Wednesday Journal 120220

W E D N E S D A Y

December 2, 2020 Vol. 40, No. 19 ONE DOLLAR @oakpark @wednesdayjournal

JOURNAL of Oak Park and River Forest

A guide to what’s happening Pages 16-18

Pete’s gets OK to raze auto showroom Change to development agreement allows for historic building’s demolition

By STACEY SHERIDAN Staff Reporter

Much to the dismay of local architecture and history aficionados, a new amendment to the redevelopment agreement between Pete’s Fresh Market and the village of Oak Park allows the grocery store chain to demolish a nearly century old auto dealership at 644 Madison St. The village board passed the amendment during its Nov. 23 meeting.

The amendment allows Pete’s to make adjustments to the project schedule due to COVID-19, as well as includes changes to the concept plan that does not involve retention of what was last used years back as a Foley-Rice Cadillac showroom.

“We were hopeful that we’d be able to do everything to preserve the building,” said Pete’s executive officer Stephanie Dremonas.

Pete’s purchased the historic building to build its second Oak Park location, which will encompass the 600 and 700 blocks of Madison Street, between Oak Park and Wesley Avenues.

Known as the Hill Motor Sales Building, it was built in 1925 and served as an automobile showroom for a Packard dealership. Its final use was as part of the Foley-Rice dealership which had locations on both sides of Madison Street. The building on the south side of Madison will be demolished to make way for senior housing.

The grocery store’s effort to retain the building’s façade were ultimately not possible, said Dremonas, due to the placement of the planned store’s loading See PETE’S on page 9

ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

HIATUS: General Manager Mary Murphy in the bar at Poor Phil’s, where the chairs are up till we reach the other side of the pandemic.

Poor Phil’s goes into hibernation Temporary closure key ingredient to restaurant’s survival

By MELISSA ELSMO

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Oak Park Eats Editor

esponding to the second wave of COVID-19 dining restrictions and plummeting temperatures, Poor Phil’s, 139 S. Marion St., announced Nov. 22 they would temporarily cease operations (including carryout) until indoor dining is permitted again in Cook County.

SHOPPER’S

REWARD PROGRAM

“This was a hard decision to make and we pushed it back as long as we could,” said Mary Murphy, general manager. “The safety of our customers was the number one priority, but not being able to serve inside just wasn’t cost effective for us.”

Temporary closures, known in the industry as “hibernations,” are one tactic struggling restaurants, especially upscale establishments or businesses that rely heavily on alcohol sales, are employing to make it through the tough winter ahead. Hibernating restaurants like Poor Phil’s, consciously choose to close with the intention of reopening when the See POOR PHIL’S on page 10

WHEN WE ALL WORK TOGETHER, WE ALL WIN

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Wednesday Journal, December 2, 2020

PUBLIC NOTICE MAGNET RECOGNITION PROGRAM® Site Visit Rush Oak Park Hospital was designated as a Magnet organization in 2016, by the ANCC Magnet Recognition Program®. This prestigious designation recognizes excellence in nursing services. In January 2021, Rush Oak Park Hospital is applying for re-designation.

• Patients, family members, staff, and interested parties who would like to provide comments are encouraged to do so. Anyone may send comments via e-mail and direct mail.

• Your comments must be received by the Magnet Program Office by January 8, 2021.

Note: All comments are CONFIDENTIAL and are not shared with the health care organization. Comments may be anonymous, but they must be sent in writing to the Magnet Program Office.

Address:

American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) Magnet Recognition Program Office 8515 Georgia Avenue, Suite 400 Silver Spring, MD 20910-3492

E-Mail:

magnet@ana.org

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Wednesday Journal, December 2, 2020

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How Madison Street crumbled

made sense to most capitalists since then have ast month, ProPublica Illinois published an inbeen predatory (which is why we see so many loan depth report, “Disinvested: How Government and sharks and liquor stores on the West Side).

Private Industry Let the Main Street of a Black I have produced an alternative history of this Neighborhood Crumble.” episode in my head, in which local, state and That main street referenced in the title is federal governments joined forces after the riots Madison Street, once the most bustling retail corridor in ’68, created an agency with the power to identify in East Garfield Park. But the street also teemed with and penalize the private interests that created the activity beyond that West Side neighborhood. ghetto-ization of the West Side in the first place — “Back then, stores, often with apartments above the predatory contract lenders who systematically them, lined Madison Street from downtown west to the stole from Black homebuyers in North Lawndale, city limits,” reporters Tony Briscoe, Haru Coryne and for instance — and then systematically returned Mick Dumke explain. “The east-west axis of Chicago’s that stolen wealth to its rightful owners. grid system, the street once thrived as a commercial In this alternative history, the government also beltway known as the ‘Equator of Chicago’ and the investigated and penalized itself because many of ‘Heart of the West Side.’”

Commentary its policies, particularly its housing policies, led to Today, Madison Street is lined with empty lots. the economic apartheid that resulted in the ghetto ProPublica estimates that roughly a quarter of the corWest Side (see Arnold R. Hirsch’s Making the Second Ghetto ridor’s land is vacant. or Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor’s Race for Profit to see how this The dominant narrative attributes the current blight to the happened).

1968 riots that followed Martin Luther King’s assassination. But Instead, and in reality, the government created incentives to the ProPublica report shows why this narrative begs more questry luring the very private interests that plundered the West tions than it answers and why it’s also haphazard.

Side into “investing” in it. And it gave scraps to Black business The desertification of Madison Street and much of the West interests (some small loans or grants here and there) that chose Side actually began prior to the riots, as the reporters show. to do capitalism where they had actually been forced to do it, “It’s important to note that the area began losing resources anyway. even before the 1968 rioting,” they state. “Starting after World In other words, the system was never held responsible for War II and accelerating in the 1950s and ’60s, the population of creating the mess we now see on Madison Street.

Chicago’s West Side turned from almost all white to nearly all The nasty truth of the ghetto is that it was created by the Black. twin pillars of capitalist exploitation and systemic racism. In “Thousands of Black Southerners and residents of the cramped South Side moved into communities like East Garfield order to unmake a ghetto while avoiding displacement, we have Park, while white West Siders relocated to the suburbs and the to blow up those pillars — a process of “creative destruction” city’s North Side. that entails identifying the real players, processes and policies And as Congressman Danny K. Davis told ProPublica, when responsible for the ghetto; penalizing them; and redistributing the white population base moved away, the economic base folthe wealth and power they plundered in a manner that is just lowed. and equitable.

“As individuals moved away, much of the economy of these After decades of plans and programs and perks, Madison areas went with them, and government really didn’t do much Street remains blighted because there has been neither justice to stop it — no unit of government,” Davis said. “It just never nor any real accountability. The players and policies and prohappened.” cesses responsible for the blight have never been held to account Instead, governmental attempts to improve the West Side have and the power and wealth those entities plundered from Blacks been piecemeal and centered on failed attempts to induce private on the West Side have yet to be redistributed. investors to bet on communities that were by this point on a Until that happens, and absent the government (i.e., the glide path to a point of no return in our capitalist system. politicians and the police) joining market forces to gentrify East No amount of tax credits or economic enterprise zones or Garfield Park (i.e., to make it white again), Madison Street will “Model Cities” programs would be sufficient to return the continue to crumble.

West Side to its pre-riot state. The only investments that have CONTACT: michael@oakpark.com

MICHAEL ROMAIN

The summer State Representative LaShawn Ford and Chicago Police 15th District Commander Yolanda Talley marched in front of a boarded up Robert Emmert Public School at Madison and Central in Chicago.

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Oak Park COVID positivity rate declines over week River Forest still battling increase in cases

By JAMES KAY Staff Writer

While Oak Park is still seeing higher singleday totals for COVID-19 cases compared to two months ago, the surge in positive cases in the village has slowed over the past two weeks.

Since Nov. 25, 108 residents tested positive for coronavirus, the lowest weekly total since the end of October.

From Nov. 11-25, 355 Oak Park residents tested positive for COVID-19, according to the Oak Park Department of Public Health.

River Forest had 25 residents test positive for COVID-19 since Nov. 25, according to the village’s COVID-19 database.

Oak Park’s positivity rate over this past week dipped from 7.52 percent on Nov. 23 to 5.40 percent on Nov. 29 (it was at 8.75 percent on Nov. 5). River Forest is averaging almost five new cases a day and its rolling positivity rate has remained just under eight percent over this past week.

One Oak Park resident, a 95-year-old man who tested positive for COVID-19, died this week. According to the village’s website, he lived at Brookdale Oak Park, a long-term care and assisted living facility at 1111 Ontario St. The latest fatality marked the second resident death at Brookdale since the village started announcing resident deaths at long-term care and assisted living facilities on March 18.

Brookdale of Oak Park has had 10 residents and 18 staff members test positive for COVID-19.

Belmont Village of Oak Park had one resident test positive for COVID-19 this week, totaling seven resident positive tests since March 18. Belmont has also had 20 staff cases and four resident deaths. Oak Park Arms has had six resident and four staff cases while one resident has died. Oasis of Oak Park has had 23 resident cases, 11 staff cases and 12 resident deaths.

Berkeley Nursing & Rehabilitation has had 46 resident cases, 11 resident deaths and four staff cases.

Cook County’s Director of Communications, Natalia Derevyanny, announced on Nov. 30 the county has had 6,564 COVID-19 related deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.

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Wednesday Journal, December 2, 2020

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BIG WEEK December 2 - 9

“Horse Girls”

Friday, Dec. 4, and Saturday, Dec. 5, 6 p.m., Virtually with OPRFHS Theater Students

See the student-directed play in which 12-year-old Ashleigh rules the Lady Jean Ladies, South Florida’s most exclusive horse club. News that her family’s stables are being sold and their horses killed for meat throws the Ladies into crisis in this dark comedy of middle school deception and lies. Free. Register: oprfhs.org/theatre/current-theater-season

Create Through Us the Bread of Life Register by Monday, Dec. 7; event Saturday, Dec. 12, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Zoom with Shem Center for Interfaith Spirituality This interfaith Advent day of retreat offers a day of peace during pre-holiday stress and includes chant, body prayer, sharing, contemplation and bread-baking art-as-meditation. Neil Douglas Klotz offers teachings and spiritual practices on the Aramaic words of Jesus from Scotland. Br. Joseph guides making honey whole wheat bread as a spiritual practice from Shem Center in Oak Park. Small group Zoom meetings are part of the day.

Donations accepted. To register, email: emory.mead@ yahoo.com

Allergies, Asthma & You Tuesday, Dec. 8, 7 to 8 p.m., Zoom with the Oak Park Public Library Learn more about allergies and asthma from the Housecall Allergist Dr. Pitud. Register: oppl.org/calendar.

Two Auctions: Tradition & Innovation, Art & Design

American Artists and Their Literary Subjects

Thursday, Dec. 3, 6 p.m., and Sunday, Dec. 6, 10 a.m., Toomey & Co. Auctioneers Traditions & Innovation on Dec. 3 features a limited, curated range of works from painters, sculptors, ceramicists, furniture designers, architects, and jewelry makers who have helped define their fields for more than a century. On Dec. 6, Art & Design offers a few hundred selected lots of fine and decorative artworks, early 20th century and modern furniture, art pottery, lighting, metalwork and more. To view items, go to: toomeyco.com. Further condition information and preview are available virtually and by appointment: info@toomeyco.com. Bid by phone, 708-383-5234, leave absentee bids, info@toomeyco.com, or place via real-time, third-party digital platforms, LiveAuctioneers and Invaluable. Sales are not open to the public due to the pandemic. 818 North Blvd., Oak Park.

