Wednesday Journal 062420

W E D N E S D A Y

June 24, 2020 Vol. 40, No. 48 ONE DOLLAR @oakpark @wednesdayjournal

JOURNAL of Oak Park and River Forest

Police reform talk gets testy in Oak Park Village board orders conversations, consultant By STACEY SHERIDAN Staff Reporter

ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

FLY THE FLAG: Oak Park’s celebration of a socially distant Juneteenth was a caravan, estimated at three miles long, which made its way through Oak Park and Austin. Anthony Clark, an event organizer, raised the Pan-African flag.

River Forest and Maywood make history Twin Cities Covenant binds neighboring villages By MICHAEL ROMAIN Staff Reporter

On June 14, as hundreds of demonstrators protesting against racism marched along Randolph Street from neighboring Maywood into River Forest, throngs of residents greeted them with bottles of water

and Black Lives Matter signs. River Forest Village President Cathy Adduci and several trustees were even among the marchers. The following week, another march coursed through the village, but this time demonstrators walked from Maywood to River Forest along Madison Street in recognition of Juneteenth and to protest police abuse. During a regular board meeting on June 22, the River Forest Village Board reinforced the pomp and circumstance of the

protests with concrete action — a Twin Villages Covenant between the village of River Forest and Maywood, its immediate neighbor to the west. The board voted unanimously in support of the Covenant, which Maywood Trustee Miguel Jones, who introduced the proposal, called “historic” and a “huge deal.” In an interview last week, Jones said he approached Adduci and other board memSee COVENANT on page 11

Oak Park’s village board clashed sharply Monday evening over how to approach police reform discussions in the village. Two votes, one early in the meeting and another at the end, delivered some direction to staff on next steps. In the first vote trustees agreed 6-1 to accept Mayor Anan Abu-Taleb’s June 8 pledge to the Obama Foundation to evaluate local police use-of-force policies, to address issues of police violence and systemic racism. That vote followed disagreements which started not even 10 minutes into the meeting. “I am not in support of this resolution as written for several reasons,” said Trustee Arti Walker-Peddakotla. “The first is that we cannot just have a resolution that speaks to the Obama Foundation pledge because in this moment, that pledge and taking that pledge is not enough.” Secondly, Walker-Peddakotla said the pledge had to acknowledge the harm done by the current and previous village boards of Oak Park for not listening and responding to complaints of racial profiling by local police officers. “We have to have some reparations language in this resolution because we’re not even acknowledging that, up until this point, this resolution, we have ignored as a village See REFORM on page 19

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Wednesday Journal, June 24, 2020

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Stray thoughts on a potent week BLM mural on Scoville Ave.

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in Oak Park. A portion of the his is General Order No. 3, issued by Maj. Gen. proceeds will go to those two Gordon Granger, June local institutions and to the 19, 1865 — the date now Black Lives Matter Foundation. known as Juneteenth Not long after hearing about (a portmanteau of June and the new roast, I learned this nineteenth): depressing news from NPR: “The people of Texas are “Among the recipients of informed that, in accordance people’s charity - the Black with a proclamation from the Lives Matter Foundation. It has Executive of the United States, raised several million dollars all slaves are free. This involves in recent weeks in the form of an absolute equality of personal small gifts from individuals, rights and rights of property also well-intentioned employees between former masters and of big corporations, including Commentary slaves, and the connection Apple and Microsoft. Here’s the heretofore existing between rub. The Black Lives Matter them becomes that between employer and Foundation is not connected in any way hired labor. The freedmen are advised to with the Black Lives Matter movement. remain quietly at their present homes Reporter Ryan Mac has been trying to and work for wages. They are informed untangle this for BuzzFeed News.” that they will not be allowed to collect I will also try some untangling myself, at military posts and that they will not although I’m heartened, still, by this bit of be supported in idleness either there or wisdom: elsewhere.” “Everyone is feeling the sentiments of Michael Davis, of the National Archives, injustice, but the biggest challenge is people makes a salient point about the order that don’t know what to do,” Counter Coffee has informed my understanding of the owner Jacques Shalo told Forest Park many activities I’ve witnessed this week. Review, Wednesday Journal’s sister paper. “While the order was critical to “The Black Lives Matter Blend keeps the expanding freedom to enslaved people, the concept broad but the connection local.” racist language used in the last sentences On Friday, Juneteenth, local politicians foreshadowed that the fight for equal rights marched down Washington Boulevard, would continue,” Davis writes. from Broadview through Maywood, Last week, I learned that the state’s through Bellwood, through River Forest wealthiest man, hedge fund tycoon into Forest Park. Some of those politicians Kenneth C. Griffin, purchased a painting govern Maywood, where on Saturday a by Jean-Michel Basquiat — perhaps the woman protested in front of that suburb’s most valued Black artist in the world — for police station. $100 million. Rest assured, public, Griffin Last year on Father’s Day, her sister, plans to allow you to see it. The painting is Ruth Johnson, was killed on the corner the “large-scale 1982 canvas ‘Boy and Dog of 1st Avenue and Randolph — where in a Johnnypump’,” the Chicago Tribune marchers walked on June 14 to protest the reports. murder of George Floyd — by an SUV full Basquiat, who was often idle when of juveniles trying to evade chasing police alive, died in 1988 of a heroin overdose. officers. One officer allegedly started the He was 27. Around five years before his chase after noticing that the SUV had run death, Basquiat painted “‘Defacement’: a stop sign, a chase which would be against The Untold Story,” which was inspired department policy and reckless. Despite by the death on Sept. 28, 1983, of Michael dash cam video evidence and witnesses Stewart, “a twenty-five-year-old art student (whom the family says investigating at Pratt and a frequenter of the time’s officers have not yet interviewed), the local impoverished but raucous, creatively police chief here insists that the chase was booming East Village and Lower East Side not a chase. Ruth’s march drew about 10 people, bohemia, from injuries incurred while most of them her relatives. But her in police custody,” according to the New death has opened up the possibility of a Yorker. pattern of abusive and reckless policing in Basquiat “used marker and acrylics Maywood — a pattern that local politicians to dash off a sketch of two fiendish cops beating an armless, legless figure, rendered marching for George Floyd have utterly and frivolously failed to begin to point out in black silhouette.” Basquiat, like Stewart despite the civil rights complaints, despite — brilliantly and creatively idle and Black the settlements, despite the wrongful —“was distraught” by his contemporary’s deaths, despite one police-involved crash murder, saying repeatedly: “It could have been me.” I wonder which wealthy, white happening after another. person or institution now owns that pain “I think they’re missing the point,” said and suffering. Ruth’s mother, of the local politicians. Last week, I lit up at the news of a Black “They should include her [in their protests], Lives Matter Roast, sold at Counter Coffee because finding justice for her is just as in Forest Park and Sugar Beet Food Co-op important as finding justice anywhere.”

MICHAEL ROMAIN

By STACEY SHERIDAN Staff Reporter

The newest piece of public art in Oak Park will be a Black Lives Matter street mural painted along the stretch of Scoville Avenue between Lake Street and North Boulevard. A mixture of Oak Park artists and resident volunteers have signed up to help paint the 130-feet long and 12-feet wide mural, paid for by the Oak Park Area Arts Council. “We thought this was something that Oak Park needs to have – something that children in the community can see for hopefully years to come and know this is where we stand as a community,” said Cullen Benson, who came up with the idea. After seeing Black Lives Matter public art projects go up in other parts of the country, Benson used social media to posit the idea of doing something similar in Oak Park; the response from the community was immediate and supportive. “It got a great response from the community and the community wanted to kind of help in any way they could donating their time, their money and supplies if they had it,” said Benson. As the plan started to materialize, Benson enlisted Cortlyn Kelly, whom he called a “wonderful artist and community organizer,” to help manage the project’s execution and coordinate work teams. Multimedia artist Franka Del Santo signed on as lead designer and developed the mural’s concept, which will consist of a black background with the words “Black Lives Matter” painted in gold, orange, red, yellow, purple and a touch of blue. Benson described the color scheme as “sunset tones.” Painting begins Wednesday, June 24; the mural is expected to be finished by Satur-

day, June 27 and unveiled to the public the following day during the Farmers Market. That portion of Scoville Avenue was just repaved this spring in anticipation of the Farmers Market. Benson and his team declined to share a rendering of the mural’s design as they have not yet finalized it. Benson believes Oak Park’s mural will be the first street mural in the entire state of Illinois. “We’re going to be the first street mural done in the state of Illinois; we’re actually going to be beating Chicago to it,” he said. “We wanted to be the first to do it to show we’re the trailblazers of the state.” A total of 18 volunteers will help execute the mural. To prevent the contraction of COVID-19, the volunteers will work in groups of three, painting different sections of the mural. Everyone is required to wear masks for the entire time they are at the location. Handwashing stations will also be on site. The fact that Oak Park is making such a large and very public commitment to the Black Lives Matter movement is extremely meaningful to Benson, who was born and raised in the village. “I’m half Black and half white, so I have both sides of the equation to deal with,” said Benson. “It means a lot to me. The group of people who have banded together to paint the mural include people of different skin colors, ages and genders, which Benson called “very impactful and powerful to me.” “There is going to be so many people of all different races and genders working on this project, coming together as one and as a community,” he said. The permanence of public art will allow people to reflect upon this particular time in the United States for generations to come. “This is going to be a piece of history.”

Note to our readers

Why Black is now capitalized in our stories These are days of mighty change that we are reporting on in our seven neighborhoods. Our reporting has never been more vital. And our thoughtful use of words takes on greater importance. That is why Growing Community Media, like many other news organizations, last week updated our editorial style guidelines to begin capitalizing the words Black and Brown when used in our pages. This change reflects recognition of systemic racism in our work over decades in reporting on people of color. It is a small but notable adjustment which acknowledges with respect the contributions to our history and to our

culture of Black and Brown people. It equalizes references to Hispanics, Asians, Italian-Americans, Irish-Americans and other communities. The word white, which typically describes a skin color and not a distinct culture, will continue to be lower-case. Growing Community Media publishes under four flags in seven neighborhoods – the Austin Weekly News, Wednesday Journal of Oak Park & River Forest, Forest Park Review and Riverside-Brookfield Landmark.

Dan Haley Editor and Publisher Growing Community Media

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Wednesday Journal, June 24, 2020

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

BIG WEEK June 24-July 1 Wright in the Neighborhood Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, beginning June 20, 10 to 11:15 a.m. Take an outdoor guided walking tour led by an expert and explore the neighborhood around Frank Lloyd Wright’s Home and Studio where the architect pioneered the Prairie style. Buildings on the tour include the Home and Studio, Nathan Moore, Arthur Heurtley and Laura Gale houses, and more. Rain or shine. $25; $20 FLW Trust members. Pedal Oak Park tours are also available. Tickets/ More: flwright.org/tours/oak-park.

Story Time in the Garden

Author Talk: “Unscripted”

Wednesdays, starting July 1, 11 to 11:30 a.m., outdoor Discovery Garden at the Oak Park Conservatory Enjoy story time, songs and puppetry led by Conservatory docents. Maximum of 16 participants. Both adults and children must register; only registered participants will be allowed in the Discovery Garden during story time. Brought by the Friends of the Oak Park Conservatory. Free; $5 suggested donation. Register: pdop.org. 615 Garfield St., Oak Park.

View a prerecorded live talk with Young Adult author Nicole Kronzer. Brought by the Nineteenth Century Charitable Association. For more information go to: nineteenthcentury.org

Many Voices: Peace Circle Thursday, June 25, 5 to 6 p.m., Virtually with the Oak Park Public Library Join with community members to participate in a virtual peace circle. Circles generally offer a chance for people to gather and share using a facilitated process. As questions are asked and the talking piece is passed from person to person, everyone in the circle has an opportunity to share if they choose to. Those participating agree to keep confidential the personal stories and information shared in circle. This circle is part of the summer reading program with a theme of immigration. Also, July 23. Register: oppl.org/calendar

Unity Chamber Music Series Duo Diorama Sunday, June 28, 3-4 p.m. See a virtual concert by artistic directors Winston Choi, piano, and MingHuan Xu, violin. Brought by Unity Temple Restoration Foundation. Pay what you want (100% tax deductible donation). Tickets and more information at: www.utrf.org/chamber-music-series/

Volunteers Needed for Farmers Market The Oak Park Farmers Market has reconfigured due to COVID-19. Help is needed throughout the season every Saturday from now through the end of October. Volunteers are needed to set up, take down, help with pre-orders and more. Sign up: signupgenius.com/go/5080f4daba62aa1f85-2020

Virtually Yours Benefit Bash

Beginner’s Chinese Calligraphy

Saturday, June 27, 7 p.m., virtually with 16th Street Theater Celebrate 16th Street of Berwyn and help raise funds for future programming. The night starts with Autre Monde showing how to mix up an alcoholic and non-alcoholic drink to enjoy. Then the show begins with a cheeky musical number and surprise guests, excerpts from past productions and live performances of music. There’s a $1,000 cash raffle and auction (bidding began June 17), too. Free to register: events.handbid.com/auctions/16th-street2020-benefit-bash-auction

Saturday, June 27, 2 to 3 p.m., Virtually with the Oak Park Public Library Jojo Liu will teach the art of traditional Chinese calligraphy — how to hold a brush, write basic strokes and write while standing. Free. Register: oppl.org/ calendar

Yoga with Rhonda Monday, June 29, 1 to 2 p.m., virtually with the River Forest Library Join Rhonda from Rhonda’s Rhythms for a home yoga class for all ages and skill levels. Register: riverforestlibrary.librarymarket.com

Val’s Purchases Help Support Young Musicians Through June 30 Need more music in your life? Purchase LPs and more from Oak Park retailer Val’s halla Records and 10 percent of your purchase goes to PING! (Providing Instruments for the Next Generation). Val’s has recently created on online shop and offers free curbside pickup and local delivery, or mail delivery. Use code PING-ROCKS. Shop: valshallarecords.com/

Adult Improv Tuesday, June 30, 7 to 8 p.m., Zoom through the Oak Park Library Join in a night of spontaneous comedy where you can let your inner comedian run free and improve your quick-thinking skills. All levels welcome. Register: oppl.org/calendar

Food Donations Needed Drop off donations Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., First United Church of Oak Park Beyond Hunger’s food pantry shelves are nearly empty. The Food Pantry distributes over 17,000 pounds of food each week to those in need. Items most needed now include canned vegetables, canned soups, canned meat meals (like ravioli), canned meat (tuna, chicken). More: GoBeyondHunger.org. 848 Lake St., Oak Park, enter the parking lot off Kenilworth behind the church and look for the drop off window.

ScienceTeller’s Dragon Story Show Monday, June 29, 3:30 to 4:30 p.m., Virtually with the River Forest Public Library See a fun, interactive storytelling show using scientific experiments to tell of a magical dragon’s adventure. For grades K-4. Register: riverforestlibrary. librarymarket.com

Wednesday Journal, June 24, 2020

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

A novel concept grows in Oak Park — people helping people Oak Park Mutual Aid, formed during pandemic, offers assistance to area residents in need

filled 80 financial requests totaling $12,300 and given out 102 food boxes. That total includes pending and newer aid requests, she said. All of the money that’s given out comes from residents who donate to the group’s GoFundMe account. Residents who need aid can simply go to the group’s website — oakparkmutualaid. By MICHAEL ROMAIN com — and fill out an aid request form that’s Staff Reporter available in both English and Spanish. Hunt said the group has largely focused its efforts When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the on residents in Oak Park, River Forest and United States in March, prompting govern- Forest Park, with the majority of requests ment officials in states across the country to coming from Oak Park residents. put a pause on all kinds of economic activ“When I was first introduced to it, it was ity in order to slow the spread of the virus, kind of a foreign concept — the idea that area residents were left at the mercy of a you just help someone, because they ask flailing unemployment insurance system you,” Hunt said. and an insufficient safety net. But as the pandemic stretches on and with The Illinois Department of Employment the country now officially in the grips of a Security estimated that as many as 72,000 recession, that concept is gradually becomunemployment claims were filed in one ing normalized. week in May alone. Alana Murphy, a volunteer with the group, Into this void stepped some Oak Park resisaid that Oak Park Mutual Aid has attracted dents who would eventually people with diverse skills form Oak Park Mutual Aid, — from accountant types “a coalition of neighbors versed in setting up tax dedicated to directly caring structures to techies versed for one another and those in Zoom, Google Docs, Slack around us in greatest need,” and other technologies. according to the group’s “I’ve been really imwebsite. pressed with the group,” “In the beginning, IDES Murphy said last month. was overwhelmed and not “It’s hard to get a bunch of responding,” said Patty people to work together, but Hunt, one of the lead orgahere we have a diverse group nizers who helped start the of people with different mutual aid group in March. skill sets figuring out who “A lot of people had been can help with fundraising out of work for four or five or graphic design or tutorweeks and hadn’t received ing support. It’s been really unemployment and many impressive and really humpeople were living paycheck PATTY HUNT bling.” to paycheck.” Mutual Aid volunteer Hunt said that as the need Since its formation, Hunt for Oak Park Mutual Aid said, Oak Park Mutual Aid grows, so will the group’s cahas grown to encompass pacity. The group has applied around 60 to 80 volunteers for 501(c)(3) nonprofit status. and a core group of around “This is people helping people and every10 to 15 people. The group hosts a regular food distribution on Saturdays, from 10 a.m. one is trying to help out as they can, in a to 12 p.m., at First Presbyterian Church, very respectful way,” Hunt said. “I think it’s been working really well and a lot of people 7551 Quick Ave. in River Forest. In addition to food assistance, the group are so appreciative. Sometimes they’re at also helps community members with a the end of their rope. There’s a lot of need in range of services, including medication and this community. I know people [may think grocery pick up, financial assistance (up to that that’s hard to believe], because we’re $100 for individuals and up to $200 for fami- relatively affluent, but you’d be surprised lies), referrals for mental health support how much need is out there.” and other services, and telephone wellness For more information on Oak Park Muchecks. tual Aid, visit the website at oakparkmutuHunt said that, between mid-April and alaid.com. mid-June, Oak Park Mutual Aid has ful-

We now meet via ZOOM email us to join!

“The idea is that you just help someone because they ask you.”

Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, Bisexuals and Transgender We meet on the 4th Sunday First United Church of Oak Park 848 Lake Street, Oak Park (at Kenilworth) 3 pm - 5 pm This is a place of confidentiality.

708.386.1738 www.pflag.org

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Support .... Education....Advocacy

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Wednesday Journal, June 24, 2020

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Ascension braces for a change, with more to come By KEN TRAINOR Staff Writer

Recently, Ascension Parish announced the news that outgoing pastor Rev. Jim Hurlbert would be succeeded by a new model of leadership, separating administrative and pastoral duties. Rev. Carl Morello, current pastor of St. Giles Parish, will continue at St. Giles but also serve as administrator at Ascension, and Rev. Rex Pillai, formerly of St. Clement in Chicago, will serve as the pastoral leader. The development coincides with the archdiocese’s Renew My Church initiative, a process that has resulted in merging parishes throughout the Chicago area over the past several years. That process is now coming to the four parishes in Oak Park (Ascension, St. Edmund, St. Catherine-St. Lucy, and St. Giles) and is scheduled to be completed in 2022. All of this represents potentially significant change to church business as usual. As these developments begin to take shape, we asked some of Ascension’s parishioners for their reactions. Gina Orlando and Marty Berg We are excited by the creative archdiocesan solution for Ascension with our new priests. Our friends at St. Giles and the St. Giles Family Mass have always said that Fr. Carl is a wonderful pastor. His support of the Family Mass program tells us he is open

to a progressive spirituality with strong lay involvement and leadership, which sounds like a good match for us. What we hear about Fr. Rex Pillai is also wonderful. Being from Sri Lanka he will add his energy, openhearted warmth, and the richness of his experience from Jesus’ side of the world. We hope Fr. Carl is not overworked with his role as administrator as we shift into the Renew My Church changes. A very helpful part of that “renewal” would be for the Catholic Church to open up the priesthood to married men and women. This would ease the priest shortage and could draw more people back to church and into the true inclusive ministry of Jesus, which focuses on love, forgiveness, compassion, mercy and justice for all peoples. Gina Orlando and Marty Berg are longtime members of Ascension, the choir, and the HOME (Honoring Our Mother Earth) Creation Care team. Celine Woznica We’ve been learning about Renew My Church for a couple of years now and have heard about how it has affected other parishes in the archdiocese. Many of us thought it would translate into closures and mergers of Oak Park parishes, but this plan appears to be different with a more streamlined utilization of resources and a recognition of the different parishes’ strengths. When I was growing up, our pastor consid-

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ered a “mixed marriage” when you married someone from another parish. Our parishes were silos, sometimes even in competition with each other. Those days are gone, thank goodness, and our doors and windows have been opened for Oak Park Catholics to build a larger, more diverse, and dynamic community among the four parishes. Celine Woznica has been a member of Ascension parish since the family moved to Oak Park in 1992. All five children graduated from Ascension School. She served on the school board, the Peace and Justice Committee and many other volunteer activities, including the youth service trips to Appalachia and Tijuana. Mary Catherine Meeks Whereas I think when the assignments came out we were a little surprised, now after thinking about it, I think we can all see how this is a very positive move. There’s a lot of potential. It has been the goal of Renew My Church to join parishes, given the statistics, and by making the direct connection to St. Giles, it helps move us in the direction of the Renew My Church goal. Our Oak Park grouping will take place in the spring of 2022. In the meantime, Oak Park parishes will have significant opportunities to collaborate together on different issues, discovering the leadership and strengths of a particular parish in potential areas of ministry and providing an avenue for our

collective energy to provide the best care for the Catholic people attending these Oak Park parishes. So I think this is good news! Just, perhaps, a little unexpected and a new model. Mary Catherine Meeks is a pastoral associate at Ascension Church.

