Wednesday Journal_080223

Fair housing agency les complaint against Oak Park Apartments

Alleges discrimination against those previously evicted

By STACEY SHERIDAN Senior Reporter

A fair housing nonprofit has lodged a civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development against Oak Park Apartments, alleging the property owner’s policy of rejecting applicants who have previously been evicted is discriminatory, with particular harm to Black women. The complaint likewise alleges the policy perpetuates and increases residential se greg ation in Oak Pa rk “This policy and practice discriminates on the basis of race, as well as race and sex, and disproportionally harms Black women in their search for rental housing in the inte grated, well-resourced, and predominately white community of Oak Park, thus artificially limiting the housing opportunities available to them and increasing the likelihood of living in racially se gregated, lower-resourced communities,” the complaint reads.

The July 20 filing is in direct response to Oak Park Apartment’s policy that prospective tenants “cannot have a bankruptcy, judgment, eviction, foreclosure, history of late rent payments or short sale.” The policy was posted on the agency’s website on its list of application requirements, all of which must be met for applicants to be shown available units.

The complainant, Wheaton-based nonprofit HOPE Fair Housing Center, is requesting that HUD launch an investigation as the agency’s complaint “raises systemic alle gations and novel legal issues under the Fair Housing Act.”

“We want to put an end to blanket noevictions policies,” said Josefina Navar, HOPE’s deputy director. “We hope that awareness of these discriminatory effects compels the housing industry to tailor their policies to minimize and preferably stop the harm to families and communities.”

Oak Park Apartments, which owns more than 65 apar tment buildings primarily in Oak Park, has reworded its policy as of last Thursday, adding qualifying measures concerning bankruptcy and eviction. The updated policy, available on the rental agency’s website, states that prospective tenants “cannot have an active bankruptcy (can override if discharged for two years), judgment, active eviction (although this can be overridden with proof of resolution), foreclosure, history of late rent payments or short sale.” Wednesday Journal has reached out to Oak Park Apartments for comment.

The changes, however, make no difference, according to Kate Walz, associate director of litigation with the National Housing Law Project, which is re present-

ing HOPE alongside the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Illinois.

“We don’t think it changes the case at all or the impact that the policy — that they only changed after we filed — had on Black renters and Black women who rent,” said Walz, an Oak Park resident herself.

Walz said prospective renters could still

HOPE Fair Housing and Oak Park Apts. have history

The no-evictions policy civil rights complaint is not the first to be filed by HOPE Fair Housing against Oak Park Apartments. It’s just the most recent.

The fair housing nonprofit previously filed a complaint in 2014 with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development against the property owner, alleging the agency discriminated against deaf and hard-of-hearing housing applicants

by hanging up on them.

The complaint was withdrawn later that year after it was determined that the dropped calls were not due to a discriminatory policy but were the result of a technical issue with the firm’s phone system.

The calls of deaf and hard-of-hearing applicants were being disconnected due to a glitch in software, which the phone sys-

tem used to convert text messages to voice messages that were then spoken aloud to the receiver of the call. A delay in translation was misinterpreted as a dropped call, according to Anne Houghtaling, then executive director of HOPE.

The glitch was subsequently corrected, prompting HOPE to drop the complaint.

— Stacey Sheridan

be deter red from applying for housing through Oak Park Apartments after seeing the updated language because it lacks clarity. The current change also does not address previous harm done by the original policy, Walz said.

As the complaint notes, no-evictions policies are common across the United States — and in Oak Park too. Another local housing rental agency that has such a policy is the Oak Park Residence Corporation, a nonprofit community development organization whose mission is promoting Oak Park as a diverse and economically balanced community.

ResCorp’s policy, which is available on its website, states that an application will be denied if a prospective tenant does not meet “any or all of the following: bankruptcies (bankruptcy must be discharged

See FAIR HOUSING on page 13

Bill Planek, Oak Park Apartments ow ner

BIG WEEK August 2-9

Black & Brown Education in America

Wednesday, Aug. 9, 7-8 p.m., Oak Park Main Public Library

This panel examines the demographic changes in Maywood, from African American to an increasingly Latinx community. Register now at oppl.org/calendar. 834 Lake St., Oak Park.

Latin Hip-Hop as a New Poetry

Thursday, Aug. 3, 7-8 p.m., Oak Park Main Public Library

Latin hip-hop artists are advancing the poetic traditions of their countries in unique way

This program, with video and lyric examples, will make a case for hip-hop as the new poetr with a focus on Latinos in the U.S. and the Americas. The presentation, paired with slides and a rich set of musical videos, is lively, light and fun, and focused on participation, discussion, and musical enjoyment. Register now at oppl.org/calendar. 834 Lake St., Oak Park.

One Year In: Community Conversations on Climate Ready Oak Park

Monday, Aug. 7, 6:30-8:30 p.m., Oak Park Main Public Library

On the occasion of the one-year anniversar y for the Climate Ready community climate and sustainability plan, join Marcella Bondie Keenan, chief sustainability o cer of the village of Oak Park, and Community Partners for conversations to answer these three questions: where are we today on climate as a community? Where do we want to go in the next year? How do we get there in a climate -just way? Register now at oppl.org/calendar. 834 Lake St., Oak Park.

Silent Movies On The Porch

Thursday, Aug. 3, 7 p.m., Pleasant Home

The ultimate summer movie- going experience. Vintage silent movies will be shown while Jay Warren of the Silent Film Society of Chicago provides live musical accompaniment. Featured this week: Shoulder Arms (1918, with Charlie Chaplin) and Felix Turns The Tide (1922, with Felix the Cat). Both are World War One comedy spoofs. $10 per adult, $20 per family, 217 Home Ave., Oak Park.

Midsummer Night’s Dream

An Evening With Pravda Records

Midsummer Night’s Dream

Thursday through Sunday through Aug. 19, Oak Park Festival Theatre

William Shakespeare’s timeless fantasy follows three separate but intert wining stories – the Lovers, the Mechanicals, and the Fairies – over the course of a single night. Experience this joyful production as it was truly meant to be performed – outdoors under the canopy of Oak Park’s beautiful Austin Gardens. Tickets at tinyurl.com/53p8j5cv. 167 Forest Avenue Oak Park

Concert In The Park

Sunday, Aug. 6, 6-7:30 p.m., Scovile Park Live music from world folk and gypsy jazz band, Compass Rose. 800 Lake St., Oak Park.

Thursday Night Out

Thursday, Aug. 3, 7-9 p.m. Balkan street music, rock and jazz, Black Bear Combo. Marion St. between Lake St. and North Blvd., Oak Park.

Listing your event

Wednesday Jour nal welcomes notices about events that Oak Park and River Forest groups and businesses are planning. We’ ll work to get the word out if you let us know what’s happening by noon Wednesday a week before your news needs to be in the newspaper

■ Send details to Wednesday Journal, 141 S. Oak Park Ave., Oak Park, 60302 ■ Email calendar@wjinc.com

Friday, Aug. 4, 8:30 p.m., FitzGerald’s Chicago’s own Pravda record label has been documenting rock bands since 1984. This special label showcase features Ivan Julian, survivor from the NYC punk scene, and he’ll be appearing with local favorite Nicholas Tremulis. Also on the scene: glam-rock titans the Handcu s and, from the Americana subgenre, Brian Krumm & His Bar y Friends. $20-$25, 6615 Roosevelt Road, Berwyn.

Eden Robins

Saturday, Aug. 5, 2-3:30 p.m., River Forest Library Chicago author Eden Robins will read from her novel When Franny Stands Up, which is partially set in Oak Park. In addition, she will discuss her work, answer audience questions, and sign copies of her book. This event is part of River Forest Reads, a shared reading experience for members of the community. 735 Lathrop Ave., River Forest.

Sam Robinson Quintet

Friday, Aug. 4, 8 p.m., Outta Space

Straight-ahead hardbop jazz. 6840 32nd St., Berw yn.

Oak Park backtracking on new village hall

Following “robust community par ticipation” against the idea

By STACEY SHERIDAN Senior Reporter

The public’s outrage, heartbreak and general shock at the prospect of razing Oak Park Village Hall has not fallen on deaf ears. The Oak Pa rk village board has backtracked on its bombshell July 5 decision to proceed with designing a new building to re place the current, historic structure. The hope is now to preserve the structure, while updating it to accommodate modern needs.

The potential tear down of village hall, and its estimated price tag of $118 million, has quite literally been the talk of

the town. The community’s displeasure with the idea has been apparent on social media, in newspaper editorials and in everyday conversations. The new village hall idea was always subject to change based on community input – and the public’s outcry, which Village Manager Kevin Jackson called “robust community participation,” was directly responsible for the change of plans.

“I want to acknowledge that is exactly what happened,” said Village Manager Kevin Jackson during the board’s July 31 meeting.

The shift in gears was documented in public record that night with the 5-1 vote to amend the village’s contract with FGM Architects, which has been working for a number of years on Oak Park’s original plan to update police station facilities. Trustee Susan Buchanan was absent from

See VILLAGE HALL on pa ge 6

Oak Park Village Hall, 123 Madison St., Oak Park

VILLAGE HALL

On second thought...

from page 5

the meeting and therefore unable to cast a vote.

The amendment increases the value of the contract from $36,000 to $50,000 and redirects FGM Architects to further evaluate the existing conditions of village hall, 123 Madison St., and the feasibility and costs of renovating it. Immediate renovation needs include bringing the building up to accessibility and safety standards.

The village plans to eng age a group of community stakeholders to facilitate future public participation, which staf f has deemed “really important to the process,” according to Jackson.

The amendment further allows village staf f to hire an independent architectural consulting firm specializing in historic preservation. A request for proposal has not been issued yet, but the board is expected to vote on an ag reement with an architectural preservation firm in September.

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Once contracted, that consulting firm will evaluate FGM’s re port and recommend ways to address issues while preserving the building’s historic status. FGM, the consulting firm and village staf f will then work together to summarize that information to be disseminated to the village board and the public.

Rob Sproule, Oak Park public works director, described the arrangement as a “multiprong approach to try and get the board a better understanding of the current state of the existing facility, the needs of a modern village hall and the ability of the existing facility to potentially meet those needs.”

As President Vicki Scaman put it, the two firms will provide much more information than just one would have

“The two firms might identify different things prioritize different things,” she said.

Instead of breaking the contract, FGM

was chosen by staf f to carry out the structural assessment, given the firm’s experience with the project. Their prior involvement has given the FGM team a good knowledge of the building, its systems and space needs, making their continuing participation convenient, Sproule told the board.

“Their existing contract with the village allows us some expediency with the process,” he said. “They are also highly re putable in terms of the design and understanding of municipal facilities.”

For reasons unsaid, Trustee Ravi Parakkat did not believe FGM Architects was “best placed” to carry out the independent assessment of village hall, stating he wanted to see the assessment “be more independent than that.”

Scaman quickly shot down Parakkat’s concern, however, reminding him that FGM Architects was already under contract, which the village board was merely amending that night, but it was not enough to secure an affirmative vote from the trustee. He cast the sole vote against amending the ag reement.

Staf f was unable to present an estimated cost inclusive of the historic preservation consulting contract as they have not yet issued a request for proposals. However, Sproule believes FGM’s experience with village hall will make for a more efficient process that could contribute to potential cost savings. Going the route of using two firms, rather than using one for a larger contract, he expects will be a cost neutral move

“We do want to do the right thing,” said Scaman.

The village board, she said, was currently having a “brave conversation” that previous boards did not choose to have Those previous boards, she continued, opted instead to spend money on incremental village hall improvements over a period of years rather than address the building as a whole.

“This is the first time that this conversation is being had holistically, so we are not passing down the challenges to the next generation, which grow in their expenses,” Scaman said.

“This is the rst time that this conversation is being had holistically, so we are not passing down the challenges to the next generation.”

VICKI SC AMA N Village president

One fatality in South Maple Avenue apartment re

Fire left 12 people displaced and rendered the building uninhabitable

By STACEY SHERIDAN Senior Reporter

One resident has died following a fire that broke out last Wednesday evening in an apartment building in the 200 block of South Maple Avenue in Oak Park. David Rechs, 64, was in critical condition at Loyola University Medical Center, where he was transported after being evacuated from the building. He was pronounced dead the following night, at 8:26 p.m., July 27, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office.

The fire is believed to have been caused by a natural gas explosion and is under investigation. The cause of the fire will likely not be confirmed until the Illinois State Fire Marshall issues an official incident report in the coming weeks, Oak Park spokesperson Dan Yopchick told Wednesday Journal. No other injuries were reported, but 12 residents have

“This is very scary and there were other residents in the building at the time, so we are fortunate and thankful tha nobody else was injured,” Deputy Fire Chief Joseph “J.T.” Terry told reporters in a press conference the morning after the fire.

The fire department responded to the fire at 5 p. about three minutes after it started, and discovered of wall had collapsed and debris in the front yard. ments from fire departments in 10 other jurisdictions called in to extinguish the flames

“We’re thankful for our neighbor communities’ assistance,” Terry told reporters.

All six apartment units within the building we uninhabitable. The American Red Cross was on the scene that Wednesday night to help provide shelter to those to secure other arrangements

Investigators from the Illinois State Fire Marshal, the Oak Park Fire Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms and Explosives were at the scene of the fire day morning to determine the cause

“This is under investigation, and we do call and ask assistance. They have equipment and a dog that we do not have,” said Terry of the other agencies’ presence. “We lean on our partner agencies for assistance when we can.”

Nicor Gas representatives were also at the scene that mor ning. The gas for the building has been tur ned off.

DAVID RECHS

TODD A. BANNOR

Acting Oak Park Fire Chief J.T. Terr y speaks at a press conference at 221 S Maple, scene of a re the prev ious night.

PHOTO S BY TODD A. BANNOR

Fire investigators from Oak Park, River Forest, Nicor Gas, and state and fede ral agencies at the re scene at 221 S. Maple on July 27.

A ‘Measure’ of Shakespeare for Forest Park eatre

Free per formances of ‘Measure for Measure’ start this week

By JOHN RICE

Contributing Reporter

The Forest Park Theatre is continuing its mission of bringing professional productions to the community by presenting Measure for Measure at The Grove at Altenheim. Shakespeare wrote the play during a time of political strife, which makes the play relevant to modern audiences. As Director Rick Corley said, the play’s provocative themes are, “Wrapped in the most incredible poetry in the English language.”

When Corley moved to Forest Park, he fell in love with the community but wondered why it had no theater. That is why he founded one and drew on his experience as a professor of Advanced Acting – Shakespeare at UIC. The theater’s first produc-

tion was As You Like It at the Roos Recreation Center proper ty.