Shake, Rattle & Read Wednesdays, Dec. 2, 9 and 16, and Saturdays, Dec. 5, 12 and 19, 10 to 10:30 a.m., Zoom with the Oak Park Public Library Join librarians for a session filled with books, songs, movement and more. Best for kids up to age 5. Register: oppl.org/calendar

Holiday Gift Project

by Dec. 4, Sarah’s Inn Help put smiles on the faces of 350 children impacted by domestic violence this holiday. Gifts are needed for children ages 0-18; teenagers make up about 60 percent of the kids served. Gifts in the $20-$25 range help ensure even distribution across families. Gift cards are welcome. All items must arrive unwrapped. Donate as an individual or organize a group. For more, including gift ideas and links to wish lists at Target and Amazon, go to: sarahsinn.org/events/1135. Items can be delivered or dropped off at Sarah’s Inn, weekdays 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., 1547 Circle Ave., Forest Park, IL, 60130.

Monday, Dec. 7, 1:30 p.m., Virtually with the Nineteenth Century Charitable Association From the earliest years of the Colonial Period to well into the 20th Century, many American artists looked to both European and domestic writings as a source for their art, producing paintings, prints and book illustrations. Join David Sokol as he explores how these artists conveyed their ideas through the literary subjects they chose to present to the public. $15, requested donation for non-members; free, members.

Register: nineteenthcentury.org

Spoken Word Showcase Wed., Dec. 9, 7 to 8 p.m., Virtually with OPRFHS Spoken Word Club See the award-winning Spoken Word Club students’ pre-recorded picstitch group pieces; video performances from club assistants Noelle Berry, Vann Harris and Patrick Chrisp; and live performances from Christian “Rich Robbins” Robinson and special guest, Krysten Hill. Free.

Register: eventbrite.com/e/oprf-virtual-spoken-word-showcase-2020-tickets-129494979971

How to Talk to Young People About HIV/ AIDS, PrEP and More Wednesday, Dec. 9, 4 to 5 p.m. Virtually with Oak Park Library If you are a parent/caregiver of a 10-25-year-old, get tips on having meaningful conversations about HIV/AIDS, PrEP, and sexual health. There are many ways to connect and share messages about identities, bodies and relationships. Obtain real-life examples of adults and youth having quick, meaningful conversations about navigating sexual health. Hosted by Lurie Children’s Hospital. Register: oppl.org/calendar.

Wednesday Journal, December 2, 2020

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ART BEAT

‘Hemingway in Comics’ finds local roots, local artists

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ometimes, a book can beists, authors and story translagin with a small spark: tions across continents. “The Trip an unanswered question, to Key West,” it seemed, hadn’t a half-heard bit of conbeen published in English—and versation or an image there were scores of stories comthat you just can’t shake. missioned on other continents In the case of my book that never made it to the U.S. Hemingway in Comics, the From then on, I started collectspark came from a few warped ing comics in which Hemingway comic book panels framed on appeared from across 18 counthe wall of the Ernest Hemingtries — from Croatia to Italy — way Home and Museum in Key in which the author is often porWest, Florida. In the comic, trayed as the hyper-masculine a Disney-fied caricature of legend of Papa: bearded, boozedHemingway crosses paths with up and ready to throw a punch.

Guest Author Donald Duck and his nephews However, just as often, comic book outside Sloppy Joe’s Bar. creators saw past the bravado, to That single comic led me the sensitive artist looking for valthrough four years of research for a 280- idation. “Hemingway in Comics” endeavors page book that chronicles more than 120 to explore these Hemingway appearances Hemingway appearances in comics, from from the divine to the ridiculous.

Superman and Wolverine, to Mickey Mouse Before the pandemic hit, I’d planned to and Doonesbury and Peanuts. The book in- host gallery events, to showcase what is cludes illustrations from Oak Park artists now a large collection of original art feasuch as Chris Ware, Keith Taylor, Mae F. tured in the book. I’m still hoping to bring Parker and Wednesday Journal’s Marc Sto- that show to a local venue once we’re clear peck. of COVID-19. “Hemingway in Comics” is The project became a pop culture medita- a project that continues to expand, and I tion on what happens hope this book isn’t when an author’s the final word on the iconic image and life topic. In fact, I’ll leave competes with the the final word of this legacy of his work, article to Chris Ware, creating a fascinating who included a young post-modern spiral.

Hemingway in a funBut I’m getting draising art print for ahead of myself. Let the Oak Park River Forest Museum. me start at the begin“I included Hemingning, in Key West. way because he’s, At the Ernest needless to say, an imHemingway Home portant figure in the and Museum, none of town’s history, and, the staff could tell me well — how couldn’t anything about the I?” Ware says in the comic. No one even book. “I read ‘For remembered how the Whom the Bell Tolls’ framed comic page and ‘The Sun Also found its way onto Rises’ in high school Hemingway’s wall. and it was the first An added wrinkle: the time I realized that writing could be writing word balloons appeared to be German.

Returning home to Oak Park, I searched and not just storytelling; I was struck even for a version of the Disney comic in Eng- then at how Hemingway carefully tuned the lish. I was stumped until my friend Klaus order of sense perceptions and experiences Strzyz, a former editor and translator for directly to how one would experience them. a publisher of Disney comics in Germany, In other words, it felt real.”

Signed copies of “Hemingway in Comics” pointed me to a 1984 German comic whose title translates as “Adventures from Uncle are available at The Book Table, booktable.

Scrooge’s Treasure Chest #3: The Trip to net, 1045 Lake St., Oak Park. More: HemingwayInComics.com. Elder is also the co-author Key West.”

Klaus also introduced me to the Donald- of “Hidden Hemingway: Inside the Ernest ists, an online group of Disney enthusiasts Hemingway Archives of Oak Park,” puband researchers who track characters, art- lished in 2016.

ROBERT K. ELDER

OAK PARK TOWNSHIP PRE-FILING NOTICE NOTICE is hereby given that the office of the Township Clerk will be open from 9:00 a.m. to 12 Noon on Monday, December 14, 2020 for the purpose of accepting new party or independent candidate petitions or certificates for the Township election to be held on April 6, 2021 for the following offices: Supervisor Clerk Assessor Trustees (4) Due to the COVID-19 precautions, the Township Offices are open by appointment only. Candidate and established party petitions can be filed by calling the office at 708-383-8005, and requesting an appointment from Noon until 5 p.m. December 14, or from 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

December 15 – 18, and Monday, December 21, 2020. December 21 is the last day to file petitions by new party and independent candidates.

Persons with questions regarding the filing of petitions may contact the Township Clerk at 708-383-8005, or the Illinois State Board of Elections at www.elections.il.gov or phone 312-814-6440.

Gregory P. White Township Clerk

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Wednesday Journal, December 2, 2020

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Moroney running for Oak Park village president Trustee seeks return to respect on village board

By STACEY SHERIDAN Staff Reporter

Running on a platform advancing “a theme of common cause, common ground and common sense,” Oak Park village trustee Dan Moroney announced Nov. 29 he is running for village president in the April 2021 election.

Moroney is joined in the race by fellow village board member Simone Boutet, Village Clerk Vicki Scaman and park district employee Cate Readling.

During a Nov. 30 interview with Wednesday Journal, Moroney said he believes he offers Oak Park something different than his opponents.

“Cate, Simone and Vicki seem to accentuate and promote their progresDAN MORONEY sive bona fides,” Trustee said Moroney. “I try

“I want to get back to a place where we could respect our different ideas.”

to approach things from an independent stance.”

Incumbent village president, Mayor Anan Abu-Taleb not yet publicly declared whether he will seek election to a third term.

Elected to the village board in 2017, Moroney’s term as trustee ends this April.

According to his campaign press release, Moroney’s accomplishments as a first-term trustee include: decision-making rooted in common sense and pragmatism, keeping the tax levy increases below 3 percent, promoting practical sustainability initiatives and modestly scaled development projects.

The press release also cites Moroney’s track record regarding policing in Oak Park, stating that his first term has been marked by “community safety by supporting the police and understanding the need to address the four years of consecutive increases in crime” and “supporting village staff including the police, as they provide the core functions of municipal government.”

In his Wednesday Journal interview, Moroney said he was “absolutely” committed to continuing police reform initiatives and would consider ideas to improve policing.

“I think it is very imperative to judge our policing based on their performance, our police officers, our police leadership, and not policing that might happen in other areas of the country,” said Moroney.

One reform measure Moroney said he will not entertain is the abolition of police.

“Defunding is but just the first step toward abolishing,” Moroney said.

One of the more divisive figures on the village board, Moroney has received criticism for his stance on policing – criticism he believes is unwarranted and comes from a place of misunderstanding or misrepresenting his views.

“If you’re an elected official, you’re going to be the recipient of criticism and any criticism is an opportunity for selfreflection,” he said.

Moroney’s view of policing in Oak Park has led to quite a few clashes with fellow trustee Arti Walker-Peddakotla, who has advocated for extensive reform, including sponsoring a resolution to defund the police department in August.

“I look forward to voting no on this resolution,” Moroney told the village board during the Aug. 25 meeting.

Moroney and Walker-Peddakotla got into a heated argument in September 2019 over racial profiling within the police department.

“They deserve our praise rather than a blanket statement that damns the whole department,” Moroney said to WalkerPeddakotla.

Moroney modified his stance on racial profiling in August of this year by requesting the removal of the police department’s “Guide to the Suspicious” from the village website. The guide was criticized for appearing to encourage residents to engage in racial profiling.

Despite frequent sparring, relations aren’t entirely frosty on the current village board; Moroney has endorsed fellow board member Trustee Deno Andrews, who is seeking reelection this spring.

“I can’t imagine serving on a board without Deno,” said Moroney. “He brings a level of preparedness, knowledge, openmindedness and diplomacy that I think is unparalleled.”

If elected village president, Moroney said he wants to promote an atmosphere of respect within the village board.

“I want to get back to a place where we could respect our different ideas and how we get to that place and get away from the personal attacks and impugning each other’s motives.”

State Rep. Welch tests positive for COVID-19 ‘The safest thing you can do is stay at home’

By MICHAEL ROMAIN Staff Reporter

State Rep. Emanuel “Chris” Welch (7th), whose district encompasses a large part of Proviso Township, has tested positive for COVID-19.

During an interview on Nov. 29, Welch said he started feeling symptoms last Wednesday and tested positive on Saturday. He said he’s been quarantined in the basement of his Hillside home ever since then.

“We have a really small circle and we traced it back to a family member who tested positive a couple days before I did,” Welch said. “Our kids are around them every day and I pick my kids up every day.”

Welch said that, so far, his two children and wife have all tested negative. He added that his symptoms have so far been mild, but he understands that they could worsen.

“A lot of people say it gets worse in the second week,” Welch said. “I have high blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes, so I had been really trying to be extra cautious.”

Since September, Welch has chaired the powerful Special Investigating Committee that has been probing Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan’s suspected connections to a ComEd bribery scheme.

Welch said he intends to remain chairman of the committee while he recovers, adding that he’ll continue to do his legislative work remotely, which he said he’s been doing for the last several months anyway.

“I will try not to overdo it because the fatigue is real,” he said. “I’ve been doing a lot of sleeping and hoping all goes well.”

Welch said he hopes he’ll be out of quarantine by Dec. 14, when the committee plans

to resume in-person meetings.

The state representative said that, despite the investigation, he’s confident that Madigan has enough votes in the Democratic Caucus to retain his speakership. Welch said Madigan plans to answer Democrats’ questions before they hold a vote for House Speaker.

“It’s my understanding that when we have our caucus, Speaker Madigan will stand up and answer members’ questions before we take a vote,” Welch said. “I imagine the Madigan I know will answer every question put before him, but I’m sure there will be a lot of questions.”

Welch also swatted away speculation that he could be among those in the running for the speakership if Madigan loses his powerful position.

“I’m extremely flattered that people will throw my name out in those conversations, but I think they’re premature,” Welch said.

“Madigan is running for re-election as speaker and I’m not running against him.

I fully expect the Speaker to be re-elected.”

Welch cautioned his constituents to remain vigilant against the virus.

“People need to take this virus very seriously,” Welch said. “This is a really serious virus. You think you’re doing everything right and you’re not. I thought we were doing everything right and clearly we weren’t.