Dan Doody Renew my Church is, from a business perspective, a glorified label for asset management. With a shortage of priests, declining congregations, and a glut of old, underutilized buildings, the archdiocese is reshuffling the pieces and calling it “renewal.” I wish leadership had taken the opportunity to recalibrate through spiritual renewal, which is especially needed following the decades of sexual abuse of Catholic children by the clergy and the years and the millions spent in covering up this grievous sin. If renewal had taken a spiritual spin, Catholics would be encouraged to mobilize to the front lines to feed the hungry, house the homeless, care for the poor, and join with the oppressed in their struggle for justice. I’ll get excited about the Church’s prospects for renewal when living the Gospel is the emphasis of Church-wide renewal and asset management is left to the accountants. Dan Doody has been a parishioner for 53 years, serving on numerous parish committees

Wednesday Journal, June 24, 2020

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

32nd

ANNUAL

2020

Is HERE!

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ack in March we had just begun work on our Design-an-Ad section when the Shelter in Place order shut down the economy. So our annual showcase of 4th and 5th grader advertising art had to be postponed.

At long last we are finally able to present a selection of the beautiful work by our local young artists. Online you will see the full curated 2020 collection at www.OakPark.com. In addition, several local advertisers chose to publish their ads in the pages of this very newspaper. You will find them scattered throughout. We are, as always, grateful to all of the teachers—and especially the wonderful art teachers—in our local public and private elementary schools. We congratulate all the children who participated, and shared their imaginative and witty talents.

A. Carlson • 5th • Roosevelt

G R E AT J O B K I D S ! www.OakPark.com

Jack Irvin • 5th • Beye

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Wednesday Journal, June 24, 2020

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

ART BEAT

Black-owned, art infused, Arts District women push on COVID challenges bring out ingenuity By MICHELLE DYBAL Arts Editor

It’s rich with originality. From the title Creator in Chief to Virtual Fiber Fun Nights, the Oak Park Arts District (OPAD) oozes with artistic acumen and a dose of charm. What makes it so is the variety of businesses and its owners, mostly women and many Black. OPAD runs along Harrison Street from Austin to Ridgeland and includes Lombard south of Harrison too. For Marcia Brown-Jackson, going into business seven years ago in the Arts District was an easy decision. She lived nearby with her family, so it was close to her children’s school and her home. “I always loved the feel of area – it’s just cozy,” she said. “It has a small neighborhood feel and a different kind of customer service that’s personal.” Brown-Jackson’s business is Studio 144 Boutique at 144 Harrison. She carries bath and body products, clothing, jewelry and purses and offers a personal shopping experience to her customers. She also has “vinyl expressions,” paintings with inspirational sayings that she creates. Before quarantine, she would hold group painting sessions. When COVID-19 shut down her business, she readied items for curbside pickup such as hand sanitizer and masks. Now open, she can accommodate two customers at a time. Brown-Jackson, who is on the OPAD Business Association board, said she tells other potential business owners to have a following first because it is not a high-traffic area. Chastity Dunlap had a store in Downtown Oak Park where she started Dye Hard Yarns two and a half years ago before coming to OPAD. She learned to knit more than a dozen years ago, quickly advanced and acquired a skill to fix knitting mistakes, helpful when working with customers. “I really love helping people,” Dunlap said. “Knitting is very meditative for me in general, whether I’m knitting or teaching someone to knit, and I love being able to impart that experience on them because we’re all kind of stressed out on a daily basis.” Now, Dunlap feels like she is “with the arts people” and has a larger space at 210 Harrison St., which includes room to accommodate a community dye studio for those learning the craft and for other dye artisans. When Dunlap moved into her new store in November 2019, she said she found everyone to be supportive from the time she arrived. “People would wave at me and smile at me and give me a thumbs up and say, ‘Hey, I’m just your neighbor down the street,’ or

ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

FIBER FUN: Neenah Vargas, left, helps her grandmother, Cheryl Vargas, with painting kits at Studio 928 on Lombard Avenue in the Oak Park Arts District. ‘I own this business over here. I just want to welcome you to the area,’” she said. “It was not something I got when I opened in DTOP. It really made me feel at home, so it was special.” Not willing to let quarantine shut her business down, she converted her weekly Fiber Fun Nights, held on Wednesdays, to Zoom. She also began offering a concierge shopping service where she could take a shopper through the store by video conference. A new offering is a Virtual Queer Stitch on Sundays. Dye Hard Yarns is now open, by appointment only, allowing one customer at a time. Cheryl Vargas, Creator in Chief of Art Studio 928, had an existing business since 2018, hosting paint events locally at Hamburger Mary’s and doing private, mobile paint parties. She wanted to offer her service more regularly and opened a studio at 911 S. Lombard in the Arts District in February 2020. The grand opening was March 14. Her business took off immediately and she said she was booked into June. Image choices range from birds and goldfish to African dancing women. She teaches brush techniques, color mixing, how to conserve supplies and how to grow as an artist. When the Shelter in Place order foiled her plans, she rolled out paint kits that could be picked up curbside and began working on videos for painters to follow along at home, something she already had in the works. She also holds a regular live Saturday paint session with 25 to 30 repeat customers. She lives by her tagline, “There’s always

time for art.“ “It does make you feel good,” Vargas said. “It is food for the soul. You feel like you’ve accomplished something and sometimes you even surprise yourself.” As upbeat as they remain, all three of these female Black business owners have faced challenges. While providing products during Shelter in Place and having partial reopening now, income is down for all of them. “I’ve lost quite a bit of business,” Dunlap said. “The issue with my particular type of store is that it’s very, very tactile.” She explained that when someone comes into a yarn shop, they may spend a long time, comparing colors, touching and even feeling yarns on their faces, and examine patterns. “I’ve been scrambling since day one of closure to make sure I can do everything possible, to apply for all the aide I’ve been able to find, to keep everything going,” Dunlap said. “I think we’re all basically running on hope, a ‘wing and a prayer,’ to try to get through this.” Brown-Jackson, with her store on Harrison, felt a more imminent threat when looting was occurring along Roosevelt and Madison in Chicago. She removed everything from Studio 144 Boutique, and said she was “not going to chance anything.” She is still putting items, such as jewelry, back in place. Vargas is facing a frustration of a her own. As part of her business plan, she wants to have outdoor painting in the summer months. Now, with staying outdoors being a safer way to congregate due to the risks of

COVID-19, this idea has become even more important to her business. She can host up to 10 people inside, but not many are showing up. So she applied for a sidewalk permit with the Village of Oak Park for painting outdoors in front of her studio. Art Studio 928 is in a row of businesses that include The Actors Garden, Musikgarten, Buzz Café and Mora Asian Kitchen on the corner. There is a section of parking spaces that has been cordoned off for Buzz and Mora restaurant customers. Three parking spaces remain near the front of Art Studio 928. The village turned down her request for a permit, siting that her business is not a restaurant, according to Vargas. She asked to appeal on June 11, but as of June 19 had not received a reply from the village. She had previously planned to hold “al fresco” painting in a green space behind her studio, but after she moved in, a garden group who shares the area erected fencing, which left an L-shape Vargas said is not conducive for leading group painting. “My plan totally got stepped on,” she said and expressed concern with her landlord’s handling of the situation. “It’s super important to revenue because people don’t want to come into my space,” Vargas said. “People are still afraid to go out and be in public spaces with other people.” Brown-Jackson said she is testing the waters financially, but is optimistic that a turnaround is coming, hoping people shop small. She said her landlord is working with her on the rent. Dunlap would not say more than that her landlord has been kind. “I’m staying here as long as I can,” Dunlap said in regard to keeping her business viable. “Having a place where people would want to come because I am part of the arts is just wonderful,” she said, ”…especially when everything settles and we can safely be outside and around each other, I’m hoping I’m an attraction to the area and can help boost it.” Other Black-owned businesses in the Oak Park Arts District include artist Tia Etu and her Whatever Comes to Mind Studio and Davis Digital Services owned by Carolyn and Greg Davis. Etu created a poster so businesses in the district would have the same message regarding masks and hand washing when they opened. The Davis’ printed this poster and do other printing for the OPAD Busines Association. They do photography and digital design, too. Some other OPAD Black-owned businesses are Jamilla Yipp Photography, Awaken Your Spirit & Embrace Your Journey (massage, reiki, life coaching), Alabasta (salon, hair/body products), Shearology (hair, makeup) and Textures & Tones Beauty Bar (hair salon).

Wednesday Journal, June 24, 2020

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

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ART BEAT

Gallery’s closed but there’s no stopping art Riverside Arts Center offers lots for the community By MICHELLE DYBAL Arts Editor

Art-based institutions remain closed for now, but that has not stopped Riverside Arts Center (RAC) from bringing what they do to the community. From gallery installations seen from outside to crafters being able to work at home, the door has not been shut on creating and enjoying art or experiencing thought-provoking work. Come by RAC, 32 E. Quincy St. in Riverside, and look at their FlexSpace window. Currently a citizen’s statement is displayed, “Black Lives Matter.” What was going to be the second installment of a two-part art exhibit addressing healing and repair during COVID-19, changed for both artist Stacia Yeapanis and curator, FlexSpace Director Liz Chilsen, when current events made both think differently about what was planned. “The scheduled exhibit was organized as a response to the isolation of the stay-athome order, but after the murder of George Floyd, the work seemed not only irrelevant,

but also potentially harmful,” said Yeapanis. “‘Solace Supercut,’ made in a very different collective moment, could have been interpreted as a pollyannaish response to the protests, sadness and rage, which would have downplayed the suffering of millions of Black people.” Yeapanis did not put up “Black Lives Matter” as an artist, but as a citizen. Her name does not appear. She stressed it is a sign like any other sign, but she chose to use the space available to her to amplify the message. “As an artist, I operate as an individual,” she said. “My work is about how internal, intangible experiences manifest in the tangible world. But as a citizen, I have to think of myself in relation to those around me. I have to consider my responsibility to those with whom I share space. That is what is called for now.” Yeapanis and Chilsen are having a community conversation on Saturday, June 27. The previous work viewable through the window, Unison (Radiant Frisson)/Unison (Typecasting) by Mayumi Lake, was inspired in part by mythical Japanese flowers and it projected colored lights, “type-casting” written on one side of the rotating work. According to Chilsen, “This is a reference

to anti-Asian sentiment and xenophobia that saw increase at the start of the pandemic.”

Quarantine quilt RAC is also coordinating a Community Quarantine Quilt organized by Bridget Juister, RAC board member. Interested stitchers can text her or respond on Instagram and they will receive supplies to create a quilt square. Silver linings, a tribute to a lost loved one or a written message are suggested themes. “I feel like this is a time capsule piece,” Juister said. “I find it interesting that Coronavirus, a force of nature, came through and gave us perspective. … Change and transition are daunting; healing is uncomfortable; a quilt in itself demonstrates how we’re better together, and of course, it’s a symbol of comfort. We’ll get through this together, and in the end, life can be better than before.” While most requests have come from Riverside, squares have been delivered around Chicagoland and even Milwaukee. Oak Park and River Forest residents can also participate. The squares are being distributed through the end of June and finished squares will be collected during July and August. If all 100

squares are distributed and returned, the finished quilt will be 8-by-8 feet. Its destination has not been determined, but the quilt may end up in Riverside’s township hall, RAC’s Freeark Gallery or could become an auction item in November. Another opportunity to create art are Boredom Buster Boxes. Clay sculpture boxes include six pounds of clay, enough to make “several ceramic masterpieces,” according to the RAC website. The box arrives by contactless delivery and is picked up by RAC staff for kiln firing. The delivery zone includes Riverside, North Riverside, Lyons, Brookfield, Berwyn, LaGrange, Oak Park, Austin and Belmont Cragin. Boxes can also be purchased for donation in an underserved community. Summer Camp boxes for kids will kick off soon and contain five different art projects. “We feel a deep commitment to continue sharing the vitality of art despite any challenges,” Chilsen said. “We expect many of the innovations we’ve been engaged in now will continue to be a part of what we offer into the future, maintaining new avenues of communication and engagement.” For more information, go to riversideartscenter.com.

symphonyoprf.org

symphonyoprf.org

Spencer Mamola • 4th • Mann

Sadie Berg • 5th • Mann

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Wednesday Journal, June 24, 2020

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

National TV spot boosts cookbook donations

Live with Kelly and Ryan donates $5K to Beyond Hunger By MELISSA ELSMO Oak Park Eats Editor

Cat Nickles, a recent eighth grade graduate and author of Quarantine Cookbook, has turned her comic-inspired recipe book into a fundraising force that has now garnered national attention. After COVID-19 foiled her plans to open a pop-up restaurant at the Children’s School, 200 S. Oak Park Ave., as part of her capstone project, she pivoted to create a cookbook to sell as a fundraiser for Beyond Hunger, the local food pantry. She set out with a goal to raise $1,000 and before long the book had generated more than $5,000 for Beyond Hunger. Coverage of Nickles’ efforts in Chicago Parent magazine caught the attention of producers of Live with Kelly and Ryan. Last Monday show producers reached out to Beyond Hunger and by Tuesday had gotten in touch with Nickels and her mother, Julia Huff. After learning Nickles had been selected for a show segment, the duo had to “scram-

Courtesy Melissa Elsmo

CELEBRITY SPOTLIGHT: Cat Nickles makes an appearace on Live with Kelly and Ryan. ble” to get a laptop capable of downloading Skype. Sarah Corbin, Beyond Hunger’s communications director, brought over a suitable laptop and Nickles was ready for her moment in the spotlight. “I was paranoid about the early morning wake up,” said Nickles. “I set my alarm for 6:30 a.m. even though I didn’t have to be ready until 8 a.m. I am always worried I will

Gavin Austin Griffin • 5th • Holmes

sleep through my alarm.” On June 18, a fully awake Nickles was welcomed as a “Helping Hero” on the program airing live on the east coast. Host Ryan Seacrest inquired about Nickles’ eight-second indoor s’mores recipe and Kelly Ripa complimented her artistic ability as images of her recipe “story boards” flashed on the screen.

“I was extremely nervous, but people said they couldn’t tell,” said Nickles. “I felt like I was going really fast so I kept telling myself to slow down.” After the young writer and illustrator explained her project process and fundraising success, Seacrest announced Live with Kelly and Ryan and Safeguard were making a $5,000 donation to Beyond Hunger. A broad smile spread across Nickles’ face on-air as she said, “I’m speechless.” “They had not told us about the donation,” said Huff. “I don’t think Cat expected this to be this this big. I am very proud.” At the time Nickles recorded the show via Skype, “Quarantine Cookbook” had raised $7,340. Since her appearance sales of her PDF have generated $17,549; a whopping 1,755 percent of her original goal. “Her continued hunger advocacy is huge! She has continued to be willing to talk about it and promote the cookbook and involve herself in social action to spark change,” said Corbin. “We are so grateful for the outpouring of support for Cat and her efforts — from the media and from people who just want to cheer Cat on from across the country. It’s amazing. We love being able to witness such kindness.” Following her daughter’s television moment Huff said Nickles was “exhausted” and tucked herself into bed for an uncommon, but well-deserved nap.

Cecilia Romeus • 5th • Longfellow

Wednesday Journal, June 24, 2020

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

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RF swaps red-light camera vendors, increases its take

New vendor charges monthly fee vs. percent of each ticket By ROBERT J. LIFKA Contributing Reporter

The new red-light camera contract approved by the River Forest Village Board June 22 could provide substantial savings for the village. Village Administrator Eric Palm said the new vendor, Verra Mobility, charges a flat rate per system per month as opposed to a per ticket fee, unlike the village’s previous red-light camera vendor, SafeSpeed LLC, or the other two firms that submitted proposals, Red Speed and Gatso. According to figures Palm provided the board, assuming 18,500 tickets are issued per year, village revenue would be $1,755,200, which is almost $400,000 more than it would have been with Red Speed or Gatso.

COVENANT

Historic impact from page 1 bers with the idea for the Covenant after a prominent River Forest developer was charged with one count of a hate crime and one count of aggravated battery by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office. The man allegedly assaulted an African American woman in the parking lot of the River Forest Jewel. The incident, which the woman recorded on her cellphone, went viral on Twitter and put at least one Maywood resident on edge. The woman approached Jones at an antiracism rally in Maywood on June 7, to tell the trustee that the Jewel incident was partly why she often refuses to venture into the mostly white, wealthy suburb just east of her. “Talking about that incident prompted me to think how I could respond to this,” Jones said last week. The trustee said the conversation resulted in his proposed Covenant initiative, which commits the neighboring suburbs “to the principles of humanity, equity and inclusion,” according to an early draft of the Covenant document Jones released last week. “The Covenant will guide the overarching spirit of our distinct towns to think as one and to interact in more collaborative ways.” Possible areas of collaboration include the two suburbs committing to “a regional perspective on commercial and residential investment/development,” the “recognition of multicultural holidays” like Juneteenth and Cinco De Mayo, the “exploration of partnerships for procurement with local business,” the collaboration between the

Fines for red-light camera violations are set at $100 per ticket by the state. Under the contract with Verra Mobility, the village will collect the full amount. Under SafeSpeed, River Forest received $60 from each ticket. Under the other proposals, the village would have received $64.06 per ticket from Red Speed and $72 per ticket from Gatso. The village operates three red-light cameras, one at Harlem and North avenues and the other two at Lake Street and Harlem. In February, Palm informed officials that staff intended to decline to renew River Forest’s contract with SafeSpeed, allowing the contract to expire July 1, and issue a request for proposals for services to consider other vendors. The village originally contracted with SafeSpeed in 2011. Discussion June 22 was more about redlight cameras than the merits of Verra Mobility or the proposed contract. Village President Cathy Adduci recused herself from the discussion, acknowledging that several family members lobby for a red-light

Maywood and Oak Park-River Forest Chambers of Commerce and possibly sharing facilities. At Monday night’s board meeting, River Forest Trustee Patty Henek, who worked with Jones to draft the resolution, said the possible points of collaboration explicitly mentioned in the Covenant resolution are “not an end-all-be-all” and urged residents of both communities to think about building relationships in all facets of life. “I would encourage residents to get creative, get their wheels turning and think about what they’re passionate about,” she said, adding that possible areas of collaboration that could happen at little to no cost include River Forest partnering with Maywood on the former’s annual Des Plaines River cleanup held each Earth Day. All of the roughly half-dozen residents who called into the virtual meeting for public comment on June 22 were in support of the proposed Covenant, but some wanted the board to hold off voting on the measure until more robust community input and more vetting could be had. Adduci said the resolution could always be updated based on resident input and that it would only form a starting point for action — it does not constitute a final draft of what implementation looks like. There was some minor back-and-forth among the board about whether or not to include, or omit entirely, the first sentence of the Covenant: “In response to the hate crime that occurred at the River Forest Jewel Grocery store on June 3, 2020, the village of Maywood and the village of River Forest are fully vested to the principles of humanity, equity and inclusion.” Trustee Kathleen “Katie” Brennan said that she was approached by a resident who reached out to her with concerns about that

camera company other than Verra Mobility. Trustee Patty Henek’s request that the vote be delayed until next month failed to garner support. She advocated discussing the issue June 22 but not voting until July 13 to allow trustees time to further study data provided shortly before the meeting and additional information she had requested. The board voted 5-1 to approve the automated traffic law enforcement agreement with Arizona-based American Traffic Solutions doing business as Verra Mobility. Henek cast the negative vote, saying she did not “feel comfortable” voting in favor of the contract without having the information she requested or time to evaluate it. The agreement is for five years with one two-year renewal. Palm said the price is the same for the life of the agreement. Over the past five years, River Forest has collected more than $4 million in red-light camera fines, according to village budget documents. David Mast, senior account manager with

Verra Mobility, told officials that his firm has eight clients in the surrounding area, including Maywood. Palm said staff checked references from local clients including Hoffman Estates, Morton Grove, Lincolnwood and Bedford Park, all of which provided “favorable” reviews and references for Verra Mobility. “There are vendors who have tainted the market for all of us,” Mast said in an apparent reference to SafeSpeed, which has come under recent scrutiny in connection with a federal corruption investigation. “You won’t read about Verra in the papers.” Palm said he expects the transition to take between 30 and 45 days as SafeSpeed crews remove that firm’s cameras and Verra Mobility crews replace them with their own equipment. According to Verra Mobility’s website, the firm operates more than 4,000 redlight, speed and school bus stop arm safety cameras in more than 200 jurisdictions across North America.

initial phrase. “That incident involved one resident and this resident [who approached her] felt that one resident’s action shouldn’t be reflective of the village of River Forest and shouldn’t be in the first line of this Covenant,” Brennan said. Trustee Thomas Cargie said his primary concern was that the wording of the Covenant makes it appear as if the Jewel incident is the only reason for the proposal’s existence. “This [Covenant] is going to be around forever,” said Trustee Bob O’Connell, adding that “we want the village to heal from that incident … We should do this because it’s the right thing to do.” “This is being done as a healing for whom?” replied Henek. “And there is no denying that this was a hate crime in our community. The reality is that act shows us that even in our local community, this bias, this hatred, this racism does, in fact, exist — whether we want to admit it or not.” “I like the way it reads,” Adduci said. “It’s not just because of the hate crime [that the board is passing the Covenant], but [the hate crime] was an element of why this came to-

gether and we should acknowledge that as a community.” The next step is for Maywood’s village board to approve the Covenant. That board does not meet until July. Adduci said that once Maywood approves the document, River Forest officials will sit down with Jones and Maywood Mayor Edwenna Perkins “and begin to think about how we celebrate it and start memorializing it.” River Forest board members discussed the possibility of a standing commission growing out of the Covenant. Jones, who joined Monday’s meeting by phone, said that he hopes the “historic” Covenant between Maywood and River Forest becomes a model for how other communities can confront systemic racism. “Racism is really rooted in self-interest,” he said. “What we’re saying here is that it’s not about us individually, it’s about our communities. Here is our response when somebody does hate in our communities. We’re going to make our system not work for racism. Hopefully, we can create a template that even the city of Chicago and other communities can use … This is a cry out for help.”

