Village Free Press_101123

Pritzker urges Biden to intervene amid ‘untenable’

pace of migrant arrivals

Buses from Texas accelerate as Illinois counts 15,000 new arrivals in 13 months

BY HANNAH MEISEL Capitol News Illinois

As Chicago prepared for an increase in the already steady stream of migrants arriving from the southern U.S. border last week, Gov. JB Pritzker once again publicly pressured President Joe Biden to play a larger role in coordinating relocation efforts.

“There is much more that can and must be done on a federal level to address a national humanitarian crisis that is currently being shouldered by state and local governments without support,” Pritzker wrote in a three-page letter to the White House on Oct. 2.

Without naming GOP figures like Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Pritzker blamed political leaders who “have shipped people to our state like cargo in a dehumanizing attempt to score political points.” But he also faulted the Biden administration for its lack of support for Illinois, which has already dedicated $330 million to addressing the influx of 15,000 migrants and counting.

“Today, Illinois stands mostly unsupported against this enormous strain on our state resources,” Pritzker wrote.

Since last August, Chicago has been one of the cities targeted by Republican leaders like Abbott, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and others who’ve paid for buses and air travel to relocate asylum-seekers from their states.

Migrants hail mostly from Central and South

Hillside-Berkeley

AutumnFest in photos

Tour de Proviso bicyclists take scenic route through Westchester

Stalled Broadview truck terminal project restarted as some residents raise concerns

By MICHAEL ROMAIN Editor

A developer’s proposal to build a warehouse and trucking facility on roughly eight acres of land at 1821 Gardner Rd. in Broadview is back after stalling for over a year. The resuscitated proposal has prompted some people who live across the street from the site or own property nearby to publicly voice their concerns

about how the project might affect their quality of life.

Phil Fornaro, an attorney representing the developer, Rainy Investments (operating as Rainy Broadview LLC), requested a special zoning use for the project at a Broadview Zoning Board of Appeals meeting on Oct. 4. The Zoning and Broadview village

across the streetfromtheproposed GardnerRoaddevelopment saidtheyworryabout pollution,trucktraffic

TRUCK TERMINAL

Gardner Road

from page 1

boards approved Rainy Investment’s special use request in 2022. Broadview Building Commissioner David Upshaw said the special use permit is good for 18 months before the developer has to start the process again.

“Unfortunately, the market got a little soft in the trucking industry, so it slowed the process,” Fornaro said. “Construction costs elevated significantly last year, which [affected] the viability of [the project].”

Fornaro said the project has stayed the same since he presented plans to the Zoning and village boards in 2022. At the time, Fornaro told village board members that the only access to Gardner Road would be for emergency vehicles. Non-emergency vehicles would access the property from I-290 through Indian Joe Drive. Fornaro said the Zoning Board recommended only right turns out of the property.

“It will be highly secure, with fencing, walls, cameras and lighting,” Fornaro told the village board last year. “Traffic will be predictable.”

Upshaw and some members of the Zoning Board said on Oct. 4 that they pressed for those features last year due to their concerns about the homeowners living across the street from the site. Gardner Road is the dividing line between Broadview and Westchester. The industrial district east of the street is Broadview, while the residential area west of the street is Westchester.

“The beauty of this project is that it does not have to burden Gardner Road at all,” Fornaro said last year.

Other features would include significant security technology, such as 24/7 cameras, landscaping features, such as a 14-foot sound wall designed to absorb the sound of traffic, and discreet lighting designed to shine down onto the truck terminal rather than out toward the homes across the street.

Fornaro said that since the development is in a flood zone, developers will build a detention pond to prevent stormwater on the property from spilling onto neighboring properties.

Despite those changes, some Westchester residents still voiced their concerns about how the trucking terminal might affect their quality of life.

David Byer, who lives across the street from the site, said at the Zoning hearing on Oct. 4 that he appreciated those changes but still had concerns about light, noise and diesel pollution, and potential truck traffic.

“You guys are putting more and more truck traffic through that residential area,” Byer said. “That street is deteriorating. Number two, it’s very narrow.”

Byer and David Donahue, who owns property near the proposed trucking terminal, said they didn’t receive certified mailers notifying them of the Oct. 4 hearing. Fornaro disputed that claim.

“We followed all the requirements, sent all the notices out [and] prepared an affidavit consistent with what we presented to the board,” Fornaro said on Oct. 4, adding that he sent notices to Byer’s home and both properties that Donahue owns in the area.