Wash your hands, wear a mask, keep your distance, but the safest thing you can do is stay at home. Had I stayed at home, I wouldn’t have COVID-19 right now.”

The state representative also took pains to distinguish COVID-19 from the flu or the common cold, insisting that they were different.

“This is definitely not the flu,” he said.

“It’s definitely not a cold. This is something we’ve never seen before and people need to take it seriously.”

CONTACT: michael@oakpark.com

Wednesday Journal, December 2, 2020

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

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‘White supremacist’ as conversation starter

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ow we talk to each other is important. And how we talk to each other pretty much determines if we listen.

This has all been on display in Oak Park over the past Thanksgiving week on social media, in the pages of the Journal and on our comment board at OakPark.com.

I’ve got a role in this which I want to acknowledge and a point of view that I want to share and leave open for response.

It started with a news article, pretty run-of-the-mill — who is running for re-election, who is not — that I asked our village hall reporter Stacey Sheridan to report out.

Mayor Anan Abu-Taleb had not yet announced if he was running for a third term. And in our article he still did not announce. Trustee Dan Moroney was the last of the current trustees whose term ends next April to not declare.

In our article he said his decision was overdue and would come soon.

No big news. The sort of story that moves things along a little bit.

The story was first posted online and on Facebook and last Wednesday made our print edition.

It was on our Facebook page where a local person posted a comment calling Moroney a white supremacist. That was about the gist of the comment. Not much context. No case made to prove the point. The commenter was a local Muslim woman.

The comment was called to my attention by Matt Baron, an OPRF board member and someone I’ve known a long

DAN HALEY

time, either in an email or a text. I was busy doing other things and it took me several hours to really take a look. At that point I asked a colleague to take the comment down.

Completely my decision.

We take comments down. Not often but it happens. I’m comfortable that this is part of our job to monitor our platforms and remove comments that are defamatory or otherwise out of bounds. Certainly will acknowledge that there is a subjective aspect to those sincere judgments.

Baron then sent the Journal a letter to the editor which ran in print last week. The letter should not have run for the same reason the comment, in my opinion, needed to come down. There was wording in the letter related to “see something, say something,” duffle bags being left in public places that was code for terrorism. It should have jumped out at us as inappropriate. It didn’t. That is on us. We need to do better.

Since all this began, Dan Moroney has announced that he is running for village president. Sheridan reported that story online Sunday afternoon.

It sent me back to our archives from a year ago when Moroney was in the news — locally and well beyond — for appearing on a right-wing local radio talk show. It followed a controversy at the board table when Trustee Susan Buchanan was making an ardent point and in that moment fully lost her temper and said several things she rightly later regretted about her board colleagues.

Moroney went on Dan Proft’s talk show and made things a lot worse. He rightly got lacerated on social media, in citizen comments at the next board meeting and, by me, in this column.

Looking for cover, Moroney said that he and Buchanan had sat down privately to “discuss what has transpired and recognizing what unites us, rather than what divides us.”

Now there is the ultimate political statement.

And here was my response in that 14-month-old column: “Sure there is a lot that unites us. The path forward, though, is in focusing in productive ways on what divides us. Because what divides us is foundational and it needs to get sincerely and imperfectly sorted out. It is about racism, it is about sexism, it is about systems of oppression, it is about an inability or unwillingness to listen. It is about control.

“It is always about control.”

My point a year ago is that talking about race and equity, if you’re doing it right, is painful, hard, and can easily go awry. So choose words carefully. Be articulate. Go deeper.

These are not things social media does well. And so, in my view, it makes real, necessary conversation harder.

As Oak Park begins a campaign for village president, equity has to be top of mind. As I’ve said 10 times, this village government has failed on equity. And debating Dan Moroney’s pretty much right-out-in-the-open views on race, equity and governance is entirely fair and necessary.

So all that said, I was surprised as I reread that column to find this line: “Dan Proft is a right-wing conspiracy hack. He hosts a low-rated Chicago radio talk show that speaks mainly to white supremacy.”

I think that is accurate. I did not personally call Proft a white supremacist. It was in the context of a 600-word column.

I know white supremacy is real. It permeates our institutions and it permeates us as individual white people. But to me it still feels unproductive to just hurl the term “white supremacist” at someone as a pejorative label.

I think I’m right. Or it could just be another blind spot in a lifetime of blind spots that I’m working on. Some of you, I’m sure, will have opinions.

Suburban Unity Alliance starts COVID relief fund for biz Will distribute $500 microgrants to struggling small businesses

By STACEY SHERIDAN Staff Reporter

Oak Park non-profit and community organization Suburban Unity Alliance (SUA) has been quietly fundraising since Oct. 29 to generate money to award $500 microgrants to small businesses in need during the continuous COVID-19 pandemic. With $5,285 accumulated as of Nov. 30, the organization is ready to start distributing it on a first-comefirst-serve basis.

“Small businesses, specifically, play a vital role in our community,” said SUA founder and community activist Anthony Clark.

“They’re the anchor of our community.”

The widespread economic impact of

COVID-19 has left multiple emailing him at anthony@subbusinesses and organizations urbanunity.org or via SUA’s struggling to survive. To show Facebook page. support for small businesses SUA does not require any in the Oak Park community, formal application or paperClark created a GoFundMe work; simply asking for help page where people can make is sufficient. The microgrants donations in any amount to do not need to be repaid and the relief fund. can be used toward payroll, tax “If you could give 50 cents, payments, purchases supplies ANTHONY CLARK $1 do, and if you can’t, don’t or any other expenses.

Community activist because we understand every“The only caveat is that it one is struggling out here,” has to be business related,” said Clark. Clark is currently said Clark. a candidate for Oak Park vilSUA relies on the honor syslage trustee in the April 2021 tem. Recipients do not need to election. supply receipts to prove that The GoFundMe will be active throughout the microgrant was used as intended. the pandemic, which has no determinable Clark defines small businesses as having expiration date. SUA will continuously dis- 100 or fewer employees but he said SUA does tribute the $500 microgrants as donations not intend to be finicky about that. come in.

“We’re not going to say no if you have 101 All businessowners have to do to apply employees,” he said. for the loan is reach out to Clark, either by The Oak Park River Forest Chamber of

“Small businesses, specifically, play a vital role in our community.”

Commerce has agreed to help identify and connect small businesses to SUA’s relief fund. Clark intends to reach out to Pumpkin Moon, his favorite local small business, himself.

While not a large sum of money, Clark believes it could offer some reprieve, while showing local businesses that the community cares about their survival.

A familiar face in Oak Park with wellknown political aspirations, Clark is also a teacher at Oak Park and River Forest High School. He acknowledged that some might consider the microgrants a publicity stunt to generate interest in his campaign for a seat on the village board.

“When you put yourself out there, there’s always going to be naysayers,” he said.

SUA’s philanthropic work began with its 2016 founding, which according to Clark, was long before he sought any elected offices.

“Our efforts are indeed genuine, and we will continue to be genuine.”

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Wednesday Journal, December 2, 2020

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D200 board raises concerns about proposed equity audit Members supportive but wary it will only result in more empty words

By MICHAEL ROMAIN Staff Reporter

At a special meeting Dec. 3, District 200 administrators will seek board approval to allow a firm to conduct an equity audit in the district. But LeVar J. Ammons, the district’s executive director of equity and student success, will have to persuade a D200 school board majority that is concerned that the audit may not tell them anything new about Oak Park and River Forest High School’s racial and cultural challenges.

In a Nov. 19 memo, Ammons said the equity audit is designed to “collect and analyze data that will identify strengths of District 200 as well as the practices that maintain racial inequity at every level of the institution.”

During a regular school board meeting on Nov. 19, where the board discussed the proposed audit, Ammons said members of the District Equity Leadership Team identified and vetted nine prospective candidates to conduct the audit before settling on the Chicago consulting firm Bea Young Associates, LLC. Ammons said the firm’s namesake, Bea Young, has been “a pioneer in racial equity work” going back to the mid-1960s and early 1970s. He said Young helped conduct cultural audits for a number of districts, such as Plainfield Unified School District 202.

Supt. Joylynn Pruitt-Adams said during the Nov. 19 meeting that the district was able to bypass a formal request for proposal process, because the audit is a specialized service and thus exempt from the RFP rule.

If the board grants approval at Thursday’s meeting, the district will pay the firm no more than $45,000 to conduct one-oneone interviews and focus groups with vari-

LeVar J. Ammons ous Oak Park and River Forest High School stakeholders. The cost will come out of the district’s budget and the district will not need to raise new revenue to cover the expense, Pruitt-Adams said.

Ammons said the audit process would take approximately six to eight weeks to complete. As part of the audit process, the district and Bea Young will create a team to collect and analyze quantitative and qualitative data. Bea Young will also facilitate a range of one-on-one interviews with administrators, including Ammons and PruittAdams, board members and staffers, along with focus groups.

The audit process should result in written reports of the audit results that will “identify how racial and cultural perspectives impact student opportunity and achievement” and “recommend strategies for advancing racial equity work in the district.”

But most board members, while supportive of a racial equity audit, were concerned that the administration had not conducted an RFP process to select the firm that was

ultimately chosen. The board also worried about possibly spending $45,000 on an equity audit that, once completed, will only tell them what they already know about the high school.

“I guess I’m a little surprised that we’re starting at what feels like such a preliminary place, when all of the evidence that led us to have an Office of Equity and Student Success, and to have a racial equity policy, was because of what we [already] know about the racial disparities in belonging and achievement,” said board member Jackie Moore. “So, I’m just trying to make sure we’re not starting too far back and not utilizing data we already have.”

Moore and board member Ralph Martire were also vocal about the lack of a formal RFP process in selecting the chosen firm, although they both emphasized they were not casting any aspersions on Bea Young.

Martire said the consultant “could be great,” but worried that without having launched a formal RFP process, the district may have “missed an opportunity” to cast

a much wider net. Echoing Moore, Martire said he’d much rather the firm drill into “our system and analyze our system’s barriers” to racial equity and devise “evidencebased resolutions to those flaws” rather than identifying racial and cultural issues that many district officials already know exist.

Board member Tom Cofsky said he would like to see “the work product of the consultant” from the other districts that Bea Young and Associates has worked with. He also questioned whether or not the firm will provide the “right assessment or are we going to get a pandemic version of something that is not really what we need to see?”

Ammons said he would talk to Bea Young and Associates about providing the results of its prior work ahead of the Dec. 3 meeting and acknowledged Cofsky’s concerns about the pandemic, adding that, while some aspects of the audit process may actually be more amenable to a remote work environment, he’ll still talk with the firm about addressing possible pandemic-related challenges.

Board member Gina Harris was the bluntest among board members in voicing her concerns about the equity audit, as the administration was currently proposing the measure.

“I love the idea we’re going to do an equity audit, because there is some valuable things we can get out of it in terms of understanding where the system has flaws,” she said.

“The challenge is, we know the answers to these questions already. I’m just a little frustrated … We can look at the data we already have, we can look at it historically … and see what is working and what’s not.

“Unless we’ll have an equity audit to give us deliverables that say this is what you need to do, so students can stop experiencing racism in your school, I’m not going to be thrilled with an equity audit, especially not for $45,000. It has to give us concrete ways that the system needs to be altered, so that students can stop having the experiences they’re having.”

OPRF Alumni Association gives $10K grant to local nonprofit Donation to Opportunity Knocks is largest in association’s history

By MICHAEL ROMAIN Staff Reporter

The Oak Park and River Forest High School Alumni Association recently made the biggest donation in its history to a local organization, OPRF officials announced on Dec. 1.

The association donated $10,000 to River Forest-based nonprofit Opportunity Knocks, which serves young people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in Oak Park, River Forest and Forest Park by teaching them life skills.

Mike Carmody, the nonprofit’s executive director, said the grant came “on the heels of us realizing some other significant

fundraising shortfalls due to pandemic-related challenges.”