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Wednesday Journal, June 24, 2020

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

Some OPRF faith communities reopen cautiously Two-thirds of local institutions remain closed for now By TOM HOLMES Contributing Reporter

The website Churchfinder lists over 50 faith communities in the Oak Park, River Forest area. A quick, unscientific survey by Wednesday Journal concludes about two-thirds of them have done a cost/benefit analysis in this age of COVID-19 and have chosen to remain closed for now and to continue airing their worship services online. Those deciding that discretion is the better part of valor include First United, Calvary Memorial, Village Church, Pilgrim United Church of Christ, Unity Temple, First Baptist, Judson Baptist United Lutheran, Good Shepherd Lutheran, Fair Oaks Presbyterian, Euclid Avenue Methodist, Oak Park Temple, West Suburban Temple, First United Methodist, Christ Episcopal, and Grace Lutheran. A message on the First United Methodist Church website seemed to sum up how many church and temple members feel about worshipping virtually: “Our normal ways of doing things and of being community has been thoroughly disrupted by COVID-19. We’re developing new skills and using new tools to be in ministry in this moment. We will keep this announcement updated with our latest news and offerings. Right now we are putting information and devotional thoughts on our church Facebook page. Pastor Cisco Cotto at Village Church added, “This has been, and may continue to be, a difficult time for all of us. Please continue to be in prayer for our nation, our commu-

“We are fully open now, but with limited seating.” REV. JAMES HURLBERT Ascension pastor

nity, and for our church.” The Archdiocese of Chicago, in contrast, made the decision to allow all of its 316 parishes—including the six in the OPRF area—to reopen, albeit with strict limitations. Rev. James Hurlbert, pastor of Ascension Catholic Church in Oak Park, reported, “We are fully open now, but with limited seating for Mass. Twenty-five to 150 people. (The maximum 20 percent seating capacity of the church). People must register/reserve a seat online or by calling the parish

Graham Roberts • 5th • Mann

office. This way of reopening requires many volunteers forgreeting and setting up and ushering and the sanitizing the church between services. So far, so good!” “I have been a priest now for 37 years,” said Rev. Carl Morello, the pastor of St. Giles, “and never in my wildest dreams would I have thought we would see such restrictions in our church for the celebration of mass, the open and public prayer for all God’s people. However, as Cardinal Cupich has reminded his priests and all pastors, this is a respect life issue keeping everyone safe and healthy during this pandemic. “Finally, let me say that I have deliberately, with the help of my committees to open church, made the decision to move slowly and cautiously on our reopening. I wanted to be sure there were no huge spikes in the virus as more and more people move around freely but many without any caution or care,” said Morello. Other smaller congregations which have partially reopened are Christ Lutheran Church, Harrison Street Bible Church, New Life Christian Fellowship, and Our Lady Immaculate Catholic (Society of St. Pius X) at its priory in Chicago. Some congregations have moved out of their liturgical boxes, so to speak, and have adapted to the pandemic by being creative. The First Presbyterian Church in River Forest, for example, has been creating what they call “satellite sanctuaries” which are “small, in-home gatherings on Sunday mornings. . . to watch the eWorship services together.” St. Christopher Episcopal Church has started weekly Eucharist services on the lawn for 10 people or less which are offered on Sundays at four different times and which follow all of the state and CDC guidelines.

Nathan Kralik • 5th • Longfellow

Wednesday Journal, June 24, 2020

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

Oak Park’s Juneteenth rolls out

Village government offers formal recognition of holiday By STACEY SHERIDAN Staff Reporter

The village of Oak Park formally recognized the Juneteenth holiday, celebrated annually on June 19, and committed to support celebrations both in spirit and financially during a June 15 board of trustees meeting. Juanta Griffin, Oak Park Public Library multicultural learning coordinator, read the village proclamation. “Juneteenth today, celebrates Black freedom and achievement; as it takes on a more national, symbolic, and even global perspective, the events of 1865 in Texas are not forgotten, for all roots tie back to that fertile soil from which a national day of pride is growing,” the proclamation reads. While reading the proclamation, Griffin was moved to tears. “It meant, ‘I see you as a people – not just a holiday, not just a culture. I see your pain,’” she said. “It was just remarkable.” The proclamation, Griffin believes, was the village declaring, “Not only will I celebrate with you, I will also commit to it. I will also financially support it because this is important, and you are important, and your people are valuable.”

ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

HOW MANY MILES LONG?: The Juneteeth caravan celebration stretched a long, long ways as it wound through Oak Park and Austin Juneteenth commemorates the day General Gordon Granger landed at the island city of Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865, with news of the Emancipation Proclamation, signed two and a half years prior. Embracing their newfound freedom, many people formerly enslaved left to find their families, who had been separated and sold off to different slaveowners.

Austin Cole • 5th •Beye

“They started to do things they weren’t legally able to do before,” Griffin said. Juneteenth celebrations occur throughout the country with all but three states recognizing it as a holiday. The state of Illinois officially recognized it in 2003. Griffin said she felt her ancestors with her while she read the proclamation June 15. “Every time I do something for Black

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people that works on inclusion, that works on freedom, I can feel my ancestors behind me,” said Griffin. The world we live in is a product of those who lived before us, Griffin said. “We stand on the shoulders of our ancestors. There’s nothing that we’ve accomplished by ourselves,” she said. “We are standing on the shoulders of the people who have gone before us.” Griffin, a lifelong Oak Parker, has been instrumental in organizing Oak Park Juneteenth celebrations, alongside Oak Park and River Forest High School teacher and activist Anthony Clark. Past Juneteenths were marked with movie screenings, cookouts and special speakers. To safely celebrate during the COVID-19 pandemic, Griffin and Clark organized a caravan of cars that drove through Oak Park and Chicago’s Austin neighborhood on June 19. “The line of cars was said to be three miles,” Griffin said. “People just joined the caravan as we went along.” The community’s support and the turnout were unlike anything Griffin had experienced before in the village. “It was amazing,” she said. “I’ve lived in Oak Park my whole life and I’ve never seen anything like it.” “This village is not just for white people; it’s for everyone,” said Griffin. “We celebrate everyone’s culture.”

Aura Pomerleau • 5th • Hatch

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Wednesday Journal, June 24, 2020

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

River Forest confronts race and policing

Village board approves resolution ‘recognizing’ killings of Blacks by police By MICHAEL ROMAIN Staff Reporter

During a regular meeting on June 22, the River Forest Village Board unanimously passed a resolution affirming the village’s “principles regarding the relationship between the community and law enforcement.” The resolution was approved two days before the River Forest Police Department hosts the first of its two Policing and Social Justice Public Forums on Facebook Live, June 24, 6 p.m. The second forum will take place on Facebook Live July 8, 6 p.m. The village’s resolution, which Village President Cathy Adduci read in full at Monday’s meeting, begins by recognizing “the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and the loss of far too many Black lives to list at the hands of law enforcement officers has left our nation anguished and outraged.” The fourth clause in the resolution prompted the board to debate about the prospect of defunding the police. The clause acknowledges that “law enforcement agencies have been called upon

to respond to situations that are better left to others in order to fill a void created by the lack of needed supportive pro“WHEREAS, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, During Monday night’s meeting, President grams including school disciAdduci read a proclamation designating June as Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ+) communipline, eviction enforcement, LGBTQ+ Pride Month. The village authorized ties contribute to the cultural, civic and economaddiction and substance abuse, ic successes of the Village of River Forest; and the designation on June 8. where others may be more ap“WHEREAS, while we as a society at large are propriately trained to help slowly embracing new definitions of sexuality Below is an excerpt of that proclamation: those in need.” “WHEREAS, the Village of River Forest sup- and gender we must also acknowledge that the Trustee Katie Brennan preports the rights of every citizen to experience need for education and awareness remains vital sented a series of recommendato end discrimination and prejudice.” equality and freedom from discrimination; and tions that include changing the “NOW, THEREFORE, I, CATHERINE ADDU“WHEREAS, all people regardless of age, genfourth clause to focus on “reder identity, race, color, religion, marital status, CI, VILLAGE PRESIDENT OF THE VILLAGE allocating” and “redirecting” national origin, sexual orientation, or physical OF RIVER FOREST, do hereby proclaim June as police funding to other governchallenges have the right to be treated on the ba- Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer mental agencies. sis of their intrinsic value as human beings; and + Pride Month in the Village of River Forest, IlSome board members said “WHEREAS, the Village of River Forest ac- linois and encourage our residents to reflect on that Brennan’s recommendacepts and welcomes people of diverse back- the ongoing struggle for equality members of tion amounted to “defunding,” grounds and believes a diverse population leads the LGBTQ+ face and celebrate the contribualthough Brennan said that tions that enhance our Village.” to a more vibrant community; and wasn’t what she meant. “I was looking at the clause and thought it was confusing that will help address that whereas? What funding to pay for compliance. and a little awkward,” Brennan said, before are we going to do?” Henek said. A range of topics are expected to come up adding that some board members had “reThe board agreed, however, that taking at Wednesday’s police forum, including: a categorized my wording.” away funds from the police department description of services the department proTrustee Patty Henek said that she inter- would not be among the proposed solutions. vides, the makeup and composition of the preted Brennan’s proposed revision as an Adduci said that, if anything, River For- department, an outline of diversity, incluattempt to go beyond simply pointing out est police are underfunded, in part due to sion and cultural competence training the the problem of police being overextended unfunded state mandates, which are laws department receives, and an outline of how and proposing a possible solution. or regulations that the state requires the the department responds to citizen’s com“What are we saying with this resolution village to adhere to without providing the plaints, among other topics.

Nathan Kane • 5th • Longfellow

River Forest makes June LGBTQ+ Pride Month

Lianna Ortiz • 5th • Hatch

Wednesday Journal, June 24, 2020

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

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Joan White retiring after 43 years at First United Nursery

A founder of Collaboration for Early Childhood By LUCIA WHALEN Contributing Reporter

First United Nursery School is saying goodbye to its director, Joan White, after her long tenure at the Oak Park institution. White, who is retiring from the role after 43 years, is a key figure in the local early education community through her work with the Collaboration for Early Childhood Education. White grew up in southern Ohio and attended the University of Illinois, where she studied child welfare and developed a passion for early childhood education. “I early on understood the importance of what happens to a child in the first few years of life and how it [impacts] their long-term success. I was really interested in seeing things improve for young children so they could thrive and succeed,” she said. White began teaching at First United in 1973, and three years later she was offered the director position. Once White took over the administrative role, First United began a rapid process of growth. “When I started, we had just one morning and one afternoon class. And we grew to have three morning and three afternoon classes for the ages of two to five,” she said. The school also moved from its original location at Calvary Church to its current space at First United.

West Side faith leaders, activists decry 3-year-old’s murder in Austin, offer $5K reward By MICHAEL ROMAIN Staff Reporter

West Side clergy leaders gathered on the corner of Central and Ohio avenues in Austin on Father’s Day afternoon to speak out against the murder of a 3-year-old who was killed on the block the day before. Mekhi James, of Skokie, was killed after “someone opened fire at his father while they were driving Saturday evening,” according to a Fox 32 Chicago report. “The toddler was struck in the back about 6:25 p.m. when someone in a blue Honda pulled behind the black SUV the boy’s 27-year-old father was driving in the 600 block of North Central Avenue and fired

Joan White In the summer of 1978, White started the Young Sprout Day Camp, a six-week morning camp for preschoolers, which still runs today. White is highly regarded by teachers, family and alumni, many of whom continue to send their children to First United. Megan Elsener attended First United from 1984-1986, along with her current husband. The Elsener’s three children attended the school, and Megan is pregnant with their fourth child, who is also expected will also attend. Elsener said White’s commitment to forging a relationship with every student and

family is one of the qualities that made White such a successful school leader. According to Elsener, White knew every student’s name, as well as their families, and frequently dropped in on classes to visit with students. According to White, developing those strong connections with students and their families is an important part of good leadership in an educational setting. “That’s a really important part of the school, that the whole family feels like community,” White said. In 2003, White helped found the Collaboration for Early Childhood Education and played a critical role in the organization’s development. White brought her wealth of experience to the Collaboration and helped organize meetings that brought together professionals from various fields, including social work, health, and education, to discuss what makes for effective childhood education. The Collaboration, which White calls “a tremendous resource for both parents and providers,” has expanded and now serves schools in Oak Park and River Forest and provides support for parents, professional development for teachers and developmental screening for early identification of learning difficulties. Amy Cardin will be succeeding White at the end of June. Cardin, who started working at First United in 2005 as a teacher before transitioning to an assistant director position, said working with White first as a teacher and then as an administrator gave

her a powerful lesson in leadership. “Her respect for teachers, staff and family really makes an impact. She offered autonomy to the teachers and she supported our interests and independent learning styles. And that autonomy builds a lot of trust and respect,” Cardin said. Cardin added that White’s respect for teachers and their autonomy is likely responsible for the long tenure of teachers at the school, some of whom have taught there for over 20 years. Cardin said while it is hard to see her leave, the legacy of White’s leadership will continue. “She was so instrumental in the beginning, when it was the seed of an idea. She has been a beacon in our community.”

Amy Cardin

‘A line has been crossed!’ several rounds, according to Chicago Police Chief of Operations Fred Waller,” Fox reported, adding that James’ father may have been the intended target of the shooting, a police source said. At Sunday’s press conference, members of the Leaders Network, the West Side faithbased social justice group that includes religious leaders from Oak Park and River Forest, stood with Rev. Ira Acree, the pastor of Greater St. John Bible Church in Austin, to announce a $2,500 reward Acree and his church was offering for any information leading to the capture of the suspect. “We’re here today, because we cannot pastor in this community and not say something,” Acree said. “I would be ashamed for us not to pause and say that this kind of ruthless criminal activity is not accepted here in Austin … a 3-year-old was gunned down. A baby! … A line has been crossed.” Rev. Marshall Hatch, the pastor of the New Mt. Pilgrim MB Church in Garfield Park, said that he lives just a few blocks away from where the murder took place. He said he felt

compelled to attend Sunday’s news conference to speak out against the shooting. “We say his name! Mekhi James! His life matters, as well,” Hatch said. “None of us can go forward with a simple Father’s Day dinner without coming to this corner on the block where this baby lost his life in what really is a scandalous crime.” Hatch said that the Leaders Network would add $2,500 to Acree’s reward. Community activist Zerlina Smith also chipped in. “I’m a working, middle-class Black woman and I get a check,” Smith said. “I’m going to donate out of my paycheck $500 to Rev. Acree to make sure if anybody knows something going on in this community that you step up and say something.” “There should be 30,000, 40,000, 50,000 people on the streets right now shutting down the Black community until we get it right,” said anti-violence activist Tio Hardiman. “Black men need to shut down the Black community until we get it right!”

Mekhi James

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Wednesday Journal, June 24, 2020

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Pottery studio adds workshop By STACEY SHERIDAN Staff Reporter

Oak Park ceramics artist Gabe Tetrev launched a new community pottery studio able to be enjoyed by potters of all skill levels. ViaClay, offers a variety of different classes, as well as access to studio space, pottery wheels, clay and kilns. ViaClay is Tetrev’s second pottery venture in Oak Park; he also owns his personal studio, GPTetrev Pottery, 159 S. Oak Park Ave., where he works and sells his wares. Passersby have likely seen Tetrev in its front window, spinning new creations. “In the two years that I’ve been a shopkeeper selling pottery, I’ve gotten probably a thousand questions, like, ‘How do I sign up for classes?’” Tetrev said. Not a trained teacher, Tetrev would turn down interested students. “I was saying no for about a year and a half, which was a mistake,” he said. When the chance presented itself, Tetrev said making the decision to open ViaClay was a “no brainer.” ViaClay is located at 208 S. Marion St. “There was an opportunity to hire the right people at the right time and build out a pottery studio in a community that knew it wanted to take classes,” said Tetrev. Tetrev enlisted his friend, John Beck, to run the new venture as studio manager. “He’s the best studio manager I could ask for,” Tetrev said. “I can build a system and he can implement that system perfectly.” Having Beck running the workshop allows Tetrev to continue making and selling his own personal work through GPTetrev Pottery. “I knew that I wanted to keep working at GPTetrev and being a working artist and that wouldn’t be possible without John running the other space,” Tetrev said. “I’m so grateful to have him.” Beck and Tetrev graduated from Oak Park and River Forest High School in 2016. As OPRF students, they both took pottery

classes under the guidance of Pennie Ebsen. Ebsen now teaches classes at ViaClay. ViaClay teaching staff also includes the current OPRF ceramics teacher Bridget Doherty, herself a former student of Ebsen’s. “Pretty much everyone in the studio at one time took Pennie’s class at OPRF,” said Tetrev. While Tetrev is definitely involved in operating ViaClay, GPTetrev commandeers most of his time. Beck handles the lion’s share of the day-to-day duties, including signing people up, answering questions and responding to inquiries. To maintain social distancing, no more than 10 people are allowed in the studio at any time. Beck also disinfects the studio and equipment after each use. Everyone is also required to wear masks. “We’ve been doing well and everybody’s healthy, which is wonderful,” Beck said. ViaClay has had a very successful start. Classes are filling up. The first session of its kids’ summer camp just finished. The second session has a full roster. OPRF students without access to the school’s studio have been using ViaClay to spin new work. Beck said he comes into work every day feeling happy, seeing people enjoying making pottery, just as he does. “I love wheel throwing and I love being able to spread it to everybody else,” Beck said. Potters can also sign up for the membership program, which allows them access to ViaClay’s equipment and the opportunity to sell their work at GPTetrev. According to Beck, more people will have an opportunity to utilize ViaClay once the pandemic subsides. “I’m excited for when we can actually really open up the space and let everybody work,” he said. “The biggest aspect of this is the community it forms. To let other people join that community is the most important thing to me.”

Wednesday Journal, June 24, 2020

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17

C R I M E

Mama Thai subject of armed robbery

Mama Thai, 1112 Madison St., was robbed June 18 when a man carrying a fireman entered the restaurant at 5:06 p.m., showed his weapon and demanded money. The man was last seen going westbound on Madison Street on foot, carrying an estimated $300 in cash.

Armed robbery Two men, one with a handgun, approached two Oak Park residents from behind, showed the gun and demanded their property at 7:21 p.m., June 19 in the 100

block of Harvard Street; the men were last seen carrying two iPhones and a wallet taken from the victims running westbound on Harvard Street, where they met up with a third man. The estimated loss is $2,000.

Burglary ■ Someone went into an unlocked residential garage then entered the victim’s blue 2019 Volkswagen Atlas and took a pair of prescription sunglasses, a small toolkit, a bicycle light kit and a men’s black and red

Cars & Coffee COVID confusion A group of Oak Park fathers who share a passion for cars have been prevented from having their Sunday morning coffee meetups in downtown Oak Park due to COVID-19 concerns from the village health department. The group of fathers have their own Facebook group called Cars & Coffee Oak Park. For the last four years, members of the unofficial community organization have been meeting up in the parking lot at 1026 North Blvd. to drink coffee and talk about cars on Sunday mornings during summer and early fall.

After receiving complaints that the group was violating rules against congregating, Oak Park Public Health Director Mike Charley issued a public health order June 17 prohibiting them from meeting until Oak Park enters Phase four of Governor J.B. Pritzker’s Restore Illinois plan, which is set to occur Friday, June 26. The group is not affiliated with any businesses surrounding the parking lot, which has free parking on Sundays. Cars & Coffee declined to make a statement to Wednesday Journal. Charley has been sent a request for comment.

James Greenwald • 4th • Mann

Cannondale Quick 8 bicycle from inside the vehicle between 9 p.m., June 16 and 8:20 a.m., June 17 in the 700 block of Woodbine Avenue. The estimated loss is $900. ■ Someone broke the front passenger window of a vehicle and removed a debit card and a small amount of cannabis from inside in the 500 block of South Maple Avenue between 10 p.m., June 18 and 5:40 a.m., June 19. Estimated loss unknown. ■ A man broke the front glass door of Tobacco & Vape CBD store, 6415 North Ave., by throwing a landscaping brick and then took numerous tobacco-related products from inside June 19 between 5:07 a.m. and 5:12 a.m. Estimated loss is unknown.

