammad Umer Laclair Dana Marie Smyth Barbara Allen Gladys Katherine Cooper Nikish N Ceaser Geraldine R Varley Jennifer Lapapa Gregory Cantrell Jennifer Lowe Avia Ashira Kimmons Jason L Jaskiewicz-Garcia Margaret Torres Jorge Jr Sanchez Fredy Us Bk Trust Natl Assn Tr

632 Franklin Ave., River Forest

RIVER FOREST ADDRESS

PRICE

SELLER

BUYER

632 Franklin Ave 236 Forest Ave 1131 Forest Ave 1205 Monroe Ave 243 Forest Ave 601 Franklin Ave 625 Park Ave 846 Forest Ave 624 Franklin Ave 217 Ashland Ave 349 Park Ave 435 Williams St 17 Ashland Ave 8119 Lake St 407 Ashland Ave 1535 Forest Ave 7344 Lake St 414 Clinton Pl 1543 Monroe Ave 510 Bonnie Brae Pl 510 Bonnie Brae Pl 7221 W Division St

$1,360,000 $1,150,000 $1,049,000 $945,000 $928,000 $830,000 $679,000 $625,000 $575,000 $530,000 $472,500 $385,000 $332,000 $260,000 $255,000 $240,000 $215,000 $205,000 $170,000 $135,000 $120,000 $105,000

Derom Martine Tr Lee David D Saville Charles L Andersen Gene Gambill Tr Mcbrearty Elizabeth Us Bk Na Tr Sherman Ronald P Lundeen William Thomas Derom Martine Tr Eggertsen Arly W Ryan Thomas R Ii Kendal Psp Hs Llc Balint Mary C Pisani Gino Huggins Elizabeth Q Casto Michael J Mathieson Brett Jorge Joseph Irlanda Tamariz G Didonna Deborah Dillon Ann T Extr Trankina Michael

Vandervelde Amanda Carandang Lourdes Skowronski Ann Bloomberg Amanda Nyweide Matthew L Wallace Samantha Alkaraki Joseph P Toerner George P Zinni Mia Kathryn Dobson Derek D Casto Michael J Hageman Mary Lee Gordon Andrew Preffered Prop Buyers Inc Arreola Jennifer Ann Silva Miguel Filla Michael Salgado Desiree Mclean Derrick Hernandez Eloy Losik Robert Marshall Cory A

FOREST PARK ADDRESS

PRICE

SELLER

BUYER

850 Des Plaines Ave 116 Rockford Ave 1344 Elgin Ave 423 Marengo Ave 7420 Warren St 821 Marengo Ave 434 Thomas Ave 512 Ferdinand Ave 946 Ferdinand Ave 1100 Lathrop Ave 7231 Jackson Blvd 833 Beloit Ave 1038 Marengo Ave 1415 Harlem Ave 215 Marengo Ave 234 Circle Ave 7250 Dixon St 315 Des Plaines Ave 215 Marengo Ave 324 Marengo Ave 115 Marengo Ave

$1,200,000 $592,000 $550,000 $500,000 $495,000 $465,000 $460,000 $460,000 $425,000 $405,000 $380,000 $360,000 $300,000 $235,000 $227,000 $200,000 $184,500 $161,000 $159,000 $150,000 $108,000

Hatey Dillon T Holley Alan W Palomo Mauricio Kuri Emery Kay Extr West Side Remdl Llc Konstantos Ourania Thomas Gina M Sutton Nicholas A Tr Hosty Mark S Gray Nicole A Sherman Carolyn Faber Susan M Wiese Thomas Hutter Janet Extr Tang Pauline W Persico Dominick Neurauter Steven Nguyen Huong Reed Linda Chicago Title Land Trust Co Tr 2968 Guler Taunya M

Wilson Linda Alexandria Shaina Joan Kim Samuel Cho Trevino Jesse Mclean John Manor Patricia Wiebers Benjamin Dover Daniel Majicap Holdings Llc Mcelroy Caitlin Smith Benjamin M Fleet Joseph Chicago Title Land Trust Co Tr 8002389319 Delgado Hector Mirgati Signey Sutherland-Smith Curissa Cayla Hilker Camellia R White Tera Kernes Jennifer B Tipps Inv Llc Grsing Mareen

November 9, 2022 ■ Wednesday Journal/Forest Park Review

Wednesday Journal, October 26, 2022

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

S P O N S O R E D

C O N T E N T

Hearty winter fare at Café Cubano Slow cooked lechon brings holiday feel to Restaurant Row Café Cubano’s owners Mayra and Javier Fernandez Jr. have spent 20 years building their restaurant at 7426 W. North Ave. in Elmwood Park. The extended warm weather has kept the restaurant’s outdoor patio bustling well into November and indoor dining has finally normalized much to Mayra Fernandez’s delight. “We are staying busy because of this warm weather, and we are happy indoor dining is back,” Food Writer said Fernandez. “Things have been slowly coming back to life since the pandemic and I am happy to see people packed in here again.” Café Cubano’s menu is winter-ready and Fernandez is eager to draw attention to the array of warming dishes the Cuban eatery takes pride in serving. The restaurant is known for comforting braised stews and homestyle meat dishes that surge in popularity during the cold winter months and especially during the holiday season. “We are taking our focus away from sandwiches and salads and looking toward the comfort foods we are best