Mayor Rory Hoskins attended two perfor mances and suggested the theater relocate its productions to the village owned Altenheim property. Corley found Altenheim to be much quieter and put on a production of Innogen in 2022. The play was a success, even without sets. The village council also became the theatre’s lead sponsor with a grant of $10,000.

“Ar ts are a gift to the community,” Corley said, “And the community responds with support.” This year’s production is a community ef fort in every respect. To help raise the necessary $25,000 to pay the actors and stage the play, the theater held a fundraiser at Piacere Mio restaurant that netted $4,500. They also received donations

from local businesses

Kevin Hibbets and his crew donated their time to assemble the sets. J.C. Licht donated $500 of paint to decorate them. he stands for the audience were provided by the Park District. Twisted Cookie and Brown Cow will be selling refreshments and Exit Strate gy is providing picnic packages for patrons to purchase

Kevin Leonard, who operates Leonard Creativeworks in Forest Park, produced the striking images of the lead actors. Christine Westphal Barnard, a member the Forest Park Arts Alliance, plastered the posters Leonard produced all over town. She also helped distribute cards that contained the play’s synopsis. “Debauchery. Romance. Hypocrisy.” is the title of this summary.

“I love Measure for Measure,” said Corley, “It’s about a city out of control and the difference between justice and the law.” There is also a ‘Me-Too’ theme with a powerful man coercing a young nun into sacri-

ficing her virginity.”

Corley recr uited Chicago actors for the production, including some of his current and for mer students.

Measure for Measure will give many of these students their first opportunity to perform in a professional production. T he cast was given their scripts to study in June and rehearsals be g an after the 4th of July

The company rehearsed at Altenheim to get acclimated to performing outdoors, with the noise and heat. Performances will be Aug. 4, 5, 6, 11, 12 and 13 at 5 p.m. Admission is free, in kee ping with a worldwide tradition of presenting free Shakespeare during the summer. “Before every performance, we welcome donations from the audience. We also list donors on the program.”

While kee ping theater alive in Forest Park, Corley dreams of someday finding a permanent home and becoming a theater for the entire re gion.

ALISHIANA UYAO

Sol Fuller as Isabella and Avery Fountain as Duke rehearsing the Shakespeare pl ay, ‘Measure for Measure’ at e Grove.

ALISHIANA UYAO

Chamber president becomes executive director

Darien Marion-Bur ton will star t work July 31

By STACEY SHERIDAN Senior Reporter

The Oak Park and River Forest Chamber of Commerce has announced its new executive director – and it’s someone already very familiar to the community. Darien MarionBurton has stepped down as the chamber’s board president and will step into the executive director position July 31.

“Everything I’ve done in my career has been really focused on small businesses and I feel the need to continue that good work,” Marion-Burton told Wednesday Journal.

He is filling the vacancy left by the chamber’s for mer executive director Liz Holt, who left the chamber last month. T he pair worked to g ether closely throughout Marion-Burton’s term, which would have expired in December, and he is con-

fident he can make the switch from a leadership advisory role to one that is responsible for leading the organization’s ef for ts to support the business community

Marion-Burton was elected chamber board president in 2021 when he was only 28, becoming the self-professed “youngest, Blackest, gayest” person to ever assume that position.

Serving out the remainder of his presidential term is the chamber board’s vice president Rob Guenther, an attorney and co-founder of the Kettlestrings Restaurant Group. From there, the succession is as yet unclear, but will be determined by the chamber’s executive committee. Guenther does not believe it will be hard to find active chamber members to take on leadership positions within the organization. In the meantime, he is pleased to have Marion-Burton take

over as executive director

“Of the candidates we interviewed, he demonstrated the strongest passion for the mission of the chamber,” said Guenther

That passion was “unmatched” by the other 26 candidates that applied, according to Guenther, but despite Marion-Burton’s history with the chamber, he was not necessarily a shoo-in for the executive director role. He had to go through the application and interview processes just like everyone else. Upon applying, Marion-Burton was not privy to internal conversations around resumes being reviewed and candidate selection, which was a little strange for him at first.

“It is very weird to sit in executive committee meetings, and they’d have to leave a meeting that’s in my own office, so they can go talk about me,” he said. “But those were things we had to do frequently over

the last couple of months to make sure we were using inte grity in the process.”

Being named executive director, MarionBurton believes, is a testament to his love of the community, his understanding of it and his investment in it, both as a member of the chamber and a small business owner. He will have to take a step back, however, from his marketing agency, D.M. Burton. The agency’s director of operations, Corey Thomas, will take over as CEO and president, while Marion-Burton will serve as chairman. D.M. Burton specializes in the marketing of small businesses, which is similar to what the chamber does. The difference is the chamber is a non-profit.

“I really do think I’m going to be doing a similar job just with a little different lens,” said Marion-Burton. “And doing it for good as opposed to for profit.”

Publisher’s note: The Chamber of Commerce sublets its office space at 141 S. Oak Park Av e. from Growing Community Media, publisher of Wednesday Journal.

DARIEN MARIONBUR TO N

Beeting the heat

PHOTO S BY TODD A. BANNOR

(Clockwise from top le ) Board President Peter Nolan at Sugar Beet Food Co-op’s anniversar y celebration on Saturday, July 29. Bicycle technician Dionte Savage surveys a set of wheels. Board Member Lor i Vierow and Amina Jackson spin the wheel. Amber, a volunteer, tries the bucket toss game.

River Forest to us e county grant to make ADA improvements

$100,000 earmarked to make sidewalks, crosswalks accessible

By ROBERT J. LIFKA Contributing Reporter

River Forest officials will use a $100,000 Cook County grant to reconstruct existing sidewalks and crosswalks in the village that have been identified as not compliant with Americans with Disabilities Act re gulations.

The grant is through the county’s 2023 Invest in Cook grant program, which seeks projects consistent with the five priorities of Connecting Cook County, the county’s long range transportation plan.

The River Forest project aligns with two of those priorities, prioritizing transit and other transportation alternatives, specifically providing a complete and fully accessible cycling/pedestrian mobility system and maintaining and modernizing what already exists.

According to Seth Jansen, management analyst for the village, the project also aligns with other re gional strategic plans, specifically the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning On to 2050 goal of supporting the development of walkable communities and the Cook County Policy Roadmap strategic plan’s Smart Communities objective of increasing accessibility and connectivity.

“The village board prides itself on walkability and accessibility,” Village President Cathy Adduci said. “The village’s recently adopted Age-Friendly Re port, led by Trust-

ee Respicio Vazquez, prescribes continuing our ef for ts to improve sidewalk conditions.

“The $100,000 funding from Cook County allows us to move on these improvements more quickly to address substandard sidewalk conditions across town. We are grateful for the working relationship and partnership we have with Cook County.”

Officials are still waiting for Cook County to provide an intergovernmental ag reement. Once received, Jansen said he expects the village board to approve the ag reement. He also said an exact timeframe is dependent upon timing of IGA, awarding of the grant and when officials can advertise and bid the scope of work

Officials anticipate approximately six to eight weeks for actual construction once a contractor has been approved by the village board, he added.

According to the Cook County website, the Cook County Department of Transportation and Highways has administered the Invest in Cook grant program since 2017, providing funds to local nonprofit organizations and government agencies to advance transportation improvements throughout the re gion.

The annual $8.5 million program has provided local and re gional governments transportation funds to cover the cost of planning and feasibility studies, engineering and construction associated with infrastructure improvements consistent with the county’s transportation and economic development policy priorities.

Jansen said village officials learned that River Forest’s application was one of nearly 80 received and that the total amount sought by all grant applicants was more than $30 million.

20 years of challenges and growth at e Book Table

Independent bookstore is an Oak Park institution

By STACEY SHERIDAN Senior Reporter

The Book Table is celebrating 20 years as an independent bookstore in Oak Park The local book retailer has defied stunning changes in the book business. It opened during the heyday of the big-box bookstores, standing by as the Borders’ empire, including an Oak Park store, crumbled. As the world shifted to online sellers, the Book Table held on, even weathering the stor m of COVID-19 restrictions, which dealt a fatal blow to many businesses.

The Book Table is small in scale but mighty in its community presence.

“The store has grown and changed in ways we never expected, but in good ways,” said co-owner Rachel Weaver. “It’s been a great 20 years.”

Weaver co-owns the store with her husband, Jason Smith, whom she married two years before they opened the Book Table. The two met while working at an independent bookstore, both having previously worked at other independent bookstores, so it felt natural that they would open one of their own. They first attempted to set up shop in Chicago but were unlucky in that endeavor.

“No one would give us the time of day,” Weaver recalled. “We were these snot-nosed kids who wanted to open a store, selling a sort of dinosaur legacy product.”

So, they set their sights on Oak Park, a place that appealed to them for its proximity to Dominican University and for being a short train ride away from the University of Illinois Chicago. The village had a lot of scholars and professors as residents, Weaver said; the type of people who would appreciate an independent bookstore.

Like many other Oak Park storefronts, their location, 1045 Lake St., was being leased by David King & Associates. And unlike their experience with real estate agents in Chicago, Weaver said King immediately returned their call. He didn’t immediately want to take them on as clients, however. Oak Park, at the time, already had a Barbara’s Bookstore and a Borders on Lake Street.

“I thought they were crazy and didn’t want to rent to them, but over a period of time, they were relentless with me,” King said. “Finally, we took a chance on them,” said

King refer ring both to himself and Mike Fox, a large commercial building owner in Downtown Oak Park

Both the other bookstores ended up closing, but the Book Table prevailed, becoming a part of the fabric of the Oak Park community. Weaver and Smith live in the village too, about a block away from their shop, in a condominium sold to them by their sales representative from publisher Penguin Random House

For their first few years in business, Weaver and Smith were the shop’s sole employees. After a while, their staff grew, with a parttimer and then a full-time employee. Now, the shop has seven employees, all of whom were full-time up until recently when one asked for a reduction in hours. Their employees have spent years working at the shop and that loyalty has kept turnover low, which Weaver called “wonderful.”

The Book Table managed to keep all employees on the payroll throughout COVID-19, despite the economic hardship facing local businesses due to restrictions that forced shops to temporarily cease operations. At one point during the pandemic, the Book Table was under such financial strain, its future looked uncertain. Weaver and Smith launched a GoFundMe in 2021, calling on the community for help. The campaign raised $93,000 of its $250,000 goal in its first day.

“We cried a lot; we were so overwhelmed by the love and support from our customers,” Weaver said.

From the beginning, the shop has had a dedicated group of regulars, according to Weaver. One such regular is Al Gini, local author and retired business ethics professor at Loyola University Chicago. He stops by the shop once a week with the list of books he plans to read. Each trip, he talks to whom-

ever is working – and together, they compare what they have been reading. For Gini, as both a customer and an author, what sets the Book Table apart from other bookstores is the people who work there.

“They read books,” he said. “They don’t just sell books.”

And what they have in stock is always exciting. Up front, they keep the best sellers and new releases, the stuff you’d find on the New York Times bestseller list, but elsewhere in the store, the Book Table stocks what Gini calls “the old sellers, the strange sellers and the unexpected sellers.” The Book Table even carries Gini’s books. And if they don’t have what a customer is looking for, they order it – and within a couple of days, the title is available for pick up at the store.

“The bookstore is a little mini adventure, an intellectual exercise, a chance to find something new,” said Gini

Book Table ow ners Rachel Weaver and Jason Smith have surv ived and expanded their Lake St reet space.

from page 3

3 years ago), any collections above $500.00 except medical bills (no collections over the last 3 years), no excessive credit owed, any evictions or money owed to a current or past landlord.”

Wednesday Journal has reached out to Oak Park Residence Corporation for comment.

ResCorp is a partner agency of the Oak Park Regional Housing Center, a nonprofit which helps connect people to rental agencies while promoting diversity. The Housing Center does not have any policies regarding eviction, instead following the guidelines established by the Fair Housing Act

“We don’t have any policies that we install and then push on our property owners,” said Athena Williams, OPRHC executive director

The Housing Center occasionally sends clients to Oak Park Apartments, although it is not historically one of its partner agencies, according to Williams, who added that she sits on some committees with Bill Planek, the owner of Oak Park Apartments

In light of the complaint and national conversations currently taking place about evictions, Williams said she plans to do more research on the topic and increase community education ef forts.

“As an agency serving this community, I really need to sit down and look closely at eviction laws and discrimination around eviction, and probably at this point step up and provide more education to the Oak Park community around not just fair housing, but around anything that’s more discriminatory when it comes to renting, evictions or not giving people fair opportunities to ap-

ply,” said Williams

The 19-page complaint against Oak Park Apartments cites several studies and reports that all indicate how a history of eviction can diminish an individual’s housing opportunities, despite whether that individual’s circumstances have changed in the time since being evicted. Such circumstances could include having a higher paying job or more secure employment.

Routinely being rejected on the basis of a previous eviction can lead to homelessness, according to the complaint, which also states that the screening services used by rental agencies to pull eviction records do not distinguish between eviction filings and actual eviction orders. And the services are pulling and sharing sealed records.

“These are court records that a court has sealed, and landlords are still getting access to those records and denying people on the basis of that,” Walz said.

Landlords submit eviction filings fo reasons beyond just the failure to pay rent, according to the complaint. Survivors of domestic violence have been evicted du to property damage caused by their abusers. Others have been evicted for rejectin sexual advances and propositions made landlords

And since the COVID-19-era eviction mor atorium has expired, eviction filings ha returned to pre-pandemic levels with about 29,000 eviction filings submitted by Cook County landlords in 2022, WBEZ reported in June

The goal of the complaint, according to Walz, is widespread change. Instead of automatically denying applicants for having a previous eviction in their rental history, landlords can make an individualized assessment based on conversations with the applicant and eviction records.

“The ideal outcome is not just that Oak Park Apartments changes its policy, but all landlords change their policies,” she said.

Ford calls for overdose ention site in Chicago

Medical exper ts, advocates and community outreach gs say it will save lives

By FRANCIA GARCIA HERNANDEZ Staff reporter

A dozen medical experts, outreach workers and advocates joined State Rep. La Shawn K. rd (8th) in his push to open a pilot overdose evention site in Chicago.

tanding at the corner of W. Van Buren Street and S. Pulaski Road, one of many West Side areas with high overdose rates, Ford for the public and lawmakers to supa bill that would allow the creation of erdose prevention sites in Chicago.

“Overdose prevention sites are evidencebased healthcare where people can use pre-obtained drugs,” Ford said. “If an indioverdoses, someone will save their life and connect them to a number of local esources.”

he site could serve not only as a healthenter, but as a center that provides ho use ddressing many of eople with substance use

disorders face.

“The message that often gets lost in the conversation is that these sites provide essential services, such as psychotherapy, medication assisted treatment, recovery, coaching, medical care, job training, food aid, shelter, legal support and other basic needs,” Ford said.

