W E D N E S D A Y
Pride 2018 Page A1
JOURNAL of Oak Park and River Forest
June 20, 2018 Vol. 38, No. 48 ONE DOLLAR
@oakpark @wednesdayjournal
Village Manager Association calls it quits
Group helped elect local officials for more than six decades By TIMOTHY INKLEBARGER Staff Reporter
It was a good run but the once-powerful Village Manager Association (VMA), which vetted and slated candidates for Oak Park’s village government for more than six decades, announced it has disbanded. The VMA suffered a major setback in last year’s municipal election, where the group was unable to find a candidate to run for village president against incumbent Anan Abu-Taleb, and all three of its slated candidates — two for trustee and one for village clerk — were defeated. Historically, VMA-endorsed candidates have mostly been swept into office, since the organization was established in 1952. In the 2017 election, the VMA already was having difficulty finding residents to participate in the organization’s selection process. Former Oak Park Village Trustee Adam Salzman, who was endorsed by the VMA, told Wednesday Journal in 2016 that interest in the group from younger voters had waned in recent years. “My sense from what I hear is it’s sort of somewhat reverted back to committed volunteers who have been involved over the course of several decades,” he said prior to the 2017 election. VMA President Lynn Kamenitsa said the group had gone dormant since last year’s elecSee VMA on page 13
ALEXA ROGALS/Staff Photographer
Cool Wave Sadie Hills, 8, of Oak Park, finds a cure for the heat at Rehm Pool in Oak Park. More photos on page 12.
D97 board tries to address space issues Lincoln principal describes space needs as ‘critical,’‘dire’
By MICHAEL ROMAIN Staff Reporter
Oak Park Elementary Schools District 97 school board members are trying to resolve critical space issues at Lincoln and Longfellow, two elementary schools with growing enrollments, while keeping costs under control. The total cost estimates for a proposed
Lincoln expansion are much more than district officials had originally anticipated. Board members are now trying to look for efficiencies that might lower those costs. A referendum last year to allow the district to borrow $57.5 million to help finance renovations and expansions at its elementary schools passed overwhelmingly.
The total bill for the most recent round of capital improvements – which includes major work at Lincoln, Longfellow, Beye, Hatch and Irving schools and is anticipated to last through August 2021 — is projected to come in below the $57.5 million mark. But the school board is still trying to See SPACE SHORTAGE on page 15