Theft ■ The catalytic converter was cut from a green 2001 Honda Accord parked in the 900 block of Lyman Avenue at 4:30 a.m., June 13. The estimated loss is $3,000. ■ Someone removed a green and black Sun Joe power washer from an unlocked garage in the 1200 block of Linden Avenue between 2 p.m., June 13 and noon, June 14. The estimated loss is $150. ■ The catalytic converter was cut from a maroon 2005 Honda CRV parked in the 500 block of Wesley Avenue between 2 p.m. and 4:17 p.m., June 16. The estimated loss is $2,000.

■ Someone stole a black and white patio chair from a residential backyard in the 500 block of Lyman Avenue between 8:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m., June 16. The estimated loss is $100. ■ A rainbow pride flag was taken from a resident’s front porch between 5 p.m., June 16 and 7:20 a.m., June 17 in the 200 block of South Harvey Avenue. ■ The catalytic converter was cut from a 2004 Chevrolet Malibu parked in the 200 block of South Marion Street between 7:35 a.m. and 5 p.m., June 17. The estimated loss is $812.79. ■ The catalytic converter was cut from a 2005 Buick Rendezvous parked in the 100 block of North Kenilworth Avenue between 1 p.m., May 19 and 9 a.m., June 16. The estimated loss is unknown. ■ The catalytic converter was taken from a 2003 Pontiac Sunfire parked in the 100 block of Flournoy Street between 8 p.m., June 17 and 4:35 p.m., June 18. Estimated loss is $190.

Criminal damage to property Someone shot at and damaged an unoccupied vehicle parked in the 300 block of South Austin Boulevard at 4:42 a.m., June 20.

Devin Briesch • 5th • Mann

Compiled by Stacey Sheridan

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Wednesday Journal, June 24, 2020

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SPORTS EXTRA

Introducing OPRF’s new boys hoops head coach

Q&A with Phil Gary By JAMES KAY Sports Editor

On June 17, OPRF High School announced that Phil Gary will take over as its next boys basketball head coach. Gary played basketball at the school for four years and has since moved on to compete at the collegiate and professional level. Since retiring as a player, he has been coaching at Walter Payton College Prep over the last six years (head coach there last season) and now finds himself running the program he was groomed in. The day after he was named, Gary and Sports Editor James Kay discussed his past and what he hopes his future will hold. When you saw there was a head coaching vacancy at OPRF, what was going through your mind? The first thing I thought was, “Oh my god, this is like a dream come true.” I went back to Oak Park as a freshman coach when I first started coaching and I remember back then having the goal to someday become the head coach. So when I saw it was open, I had to gather my thoughts because I couldn’t believe this great opportunity was out there. I’m sure you and former OPRF basketball coach Matt Maloney have been in contact since you got the position. Did he have any advice for you? He reached out to me as well as my former coaches, Al Allen and Nick Sakellaris. They have helped mold me into the man I am today. Having played for Al Allen, is there anything you took from his coaching style that you have incorporated into the way you handle things on the sidelines? Definitely. He always wanted us to work hard and be consistent at practice because it translates to the game. He would tell us

he can’t help us during the game and that it’s on us as the players. In terms of what I have taken from him as a coach, it’s just his message of trying to be as perfect as possible in practice because it’ll translate over to the game — and have fun. That’s the main goal. Honestly, when you pick up any sport whether it’s basketball, football or baseball it’s important to make sure [the players] are having fun because at the end of the day, they’re kids. You and Iman Shumpert were a lethal backcourt tandem back in the day. I was reading an old recap from 2007 about how Iman and his 17 points per game was missing in your final game as a Huskie. Do you feel like this is an opportunity to take care of unfinished business? Oh, absolutely. We feel like we had a good chance of making it far in the playoffs that year. [Shumpert] broke his elbow and that really put a damper on our playoff hopes. Anyone who has ever put on an OPRF uniform has had the goal every year to go downstate and win. There’s always unfinished business until you actually get to play on the last day. What are your fondest memories going through OPRF’s program? I had fun on the court and off the court. The relationships I’ve built with coaches and players is probably the most important thing. [Some of them] were my best men at my wedding and I was the best man at their weddings and you become really close. They become your brothers and, for coaches, it is like the players are your sons. So it’s like one big family and I call [OPRF] my home now. You played at Malcolm X Junior College before earning a scholarship to play at Florida International University before playing in India and what is now the NBA’s GLeague. You’re a solid example of how there’s more than the traditional pathway to achieve your dreams of playing at the professional

level. Is that one of one of your strengths as a coach, along with developing positive relationships with the players that you alluded to in the press release? Absolutely. I always tell the kids I took the tougher and almost impossible route to ultimately get to my goal. It is something I wouldn’t trade and everybody has a different story or a different route to go. I took it another way but the one thing I did was I worked extremely hard for everything I got and it made it so much better when I made it and achieved my dream of playing Division I basketball. That was my goal. Everyone has dreams about playing in the NBA but my biggest goal was to play D-I basketball and I just worked my butt off and got to where I wanted to be. My path was different but I still got there. Taking on a new head coaching position is difficult under normal circumstances but with COVID-19 still a part of our lives as well as the protests around police brutality and racial equity, is there anything you are going to do differently than you would if you were joining a program under normal circumstances? Even with the interview process, everything has been different. Not being able to meet them face to face was a bit awkward [laughs]. But I definitely want to get with the players as quickly as possible and just let them know that, yes, we want to resume basketball, but there are bigger things happening in the world right now. It will be good to sit down and listen to what they think about what is happening in the rest of the world. I also want to pick their brains since I don’t know everything as a coach and I always want feedback from the players and coaches. I want them to understand that when I listen, I am doing it to understand them and where they are coming from. OPRF is going through a transition phase with Matt Maloney stepping down, los-

Phil Gary, OPRF Boys basketball coach ing two of last year’s leading scorers, and seniors like Justin Cross and Kyren Gardner graduating. Is this an opportunity to mold the program into what you want it to be and see how the newcomers on the team complement players like Rashaad Trice, Anthony Coleman and Demetrius Dortch? It’s funny you mention those three names because I coached them when they were fifth-, sixth- and seventh-graders. I am familiar with a lot of guys on the team and it is definitely an opportunity for us to see how the new guys will blend in with the returning players. They all play hard and that’s half the battle these days. Once we get out on the floor, a lot of things will fall into place more. But these kids work hard and that’s all I can ask for as a coach. What are your goals for the program? Of course it is to go as far as we can in the playoffs every year, but it is also to build a program that is fair to the players. We want to teach them accountability and make sure that when they leave after four years at [OPRF], they will be better young men. That is every coach’s dream.

Fenwick football officially cancels Ireland trip

Friars looking forward to season opener By JAMES KAY Sports Editor

With the global outbreak of COVID-19 now lingering into summer, Fenwick High School’s football program will not be traveling to Dublin, Ireland on August 28 like it initially planned earlier in January. The Friars were set to play Scottsdale, Arizona’s Notre Dame Prep during a trip or-

ganized by the school. “As time moved on, it was inevitable that the trip would be canceled,” said Fenwick’s athletic director, Scott Thies, in an interview with Wednesday Journal on June 18. “It was just a matter of communicating with the players’ families, the organizing group and the travel company and ending it in a proper manner but we knew that once the winter and spring sport seasons were canceled that it was going to be tough to make this work.” The showcase was to have included two days in Dublin (Aug. 26-27) along with the

players being in attendance for the matchup between Navy and University of Notre Dame at the Aviva Stadium on Aug. 29. That game has also been canceled. Senior wide receiver Max Reese and his teammates understood the decision but were hoping for a different outcome. “[Finding out the news] stunk,” said Reese in a phone interview with the Journal on June 18. “The whole team was looking forward to Ireland, experiencing the Irish culture and being able to play Notre Dame Prep. But we have a good week one game against a very talented Simeon team, so we

are focused on that.” However, in more positive news, the team has been practicing since Monday under the IHSA’s Return to Play guidelines that state that teams can only conduct strength and conditioning workouts. After a couple months in quarantine, the Friars are getting back to business. “It’s great to just go out and be with my friends, teammates and everyone again,” said Reese. “It’s great being a part of a team culture again. I am excited to get in full pads because we are going to have a great team this year.”

Wednesday Journal, June 24, 2020

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REFORM

Sharp divisions from page 1 the claims from people about the fact that we’ve had problems in our policing,” she said. Walker-Peddakotla said the resolution’s lack of commitment to repairing past harm caused the resolution to mean very little to those who have experienced police violence, especially in the form of racial profiling. She said the police reform discussion “cannot just be about the use-of-force policy,” her third reason for not supporting the resolution. The board passed the resolution with only Walker-Peddakotla dissenting. Despite the mayor calling for cooperation, disagreements between board members ramped up after the resolution was passed, with the discussion of what directions the board should give staff to carry out regarding implementation of the framework detailed in the Obama Foundation pledge. In a presentation to the board Village Manager Cara Pavlicek recommended giving the public greater transparency into a number of police-related topics, including the officer hiring processes, the legal foundation of police, equipment use and facility use, the department’s promotion and disciplinary policies, as well as the department’s organizational structure, collective bargaining processes, and the responsibilities of citizen commissions connected to policing. Following the gathering of community feedback, Pavlicek recommended giving Oak Park Police Chief LaDon Reynolds the opportunity to make recommendations and then allowing the community to comment on them. Finally, the board would then have a discussion about the recommendations. Pavlicek asked assistant village attorney Rasheda Jackson to act as the administrative lead during the process. The mayor called for a complete and comprehensive, fact-driven audit. “I’m committed to having our police department audited by an independent third party, preferably an academic institution, for the purpose of examining our policies and procedures both,” said Abu-Taleb. Walker-Peddakotla wanted to know if use of force was the biggest problem in the police department because Pavlicek called it most important in her memorandum. “What were the metrics used to come up with the conclusion that the use of force is the most important thing we need to evaluate in our policing of Oak Park at this time?” she asked. “I feel that the authority and ability of police officers to make the judgments to use force, and most notably deadly force, is one of the most serious things they can do,”

said Pavlicek. “But I leave it to the village board.” Walker-Peddakotla also asked Oak Park Police Chief LaDon Reynolds to provide the number of use-of-force complaints that have been filed against the police department within a calendar year. She also asked if the department has a record of that information over multiple years. “I do not have that information at my fingertips,” Reynolds said. “Based on my review of all complaints that come through the village, I can only think of one in this past year that we heard at CPOC (Citizen Police Oversight Commission).” Reynolds said complaints against police are typically about discourtesy or lack of understanding of process. Walker-Peddakotla said she didn’t think use of force was the main problem with policing in Oak Park because a report from Freedom to Thrive, an organization which she helped create “because this board was resistant to looking into matters of policing,” found that Oak Park’s use-of-force policy “is actually OK.” Trustee Susan Buchanan said the village has a major opportunity to reevaluate public safety and suggested the village put together a task force, as well as hire an experienced consultant, with which Trustee Deno Andrews agreed. Andrews wanted the consultant to guide the board through conversations and to collect accurate data. “We all want to see policing that is proper, that treats people fairly with dignity and respect,” said Trustee Dan Moroney. Moroney said there were two stances regarding policing: one that considered police integral in maintaining community safety and the other was looking to defund police. Moroney also said to paint police as a whole in a bad light is “damaging to the people you purport to represent.” “Basically, what he just said is he doesn’t want me involved in the conversation,” she said. “For the record, Arti, if your group wants to abolish the police, I don’t want you leading the effort in it,” said Moroney. Trustee Simone Boutet said Reynolds should be involved in the conversation because he has both the perspective of being a member of the police and as a Black man; she was confused with what specifically the board wanted a consultant to do. “I’ve been a black male in America for almost 49 years. These issues that we’re talking about, this is me; this is my life,” Reynolds said. Reynolds also believed that the village could learn just as much without a consultant. As the meeting came to a close, the board directed staff to hold a community-based conversation, research an independent consultant or auditor and review the ordinance establishing CPOC and the parameters for their operations. In this decision, Walker-Peddakotla was also the sole negative vote.

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Wednesday Journal, June 24, 2020

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CLASSIC CHARACTER & VINTAGE CHARM throughout this 3BR/2.5BA side entrance Dutch Colonial in Historic Oak Park. Expansive LR with crown moldings, fireplace with built-in bookshelves, hardwood floors, first fl den/office, eat-in kitchen. Finished rec room in bsmt. ....... .....................................................................................................$525,000

BEAUTIFULLY UPDATED 3 BR American Four Square located in the heart of the Arts District in Historic OP! Vintage features include arched entryways, hardwood flooring, art glass windows, sunroom, kit/breakfast rm combo, mud room, refinished backyard deck, fenced yard, and two-car garage. ...........................................................................$420,900

LOVELY BRICK HOME offers wonderful space with beautiful views of spectacular lot! Original details with two story foyer and hardwood floors. This elegant home is beautifully constructed and large enough to accommodate family and friends for years to come. .........$1,375,000 ELEGANT CRAFTSMANSHIP can be found throughout this 5 BR French Normandy. Sophistication is evident the moment you walk in the door. Impressive foyer, formal LR with fireplace, built-in benches, family rm, separate formal DR, updated kit, office..................$1,199,000 FABULOUS MOVEIN READY custom home built in 2003 offers 4 BRs, 2 full/2 half baths. Features include an open floor plan, Butler’s pantry connecting kitchen with the LR/DR combo, fam rm w/wood burning fireplace, 1st FL private office built for 2. This house has everything you need and want! ..........................................................$1,195,000 CONTEMPORARY HOME with 3 BRs, 3-1/2 BAs. 1st floor features include expansive foyer, unique bamboo flrs, multi-faced gas fireplace, office, updated kitchen & fam rm. 2nd FL includes a laundry and office/ or nursery. Finished bsmnt. In-ground pool. Great updates.... $789,000 LOVELY SPLITLEVEL HOME offers newly refreshed contemporary style and wonderful space. Home offers three BRs, three brand new BAs, beautiful front entryway, vaulted ceiling family room, sun room, game room, deck, attached two car garage. .................$609,000

THREE STORY GRAND VICTORIAN on 100 x 218 lot in the heart of the FLW district. Estate features 6 BRs, 2 Full BAs, 3 fireplaces, many historic details, double front entry doors sourced from the Historic Pullman Estates section of Chicago. .............................................$743,000 STUNNING BRICK OCTAGANOL BUNGALOW with 4 BR’s 2-1/2 baths. Natural birch wood-work, hdwd floors, fireplace, vintage scones, new kitchen with redesigned eating area/family rm, many stain glass & leaded windows, & crown molding.....................$669,000 BEAUTIFUL SIDE ENTRANCE COLONIAL with 4 BRs, 2 full & 1 half BAs, spacious family room, cooks’ kitchen with mud room, gas fireplace, built-in shelving & art glass windows. Beautiful woodwork & hdwd fors. Finished LL. Front & back heated walkway............ $639,000 CLASSIC ROW HOUSE with 5 BRs, 4 BAs updated with architectural detail, restored, preserved woodwork, art glass, elaborate molding and trim, gleaming oak flrs, soaring ceilings, grand rooms, and contemporary mechanicals and amenities. ...............................$598,000 CLASSIC OAK PARK HOME on a large corner lot in the Harrison Arts district. This four BR, three BA boasts four levels of living space. Tall ceilings, hdwd flrs, vintage leaded glass windows, updated kitchen with breakfast bar. Finished 3rd floor, newly finished bsmnt. $549,000 MEDITERRANEAN INFLUENCE HOME offers 5 BRs/2 BAs, 2 story LR with WBFP, beamed ceiling, French doors and original 1920’s terra cotta tiled floor. New finished basement. Yard has patio and charming pergola. Tasteful decor found thru-out......................$539,000

OAK PARK HOMES

Shop for homes online at GagliardoRealty.com

P R IC E R E DUC E D! FABULOUS BRICK HOME has it all! On extra-wide lot with 4 BRs, 4-1/2 BAs. Features include private office, open kitchen, breakfast room, family room, Butler’s bar, master suite w/sep sitting room, finished bsmt w/full wet bar & media room, private backyard, garden and pond................................................................ $999,000

TWO BEDROOM BUNGALOW in Historic Oak Park has hdwd flrs, natural trim work. LR leads to formal DR with built-in buffet. Granite counters in eat-in kit, adjoining 3 season porch/den/office. ....$239,900 DUTCH COLONIAL with rehab already started, already gutted. Originally 2 BR, but now open to new floor plan and added bedrooms and bath. Could be a flip or a great home to live in. .................$185,000

CONDOS/TOWNHOMES/2 FLATS

RIVER FOREST 3BR, 2-1/2 BA. Two garage spaces. ........... $479,000 RIVER FOREST 2BR, 2BA. Open concept floor plan.............$269,000 OAK PARK Two Flat ...................................................................$530,000 NEW LISTING OAK PARK 3BR, 2 full / 2 half BA.............$449,000 OAK PARK 3BR, 2 full / 2 half BA. East facing balcony..........$419,900 NEW LISTING OAK PARK 2BR, 2 full / 2 half BA............. $399,000 OAK PARK 3BR, 2-1.2 BA. Exceptional vintage beauty! .......$299,000 NEW LISTING OAK PARK 2BR, BA. ....................................$180,000 PRICE REDUCED OAK PARK 1BR, 1BA. ...........................$174,000 NEW LISTING FOREST PARK 3BR,3BA. ...........................$315,000

Wednesday Journal, June 24, 2020

NEED TO REACH US?

oakpark.com/real-estate email: buphues@wjinc.com

21

Homes

No 2020 tour, but Garden Walk’s mission endures For nearly three decades, fundraiser has funded scholarships By LACEY SIKORA

T

Contributing Reporter

his Sunday should have been the 27th annual Garden Walk, hosted by the Garden Club of Oak Park and River Forest in conjunction with the Friends of the Oak Park Conservatory (FOPCON.) Typically, the two nature-based organizations plan all year to open eight to 10 local gardens for an outdoor tour that encourages participants to get outside and get inspired. Like so many other activities, the walk had to be cancelled due to COVID-19, but keeping in history with the walk’s educational bent, the mission will continue. The Garden Club’s historian and president, Mary Ellen Warner, notes that the Garden Club and FOPCON began co-sponsoring the Garden Walk in 1993. Then-President Patricia Leavy initiated the project as a fundraiser to enable the club to start yearly scholarships for college students majoring in horticulture, conservation, environmental studies, forestry, landscape architecture or botany. “I think the Garden Walk has been an enduring summer tradition in the Oak Park and River Forest area because it supports two fine horticultural organizations in the area,” Warner said. “The Garden Walk chairs, committee and volunteers have strived each year to show off our local gardens with a variety of sizes and styles. Thankfully, homeowners have been willing to share their gardens and the stories of their development. People love to get ideas from local gardeners that they can institute themselves.” Sue Milojevic, past president of the Garden Club, joined the club in 2005 and says that the Garden Club has consistently poured its proceeds from the walk into providing scholarships to graduates of Oak Park and River Forest High School. “We provide two scholarships of $3,000,” Milojevic said. “This year’s scholarships, for the class of 2020, are funded by the walk proceeds from 2019. Because we won’t have any proceeds for the cancelled walk, our plan is to fund the scholarships for the class of 2021 from our reserves.” The winners of the scholarships for 2020 were Elise Beile and Geneva Domanty. “We’ve been doing it for more than 25 years,” Milojevic said. “It’s become a tradition in the area. Members scout out houses all summer in preparation for the following year.” Happily, she says that many of the homeowners whose homes were scheduled to be featured this year have agreed to have their gardens featured in the summer of 2021. One homeowner who is eager to share her outdoor space next summer is Dr. Wanda Foster. A professor at River Forest’s Concordia University, she says that the inspiration for elevating See GARDEN WALK on page 23

ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

LOWER POWER: Dr. Wanda Foster (top) and her husband, Chuck (above), drew inspiration for their River Forest garden by attending past Garden Walks.

22

Wednesday Journal, June 24, 2020

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

700 COLUMBIAN AVENUE, OAK PARK

700COLUMBIAN.INFO

903 BONNIE BRAE PLACE, RIVER FOREST

903BONNIEBRAE.INFO

Vintage C. E. White estate home facing Augusta Blvd extensively renovat-

This big traditional burma has a modern flair with fresh decor and light

ed by architect/builder owner to today’s standards.

streaming in from all directions. Lots of southern exposure.

KEVIN WOOD

•

773.472.0200

•

$1,100,000

kevin@kevinwoodgroup.com

CINDY RISCH

•

312.545.5415

•

$965,000

cindyrisch@atproperties.com

1011 SOUTH BOULEVARD

223 GALE AVENUE, RIVER FOREST

223GALE.INFO

729 S LOMBARD AVENUE, OAK PARK

729SLOMBARD.INFO

Stunning Painted Lady in one of River Forest’s most sought-after loca-

Unmatched style and efficiency start with the exterior, featuring new maintenance-

tions! Elegant but comfortable.

free siding, trim, windows, doors and a new roof.