Equally important, it would help save lives. Last week, a Cook County medical examiner report confirmed a record 2,000 opioid overdose deaths in Cook County in 2022.

Vincent Lee, a West Side resident, recently lost his first cousin, age 50, to an overdose after he moved out-of-state.

“If someone would have been there with naloxone, they could have probably saved his life,” Lee said.

Overdose prevention sites in New York helped save 700 lives last year. Around the world, there has never been a death due to overdose in an overdose prevention site, Sophia Payne, an addiction medicine and internal medicine physician at Rush Hospital, said. It could also help save taxpayers $3 million every year by decreasing the number of emergency management service calls in Chicago.

Members of several community and healthcare organizations who work to address the opioid crisis on Chicago’s West

FRANCIA GARCIA HERNANDEZ

A dozen community outreach workers, advocates and medical experts suppor t La aw n Ford’s push to br ing an overdose prevention site to the West Side.

Side echoed Ford. They also expressed their concern for the prevalence of fentanyl in the West Side drug supply, a substance that is 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin. They also worry about an increase in the presence of xylazine.

Dr. Thomas Hugget, family doctor at Lawndale Christian Health Center, said the Chicago Recovery Alliance has found fentanyl is present in 80% of the overdoses in the Chicago area. Additionally, they have seen veterinary tranquilizer xylazine is present in 20% of the drugs they test as part of their harm reduction services, which means substances may not only contain fentanyl, but they’re likely to also contain xylazine, drastically increasing the chances of an overdose Xylazine decreases respiration, which can lead to respiratory arrest and death.

Lee Rusch, director of the West Side Heroin/Opioid Task Force, which convenes many of these organizations to provide harm reduction services on the streets -- directly where they’re needed – said an overdose prevention site creates a space where people who use drugs can do it safely and access health services, including medicine assisted recovery if they choose to do so

Oak Park mom and advocate Sheila Haennicke called for support on House Bill

2 as it would create safe places for people who use drugs, especially in communities of color, which are disproportionately affected by the opioid epidemic.

ose in 2021 and became an advocate for m reduction services hange if people don’t live,” nd people don’t live if they’re not

ks with the West Side Heroin/ to bring free naloxone disensers to CTA stations, a resource that may etween life and death for a person experiencing an overdose. On Frimembers demonstrated how newsstands are used to distribute free naloxest Side locations, in a project healthcare insurance company Cigna, as previously reported by Austin

session of specific amounts of drugs.

If passed into law, House Bill 2 will authorize the Illinois Department of Health Services to partner with the City of Chicago to pilot an overdose prevention site on the West Side or the South Side of Chicago. The bill is currently under review of the Rules Committee and could be voted on during the upcoming General Assembly Veto Session, to be held in October Ford anticipates some opposition, as “people are politically afraid to vote” in favor of an overdose prevention center. Yet he is determined to break the stigma and move this pilot forward.

Dave Jimenez, director of community programs at UIC School of Public Health said an overdose prevention site is an option that needs to be pushed forward. Just a few years ago, UIC got approval from the state to take substance use treatment and medication directly to the community in a medical van that pops up at different locations.

Across the board, all medical experts and community outreach workers said an overdose prevention site is a pathway to save lives.

Quality, year-round training

She lost her son David, age 29, to an over-

In the first month after being installed, the ontinuously been used and stayed intact, encouraging signs of success. They have also served as a conversation starter with people who would ordinarily not talk about substance use, Rusch said. Health workers encouraged everyone to learn how to use naloxone, commonly known as Narcan, and not fear repercussions if using it. Illinois has a “Good Samaritan” law that protects a person who assists in helping people seek emergency medical help when overdosing. Both the person seeking emergency help and the person who overdoses are protected from being charged for felony pos-

“Our whole goal is to just understand that if we can give a person a chance to live another day, perhaps they’ll stop using drugs,” said Russell Jackson, director of programs at Transfor ming Reentry Services.

FRANCIA GARCIA HERNANDEZ Sheila Haennicke, Oak Park mom and harm reduction advocate, said, “People can’t change if people don’t live,” as she called for suppor t of House Bill 2.

Festival o ers a safe haven for youth

Audience members enjoy an act while sitting in in atable chairs at the Youth Empowerment Music Festival in Columbus Park on Saturday, July 29. e youth-centered festival was organized by local groups to prov ide a safe space for youth, with per formances and activ ities designed by and for them. On Saturday, per formances included singing group 3V (top right) and a drummer (middle right), enjoyed by youth who danced to the music.

PHOTO S BY TODD A. BANNOR

Forest Park cigar lounge moves to Maywood

Owner says new location will have more space, dedicated parking

By IGOR STUDENKOV Staff Reporter

Casa de Puros, a cigar lounge that has been a mainstay of Madison Street in Forest Park for the past 15 years, is moving to Maywood.

The staf f was busy packing boxes and loading them onto a moving van when this newspaper interviewed co-owner Greg Walker on July 31. He insisted they were moving because the Maywood space at 1117 S. 1st Ave. is larger, has two outdoor patios and its own dedicated parking lot. The fact that it’s also a free-standing building that he and his co-owners bought outright, as opposed to leasing, helped as well.

Walker said he expects to finish moving out of the Forest Park space by the end of the week. He plans to reopen at the Maywood location on Se pt. 15.

Casa De Puros, which means “House of Cigars” in Spanish, opened on the ground floor of a condominium building at 7410 Madison St. in 2008. Co-owner Tim Polk was interested in opening a shop where customers could buy and smoke cigars.

Since then, the building has been modified, getting large display windows that are open during the summer. Polk previously described the shop as a “classic bachelor club style” establishment, with deep leather chairs, dark wood-paneled walls, a marble fireplace and ample ashtrays.

Since then, the ownership shifted several times. By 2020, it was co-owned by Julienne Tooles and Brandon Prince, with Walker, of Chicago’s Galewood neighborhood, originally coming in to provide financing. The Illinois Secretary of State filing currently lists Walker as the sole owner.

Casa de Puros struggled through the

COVID-19 pandemic, surviving on federal economic support programs. Business has since rebounded.

Polk is Black, and so is Walker. Customers previously told this newspaper that African-Americans account for about twothirds of the re gular customer base.

According to Forest Park police records, Casa de Puros was cited six times for selling cigars to underaged customers, with the last three citations made in 2022. It was cited twice for allowing customers to drink alcohol outside in 2018 and 2021. Forest Park police chief Ken Gross also said that his department “received complaints in the past about Casa De Puros and neighboring Murphy’s/Lantern Haus patrons consuming alcohol on the public way and those on motorcycles playing loud music as they were coming to and/or leaving the business.”

Walker said the move was simply about having more room to grow

“We’ re moving to a bigger and better place,” he said. “We appreciate the opportunities that Forest Park gave us.”

The Maywood building has seen several uses over the years, most recently housing the Shrimp Spot restaurant. The new space is nearly three times bigger than the current location. The staf f plans to take advantage of the existing patio in the front, and there is room for another patio in the back.

Dr. Kevin O’Mara, an associate professor at Concordia University, said he’s been coming to Casa de Puros since it opened. He said a new location won’t change that.

“[The other re gulars] are my friends,” O’Mara said. “It’s a great atmosphere, everybody is welcome. A lot of us have been here for each other though the loss of friends and loved ones. We’re always there for each other. [The new Maywood location] is a great space, and we’re excited about the new opportunity.”

Casa de Puros on Madison Street (above) is moving to 1117 S 1st Ave. in Maywood, reopening on Sept. 15.

A House in Austin damaged in West Side ooding

Basement ooding, roof damage and lost supplies mount up to at least $25K

By FRANCIA GARCIA HERNANDEZ Staff Reporter

Local nonprofit A House in Austin is not exempt from the flash flooding that affected many Austin homes on July 2. The extensive damage to the house at 533 N. Pine Ave. left the nonprofit with re pairs to complete, lost program supplies and appliances to replace. Despite the obstacles, the house is still opening its doors to local families while the nonprofit makes re pairs and raises funds to cover unexpected recovery costs.

“Programs are still running and we’re resilient and continuing to serve families in this community,” said Lynette Kelly-Bell, co-executive director.

Many parents felt this was another hit to their

community “in a city that doesn’t really value them,” she said. They, like other West Side residents, are concerned by the possibility that the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District held off releasing water into Lake Michigan to spare the NASCAR street race held in the Loop on July 2.

“A lot of parents feel that they would rather flush [water] to communities that are not so economically strong as opposed to doing something like this on the north side, where there’s more wealth and there’s more pushback for it.”

As a result of the storm, the home’s basement flooded with over eight inches of rain and sewage. The nonprofit’s free laundry facilities and fridges that store supplies for their healthy eating class were in the basement and thus, were lost. Many bags of supplies for the nonprofit’s programs and provided free for parents and children were lost including books, toys, laundry supplies, clothing, school supplies and other items. The rain also damaged the house’s roof and the attic.

Flooding in the basement damaged the HVAC sys-

Our beautiful 6-story building provides quality, a ordable, independent housing for seniors. e Oaks o ers studio and one-bedroom apartments, with kitchens and private bathrooms. Amenities include an award winning interior landscaped atrium, central meeting room, library, laundry facilities, computer learning center, internet access, electronic key entry system, and parking.

On-site management includes 24/7 emergency maintenance service and a senior services coordinator who is available during business hours to assist residents in accessing service

agencies and programs designed speci cally for seniors. e Oaks is owned and operated by the Oak Park Residence Corporation and is funded by the US Department of Housing and Ur-ban Development through the 202/ Section 8 Program. Monthly rent is based on the resident’s income, with individuals paying approximately 30% of their monthly income toward rent.

For more information, please visit us at www.oakparkrc.com or contact us at 708-386-5862.

FRANCIA GARCIA HERNANDE Z

A House in Austin

Family and children’s supplies stored in A House in Austin’s basement were lost a er it ooded with 8 inches of rain and sewage

tem, which the nonprofit is working to fix soon. In the meantime, participating families and children bear with the heat with the help of donated fans

Free laundry services, which have become a staple for several of the 30 families the nonprofit serves each year, continue to be on hold. Kelly-Bell hopes they will retur n this service once the basement is restored and new appliances are purchased. In the meantime, her focus is to continue to be a place where families and children are empowered

“It might be a little bit hot and humid, but families can still get everything that they are used to, except for laundry.”

With restoration underway, the costs of re pairs and re placement of appliances and program supplies so far mounts up to $25,000, though it could increase

“We’re looking at about $25,000 with our fingers crossed,” she said. “I feel like every

Passionate about food?

Want to write about it?

Growing Community Media needs freelance writers who want to write about restaurants, chefs, food and service for our annual Eats guide which we publish in October. If you know our communities and the many ways food connects us, we’d like to talk with you. Our ags cover communities from the West Side to Oak Park, Forest Park and Brook eld. Eats is a special section produced by our Marketing Department. Find out more by emailing Dan Haley, our publisher, at dhaley@wjinc.com

time someone comes out to inspect, they find a new form of damage or just something that we thought was okay and now they recommend we just purchase new.”

Like many Austin families, the nonprofit’s insurance does not cover flood damage, so they will have to pay out-of-pocket. The nonprofit is thankful that suppor ters and community members have not come up short in showing their generosity and support. The nonprofit star ted a fundraising campaign for the restoration of the home, which as of July 30 raised around $16,000 dollars.

“There’s definitely still time for people to take us even further and reach that goal,” she said.

To donate, visit A House in Austin’s Give Lively page or their website at ahouseinaustin.org

Sign Spaces available. Call the parish office at 708-771-8250 to register today! Classes are Wed. from 3:30-4:45 pm and 6:30-8 pm starting September 13, through the end of April 2024.

Get your yak at Wild Fork

You’ll be surprised by the bene ts

By DAVID HAMMOND Oak Park Eats Blog

Fro zen meat and fish selections at Wild Fork are truly impressive, and we’ve praised this relatively new store on Lake Street for its wide selection of exotic proteins.

Recently, driving home through Downtown Oak Park, we spontaneously decided to stop and get some meat “we’ve never eaten before.” Wild Fork offers many meats we’ve rarely enjoyed at home, including ostrich, elk, and venison, but we came upon one meat we’d never enjoyed before, anywhere: yak.

Yak is not a common meat, nor a common animal in this part of the world. You do, however, find lots of yak in Tibet, where this long-haired ox is used as a work animal but also for meat, milk, and skins.

People laugh when I mention that we ate yak, because “yak” is a funny word. Comedians are familiar with the Rule of K, which states that words containing a “k” sound are funny; for instance, Buick is funnier than Ford, and Karl is funnier than Charles. So “yak” would be a good punchline, but it’s also an exceptionally good meat that we’d do well to eat more of because it’s:

■ Low fat, up to 97% lean, which puts this red meat on par with fish.

■ High protein, with about 25 mg per 4-ounce serving, comparable to beef.

■ Low cholesterol/saturated fat, which none of us need.

■ High in omeg a-3 fatty acids, which many of us need.

■ Environmentally friendly: yak needs up to half the pasture required for beef cattle.

All this good stuf f, of course, would be for naught if yak didn’t taste good. Yak is red meat, but unlike beef, it contains less fat so it’s less lush that beef but not at all greasy. Yak is also lighter tasting than beef, so you may want to add flavor. When we made a meatloaf of ground yak, we added garlic, barbecue sauce and other high-flavor ingredients. It was quite satisfying (I had seconds), and it felt “lighter” than beef-based meatloaf.

People are sometimes uncomfortable eating unfamiliar meats, but in 2019 it was re ported that “yak is one of a handful of animals now turning up in local restaurants, feeding a desire for something beyond the standard pigs, chickens, and cows. Some eaters are looking for new flavors or a fresh adventure. Some have concer ns about their health, the way animals are treated, or the effects of meat production on the environment. They’ve turned to game

and other meats that aren’t often served in the U.S. as both a solution and an escape.”

You should be aware, though, that yak is not cheap, coming in at around $18 per pound at Wild Fork; compare that to their price of around $7 per pound for ground beef.

So yak is maybe not everyday meat, but it’s good to have now and again for both personal and planetary health, and just by buying some yak to serve at home, you’ll be supporting continued production of yak meat as a viable, accessible protein source.

DAVID HAMMOND

Yak meatloaf

Car stolen in home burglary

A burglar took an Oak Park resident’s Audi for a joy ride last Thursday. The burglar first broke into the resident’s home on the 700 block of South Ridgeland Avenue, entering through an open basement window, between 1:30 a.m. and 7 a.m., July 27.

Once inside, the burglar ransacked the kitchen, taking three credit cards and the keys to the victim’s white 2016 Audi Q5, which was parked in front of the home. The offender then drove of f in the vehicle.

