W E D N E S D A Y
April 3, 2019 Vol. 39, No. 34 ONE DOLLAR @oakpark @wednesdayjournal
JOURNAL of Oak Park and River Forest
SAY Connects Page 17
Oak Park to patch failing bridges More than $600,000 to be spent on repairs, repaving of decks By TIMOTHY INKLEBARGER Staff Reporter
Concrete falling onto the Eisenhower Expressway has, in part, prompted Oak Park to spend $136,000 on bridge and deck repairs at Home, East and Lombard avenues. The Oak Park Board of Trustees unanimously approved the contract to BLA Inc. for the project set to take place this summer and into fall. “They are definitely in need of work,” Village Engineer Bill McKenna told trustees at the March 18 meeting. “It’s not something I suggest deferring at all, and I don’t think the state would allow us to, honestly, on some of the bridges.” The project will also include installing wood paneling under the bridges to catch falling debris, so it does not hit motorists below, McKenna said. BLA also will repair sidewalks, bridge joints, pavement and make improvements to the bridge decks. McKenna told trustees that the Illinois See BRIDGES on page 12
ALEXA ROGALS/Staff Photographer
COMEBACK: Rev. Kathy Nolte, pastor of Good Shepherd Church in Oak Park, surveys the damage in a second-floor room where the September 2018 fire started. Six months later, members of the congregation are about ready to begin renovations, which they hope will be complete by October.
Good Shepherd Church rallies after trial by fire Reconstruction on track to begin this month after devastating blaze
By TOM HOLMES Contributing Reporter
The heat of a fire at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church on Sep. 5, 2018, was so intense that it compromised the material in the building’s cinder blocks, and the weight of the water used to put the fire out was so great that the ceiling over the sanctuary
collapsed onto the pews. Six months after the fire, what happened to the building and to the faith community has come into clearer focus. While the fire was devastating to the bricks and mortar structure, it also was a “trial by fire,” if you will, that revealed the character of the congregation. Regarding the bricks and mortar, an as-
SEE COMPLETE ELECTION RESULTS FROM APRIL 2 AT OAKPARK.COM
sessment of the extent of the damage revealed that the congregation would not be “back home” for about a year. Every wall made of particle board or plaster had to come down. Each of the organ’s pipes had to be cleaned individually. Paul Schlichting, a Good Shepherd memSee GOOD SHEPHERD on page 15
SPRING SPECTACULAR OPEN HOUSE EVENT Pages 27-33