PATTY REILLY-MURPHY

•

$949,000

312.316.2564

•

prm@atproperties.com

GREER HASEMAN

•

708.606.8896

•

$690,000 greer.gps@atproperties.com

Stop looking, start finding® atproperties.com

Wednesday Journal, June 24, 2020

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

GARDEN WALK Still growing

full force in the summer of 2021. “We’re going to make it work one way or another,” Boyer said. “It might be a lot of work to set up, but it’s a really fun thing to do every year.”

from page 21 her backyard space in River Forest came from years of attending the Garden Walk herself. “We bought the house about ten years ago, and it was so nice that the previous owner had beautiful plants,” Foster said. “Unfortunately, we lost some of the trees with the emerald ash borer and similar issues. We had to move the shady plants, which provided space for more sun-loving plants.” While she tried to reshape the garden for a few years on her own, she eventually sought help for the heavy lifting and turned to Forest Park-based McAdam Landscape Professionals. “It was more than I could do,” she said. “I sat down with their garden designer and described my vision, and they came up with a plan and did all of the hard work.” Foster says that one of the keys to her garden, which is on a corner lot, was opening things up. She got rid of a tall fence, which she says allowed her to get to know her neighbors more. Some of her neighbors were similarly inspired and began to upgrade their gardens as well. For Foster, the happiness she finds in her own garden is more than doubled when she sees her neighbors enjoying their outdoor space as well. “When one person starts to tinker around in the garden, it affects the whole neighborhood,” Foster said. “It’s a great way to bring joy to people. It’s kind of like teaching. You see a lightbulb go off, and you’re so glad they get it.” Sue Boyer, co-chair of the 2020 walk along with Gina Sennello, is hopeful that the Garden Walk will return in

ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

The auction goes on -- online Oak Park’s Toomey & Co. Auctioneers will conduct its second Art and Design sale of 2020 on Sunday, June 28, showcasing nearly 600 lots of fine and decorative artworks, sculpture, early 20th century and modern furniture, art pottery, lighting, silver, jewelry, and more. Among the highlights of the auction will be works by notable Chicago and African-American artists and many fine examples from Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts makers plus items by mid-century American and Danish designers. Furniture offerings include designs by Frank Lloyd Wright’s son, Lloyd; studio craft furniture maker George Nakashima and American Arts and Crafts pioneer Gustav Stickley. Other modern American designers of note represented in the auction are Charles and Ray Eames, George Nelson, Florence Knoll, Mies Van der Rohe and Donald Judd. The auction will start at 10 a.m. CDT at Toomey & Co. Auctioneers, 818 North Boulevard, Oak Park. In light of COVID-19, the sale will not be open to the public, but bidders may participate by phone at 708-3835234 or leave absentee bids via info@toomeyco.com. Early registration with Toomey & Co. is strongly recommended. Bids may also be placed via two real-time, third-party digital platforms, LiveAuctioneers and Invaluable. Leading up to the sale, an auction preview will take place both virtually and by appointment, pending local ordinances. Those interested may contact info@toomeyco.com to schedule an appointment. The full catalog for Art and Design on June 28 is online at toomeyco.com.

Lacey Sikora

Hanging baskets in the Foster Garden in River Forest.

BUSINESSES

Show you’re doing your part in maintaining the well-being of all who live and work in our community. Learn more at: oprfchamber.org/covid-19safety-pledge

TAKE THE COVID-19 SAFETY PLEDGE Face Coverings

Clean Hands

Sanitation

Social Distancing

Public Health Guidlines

Require & encourage face coverings by staff & customers, if medically able.

Increased hand-washing from staff, as well as hand-sanitizing stations or hand-washing available for customers.

Surfaces, equipment, and other elements of the business environment are regularly cleaned and disinfected.

Reduced occupancy to ensure social distancing guidelines of six feet.

Adherence to all directives issued by the CDC, & Illinois Department of Public Health.

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Wednesday Journal, June 24, 2020

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

439 S. Home Ave., #3S, Oak Park Open Sunday 11:30 – 1pm

Absolutely charming 2 BR, 1 BA condo. Exceptionally spacious unit lives like a home. Unit has a generous white cabinet kitchen with table area and stainless steel appliances….....$218,800

An Oak Park Classic! 4 BRs, 1.2 BAs. Many gorgeous vintage features include stunning art glass, French doors, bay windows, natural woodwork and beautiful hardwood floors….....$550,000

512 Clarence Ave, Oak Park . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309 Thatcher Ave, River Forest . . . . . . . . . 837 S. Harvey Ave, Oak Park. . . . . . . . . . . . 814 Wenonah Ave, Oak Park . . . . . . . . . . . . 816 N. Oak Park Ave, Oak Park . . . . . . . . . . 1225 N. Euclid Ave, Oak Park . . . . . . . . . . . . 919 N. Oak Park Ave, Oak Park . . . . . . . . . . 531 N. Elmwood Ave, Oak Park . . . . . . . . . . 7712 Vine St, River Forest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 839 N. Oak Park Ave, Oak Park. . . . . . . . . . 1416 Jackson Ave, River Forest . . . . . . . . . . 846 Forest Ave, Oak Park. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 703 N. East Ave, Oak Park . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

439 S. Home Ave. UNIT 3S, Oak Park . . . . 224 N. Kenilworth Ave. Oak Park, IL . . . . . 1118 Washington Blvd. UNIT 1A, Oak Park . 921 N. Ontario St. Unit B, Oak Park, IL. . . . 1040 W. Adams St. Unit 113, Chicago, IL. . . 1040 W Adams St. Unit 113, Chicago, IL . . . 7310 Circle Ave. UNIT 2A, Forest Park. . . . 17 Forest Ave, River Forest. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Call Kyra Pych 708-648-0451 The Pych Team

Hiring Online Account Reps • Business training • Lasting residual income & Recession proof • Car Bonus program • Flexible hours w/option to work from home office • We offer hope, health, and freedom

LISTING PRICE

Baird & Warner Oak Park/River Forest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$335,000 @properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $419,900 Gagliardo Realty Associates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$420,900 Baird & Warner Oak Park/River Forest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$434,000 Gagliardo Realty Associates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$502,000 Gagliardo Realty Associates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$525,000 Baird & Warner Oak Park/River Forest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $549,000 Re/Max In The Village. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $550,000 Baird & Warner Oak Park/River Forest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $585,000 @properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$699,000 Gagliardo Realty Associates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$879,000 Gagliardo Realty Associates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$999,000 Baird & Warner Oak Park/River Forest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1,080,000

ADDRESS

MULTIFAMILY

189 S. Oak Park Ave., Oak Park Kyrapych.remax.com

OFFICE

SINGLE FAMILY HOMES

Open Sunday 1:30 – 3pm

ADDRESS

CONDOS

531 N. Elmwood, Oak Park

This Weekend

OFFICE

LISTING PRICE

Re/Max In The Village. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $218,800 Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chicago . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$269,000 Baird & Warner Oak Park/River Forest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$285,000 Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chicago . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$293,000 Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chicago . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$305,000 Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Chicago . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$305,000 Baird & Warner Oak Park/River Forest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$360,000 Baird & Warner Oak Park/River Forest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $499,000

ADDRESS

OFFICE

TIME

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12-2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2:30-4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sat. 11-1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Sat. 1-3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12-2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1-3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12-2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1:30-3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12-2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1-3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1-3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1-3

TIME

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11:30-1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12-2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12-2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12-2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1-3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1-3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12-2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11-1:30

LISTING PRICE

TIME

1130 Lathrop Ave, River Forest . . . . . . . . . . Gagliardo Realty Associates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1,075,000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1-3

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Wednesday Journal, June 24, 2020

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

People-Focused. Results Driven. “Steve knows the market in this area extremely well, in addition to just being an outstanding real estate agent. Honest, supportive, and willing to go out of his way to make things happen. It’s hard to ask for much more!” - Jeremy, Seller “Joelle’s commitment to our needs, including providing excellent referrals for financing and legal representation, helped us get through the entire process flawlessly.” - Peter, Buyer “Adriana’s expertise in handling individuals, recognizing opportunity, and her vast resources are what set her apart from all the others. Without her insight and calm negotiating skills, we would not have had this sale and the ability to move onto the next phase of our lives!” - Suze, Seller

Steve Nasralla

Joelle Venzera

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708.466.5164

708.297.1879

312.497.2044

The Navigation Group is a team of Real Estate agents affiliated with Compass. Compass is a licensed Real Estate broker and abides by federal, state and local Equal Housing Opportunity laws. If your property is currently listed with another broker, this mailer is not solicitation for business. 1643 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL.

JUST LISTED

700 COLUMBIA N, OAK PAR K

407 KENILWORTH, OAK PARK

$2,000,000 :: 6 BED :: 4.5+ BATH Fabulous renovated Victorian with coach house & pool.

NEW PRICE

OPEN HOUSE - SUNDAY, JUNE 28, 11A M-1PM Vintage C. E. White estate home facing Augusta Blvd extensively renovated by current architect / builder owner to today’s standards. Casually elegant, open and functional plan that lives unusually well. 6 bedroom home featuring massive great room that overlooks private rear yard with garden wall, bluestone patios, gas fire pit and dining pergola. All new mechanicals including Control 4 Smart Home with A/V, lighting, HVAC and motorized shade control. 3-car garage + side drive for total of 6-car parking. Offered @ $1,100,000.

KEVIN@ KEVINWOO DGROU P.COM

773.382.4310

900 FRANKLIN, RIVER FOREST

$797,000 :: 4 BED :: 3.5 BATH Brick Colonial home. New kitchen & baths.

KATHY & TONY IWERSEN 708.772.8040 708.772.8041 tonyiwersen@atproperties.com

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26

Wednesday Journal, June 24, 2020

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

WE’RE BY YOUR SIDE 630 N East Ave | Oak Park $1,049,000 Catherine Simon-Vobornik

822 Jackson Ave. River Forest | $999,000 Sheila Price

526 S Kenilworth Ave. Oak Park | $750,000 Bobbi Eastman

1200 N Oak Park Ave Oak Park | $679,000 Patricia McGowan

7712 Vine St | River Forest $585,000 Keller Group Chicago

1201 N Ridgeland Ave Oak Park | $565,000 Sandra Dita Lopez

527 S Ridgeland Ave Oak Park | $550,00 Peggy Letchos

1230 Linden Ave | Oak Park $550,000 Swati Saxena

919 N Oak Park Ave Oak Park | $549,000 Hughes Home Team

1228 Scoville Ave | Berwyn $410,000 Eddie Tovar

7310 Circle Ave. #2N Forest Park | $360,000 Keller Group Chicago

641 Maple Ave. Unit C Oak Park | $354,000 Patricia McGowan

3720 East Ave | Berwyn $339,000 Steve Green

300 N Oak Park Ave. #1 Oak Park | $324,900 Roberta Ruiz

1227 Grove Ave | Berwyn $315,000 Bethanny Alexander

1040 Beloit Ave | Forest Park $303,900 Aaron Vanderbilt

411 Ashland Ave. Unit 5C River Forest | $289,000 Mary Carlin

2309 Elmwood Ave | Berwyn $269,000 Sandra Dita Lopez

424 Park Ave. Unit 602 River Forest | $259,900 Saretta Joyner

6 Division St | Oak Park $235,000 Swati Saxena

Baird & Warner Oak Park/River Forest | 1037 Chicago Ave. Oak Park, IL 60302 | 708.697.5900 | oakpark.bairdwarner.com Source: BrokerMetrics® LLC, 1/1/2019 - 12/ 31/2019Detached and Attached only. Chicagoland PMSA

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS IS FRIDAY 5 P.M. Call Viewpoints editor Ken Trainor at 613-3310 ktrainor@wjinc.com

Wednesday Journal, June 24, 2020

VIEWPOINTS

27

Sen. President Don Harmon on reinvesting in communities of color p. 36

But I am Black

M

y life as a Black woman at Oak Park and River Forest High School did not begin freshman year, or even eighth grade. My experience at the high school was founded in my experience at the middle school and my experience in elementary school. And that experience felt like the white experience. At my elementary school there were only a few Black people and for some reason I tended to befriend white people. The reason why, I couldn’t say. Maybe I just ended up sitting next to a white person and then became friends with all of their friends and so on. The segregation that is prominent in middle school and high school was not very prominent in elementary, at least from what I can remember. The majority of my closest friends were white, and many of them were financially secure. Secure in the way where they could afford to go on vacations multiple times a year and buy clothes from Hollister and Abercrombie and go to expensive summer camps and get their house remodeled. My family is financially stable but compared to my white friends, I often felt poor. So feeling different was my everyday experience, which I tried hard to hide. I tried to mask anything that made me feel any different from my friends, which led me to subconsciously, yet also purposefully, completely whitewash myself. I used to fight with my mom to get her to buy me clothes from Abercrombie. I begged my parents to buy me uggs. I began to straighten my hair more often. I always talked as “properly” as I could. I always made sure I got good grades, and I honestly became a bit mean in elementary school so no one felt like they could talk about me and bully me for our differences. I basically molded myself into a Black person that no white person would feel intimidated by. I did this as an elementary-schooler. There were still a number of microaggressions thrown my way, but they were often said in the way I was “better” than other Black people and, horrifically, I welcomed those comments at the time. I didn’t want to be Black, so if I was told “I don’t see you as Black” (which I am) it made me happy, and of course I didn’t know or understand the term “micro-aggression” when I was 11 years old. There is much I don’t remember. Not sure if it’s because I blocked things out or just have a terrible memory, but with all this my time in elementary school was still wonderful, and I’m one of a select few who enjoyed middle school. But middle school is when things started clearly changing. I noticed how Black people were treated by teachers and administration, which was bad and obviously targeted. I also noticed how white people saw Black people. If they were funny and class clowns, they were acceptable as entertainment. Otherwise they were avoided; they were seen as hooligans or the “bad kids.” So being a black girl, I knew that what I (felt) I had to do was continue to try to blend myself into white people — which is so stupid to think about, considering I was obviously Black and that is often the first thing people would notice about me. One of the most defining moments when I

MICAH DANIELS One View

See DANIELS on page 34

ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

FREEDOM TO THRIVE: Village trustee wants to redefine community safety in Oak Park.

It’s time to defund the Oak Park police

‘H

i, I called you. There were three kids that were riding their bikes, hitting people with their bikes and they weren’t listening to us when we told them to stop,” said the white woman to the Oak Park police officer who arrived on the scene at Euclid Park. Observing this incident, which happened almost three years ago, cemented in my mind the warped definition of safety that exists in our community. The white woman had called the police on three young Black children, the smallest who seemed around 6 years old, the oldest maybe younger than 10. The white woman had called the police on them because they were riding their bikes over the “hills” inside the playground. Calling the police made her feel safe while simultaneously traumatizing three young children. I left the playground that day thinking of Tamir Rice, a young Black boy who was killed by Cleveland police at the age of 12 for playing with a toy gun on a playground. In Oak Park, some trustees and village staff tell residents to call the police for everything — for any issue or perceived danger they might have. The police are our help desk in our community. They respond to any and every issue, fully armed — even to resolve playground disputes. White Oak Parkers deploy the police to surveil, question and intimidate Black and Brown people in our community. Since 2014, even as the number of non-police village staff has decreased, the number of Oak Park Police Department staff has increased. The 2014 budget funded 115 sworn police officers, and 34 civilian police department staff. The 2019 budget allocated funding for 121 sworn police officers and 31 civilian police department staff. The number of police officers has increased even as crime rates have remained relatively stable in our community. Approximately 40 percent of the village of Oak Park’s General Fund dollars are used to pay for policing, which is the village’s single, largest expense. And with our 2020 Capital Improvement Plan allocating an additional $40

million for a new police building, Oak Park continues to throw more money at its carceral infrastructure with no equivalent investment in community services that would actually improve the lives of all residents in our community. Earlier this year, I requested that the Citizen Police Oversight Commission (CPOC) review all police department general orders — such as the Use-of-Force order — and the rest of the board members disagreed. I have called out the egregious appointment made to CPOC, which is currently an overwhelmingly white male and police-friendly commission counting multiple ex-law enforcement personnel as commissioners. Since my time in office, our village government has failed at every opportunity to reign in police spending or increase oversight of our police. This is why I helped create Freedom to Thrive Oak Park, an organization that has worked tirelessly over the past year to research the currently warped definition of community safety in Oak Park. That it has taken a nationwide uprising sparked by the murder of yet another Black person to awaken the conscience of Oak Park trustees so they take a stand on issues of policing in our community is irredeemable. The village president and some trustees have now shown performative solidarity with the movement for Black lives, by taking a knee with Oak Park police, and signing onto the Obama Foundation’s Pledge to review the use-of-force policy and engage the community on this issue. These actions, at this moment, are not enough. Signing onto the Obama Pledge will not solve Oak Park’s policing problems. I believe this moment calls not just for reforming our policing, but, as Freedom to Thrive Oak Park calls for in our report, defunding our police and a full reimagining of our definition of community safety. Oak Park’s current definition of community safety creates walls between Oak Park and its surrounding

ARTI WALKER PEDDAKOTLA One View

See WALKER-PEDDAKOTLA on page 34

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O U R

V I E W P O I N T S

V I E W S

Historic pact for RF, Maywood

A

river and woods separate River Forest from Maywood. It has always, until now, been about maintaining that separation between these two neighboring villages. River Forest is largely wealthy and largely white. Maywood is largely Black and Brown and suffers from low incomes and high unemployment. River Forest has only thought about Maywood in terms of containment. Maybe in the old days it was also a source for hired help. Monday night, though, not even a month after the murder of George Floyd under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer, all that changed in a way that feels startling, wonderful and hope-filled. By a unanimous vote, the River Forest Village Board ratified the Twin Cities Covenant, a working document that pledges collaboration and partnership between these two villages. When it meets in July, the Maywood Village Board is expected to take reciprocal action. This is an aspirational effort to join the futures of these towns. The covenant will “guide the overarching spirit of our distinct towns to think as one and to interact in more collaborative ways.” But its goal is to have meat on the bone as it calls for “a regional perspective on commercial and residential investment/development.” While the death of Mr. Floyd has sparked a month of now worldwide protests calling out systemic racism, it is telling that the opening sentence of the covenant refers not to George Floyd but to the hate crime reportedly committed at the River Forest Jewel in early June when a prominent local resident and developer, Rob Palley, allegedly assaulted, first verbally and then physically, a Black woman he had encountered in the Starbucks inside the store. It was that racist act that led a Maywood woman to talk to a Maywood village trustee about next steps. And that Maywood leader, Miguel Jones, opened a conversation with Cathy Adduci, River Forest’s president. The outcome is a pact based on “principles of humanity, equity and inclusion.” An obvious question is: If River Forest has the gumption and the grace to partner with Maywood, what is keeping Oak Park from doing the same with its neighbors in Austin? The historic bonds between that West Side of Chicago neighborhood and Oak Park are deep and profound and lovely. Until the rapid racial resegregation of Austin in the late 1960s and ’70s, Oak Park and Austin were effectively one community. Fear and ignorance based on race led Oak Park to wall off Austin in ways psychological and physical. It is also true that Austin has been suspicious of Oak Park for decades, worrying over gentrification. There have been genuine connections bravely built between Austin and Oak Park, especially in recent years, mainly through the efforts of nonprofits and faith leaders. But outside of a mostly collaborative relationship between Oak Park police and Austin’s 15th District, Oak Park’s village government, which saw its heyday of leadership on race end several decades back, has little connection. That needs to change. River Forest — yes, River Forest — needs to be a model.

Conversation not consultants

Meanwhile in Oak Park, a divided village board is not so much addressing issues of racism and police reform as it is attempting to study it, surround it with consultants and data. Monday evening’s special village board meeting on this topic was a botch. It ended, we think, with an inarticulate resolution to have some sort of community conversations, to draft a Request for Proposals for a third-party consultant and to conduct an internal review of the Citizen Police Oversight Commission. Village Manager Cara Pavlicek estimates it could take three months to find the consultant. We suggest, instead, listening. Until the voices of concern over local policing are heard, there is no way to understand this issue, there is no way to communicate things Oak Park’s police force does well, no way to engage in crafting meaningful change.