The Audi was later recovered at 1:32 a.m., July 28, in the 1100 block of Garfield Street. No apprehensions were made.

Burglary

■ A black generator was removed from a resident’s garage after the garage’s side service door was pried open, between 5 p.m., July 27, and 9:30 a.m., July 28, in the 300 block of South Humphrey Avenue. The estimated loss is $5,000.

■ Someone broke the rear passenger’s

side window of a 2018 Kia Soul, then ransacked the glove compartment and center console once inside, between 1 p.m., July 29, and 1 p.m., July 30, in the 200 block of Washington Boulevard

Motor vehicle theft

A video surveillance camera captured a man breaking the passenger’s side window of a red 2016 Hyundai Tucson, then entering and driving off in the vehicle, at 5:53 p.m., July 29, in the 200 block of Le Moyne Parkway.

An unlocked grey 2006 Honda Civic, left with the keys in the ignition, was removed in the 1100 block of Lake Street between 10 p.m., July 25, and 12:17 a.m., July 26.

Attempted motor vehicle theft

Someone shattered the rear driver’s side window of a parked Hyundai Elantra, then once inside, peeled the vehicle’s steering column and damaged its igni-

tion, in the 400 block of South Scoville Avenue.

Theft

■ Someone removed the catalytic converter from a 2005 Honda Element parked in the 200 block of North Oak Park Avenue between 6 p.m., July 28, and 4:55 p.m., July 30.

■ Someone removed a locked grey and pink women’s Liv bicycle from a laundry room in an apar tment building in the 500 block of South Cuyler Avenue between 6 p.m., July 27, and 6:20 p.m., July 28.

■ Someone broke the lock securing a silver and blue Schwinn bicycle from a bicycle rack, taking the bicycle, between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m., July 27, in the 1000 block of North Ridgeland Avenue.

■ The catalytic converter was removed from a 2009 Hyundai Sonata parked in the 1300 block of North Austin Boulevard between 9 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., July 26.

■ Someone took the rear driver’s side tire from a Chevrolet Malibu parked in the 700 block of Avenue between 12 p.m., July 25, and 12:30 p.m., July 26.

Criminal proper ty damage

Someone damaged the exit gate of the Avenue Parking Garage, 720 N. Blvd., between 3:20 a.m. and 3:30 a.m., July 28. The estimated damage is $1,000.

These items were obtained from Oak Park Police Department re ports dated July 25-31 and re present a portion of the incidents to which police responded. Anyone named in these re ports has only been charged with a crime and cases have not yet been adjudicated. We re port the race of a suspect only when a serious crime has been committed, the suspect is still at large, and police have provided us with a detailed physical description of the suspect as they seek the public’s help in making an arrest. Compiled by Stacey Sheridan

Homes

Preservation possible for Julian home?

Landmarks Illinois and Faith Julian explore options for renowned scientist’s Oak Park residence

By LACEY SIKORA Contributing Reporter

On July 19, Landmarks Illinois and the Oak Park Public Library presented a virtual program entitled, “Dr. Percy Julian, An American Story That is Home to Oak Park.”

The presentation covered the lives of Percy and Anna Julian, through their groundbreaking educational years and Percy Julian’s work as a chemist to the couple’s humanitarian and civil rights contributions

while living in Oak Park.

The program also touched on possible preservation options for the home of the noted scientist.

Kathleen Spale, manager and curator of special collections for the library, presented the program, highlighting Percy Julian’s education and career.

Born in Montgomery, Alabama in 1899, Julian’s parents prized education, but there were few opportunities for him to pursue his education in the South. He went to DePauw University for colle ge, where he

was not allowed to live in the dormitories because he was Black.

He graduated as valedictorian of his class. After getting his master’s de gree at Harvard, he went to the University of Vienna to study for his Ph.D. Julian was the third Black man in the United States to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry.

His work in the scientific field led him to file more than 130 patents, and he was pivotal in the development of drugs to treat glaucoma, re productive issues and arthritis

Percy’s wife, Anna, overcame similar racial barriers in her pursuit of an education. Born in Baltimore in 1902, she attended the University of Pennsylvania and became the first Black woman to earn a Ph.D. in sociolo gy in the United States..

After their mar riage, the Julians lived in Maywood. When the f amily outg rew their house, the couple bought a home in nearby Oak Park See

JULIAN HOME Raising awareness

from page 23

As they were preparing to move into the home at 515 N. East Ave. in 1950, an arsonist set fire to their home. In 1951, someone threw dynamite at the house. The Julians hired security guards to protect their family In spite of Julian’s professional success, Oak Park was not always welcoming to the family Percy Jr. and Faith and Rhoddy were the only Black children enrolled in their schools throughout their education in Oak Park, and the family received threats throughout the children’s time in school.

Percy Julian passed away in 1975 and Anna died in 1994. Percy Julian Jr. became a noted civil rights attorney. He passed away in 2008, leaving Faith the sole member of the family living in the family’s East Avenue house

Delinquent taxes and GoFundMe

In September 2021, facing the possible tax sale of the home, Faith Julian went to the Oak Park Public Library seeking help to set up a GoFundMe campaign with a goal of raising $1,150,000.

At that time, she indicated that she owed $117,040 in delinquent taxes from the years of 2018 through 2020 and that the home was in need of maintenance that she could not af ford.

Dr. Percy Julian (above right) was a renow ned and proli c chemist who submitted more than 130 patents in his lifetime. In the photo above le , Dr. Percy Julian (second from le ) is pictured in the Oak Park home with (standing from le ) Percy Julian Jr., Faith Julian and cousin Leon “Rhoddy” Ellis. Dr. Anna Julian is seated alongside the family dog, Buddy.

As of July 26, the GoFundMe had raised $39,088, with additional funds received by Julian directly via mail.

ently owes as of August 1, 2023, $39,451.39 in taxes for 2021, and $19,512.99 for nstallment in taxes for 2022. The ounty Assessor estimates the market the home at $1,100,000. riginally scheduled to take part in the ogram on July 19, Julian said her pt her from participating, but in a prerecorded message she stated that the money raised was used to pay tax years 2019 and 2020 and that only $2,000 remained in the account.

Landmarks Illinois engaged

pril 2022, when the library had an exhibit on Percy Julian, Faith Julian spoke with Spale and shared her desire to save her house. Spale recalled speaking with Leila Wills, now the program manager with Landmarks Illinois, when Wills spoke about her efforts to landmark the Fred Hampton

House in Maywood.

“I don’t know home preservation, but I know that some of the documents and information Faith was sharing were very important,” Spale said. “I thought we could ask Leila and she would have some ideas about the house. She connected me with Kendra Parzen.”

Parzen, who is the advocacy manager for Landmarks Illinois, has been talking with Spale about possible ways to preserve the Julian home and honor the Julian family “In terms of a timeline for finding a preservation solution for a property, we’re in the early stages,” Parzen said.

She called the July 19 program a kickof f and says raising awareness of the Julian story is the first step in a long process.

In her pre-recorded message, Julian stated that it was her vision that the family home become a learning center for children and adults to learn about her parents and how to be humanitarians.

The home, which was built in 1908 and designed by architect Thornton Her r, is protected as a contributing structure in

e extent of the interior and exterior maintenance needed for Percy and Anna Julian Home is unclear, but it has “some signi cant needs,” according to Kendra Parzen, advocacy manager for Landmarks Illinois

FAITH JULIAN AND TAKEN BY PERCY JULIAN, JR THE HISTORICAL SOCIET Y OF OAK PARK AND RIVER FOREST

the Frank Lloyd Wright-Prairie School of Architecture Historical District, but it has not been individually landmarked.

Parzen notes that the house, which is a Prairie Style dwelling with Tudor influences, would easily qualify for landmark status, not only because of its architecture but also for its connection to Percy Julian.

“To have a home with this magnitude and this importance does not happen a lot,” Parzen said. “It’s very much unique.”

Although she declined Wednesday Journal’s interview request for this article due to her health, in 2021 Faith Julian told the newspaper that the village cited her for code violations for needed re pairs. The garage has a hole in the roof from a falling tree. Paint, concrete and exterior maintenance are all needed.

Re presentatives from Landmarks Illinois have not been in the house and say any assessment of the amount of work needed to maintain the exterior and interior has not been completed.

“She has had the house assessed, and it does have some significant needs,” Parzen said. “It’s possible that further assessment is needed. This is something that Landmarks Illinois could assist with. We’re hoping to have those conversations.”

Although they have not had in-depth,

in-person meetings with Faith Julian yet, Parzen says, “We know she has some of her father’s papers. It’s very important to include those in the strategy for the home. Whether they stay in the home or go elsewhere, it’s important to preserve them.”

Landmarks Illinois often assists owners of significant homes with preservation plans. One tool in their toolbox is to establish a nonprofit. Parzen says that unrestricted gifts could go to pay any property taxes owed on the property.

“For very understandable reasons, people are more inclined to donate to a 501c3,” Parzen said.

While emphasizing that Landmarks Illinois is in the beginning stages of working with Julian to assess the immediate next steps, Parzen thinks there would be a lot of people who would love to see the house saved and contribute to its future.

“There could be a very broad, national interest in trying to save this house,” Parzen said.

Anyone interested in helping with the effort to preserve the Julian house can reach out to Kendra Parzen with Landmarks Illinois at kparzen@landmarks.org

To donate to Faith Julian’s GoFundMe online, visit https://bit.ly/3ibgbcI

COURTESY OF THE DEPAU W UNIVERSIT Y ARCHIVES AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

(From le to right) Dr. Percy Julian, Percy Julian, Jr., Dr. Anna Julian, and Faith Julian, inside their Maywood home.

White Sox on a road to nowhere

Fenwick High School rising senior Mike Sosna played for Team Poland July 27-30 in Ashbourne, Ireland at the U18 European Baseball Championship Qualifying Tournament. He was named Best Pitcher of the Tournament with a 0.94 ERA and 21 strikeouts in 11 innings pitched. Sosna also batted .333 and had two RBI.

Fenwick’s player shines for Poland in European baseball tourney

Mike Sosna, named Best Pitcher, fans 21 in 11 innings

By MELVIN TATE

Contributing Reporter

Fenwick High School rising senior Mike Sosna has been in several big games over the last two years as a starting pitcher for the Friars’ baseball team.

It stood to reason that the valuable experience he gained stood out as a member of the Polish national team at the U18 Pool B European Baseball Championship Qualifying Tournament July 2730 in Ashbour ne, Ireland

In the opener July 27, Sosna tossed six scoreless innings, allowing six hits while posting 13 strikeouts, to help lead Poland to a 5-0 victory over Slovakia. Of his 99 pitches thrown, 64 went for strikes.

The following day versus Croatia, Sosna delivered at the plate with a clutch

two-run single in the bottom of the sixth that brought Poland within a run. Then in the top of the seventh, he made a terrific running catch in the left-field corner to thwart a possible Croatian rally. Subsequently, the Polish scored twice in the bottom half to notch a 4-3 walk-off win and effectively clinch a spot in the title game.

Poland completed the round-robin sweep with a 21-5 rout of Ireland on July 29, and Sosna took the hill July 30 in a rematch with Croatia for the championship. He allowed a run on three hits and struck out eight over five innings, while also going 2-for-3 at the plate.

Sosna was in line for the victory as Poland led 2-1 after five innings. But Croatia rallied for four runs in the sixth to hand the Polish a 5-2 defeat and advance to Pool A of the U18 European Baseball Championship.

Overall in Ireland, Sosna batted 333 with two RBI and sported a 0.94 earnedrun average (one run in 11 innings pitched) with 21 strikeouts. He was named the tour nament’s Best Pitcher.

Three years ago, the Chicago White Sox were an exciting team on the rise in Major League Baseball. Talented young position players such as shortstop Tim Anderson, designated hitter/outfielder Eloy Jimenez, third baseman Yoan Moncada, and center fielder Luis Robert Jr., along with promising pitchers like Dylan Cease, Luca Giolito, Michael Kopech and Reynaldo Lopez had the Sox poised to be perennial contenders for the next decade.

Oh, how things have changed in those three years. Enterin this week, the Sox had a 43-64 record and hopelessly out of contention in the American League’s Central Division.

In the past several days, Giolito and Lopez were traded to the Los Angeles Angels, starting pitcher Lance Lynn and reliever Joe Kelly were sent to the Los Angeles Dodgers and reliever Kendall Graveman was shipped to the Houston Astros

With the MLB trade deadline on Aug. 1, after Wednesday Journal’s print deadline, Anderson, Jimenez, Kopech, Moncada and catcher Yasmani Grandal were rumored to be available for contending teams.

So, what exactly went wrong with the Sox? To me, it starts with the front office, particularly at the top with owner Jerry Reinsdorf.

I think Reinsdorf’s biggest problem is that he’s too loyal to the executives that run his teams (he also owns the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association), no matter how they fare each year.

I guarantee this doesn’t happen with serious pro sports franchises in other cities, especially Boston, New York and Philadelphia. Owners in those places don’t hesitate to make necessary changes whenever expectations are not met. But Reinsdorf has never shown that attitude.

Plus, he makes decisions that are very much shortsighted. For instance, take the hiring of Tony La Russa after the 2020 season. Yes, La Russa is in the Baseball Hall of Fame and deservedly so for what he has accomplished as a manager.

But he was 76 years old and hadn’t been in the dugout since 2011 when Reinsdorf -- not executive vice president of baseball operations Kenny

Williams nor general manager Rick Hahn -- made the choice to bring him aboard. I thought it was an awkward fit oung, talented team like the Sox. While they won the AL Central in 2021, they were quickly dispatched from the playoffs by the Astros. How, instead of adding more veterans that could get the Sox to the next level, Hahn and Williams foolishly opted to largely stand pat, and the result was an 81-81 record last year.

At the end of the season, La Russa pped down due to health concer ns and was replaced by Pedro Grifol, who said the Sox would be a more fundamentally sound team in 2023.

nstead, the Sox endured a 10-game losing streak in April, all but sinking this season. While injuries have been a big issue the last two years, they are part of the game, and the lack of depth in the farm system has been problematic.

Hahn and Williams’ development of their minor-league players has been terrible to say the least, as those who have been called up have been mediocre at best.

So where do the Sox go from here? Conventional wisdom says Hahn and Williams should be fired for the underachievement of the last two seasons, but Reinsdorf is not a conventional owner. In my view, he won’t order another full rebuild like the Sox had from 2016 to 2019, which brought them much-needed young talent.

Instead, he’s more likely to want a retooling around the players who remain after the deadline. The thing is, I don’t trust Hahn and Williams to handle this right.