He added that the nonprofit’s programming platform “has become more demanding than ever with new technology and PPE investments needed to ensure our virtual and onsite program formats are safe and fully accessible.”

Since 2003, the association has been awarding grants to OPRF students for summer enrichment programs. With that summer programming cancelled last school year and unlikely to happen in summer 2021 due to COVID-19, the association decided to change how they distribute the funds.

Therese Brennock, an association board member, suggested that the group present a one-time donation to Opportunity Knocks.

“I received a call from a former OPRF student, Katrina Jeffries, right after our fall alumni board meeting,” said Brennock. “Katrina has participated in Opportunity Knocks programming for several years and told me that [they] really

needed donations due to fundraising event cancellations.”

Brennock said the more she thought about it, “the more a donation to Opportunity Knocks made complete sense,” said Brennock. “It is run by OPRF alumni, they employ alumni and the majority of students they serve are alumni from the TEAM/CITE program [at OPRF], and they also have an enormous alumni following.”

Brennock’s colleagues at the association agreed with the idea, initially deciding to donate $5,000. But that quickly doubled to $10,000 by the end of the group’s monthly meeting.

“The momentum was unbelievable,” Brennock said. “I think [board members] were so touched when they heard about Katrina’s [desire] to help the organization that is near and dear to her heart.”

To learn more about the Oak Park and River Forest High School Alumni Association, visit: https://www.oprfhs.org/ alumni/index.

Wednesday Journal, December 2, 2020

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9

Preservation commission deems Drechsler plan ‘massive’ Preliminary review requested by developer

By STACEY SHERIDAN Staff Reporter

The Oak Park Historic Preservation Commission declared the proposed 159unit apartment complex slotted for the Drechsler, Brown & Williams funeral home site too large for the area in a preliminary review held Nov. 24.

“It just feels overwhelming to me,” Commissioner Monique Chase said of the proposed 84-foot-10-inch-tall, seven-story structure, which includes 123 parking spots.

The preliminary hearing was requested by applicant Focus Development to gather the commission’s feedback ahead of the project’s required advisory review on its construction plans for 203 S. Marion St. in the Ridgeland-Oak Park Historic District.

While a few commissioners expressed an appreciation of the use of brick in the building’s façade, the commission was generous in giving more constructive feedback as well.

“I think it’s too tall,” said Commissioner Jennifer Bridge.

Commissioner Sandra Carr liked the design’s U-shaped courtyard, believing it effectively broke up the building’s mass, but said the building was still too tall “by like two stories.”

“Zoning height is 60 feet and I think that’s

PETE’S

Once a Packard dealership from page 1 dock on the easternmost edge of the property and the difficulties of configuring the plans to fit into two city blocks.

“That wall – it has to come down,” said Dremonas.

Retaining the façade would also present considerable financial costs for the grocery store chain – roughly $2.5 million, according to Pete’s developer Eugene Grzynkowicz, who stated the building would have to be completely disassembled and then put back together.

Pete’s plans to preserve perhaps the building’s most recognizable feature – its grotesques, which will be incorporated into the new grocery store’s design.

The community has made multiple attempts to save the building from demolition. Last year, the village rejected a proposal to declare the Foley-Rice building a landmark. Landmark Illinois, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving his-

Photo provided by Booth Hansen

TOO BIG?: The proposed apartment building for the site of the Dreschler Brown and Williams funeral home on Marion Street was considered oversized by many members of Oak Park’s Historic Preservation Commission. appropriate for this location,” Carr told Focus representatives.

If Focus was set on keeping the building at eight stories, Carr suggested they look into stacking the first four floors and stepping back on floors five and six, then stepping back further on the top floor.

“So that the façade that’s on Marion Street feels more like a four-story at least,” she

toric places, placed the structure on its list of Illinois’s most endangered places in 2019.

Most recently, the “Save the Hill Coalition” community group submitted the maximum allowed three public comments to the village board Nov. 24 advocating for the building’s preservation. The coalition developed alternative architecture plans that would incorporate a portion of the Foley-Rice and provide construction cost savings, according to the group.

Notable members of the coalition include Frank Lipo of the Historical Society of Oak Park and River Forest, Unity Temple Restoration Foundation’s Heidi ReuhleMay and local architect Frank Heitzman.

“We met with Heidi and Frank and Frank and I commend their persistence and their passion,” said Dremonas during the Nov. 23 meeting. “If I had it my way and I had an open checkbook, to make this happen, we could do it.”

In a 6-to-2 vote, the village board accepted the second amendment, which also allows Pete’s to adjust certain dates to the project schedule. Trustees Simone Boutet and Arti Walker-Peddakotla cast the dissenting votes.

said.

Chase thought the building did not have enough green space around its edges.

“It makes it feel almost claustrophobic,” Chase said.

Commissioner Lou Garapolo believed the U-shaped courtyard was effective from the top but, despite its setback, gave no relief at the street level. He also felt that the render-

Foley-Rice Building

ings of the building really showed “that this proposal is out of scale with what we’re seeing in the area.”

While he thought using bricks on the façade served as a unifying factor among the buildings in the area, Commissioner David Sokol was concerned about the proposed structure’s scale as well.

Commissioner Noel Weidner felt the building made the area feel claustrophobic as well. “You go one block west and try to go north and you’re at a dead end,” said Weidner of the recently constructed 1133 South Blvd. apartment building. “It’s like a giant wall there already and then you add this there to that little area of Oak Park and you’re like in a canyon.”

Chair Rebecca Houze liked the brick and the incorporation of plantings but agreed the building felt massive. She thought the design lacked the unique details evocative of different architectural styles that the other buildings in the area have.

“It doesn’t really pick up on any of that, kind of, delicacy that I see in some of other buildings in the area that give it visual interest,” said Houze.

Oak Park’s Historic Preservation Urban Planner Susie Trexler agreed to summarize the commission’s recommendations for Focus in a written letter.

Only a preliminary review, the Historic Preservation Commission will make its official determination on the proposal during the as yet unscheduled advisory review. After that, the proposal will head to the Plan Commission.

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Wednesday Journal, December 2, 2020

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West Sub recognized for geriatric care

Level 3 Geriatric Emergency Department Accreditation Staff Reporter

Dr. David Anthony population,” said Anthony.

As part of its accreditation, physician and nursing leadership will receive yearly education to keep health-care staff up to date on evidence-based guidelines regarding geriatric care. West Sub has also implemented a new triage screening system to identify geriatric patients at risk of sundowning while in the emergency department.

Anthony called the emergency department at West Suburban “mission-driven.”

“We care very deeply about our patients and our community,” he said. “That includes all ages, all races and ethnicities, all different levels of socioeconomic privilege.”

While the hospital isn’t taking care of the geriatric patient population at the expense

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1901978

Hibernating from page 10

By STACEY SHERIDAN West Suburban Medical Center has achieved special accreditation from the American College of Emergency Physicians for its commitment to, and care of, elderly and geriatric patients. With people in that age group especially vulnerable to COVID-19 and Cook County’s case numbers on the rise, the accreditation comes at a critical time.

“It’s always been something that’s been on our radar to try to be more formal and robust in our approach to geriatric patients,” said Dr. David Anthony, West Sub’s emergency department medical director.

“The timing just made sense, in the middle of this pandemic, to add another layer to our response.”

West Suburban is the first community hospital in Illinois to achieve Level Three Geriatric Emergency Department Accreditation.

“It’s essentially a way to recognize emergency departments that have put particular resources and particular attention to caring for elderly patients in the geriatric patient

POOR PHIL’S

State Farm Bloomington, IL

of any other patient group, Anthony said, COVID-19 presents a higher risk to geriatric patients.

“All the things that we know put patients at increased risk for serious morbidity and death from COVID are all things that the geriatric patient population shares,” said Anthony.

The Oak Park Department of Public Health has reported COVID-related deaths of 30 residents in Oak Park longterm care facilities. Five of those deaths were reported Nov. 20. One death was reported Nov. 30.

“COVID has really changed everything for us and it’s turned many emergency departments on their head,” said Anthony.

West Suburban is seeing roughly 110 patients in the emergency room daily with upward of 30 of those patients diagnosed with COVID-19 or experiencing symptoms of the virus, Anthony estimated.

“It’s a significant chunk of our patients,” said Anthony.

As other hospitals around the country have become overwhelmed by COVID-19, West Suburban has not reached that point, according to Anthony.

“We’ve been OK with ventilators. We haven’t been one of the hospitals that’s ever been in a position to have to ration,” he said.

The number of available beds at West Suburban is a little bit tighter these days but that is a problem all Chicago-area hospitals are facing, according to Anthony.

“It’s a day-to-day struggle in terms of trying to move patients to various floors around the hospital to make space,” he said. “But we’re doing OK.”

weather is warm enough for patio dining, or as soon as pandemic related restrictions are lifted. Hibernation is employed to thwart the risk of permanent closure down the road.

Murphy, who has managed the family business for 28 years, consulted with her father and Poor Phil’s owner, Dennis Murphy, when making the decision to close temporarily. Though he shared his thoughts and ideas with Murphy, he ultimately deferred to his daughter to make the choice because she is on site every day. It quickly became clear a carryout-only model could not pay the bills at Poor Phil’s and that it would cost the business more to stay open through the pandemic-related slow down than to pause operations.

“Our PPP loan in the first round was our savior -- that money helped us stay on our feet,” said Murphy. “It is a much bigger mess this time around.”

Murphy notes unemployment payments are very low as it is, but some of her employees have maxed out their annual unemployment eligibility through the state of Illinois and other part time employees do not qualify for benefits at all.

“These are real people with real lives and families and that make this all so much harder, but everyone understood this is for the long-term benefit of Poor Phil’s,” said Murphy Murphy is the mother of two grown children. She and her son, who is also a Poor Phil’s employee, are trying to figure out their new normal since the restaurant has closed.

“I have no idea what to do with myself,” laughs Murphy. “I am sitting here drinking coffee at midnight because I am used to being at work at that time.”

The pandemic has taken its toll on restaurants across the country -- the National Restaurant Association estimates an industry wide loss of $240 billion this year. Murphy found it particularly painful to see nearby LaBella permanently close its doors last May. “It wrenches me inside every time a restaurant closes because of this, but I have no doubt Poor Phil’s will absolutely pull through. We’ve been around for almost 40 years.”

Partial hibernation for Kettlestrings Kettlestrings Tavern, 800 S. Oak Park Ave., has adjusted their hours to reflect peak times for delivery and carryout orders and closed their outdoor dining area.

Monday through Thursday Kettlestrings is open from just 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., with hours increased slightly Friday through Sunday.

“I think it is going okay, but business is not as strong as we saw in the spring,” said coowner Rob Guenthner.

While he can see the value of temporary closures for larger restaurants with significant labor costs, he notes Kettlestrings has a very small staff and can run lean, making it cost effective to remain open.

“We certainly are not making any money right now,” said Guenthner matter-offactly. “But given where things are today, we are going to remain open for carry out.”

Wednesday Journal, December 2, 2020

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11

Carjackings on the rise in three villages Chicago also seeing steep hike

By MARIA MAXHAM Staff Reporter

Carjackings are rising in Oak Park, River Forest and Forest Park. Forest Park police Chief Tom Aftanas is concerned the nature of the crimes is shifting in his town with fewer carjackings of opportunity – a car left running in a gas station – replaced by more targeting of vulnerable individuals.

On Nov. 15 in Forest Park, a 74-year-old woman, returning from a friend’s home, was struck from behind by an unknown assailant after she exited her car while parking it in the garage. Her car was stolen.

On Nov. 17, an 80-year-old woman was the victim of a very similar crime. She was hit at least twice before two men stole her vehicle.

Both these attacks happened just days and blocks apart.

And according to Aftanas, carjackings in Forest Park are definitely higher this year than in previous years. In 2020, he said, the village has seen at least 16 car jackings, either attempted or successful. The highest number in any year previously was 11 in 2017.