Donahue and a team of deep-pocketed and obscure developers pitched a nasty legal battle with Broadview in 2007 after the Zoning and village boards refused to grant a liquor license for a proposed strip club they wanted to build at Donahue’s 2850 Indian Joe Drive property. That battle ended in 2018 when a federal judge dismissed the developers’ request for damages.

Upshaw and Zoning Board member Mathis Stegall argued that developing the site would be better than allowing it to sit empty. Rainy Investments purchased a 185,000-square-foot building on the property during an auction in 2018. The building, once home to a medical supplies company, had been abandoned for four years when it was purchased. The developer demolished the abandoned building last year. The vacant site now holds what appears to be several pyramid-like mounds of dirt.

The Zoning Board approved Fornaro’s second request for a special use permit 3-1, with one commissioner abstaining. The proposal now has to be voted on by the Broadview village board. The developers also have to present plans before the village’s safety commission.

Upshaw said on Oct. 4 that residents and property owners will have an opportunity to voice their concerns throughout the process, which could prompt the developer to make more changes to ensure that the developer minimizes the harm to Westchester homeowners.

“This is not the approval to build anything,” Upshaw said. “All of your concerns are going to be addressed because they are concerns from our neighbors across the street.”

Publisher/CEO

Michael Romain

Chief Operations Officer

Kamil Brady

Creative Director

Patrick Forrest

HOW TO REACH US

John Wilk Communications, LLC

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PHONE: (708) 359-9148

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The Bellwood library hosted photographer well-known for his extensive photo database of historic Lustron homes

Brookfield photographer Dirk Fletcher’s database of over 320 Lustron homes is one of the largest of its kind

By MICHAEL ROMAIN Editor

In 2018, photographer Dirk Fletcher’s brother visited him and had a special request. Brookfield, where Fletcher lives, is one of the rare places in the country where you can still find Lustron homes, prefabricated houses made of steel after World War II.

“My brother goes, ‘You gotta drive me by one of those Lustron houses. There’s a podcast that talks about how people are going back to smallhouse living.’ So, we drove him around and looked at them,”

Fletcher told a small audience during a presentation inside the community room at the Bellwood Public Library, 600 Bohland Ave. in Bellwood, on Sept. 25.

Beyond looking, Fletcher, the former chairman of the Harrington College of Design’s photography department and works for Canon USA, decided to start photographing the unique Lustron homes.

Since then, Fletcher has photographed more than 350 of the approximately 1,500 Lustron homes that are still standing in 36 states, including Alaska. His collection is considered one of the largest collections of Lustron images anywhere. Some of his photos can be viewed online at his personal website: dirkfletcher.com.

Fletcher said he “always knew [Lustrons] were special.” He said his uncles were builders and would always comment on a yellow Lustron two doors down from his Brookfield apartment. Fletcher has written that he and his wife dubbed the home “the refrigerator house” because of its “shiny, porcelain enameled outer shell.”

Lustron homes were Chicago inventor and businessman Carl Strandlund’s answer to the housing shortage that military veterans were

experiencing after World War II. At the time, the federal government took control of how steel was allocated due to surging demand. When the government blocked Strandlund’s orders for porcelain-enameled panels that he wanted to use to build gas stations, he pivoted to producing houses instead.

Eventually, Strandlund’s Lustron Corporation secured a $37 million loan from a federal agency, the government’s first venture capital loan, to purchase a former airplane plant in Columbus, Ohio. There, the company built roughly 2,500 homes between 1948 and 1950, when the company folded because it couldn’t pay the loan back.

The homes cost between $8,500 and $10,500. They averaged about 1,000 square feet and were built on concrete slabs, so most didn’t have basements.

“To make them a little bit cheaper, the houses were a little bit smaller and all of them, up to a point, had a little seating area in the front,” Fletcher said. “The newer ones that were smaller got rid of that because those homes had smaller footprints and they were trying to make them a little cheaper.”

Some architectural features unique to Lustron homes included their metal-paneled rooms, metal ceiling tiles and decorative zig-zag porch pillars.

There were likely no Lustrons built in Proviso Township. An online map of surviving Lustron homes shows that the closest Proviso-area suburb with Lustrons is Brookfield, which has about a dozen. Fletcher’s goal is to shoot 25% of the remaining homes.

In 2021, he told the Riverside-Brookfield Landmark that his motivation for documenting the little post-war houses was rooted in nostalgia.