H

A change of heart

ave you experienced a conversion? It’s an old religious concept, but not limited to religion. I converted from Republican to Democrat in the late 1960s, but converting isn’t the same as experiencing a full conversion. Converting is changing your mind. A conversion is a change of heart. Changing your mind can be temporary. A change of heart is usually permanent. Have you experienced a change of heart about race and racism? My change of heart was a long time coming. Decades of education, consciousness-raising, relationship-building, increasing my comfort level. Preparing the ground, planting seeds. But they didn’t germinate until after the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014 and the ascendancy of the Black Lives Matter movement, developments that made me realize how far I still had to go on this issue. It took a while, but I came to accept the truth of white privilege; white fragility; unconscious bias; micro-aggressions; structural, institutional or systemic racism (take your pick); and white supremacy. I started uncovering my own biases. It was hard to admit that these lurked inside, along with uncomfortable memories of disrespecting people of color — and not very subtly — memories that actually made me lose sleep. How could I have done such things? But I was past the point of denial. This is not about guilt or shame, but about clearly seeing our place in a culture founded on inequality, understanding the really raw deal our dominant white culture has imposed on people of color — African Americans in particular. In spite of all the “progress” this country has made, and there has been progress, not much has fundamentally changed. Not nearly enough. From what I’ve seen in the protests following George Floyd’s murder, a lot of other white Americans are experiencing a similar conversion. That’s because we finally felt this one. We felt the knee to the neck. We watched as a murderous cop continued to kneel on Floyd’s neck for a full three minutes after his pulse stopped. We felt the raw, unconscionable injustice of this one act after so many similar acts. We felt just a little of the rage that Black Americans have been feeling for far too long. It finally moved from our head to our hearts. How could anyone watch that knee to the neck and not experience some kind of conversion? Isabel Wilkerson, a former Oak Parker who wrote The Warmth of Other Suns a landmark book about the Great Migration of African Americans from the South to the North, said this much better, back in 2017 during an On Being interview: “What is happening in these cases after the person is down? Where is that basic human response to a per-

son in distress? Where is the threat, once they are already near death? The basic human response to take the hand of someone whose life is slipping away from them and to comfort them: That is the essential missing piece, which is empathy — and recognition of the common humanity of another person. We can disagree on the circumstances and the details and the socalled facts of the situation, but after the person is down, where is the humanity? I think it calls upon all of us to recognize the need for radical empathy.” Too many white people still resist the notion of “systemic racism.” Racism is not just limited to “a few bad apples.” It’s baked into the entire system, a system founded on radical inequality. Wilkerson, whose On Being interview was rebroadcast last Sunday, calls it “a caste system, the artificial hierarchy that was put in place before our great-great-great-grandparents were alive. It’s something that we’ve inherited. It’s not something that we wanted. If you’re on the beneficiary end of it, you didn’t ask to be on the beneficiary end. If you’re on the targeted end of it, you certainly didn’t ask to be on that end. But this is where we are. And I think that it’s calling upon us to reckon with this finally. There’s no point in pointing fingers about it, but recognizing it is the first step toward dismantling it.” Passing legislation, unfortunately, has limited impact. “Laws are necessary,” Wilkerson said, “but they’re not sufficient if hearts have not changed. I view myself as on a mission to change the country, the world, one heart at a time. And it’s a tough thing to do. I feel as if the heart is the last frontier because we have tried so many other things. The laws we’ve passed, that we thought were written in granite, we see can be erased and are in peril if, as a collective, we do not recognize why.” Have you experienced a conversion on race and racism? Have you experienced a change of heart? If you have, tell us because telling our stories allows us to experience our common humanity. Telling our stories is the greatest catalyst for change. There are plenty of materials to watch and listen to and read that will help inform and educate us, but if you want to move this issue from your head to your heart, you can’t do better than reading The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson and How To Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi. In the wake of George Floyd’s murder, many white Americans have experienced a conversion, but many have not. White Americans need to recognize our common humanity with people of color, especially Black Americans, and not just recognize it in our heads but feel it in our hearts. Because the heart is the last frontier.

KEN

TRAINOR

Epidemiologists could study Tulsa rally attendees

In terms of transmission of COVID-19, how dangerous is the assembly of a large crowd of people indoors? The Trump rally in Tulsa provides a remarkable opportunity to answer this question. Even though the number of attendees fell short of Trump’s desires, about two thirds of the 19,000 capacity did come. Judging by photos of the event, less than 20 percent were wearing masks. What is different about this crowd is that we know who they are — they were required to sign a waiver. Therefore,

epidemiologists can identify a scientifically valid sample, test them, and then follow them. Scientists call this an “experiment of nature” — an opportunity to perform a study that is not the result of an experimental design. Such a study would render invaluable information. Would Trump allow it?

James Whalen, MD Oak Park

V I E W P O I N T S by Marc Stopeck

S H R U B T O W N

Wednesday Journal, June 24, 2020

W E D N E S D A Y

JOURNAL of Oak Park and River Forest

Editor and Publisher Dan Haley Senior Editor Bob Uphues Staff Reporters Michael Romain, Stacey Sheridan, Maria Maxham Viewpoints Editor Ken Trainor Sports/Staff reporter James Kay Columnists Marc Blesoff, Jack Crowe, Doug Deuchler, John Hubbuch, May Kay O’Grady, Kwame Salter, John Stanger, Stan West, Linda Francis Staff Photographer Alex Rogals Design/Production Manager Andrew Mead Designers Mark Moroney, Javier Govea Business Manager Joyce Minich Advertising Design Manager Andrew Mead Advertising Designers Debbie Becker, Mark Moroney Marketing Representatives Marc Stopeck, Lourdes Nicholls

I

Advertising Sales Marc Stopeck

Local news beats national news any day

have begun to follow the national news at a distance because it is too depressing, even for an optimist like me. I read that COVID-positive tests are increasing in some states that I don’t live in, and in countries I don’t plan to ever visit. I was pleased to learn that statues of Confederate generals like Robert E. Lee, astride their mighty steeds, were finally being removed from public spaces. One tiny overdue step for mankind. I guess the horses are a kind of collateral damage. Too bad for Lee’s horse, Traveler. He should have avoided a racist master. Where is PETA when you need them? My focus has turned to the local news. I am pleased to report that the news is considerably more upbeat in Lincoln Park, Wheaton and Glen Ellyn. In Lincoln Park, Ford (age 1) is taking a longer afternoon nap, and Teddy (age 4) is very excited about earning enough “good boy “ credits for a Lego police station. He better be on his best behavior lest it be defunded. In Wheaton, Jack (age .75) is pulling himself up on furniture and Hazel (age 2) has a new swing set that may prove more popular than her frustrated efforts to catch a

rabbit or collect cicada shells. In Glen Ellyn, there is an outbreak of bicycle riding, water-balloon fighting and trampolining. Although professional sports are dormant, Team Lily (age 11) defeated Team Chris (age 44) 5-4, in a hard-fought soccer contest. It was played before no fans. Veteran players Papa (age 71) and Gigi (age 70) sustained minor injuries to ankle and finger respectively. Team Chris was handicapped because budding superstar Cole (age 5) repeatedly left the pitch because he wasn’t seeing enough of the ball. Teammate Ava (age 9) had a good first half, but lost some focus in the second half over heat and field conditions. There was minor controversy after the match over celebratory ice cream or Slurpees. Traffic has picked up. Outdoor dining seems pretty safe and popular. Columbus Park and Austin Gardens are in full summer bloom. When I’m walking and running, I see more smiles, at least among the unmasked faces. Life is not so bad. I’m optimistic that the COVID second wave will be less deadly, and that police departments will get better. One thing is for sure, though: I’m going to continue following the local news.

JOHN

HUBBUCH

Circulation Manager Jill Wagner Front Desk Carolyn Henning, Maria Murzyn Chairman Emeritus Robert K. Downs

About Viewpoints Our mission is to lead educated conversation about the people, government, schools, businesses and culture of Oak Park and River Forest. As we share the consensus of Wednesday Journal’s editorial board on local matters, we hope our voice will help focus your thinking and, when need be, fire you to action. In a healthy conversation about community concerns, your voice is also vital. We welcome your views, on any topic of community interest, as essays and as letters to the editor. Noted here are our stipulations for filing. Please understand our verification process and circumstances that would lead us not to print a letter or essay. We will call to check that what we received with your signature is something you sent. If we can’t make that verification, we will not print what was sent. When, in addition to opinion, a letter or essay includes information presented as fact, we will check the reference. If we cannot confirm a detail, we may not print the letter or essay. If you have questions, email Viewpoints editor Ken Trainor at ktrainor@wjinc.com.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

What’s with the fireworks?

For the past few weeks almost every night from before dark to quite late (11 p.m. or so) there seem to be fireworks going off in the communities around Oak Park. I don’t have a problem with this, but it seems curiously like so much more than in past years, when they would just happen in the days around the 4th of July. A quick

Sales & Development Mary Ellen Nelligan

online check doesn’t reveal any announcements about any communities hosting fireworks displays — in fact, most of the items that come up are about the cancellation of upcoming events. Does anyone know what’s up?

Peter Conover Oak Park

‘ONE VIEW’ ESSAY

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municipality in which you live, phone number (for verification only)

your connection to the topic ■ Signature details as at left

Email Ken Trainor at ktrainor@wjinc.com or mail to Wednesday Journal, Viewpoints, 141 S. Oak Park Ave., Oak Park, IL 60302 708 613 3300

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Wednesday Journal, June 24, 2020

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Lya Nabwangu • 4th • Mann

Isaac Keneklis • 4th • Mann

Connor Vassiliades • 4th • Mann

Oscar Van Loan • 4th • Mann

Kyles Rettberg • 5th • Mann

Aeryn Siegel • 5th • Mann

Sophia Sood • 5th • Mann

Gust Hall • 4th • Longfellow

Luke Le Man • 4th • Longfellow

Sean Burton • 4th • Longfellow

Myles Hill • 4th • Longfellow

Bella Lee • 5th • Holmes

Oliver Henderson • 5th • Longfellow

Lucy Wojtowicz • 5th • Holmes

Lea • 4th • Longfellow

Amelia Harks • 5th • Holmes

Wednesday Journal, June 24, 2020

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Amya Petties • 5th • Holmes

Hunter B. • 5th • Holmes

Kemen Carbajan • 5th • Holmes

Zoey Martinez • 5th • Roosevelt

Kaz K. • 5th • Roosevelt

Chase Nelson • 5th • Roosevelt

Emmet Freedman • 5th • Roosevelt

Miya Cune • 5th • Roosevelt

George Summy • 5th • Roosevelt

Danny Solano • 5th • Hatch

Payton N. • 5th • Roosevelt

Christopher Denneen • 5th • Hatch

Collin Scaarsgard • 5th • Hatch

Charlie Stone • 5th • Hatch

Margo Van Hoff • 5th • Hatch

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Brooks Ondrla • 4th • Longfellow

Lucas Culbert • 5th • Hatch

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Jason Angaicno • 5th • Roosevelt

Liliana Bonilla • 5th • Ascension

Quinn Creehan • 5th • Hatch

Jonah Williamson • 5th • Ascension

Bailey Mahoney • 5th • Hatch

Wednesday Journal, June 24, 2020

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Nour Alaraj • 5th • Roosevelt

Julian Counts • 4th • Mann

Sydney Kadlec • 4th • Mann

Romy Bornhorst • 5th • Mann

Logan Binning • 5th • Mann

Oliver D. • 5th • Mann

Andrew Hover • 5th • Mann

Audrey Latham • 5th • Beye

Austin Frisch • 5th • Beye

Oliver Tesch • 5th • Beye

Delilah Carey • 5th • Beye

Lily Vanderberg • 5th • Irving

Will Bernabe • 5th • Irving

Caire Hoerster • 4th • Longfellow

Max Winchell • 4th • Longfellow

William Goyette • 5th • Longfellow

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Remarks upon graduating The multitude of My current expeemotions I experience rience reminds me in this transition past that great change high school is hard to can bring forth both describe in words. It great anticipation is bewildering to look and fear. These last back and realize all months have shown that has occurred durmore than ever how ing these four years, the uncertainty of the and the possibilities future can appear so which lie on the horidaunting. I can only zon. But while I can’t ask of my fellow peers describe all my feelthat we focus on what ings, I can single out is under our control, JOSHUA OGUNSANYA one that stands out seek to push ourselves above all others: gratiin pursuit of self-imtude. I know I wouldn’t be where I am provement, and never be afraid to now were it not for the help of my acknowledge our shortcomings and family, friends, coaches, and school reach out for support. These crucial staff. Their selfless dedication to- lessons are some of many that I have ward my success is nothing short of learned while being at OPRF High commendable, and has profoundly School. Joshua Ogunsanya influenced who I aspire to be as I asOPRF class of 2020 cend into adulthood.

DANIELS

Learning to love my Blackness from page 27 noticed my race was incredibly apparent is when my friend who rode the bus home invited me over. You weren’t allowed to ride the bus without a bus pass. But my friend assured me that she had friends over all the time (and this I knew, white kids were allowed on the bus without a bus pass all the time). But I am Black. I even told my friend that my Blackness would be noticed and I wouldn’t be allowed to get on, but she reassured me I had nothing to worry about. So the friend who invited me got on, our other friend who was coming (and didn’t have a bus pass) got on without issue, and then as soon as I stepped up to get on, the bus driver stopped me and asked if I had a bus pass. I instantly started freaking out because it was quite obvious the reason I was stopped and I hated the fact that I was Black to be pointed out by others. I was only fine with talking about my race in controlled situations when I felt enough courage to speak against my friends’ unconscious ignorance. But my friends advocated for me (as they should have) and I was allowed to stay on the bus after a long persuasive conversation with the bus driver. Being friends with white people for so long made me incredibly tolerant to ignorance. But as the years went on, I began to realize just how harmful their statements were. And the thing is, most of them don’t even remember the things said that were incredibly impactful to me. The summer before high school, all of my friends became closer with another group of white girls, and this happened when I was out of town. The opportu-

WALKERPEDDAKOTLA Community safety reimagined from page 27 “unsafe” communities. We stop anyone who doesn’t appear to “belong” here. Data shows that over 40 percent of the traffic stops made by Oak Park police involve people of color, mainly Black and Latinx people. We must acknowledge that every police interaction has impact and causes trauma — and we have heard this countless times in public comment before the village board. Community safety does not come from hiring more police and using the police as our community’s security guards to stop and question anyone who doesn’t seem like they “belong” here. Community safety comes when we reimagine what it means to have a safe and healthy community and we ensure that everyone, not just a select few, have what they need to thrive. Trained and experienced mediation professionals could respond when disputes need to be settled, instead of armed police officers who can escalate situations. Individuals experiencing mental-health or sensory challenges could interact with mentalhealth professionals able to connect them with

nity for me to attempt to assimilate myself into the group had passed. I found myself without a strong group of friends, although all of them would swear they were still my best friends (no shame to them though, I still have much love for them and I can’t blame them too much for what happens naturally). I would only hang out with people when they remembered me and hardly when they were in large groups. So I did not enter high school with the most comfortable situation. I remember sitting at the lunch table with my old friends freshman year and their ignorant guy friends (who constantly said the most disgusting things) and deciding to leave. I joined another table and a new friend group was formed that was actually diverse and very cool. I learned that diverse friend groups, though rare, were possible. So a message to all the people in a friend group made of people just like them: It’s possible to have a diverse friend group and those are the best ones. One blessing that came with my complete lack of black identity was learning how white people do school and communicate. I learned how to talk to teachers, how to advocate for myself, how to email teachers and administration. I learned how important grades and extracurriculars were for college, and I learned how important group chats were in honors and AP classes. I learned how to be taken seriously by white people, which was basically just to act white, but as a Black person to act and sound overly easygoing and unaggressive and kind. I learned how to make white people feel comfortable around me. And I went through high school charming people. The majority of my teachers adored me because it was probably so “amazing” to them that a Black student actually participated in class and was a good student. Many more white kids liked me, enough to want to be partners with me

services, instead of officers who criminalize them. Community safety comes from defunding the police budget and reinvesting that money into affordable housing and rent and utility subsidies so that we cannot only find permanent housing for those experiencing homelessness, but also respond to the housing and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 has shown us that we must redefine community safety and fund the basic necessities people need to thrive. Even within Oak Park, Black residents who represent roughly 19 percent of the population, make up 44 percent of Oak Park’s COVID-19 infections. The racial disparities seen with COVID-19 are a glaring reminder that the definition of community safety is centered on white comfort and safety. Never has the argument been stronger for the need to divest from punitive and carceral infrastructure and invest in the social and economic needs of our community than in this moment. I urge the village leadership to listen to the young voices rising up in this moment, and gather the political courage to defund the police and reinvest our resources so that each and every life in our community has the opportunity to thrive. Arti Walker-Peddakotla is an Oak Park village trustee and organizer for Freedom to Thrive Oak Park.

in class and tell me their business, but never so far as to ask me to hang out with them (although some did, I’m speaking generally here). Once I learned how to be “an acceptable Black,” high school was pretty easy (racewise). I hardly received racial profiling because I was always with white kids, teachers always took me seriously because I was always with white kids, and I succeeded in school thanks to all of the groupchats with white kids. But I don’t see all these white people in my life as just general “white people.” Some of these people are my closest friends. They are some of the folks I love the most. But it was because I was so whitewashed that we so easily became friends. I know this because those white people I love so much are still mostly just friends with white people. Even now, the majority of my friends and acquaintances are white. That could be because I more easily gravitate toward white people because of how I have been molded, or because I’ve only ever taken honors and AP classes (due to taking the same classes as my white friends and the support of my parents) and there being disproportionately white students in those honors and AP classes (which is the fault of the schools and systemic oppression, not the Black students). As I lived the “white” OPRF experience, I only witnessed the “Black” experience from afar. I watched my Black peers being constantly hounded by security. I heard stories of teachers and counselors who had no hope or expectation for their students, which was absorbed into those Black students’ minds. I watched as Black students’ safe places were taken away when teachers who advocated for them were suspended. I took part in joining them to advocate for our rights when those Black students had enough of the unjust treatment during a number of hate crimes

and also some racist actions by teachers our junior year. But at that point, no white people joined those protests or sit-ins, and when they did many just didn’t know what they were protesting for and just joined a bandwagon. Recently that has changed, and I hope it is permanent. If racism could just be solved by Black people, it would have been solved in the 1600s. We need white allies in order to succeed. Through the years, I have a made number of Black friends (just naturally and through clubs like Black Leaders Union and Spoken Word) and I have grown to love my Blackness and I’ve come to realize there is no one way to be Black, and my Blackness is just as valid as anyone else’s. It is still taking me time to forgive myself for neglecting my Black identity, but I am getting there. I encourage students now to look at their friend groups. If their friend group is 90 percent white, change that. It often takes intention to diversify a friend group. It makes sense that we self-segregate. You more easily befriend people you can easily relate to, and those are normally the people who share the same race. But if we’re going to progress as humans, we need to be intentional with diversity and advocate for equity. And if any parents are reading this, I encourage you to speak to your children about other cultures and races. Make sure your white students understand that they are not the standard for “normal.” They are just one kind of a large array of different kinds of people. It is never too early to talk about race and the inequities and systemic oppression that comes with it, because identities, preconceived notions, and views on others begin to develop as soon as one develops the skill to observe. Micah Daniels is a member of the OPRF class of 2020.

Wednesday Journal, June 24, 2020

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Food To Go! Delivery, Curbside Service, Limited Outdoor Dining! Barclay’s American Grille 1120 Pleasant St., Oak Park

Classic American cuisine: burgers, BBQ ribs, fresh seafood, steaks and chops Our Menu: barclaysamericangrille.com/ Call 708-848-4250 for Curbside Pick-up Delivery is available through Grubhub and UberEats 4pm - 8pm, Tuesday through Sunday

Burger Moovment

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Cucina Paradiso 814 North Blvd, Oak Park Italian Menus: Cucinaoakpark.com

For Pickup, call 708-848-3434, curbside pickup is available For Delivery go to DoorDash or Grubhub Every night 4pm – 9pm

side Pick-up, and Free Delivery Wednesday-Friday 11:30am to 6pm, Sat. Noon-5pm.

Eastgate Café 102 Harrison, Oak Park

211 N Oak Park Ave., Oak Park, IL

Hemmingway’s Bistro & French Market

French-American: Steaks, Roast Chicken, Burgers, fresh Seafood, Salades, fresh-baked Desserts, Family-Style Dinner Packages, plus Champagne, Fine Wines, & Cocktail kits Our Menu: Hemmingwaysbistro.com Call 708 524-0806 for Contactless Curbside Pick-up & Delivery 11am - 7:30pm, Seven days a week, Sunday till 7pm.

American Comfort Our Menu: Eastgatecafe.net For Curbside Pick-up and Delivery, call 708-660-9091 Delivery is also available on Grubhub 12pm - 8pm; closed Monday

George’s Restaurant

145 S. Oak Park Avenue, Oak Park Our Menu: Georgesoakpark.com/menu Serving breakfast and lunch for pick-up. One soup per day. All items won’t be available. Call ahead for availability. For Pick-up call 708-848-4949; Delivery available through Door Dash and Postmates 8am - 3pm Monday - Sunday

Grape Leaves Restaurant 129 S Oak Park Ave, Oak Park Mediterranean, Moroccan and Lebanese cuisine Our Menu : Grapeleaves.us For Pick-up and Delivery, call 708-848-5555 We also partner with Grubhub, UberEats, Postmate. Sunday - Thursday 12-8pm Friday and Saturday 12-9pm

Happy Apple Pie Shop 226 Harrison, Oak Park

happyapplepie.com Sweet and savory pies, special orders Our menu is posted on our Facebook page and Instagram, or call us. Call 708-606-0037 to arrange for No touch take-out, Curb-

Mexican Republic Kitchen 7404 Madison St., Forest Park

Mexican Cuisine Our Menu: Mexicanrepublickitchen.com/s/order For Curbside Pick-up order online at our website or call 708-689-0850 Delivery available via Uber Eats, Grubhub or Doordash Tuesday- Saturday 3:00pm-9:00pm Sunday 3:00pm-8:00pm

Mickey’s Gyros & Ribs

525 N Harlem Ave, Oak Park, IL 60302 708-848-3333 Facebook.com/mickeysgyros Casual counter-service restaurant offering American comfort food (burgers, gyros & fries, ribs, BBQ tips) and Greek specialties. Open 10:30am - 9pm Daily - Takeout

Old World Pizza 7230 W North Ave, Elmwood Park

35

paid advertisement or fax 708-456-4580 Mon 3:30pm – 9pm; Tues – Thurs 11am –9pm; Fri & Sat 11am – 10pm; Sun 11am – 9pm

One Lake Brewing 1 Lake St, Oak Park

Contemporary Locally Sourced Food - Craft beer brewed on-site, plus wine & cocktail kits Our Menu: Onelakebrewing.com/eat ROOFTOP is OPEN, with social distancing guidelines in place. There are only a few tables so please make a reservation. Curbside pick-up & complementary contact-free, delivery. To place an order please call 708-434-5232 (we only have one phone line so please call us back if busy). Hours: Wednesday - Sunday 4 pm - 8 pm

O’Sullivan’s Public House 7244 W. Madison Street, Forest Park Modern American/Pub Food Our Menu: Osullivanspublichouse.net Call 708-366-6667 to order Carry-Out and Local Delivery (No Delivery Fee) Daily Specials posted on Facebook @osullivanspublichouseFP Delivery also available on GrubHub O’Sullivan’s is open for Carry-Out and Delivery Friday-Saturday 12-9pm, Sunday-Thursday 3-9pm

Robinson’s #1 Ribs 848 Madison St, Oak Park Barbecue (vegetarian options available) Our Menu: Rib1.com For Carry-out and Delivery call 708-383-8452 Delivery is available through UberEats, DoorDash , Grubhub Tues – Sun 12pm – 8pm

Pizza, Burgers, Pasta Our Menu: Originaloldworldpizza.com For Pick-up, Curbside Pick-up, Delivery and Contact-less Delivery call 708-456-3000,

Goods To Go! Curbside Service, Limited In-Store Shopping! Al-Mart Furniture & Bedding 7045 W. North Ave. Oak Park 708-383-5909

Almartfurniture.com Bedroom Furniture, Sofas, Sectionals, Desks, Book Cases, Dinettes, Recliners, Mattresses and all other home furnishings and accessories. Order on our website or call to schedule a showroom appointment. Curbside pick-up Hours: 11 to 5 pm Extra 20% off everything we carry!