Forest Park isn’t alone. According to Oak Park’s Police Chief LaDon Reynolds, Oak Park has experienced more carjackings too.

“We have seen an increase in both aggravated vehicular hijacking and vehicular hijacking since last year,” Reynolds said in an email. “Year to date we have had 19 inci-

dents compared to 16 during the same time period last year.”

In River Forest, Police Chief James O’Shea said the village had no carjackings in 2019, but two plus one attempt in 2020.

The city of Chicago has also seen a large increase. Carjackings through mid-November in Chicago increased 124 percent over 2019, according to WGN Investigates. The total, 1,125 carjackings, is the highest in at least five years.

A Chicago Tribune interview with Brendan Deenihan, the Chicago Police Department’s chief of detectives, provided some insights into why the city has experienced an increase in carjackings. Deenihan told the Tribune, in an article from Oct. 14, that the number of carjackings was already high but increased when civil unrest began in August. At that time, he said, they “really spiked out of control.”

Deenihan also said the widespread use of masks might be contributing to the problem, potential criminals feeling more confident because they’re less identifiable.

Aftanas echoed Deenihan’s theory that an uptick in carjackings corresponded to the aftermath of the summer’s unrest. Aftanas said he suspects that when would-be criminals see other people committing crimes and largely getting away with it, it emboldens them to do the same.

And, oftentimes, carjackers aren’t caught.

First, it’s difficult to predict when and where the crime will occur. Aftanas said there are more detectives, both uniformed and undercover, out in the evening hours,

“trying to be in the right place at the right time,” but there is no real pattern to where or even when the attacks occur.

When officers do see the vehicle involved, they have the right to pursue, but drivers of stolen vehicles don’t obey traffic rules, and a chase will be terminated if the officers feel they’re putting other people in danger.

Stolen cars are often used in other crimes.

On Nov. 20, two victims met outside Forest Park National Bank to exchange Girl Scout cookies, a particularly poignant detail, considering they were the victims of an armed robbery by two suspects. The license plate was caught on video and traced back to a vehicle stolen from another town.

The nature of the carjackings, at least in Forest Park, has changed slightly, said Aftanas. Previously, these crimes tended to happen at gas stations or in more public places, crimes of opportunity in which the victim wasn’t specifically targeted.

The carjackings in the alley, though, seem more intentional, Aftanas said. While the victims may not have known the offenders, they may have been chosen or targeted because they seemed like easy victims.

It’s important, then, to do whatever you can so you don’t look like an easy target to potential carjackers.

Aftanas advises residents to be more aware of their surroundings at all times.

“If you see a car following you into your alley, do another loop,” Aftanas said. “If they follow you again, drive over to the police station or call us. We will meet you.”

What if you are in a situation where an

armed criminal is demanding your car or keys or purse? “Give them what they want,” said Aftanas. “Don’t fight back. All those things are replaceable.”

To avoid non-violent car-related crimes, such as burglaries from your vehicle or having your car stolen, a little common sense goes a long way.

During a recent spate of overnight burglaries from cars, it was discovered that many of those cars had been left unlocked, said Aftanas, making it considerably easier for a thief to get in. The simple answer: Keep your car locked at all times.

“Don’t make it easy for people to take your belongings from your car,” Aftanas said.

Cars are often stolen from gas stations because people tend to leave their vehicles running while they go inside the store to pay or purchase items.

“Criminals wait for someone to leave their vehicle unattended,” Aftanas said.

For example, Thorntons, 601 Harlem Ave., is a spot where several cars have been stolen over the past few months. That location, on Harlem Avenue and so close to the I-290 expressway, is a “good” location for a criminal, because a) people often leave their cars running and b) it’s close to the Eisenhower for a quick getaway.

In winter months, cars are stolen with greater frequency, said Aftanas, because people like to warm their cars up in front of their homes before getting in or leave them running while popping into a store or restaurant. But even if the key FOB isn’t in the car, it can still be stolen and driven away.

Early present: a flat levy for River Forest For the village government portion of the bill anyway

By ROBERT J. LIFKA Contributing Reporter

The River Forest Village Board provided some early holiday cheer for village residents, Nov. 30, approving a tax levy for 2020 that will not increase the village portion of residents’ property tax bills.

At the virtual village board meeting, officials approved a levy for 2020 of $8,130,737, which is slightly higher than the extended levy for 2019 of $8,106,253.

Village President Cathy Adduci said she is “very proud” to be able to approve the flat levy.

“We did that because we are in an unfortunate pandemic and people are hurting,” she said. “I feel that this was the right thing to do for our community at this moment. I applaud the board.”

She also thanked village staff, singling out Rosie McAdams, finance director; Eric Palm, administrator; and Lisa Scheiner, assistant administrator.

The levy amount did not change since it was presented at

the Nov. 9 village board meeting. The village board rescheduled its second monthly meeting in November to allow the Nov. 30 vote. Illinois Truth in Taxation Law requires each taxing body to determine an estimate of its tax levy not less than 20 days before adoption. The village board normally meets on the second and fourth Mondays of the month. The property tax levy must be filed with Cook County by Dec. 22.

According to McAdams, the village tax levy forgoes the expected annual increase based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) of 2.3 percent and forgoes any additional property taxes associated with assessed valuations tied to new construction projects.

Although the impact on individual homeowners will vary, the village portion of residents’ property tax bills should decrease slightly or remain flat, she added. The village portion is approximately 11 percent of the average resident’s total property tax bill.

Palm explained at the Nov. 9 meeting that the village would use the “healthy amount of reserves we have” to compensate for any shortfall in revenue.

“One of the things we’ve done over the past 8-10 years is to create a great fiscal policy that allows us to build that rainy day fund,” Adduci said Nov. 9. “We’re at that rainy day. People are hurting and we need to give back.”

Most village funds are subject to the Property Tax Extension Limitation Law, which limits property tax levy increases to 5 percent or the CPI, whichever is lower. The exception is the non-capped fire pension levy.

The village portion of the levy is $3,252,216, down $508,763 from $3,758,979 in 2019. Other components of the levy are the police pension, up $264,432 to $1,830,611; fire pension, up $235,248 to $1,662,693; the River Forest Public Library levy, up $43,408 to $1,356,903; and the non-capped fire pension, down $11,841 to $28,314.

The village board approved the annual tax levy for the River Forest Public Library, which falls under the auspices of the village but is governed separately.

The current fiscal year runs from May 1, 2020 to April 30, 2021. The taxes from the 2020 levy are collected in 2021.

The total levy, which includes $270,629 for debt service, is $8,401,366, an increase of $17,341 or 0.21 percent from 2019.

The debt service levy is lower by $7,143 from 2019.

The levy amounts for the police and firefighter pension funds are based on actuarial reports prepared by the village’s actuary, Todd Schroeder from Lauterbach & Amen.

The levy amounts for both funds are higher than the statutory minimum requirements of $1,304,895 for the police pension fund and $1,196,605 for the fire pension fund.

12

Wednesday Journal, December 2, 2020

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

‘Dr. Bill’ indicted for fraud Therapist alleged to have bilked Medicaid

for each charge. The charges levied against the pair include theft of government property by deception and theft of government property by unauthorized control, each of which are Class X felonies punishable by

By STACEY SHERIDAN six to 30 years in prison.

Staff Reporter They were also charged with vendor Dr. William McMiller, an Oak Parker com- fraud, a Class 1 felony punishable by four monly known as Dr. Bill, has been charged to 20 years in prison, and forgery, a Class along with his niece with defrauding the 3 felony punishable by two to five years in state out of more than $1.2 million in Med- prison, according to the press release. Asicaid funds, according to Illinois sistant Attorney General Elisa Attorney General Kwame Raoul.

Hamilton is handling the case.

McMiller owns Dr. Bill’s After noticing McMiller had Learning Center, 18 Lake St., billed an abnormal number of which provides clinical therapy, services hours each day, the Iltutoring and psychiatric serviclinois Department of Healthes to children. Jonise Williams, care and Family Services (HFS) who lives in south suburban Office of the Inspector General Matteson, handled the billing for referred the case to the Illinois both the center’s Oak Park and State Police Medicaid Fraud Chicago locations.

DR. WILLIAM MCMILLER Control Unit, which opened an “Together, Williams and Mcinvestigation.

Miller submitted numerous Theresa Eagleson, director of the Illinois claims to the Illinois Medicaid program Department of Healthcare and Family Serfor psychotherapy and medical services vices, said in the press release: that were not provided,” a press release “Our top priority — especially during states.

McMiller and Williams were charged in this fight against COVID — is to use MedicCook County Circuit Court with a laundry aid funds to help people in our state access list of felonies and face a fine of up to $25,000 the quality healthcare they deserve.”

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ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

SMOOTH SAILING: On time and at budget, Lake Street is now open from Austin to Harlem.

Lake Street complete

Months-long renovation finished on schedule

By STACEY SHERIDAN Staff Reporter

Despite a year full of difficulties, at least one project went according to plan during 2020 – Oak Park’s renovation of Lake Street, which reopened to all traffic as scheduled the day before Thanksgiving.

“This year’s been a challenging year for everybody with COVID-19,” said Village Engineer Bill McKenna. “Our project fell into that too.”

Dubbed “Better Lake Street”, the project consisted of streetscaping from Harlem Avenue to Euclid Avenue, resurfacing from Euclid to Austin Boulevard, as well as updating underground water and sewer mains on Lake between Grove Avenue and Euclid. Sewer and lining repairs were also made on the stretch of Lake along Euclid to Ridgeland Avenue. Lake Street was also outfitted with new landscaping, lighting and traffic signals.

The pandemic, according to McKenna, brought “a million” changes to the project’s schedule, causing crews to work at different paces at times.

“We had to slow down in some areas to meet the demands and challenges for some of the businesses in the Hemingway District,” said McKenna. “We had to speed up work in other areas.”

Crews began tearing up Lake Street last March with the goal of finishing the entire project by Thanksgiving – a goal basically achieved. While Lake reopened to traffic at the end of last Wednesday, crews were unable to finish some final details due to rainy weather.

“We’re just kind of wrapping up those little things,” said project manager Brian Racine of TransSystems.

Construction crews will be completing remaining restorative concrete and bluestone work this week, according to Racine.

“It’s a big feather in everyone’s cap to actually conquer all of those unforeseen challenges and still get the project substantially complete,” said Racine.

In addition to staying on schedule, the project is also shaping up to stay within the budget of a total project cost of $15 million.

Not entirely footed by the taxpayers, the project received $3 million in federal funding, as well as a Cook County grant worth $300,000 for its resurfacing portion.

“We’re tracking to be within budget,” said McKenna.

While the Lake Street work itself has taken only about nine months, years have been spent planning the project, beginning in the late 1990s with the creation of Oak Park’s greater downtown master plan.

“This really goes back basically my whole career,” McKenna said.

With all the challenges 2020 has presented, finishing on schedule and on budget marks something of a feat for Oak Park.

“It’s pretty remarkable when you think about it that with all that planning with all those challenges, that Better Lake Street was delivered on time and on budget,” said project spokesman Jim Prescott of Prescott Group.

Oak Park’s Lake Street work has received recognition from the American Society of Civil Engineers, receiving an award for “Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement.”

Part of what made the project successful were the people involved and the team-oriented approach, according to Racine.

“It was just a great group of people from the contractors all the way up to the village,” said Racine. “No one shied away from really getting in there and getting dirty, solving problems and getting things done.”

Wednesday Journal, December 2, 2020

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

13

C R I M E

Stolen car crashes, catches fire Thanksgiving started with a bang in Oak Park. At 6:17 a.m., Nov. 26, a beige 2005 Altima, reported stolen out of DeKalb, crashed and caught on fire in the 600 block of Taylor Avenue trying to flee Oak Park police, who were attempting to pull the vehicle over for a traffic stop. Police were unable to locate the driver of the Altima, who ran from the vehicle after the crash. The DeKalb Police Department notified the vehicle’s owner that Oak Park police had recovered the Altima.

