Big Week

Sept. 23-Oct. 6 BIG WEEK

MakerLab Mondays at Forest Park Library

Kids ages 10-13 can stop in to the Forest Park Public Library, 7555 Jackson Blvd., on Oct. 4 and every Monday for MakerLab Mondays from 3:30 to 5 p.m. in the Youth Services Program Room.

The 3D printer is open and ready for business. Kids can choose from one of the Tinkerlab or Thingiverse projects. Due to distancing and COVID safety practices, limited slots are available. Masks are required inside the program room.

Register at fppl.evanced.info/signup/Calendar.

Author event at Centuries & Sleuths

Centuries & Sleuths bookstore, 7419 Madison St., hosts author Kathleen Anne Fleming on Sunday, Oct. 3 at 2 p.m.

Fleming’s will discuss her historical mystery, “Murder Most Opulent,” which examines the gray line in the middle of social strati cation, the proverbial quest for acquisition and power in search of ful llment, at the expense of the soul.

After the talk, she’ll sign copies of her book.

Fall Fungi Identi cation Hike

The Trailside Museum of Natural History, 738 Thatcher Ave. in River Forest, invites you to get acquainted with the fungi of the forest during their Fall Fungi Iden ti cation Hike on Thursday, Sept. 30 at 10 a.m.

A naturalist will lead the hike and point out examples of various fungi found in the Forest Preserves, with a special emphasis on key eld characteristics. For ages 18 & up.

Registration required by calling the Trailside at 708-366-6530.

Bingo at the Eagles

Fraternal Order of Eagles Post #1344, 446 Hannah Ave., invites you to compete for cash prizes at their weekly Bingo night, every Wednesday at 7 p.m. You must be at least 18 years old. Four cards/10 games for $11. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Snacks available. No alcohol.

Haymarket monument/Radical Row tour

Join the Historical Society of Forest Park for their nal hour-long tour of Haymarket Martyrs Monument & Radical Row Tour of the year at Forest Home Cemetery, 863 Desplaines Ave. on Saturday, Oct. 2 at 11 a.m.

Learn the story of the Haymarket a air, the monument and those who choose to be buried near this monument to the 8-hour day and those who died for it.

A $10 donation is requested. Park at the o ce near the Desplaines Avenue entrance. To register, visit forestparkhistory.org.

Forest Park Review, September 29, 2021 5 Forest Park boosts patrols, seeks fencing to cut drug use near community garden

Outreach to county and state for help

By IGOR STUDENKOV

Contributing Reporter

Forest Park Mayor Rory Hoskins is asking the Illinois Department of Transportation to put up a taller fence on the north side of the Eisenhower Expressway to deter drug use and what he described as aggressive panhandling.

According to Ken Gross, acting police chief, the issue is centered on the south edge of the Forest Park Community Garden at 631 S. Harlem Avenue, northwest of the spot where Harlem Avenue crosses the expressway. Hoskins said that in the past there was drug usage on the south side of the expressway, but the village worked with the Cook County Department of Transportation and Highways to fence it off. But, in recent weeks, the activity seems to have shifted north.

The village contracted a biohazard cleanup company to remove used syringes, and police officers started making regular checks. The village reached out to IDOT to build a new fence, which Hoskins sees as a more permanent solution, and said he reached out to Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson (1st) to try to move the process along. In the meantime, Gross said that officers will continue patrolling the area.

The interaction includes several overlapping jurisdictions. The east side of Harlem Avenue is part of Oak Park, while the west side is part of Forest Park. As state highways, both Harlem Avenue and the Eisenhower Expressway are controlled by IDOT.

The community garden is located right by expressway’s northern edge. There’s a chain link fence on the south edge of the garden, but during a recent visit, the Review saw personal belongings on the other side. And while a fence continues along the north side of the expressway between Harlem and Des Plaines avenues, it gets shorter further west.

On an average day, it isn’t unusual to see panhandlers walking the Harlem Avenue median, approaching drivers as they wait to cross. Hoskins said the village has been getting increasing complaints about panhandling and drug use near the intersection.

“Some of the panhandling has been aggressive, and it concerns residents for safety as well as public health reasons,” he said. “And some of the panhandlers are known for using drugs.”

Gross said that it’s not unusual to see homeless residents on the south end of the community garden, but that he’s never seen anywhere near as many discarded hypodermic needles as there have been in recent weeks. He said that he wasn’t sure whether it indicated increased heroin use or that more people were dumping them at that location, but the spike concerned him.