Bead In Hand

145 Harrison Street, Oak Park 708-848-1761 Beadinhand.com An extraordinary selection of beads and beading supplies. Now offering in store shopping by appointment. Visit our website (beadinhand.com) for information about: shop hours, scheduling an appointment, purchasing one of our DIY bead kits or a gift certificate online, or for more information about our safety protocols. You can also call (708-848-1761) or send an email to query@ beadinhand.com.

The Book Table

adults, and children. Call or shop online Centuriesandsleuths.com/ E-mail: cns7419@sbcglobal.net 708-771-7243 (Fax 708-771-7412) Curbside Pickup Hours: Tue-Fri 12-7; Sat 10-5, Sun 12-5 Make a $15 purchase for books (before sales tax) and choose an ARC* from the books (covers) displayed on easels in the store’s display window.

JAYNE

Divine Consign

Manouche

1800 S. Harlem Ave, North Riverside 708-386-3366 Divineconsign.com New and Nearly New Furniture and Decor Purchase online or call (708)386-3366 for appointment. Now OPEN for business. Packed with stunning furniture. Strictly following CDC Guidelines. Temporary hours Monday - Saturday 10-6 and Sunday 11-5

Garland Flowers

1045 Lake St, Oak Park 708-386-9800 Booktable.net Books, journals, and puzzles Order online or over the phone. Curbside pick-up Hours: Mon-Sat 9-9, and Sun 11-6

Centuries & Sleuths Bookstore 7419 Madison St, Forest Park

Specializing in History, Mystery and Biography Books both hard back and paperback books for adults, young

137 S Oak Park Ave, Oak Park 708-848-2777 GarlandFlowers.net Flowers, loose and arranged, green plants, blooming plants, garden plants Order by phone or online Call when you arrive and we will bring your order out to you. We also deliver! Hours: Mon – Sat 9-3

122 N. Marion St., Oak Park 708-613-5858 Shopjayne.com] JAYNE is currently open for in-person shopping; no appointment needed. We are sanitizing high-touch surfaces, dressing rooms, and items that have been tried on or handled. Our staff is wearing masks and hand washing/sanitizing. Also offering curbside pick up and shipping from our e-commerce site shopJAYNE. com. Summer arrivals coming in daily! Monday-Saturday 10am-6pm; Sunday 11am-5pm

Team Blonde Boutique, Eco Spa, and Salon

7442 W. Madison, Forest Park 708-771-5590

146 N Oak Park Ave

Teamblonde.com Clothing, gifts, jewelry, handbags, bath & body products, hair care products To order, go to our website, email us at blondes@ teamblonde.com, or call. We offer curbside pick-up and delivery. For curbside pick-up, pull up to our front or back door and call to let us know you arrived. Hours almost anytime, by appointment. Mention this ad for 15% off your first curbside purchase

(New Location - previously at 103 N Oak Park Ave)

Trends Consignment Boutique

708-505-5546

Manoucheshop.com Women’s clothing and accessories with a focus on independent designers, organic fibers, and ethical sourcing. Open 11-5 Tuesday thru Saturday. 12-4 Sunday Private appointments available Tuesday - Saturday 10-11 Or Tuesday thru Friday 5-6.

A Paw Place in Oak Park 708-516-8038

APawPlace@gmail.com • Apawplace.com/ A mom-owned local business delivering biologically appropriate foods, treats & toys for cats & dogs. We also carry artisanal Grounds & Hounds coffees. Help support homeless pets! Shop online or contact us any time by phone or email. We provide FREE Door Drop Delivery!

810 North Blvd, Oak Park 708-434-0801

Trendsoakpark.net Women’s clothing & accessories Shop on our website and through our social media posts. If you have a special request, virtual shopping appointments are also available. Join us for our LIVE shopping parties on Facebook. Tues-Thurs at 8pm. When you have placed an order, you can request curbside pick-up by emailing Amanda@ trendsoakpark.com. Curbside pick-up is available Monday-Friday starting at noon

Each of these restaurants paid a very nominal fee to participate in this ad. Thank you for supporting these local businesses!

36

Wednesday Journal, June 24, 2020

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

Floyd murder highlights need for investment in communities

G

eorge Floyd’s murder left us all wanting to do something. Watching a man’s life slowly drain away for an agonizing 8 minutes and 46 seconds was shocking and brutal. It ignited an impassioned reaction in all 50 states and around the world. But these protests speak to a deeper, darker truth about our society. Just as George Floyd’s life was cruelly cut short, Black and Brown communities have been gasping for air for years as they are cut off from necessary resources. In the past week, I have participated in multiple clean-up events and protests in Austin and around the Chicagoland region, but one of the first things I wanted to do was drive through the area I represent so I could check in on businesses and first responders and take the pulse of the community. I drove south from my home, a few blocks, to Chicago Avenue, the first major artery, and headed east. I passed the old Fair Oaks Pharmacy where I bought baseball cards as a kid, years ago reinvented as a successful dental practice; the old Zephyr’s, my first dry cleaners, now the brand new Daly Bagel with a line around the corner; next door, the old Wilson’s Foods, the last great storefront neighborhood grocer and sponsor of my Bronco League baseball team,

transformed recently into a tech office space; and the sparkling new New Mom’s facility, a fantastic nonprofit serving young mothers. Almost to Austin Boulevard, I passed the Ace Hardware, where Clyde can (and has) taught me to fix almost everything; and across the street, a construction site with a brand new facility replacing the old laundromat. Businesses may come and go in Oak Park, but when they go, it seems someone’s always willing to invest and start anew. A few paces away, crossing east over Austin Boulevard into the city, I passed a cellphone store, its metal grate ripped open, and a Family Dollar store, boarded up, likely a result of recent unrest surrounding the protests. I drove by the new Bitoy Restaurant on the north and the Sweet Shop on the south, neither of which I’ve seen open in months. I passed the site of the blues club we’ve been talking about for years now, my hope that it would draw Oak Parkers across that mystical/mythical dividing line between city and suburb, not yet coming to fruition. I passed the Sankofa Center, the cultural center of Chicago Avenue, where Malcolm

Crawford, Ade Onayemi and the AAABNA have been planning the rise of the Soul City Corridor for as long as I’ve been in office. There’s plenty of room to grow — Chicago Avenue on the far West Side still has dozens of vacant lots, many likely vacant since the summer of 1968, when Dr. King was assassinated. There is a tremendous desire to develop the area, but businesses leave too often and too quickly, and investment is always a struggle. George Floyd’s murder was a horrific, visible demonstration of the inequity present in our society, but it was not an isolated incident. Protesters are taking to the streets bearing signs with the names of dozens of unarmed black men, women and children killed at the hands of police officers over the past decade alone. The pain is visceral and real. It has spilled over those invisible dividing lines between suburb and city, between urban and rural areas. In the days, weeks, and months to come, we must remain united in our outrage and our fervor for change. What many of us who have lived in privilege are now

STATE SEN. DON HARMON

grappling with is the result of decades of disinvestment in Black and Brown communities. We are seeing the institutionalized racism — and what one Chicago columnist recently captured as “systemic dehumanization” — that our brothers and sisters have endured for centuries. It is ugly, and it would be all too easy for some to turn away, to let these protests fade and to try to return to life as we knew it. We cannot and we must not. As Senate President, I recognize that I am in a unique position to foster change, and I have a responsibility to do so, not only with words, but with action. I am meeting frequently with members of the Black Caucus to find out what their legislative priorities are. I am talking with the leaders who are organizing these protests and clean-up efforts to find out what they need. George Floyd’s murder brought us together in the streets across the country to demand change. We must continue to do the work and listen to the community leaders, business owners and citizens of our state who are asking not for extra, but just for the knee to be taken off their neck. Because they cannot breathe. Don Harmon, an Oak Park resident, is the Illinois State Senate president.

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OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

O B I T U A R I E S

Fran Ferrone, 90

guerite Stanek. Services and interment are private. Arrangements were handled by Drechsler, Brown & Williams Funeral Home.

Francis A. Ferrone, 90, of Chicago, died on June 11, 2020. Born on April 14, 1930, Fran was a graduate of St. Catherine of Siena parochial school in Oak Park, Fenwick High School, where he was captain of the varsity basketball team both his junior and senior years, and DePaul University. For many years he and his brother Don owned and operated the Chicago Sight Seeing Co., American Sightseeing Tours, FRAN FERRONE Chicago Gray Line, Prairie Trailways, and O’Hare Wisconsin Limousine Service. He was a veteran of the U.S. Army in Korea. Fran was the brother of Donald (Kay) Ferrone; the uncle of Robert (Vicki Duke Dietz), Christopher (Janet) and Felicia (Christopher Gentner) Ferrone; the great-uncle of Harrison (fiancée Kelsey Betzelberger), Alex and Haley Ferrone; son of the late Henry and Fannie (nee Trimarco) Ferrone; and he is also survived by many Trimarco cousins and his dear friends, Jack White and John Valentine. Private interment was held at Mt. Carmel Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, please donate to your favorite charity in memory of Fran.

Bill Dwyer Sr., 91

Sightseeing operator

Richard Glantz, 80 Civil engineer, adventurer

Richard Maynard Glantz, 80, died peacefully on June 9, 2020. Born on Dec. 12, 1939 and raised in River Forest, he attended Oak Park and River Forest High School, then earned his bachelor’s degree from Bucknell University in Pennsylvania. He had a successful career in civil engineering, particularly wastewater treatment. He led an active and adventurous life. He enjoyed tennis, kayaking, whitewaRICHARD GLANTZ ter rafting, and was always looking to try something new. He had a lifelong interest in sports cars and liked nothing better than to be on the road searching for his next adventure. He never met a stranger, and would happily talk for hours about sports, cars, nature, politics, gardening, exotic pets, music, or any other topic. He was always outgoing and hated to be bored. He prided himself on keeping an open mind and accepting diverse points of view. He gave generously of himself and his talents, and his passing leaves a space in the hearts of his family and many friends. Richard Glantz leaves behind his beloved daughter, Jennifer Kelley, her wife, Kathryn, and granddaughters Olivia Kelley and Mar-

Substance abuse counselor

William A. Dwyer Sr., 91, a 35-year resident of Oak Park, died of natural causes on June 13, 2020 in his youngest daughter’s Oak Park home, surrounded by his adult children. Born on Sept. 29, 1928 in Maywood, the 13th of 13 children born at home, he met his future wife, Patricia (nee Powell) an Oak Park resident, at a young adult’s dance in the Ascension School Pine Room in 1950. They were married at Ascension BILL DWYER SR. Church in August, 1951. After brief periods in Chicago and Springfield, they returned to Oak Park in 1957 to raise their growing family on the 300 block of North Harvey Avenue. In the late ’50s and early ’60s, Bill served as a Cub Scout leader for his two oldest boys’ troop at St. Lucy School in the Austin neighborhood of Chicago. As the manager of the Rubin’s Sporting Goods stores, first in Melrose Park, then in Forest Park, he was well known in Forest Park political circles. His job led to his election as secretary of the Forest Park Chamber of Commerce in 1962. Unfortunately, he was quite well known in the bars in Forest Park and elsewhere. His chronic alcoholism led to increasingly longer periods of unemployment and chaotic and abusive behavior that plagued his wife and children for years. He finally managed to stop drinking for good in 1980 and entered a residential substance abuse program. A year or two into his recovery, he trained as a substance abuse counselor, taking a position at the MacNeal Hospital Chemical Dependency inpatient program in Berwyn. He took great pride in his talent for working with recovering substance abusers, viewing it as a sort of redemption for the sins of his first 50 years. Bill and Pat retired to Rome, Wisconsin in 1992 after building their retirement home on camping land they owned. Five years later, they relocated several hundred miles south to the far more temperate climes of Marion, Illinois, to be near their two youngest daughters. With Pat in declining health, they returned to the Oak Park area in 2014, where Bill was her primary caregiver until her passing in October, 2015. Bill Dwyer Sr. is survived by his eight adult children, including William Jr. (the late Carol), Keith (Karen West), Bryan (Cindy Martin), Peggy (Rick) Sabatino, Marian (Randy) Howell, Bob (the late Susan Escott), Stephen (Nikki Canino) and Nancy (formerly to Ed Collins). He also leaves 26 grandchildren, 21 greatgrandchildren and one due any day now. Interment at Queen of Heaven Cemetery will be private. In lieu of flowers, people are asked to consider a donation to the Biden for President campaign at https://joebiden.com/ donate.

Steve Jones, 68

Teacher, mentor, interventionist Steve Howard Jones, 68, a 36-year resident of Oak Park, died on June 15, 2020. Born in Chicago on Sept. 17, 1951 to the late Harry and Marcella nee Harden Jones, he was raised on the South Side of Chicago, where he graduated with honors from Wendell Phillips High School. He was awarded a full academic scholarship to the University of Notre Dame, where he received his bachelor’s degree in English/ Education, followed by a master’s degree in Education Administration from Roosevelt University in Chicago. He married Denise Galberth in 1983 and the couple moved to Oak Park in 1984, the same year they welcomed their only son, Brandon Howard Jones, to the world. Steve enjoyed a 37-year career teaching for Chicago Public Schools, most recently at John W. Garvy Elementary School, before retiring in 2010. In addition to his teaching career, he was a teacher/ mentor, community activist, and gang intervention worker at an after-school program for underprivileged youth and young adults at Saint Elizabeth Drexel Center for 15 years. Passionate about golf, biking, physical fitness, photography, gardening, and taking walks with his wife, he was also a longtime member of Judson Baptist Church of Oak Park. Beyond his accomplishments, he was most known for his selfless, kind, and genuine spirit. Steve Jones is survived by his wife, Denise, and his son, Major (USA) Brandon H. Jones, DDS; his siblings, Marcella Jones, Harry (Pamela) Jones, Marlana Jones, Jeffrey Jones and Debra Marie Jones; his brother-in-law, Steve (Theresa) Galberth; and nieces, nephews, cousins, friends, neighbors, and his dog Dakota. A memorial service and celebration of life will be held at a later date. In lieu of gifts, please send any donations to the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation. Arrangements were handled by Drechsler, Brown & Williams Funeral Home.

Larry Taylor, 71 Larry Taylor, 71, of Oak Park, died on June 14. Born on March 12, 1949 and raised on the West Side of Chicago, he was a veteran of the U.S. Army, and retired from the state of Illinois after 35 years of employment. A gifted painter and avid music listener, he also enjoyed fashion, fine arts, dance, and walks with his dog, Bailey. Known for his quick wit and silly sense of humor, he could even make a stranger crack a smile. Larry is survived by Debra, his wife LARRY TAYLOR of 33 years, and his children, Laren and Breanne; his sisters, Charlene Harris, Larryne (Vance Ervin) Ghoston, Sharon (David) Butler, Rochelle Taylor, and Lethette (Henretta) Taylor; and several nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents, Leroy and Ruth Taylor, his brother Charles (Laralene) Harris, Phyllistine “Lois” Moore, and Pastor Ron (Johnnie) Taylor. He will be missed by

Wednesday Journal, June 24, 2020

37

many. Visitation was held June 19 at Drechsler, Brown & Williams Funeral Home, 203 S. Marion St., Oak Park. Private interment took place at Concordia Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations to Alzheimer’s Association (https://www.alz.org/illinois) are appreciated.

Jeanne Walsh, 88

Reference librarian in River Forest Jeanne C. Walsh, 88, of River Forest, died on June 14, 2020. Born on Jan. 15, 1932, she worked as a reference librarian at the River Forest Public Library for 27 years and loved helping library patrons with all sorts of research requests. She earned a Master of Library Science degree in 1976 and a bachelor’s degree in Economics (1953) from Dominican University, and spent a year studying abroad in Fribourg, Switzerland. She was a passionate believer in social justice and equal rights, and lent her support to these causes during her lifetime. She would be deeply moved by the young protesters today. Jeanne was a Francophile and studied French most of her life, continuing into her 70s and 80s. She and her friends started a French film group that met in group members’ homes. She loved to read and could JEANNE WALSH often be found at the kitchen table absorbed in a book. She led and participated in several book groups and enjoyed lengthy discussions over coffee or a bottle of Pouilly-Fuissé. Jeanne loved the theater and was an avid Court Theater attendee. She enjoyed hiking the mountains of Colorado, where she spent her childhood summers and later brought her children and grandchildren. At home, she enjoyed watching the birds at her feeders and meditating on the Plane Tree in her backyard. She will be dearly missed. Jeanne was the wife of the late James J. Walsh, and the mother of Mary (David Crossett), James (Kathleen), Joseph (Marina Bressler), Helen, Anne (Robert Barefield), Patricia (Keith Iverson), Michael (Allison), and Suzanne Walsh. She was “Gram” to Matthew (Julie Blaisdell) and Claire (Joe Andrews) Crossett, Mary Kate (Michael Kessler), Meghan and Sheila Walsh and Anne (Christopher Freeman), Hannah (Daniel Dodge) Walsh, Suzanne Walsh and Nathanial and Alyssa Bressler, Rose (Klaudius Heda), David (Lisa Fisher-Keller) and Mark (Megan Ammer) Barefield, Emily and Rachel Iverson, Michael, Jack and Brooke Walsh, and the late Helen Crossett; great-grandmother of Luca, Charlie, Maisie, Wesley, Frannie and Gretchen; sister of Clare (the late Richard) Cronin and Joseph (Diane) Cusack and the late Thomas (Joan) and John (Mary Louise) Cusack; and sister-inlaw, aunt and great-aunt of many. A private Mass was held at St. Giles Church in Oak Park, followed by interment at Queen of Heaven Cemetery in Hillside. In lieu of flowers, donations to the Southern Poverty Law Center (donate.splcenter.org) or Misericordia (https://www.misericordia.com/ giving/donate-online) are appreciated. Arrangements were handled by Drechlser, Brown & Williams Funeral Home.

38

Wednesday Journal, June 24, 2020

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM New local ads this week

HOURS: 9:00 A.M.– 5:00 P.M. MON–FRI

WEDNESDAY

CLASSIFIED

YOUR WEEKLY AD

REACHES SIX SUBURBAN COMMUNITIES: OAK PARK, RIVER FOREST, FOREST PARK, BROOKFIELD, RIVERSIDE, NORTH RIVERSIDE, AND PARTS OF CHICAGO

Deadline is Monday at 5:00 p.m.

Place your ad online anytime at: www.OakPark.com/ClassiďŹ ed/

Please Check Your Ad: The publisher will not be responsible for more than one incorrect insertion. Wednesday Journal Classified must be notified before the second insertion. The newspaper reserves the right to edit or reject any advertisement.

BY PHONE: (708) 613-3333 | BY FAX: (708) 467-9066 | BY E-MAIL: CLASSIFIEDS@OAKPARK.COM | CLASSIFIEDS@RIVERFOREST.COM HELP WANTED

HELP WANTED

River Forest Public Schools District 90 Student Support Services - Vacancies for the 2020-2021 School Year For detailed qualifications requirements and job duties, please visit our website at https:// www.district90.org/about/ employment for our complete list of employment opportunities. District 90 is seeking qualified and experienced student support educators for the following positions: • Special Education Support Teacher (Willard Elementary School) • Special Education Multi-Tiered Systems of Support Coordinator (All D90 Schools) • Social Worker Part-time (Willard Elementary School) • Speech and Language Pathologist (Roosevelt Middle School)

General Qualifications: Valid Illinois Professional Education License with endorsement in field of study, a Master’s Degree is preferred and successful teaching experience with students in a classroom setting is preferred. General Duties: Provide excellence in education by developing and implementing activities that encourage students to be life-long learners. Possesses knowledge of District policies and regulations relating to areas of responsibilities. Create an environment that is conducive to learning and appropriate to the developmental maturity and interests of each student. Application: Apply online at www.district90. org. Application Procedure: Interested candidates should complete the online application available at district90.org. Please do not send hard copies of supporting documentation, i.e. cover letters, resumes, licensure, etc. to River Forest Schools District 90; instead, upload these materials onto the online job application system for proper processing.