Aggravated robbery

The 7-Eleven convenience store at 240 Chicago Ave. was robbed at 1:30 a.m., Nov. 30, when a man entered the store and stated, “I have a gun,” while reaching toward his waistband. Victims saw no actual weapon.

The man took two packs of cigarettes from behind the counter then fled on foot, traveling northbound on Harvey Avenue. Police reports describe the man as Black, 30 to 40 years old, with a small beard. He was last seen wearing a black facemask and a gray sweatshirt.

Burglary

A man was caught on surveillance camera breaking into a residential garage and entering the victim’s silver 2013 Porsche; the man ransacked the vehicle’s interior and attempted to remove a red snowblower from the garage in the 400 block of Grove Avenue between 4:12 and 6:12 a.m., Nov. 24.

Motor vehicle theft ■ A white 2017 Toyota Highlander, parked at a gas pump at the BP gas station, 520 S. Austin Blvd., was reported stolen at 11:27 a.m., Nov. 24.

■ An unlocked and running black 2019 Nissan Sentra was taken from the 1100 block of Lake Street between 7 and 8 p.m., Nov. 23.

■ Riverside police recovered a white 2014 Mazda 3 reported stolen Nov. 9 from the 200 block of Flournoy Street. The vehicle was found in the 2800 block of South Harlem Av-

enue, River Side. Police made no apprehensions.

■ A silver 2016 Hyundai Sonata was taken from the first block of Superior Street between 9:30 a.m., Nov. 26 and 8:28 a.m., Nov. 28.

Theft

■ Someone removed a flagpole and rainbow flag from a front porch in the 800 block of South East Avenue between 10 p.m., Nov. 21 and 3 p.m., Nov. 22.

■ A FedEx package containing Chicago Blackhawks clothing items was taken from a front porch in the 1100 block of Highland Avenue between 2 and 3 p.m., Nov. 25.

■ Someone removed a 24-inch decorative outdoor light fixture mounted next to the victim’s front porch in the 900 block of Home Avenue between 11 p.m., Nov. 25 and 8 a.m., Nov. 26.

■ A blue and red “Bye Don” political sign was taken from the front yard of a residence in the 200 block of South East Avenue between 9 p.m., Nov. 26 and 2 p.m., Nov. 27.

■ Someone took tax return paperwork from the bathroom closet of an apartment in the 300 block of Wisconsin Avenue between 10 a.m., Nov. 27 and 12:41 p.m., Nov. 28.

■ Someone created a fake Facebook Marketplace profile and scammed a victim of cash at 12:16 a.m., Nov. 29, under the pretense of delivering a Sony PlayStation PS5 gaming station to the 800 block of Washington Boulevard.

■ A portable basketball hoop was taken from a backyard in the 300 block of North Cuyler Avenue between 12 p.m., Nov. 25 and 12:30 p.m., Nov. 29.

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Criminal damage to property

■ Someone shattered the rear windshield of a vehicle parked in the 900 block of South Elmwood Avenue at 2:22 p.m., Nov. 16 ■ Someone broke the lock to a garage service door and damaged the door jamb in the 900 block of South Maple Avenue between 3 p.m., Nov. 27 and 11 a.m., Nov. 28.

Compiled by Stacey Sheridan

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14

Wednesday Journal, December 2, 2020

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

presents

Connecting your child to everything they need.

A Wednesday Journal & A Tribe Called Aging Production

wabi sabi F I L M F E S T I V A L

Mentor

Therapist T

Family Counselor

Case Manager Crisis Worker Outreach Worker Prevention Specialist

Care Coordinator

In-person counseling and telehealth services available.

Donate at www.yos.org/donate or call 773-777-7112.

2020

Holiday

In Person & Online Shopping!

bazaar

Holiday items • Pet Items • Gift Baskets

We’ve made adjustments to keep everyone safe while still bringing you all the joy of the holiday season

Friday , Dec. 4 • 3-9pm Saturday, Dec. 5 • 9am-4pm Online Bake Sale & Raffle

Our Covid-19 free gift to the community watch it free on ZOOM in your own home

Olympia

Friday, December 4 • 10am This sublimely intimate, fly-onthe-wall verité documentary tells a poignant story of a woman finding her own voice on her own terms to assert a gigantic creative force into the world.

Throughout an engrossing story that seamlessly blends past and present, Olympia Dukakis opens her heart and exposes her truest self to Harry Mavromichalis’ unobtrusive camera.

This intimate portrait of a working-class professional, a scholar actor of intense intuitive power, and a woman beloved around the world, culminates on the steps of the Dukakis’ humble ancestral home in Lesbos, Greece. Here we see Olympia’s life come full circle, both personally and professionally.

Joining us for Q+A/discussion is the film’s Director Harry Mavromichalis, moderated by Elizabeth White.

Signature Sponsors

Non Profit Patron Sponsors

Pictures with cardboard Santaby appointment 12/2 & 12/3

Oak Park Township/River Forest Township

All proceeds benefit our shelter and are needed this year more than ever!

Please note that in person shopping capacity will be limited to ensure proper social distancing.

Shoppers should be prepared to wait in line. All shoppers will be required to wear a mask.

1003 Garfield., Oak Park (Just East of Volvo dealership at Harlem)

Visit animalcareleague.org for full event details!

Learn more and register at: wabi-sabi-olympia.eventbrite.com

Wednesday Journal, December 2, 2020

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

Couple transitions from the street to their own apartment

Light at the end of the tunnel

By TOM HOLMES Contributing Reporter

Kim and Anthony, two former area residents, will feel especially grateful this holiday season because a year ago they were sleeping in a tent in a secluded part of Forest Park and panhandling for money on the ramps where Harlem crosses I-290.

And now they have moved into an apartment.

How they got off the street and into their own home is a variation on the adage, “It takes a village” to do more than raise a child.

“Kim and I got lucky,” Anthony explained, “and met some angels.”

One of those angels was a Forest Parker named Melanie who on a hot, muggy day in July 2019 felt compassion for the panhandlers sweating in the hot sun. She responded by buying some bottled water at Thornton’s gas station on Harlem and walking up to the ramps.

“I had no clue what I was doing,” she recalled. “I knew nothing about homelessness.

I just saw that they were very exposed out on the ramps, and I heard a direct message — I believe from a power higher than me — to get off my butt and do what I could.”

One of panhandlers she met was named Kim who not only accepted the gift of water but engaged in a conversation. And that was the beginning of a friendship that has lasted till this day and also the beginning of Melanie’s growing awareness of what it is like to be homeless and how hard it is to leave it behind.

“I came to know them well,” she said, “and what they faced was a living hell. You have no idea that day if you will eat or not, and you can’t always find a place to sleep.

Anthony was stabbed once, Kim regularly being asked to do sex acts she had no interest in doing.

“They were insulted on a daily basis by people driving by and saying ‘I hate homeless people. You’re all losers. Get a job.’”

Melanie bristled when she added, “I challenge anyone, myself included, to live on the street for one week with no support and then tell homeless people to get a job. How do you get a job when you have no phone, and therefore employers can’t call you back? How are you supposed to go to a job interview when you don’t have access to a shower, have no clean clothes and are exhausted because you slept literally on concrete the night before?”

She knew that homelessness was a complex issue before she met Kim and Anthony, but reading a book on the subject and knowing statistics is different than knowing people personally.

Melanie has more empathy than answers

15

File photo

FORWARD MOVEMENT: Kim and Anthony, long homeless and often found on the Eisenhower ramp at Harlem, are making the positive but challenging transition to new jobs and their own apartment thanks to Housing Forward.

You don’t have to punch a time clock, and for her friends.

“I care about them,” she said, “and so it’s you have don’t have to follow rules in the been very painful to watch them suffer. I workplace or an apartment building.

Anthony added that even if you do not don’t always agree with their decisions and, more than that, I don’t even know what I’m have a diagnosed mental illness when you start living on the street, doing half the time in my atthat lifestyle quickly tempts to help them.” changes you.

In addition to helping the “When you have been couple out from time to time homeless for a while,” he with money, a sandwich or a said, “it’s hard to get back ride to an appointment, Melinto society, into a strucanie also encouraged them tured environment.” to ask for help from Housing “It was really tough,” he Forward, a local non-profit, said. “Housing Forward which they did. The nonrequired a lot out of us. profit responded by not only Dannette told us that if we supplying them with a room did not show evidence of at the Carleton Hotel in Oak ANTHONY accomplishing something Park, but also by providing toward the goal of becomthem with meals on most ing independent every days, Link Cards, Ventra time we met, this program passes and doctor appointwasn’t for us.” ments.

One expectation early on was that the two From the Carleton they were moved into a room at the Write Inn on Oak Park Avenue get state IDs, a document necessary for jobs, in October and began an interim program opening bank accounts, and many other designed to move formerly homeless people steps on the way to independence. When out of shelters into their own housing. Dan- they arrived at the DMV center, what they nette, their first case worker, more or less found was a line wrapping around the buildtook them by the hand and led them step ing. After three hours they finally arrived at by step toward the goal of moving into an the facility’s door where an agent told them that they did not have the correct paperwork. apartment.

“I started to panic,” said Kim, who admits While Kim and Anthony were grateful for a comfortable place with a shower to return to having issues with anxiety. “Dannette to every night, they also found the structure will have our butts. She had threatened us and rules that went with the program diffi- that this is our last chance.”

They entered the center despite what the cult to abide by. Kim admitted there is a certain freedom that goes with being homeless. gatekeeper had told them and were received

“When you have been homeless for a while, it’s hard to get back into society, into a structured environment.”

by an employee who was more understanding and who took care of getting them the identification they needed.

In many ways, Dannette was playing the role of a parent and treating Kim and Anthony like children, which is what often happens in other recovery programs and which Anthony later acknowledged was what they needed.

“Without Dannette being so hard on us,” he said, “we would not have gotten our IDs, insurance, and into counseling. Her tough love was the only reason we have made it this far. She kept us in line and gave us the structure to move forward.”

Anthony’s comment illustrates the balance Housing Forward tries to maintain in their attempt to help homeless people transition from living on the street to having their own place. Jeremiah, the couple’s present caseworker, compared the process to learning to ride a bicycle. He said Housing Forward will provide the training wheels you need as you learn how to ride but at some point the training wheels come off and you have to ride on your own.

Kim and Anthony moved into their own apartment in Northlake on Nov. 6, but that’s only halfway “home.” Jeremiah said Housing Forward will take care of their rent for November and December but after that, they will have to start carrying a portion of the load. Housing Forward will require them to begin contributing 30 percent of their gross income from the employment they find, and the nonprofit will assist them in finding jobs, so they can continue on the path toward independence.

Both Jeremiah and the formerly homeless couple acknowledged there have been bumps in the road. Kim and Anthony have made mistakes and have not always been disciplined. Housing Forward has limited resources and has not always been able to give them what they hoped to provide.

On the one hand, Kim and Anthony are excited to finally be off the street and in their own home. They are immensely grateful to Housing Forward, Anthony’s mother, Melanie, and other angels who have helped them get this far. On the other hand, the two of them admit to being scared because they now have increased accountability and more responsibility for paying the bills.

Melanie, reflecting on her experience with Kim and Anthony during the last 16 months, said, “Homelessness is a confusing and difficult trap to get out of. A lot of the responsibility for doing so lies with them, but they can’t do it alone. It takes a village to raise a child. It also takes a village to get homeless people off the street.”

Mindful that the holidays are here, she said, “If I am being used by God to help someone else, what a profound privilege. I am the one who has benefited from knowing them. They have given me the gift of their friendship.”

Editor’s note: Melanie is the wife of freelance reporter Tom Holmes.