Hoskins said that last year, the village saw a similar problem on the south side of the expressway. Tim Gillian, then the village administrator, personally saw used needles scattered there. The village reached out to Johnson, who worked with the county highway department to fence it off.

Hoskins said he was especially concerned about the activity because it was happening next to the community garden.

The mayor said the village contracted a biohazard disposal company to get rid of the drug paraphernalia. Gross said that his officers “have been doing premise checks to try to curtail drug use” – something that the department will continue doing in the future.

Both he and the mayor said that the longterm solution would be to get IDOT to build a better fence. Hoskins said that the village reached out to IDOT, and he personally discussed the issue with Johnson. But as of Sept. 23, the village hasn’t received any commitment from the state.

In recent years, many municipalities have been shifting toward a multi-faceted approach to tackling illegal drug use, offering social services alongside enforcement. Hoskins said he wasn’t opposed to providing social services to homeless individuals. noting that Forest Park Police Department currently has a counselor under the auspices of the Proviso Township police crisis worker program. But given that the village’s resources are limited, he said, they decided to focus on enforcement.

“Mostly, we’ve addressed it from the public safety standpoint,” Hoskins said, adding that he believed that Oak Park and Proviso townships were better equipped to handle the issue from the social services standpoint.

A panhandler on the Harlem Avenue median over the Eisenhower Expressway.

Scout Pack 109 counters national trend

By MICHELE DYBAL

Arts Editor

Although nationally membership for the Boy Scouts of America Cub Scouts and Scouts BSA program has dropped, local Cub Scout Pack 109 has kicked off their scout year with more families and grew by 18%. Hosting their first meeting of the fall at the Park District of Forest Park pavilion, were scouts and adults this past Saturday.

The six dens, divided by grade level, are a part of a larger group called the pack. The dens in separate groups worked on flag etiquette, scout handshake, building with tools, teamwork and knot tying.

Paul Murray, leader of the second grade wolves, took the first meeting to teach the square knot. “Hold the rope and raise your right hand,” he said as he lead the scouts in the lesson. After learning the skill scouts repeated tying with different challenges. One by one scouts jumped in place then raced down the hill with their rope to practice their square knot on the fence of the skate park.

Bear den leader, Drew DePriest, held the attention of the bear scouts as he donned a hard hat and safety vest while leading the third graders through a demonstration of tools. Each scout was then handed a board with predrilled holes, a bag of tools, a carpenter pencil, and the hardware to place in the board.

It was the first time many of the scouts had used a screwdriver, and Baron Cooper explained, “We are building toolkits. Screwing is screwing, measuring is measuring, hammering is hammering, bolting is bolting.”

Many of the new families were looking for activities involving the community and outdoors. Rose Bozman, new to the Pack, volunteered to become the first grade, Tiger den leader. After leading her first meeting, she explained, “I just want to be part part of the community, and be a part of something that is family oriented and fun.”

Giving the Tiger meeting the stamp of approval, Ramona Cross, excitedly explained, “We did games tigers play. The first one was pretty hard. We passed a ball without using our hands or feet and then had to move the ball in two hoops then put it in a basket.”

Michelle Costelo, who has fond memories of her days as a Brownie in Girl Scouts, joined the Pack with her son, Roman this year because, “being a part of the community and getting involved is important to our family.”

Since the scouts are too young for vaccinations, the meetings are all planned outdoors for the next month or two.

“We are all looking forward to a safe return to all the fun events,” said Scout Pack Master, Steve Rummel, “and watching the scouts grow together through service, work and play.”

JILL WAGNER Scouts from Forest Park’s Bear Den look on as leader Drew DePriest demonstrates how to use a screwdriver at the rst meeting of the scout season this past Saturday.

Forest Park Village Council adjusts library trustee terms

Tweak needed to realign library board terms per state law

By IGOR STUDENKOV

Contributing Reporter

Forest Park village commissioners have voted to adjust the terms of most Forest Park Public Library trustees in order to bring them into compliance with state law.

Under the Illinois Local Library Code, in villages with a commission form of government, the village council appoints six library trustees for six-year terms that are staggered by one year.

For example, if two trustees were appointed in 2020, the next two would need to be appointed in 2021 and the next two would need to be appointed in 2022. But over time, Forest Park drifted away from that pattern, with trustees starting their terms on four different, not always consecutive years.

During their Sept. 27 meeting, village commissioners voted unanimously to adjust the terms to bring them in line with state law. The trustees still have their seats, but most of their terms are now either longer or shorter than before. And the board still has a trustee vacancy for a term that will expire in 2024.