MELISSA ELSMO

known for,” said Fernandez. ““Nothing screams holiday more for Cubans than roasted pork!” During the holiday season Café Cubano anticipates prepping more than 400 pounds of Cuban-style roasted pork known as lechon. Chefs use mojo, an assertive citrus and garlic marinade, to bring the classic Cuban flavors of bitter orange, oregano and cumin to the classic dish. Fernandez says Café Cubano marinates their premium pork butt in their house-made Mojo for two to three days before slow roasting the meat four to six hours. “We know it is done when the bone comes out clean,” said Fernandez. A regular menu item at Café Cubano, the succulent pork is served with yucca with garlic and arrzo congri, a traditional mixture of black beans and rice. The lechon meal is also a holiday favorite and preordering of this classic meal is available for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Café Cubano’s heat-and-eat meals, suited to serve 10, tend to sell out. Christmas orders should be placed by Dec. 20. The owners learned everything about large-batch cooking from Javier Fernandez Sr. who served as a cook in the Cuban army. He was a master of high-volume cooking and used his vast experience to set up the family run restaurant for success. Fernandez cooked in the Café Cubano kitchens until 2009 and the restaurant relies on his recipes to this day. “He was here cooking until the day he died,” said Fernandez of her beloved father-in-law. “He loved food, especially Oxtail Stew. That’s why we were serve it today. And God forbid we run out; customers love it!” The homestyle oxtail stew and long cooking Ropa Vieja

Cuban lechon with arrzo congri and boiled yuca with garlic.

B10 View more at OakPark.com/Real-Estate ■ November 9, 2022

Cheers! Mayra Fernandez dishes about rum cocktails and the hectic holiday season at Cafe Cubano.

An assortment of rums served at Café Cubano used in tasting flights

Wednesday Journal, October 26, 2022

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

S P O N S O R E D offer warming options for diners during the winter months, but the smoked pork chops are a menu standout all year round but prove to be a cold weather favorite at Café Cubano. Cubans “tend to like smoked meats” according to Fernandez who emigrated to the United States from Cuba more than 50 years ago. A smoked pork chop must be “perfectly fried” to rise to restaurant standards and chefs at Café Cubano plate up two golden-brown chops per order. Sides including fluffy rice, savory black beans and tender plantains round out the hearty offering. The chops look unassuming, but diners will have to resist the urge to pick the bones – the crispy edges are devilishly good. Dine in customers at Café Cubano have come to expect a guitarist to be on site on weekend evenings. While he mills around entertaining res-

taurant goers, Fernandez hopes to see customers enjoying a thoughtfully prepared cocktail like autumnal spiced mojitos or an adventurous rum flight. Rum flights, featuring a trio of 1.5 ounce tastings, are gaining in popularity at Café Cubano. Spiced rum cocktails and coffee drinks are also part of the program and Fernandez is especially excited about Café Cubano’s spiced mojito. Made with dark rum, this cold weather take on a traditional summer drink is deceptively complex and comes garnished with a festive cinnamon stick. Those who clamor for classic Cuban sandwiches and rich Chicago-style Jibaritos can still satiate their cravings all winter long at the Restaurant Row mainstay in Elmwood Park. There is something for everyone at Café Cubano!

C O N T E N T

A Steak Jibarito is available year-round at Café Cubano.

For more culinary delights, visit OakPark.com and click on EATS. The Ropa Vieja Jibarito is a creative blend of culinary traditions and makes use of a classic braised beef dish.

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B11

REGINALD MOBLEY

KEHREIN CENTER FOR THE ARTS

A CONVERSATION & CONCERT WITH THE GRAMMY-NOMINATED AMERICAN SINGER Thursday, Nov 17, 7 PM Kehrein Center for the Arts 5628 W. Washington Blvd., Chicago

baroque.org

K E Hhis REIN Reginald Mobley discusses CENTER FOR THE ARTS career and performs Civil War-era spirituals, music by under-represented 18th- century composers, and more. “One of the joys of seeing Mobley is hearing his beautiful alto coming out of a big, tall man who looks more like a linebacker for the Miami Dolphins.” – Palm Beach ArtsPaper

FREE EVENT PRE-REGISTER AT baroque.org/ mobleyatkehrein

KEHREIN CENTER FOR THE ARTS

FREE EVENT PRE-REGISTER AT baroque.org/ mobleyatkehrein

baroque.org/mobleyatkehrein | 312.551.1414 B12 View more at OakPark.com/Real-Estate ■ November 9, 2022 baroque.org/mobleyatkehrein | 312.551.1414