“I look at it as a weird little portal back into the early ’50s,” Fletcher told the newspaper. “I always imagine what it was like with the kids running around. You read the advertising pieces for Lustron – it’s literally a guy smoking a cigar and his wife using a hose to clean the house down — and there’s something nostalgic about that.”

Michael Romain Photographer Dirk Fletcher shows one of his many photographs of historic Lustron homes at the Bellwood Public Library on Sept. 25.

Annual Berkeley Library Friends’ Sale promotes community bonds — not book bans

By MICHAEL ROMAIN Editor

The Berkeley Public Library, 1637 Taft Ave., held its annual Friends’ Fall Sale on Oct. 7. The Sale is an initiative of the Friends of the Berkeley Public Library, the volunteer group that helps the library with special projects and fundraising.

The Saturday event fell on the last day of Banned Books Week, the national initiative promoting free and open information access amid a rise in book bans in the United States.

The Sale wasn’t a Banned Books Week event. Still, it underscored the importance of books and free access to information, public space, and community-building.

Ironically, a poster of Joseph Heller’s 1961 antiwar novel, “Catch-22,” hung prominently on a wall in the basement where various crafts and local food vendors displayed their products for sale.

many area libraries, too.”

Cox said the annual Sales typically raise between $750 and $1,000, which helps fund a range of special projects. Cox said last year’s Sale helped fund baby-changing tables in the library’s newly renovated bathrooms. The year before, the money raised helped fund a new audiovisual system. Allyson Ippolito, a member of the Friends and one of the organizers of Saturday’s Sale, said the event has also helped fund new computers.

The Friends also raffled off various items, such as Chicago Bears memorabilia and an American Girl doll.

209 Scholarship presents

Sarah Korbel sells some of her crocheted items at the annual Friends’ Fall Sale at Berkeley Public Library on Saturday. A poster of the banned book “Catch-22” by Joseph Heller hangs on the wall behind her.

In May, the Los Angeles Times listed “Catch-22” among 10 “notable books that have been banned or challenged over the years.”

According to the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF), from Jan. 1 through Aug. 31, there were “695 attempts to censor library materials and services and documented challenges to 1,915 unique titles, a 20% increase from the same reporting period in 2022.”

Last year saw “the highest number of book challenges since ALA began compiling the data more than 20 years ago,” the OIF reported. “The vast majority of challenges were to books written by or about a person of color or a member of the LGBTQIA+ community.”

“Fortunately, we really haven’t been directly impacted by a lot of that stuff,” said Ryan Cox, the Berkeley Public Library’s executive director. “We have a smaller collection than

“We try to get different people to come in and they’ll raffle whatever they’re selling so they don’t get charged for the tables,” said Carole Umbdenstock, a Friends member who helped organize the Sale. “The money from the raffle goes to the library and they, in turn, get exposure for their goods.”

Most of the vendors at Saturday’s Sale had ties to the library. They included the Berkeley Sewing Guild, which meets at the library on Tuesdays, Patterson’s Honey, Backyard Patch Herbs, and Sarah Kerbel, who sold her crochet creations. Kerbel’s mother, Victoria Jackson, teaches yoga at the library.

Marcy Lautenen-Raleigh, the owner of Backyard Patch Herbs, has presented information on her organic herbs at the library. The herbs serve as a powerful metaphor for the resilience of closely-knit communities.

“The nice thing about herbs is you cut them and they grow back,” she said. “I grow everything organically. Herbs are wonderfully disease-resistant by themselves, so I don’t have to use preservatives or chemicals in the garden.”

As for book bannings, Allyson Ippolito didn’t mince her words. She proposed a simple solution to those so aggravated by a book that they would work to get it banned.

“You don’t have to read it for crying out loud,” she said.

Great Chefs: Appetite for Knowledge is 209 Scholarship’s flagship scholarship fundraiser for Proviso area high school grads.

Thursday, October 26, 2023

5:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

Sheet Metal Workers Local 73 Hillside, IL

ENJOY:

• Small gourmet bites!

• Beer, wine and soft drinks.

• Silent auction, and wine pull!

TICKETS:

• Attendee: $75

• College Students 21+: $10

Scan the QR code for tickets now before they’re gone. Don’t miss this party for a cause!

209

Michael Romain

AutumnFest returns to the Prairie Path

The paintings

Aaron

were among the things for sale at Saturday’s AutumnFest 23.