While the Local Library Code requires the village council to appoint the trustees, in practice, Forest Park mayors have been making appointments with the council voting to approve those choices.

According to a memo by Village Administrator Moses Amidei, library Trustee James Pekoll was appointed in June 25, 2018, while Vice President Keary Bramwell was appointed in June 8, 2020, with their terms expiring in 2024.

Board President Brooke Sievers and Trustee Lin Beribak were originally appointed to fill vacancies and got reappointed to full terms on June 8, 2020 and June 26, 2017, respectively, so their terms would’ve expired in 2026 and 2023. Trustee Eboni Murray was appointed to fill a vacancy on Aug. 8, 2021, with her term scheduled to expire in May 2027.

This meant that the library ended up with two trustees who were appointed to their current terms in 2017, a trustee who was appointed in 2018, two trustees who were appointed in 2020 and one trustee who was appointed in 2021.

Both Amidei and Forest Park Public Library Director Pilar Shaker previously indicated that they had no idea how the terms ended up out of alignment, since whatever happened preceded their respective tenures.

The village council voted to adjust the terms, so that Beribak’s term and the term of whoever will fill the vacancy will end on May 13, 2024. Bramwell and Pekoll’s terms will end on May 12, 2025, and Sievers’ and Murray’s terms will end on May 11, 2026. This shortened Murray’s term by one year, lengthened Bramwell’s, Pekoll’s and Beribak’s terms, and kept Sievers’ term the same.

The Local Library Code doesn’t set term limits for library trustees, so the mayor can simply reappoint any of the current trustees once their current terms are up.

The village council also approved the library’s request for the building and maintenance fund levy. As previously reported by the Review, this is something that the library has been requesting since 2007, and assures that 0.02 percent of the existing library levy will be used for maintenance purposes.

In a letter to the village council, Shaker indicated that the library planned to use those funds “to finance deferred maintenance issues, to keep up with regular maintenance of our facility and to pay for needed repairs and upgrades.”

Village Council approves Rec Board’s new mission

By IGOR STUDENKOV

Contributing Reporter

The Forest Park Village Council voted unanimously to officially change the Forest Park Recreation Board’s mission from taking care of village-owned pocket parks to organizing and coordinating volunteer efforts. With the Park District of Forest Park taking over the responsibility for maintaining and improving four of the six pocket parks, the board needed a new purpose. The ordinance that went before the council on Sept. 27 was virtually identical to what the Rec Board unanimously approved during its Sept. 9 meeting, making the board primarily responsible for organizing and supporting volunteer activities while continuing to serve as a liaison between residents and the village on nature-related issues. Amy BinnsCalvey, the board’s chair, who drafted the amendment, said she was looking forward to what the board will be able to accomplish.

The park district is currently responsible for Reiger Park, 1526 Circle Ave.; Lathrop Park, 1138 Lathrop Ave.; Popelka Park, 501 Thomas Ave.; and Remembrance Park, 7341 Randolph St. The Rec Board is still responsible for Veterans Park, 631 Circle Ave., and the dog park at 632 Circle Ave.

Under the village council-approved revisions, the board still serves as a “conduit” between residents and the village on issues affecting village-owned green spaces, parks, and other recreational amenities. But its primary duty is now to help residents and organizations serve the community, which can include “influencing the maintenance, safety and improvement of the villageowned green space and recreational public property.” The board will be “available as a resource and a possible coordination center” for Forest Park residents and organizations wishing to organize volunteer projects. Anyone can bring proposals for service projects to the board, which will figure out what it can do to help those projects along.

The board will also be responsible for coordinating “a minimum of two volunteer activities a year” in Forest Park. They tentatively agreed to do two community clean-ups next year — one in March and one around Halloween.

Commissioner Jessica Voogd, who serves as a liaison between the village council and the Recreation Board, said she hoped the recreation board would help get the word out about village outdoors-related regulations, such as the rule about putting decorations and signage on public rights of way.

“As the Recreation Board makes the transition, I believe the board will be a helpful conduit for that information,” she said.

Voogd also said she was excited about the transition, and that she believed it wouldn’t be long before the board grows beyond two volunteer activities a year.

Binns-Calvey, who attended the council meeting, said she was looking forward to what the new mission will bring.

“We’re thrilled and we’re really looking forward to building a volunteer base in Forest Park,” she said. “I know there are a lot of people who love to give back, and it would be great to be a conduit for that.”

The Recreation Board meets every second Thursday of the month at 7 p.m., and meetings are open to the public. The next meeting will take place virtually on Oct. 14, and meeting inductions will be posted on the village website closer to the meeting date.

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