W E D N E S D A Y
April 11, 2018 Vol. 38, No. 38 ONE DOLLAR
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JOURNAL of Oak Park and River Forest
Spring Homes 2018 Special pullout section
Oak Parker’s new film tackles Dixon fraud Kelly Richmond Pope’s ‘All the Queen’s Horses’ digs into $53M embezzlement By MICHAEL ROMAIN Editor
Rita Crundwell stole more than $53 million in taxpayer funds during her 20 years as comptroller for the city of Dixon — a town of fewer than 16,000 people, roughly 100 miles west of Chicago. She used the money to buy multiple lavish properties and, most notably, prize quarter horses (one of her favorites was named, ironically, “She Scores”). Crundwell’s embezzlement is the focus of a new documentary film, All the Queen’s Horses, by Oak Park resident Kelly Richmond Pope, an accounting professor at DePaul University with an obvious flair for spinning a yarn. Pope completed the film while in the inaugural cohort of Diverse Voices in Docs, a professional development and mentoring program for documentary filmmakers of color organized by Kartemquin Films, a Chicago-based production company, and the Community Film Workshop of Chicago. Crundwell’s theft allowed her to build a See FILM on page 14
ALEXA ROGALS/Staff Photographer
MOHR OR LESS?: The Santa Claus and the Christmas Tree at the top of the Mohr Concrete tower could be on their last legs as the old industrial site recently closed.
Mohr Concrete closed, faces financial woes Oak Park working with company on future plans
By TIMOTHY INKLEBARGER Staff Reporter
H.J. Mohr & Sons Co., an industrial concrete manufacturing company opened in 1893 – one of the oldest in the state – has had its doors closed since February and may never reopen – at least not under the same name.
Karen Richards, a principle of Mohr & Sons, said the company is currently working with a lawyer to chart a path for the business’s future, but a confidentiality agreement precluded her from revealing more. “It’s just breaking my heart because we’ve been there since 1893,” she said. Mohr Concrete sits on nearly a block at
Harlem Avenue and Garfield Street. The industrial use has been both an oddity and a source of some contention with southwest Oak Park neighbors. Oak Park Mayor Anan Abu-Taleb said in a telephone interview that the village has See MOHR on page 14