Hundreds attended AutumnFest over the weekend. The annual event was held Saturday and Sunday along the Prairie Path that spans the villages of Hillside and Berkeley.

Community members enjoy the train that ran during AutumnFest on Saturday and Sunday.

Michael Romain

Michael Romain

Michael Romain

of Hillside artist

Canino

MIGRANTS

Pritzker urges intervention

from page 1

America, including a large contingent fleeing economic and political collapse in Venezuela. New York City, which began receiving migrants earlier in 2022, has seen more than 110,000 asylum-seekers enter the city in the last year and a half, though some have moved to other places, including Chicago.

On Friday, Pritzker’s office announced the state would send an additional $30.3 million to Chicago to address the needs of asylum seekers, along with roughly $11 million to be split among several municipalities in the Chicago area and $250,000 for downstate Urbana. The money represents nearly all of a $42.5 million line item in the state’s budget for the current fiscal year, which began in July.

The governor has been a vocal Biden ally, including in his monthslong effort to bring the Democratic National Convention to Chicago next summer. During a visit to Chicago in June, the president praised Pritzker as having “helped me more than anybody in America” in his 2020 election bid.

In his carefully worded letter, the governor thanked Biden for steps his administration had taken to assist Illinois’ response to the migrant crisis, like providing “modest” funding through the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But he was unequivocal in expressing the need for more federal aid.

“The burden of funding the state and city have taken on is not sustainable only by our budgets,” Pritzker wrote.

‘Untenable’

Pritzker accused the federal government of “abdicating responsibility” for asylumseekers once U.S. Customs and Border Protection releases the migrants after any initial detention at the border.

The states busing migrants to Illinois have typically given no warning to state and city officials, and the pace of arrivals has been accelerating in recent weeks. Volunteer groups have worked to fill in the gaps of the ad hoc response. Pritzker urged the Biden administration to “take a much more active role in managing the transport and destination of the transport of asylum seekers.”

“Unfortunately, the welcome and aid Illinois has been providing to these asylum

seekers has not been matched with support by the federal government,” Pritzker wrote. “Most critically, the federal government’s lack of intervention and coordination at the border has created an untenable situation for Illinois.”

The governor also criticized the White House for having a disorganized and disjointed system for responding to leaders in states and cities taking on migrants. Pritzker recommended that instead of the current system of “too many different federal department contacts — who are uncoordinated with one another,” the federal government should create “a single office with an identified leader” to coordinate with state and city leaders.

The governor sent the letter one day after he, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and the White House spoke on a conference call. Last week, tensions flared between Pritzker and the new mayor’s allies on the Chicago City Council after Johnson’s administration signed a $30 million contract with a security firm to set up a “base camp” for migrants, many of whom are sleeping in airports and police stations across the city.

Work Permits

At the end of August, when the number of asylum-seekers who’d arrived in Chicago numbered approximately 13,000, Pritzker and other political and business leaders urged the Biden administration to allow Illinois to sponsor work permits for migrants. The idea is a bipartisan one that other states have also requested, especially as the U.S. economy still faces labor shortages in key industries while it continues to recalibrate from the COVID-19 pandemic.

In response, the Department of Homeland Security granted Temporary Protected Status to Venezuelan migrants last month while announcing plans to accelerate paperwork processing times. But Pritzker argued that TPS-eligible migrants will still have to wait months for their work authorization paperwork to clear, and he urged further action from Biden to “cut the red tape.” And for non-Venezuelan migrants, the governor asked Biden to waive the “high cost” fee to apply for TPS.

“Mr. President, I urge you, (DHS) Secretary Mayorkas, and the rest of your administration to take swift action and intervene on our behalf and on behalf of the other affected states and their residents, as well as on behalf of the tens of thousands of asylum seekers who undertook a dangerous and difficult journey in hopes of attaining public safety and forging a better life for themselves and their families,” Pritzker wrote.

Welch introduces bill to allow legislative staff to unionize

Speaker says he hopes to pass bill in upcoming veto session

By PETER HANCOCK Capitol News Illinois

House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, D-Hillside, has filed legislation that would, for the first time in Illinois, authorize legislative staff to form a union and engage in collective bargaining.

House Bill 4148, creating the Legislative Employee Labor Relations Act, comes in response to a monthslong effort by Democratic staff in the speaker’s office to unionize and negotiate wages, hours and other working conditions.

