W E D N E S D A Y
March 20, 2019 Vol. 39, No. 32 ONE DOLLAR @oakpark @wednesdayjournal
JOURNAL of Oak Park and River Forest
Our endorsements Page 41-43 ■
Find your polling place Page 53
Another one bites the dust River Forest delays demo of third significant property by one week By NONA TEPPER Staff Reporter
The River Forest Historic Preservation Commission voted to deny a certificate of appropriateness for demolition of a historic home on March 14, delaying teardown by just a week amid strong neighbor outcry over the home’s condition. Commission Chairman David Franek said it was “difficult” reviewing demolition plans for a third historic home. “It does call for increased enforcement by the village so that properties -- significant or otherwise -- are not allowed to deteriorate to this condition,” he said. Last year, Sara and Mike Wienkes bought the home at 1123 Franklin Ave., a historic house built by the Buurma Brothers in 1925. They applied to demolish it in February. At the meeting, Sara Wienkes said her family looked at purchasing the home about six years ago but then determined “it did not make sense” because the home needed so much work. The house has been abandoned for more than a decade – after its former owner started See HISTORIC on page 16
TIMOTHY INKLEBARGER/Staff
POET IN THE MUSEUM: Oak Parker Eric Elshtain, the Field Museum’s first poet-in-residence, works on a poem with James and Olivia Perez, visiting the museum from Miami.
Oak Parker brings poetry to science
Field Museum launches poet-in-residence program with villager heading the effort By TIMOTHY INKLEBARGER Staff Reporter
“It smells like hair, but how can smell if there is no air? It sounds like an old lady screaming, but you can’t hear screams in space. It feels solid like a tree branch and bumpy like most rocks on the moon. It
tastes like glasses and tastes like sand.” The partial poem is one of the latest from a young patron of the Field Museum, inspired by the museum’s first poet-in-residence, Eric Elshtain. Elshtain, an Oak Park resident, spends every Wednesday morning and afternoon at the museum – he sets up shop every
week with a small desk and old-school manual typewriter – and encourages museum goers to ponder some of the deeper questions of the Chicago institution. During a recent visit to the museum, Elshtain had posted himself next to a See POET on page 18