F O R E S T PA R K
GROWING COMMUNITY WEDNESDAY JOURNAL, INC.
ForestParkReview.com
Vol. 103, No. 20
$1.00
REVIEW MAY 13, 2020
Growing Community Media receives grant PAGE 4 Housing Forward asks for help PAGE 6 IN Crime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 THIS Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 ISSUE Obituaries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Classified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
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State of emergency disappears without council act to extend
Failure to second agenda item causes shock, confusion By MARIA MAXHAM Editor
In an unexpected turn of events, the motion to discuss and vote on confirming and extending the state of emergency in Forest Park due to the COVID-19 pandemic was not seconded at a village council meeting Monday effectively ending the emergency status in the village. The meeting was held via Zoom video and technical issues may have kept one commissioner from offering a second on the agenda item. When brought up at the meeting, Commissioner Jessica Voogd made a motion to discuss the resolution, but after several seconds, the motion was not seconded. Mayor Rory Hoskins said if there was no second, the ordinance would die, but nobody spoke up. “It appears there is no second on the ordinance extending the declared state of emergency,” said Hoskins, and the meeting progressed. It seemed like a standard agenda item, something that would pass with very little discussion as it had two times in the past. See STATE OF EMERGENCY on page 13
Photo by Betty Alzamora
DRIVE-BY SMILES: Evangeline Bonwit celebrated her 6 birthday on the front porch with her family, including father Andy Bonwit, pictured here. Friends drove by with signs and balloons to honk and wave in this new pandemic-style trend in partying. th
Parade parties allow celebration, connection Drive-by (and drive-bye) events bring community together By MARIA MAXHAM Editor
“Life isn’t normal now, but we have to find ways to be connected as a village, as a community, as a society.” Forest Park resident Betty Alzamora has been taking photos of drive-by parties, documenting this new way that
people are celebrating each other while remaining appropriately distant. When Nathalie Wheaton and Benn Joseph and their daughters Sophie and Solenn moved out of town after 14 years in Forest Park, friends organized a parade of cars to drive past their house to say goodbye. Balloons flew out of car windows and people held up signs and
honked their horns. It was relatively early in the pandemic’s stay-at-home and distancing requirements – April 14 – and for people participating it seemed like a novel idea. Resident Julianne Bonwit organized the drive-by for Wheaton and Joseph and See DRIVE-BY on page 12