“For a while now, I had some staff approach my office seeking voluntary recognition as a union,” Welch said in an interview last month. “And my legal advisors advised me that Illinois law currently specifically prohibits that. So as someone who believes in workers’ rights, this legislation is my attempt to create a legal path for them to have that right.”

Last year, a group of workers in the speaker’s office formed the Illinois Legislative Staff Association, which has been seeking recognition as a union.

Brady Burden, a member of that group’s organizing committee, said in an email last month that the committee was scheduled to meet with management in the speaker’s office later that day.

“We are happy to see the Speaker file this bill,” Burden said in a statement after that meeting. “We look forward to working together in good faith and coming to an agreement.”

In Illinois, private-sector unions are governed by the National Labor Relations Board while public-sector unions are governed by the Illinois Labor Relations

Board. But the law creating that board and outlining its powers specifically excludes employees of the General Assembly from the definition of “public employee.”

Last year, however, the General Assembly passed, and Illinois voters approved, a Workers’ Rights Amendment to the state constitution that declares employees “shall have the fundamental right to organize and to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing for the purpose of negotiating wages, hours, and working conditions, and to protect their economic welfare and safety at work.”

But Michael LeRoy, a labor law expert at the University of Illinois, said earlier this month that the wording of that amendment could be construed as vague, and it wasn’t clear whether it would apply retroactively to public employees that were already legally barred from unionizing.

As a result, the Illinois Legislative Staff Association had been asking Welch’s office to voluntarily recognize their union. Welch’s comments in September indicated his legal advisors did not believe that was authorized under law.

HB 4148, however, would specifically authorize legislative staff to unionize and it would give the ILRB jurisdiction over collective bargaining matters for staff unions, including authority to conduct elections within employee groups seeking to unionize. It would establish an Office of State Legislative Labor Relations to represent the General Assembly in collective bargaining with legislative staff. That office would have a director appointed by a Joint Committee on Legislative Support Services.

Welch said he intends to push for the bill’s passage in the upcoming fall veto session, which begins Oct. 24.

Courtesy Capitol News Illinois

Speaker of the House Emanuel “Chris” Welch and Senate President Don Harmon, shown behind him.

Welch has eased the path for his staff to unionize.

Tour de Proviso bicyclists take scenic route through Westchester

Bellwood and Maywood. Since then, roughly a dozen suburbs have partnered to host or cosponsor the event.

By MICHAEL ROMAIN Editor

Around 500 community members gathered in Westchester on Oct. 7 for the 4th Annual Tour de Proviso. Bikers took off from Mayfair Park, 10835 Wakefield St., navigating a route that took them through some of the village’s most scenic environments, such as the Salt Creek Trail.

“When we started [the Tour], it was three communities: Bellwood, Broadview and Maywood. Today, we have multiple communities partnering in collaboration,” said Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson, this year’s inaugural Tour de Proviso sponsor.

Thompson co-founded the annual biking event with Maywood Trustee Miguel Jones at the start of the pandemic in 2020. The first tour took riders through Broadview,

State Sen. Kimberly Lightford marked the official start of the Tour with a countdown and by the end, Westchester President Greg Hribal was holding the Tour de Proviso trophy due to his village registering the most participants. Tour organizers also presented the Westchester Food Pantry with a $3,000 check derived from the event’s proceeds.

“We would also like to thank the residents of Proviso Township who showed up and participated in all of the festivities today,” said Randall McFarland, the co-founder of the nonprofit Best of Proviso Township, which took the lead in planning and coordinating the event alongside the Westchester Cycle Group, Westchester Police Chief Daniel Babich and Westchester Community Service Officer David Kosir.

“Today, we all had fun in the Village of Westchester, in a positive, harmonious and inspiring way. Let’s keep it rolling!”

After bikers finished the Tour route, they were treated to a community resource fair at Mayfair Park. Bellwood will host the Tour de Proviso in 2024

village of Westchester won the trophy for most people registered.

Hundreds of people register for Saturday’s Tour de Proviso in Westchester.

Around 500 people participated in the annual bike race as Westchester beat out other villages to get the trophy for most registrations

Courtesy Westchester Park District

The

Courtesy Westchester Park District

Elizabeth Wiseman–Chase, a member of the Green Residents of Westchester (GROW) Ecological, participates in the Tour de Proviso.

Courtesy Westchester Park District Rudy Espiritu, Berkeley’s village administrator, waves while riding on Saturday.

Courtesy Westchester Park District

A man takes a selfie while riding during Saturday’s Tour de Proviso, which allowed participants to stroll through the village’s most scenic areas, such as the Salt Creek Trail.

