W E D N E S D A Y
JOURNAL
OPRF 2nd at sectionals Sports page 56
of Oak Park and River Forest
November 15, 2017 Vol. 35, No. 13 ONE DOLLAR
@oakpark @wednesdayjournal
RF to buy land for $1M Village to buy, demolish, redevelop nonprofit’s Madison St. building By NONA TEPPER Staff Reporter
River Forest trustees want to pony up $1 million to buy the old Lutheran Child and Family Services (LCFS) building on Madison Street in the hopes redevelopment can serve as an engine for economic redevelopment and bring in property tax revenue from a property that’s presently exempt from those taxes. The board put in a bid to buy the par-
cels stretching from 7610 to 7620 Madison St. about a month ago and plan to close the transaction by Dec. 15. Officials want to loan $1 million from the village’s general fund cash reserves, said administrator Eric Palm — to the Madison Street Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district, which, so far, has not generated enough incremental tax revenue. On Nov. 13, the village board voted 5 to 0, with Trustee Respicio Vazquez recusing himself, to loan the general operating funds and to move ahead with the purchase. Madison Street’s TIF was started in November 2016, and stretches from Thatcher Avenue to Lathrop Avenue. See MADISON on page 17
Peter Sagal to discuss “Wait Wait …” and Oak Park
WJ Conversations Monday in River Forest By TIMOTHY INKLEBARGER Staff Reporter
You’ve heard him for years as the host of the National Public Radio quiz show “Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me!” and if you’re an Oak Parker in the know you might have seen him running around town with the Oak Park Runners Club. Now fans can get a closer look into the mind of Peter Sagal at the Wednesday Journal Conversations evening set for Nov. 20.
Oak Parker Charlie Meyerson, a longtime radio and digital journalist, will interview Sagal at 7 p.m. at Dominican U n ive r s i t y ’s PETER SAGAL Perfor ming NPR radio host Arts Center. Tickets are still available but going fast. We caught up with the famously charming local for a sneak-peak on his See SAGAL on page 13
Submitted photo
I HEART BEEF: Oak Park native Henry “Hank” Tibensky has opened in Manhattan what he believes is the only Italian beef restaurant on the entire East Coast.
Where’s the (Italian) beef? In NYC, only at OPRF grad Henry Tibenksy’s restaurant By MICHAEL ROMAIN Staff Reporter
Henry “Hank” Tibensky, 37, learned to make Italian dishes like eggplant parmesan from his aunts at his family’s Italian restaurant, Vito’s, on Chicago’s West Side. In that kitchen, hearty recipes were hammered
into young Tibensky’s brain, but it was the beef that won his heart and he grew to bleed au jus. Tibensky, a three-sport athlete at Oak Park and River Forest High School who won a state swimming championship in 1998, was a regular in Johnny’s, Mickey’s and Buona Beef during See BEEF on page 14
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