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ROOMS FOR RENT

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SUBURBAN RENTALS

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SUBURBAN RENTALS OAK PARK 1 BR LR, Kitchen, BR in beautiful building with lovely Wesley Ave. location. Parking available. $1095/mo plus security deposit. 773-746-3163

OFFICE SPACE FOR RENT THERAPY OFFICES FOR RENT Therapy ofďŹ ces for rent in north Oak Park. Rehabbed building. Nicely furnished. Flexible leasing. Free parking. Free wiďŹ ; Secure building; Friendly colleagues providing referrals. Shared waiting room; optional Conference. Call or email with questions. Shown on Sundays. Lee 708.383.0729 drlmadden@ameritech.net

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ITEMS TO BE GIVEN AWAY

PRAYER TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN (NEVER KNOWN TO FAIL) Oh, most beautiful ower of Mt. Carmel, fruitful vine, splendor of heaven, Blessed Mother of the Son of God, Immaculate Virgin, assist me in my necessity. Oh, Star of the Sea, help me and show me, herein you are my mother. Oh, Holy Mary, Mother of God, Queen of Heaven and Earth. I humbly beseech you from the bottom of my heart to succor in my necessity (make request). There are none that can withstand your power. Oh, show me herein you are my mother. Oh, Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee (3 times). Holy Mary, I place this prayer in your hands (3 times). Say this prayer for three consecutive days and publish; your request will be granted. R.B. PRAYER TO ST. JUDE May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be adored, gloriďŹ ed, loved & preserved throughout the world now & forever. Sacred Heart of Jesus, pray for us. St. Jude worker of miracles, pray for us. St. Jude helper of the hopeless, pray for us. Say this prayer 9 times a day for 9 days. By the 8th day your prayer will be answered. It has never been known to fail .Publication must be promised. Thank you Jesus. Thank You St . Jude. R.B.

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NEVER FAIL NOVENA May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be praised, adored and gloriďŹ ed throughout the world, now and for-ever. Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, I put my trust in you. Holy Mary Mother of Jesus, pray for me. St. Theresa child of Jesus, pray for me. St. Jude, helper of hopeless causes, pray for me and grant this favor I ask. Say this prayer 9 times a day for 9 days .R.B

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Wednesday Journal, June 24, 2020

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LEGAL NOTICE LAW OFFICE OF LINDA EPSTEIN Attorney for Petitioner 722 W. Diversey Parkway Ste. 101B Chicago, IL 60614

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PUBLIC NOTICES NOTICE OF AVAILABILITY OF AUDIT REPORT OF THE PARK DISTRICT OF OAK PARK The Park District of Oak Park hereby provides public notice that an audit of its funds for the period January 1 through December 31, 2019 has been made by Lauterbach and Amen, and that a report of such audit dated May 4th, 2020 has been filed with the County Clerk of Cook County, in accordance with 30 ILCS 15/0.01 et seq. The full report of the audit is available for public inspection at 218 Madison Street, Oak Park, during regular business hours, 8:30 am to 5:00 pm Monday through Friday, except for holidays. Dated: June 24th, 2020 By: Commissioner Kassie Porreca Treasurer, Board of Commissioners Park District of Oak Park Published in Wednesday Journal 6/24/2020

NOTICE TO CONTRACTORS Notice is hereby given by the President and Board of Trustees of the Village of River Forest, Cook County, Illinois, that sealed bids will be accepted for: 2019 & 2020 Water Main Improvement Projects This project consists of the installation of approximately 2000 feet of 8-inch DIP water main, 140 feet of 12-inch DIP water main and all associated appurtenances. This work will include, but is not limited to the installation of valves, valve vaults, connections to side street mains, new water services and pavement restoration. Some work is located within Illinois Department of Transportation right-of-way and some work is located within the Union Pacific Railroad right-of-way. Applicable permits/agreements have been acquired.

Circuit Court of Cook County, County Department, Domestic Relations Division. In re the marriage of Dashira Marit Contreras, Petitioner and Raul Berrios, Respondent, Case No. 20 D 003191. The requisite affidavit for publication having been filed, notice is hereby given to you, the above named Respondent, that a Petition has been filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, by the Petitioner, Dashira Marit Contreras, for Dissolution of Marriage and for other relief; and that said suit is now pending. Now, therefore, unless you, the said Respondent, file your response to said Petition or otherwise make your appearance therein, in the Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, Room 802, Richard J. Daley Center, 50 West Washington Street, in the City of Chicago, Illinois, on or before July 15, 2020, default may be entered against you at any time after that day, and a judgment for Dissolution of Marriage entered in accordance with the prayer of said Petition. DOROTHY A. BROWN, Clerk. Published in Wednesday Journal 6/17, 24, 7/1/2020

NOTICE TO CONTRACTORS Notice is hereby given by the President and Board of Trustees of the Village of River Forest, Cook County, Illinois, that sealed bids will be accepted for: Thatcher Ave Alley Improvements This project generally consists of the reconstruction of approximately 1175 square yards of an existing concrete alley pavement with the installation of approximately 220 square yards of pervious pavers and concrete pavement throughout the remainder of the alley. A 6” underdrain is also proposed throughout the length of the alley.

The bidding documents are available for download starting Wednesday, June 17, 2020 at:

The bidding documents are available for download starting Friday, June 19, 2020 at:

www.vrf.us/bids

www.vrf.us/bids

Bids must be submitted by Tuesday, July 7, 2020 at 2:00 p.m. at:

Bids must be submitted by Tuesday, July 7, 2020 at 2:30 p.m. at:

Village of River Forest 400 Park Avenue River Forest, IL 60305

Public Works Department, 2nd Floor Village of River Forest 400 Park Avenue River Forest, IL 60305

ALL BIDS SHALL BE DEPOSITED IN THE GREEN DROP BOX IN FRONT OF VILLAGE HALL. The bid proposals will be collected at 2:00 pm and opened at that time. Due to COVID19-related closures, Village Hall is not currently open to the public. The bid opening will be live-streamed on the Village’s YouTube channel at www.youtube. com/villageofriverforest. Proposals will be considered not only on the basis of cost, but also on past performance, experience and ability to perform the work. No bid shall be withdrawn after the opening of the Proposals without the consent of the President and Board of Trustees of the Village of River Forest for a period of thirty (30) days after the scheduled time of the bid opening. The Village of River Forest reserves the right in receiving these bids to waive technicalities and reject any or all bids. Published in Wednesday Journal 6/24/20

The bid proposals will be publicly opened and read at that time. Proposals will be considered not only on the basis of cost, but also on past performance, experience and ability to perform the work. No bid shall be withdrawn after the opening of the Proposals without the consent of the President and Board of Trustees of the Village of River Forest for a period of thirty (30) days after the scheduled time of the bid opening. The Village of River Forest reserves the right in receiving these bids to waive technicalities and reject any or all bids. Published in Wednesday Journal 6/24/20

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REAL ESTATE FOR SALE

REAL ESTATE FOR SALE

REAL ESTATE FOR SALE

REAL ESTATE FOR SALE

REAL ESTATE FOR SALE

IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS COUNTY DEPARTMENT CHANCERY DIVISION DEUTSCHE BANK NATIONAL TRUST COMPANY AS TRUSTEE FOR HIS ASSET SECURITIZATION CORPORATION TRUST 2007-OPT1, MORTGAGE PASS- THROUGH CERTIFICATES, SERIES 2007-OPT1; Plaintiff, vs. CHARLES T. GRANT; JUANITA J. GRANT AKA JUANITA LACOURT; PRAIRIE PLACE AT 6436 ROOSEVELT CONDOMINIUM ASSOCIATION; UNKNOWN OWNERS AND NON RECORD CLAIMANTS; Defendants, 19 CH 14415 NOTICE OF SALE PUBLIC NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale entered in the above entitled cause Intercounty Judicial Sales Corporation will on Thursday, July 23, 2020 at the hour of 11 a.m. in their office at 120 West Madison Street, Suite 718A, Chicago, Illinois, sell at public auction to the highest bidder for cash, as set forth below, the following described mortgaged real estate: P.I.N. 16-18-428-043-1019 & 16-18428-043-1064. Commonly known as 6436 Roosevelt Road, Unit 311, Oak Park, IL 60304. The mortgaged real estate is improved with a condominium residence. The purchaser of the unit other than a mortgagee shall pay the assessments and the legal fees required by subdivisions (g)(1) and (g) (4) of Section 9 of the Condominium Property Act Sale terms: 10% down by certified funds, balance, by certified funds, within 24 hours. No refunds. The property will NOT be open for inspection. For information call Law Clerk at Plaintiff’s Attorney, The Wirbicki Law Group, 33 West Monroe Street, Chicago, Illinois 60603. (312) 3609455. W18-0641 INTERCOUNTY JUDICIAL SALES CORPORATION intercountyjudicialsales.com I3151594

of the sale payable to The Judicial Sales Corporation. No third party checks will be accepted. The balance, including the Judicial Sale fee for the Abandoned Residential Property Municipality Relief Fund, which is calculated on residential real estate at the rate of $1 for each $1,000 or fraction thereof of the amount paid by the purchaser not to exceed $300, in certified funds/ or wire transfer, is due within twenty-four (24) hours. No fee shall be paid by the mortgagee acquiring the residential real estate pursuant to its credit bid at the sale or by any mortgagee, judgment creditor, or other lienor acquiring the residential real estate whose rights in and to the residential real estate arose prior to the sale. The subject property is subject to general real estate taxes, special assessments, or special taxes levied against said real estate and is offered for sale without any representation as to quality or quantity of title and without recourse to Plaintiff and in “AS IS” condition. The sale is further subject to confirmation by the court. Upon payment in full of the amount bid, the purchaser will receive a Certificate of Sale that will entitle the purchaser to a deed to the real estate after confirmation of the sale. Where a sale of real estate is made to satisfy a lien prior to that of the United States, the United States shall have one year from the date of sale within which to redeem, except that with respect to a lien arising under the internal revenue laws the period shall be 120 days or the period allowable for redemption under State law, whichever is longer, and in any case in which, under the provisions of section 505 of the Housing Act of 1950, as amended (12 U.S.C. 1701k), and subsection (d) of section 3720 of title 38 of the United States Code, the right to redeem does not arise, there shall be no right of redemption. The property will NOT be open for inspection and plaintiff makes no representation as to the condition of the property. Prospective bidders are admonished to check the court file to verify all information. If this property is a condominium unit, the purchaser of the unit at the foreclosure sale, other than a mortgagee, shall pay the assessments and the legal fees required by The Condominium Property Act, 765 ILCS 605/9(g)(1) and (g)(4). If this property is a condominium unit which is part of a common interest community, the purchaser of the unit at the foreclosure sale other than a mortgagee shall pay the assessments required by The Condominium Property Act, 765 ILCS 605/18.5(g-1). IF YOU ARE THE MORTGAGOR (HOMEOWNER), YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO REMAIN IN POSSESSION FOR 30 DAYS AFTER ENTRY OF AN ORDER OF POSSESSION, IN ACCORDANCE WITH SECTION 15-1701(C) OF THE ILLINOIS MORTGAGE FORECLOSURE LAW. You will need a photo identification issued by a government agency (driver’s license, passport, etc.) in order to gain entry into our building and the foreclosure sale room in Cook County and the same identification for sales held at other county venues where The Judicial Sales Corporation conducts foreclosure sales. For information, Alexander Potestivo, POTESTIVO & ASSOCIATES, P.C. Plaintiff’s Attorneys, 223 WEST JACKSON BLVD, STE 610, Chicago, IL, 60606 (312) 263-0003. Please refer to file number 109484. THE JUDICIAL SALES CORPORATION One South Wacker Drive, 24th Floor, Chicago, IL 60606-4650 (312) 236-SALE You can also visit The Judicial Sales Corporation at www.tjsc.com for a 7 day status report of pending sales.

POTESTIVO & ASSOCIATES, P.C. 223 WEST JACKSON BLVD, STE 610 Chicago IL, 60606 312-263-0003 E-Mail: ilpleadings@potestivolaw. com Attorney File No. 109484 Attorney Code. 43932 Case Number: 18 CH 03457 TJSC#: 40-924 NOTE: Pursuant to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, you are advised that Plaintiff’s attorney is deemed to be a debt collector attempting to collect a debt and any information obtained will be used for that purpose. Case # 18 CH 03457 I3151695

ments and the legal fees required by The Condominium Property Act, 765 ILCS 605/9(g)(1) and (g)(4). If this property is a condominium unit which is part of a common interest community, the purchaser of the unit at the foreclosure sale other than a mortgagee shall pay the assessments required by The Condominium Property Act, 765 ILCS 605/18.5(g-1). IF YOU ARE THE MORTGAGOR (HOMEOWNER), YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO REMAIN IN POSSESSION FOR 30 DAYS AFTER ENTRY OF AN ORDER OF POSSESSION, IN ACCORDANCE WITH SECTION 15-1701(C) OF THE ILLINOIS MORTGAGE FORECLOSURE LAW. You will need a photo identification issued by a government agency (driver’s license, passport, etc.) in order to gain entry into our building and the foreclosure sale room in Cook County and the same identification for sales held at other county venues where The Judicial Sales Corporation conducts foreclosure sales. MCCALLA RAYMER LEIBERT PIERCE, LLC Plaintiff’s Attorneys, One North Dearborn Street, Suite 1200, Chicago, IL, 60602. Tel No. (312) 346-9088. THE JUDICIAL SALES CORPORATION One South Wacker Drive, 24th Floor, Chicago, IL 60606-4650 (312) 236-SALE You can also visit The Judicial Sales Corporation at www.tjsc.com for a 7 day status report of pending sales. MCCALLA RAYMER LEIBERT PIERCE, LLC One North Dearborn Street, Suite 1200 Chicago IL, 60602 312-346-9088 E-Mail: pleadings@mccalla.com Attorney File No. 268445 Attorney ARDC No. 61256 Attorney Code. 61256 Case Number: 19 CH 00561 TJSC#: 40-595 NOTE: Pursuant to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, you are advised that Plaintiff’s attorney is deemed to be a debt collector attempting to collect a debt and any information obtained will be used for that purpose. Case # 19 CH 00561 I3151069

checks will be accepted. The balance, including the Judicial Sale fee for the Abandoned Residential Property Municipality Relief Fund, which is calculated on residential real estate at the rate of $1 for each $1,000 or fraction thereof of the amount paid by the purchaser not to exceed $300, in certified funds/ or wire transfer, is due within twenty-four (24) hours. No fee shall be paid by the mortgagee acquiring the residential real estate pursuant to its credit bid at the sale or by any mortgagee, judgment creditor, or other lienor acquiring the residential real estate whose rights in and to the residential real estate arose prior to the sale. The subject property is subject to general real estate taxes, special assessments, or special taxes levied against said real estate and is offered for sale without any representation as to quality or quantity of title and without recourse to Plaintiff and in “AS IS” condition. The sale is further subject to confirmation by the court. Upon payment in full of the amount bid, the purchaser will receive a Certificate of Sale that will entitle the purchaser to a deed to the real estate after confirmation of the sale. The property will NOT be open for inspection and plaintiff makes no representation as to the condition of the property. Prospective bidders are admonished to check the court file to verify all information. If this property is a condominium unit, the purchaser of the unit at the foreclosure sale, other than a mortgagee, shall pay the assessments and the legal fees required by The Condominium Property Act, 765 ILCS 605/9(g)(1) and (g)(4). If this property is a condominium unit which is part of a common interest community, the purchaser of the unit at the foreclosure sale other than a mortgagee shall pay the assessments required by The Condominium Property Act, 765 ILCS 605/18.5(g-1). IF YOU ARE THE MORTGAGOR (HOMEOWNER), YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO REMAIN IN POSSESSION FOR 30 DAYS AFTER ENTRY OF AN ORDER OF POSSESSION, IN ACCORDANCE WITH SECTION 15-1701(C) OF THE ILLINOIS MORTGAGE FORECLOSURE LAW. You will need a photo identification issued by a government agency (driver’s license, passport, etc.) in order to gain entry into our building and the foreclosure sale room in Cook County and the same identification for sales held at other county venues where The Judicial Sales Corporation conducts foreclosure sales. MCCALLA RAYMER LEIBERT PIERCE, LLC Plaintiff’s Attorneys, One North Dearborn Street, Suite 1200, Chicago, IL, 60602. Tel No. (312) 346-9088. THE JUDICIAL SALES CORPORATION One South Wacker Drive, 24th Floor, Chicago, IL 60606-4650 (312) 236-SALE You can also visit The Judicial Sales Corporation at www.tjsc.com for a 7 day status report of pending sales. MCCALLA RAYMER LEIBERT PIERCE, LLC One North Dearborn Street, Suite 1200 Chicago IL, 60602 312-346-9088 E-Mail: pleadings@mccalla.com Attorney File No. 9903 Attorney ARDC No. 61256 Attorney Code. 61256 Case Number: 12 CH 25204 TJSC#: 40-1833 NOTE: Pursuant to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, you are advised that Plaintiff’s attorney is deemed to be a debt collector attempting to collect a debt and any information obtained will be used for that purpose. Case # 12 CH 25204 I3151817

IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS COUNTY DEPARTMENT CHANCERY DIVISION U.S. BANK NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS TRUSTEE FOR MASTR ADJUSTABLE RATE MORTGAGES TRUST 2007-1, MORTGAGE PASS-THROUGH CERTIFICATES, SERIES 2007-1 Plaintiff, -v.ELLEN M. RAVITZ, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE, UNKNOWN OWNERS AND NON-RECORD CLAIMANTS Defendants 18 CH 03457 123 S. EUCLID AVENUE OAK PARK, IL 60302 NOTICE OF SALE PUBLIC NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale entered in the above cause on February 13, 2020, an agent for The Judicial Sales Corporation, will at 10:30 AM on July 16, 2020, at The Judicial Sales Corporation, One South Wacker Drive, CHICAGO, IL, 60606, sell at a public sale to the highest bidder, as set forth below, the following described real estate: Commonly known as 123 S. EUCLID AVENUE, OAK PARK, IL 60302 Property Index No. 16-07-400-0160000 The real estate is improved with a single family residence. The judgment amount was $657,505.06. Sale terms: 25% down of the highest bid by certified funds at the close

IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS COUNTY DEPARTMENT CHANCERY DIVISION DEUTSCHE BANK NATIONAL TRUST COMPANY, AS TRUSTEE FOR FFMLT TRUST 2005-FF11, MORTGAGE PASS-THROUGH CERTIFICATES, SERIES 2005FF11 Plaintiff, -v.BRIAN HOLLOWAY Defendants 19 CH 00561 125 SOUTH LOMBARD AVENUE OAK PARK, IL 60302 NOTICE OF SALE PUBLIC NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale entered in the above cause on January 23, 2020, an agent for The Judicial Sales Corporation, will at 10:30 AM on July 24, 2020, at The Judicial Sales Corporation, One South Wacker Drive, CHICAGO, IL, 60606, sell at a public sale to the highest bidder, as set forth below, the following described real estate: Commonly known as 125 SOUTH LOMBARD AVENUE, OAK PARK, IL 60302 Property Index No. 16-08-302-0150000 The real estate is improved with a yellow vinyl siding, one story single family home with a detached two car garage. Sale terms: 25% down of the highest bid by certified funds at the close of the sale payable to The Judicial Sales Corporation. No third party checks will be accepted. The balance, including the Judicial Sale fee for the Abandoned Residential Property Municipality Relief Fund, which is calculated on residential real estate at the rate of $1 for each $1,000 or fraction thereof of the amount paid by the purchaser not to exceed $300, in certified funds/ or wire transfer, is due within twenty-four (24) hours. No fee shall be paid by the mortgagee acquiring the residential real estate pursuant to its credit bid at the sale or by any mortgagee, judgment creditor, or other lienor acquiring the residential real estate whose rights in and to the residential real estate arose prior to the sale. The subject property is subject to general real estate taxes, special assessments, or special taxes levied against said real estate and is offered for sale without any representation as to quality or quantity of title and without recourse to Plaintiff and in “AS IS” condition. The sale is further subject to confirmation by the court. Upon payment in full of the amount bid, the purchaser will receive a Certificate of Sale that will entitle the purchaser to a deed to the real estate after confirmation of the sale. The property will NOT be open for inspection and plaintiff makes no representation as to the condition of the property. Prospective bidders are admonished to check the court file to verify all information. If this property is a condominium unit, the purchaser of the unit at the foreclosure sale, other than a mortgagee, shall pay the assess-

IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS COUNTY DEPARTMENT CHANCERY DIVISION JPMORGAN CHASE BANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION Plaintiff, -v.RASHINDA PLUMP, WAVERLY CLARK, JR, UNKNOWN OWNERS AND NON-RECORD CLAIMANTS, WAVERLY CLARK, JR., INDEPENDENT ADMINISTRATOR Defendants 12 CH 25204 1187 SOUTH HIGHLAND PARK OAK PARK, IL 60304 NOTICE OF SALE PUBLIC NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale entered in the above cause on December 11, 2019, an agent for The Judicial Sales Corporation, will at 10:30 AM on July 17, 2020, at The Judicial Sales Corporation, One South Wacker Drive, CHICAGO, IL, 60606, sell at a public sale to the highest bidder, as set forth below, the following described real estate: Commonly known as 1187 SOUTH HIGHLAND PARK, OAK PARK, IL 60304 Property Index No. 16-17-325-0470000 The real estate is improved with a one story two unit brick building with no garage. Sale terms: 25% down of the highest bid by certified funds at the close of the sale payable to The Judicial Sales Corporation. No third party

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Wednesday Journal, June 24, 2020

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