WHAT’S HAPPENING

OCT. 11 - 17

Wednesday, Oct. 11, 4:30 to 6 p.m., Sandy Vasquez Community Center, 316 N. LaPorte in Northlake

The Northlake Youth Commission will host a Halloween Kids’ Craft Night featuring a free, fun evening of crats. For more info, visit northlakecity.com

Saturday, Oct. 14, 9 a.m., Maywood Park District, 921 S. 9th Ave. in Maywood

Join instructor Daisy Flow at Yoga in the Park. The event is weather permitting. Limited yoga mats. Bring a water bottle. Register at yogaintheparkmaywood.eventbrite. com

Saturday, Oct. 14, 9 a.m., Maywood Fine Arts, 25 N. 5th Ave. in Maywood

Maywood Fine Arts will host the annual Pumpkin Patch Parade featuring performances, games, a pumpkin bounce, face painting and more. The ARTventure starts at 9 a.m., with a celebration of MFA families’ fundraising work. The parade will start at 11 a.m. For more info, call (708) 865-0301 or visit maywoodfinearts.org

Saturday, Oct. 14, 10 a.m. to noon, Broadview Fire Department, 2400 S. 25th Ave. in Broadview

The Broadview Fire Department will host fire extinguisher training. Fire Inspector Scafidi will teach the proper way to discharge an extinguisher in an emergency. They’ll give away one free extinguisher per household to attendees who comple the course.

bit.ly/vfpcommunitycalendar

Saturday, Oct. 14, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Roosevelt Middle School, 2500 Oak St. in Bellwood

Join Bellwood District 88 and the village of Bellwood for their annual Hispanice Heritage Festival. A bus shuttle from Grant Elementary, 1300 34th Ave. in Melrose Park, will start service at 10:45 a.m. For more info, visit vil.bellwood.il.us

Saturday, Oct. 14, 6 p.m., Casa Italia’s Florentine Room, 1627 N. 39th Ave. in Stone Park

Casa Italia will host a Movie Marathon featuring two PBS documentaries: “The Italian Americans” and “And They Came to Chicago: The Italian American Legacy.” For more info, visit casaitaliachicago.org

Saturday, Oct. 14 and Sunday, Oct. 15, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Berkeley Park, Kouba Drive and Tafe Avenue in Berkeley

The Chicagoland Combined Veterans Museum, American Legion Post 335 and Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 5979 will host a Military Reenactment on in Berkeley Park. Reenacted wars include those from the French and Indian Wars through modern wars. For more info, email Lorenzo Fiorentino at lorenzoafiorentino@yahoo.com.

Saturday, Oct. 14, 9 a.m. to noon, Maywood Public Library’s parking lot, 121 S. 5th Ave. in Maywood

The village of Maywood, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District andthe Cook County Sheriff’s Office will host a Maywood Community Service Day for residential paper shredding, electronics recycling and taking back prescription drugs. For more info, visit maywood-il.gov

Saturday, Oct. 14 & Saturday, Oct. 21, 2 p.m., Maywood Public Library, 121 S. 5th Ave. in Maywood

Tweens and teens can try to escape the library’s haunted escape room. Registration required. For more info, call (708) 3431847 or visit maywoodlibrary.org

Saturday, Oct. 14, 4 to 8 p.m., Melrose Park Civic Center, 1000 N. 25th Ave. in Melrose Park

The Missionary Sisters of St. Charles’ Guild will host a Pasta Dinner Fundraiser. Adults’ donations are $15 while children’s are $8. For more info, cal Gina at (708) 514-3018 or MSCS Sisters’ Convent at (708) 343-2162.

Saturday, Oct. 14, 11:30 a.m., Hillside Public Library, 405 Hillside Ave. in Hillside

Join the library for its Annual Eclipse Celebration where participants will celebrate the eclipse with activities, crafts and spacethemed food creations all about outer space. Some seats provided but participants are encouraged to bring their own chair or picnic blanket. Registration required. For more info or to register, visit hillsidelibrary.org

Saturday, Oct. 14, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Hillside Fire Department, 523 N. Wolf Rd. in Hillside

The Hillside Fire Department will host an Open House featuring an auto extrication demonstration, a firefighter fashion show, a live burn sprinkler demo, appearances by Pluggy and Sparky, a child safety trailer, refreshments and more. For more info, visit hillside-il.org