Unfortunately, however, I don’t see them losing their jobs either because Reinsdorf is stubborn to change the executive leadership of his teams.

“Change the Game” was the Sox slogan not long ago. While they did have an exciting style of play for a couple of years, they’ve fallen back, and I don’t know if they can catch up

If Reinsdorf isn’t willing to come into the 21st century and stop running the Sox like a momand-pop operation, then he needs to sell the team to someone that truly wants to win every year and will emphasize player development on all levels

But don’t worry Sox fans, the Bears have begun training camp. I say focus your attention on them and not fret over a team that’s on the road to nowhere.

C AROL DUNNING/FILE

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS IS FRIDAY 5 P.M.

Call Viewpoints editor

Ken Trainor at 613-3310

ktrainor@wjinc.com

My fwendge W

abi Sabi is the Japanese aesthetic of appreciating the beauty of impermanence, appreciating the beauty of cracked pottery or a broken tree or perhaps even deep wrinkles on a face. The billion-dollar fashion industry promotes instant Wabi Sabi by the cutting or tearing of brand-new jeans, but actually, Wabi Sabi takes time.

Friendship doesn’t necessarily take time. It can emerge in a flash of connection, in that moment of honestly “seeing” another person, or of feeling Mother Earth, or even understanding a bit about oneself. This flash of honest connection happens more often as we age, if are open to it, if we are aging with intention.

Next month I’m having lunch with a small group of people with whom I attended elementary school and graduated high school. I’ve “lost touch” with most of them over the intervening 50 or so years, yet I still consider them my friends.

They’re still friends because, back then, we spent time together almost every day for more than 10 years, and I remember those days. I remember my insecurity, my confidence, my vulnerability, all in the context of these people. Going to the Senior Prom with Karen or raising the American flag every morning in sixth grade with David or struggling to hit Bobby’s Little League pitching.

For my whole life, while my mother was alive, she always reminded me with a smile how until the age of 6 I called that early circle of people “my fwendge.”

I guess there’s a spectrum of friendship, a spectrum that includes time as well as intensity. Just spending time with somebody doesn’t automatically make them a friend, like just having more bir thdays doesn’t automatically make a person wise.

One of the benefits of aging with intention is the possibility of future friendships. Re-framing aging can allow us to be more present. The theory of gerotranscendence holds that older people who age with intention often value meaningful, quality connections and find decreased interest in superfluous social interaction. This perspective can lead to new and enduring friendship.

As we age, we are prone to a diminishing circle of friends. That’s just one of the inevitable changes in our lives. And that’s a good reason to consciously reach out

Please add my name to those Oak Parkers strongly opposed to demolishing Oak Park’s beautiful landmark village hall. I grew up in Oak Pa rk in the ’80s and ’90s and, after some years in New York and Lakeview, I live here today. Part of growing up here meant, for me anyway, learning to see fine architecture as fine art. And you don’t destroy a work of fine art unless you absolutely must.

I admit that I have visited village hall on only a few occasions. When I have, however, I have been inspired by the warm, gracious space as well as the striking exterior, all bearing the marks of uncommon artistic design. Last time I visited, I believe that you, Ms. Scaman — forgive me if I’m wrong — were called from your office (before ascending to your current role) to help me in the mundane task, certainly below your pay grade, of confir ming my voter re gistration, which you did very nicely. It was such a pleasant experience.

I remember thinking that village hall says “Oak Park”

DOOPer ’s Memories: Shooting

as few institutional structures could. Moder nist architecture is not everyone’s cup of tea, and so it has a disadvantage in the preservation game. Partly inspired by the forward-thinking design aesthetic of our own Frank Lloyd Wright and others, however, I have come to see elegant, thoughtful modernist buildings as every bit as worthy of protection as older, possibly more crowdpleasing structures.

I was a little kid when Oak Park tore down its last headquarters, at Lake and Euclid. Although not nearly as distinguished as the cur rent building, I remember mourning the passing of a friend. You could take home bricks as souvenirs, I seem to recall. Although that building was re placed by a better one — albeit not at the same site, sadly — we can hardly expect the same today. Witness the proliferation of cookie-cutter apar tment structures in the village that merely nod in the

About that 3% cap

Over the past decade, Oak Park’s village government has been the steadying hand among local taxing bodies in working to contain rising property taxes. This is a village where the property tax load has reached a point of saturation, where we lose residents when their children are post-high school as taxpayers seek relief from the burden of those taxes even as we price many people of more modest means from ever gaining a point of entry in home ownership here.

It has primarily been the two school districts, with assists from the libraries and the parks, which have driven up property taxes. And it is the public schools that consume the vast portion of local property taxes.

Village government’s share of property taxes is modest — though village hall has myriad other ways to impose taxes and fees beyond property taxes.

That said, village government has tempered property tax increases by adopting the annual goal of holding its property tax hikes to 3% or less each year. And it has done that. By embedding the tax cap in its biennial goals, the village board has, to this point, clearly declared to its staff, its constituents and itself that fiscal restraint is as critical a goal as equity, sustainability, public safety or garbage collection.

Right now the village board is in the process of setting its goals for the coming two years. It appears that the 3% spending cap will not be among those goals.

This is a mistake. It should be corrected.

All of the other goals, worthy and essential, are predicated on the village government being financially sound so it can provide the resources to reach that goal.

Over the past three years covering two election cycles, Oak Park’s village board has become fully aligned in support of fairly progressive ideals. That’s fine. It is what voters have chosen. But the board has largely lost voices that sought fiscal accountability. Dropping the 3% tax cap from its goals is a reflection of that.

There is still time to reconside r. Moreover, it is important that all members of the village board take responsibility for including fiscal responsibility in every decision this board makes.

Yates’ courage

Lloyd Yates, a star quarterback at OPRF between 2011 and 2015, deserves immense credit for stepping forward and filing suit against Northwester n University and its football program. Yates, a member of the Northwester n team for multiple years, was the first for mer player to put his name to the hor rendous allegations of sexually focused hazing within that program.

It takes courage to put yourself in the public eye for reasons such as this. And as he hoped, his action has led many others, and beyond just the football program, to speak out about this hor ror.

Thanks to this OPRF grad for bringing his dignity and his values to this unfolding story.

Do you love your hometown? Enough to change it when it needs changing? Enough to save it when it needs saving? Enough to praise it when it deserves praising?

I’ve been reflecting on this since I came out with my book, Our Town Oak Park. Some of you have had time to read it. I hope the rest of you find the time. Not so much for my sake. Not even for your sake.

For the sake of our town.

Praise for praise where due KEN TRAINOR

I don’t think you can change something, save it, or praise it unless you come to love it. That applies to this planet, this country, or our hometown.

In my experience, Oak Parkers are reluctant to praise their town. In some ways that’s good. Better to put our heads down and work to improve it than rest on our laurels. Praise without critique, after all, is shallow boosterism, overlooking the need for improvement. Yet criticism, if focused entirely on our shor tcomings, overlooks our strengths.

We often act as if those were the only alternatives. If you praise, you must be a mindless booster. If you criticize, you’ re the proverbial nabob of ne gativism.

The real challenge is doing both. Is the glass half empty or half full? That classic trick question was devised by the half-full people to shame the half-empty crowd into being more positive. If you only focus on the fact that the glass is half-full, everything will be fine, they seem to be saying. But the half-empty side points out if you only focus on the half-full part, you’ll never notice the need for improvement.

The question locks us into an either/or dichotomy, but if you take the time to look at the glass, the whole glass, you’ll see that it’s both: half-full and half-empty. If you’ re only focusing on half of the glass, you’ re half-glassing it.

I see the half-full part as realized potential, the other half as room for improvement. I think of the non-filled part as the place where the spirit has room to breathe and move, ever beckoning us, drawing us forward to a fuller life.

But when I think of Oak Park, two other riddles come to mind, posed in an Iowa cornfield in the film Field of Dreams. The first is now a cultural cliché, “If you build it, he will come” (which later evolves into “they will come”). Oak Park, to its great credit, has built a town that is (relatively) safe for diversity. As a result, people of color,

people of many sexual and gender differences, and people who generally value diversity have come to live in our (mostly) safe space. That’s the half-full part.

The second statement among the stalks, not as well known, urges us to “Go the distance.” That’s our room for improvement, our challenge, as we seek to turn our equity-aspiring town into an equity reality. It’s no good calling ourselves progressive if we aren’t making progress.

Many seem to think we should hold of f on affirmations until Oak Park achieves real equity, but I disagree. We’ve not only earned some affirmation, the act of affirming itself is good for us.

Praise and affirmation, when based on what is real — always keeping in mind that we have further to go — is not only valid but necessary. Yet we have become a positivity-averse people, afraid to praise because we might seem naïve, baseless boosters, out of touch with the “real” world.

But nothing is so powerful as praise when it’s warranted. I think of Ted Lasso, the optimism savant in the show by that name, who is more than just a pie-eyed dreamer. He sees genuine potential in people, not some unreachable ideal. And because it’s based in the real, he helps those in his sphere of influence become the best versions of themselves, draws out the better angels of their nature.

When I wrote Our Town Oak Park my goal was to write a book that would make people feel good about themselves and about their town. I felt it was warranted as much as it was needed. I hope you’ ll see it as re presentative of a new genre: Positive Realism. It also acknowledges room for improvement. How could it not? Positive Realism wants the glass to be full, even if our reach always exceeds our grasp. We can’t help wanting to go the distance.

I hope when you read this, if you read it, that you’ ll re-evaluate where you live, see Oak Park as more than just the village of high taxes and too little parking.

I hope you’ll see this as a community you can take pride in, a town that has achieved much with much yet to come, a town you might someday come to love — if you don’t already love it.

And if you do love it, then you’ll want to get busy improving it.

Because here’s what I lear ned writing this book.

This town is worth it.

Levy : Oak Park’s favorite 4-letter word

Change is hard but it should never impede progress. Recently, the Oak Park Village Board be gan its biennial tradition of setting board goals. This was done just after the 2021 election and is currently underwa Board goals set initiatives for the village manager to balance along with the standard duties of running the village

Since the last goal-setting session, a decision made by all but one board member to remove a stand-alone tax levy increase has received criticism. Historically, the tax levy increase has appeared in the board goals without analysis, explanation, or input from our CFO or village manager. The levy increase was simply set by the board and up to the village manager to fit the budget into that number. In reality, the board adhered to its own goal only once in the last two years. In 2021, a 3% levy goal was maintained, but in 2022 the board decreased the levy from 3% to 0%.

LUCIA ROBINSON One View

that aligns with it. However, I also support greater board accountability and transparency in explaining how it determines the increase each year.

The levy increase is the most influential budget parameter, and taxpayers deserve clarity as to how that decision is made.

A defined policy will require the board to identify those factors it considers determinative, such as cost-ofliving standards, fluctuating revenue sources, and existing financial commitments. Such factors may become more or less impactful over time as Oak Park responds to changes in its own finances as well as changes in the national or global economy.

WEDNESD AY

JOURNAL

of Oak Park and River Forest

Editor and Publisher Dan Haley

Senior Editor Bob Uphues

Digital Manager Stacy Coleman

Senior Repor ter Stacey Sheridan

Sta Reporters Francia Garcia Hernandez, Amaris Rodriguez

Viewpoints Editor Ken Trainor

Real Estate Editor Lacey Sikora

Big Week Editor James Porter

Columnists Marc Bleso , Jack Crowe, Doug Deuchler, Harriet Hausman, Mary Kay O’Grady, Kwame Salter, John Stanger

Design/Production Manager Andrew Mead

Editorial Design Manager Javier Govea

Designer Susan McKelvey

Marketing Representatives Lourdes Nicholls, Kamil Brady, Ben Stumpe

Business & Development Manager Mary Ellen Nelligan

Circulation Manager Jill Wagner E-MAIL jill@oakpark.com

Special Projects Manager Susan Walker

Chairman Emeritus Robert K. Downs

To say that removal of the stand-alone tax levy increase removes a board goal is a knee-jerk reaction that misses the mark and only tells half the story. The missing piece is that I, along with all but one of my colleagues, supported the creation of a for malized policy framework to clarify how the levy is determined.

The policy will be developed by the board’s finance committee in the upcoming budget cycle. Within this new policy, I fully expect the board to continue to identify a specific levy increase and work with the village manager to craft a budget

In addition, a for malized policy around the levy can impact more than the current budget cycle. An established policy forces future boards to adhere to the same process or establish a new one. And it can create an opportunity for board candidates to discuss the levy at a dee per level in the election cycle. But most importantly, it provides transparency to the community as to how the board determines the amount of taxpayer dollars it will spend each year. This is a level of transparency that does not currently exist, and it’s time to change that.

Admittedly, this new process deviates from the old way of doing things. It is a step away from the status quo. In my view, resisting change to the board’s current tax levy paradigm unnecessarily impedes progress.

Visioning village hall into now

Yes, Oak Park needs to have an in-depth community discussion on what we do about villa ge hall and the police station. It needs to go beyond what the FGM Architects re port put “on the table.” Architecture embraces three elements: structure, aesthetics, and social needs. The FGM re port is heavy on structure, a necessary element. But it is light on the social environment. Already, those who support preservation are making a case. I suggest we need to look forward, too. Oak Park

Village Hall and its police station express what the community is. The cur rent village hall made a statement in the early ’70s. It said, “We are a modern community expressing modern thoughts on today’s social issues.” That was visionary.

Village President Vicki Scaman expresses a valid point to suggest we need a discussion today that raises that vision.

James Peters Oak Park

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Chair Judy Gre n Treasurer Nile Wendorf Deb Abrahamson, Gary Collins, Steve Edwards Darnell Shields, Sheila Solomon, Eric Weinheimer

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, re 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 ling.

Please understand our veri cation 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 veri cation, 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 con rm a detail, we may not print the letter or essay.

If you have questions, email Viewpoints editor Ken Trainor at ktrainor@wjinc.com.

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

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Lucia Robinson is an Oak Park villa ge trustee.

The game of marbles was played on the Holmes School playg round, both before school and after school, but only when the ground was dry. The game began by first drawing a small ring in the dirt, and then each player would put an equal number of marbles in the ring.

One player would scratch a line in the dirt with a stick about 6 feet from the ring. Each player standing by the ring would toss his shooter marble toward the line, and the one whose shooter landed closest to the line played first. Others would follow in the order of their distance from the line.

The idea, if you were first, was to toss your shooter as close to the ring as possible; then the rest of the players tossed their shooters to best position themselves. The object was to knock as many marbles as possible out of the ring with your

Shoot the bull’s eye

shooter. If you hit one out, you got to shoot again.

The marbles you shot out were yours unless your shooter was hit by another pla and if this happened, you had to give the play shooter all the marbles you had shot out — and you out of the game.