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Wednesday Journal, December 2, 2020

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

The Irony of Festivus

Events December 2020

Winter Greens Market Tuesdays through Sundays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., through Dec. 20, Oak Park Conservatory Shop online or in-person for wreaths, garland, swags and other winter accents. An array of balsam, fir, boxwood, winter berries, magnolia tips, spruce tops and more are available for winter containers and decorating. For those needing help putting a container together, drop it off and it will be arranged for you. More/order: pdop. org/events/winter-greens-market. 615 Garfield St., Oak Park.

Letters to Santa Through Dec. 24, Oak Park Conservatory Need to get your wish list to Santa? Print out some stationery, write him a note, then drop it off at the Santa Express mailbox located inside the Conservatory. Printable stationery here: pdop.org/assets/1/7/Letters_to_Santa_ Template.pdf. 615 Garfield St., Oak Park.

Animal Care League (ACL) Holiday Bazaar Shop for holiday items, donate through the giving tree, try your luck on the online raffle and purchase ACL apparel all to support homeless pets. Browse selected bazaar items and enter the raffle online through Saturday, Dec. 5. In-person shopping is Friday, Dec. 4, 3 to 9 p.m. and Saturday, Dec. 5, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wear your mask and be prepared to wait in line. Pickup online bazaar merchandise and winning raffle items Sunday, Dec. 6, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 1003 Garfield St., Oak Park.

Holiday Movies and Music Thursday, Dec. 3, 7 to 8:30 p.m., Zoom with the Oak Park Public Library Journey back over the past century of film with John LeGear as he showcases songs, dances and magical movie scenes from some of “the most warmly embraced holiday films of all time,” with actors such as James Stewart, Donna Reed, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, Denzel Washington, Whitney Houston, Tom Hanks, Natalie Wood, Maureen O’Hara and Cary Grant. Register: oppl. org/calendar

Holiday Magic Wednesdays through Sundays through Dec. 20; Saturday through Thursday, Dec. 26-31, 3 to 9 p.m., Brookfield Zoo Visit “Chicagoland’s largest and longest-running lights festival featuring over a million twinkling LED lights.” The display includes a 600-foot-long tunnel with thousands of colored lights synchronized to music, a 20-foot lit orb ideal for picture-taking, a 41-foot-tall tree and larger-than-life LED animal sculptures. Pose with a life-size cutout of Santa and at other selfie frames.

Letters to Santa can be dropped off in a giant red box on the south mall. Also, participate in a gnome scavenger hunt and enjoy festive foods, such as hot chocolate, spiced wine and cinnamon sugar pretzels while strolling past the 660 decorated trees, many with homemade ornaments. The zoo is not open prior to 3 p.m. on Holiday Magic days. Advance admission and parking tickets are required to ensure social distancing. $17.95$24.95. Tickets: czs.org/tickets. More: czs.org/holidaymagic. 8400 31st St., Brookfield.

Holiday Housewalk for Healthy Kids Anytime Dec. 4 through 30, Virtually with OPRF Infant Welfare Society Children’s Clinic Take video tours of five Oak Park and River Forest homes all dressed up for the holidays. View, one-of-a-kind, how-to holiday project videos showcasing local talent and merchants. And enter the Grand Raffle for a chance to win $10,000. $55, includes one raffle ticket. Tickets/more: https://one.bidpal.net/ holidayhousewalk/welcome

Pro Musica Winter Concert Saturday, Dec. 5, 2 p.m., and after, Virtually with Pro Musica Youth Chorus Hear a livestream debut with the Youth Chorus as students ages 4-18 sing a variety of seasonal songs rehearsed outside this fall before they moved to virtual rehearsals when the weather turned cold. Donations accepted. Access here: ProMusicaYouthChorus.org

Monday, Dec. 7, 7 to 8:15 p.m., Zoom with Brookfield Public Library Become an expert on Festivus, the silly holiday introduced by Seinfeld and celebrated annually on Dec. 23. Learn more about its origins and place in popular culture, Chicago’s included.

Register: brookfield. evanced.info/signup

Mini-DIY Gifts: Mocktail Kit and Tea for Two Tuesday, Dec. 8, 6 to 6:30 p.m., and Monday, Dec. 14, 5:30 to 6 p.m., Facebook Live with Brookfield Public Library Learn how to make thoughtful, budget-friendly presents. On Dec. 8, learn how to put together a travel-size mocktail kit. More: facebook.com/ events/4031344483556938. Up next, on Dec. 14, create a decorated mason jar with tea for two. More: facebook.com/events/1450250728518150.

Recommended for adults and teens.

Hanukkah Crafts and Treats Wednesday, Dec. 9, 7 to 8 p.m., Zoom with the River Forest Public Library Get ready for the holiday by joining in for crafts and baking. Suggested for adults and seniors.

Register: riverforestlibrary.librarymarket.com/ events/hanukkah-crafts-and-treats

Our Melting Pot - Holiday Cookies Thursday, Dec. 10, 7 to 8:30 p.m., Zoom with Riverside Public Library Each month the group shares favorite recipes, asks questions and has a chance to chat. This month, bring your favorite holiday cookie recipes to share.

Register: riversidelibrary.org/calendar.html

Sustainable Gift Workshop Friday, Dec. 11, 4 to 5 p.m., Facebook Live with the Brookfield Public Library Learn some zero-waste gift wrapping hacks and get some ideas for easy, low budget, DIY gifts to make at home. Recommended for teens and young adults. More: facebook.com/events/240979317448143

“It’s a Wonderful Life: A Radio Play” Friday, Dec. 11, and Saturday, Dec. 12, 6 p.m., Livestream with Oak Park and River Forest High School This holiday movie classic is performed by students at OPRF as a live 1940s radio broadcast. See how angel Clarence, who wants to earn his wings, guides George Bailey through the chapters of his life, after he considers ending it one fateful Christmas Eve. Tickets: oprfhs.org/theatre/current-theater-season

Wednesday Journal, December 2, 2020

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

Crafternoons – Make Your Own Holiday Gift ift Tags and Candy Cane Wreaths Saturday, Dec. 12, and Jan. 9, 1:30 to 2:30 p.m., Zoom with the North Riverside Public Library This all-ages craft time is fun and easy. Register in advance to receive craft supplies through curbside pickup. In December, prepare hand-made gift tags.

Register: northriversidelibrary.org/event-new/crafternoon-make-your-ownholiday-gift-tags. In January, create candy cane wreaths. Register: northriversidelibrary.org/event-new/crafternoon-candy-cane-wreaths/

Let’s Be Jolly Holiday Concert Friday, Dec. 11, 7 to 8 p.m. through Jan. 1, Facebook and You Tube with North Riverside Public Library Hear flutist Carlyn Lloyd and pianist Jon Warfel as they play music of the holiday season.

RSVP: northriversidelibrary.org/event-new/lets-be-jolly-holiday-concert/ View concert: https://www.facebook.com/NRPL2400/events

Season’s Greetings LEGO Master Challenge Saturday, Dec. 12, 1 to 2 p.m., Virtually with the Forest Park Public Library Bring your bricks to participate in fast, timed challenges with seasonal themes. There will be prizes awarded for each round. Recommended for youth. More/register: fppl.evanced.info/signup/calendar

FULL TABLE

full heart

Duo Diorama Concert Saturday, Dec. 12, 7 p.m., Vi Virtually with Unity Temple Restoration Foundation Unit Un ty Chamber Cham Ch ambe am be Music Series artistic directors Winston Choi and MingHuan Xu Unity of DDuo u Diorama uo Dioram will perform classical renditions of holiday favorites recorded at Unity Temple. Audience Q&A follows the performance. The performance will be available for viewing for 48 hours after the live event. $20 per household. Tickets/more: utrf.org/event/duo-diorama-holiday

“Christmas Comes but Once a Year” Saturday, Dec. 12, 7 p.m., Livestream with Oak Park Festival Theater Past and present collide in this new holiday comedy. Squabbling academics attempt to unlock a puzzle box containing the script for “Christmas Comes but Once A Year,” penned by Shakespeare’s contemporaries. In a flashback to 1602, those playwrights struggle to complete their holiday story. $15. Tickets/more: OakParkFestival.com

Duo Diorama

Sing We Joyous Saturday, Dec. 12 and after, 7:30 p.m., Virtually In its 15th year, this family-friendly production includes the Oriana Singers, City Voices, Pro Musica Youth Chorus, the OPRF Marching Huskies Drumline, the Sing We Joyous Orchestra and other musicians. The annual sing-along and humorous twist to the “Twelve Days of Christmas” can be expected as well as some new additions like a shadow puppet telling of “The Gift of the Magi.” $25, suggested donation. Tickets: oriana.org

Holiday Taste

OF WHAT’S TO COME Join us for a festive informational lunch

ANY TUESDAY IN DECEMBER

to learn more about River Forest’s newest assisted living and memory care community. Our wait list is growing every day— so don’t miss this opportunity to meet The Sheridan team and get on our list!

RSVP AT 708-469-4739 OR TO SCHEDULE A PERSONAL APPOINTMENT TODAY!

ASSISTED LIVING | MEMORY CARE

Opening Early 2021

17

WELCOME CENTER NOW OPEN | 7230 W. NORTH AVENUE, SUITE 106A | ELMWOOD PARK, IL 60707 SHERIDANRIVERFOREST.COM

18

Wednesday Journal, December 2, 2020

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

Events The Three Baritones Help a child in need by joining in the virtual fun with a chance to win $10,000!!!

Virtual Holiday Housewalk Virtually tour 5 beautiful Oak Park & River Forest homes, festively decorated for the holidays, December 4-30th.

Holiday How-To Videos

Monday, Dec. 14, 1:30 p.m., Virtually with the Nineteenth Century Charitable Association Hear Jess Koehn, Evan Bravos and Antonio Quaranta singing a variety of music from seasonal classics to opera and more, including Chorale #12 from Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Purcell’s “Next Winter Comes Slowly” and Vince Guaraldi’s “Charlie Brown Christmas.” $15, suggested donation for non-members; free, members. Tickets/ more: nineteenthcentury.org

Enjoy one-of-a-kind, holiday how-to videos from local merchants.

Grand Raffle A chance to win $10,000!!!

Drawing on December 30th at 7pm.

www.oprfiws.org/holidayhousewalk

Your $55 donation gives access to: • 5 outstanding Oak Park & River Forest homes, beautifully decorated for the holidays.

320 Lake St • One-of-a Oak Park, IL 60302

kind, holiday how-to videos from local merchants.

• 1 Grand Raffle ticket to potentially win $10,000!!! $100 donation = all access plus 2 chances to win. $225 donation = all access plus 5 chances to win. $500 donation = all access plus 12 chances to win. $725 donation = all access plus 18 chances to win. $1000 donation = all access plus 25 chances to win.

Address Line 1 to help a child in need The more you donate Address Line 2 you have to win! the more chances

Address Line&3to purchase tickets, go to: For more information Address Line 4 www.oprfi ws.org/holidayhousewalk Winner to be announced online Wednesday, December 30 • 7pm Winner will be notified & need not be virtually present to win. See website for raffle rules & details.

Winner to be announced online Wednesday, December 30th at 7pm!

Winner will be notified & need not be virtually present to win. See website for raffle rules & details.

Special Thanks To Virtual Tour Sponsor:

Brown Bag Book Club: “A Noel Killing” Tuesday, Dec. 15, Noon to 1 p.m., Zoom with the Oak Park Public Library In this lunchtime mystery lover’s book group, discuss the “who done it” by M. L. Longworth, in which the magisV trate for the town of Aix-en-Provence does not like Christmas, especially the too early decorations, swarms of tourists, and the tacky trinkets being sold in town. Just as the holiday begins, a man is poisoned, sending the town into a panic. A long list of suspects complicates things, including an unhappy wife and disgruntled business partner.