When the last marble was out of the ring, each pla in his turn tried to hit the shooter of the pla gotten the last marble. Failure to do this meant giving him the marbles you had gotten.

The game ended when one player had all of the marbles.

I became a decent player and, when I was in eighth grade, I made it to the cham-

me, only to lose hen my shooter skidded into loose dirt and ended up next s shooter. My opponent gladly picked me of f, thus ending my hope for the er had a special shooter, and the best ones were called “Bull’s Eyes,” because d with a bull’s-eye target on one side of

These marbles were very valuable, and someone could get 50 or more re gular marbles in a trade for one Bull’s Eye. Some players developed great skill with their shooters, which they held between the top knuckle of their forefinger and the thumb and shot with the flick of their

Clearing the haze at Maze

This summer, amidst the Canadian wildfire-induced haze that ear ned Chicago the title of most polluted city in the world, I stepped into the cool of the Maze branch library Noticing an appliance near the entrance bearing the name Medify Air, I asked the librarian whether the library’s air purifying system could handle PM 2.5, the lung-damaging particulate that was an important component of the unhealthy air outside

SUSAN SUBAK One View

Later in the day, when the air quality map showed some improvement, I stepped outside but was hit with the sharp contrast between the pleasant atmosphere within the library and the hot, acrid air outside

thumb. Some experts could spin their shooter so that when they hit a marble out of the ring, their shooter would spin back just outside of the ring, leaving them in close position for another shot.

In some cases, an expert could ricochet his shot of f an opponent’s shooter so that it glanced toward another player’s shooter, leaving an easy shot to get that player out of the game also.

My pal Charlie, who was an excellent player, and I pooled our winnings, keeping them in a large cardboard box and drawing from the hundreds of marbles we had as needed.

Every time I played, I was afraid that I would lose all of my marbles I did lose some alas, and they were never re gained.

Even now that we’re older, we try not to lose all our marbles.

Lake & Lathrop: Just say No!

The librarian immediately got on the phone with someone at the Main library and re ported back that the filters had been installed to address COVID risks but, yes, they promised to be effective in removing particulate matter (another reason to like the Oak Park Library). A 2023 study of portable air cleaners concluded that they remove up to 57 percent of PM 2.5 in a classroom-sized space. https://www.sciencedirect. com/science/article/pii/S0048969722069133

Relieved to take a break from wearing an N-95 mask, I settled into one of the many empty chairs in the main reading room. I pulled open my laptop and looked at the latest data from the nearby air monitoring stations On that day, the nearest stations were in Cicero and Schiller Park, but both of them were re porting PM 2.5 levels at code red, meaning “very unhealthy” air. This useful map can be found at www.iqair.com/air-qualitymap and now includes at least one air monitoring station in Oak Park. A similar map sponsored by US EPA can be found at https://fire.airnow.gov.

It occurred to me that most Oak Park residents were probably not aware of just how severe the PM 2.5 concentrations were that day and of the various public sites within the village that offered a healthier alter native. Kids’ lungs tend to be pretty vulnerable and this would be a good day to shift to indoor activities supported by portable air cleaners, but apparently some of the nearby day camps were continuing with outdoor g ames and sports

It would be helpful if the different parts of the village gover nment, including the park district and schools in addition to the libraries, took stock of what they are offering in terms of particulate removal. And then inform village residents of the location of high-quality filtration systems. Households can also get their own filters or go the DIY route with a CorsiRosenthal box (https://chemrxiv.org/engage/chemrxiv/article-details/632dd805e665bda75a1002f8).

Unfortunately, the conditions we experienced in early summer are likely to retur n in the future and with even higher concentrations of lung-damaging smoke. The average Canadian emits less fossil fuelrelated greenhouse gases than the average American and in this particular instance, the climate impact is coming back to haunt us

Susan Subak is an Oak Park resident.

When I think about the Lake & Lathrop development going on down the street from where I live, all that comes to mind is Charlie Brown, Lucy and the football. How many times is the developer going to make promises he can’t (or won’t) keep before our elected officials in River Forest say a loud resounding No! No more!

Let me see if I have this straight: There is a half-million dollars in liens because the developer isn’t paying the bills. The property taxes are delinquent and there is a bank foreclosure, to boot. Many deadlines have been missed. And now it’s time for the village to either grant yet another extension — or just say No!

If the village president and trustees are foolish enough to grant yet another extension, here’s what I suggest to all my fellow River Forest residents: Make it an election issue. Next election, vote everyone out of office who voted in favor of the extension. Vote them out of office, even if the motion did not carry and the developer gets cancelled. Because anybody who votes in favor of yet another extension at this point must be too stupid, or at the very least too naïve, to be in office.

In the meanwhile, I urge my fellow River Forest residents to go to the village of River Forest website and submit a letter to the president and trustees letting them know that it’s time to say No!

Also, I’m thinking that we should rename the site, Stankus Manor Luxury Condos. (For those of you too young to remember that Oak Park debacle, just google “Stankus Hole”.)

Louise Mezzatesta River Forest

Honoring Paul Koko’s 45 years of service

At our first board meeting after this summer’s Annual Book Fair, the Friends of the Oak Park Public Library for mally thanked and honored one of our most dedicated members, Paul Koko!

After 45 years of service, Paul, a longtime member and officer, will step down from the Friends’ board of directors.

Paul’s name is the first on a new plaque to be prominently displayed near the entrance to the Main Library, honoring important people in the history of the Friends.

Paul’s first encounter with the Friends occur red many years ago as he was riding his bicycle past a tent in Scoville Park and he noticed lively activities occurring.

His curiosity was sparked as he stopped to see what was going on. This was one of the earliest Friends book sales conducted in Oak Park. Ever since, Paul has been hooked and, with his wife Pat, has played a key role in helping organize and facilitate book sales for the last 40 years.

Paul was a specialist in organizing audio recordings and selecting music for the book sor ters to listen to during their labors, whereas Pat

is the mavin of foreign language publications

Among his contributions, Paul was a re gular re presentative of the Friends in A Day in Our Village activities. He served two terms as vice president of the Friends.

He has many stories, like the time the volunteers had to climb through windows at the Oak Park and River Forest High School Field House because the walk to the front door was too long. He refers to many names, such as Maryann Marks, who was president of the Friends for many years, and Phil Berman, who stepped in as president after her.

The book sale was held at several sites in years past, most notably the high school, but also in the cloisters at Calvary Memorial Church

After all this time there have only been two years when the sale was not held, and this was due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the summer of 2022, the sale returned and was a great success.

Jodi Kolo

For the Friends of the Oak Park Public Library

What a di erence a helmet can make

I have been driving and walking around Oak Park and River Forest this summer and have been dismayed by the number of bicyclists not wearing helmets. River Forest does — or did — have an ordinance that bikers under the age of 16 should wear helmets. However, I don’t think this ordinance is enforced. I strongly believe that anyone on a bike should wear a helmet.

This is what happened to my daughter, Maggie Davis, who, along with my husband Greg Daly, was on a backroads bike trip to Croatia. On the fourth day of the trip, Maggie was hit by a car. She was knocked out, her tibia was shattered, and she broke a bone in her neck. Her helmet was badly dented but it protected her from a severe brain injury She was helicoptered to Split and was taken to the hospital there. Maggie had a small brain bleed but after three scans

What can Oak Park do to help Faith Julian?

it was shown there was no damage to the brain. She was in the intensive care unit for six days after the accident. My husband is a doctor and it was very lucky he was there to be with her.

Greg and my son-in-law were able to arrange an air ambulance from Split to Colorado Springs, their home. Maggie had surgery on her leg and is expected to fully recover.

I realize that our villages aren’t mountainous like Croatia. However, I’m perplexed as to why parents are allowing their children to ride, or why many adults are biking, without helmets. If someone is in an accident and isn’t wearing a helmet, there could be tragic consequences. Their families w ould be heartbroken and would never forgive themselves for not enforcing this very simple practice.

Diane Daly River Forest

My name is Nathan Green and I’m a lifelong resident of Oak Park. This town is my home and I’ve always been proud of that.

I’ve been following the ar ticles about Faith Julian’s difficulties with her East Avenue home, and I’m writing to you to find out what the village of Oak Park is going to do for her. I’m not asking what a hired lawyer will do, or whether a nonprofit can eventually be set up to do in the next five years, especially with her health in decline.

Ms. Julian is Percy Julian’s daughter. She’s not a distant relative, she’s not his great-great-great granddaughter. She’s his daughter and the last of her family. We owe the world to Dr. Julian’s achievements. There’s a middle school named after him. And from what the Wednesday Journal has been re porting, it sounds like she’s on the verge of losing her home. Is this his le gacy? His family, his brilliance, surviving everything they went through and, barely

a generation later, his daughter might lose her home?

I’m asking what Village President Scaman is going to do about it. I’m asking what the village board is going to do about it. This is a rich town. The high-rises, the business rent, and the cost of living here makes that clear. The property taxes are infamous. Oak Park has the money to support Ms. Julian without her needing to beg for her life on GoFundMe

Oak Park loves its historical buildings and districts dedicated to the famous people who lived here. But Faith Julian is here, alive, now. She deserves so much better than this, and I hope this letter finds its way to someone willing to stand up and do something for her with the respect and dignity she deserves.

Nathan Green Oak Park

Back row, from le : Pat Koko, Russ Glidden, Josly n Bowling Dixon, Barbara Taranowski; front row : Paul Koko and Chet Taranowski.

BLESOFF

Finding friends through life

from page 27

and keep making new friends of all ages and stages. In this way, we keep changing as we age, and so does our new pool of potential friends.

The warmth of a good friend’s embrace remains felt even when they are not physically present. Distant friends often remain a source of comfort — their support is not conditioned upon proximity or visibility.

Even if we outlive all our friends, they’ll still be with us. Friendship is a bond that connects people at a level beyond what is immediately apparent.

The emotional connection, unspoken understanding, empathy, shared memories and mutual influence contribute to the transcendence of friendship beyond disappearance or impermanence.

The intangible, powerful force that is friendship can be with us our entire lives, deepening and extending our time of conscious aging.

VILLAGE

HALL

A building worth keeping

from page 27

direction of faddish style. I don’t hate all the new buildings (though that eyesore at South Boulevard and Harlem is pretty awful), but they certainly lack the artist’s touch.

I won’t try to sell you on the elevating ef fects of civilized civic architecture. Well, maybe I will, a little. Harry Weese, the “artist” I keep talking about, designed Washington’s Metro, as you know. His designs were expensive, but they were, while modern, gorgeous and grand. They bespoke an egalitarian ethos.

Such beauty need not be the luxury of the rich but the property of the public too. It’s bad enough when private companies, scrounging for the last buck or two in a failing enterprise, destroy people’s palaces — as happened famously in New York with the Pennsylvania Station and would have happened to Grand Central, too, had it not been for the timely passage of a preservation law. When gover nments fall down on the job, it’s particularly g alling.

I have read reports that Oak Park Village Hall has various problems and that the basement police station is lousy. OK, so fix it. Renovate, sensitively. Add on, sensitively. Build a new police station. It’d be great to acquire and build on the land on either side of village hall, now occupied by a gas station and a McDonald’s I’m confident there are many options that don’t require tearing down Oak Park’s own singular monument to its people.

Jake Hildner grew up in Oak Park and is now living here again.

Eating for a good cause

My daughter is raising money for her free access tutoring program at the Oak Park library, and recently expanded to the Bahai Temple in Forest Park. Please consider eating on Aug. 9 at Lou Malnati’s to support the cause. Please share this with others who love Italian food or want to help this tutoring program, which is free to parents and kids. The program has grown shockingly quickly, highlighting the urgent need for tutoring, and especially free, programs.

EL Serumaga River Forest

Our children deserve better

In a March 29, 1975 Chicago Tribune ar ticle, the late Bobbie Raymond, founder of the Oak Park Re gional Housing Center, remarked, “We all have our areas of ignorance,” adding, “and I think some people like to see other communities fold.” These words continue to resonate today, particularly when Wednesday Journal refers to the space south of the current Oak Park Village Hall as an option for a new free-standing police station. After perusing the May 26 Wednesday Journal editorial, I explored southeast Oak Park and discovered what they meant.

The proposal is to destroy the public “park” referred to as the “village green” and re place it with a concrete structure. I disag ree with the Wednesday Journal’s option as this land, bordered by Lombard and Taylor avenues and Adams Street is not “open space,” but rather, a public “park” explicitly designated as such in the municipal plaza plan adopted by the Oak Park Board of Trustees in June 1972.

The ar ticle, “Who Benefits from Public Green Space” states “lack of green space reinforces the urban heat island effect, causing low-income areas to experience disproportionately higher temperatures and worse air quality than their wealthier counterparts.”*

A UNICEF ar ticle, “The Necessity of Urban Green Space for Children’s Optimal Development” notes, “A simple walk in the park can significantly improve children’s ability to concentrate. Green views out of school windows correlate with improved academic performance. And children who grow up in greener neighborhoods are often less depressed, less stressed and generally healthier and happier.”**

Is Wednesday Journal promoting and the Oak Park Village Board genuinely considering demolishing, this village green, a public “park,” and replace it with a concrete building that will add to climate change, jeopardizing a thriving ecosystem, and ne gatively impact neighborhood children and the community as a whole?

*Richards, M. (2020). Who Benefits from Public Green Space. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/author/mallory-richards (September 19, 2020)

**UNICEF. https://www.unicef.org/ armenia/en/stories/necessity-urbangreen-space-childrens-optimal-development (July 26, 2021)

Richard Willis

Past Oak Park Township Trustee and Community Mental Health Board member

Help with end-of-life decisions

Nobody wants to talk about dying. The kids don’t want to hear us talk about it, but I told mine, “You need help coming into this world, and you need help going out of this world.” It’s true: we spend almost nine months helping a mother prepare for birth. We do not, however, spend any time discussing what a person wants at the end of their life.

Fortunately, I met the people from the nonprofit Oak Park End-of-Life Options group.

Their table at the Far mers Market made me stop to inquire about their sign: “Your Death. Who Decides?” I have always be-

lieved that how much medical intervention you want at the end of your days should be your personal decision.

As the local chapter of Compassion and Choices, the group gave me information about the subject and especially the free booklet titled, “My End-of-Life Decisions, An Advance Planning Guide and Toolkit.” It is a much more comprehensive booklet than the DNR, Polst and five wishes documents I’ve seen before.

I feel so much better since I filled out the booklet and have been able to share my end-of-life wishes with my children and my physicians. You can get your free booklet at

www.CompassionAndChoices.org.

Sign up to volunteer there and they’ll route you back to the local Oak Park-area group to get involved further

Finally, I support medical aid in dying and am working with this local group to get it authorized in Illinois (as it is in 10 other states and Washington D.C.) If I am ter minally ill and hospice is not enough to relieve my pain, I would prefer to use this option to die in peace at home with my family.

David Rechs, 64

OPRF grad, West Sub lab tech

David Rechs, 64, a lifelong resident of Oak Park, died with family and friends by his side on July 27, 2023. The family is sincerely grateful to the wonderful staff at Loyola University Medical Center for their support and excellent care.

He graduated from Oak Park and River Forest High School and attended UIC. He had just retired from working at West Suburban Hospital as a Lab Tech. He was enjoying retirement and looking forward to watching Da Bears this coming season, probably with a mix of hope and realistic skepticism.

Dave was the only person who was hurt in the natural gas explosion in Oak Park that occurred Wednesday evening. He did not survive the catastrophic injuries. His humor and sharp intellect will be missed. His driving was legendary.

He is survived by his favorite cousin, Sue; his best buddy, Lauren; his brothers, James and Matthew; his extended family; and many friends.

JoAnn Ziebarth, 67 Editor and avid reader

JoAnn E. Ziebarth, 67, of Oak Park, died on July 18, 2023. Born in DeKalb, Illinois to Leon and Evelyn Ziebarth, she was later adopted by her stepfather, Ross Young. She excelled at DeKalb High School, where she was editor of the yearbook, then attended the University of Iowa for two years and graduated from Northern Illinois University, where she was a member of Sigma Tau Delta, the national English honor society. She was a respected editor with a long career working for a variety of companies and organizations, including Applied Learning, the National Association of Realtors, Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), and American Institutes for Research (AIR). At AIR, she worked with authors and educators around

the country on materials addressing topics such as bullying, access to high-quality education, and diversity in the classroom. Her knowledge, dedication, and easygoing persona endeared her to colleagues, who often requested her help with their projects.

Outside of work, she applied her talents to projects she was passionate about. As a board member of the Oak Park Area Lesbian and Gay Association (OPALGA+) during the early 2000s, she edited their newsletter, Empower. A lifelong aficionado of Broadway and Hollywood, she adored the singers Barbra Streisand, Judy Garland, Liza Minelli, and Andrea Marcovicci. She enjoyed attending plays and concerts with her friend since high school, Ross Fraser, and with her partner, Karen Osborne. An avid reader of literary fiction, poetry and drama, she shared her deep insights and sharp wit with her friends.

JoAnn was preceded in death by her parents; her sister, Christine Ziebarth Howe; her stepsister, Pat (Pete) Darling; and her close friend, Ross Fraser She is survived by her for mer partner, Karen Osborne; her stepsisters, Betty (Pierre) Lartigaud and Virginia (John) Pachay; and many who loved her and will miss her

A celebration of life will be held at Unity Temple, 875 Lake St. in Oak Park, on Sept. 16 at 1:30 p.m. Her ashes will be interred at Fairview Cemetery in DeKalb.

Donations in her memory may be made to the scholarship fund she founded to honor her sister: The Christine Ziebarth Howe Graduate Student Award, University of Illinois Foundation, Harker Hall, 1305 W. Green St., Urbana, IL 61801-2962. Donations may also be made to the Oak Park Area Lesbian and Gay Association (OPALGA+) Scholarship Fund, P.O. Box 1460, Oak Park, IL 60304.

Lois Tyson, 80 D97 school teacher

Lois Tyson, 80, a longtime resident of Oak Park and River Forest, died on July 23, 2023. Born on Feb. 27, 1943, Mrs. Tyson was a teacher in Oak Park’s Elementary School District 97, after starting her career in Alton. Her personal interests included spending time with friends, cooking, shopping, dancing, reading, and working on issues that affect the quality of life for all. She was devoted to the Democratic Party of Oak Park, the PEO

Sisterhood, Parents Allied with Children and Teachers for Tomorrow, and Pilgrim Congregational Church

Lois is survived by her daughters, Kimberly and Nicole; her sisters, Mary Lauburg and Eloise Granger; and many family members and friends. Her husband, Spencer, died three months ago.

Visitation will be held on Aug. 8 from 5 to 7 p.m. at Peterson-Bassi Chapels, 6938 W. North Ave. The funeral will be held at Pilgrim Congregational Church, 460 Lake St., Oak Park, on Aug. 9 at 11 a.m.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to PACTT through pactt.org, which improves the lives of people with autism.

The burial will be private

Rich Jancy, 77

Kitchen designer, Wright Plus docent

Richard E. Jancy, 77, of Oak Park, died on Friday, July 21 at Hinsdale Hospital. Bor n on Dec. 31, 1945 to Emil and Helen Jancy in Chicago, he graduated from Gage Park High School in 1964, then went on to study at the University of Illinois Chicago, majoring in architecture. His schooling was put on hold while he joined the Navy based out of Glenview, and when his unit was activated, he was based at Naval Air Station, Lemoore, California. His unit served on the USS Ticonderoga, Guardian of Freedom from late 1968 until October of 1969 off the shore of Vietnam.

He worked for Loebl, Schlossman & Hackl in Chicago and for Home Depot as a kitchen designer until his retirement. During his retirement one of his favorite hobbies was photography and being a tour guide for the annual Wright Plus house walk in Oak Park each May.

Rich is survived by Carol, his wife of nearly 55 years and his beloved rescued dog, Cleo (a Boxer/Collie mix). In 1967, he met Arndt of St. Joseph, Michigan, and they were married on Aug. 31, 1968 at Trinity Lutheran, St. Joseph. They lived in the Oak Park area since 1974.

He was predeceased by his father, mother and brother Ken.

A graveside service will be held on Aug. 1 at 11:30 a.m. at North Shore Memory Gardens, Coloma, Michigan. Memorial contributions may be made to Trinity Lutheran Church,

619 Main St., St. Joseph, MI 49085. Those wishing to send a condolence online may do so at www.zimmermanharnett.com.

Deborah Acker, 69 Chicago Shakespeare Theater manager

Deborah Jean Acker, 69, left this life on July 6, 2023 at Swedish Hospital, Chicago, after a brief illness. Born in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, she was the daughter of George and Ludmilla (Klancer) Acker. A graduate of St. Clement Elementary School and Sheboygan North High School, she graduated from Rosary College (now Dominican University) in River Forest. Passionate about the theater from a young age, she appreciated the incredible preparation she received as a major in Communication Arts and Theater at Rosary.

After college, she worked at several different theaters and a theatrical publishing company. In 1986, she was one of the first hires that Barbara Gaines made when she founded Chicago Shakespeare Theater. As a respected member of that company, she wore various hats, principally those of stage and production manager. She also stage-managed the theater’s summer productions in Grant Park for a number of years and was privileged to work with countless wonderfully talented directors, actors and fellow associates of the Shakespeare Repertory Theater of Chicago, later to become Chicago Shakespeare Theater, on Navy Pier. She retired in July of 2020 after more than 30 years with the company.

Making her home in Oak Park, in her time away from the theater she enjoyed backyard barbecues, hiking in the forest preserve, movies, and especially spending time with her series of canine companions

Deb is survived by her sister and brother, Sr. Georgia Acker OP and Tim Acker. She will be missed by her lifelong friends, Paula Murphy and Jodi Liethen, as well as her many friends and colleagues in the Chicago theater world. She was preceded in death by her parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles and one infant brother, George Michael.

A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated at Saints Cyril and Methodius Church in Sheboygan, Wisconsin on July 22, followed by burial in Greendale Cemetery.

A Chicago-area memorial service will be announced in the future.

PART-TIME ELECTRICIAN’S HELPER

Experience or not.

Call for more information.

708-738-3848

COVID-19 EPIDEMIOLOGIST

The Village of Oak Park is seeking qualified candidates for the position of Covid-19 Epidemiologist in the Public Health Department. This is a One-Year, Full Time Temporary position as of date of hire. This position will serve as a subject matter expert on communicable diseases of public health concern, including COVID-19. This position will work on the surveillance and investigation of infectious diseases and other public health threats; rapid response to disease outbreaks including assisting the community’s emergency preparedness and response team. Applicants are encouraged to visit the Village of Oak Park’s website https://www.oakpark.us/your-government/human-resources-department. Interested and qualified applicants must complete a Village of Oak Park application. This position is open until filled.

IT OFFICE COORDINATOR

The Village of Oak Park is seeking qualified candidates for the position of Office Coordinator in Information Technology. This position will perform a variety of responsible and complex administrative duties for the IT Department; provide information and assistance to Village staff regarding requests for service; and provide administrative support to the IT Director and the IT staff. Applicants are encouraged to visit the Village of Oak Park’s website https://www.oakpark.us/your-government/human-resources-department. Interested and qualified applicants must complete a Village of Oak Park application. Open until filled.

General maintenance on lifters and towing trailers. Must be able to operate and fix maintenance equipment. Some assembly and build projects. Some other job duties may include but are not limited to general building upkeep, painting, light cleaning, lifting 50lbs+, driving company vehicles on occasion, operating forklifts and scissor lift, assisting in other warehouse tasks such as loading and unloading trucks, shipping and receiving. email resume to hr@sievertelectric.com

Job Type: Full-time

Benefits

Salary: $16.00 - $18.00 per hour

Schedule:

8 hour shift

Monday to Friday

OAK PARK POLICE DEPARTMENTACCEPTING APPLICATIONS!

Application Deadline is Friday, September 1, 2023, at 2:00 p.m.

How to Apply:

• Complete your application at https://

iosolutions.com by the application deadline.

• Submit all supporting documentation by the application deadline.

Police Officer Minimum Requirements:

• At least 21 years of age and have not passed their 35th birthday by closing date for application.

• U.S. Citizen who speaks and understands English.

• Possess at least 60 hours of college credit at a fully accredited college or university, and also possess a minimum grade average of “C” by application deadline.

• Possess a valid driver ’s license.

• Possess a Firearm Owners Identification (FOID) card at the time of hire

Written Exam Information:

A mandatory written exam will be held on Saturday, September 30, 2023. Testing will take place at Oak Park Village Hall (room# 101) located at 123 Madison St. Oak Park, IL 60302. Sign-in will held from 8:30a.m. – 9:00 a.m. Additional details will be provided to eligible candidates approximately one week prior to the exam.

About the Village of Oak Park and Police Department:

• Starting Salary: $78,650.74 after 4 years of service $110,953.23

Please contact IOS Recruitment at (800)-343-HIRE or recruitment@ iosolutions.com with questions regarding the application, required documents or testing.

Full Stack Engineer sought by Solstice Consulting LLC dba Kin + Carta (Chicago, IL). Resp: Automate dploymnt of svcs + prcs using shell + groovy scrpts, + dev custom rleases for svcs. Enable team thru teachng Cloud Foundry concepts + op of platform svcs, Docker cntainrs, Jenkins config + Groovy. Debug platform by rev srce code on GitHub. Prtnr w/ clients to offer info re products, deploy demos, + share undrstndng of cost/ perfrmnce tradeoffs. Implem tactics to safely dploy new features daily in prod environs. Reqs: Bach’s Deg (or foreign educ equiv) in IT & Mgmt. Reqs 3 yrs exp in all the follwng: identity + access mgmt using Forgerock OpenAM + OpenIG, + Java devt of web authen moduls; Data cntr archit, dlvry + ops svcs in at least 1 Cloud IaaS environ (AWS, Azure, + GCP); Wrkng w/ common scrptng lnguages incl Shell or Python; Exp automtng IT Ops prcs via automatd pipelns using Jenkins + Ansible; Containr orchstrtion w/ Docker, Kubernetes + Helm pckge mgr. Reqs 2 yrs exp w/ LDAP DBs + Cassandra CQL DB. May trvl to unanticipated locs in U.S. Telecommutng permitted. Apply at www. kinandcarta.com/en-us/careers/

Full Stack Engineer sought by Solstice Consulting LLC dba Kin + Carta (Chicago, IL). Resp: Utilize modrn frmwks, pattrns, + data models to build web apps using React, JavaScript, JavaSpring frmwk, + SQL/NoSQL DBs. Anlyze info to det, recom + plan instal of new sys or modif exist sys using CI/CD tools on cloud platfrms; Dev reusable cmponents; Confer w/ mgrs on limits/ capablties for data proc projs; Prtnr

w/ designrs + stakehldrs to create modrn user exp + layout reqs for sprints; Mentor less exp’d engrs; Gain knwldge of sw, hw, + open-srce tech stacks. Reqs: Bach’s Deg or foreign equiv in Comp Sci or rel, + 3 yrs exp as SWDev or rel occup. Must have exp w/ the follwng: RDBMS + NoSQL DBs such as Oracle (PL/ SQL) or SQL Server (MySQL) + MongoDB or Cassandra; Buildng sw using modrn prctces such as Agile dev methdlgy, XP, BDD + TDD, Cloud Native tools + princpls + CI/ CD tools (Jenkins or CircleCI); Using cloud native tools such as Docker, Kubernetes, + Ansible; Dev UI using frnt end frmwks such as ReactJS, React Router DOM, Jest for testing + Redux for state mgmt; Using frnt end tools, bundlrs + cmpilers such as ECMAScript 6 JS, Nodejs, Sass, Webpack, + Babel; Deploying apps into cloud platfrms such as GCP + AWS; Using CI/CD tools such as Jenkins, Harness, + CircleCI; Buildng bckend REST microsvcs using SpringBoot, SpringCloud, Spring GraphQL; Testng bckend apps using JUnit, Mockito, Serenity, Selenium, + Sprint Test; and Buildng evnt-drvn microsvcs w/ RabbitMQ + Apache Kafka using Spring AMQP + Spring Apache Kafka. Option to WFH is avail. Apply at www.kinandcarta.com/ en-us/careers/

Data AI Engineer sought by Solstice Consulting LLC dba Kin + Carta (Chicago, IL). Resp: Help clients implmnt ways to imprv data, buildng solutions that lvrge data. Asst biz’s data-infrmd decisions by enhancng data-infra.

Undrstnd biz metrics, define objctvs, + collab for growth w/ data insights.

Use SQL for data retrievl + build python modules; Archit big data apps + build streamng ETL pipelines; Setup views for Data Sci teams; Ensure data security + Idntity Access Mgmt; Provide data models; Build Entity Relations Models; Data Engr pipelines to fuel data into schemas + cloud modrnizatn. Suprvise Anlyst Engrs.

Reqs: Bach’s deg or foreign equiv in Comp Engr or rel, + 5 yrs exp as Big Data/Cloud Data Engr, ETL Data warehouse specialist, or rel occup. Must have exp w/ the follwng: Data clean + explore prior to feature engr in ML space; Undrstnd client reqs, data modlng, + buildng ETL pipelns on Azure Cloud platfrm to facilitate the reqd dwnstrm procsses; Undrstnd ovrlppng biz scenarios across silos + build centrl data repsitries w/ well-mntaind sec + access; Undrstnd biz reqs by intrvwng biz users + app end usrs such as data sci + engr; Dev algrthms rel to Machine Lrning in Python + lvrging various libraries; Exp w/ 1 or more of the cloud techsAzure Data Anlytics or Google Cloud Platfrm Anlytics; in advncd SQL + reltionl DBs like SQL Srvr + NoSQL DBs like Cassandra; Hadoop, Spark, + Kafka; ETL Design + End-to-End Devt work. Option to WFH is avail. Apply at www.kinandcarta.com/enus/careers/

IT Professionals: Multiple openings available for following positions in Chicago, IL & unanticipated client locs throughout the US: Technical Lead: Oversee technical implmtn of RPA projects. Build RPA capabilities in project teams. Lead & manage technology roadmap, architecture &

plans for technical team members. Dvlp new ideas & evaluate new RPA products & features. Suggest optimal combination of RPA products & features to business partners. Travel & relocation possible to unanticipated client locs throughout the U.S.; Application Programmer Analyst: Modify existing computer applics s/ ware to correct errors, to adapt it to new h/ware or to upgrade interfaces & improve performance. Dsgn & dvlp computer applics, using scientific analysis & mathematical models to predict & measure outcome & consequences of dsgn. Coord installation of s/ware system. Monitor functioning of eqpmt to ensure the system operates in conformance w/ specs. Travel & relocation possible to unanticipated client locs throughout the U.S.; Director - Product Engineering: Perform strategic planning for all product dvlpmt efforts to incl the subsequent testing, release & production envrmt needs. Provide technical inputs to Sr. mgmt & team & be identified clearly as a technology leader. Oversee all activities of the dvlpmt groups (product dvlpmt, QA & applic release). Collaborate w/ Info Security, & Cloud Infrastructure teams for Cloud Security compliance & scalable Infrastructure enablement of the products. Travel & relocation possible to unanticipated client locs throughout the U.S. To apply: Please e-mail resume & position applied for to: Asha Shivaraman, Deputy Manager, Human Resources at HR_HGSDigital@teamhgs.com or mail to HGS Digital LLC, Attn: HR Department, 651 W. Washington Blvd., Ste 206, Chicago, IL 60661

Full Stack Engineer sought by Solstice Consulting LLC dba Kin + Carta (Chicago, IL). Resp: Partner w/ clients to build ent-grade cloud native apps w/ modrn Spring frmwks (Spring Boot, Spring Cloud Svcs) + cloud platforms. Support team to deliv products by high qlty code for full tech stack. Partnr w/ designrs to create user exp that uses modrn web app frmwks. Bridge elegant frntend + existng ent backend archit. Collab w/ client devt team. Mentor less exp’d engrs. Reqs: Bach’s deg (or foreign educ equiv) in Comp Sci + 5 yrs work exp in Comp Engr; Or, altrntivly, Mastrs (or foreign educ equiv) in Comp Sci + 3 yrs work exp in Comp Engr. Reqs 3 yrs exp w/ the follwng: Gather biz reqs, coord testng, anlyzng + design dscssions + defining sys probs; Conceptualize, design + dev Client/Server sys, Web Apps, Windows Svcs, Web Svcs, + Dsktp sw solutions; Anlyz + doc sw reqs + specs, UML + ER Modelng; Anlyz currnt apps + recomm proactive changes to meet biz goals; Undrstnd proj expctations + effctvly comm when evnts may affect delivrbles of proj; Coord w/ biz anlysts + progrmrs to assist in rsolvng probs w/ sw sys; Prform Unit + Integ testing on apps using various testing methodlgies. May trvl to unanticipated locs in US. Telecommutng permitted. Apply at www.kinandcarta.com/en-us/careers/

Full Stack Engineer sought by Solstice Consulting LLC dba Kin + Carta (Chicago, IL). Resp: Dev enterprise mobl web + native iOS, Android, + Windws Ph mobl apps. Work w/ pattrns, frmwks, DBs, sw, hw, open-srce

tech stacks, sys, data proc. Mentor less exp’d engrs. Reqs: Bach’s deg (or foreign educ equiv) in Applied Comp Sci + 3 yrs work exp devlpng ent mobl web or native iOS, Android, + Windws Ph mobl apps; or, altrntivly, Mastrs (or foreign educ equiv) in Applied Comp Sci + 1 yr work exp devlpng ent mobl web or native iOS, Android, + Windws Ph mobl apps. Reqs 12 mos exp in all the follwng: Devlpng frnt-end ent apps using .Net Frmwk, Bootstrap CSS + knockout. js; Implmnting loggng functnlity using Log4Net, user auth, + sngl sign-on featrs w/ help of SiteMinder (3rd pty plugin); Wrkng w/ Github + Jenkins to automate builds + deploymnt of fll stck apps; Designing + buildng apps for iOS platfrms; and Comp Interaction user exp + design. May work in various unanticipated locs in U.S. Telecommutng is permitted. Apply at www.kinandcarta.com/en-us/careers/

Solutions Architect sought by Solstice Consulting LLC dba Kin + Carta (Chicago, IL). Resp: Partner w/ clients to build ent-grade cloud native apps by anlyzng user needs + sw reqs to detrmin feasblty of design w/in time+cost cnstraints. Bridge elegant frnt-end + existng ent backend archit. Confer w/ mgrs on limits/capablties for data proc projs. Apply tech vision w/ sw design pattrns to create solution archits. Navigate cmplx data footprnts, intro modrn data mgmt + integ tech. Provide tech dir + encourg innovatn. Mng + suprvise Tech Anlysts. Reqs: Bach’s deg (or foreign educ equiv) in Comp Sci, + 5 yrs work exp as backend engr/API devlpr, incl exp in design, implem + maint ent lvl prodct; Or, altrntivly, Mastrs (or foreign educ equiv) in Comp Sci + 3 yrs work exp as backend engr/ API devlpr, incl exp in design, implem + maint ent lvl prodct. Reqs 3 yrs exp w/ the follwng: workng w/ Java/ J2EE tech incl Spring frmwk, REST frmwk for API devt + Hibrnate usng SQL basd DB Oracle; workng w/ Ent lvl Archtcts to design + dev POC for various tech probs + lead team of sw engrs to implmnt backend solutions + REST based API for various sw reqs + doing code rvws. Reqs 2 yrs exp workng w/ Big data tech like Apache Spark, Elastic Search + Apache NIFI usng Hortonworks Platform + NoSQL DB MongoDB. Telecommutng permitted. Trvl is req’d to unanticipated locs in US. Apply at www.kinandcarta. com/en-us/careers/

CROSSING GUARD

The Forest Park Police Department is seeking qualified individuals for the position of Crossing Guard. This position requires flexible hours during days when schools are in session.

A background investigation and drug screening will be conducted prior to consideration for the position. Applications available at Village Hall, 517 Desplaines Avenue or on-line at www.forestpark.net and should be returned to Vanessa Moritz, HR Director, at Village Hall. For additional information, contact Dora Murphy at 708-615-6223 or write dmurphy@ forestpark.net.

Applications accepted until position is filled. EOE.

CARS WANTED

CLASSICS WANTED

CLASSICS WANTED

Restored or Unrestored

Cars & Vintage Motorcycles

Restored or Unrestored

Cars & Vintage Motorcycles

Domestic / Import Cars:

Domestic / Import Cars:

Mercedes, Porsche, Corvette, Ferrari’s, Jaguars, Muscle Cars, Mustang & Mopars $$ Top $$ all makes, Etc.

Collector James • 630-201-8122

Mercedes, Porsche, Corvette, Ferrari’s, Jaguars, Muscle Cars, Mustang & Mopars

$$ Top $$ all makes, Etc.

CLASSICS WANTED

WANTED TO BUY

Restored or Unrestored

WANTED MILITARY ITEMS:

Collector James 630-201-8122

Cars & Vintage Motorcycles

Helmets, medals, patches, uniforms, weapons, flags, photos, paperwork, Also toy soldiers – lead, plastic – other misc. toys. Call Uncle Gary 708-522-3400

Domestic / Import Cars:

LOST & FOUND

Mercedes, Porsche, Corvette, Ferrari’s, Jaguars, Muscle Cars, Mustang & Mopars

FERRET LOST

A ferret named Nero was last seen on July 10 at midnight between Madison & Washington. Nero’s very friendly, brown, with a white face, black stripe across his eyes (like a burglar’s mask), and about 15 inches long.

$$ Top $$ all makes, Etc. Collector James 630-201-8122

AWARD AVAILABLE IF FOUND. If found call David 872-273-8452.

AUTO

PUBLIC NOTICES

BRICKWORK

REAL ESTATE FOR SALE

REAL ESTATE FOR SALE REAL ESTATE FOR SALE

You are hereby notified that a Public Hearing has been called by the Housing Authority of the Village of Oak Park, Oak Park, Illinois to be held at the Village Hall of Oak Park at 123 Madison Street, (Lombard and Madison), Oak Park, Illinois in Room 102 at 10:00 A.M. on Thursday, September 21, 2023, for the purpose of considering the following item of business:

To hear comments from the Public on the Public Housing Agency Plan.

The draft of the PHA Annual Plan for 2024 along with the public’s comments will be considered by the Authority before adoption of the Annual Plan to be submitted by Wednesday, October 18, 2023, to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The draft plan is available for inspection at the following locations during normal hours of operation, Monday through Friday, 8:30 A.M. to 5:00 P.M.:

Oak Park Housing Authority 21 South Boulevard Oak Park, IL 60302 Mills Park Tower 1025 Pleasant Place Oak Park, IL 60302

Written comments will also be accepted prior to the hearing for inclusion in the public record.

Address all comments or inquiries to:

Oak Park Housing Authority Executive Director

Re: PHA Annual Plan 2024 21 South Boulevard Oak Park, IL 60302

Published in Wednesday Journal August 2,2023

PUBLIC NOTICE

PUBLIC NOTICE OF COURT DATE FOR REQUEST FOR NAME CHANGE STATE OF ILLINOIS, CIRCUIT COURT COOK COUNTY.

Request of BARBARA RUTH GIBBS 20234004150

There will be a court date on my Request to change my name from: BARBARA RUTH GIBBS to the new name of: RUTH T. WITTBRODT

The court date will be held: On 9/19/23 at 11:00 AM at 1500 Maybrook Drive, Maywood, Cook County in Courtroom # 0111

Published in Wednesday Journal August 2, 9, 16, 2023

Roofing

ROOFING

JOE ROOFING

IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS COUNTY DEPARTMENT - CHANCERY DIVISION

NATIONSTAR MORTGAGE LLC

D/B/A MR. COOPER Plaintiff, -v.-

PATRICE HOUSTON A/K/A PATRICE CAREY, PARRIS HOUSTON, OAK PARK PLACE CONDOMINIUM ASSOCIATION

Defendants

22 CH 8975

420 HOME AVENUE #208 OAK PARK, IL 60302

NOTICE OF SALE

PUBLIC NOTICE IS HEREBY GIV-

EN that pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale entered in the above cause on May 31, 2023, an agent for The Judicial Sales Corporation, will at 10:30 AM on September 1, 2023, at The Judicial Sales Corporation, One South Wacker, 1st Floor Suite 35R, Chicago, IL, 60606, sell at a public sale to the highest bidder, as set forth below, the following described real estate:

Commonly known as 420 HOME AVENUE #208, OAK PARK, IL 60302 Property Index No. 16-07-324-0331017

The real estate is improved with a condominium. The judgment amount was $104,989.28. 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, in certified funds/or wire transfer, is due within twenty-four (24) hours.

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. For information, contact The sales clerk, LOGS Legal Group LLP Plain-

tiff’s Attorneys, 2121 WAUKEGAN RD., SUITE 301, Bannockburn, IL, 60015 (847) 291-1717 For information call between the hours of 1pm - 3pm.. Please refer to file number 22-096854.

THE JUDICIAL SALES CORPORA-

TION

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.

LOGS Legal Group LLP

2121 WAUKEGAN RD., SUITE 301 Bannockburn IL, 60015 847-291-1717

E-Mail: ILNotices@logs.com

Attorney File No. 22-096854

Attorney Code. 42168

Case Number: 22 CH 8975

TJSC#: 43-2298

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 # 22 CH 8975 I3225644

IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS COUNTY DEPARTMENT - CHANCERY DIVISION

FIFTH THIRD BANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION

Plaintiff, -v.-

ANTONIO A. BRAVO, THE TREMONT CONDOMINIUM ASSOCIA-

TION

Defendants 2023 CH 00031

227 W CHICAGO #3 OAK PARK, IL 60302

NOTICE OF SALE

PUBLIC NOTICE IS HEREBY GIV-

EN that pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale entered in the above cause on June 6, 2023, an agent for The Judicial Sales Corporation, will at 10:30 AM on September 8, 2023, at The Judicial Sales Corporation, One South Wacker, 1st Floor Suite 35R, Chicago, IL, 60606, sell at a public sale to the highest bidder, as set forth below, the following described real estate:

Commonly known as 227 W CHICAGO #3, OAK PARK, IL 60302

Property Index No. 16-08-102-0211009

The real estate is improved with a residence.

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, in certified funds/or wire transfer, is due within twenty-four (24) hours. 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 mortgag-

ee, 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, examine the court file, CODILIS & ASSOCIATES, P.C. Plaintiff’s Attorneys, 15W030 NORTH FRONTAGE ROAD, SUITE 100, BURR RIDGE, IL, 60527 (630) 794-9876

THE JUDICIAL SALES CORPORA-

TION

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. CODILIS & ASSOCIATES, P.C. 15W030 NORTH FRONTAGE ROAD, SUITE 100 BURR RIDGE IL, 60527 630-794-5300

E-Mail: pleadings@il.cslegal.com

Attorney File No. 14-22-09619

Attorney ARDC No. 00468002

Attorney Code. 21762

Case Number: 2023 CH 00031

TJSC#: 43-2462

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 # 2023 CH 00031 I3226051

EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY

All real estate advertising in this newspaper is subject to the Fair Housing Act, which makes it illegal to advertise any preference, limitation or discrimination based on age, race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status or national origin, or intention to make any such preferences, limitations or discrimination.

The Illinois Human Rights Act prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental or advertising of real estate based on factors in addition to those protected under federal law.

This newspaper will not knowingly accept any advertising for real estate which is in violation of the law. All persons are hereby informed that all dwellings advertised are available on an equal opportunity basis. Restrictions or prohibitions of pets do not apply to service animals. To complain of discrimination, call HUD toll free at: 1-800-669-9777.