Available on Hoopla. Register: oppl.org/calendar

It’s Christmastime in the City: Chicago and its Yule Time Traditions and Contributions Thursday, Dec. 17, 7 to 8:30 p.m., Zoom with the River Forest Public Library Join historian/entertainer Clarence Goodman as he highlights Chicago’s holiday traditions from the windows on State Street to the Sears Wish Book. Brought in partnership with River Forest Township. Register: riverforestlibrary.librarymarket.com

Three Baritones

Sounds Good! Choir Concert Friday, Dec. 18 and after, 4 p.m., Virtually Hear songs of the season sung and recorded remotely by a non-audition choral program for ages 55+ under the direction of professional artists in the Chicago area.

Besides holiday favorites, also hear Shalom Chaverim and Calypso Lullaby. Free. More/view the concert: soundsgoodchoir.org.

Stories with Santa Friday, Dec. 18, 6:30 to 7 p.m., Facebook Live with Brookfield Public Library The jolly old elf will read some stories and spread good cheer. Afterwards, there will be a Q&A with Santa.

Ask questions throughout the event via chat on Facebook, or email ahead to youthservices@brookfieldlibrary.info. For event: facebook.com/events/415256446151285

Christmas Music from Latin America Sunday, Dec. 19, 4 to 5 p.m., Zoom with the Oak Park Public Library Take a musical journey to Latin America as singer Miguel de León and his five-piece band play some of “the most famous and beautiful” villancicos (Christmas songs) that are sung during the holiday season. Register: oppl.org/ calendar

Wednesday Journal, December 2, 2020

NEED TO REACH US?

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

19

Homes

Holiday housewalk still on – virtually – for 2020 Infant Welfare Society kicks off the season online

By LACEY SIKORA

L

Contributing Reporter

ike most things this year, the Infant Welfare Society’s Holiday Housewalk is going to look a little different.

This year, groups of friends won’t be gathering at the Nineteenth Century Club for a specialty cocktail and shopping at the Holiday Market. People won’t be lining up to see the inside of beautiful local homes decorated for the holidays and crowding into rooms to hear volunteer docents share tidbits about holiday ornaments and traditions.

When COVID-19 became a big concern in March right in the midst of the planning process for the 2020 walk, IWS members knew they owed it to the many families relying on the services of the Children’s Clinic to continue their fundraising efforts.

The IWS turned the in-person walk into an online walk with some added bonuses that promise to make the 22nd annual Holiday Housewalk a success.

Virtual Holiday Housewalk Advisor Sarina Butler says that there was never any doubt that the show had to go on.

“We have budgetary obligations. The Clinic depends on us,” Butler said. “We knew if we couldn’t do the actual housewalk, we had

to replace that money in the budget.”

The Children’s Clinic relies on the fundraiser to help serve a population of uninsured and under-insured young patients, from infants up to 18 years old. Last year, the clinic provided healthcare to 3,426 patients through 9,409 visits to the clinic for medical, behavioral and dental care.

IWS Executive Director Peggy LaFleur says that while the area’s neediest children have always relied on the clinic for health care, this year the need is even greater. Due to the pandemic, the demand for services has grown as families face job losses accompanied by losses of health insurance.

The clinic’s expenses have also risen with increased spending on PPE and other protective measures. She stresses that is more important than ever to make sure children continue to receive health care and vaccinations through regular appointments.

“It’s important to follow stay-at-home guidelines but to still get regular medical care,” LaFleur said.

She says she is heartened by how dedicated the members of the IWS are in making sure that the clinic remains open and available to the most vulnerable. Butler notes that this year’s IWS volunteers were creative in coming up with new ways of reaching their audience.

Chief among those methods is a Holiday Housewalk Grand Raffle. With each purSee HOUSEWALK on page 21

REMOTE CELEBRATION: Infant Welfare Society has turned the in-person housewalk into a virtual housewalk, with some added bonuses thrown in for good measure.

Courtesy Infant Welfare Society

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Wednesday Journal, December 2, 2020

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

NOTICE OF PROPOSED PROPERTY TAX INCREASE FOR OAK PARK SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 97, COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS I.

SINGLE FAMILY HOMES

Sunday, December 6 ADDRESS

OFFICE

LISTING PRICE

3505 Grove Ave, Berwyn . . . . . Baird & Warner Oak Park/River Forest. . . . . . . . . . . . . $238,999 TIME 1-3 3431 Clinton Ave, Berwyn . . . . . Baird & Warner Oak Park/River Forest. . . . . . . . . . . . . $329,000 TIME 1-3 835 N. Cuyler Ave, Oak Park . . Baird & Warner Oak Park/River Forest. . . . . . . . . . . . . $429,000 TIME 1-3 217 N. Taylor Ave, Oak Park . . . Gagliardo Realty Associates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$599,000 TIME 12-2 1215 N. Grove Ave, Oak Park. . . Baird & Warner Oak Park/River Forest. . . . . . . . . . . . . $639,000 TIME 1-3 1147 Jackson Ave, River Forest.......Gagliardo Realty Associates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $787,000 TIME 1-3 940 Bonnie Brae Pl, River Forest......Baird & Warner Oak Park/River Forest . . . . . . . $1,139,000 TIME 1-3

A public hearing to approve a proposed property tax levy for Oak Park School District No. 97, Cook County, Illinois for 2020 will be held on December 15, 2020 at 7:00 p.m. at the Board of Education Meeting Room, 260 W. Madison Street, Oak Park, Illinois 60302.

Any person desiring to appear at the public hearing and present testimony to the taxing district may contact Patrick King, Senior Director of Finance, 260 W. Madison Street, Oak Park, Illinois at (708) 524-3133.

II. The corporate and special purpose property taxes extended or abated for the year 2019 were $80,551,479.

The proposed corporate and special purpose property taxes to be levied for 2020 are $82,402,000. This represents a 2.3% increase over the previous year’s extension.

III. The property taxes extended for debt service for 2019 were $4,342,195.

CONDOS

The estimated property taxes to be levied for debt service for 2020 are $5,546,746.

ADDRESS

OFFICE

LISTING PRICE

210 S. Lombard Ave. UNIT B, Oak Park.......Baird & Warner Oak Park/River Forest......$224,000 TIME 1-3 641 S. Maple Ave. UNIT C, Oak Park.......Baird & Warner Oak Park/River Forest............$339,900 TIME 12:30-2

IV. The total property taxes extended or abated for 2019 were $84,893,674.

The estimated total property taxes to be levied for 2020 are $87,948,746.

This represents a 3.6% increase over the previous year’s total levy.

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Wednesday Journal, December 2, 2020

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21

How to attend Tickets for this year’s Infant Welfare Society Holiday Housewalk and Grand Raffle can be purchased at childrenscliniciws.org/holiday-housewalk-and-market.

Individual tickets cost $55, and raffle ticket packages are also available for purchase.

The tickets will allow access to the Vir-

tual Holiday Housewalk as well as the how-to videos from Dec. 4 through Dec. 30.

The winner of the $10,000 raffle will be announced on Dec. 30, when local mayors from Forest Park, Oak Park and River Forest pull the winning ticket in an online event broadcast from Forest Park’s Urban Pioneer Group.

HOUSEWALK

Holiday cheer remotely from page 21 chase of a ticket for the virtual walk, participants are entered into a raffle for $10,000.

Butler says the IWS hopes to sell roughly 3,000 tickets to the events, so odds are fairly favorable that a purchase could be a winner.

Ticket purchasers will also be privy to five how-to videos created by local talents.

Mary DiSomma, local author of “The Gift of Cookies,” will whip up three different recipes of her famous sweets. Julie McKune of Julie McKune Yoga will help melt away holiday stress with a yoga session, and Marilyn Alioto Blum of Alioto’s and Peter Kingston of Tulipia Floral Designs will help you set a festive holiday table.

Chris Geoghegan of Moss Modern Flowers will offer instructions on how you can create your very own door swag, and everyone’s favorite, Chef Paco of New Rebozo, will help you mix the perfect holiday margarita.

Of course, the stars of the virtual walk are the holiday homes, and the walk will feature videos of five amazing local homes, several of them landmarks, decked out for the holidays.

Darius Povilaitis says that virtual visitors to his Patton and Fischer-designed Oak Park home will learn about his family’s Lithuanian Christmas traditions while feasting their eyes on the family tree and architectural elements like an English conservatory.

Deborah Cogan says her family’s Oak Park home will emphasize meaningful family traditions as she sets the table with her mother-in-law’s gifted china and crystal passed on from her great aunt and uncle.

A River Forest home will prove that there’s “No Place Like Home for the Holidays” with a décor that emphasizes French influences, and another Oak Park home offers a bit of “Southern Sparkle” with southern traditions incorporated throughout. The Cheney Mansion rounds out the group, with a theme “Holiday Treasure.”

IWS Auxiliary Chair Kim Fields says while it might be challenging to pull off a big fundraiser during the uncertainty of a pandemic, that’s all the more reason for people to participate this year.

Courtesy Infant Welfare Society

SHINING STARS: The stars of the virtual walk are the holiday homes, each of which can be toured via videos produced specifically for this year’s housewalk.

“These things will come, but it’s how we respond to the challenges that means more -- how we build these bridges as a community,” Fields said.

For Fields, it’s the meaning behind the event that will make it successful. No matter the format, she says that the Holiday Housewalk is a great way for the IWS to give back to local residents with some holiday cheer

while also fundraising for the Children’s Clinic.

She notes that not only is it a fun event, but it lets the larger community see the good work done at the clinic to help children in need.

“It’s so endearing to the hearts of the community, and so important that we support this cause together as a community,” Fields said.

22

Wednesday Journal, December 2, 2020

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

We are OPEN Christmas Eve!

JUST LISTED

RibFest Every Day! Mickey’s is the place!

Mickey’s Rib Special

B.B.Q. RIBS & CHICKEN BURGERS & HOT DOGS

UNDER CONTRACT

3 Vienna Hot Dogs w/ Fries $ .49

8

7310 HOLLY, RIVER FOREST

1119 OAK PARK, OAK PARK

$849,000 :: 6 BED :: 5.5+ BATH Close to train.

$723,500 :: 4 BED :: 2.5 BATH

$11.99

Full Slab Dinner

$17.99

includes fries or baked potato, coleslaw and garlic bread

525 N Harlem Ave, Oak Park (708) 848-3333 11am - 9pm Daily

1522 FOREST, RIVER FOREST $895,000 :: 4 BED :: 4.5 BATH Brick Tudor with expansive yard.

UNDER CONTRACT

1/2 Slab Dinner

Italian Beef Sandwich w/ Fries $ .49

8

Wednesday

Gyros Plate Dinner

Designer kitchen. Awesome yard.

1 lb meat, 2 pita breads, fries & 3 cups sauce $10.99

KATHY & TONY IWERSEN

Every day Special!

708.772.8040 708.772.8041 tonyiwersen@atproperties.com

Gyros with fries $7.99

1/4 Lb Double Cheeseburger

Big Mickey! $ .99

2

A community digital gift card that can be used throughout our community*. t

Great gifts for teachers, tutors, holiday gifts and more!

The transactions fees at launch have been generously SPONSORED BY:

Purchase at oprfchamber.org *at participating merchants. or service providers.

Wednesday Journal, December 2, 2020

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

23

Generations of Excellence since 1958

708.771.8040 • 7375 W. North Ave., River Forest Alisa Coghill DonnaAvenue Barnhisel 7375 West North Kay Costello Anne Brennan MANAGING Karen Byrne River Forest, Illinois 60305 Maria Cullerton BROKER/OWNERS Julie Downey Kevin Calkins Kurt Fielder Tom Carraher 708.771.8040 Andy Gagliardo

Tom Poulos

Pat Cesario Joe Cibula Don Citrano

Ramona Fox Laura Gancer Lisa Grimes

Dan Halperin Sharon Halperin Greg Jaroszewski Vee Jaroszewski Noa Klima Jack Lattner Iris McCormick Vince McFadden

Elizabeth Moroney Colleen Navigato John Pappas Rosa Pitassi Sue Ponzio-Pappas Jenny Ruland Laurel Saltzman Laurie Shapiro

Tom Sullivan Debbie Watts George Wohlford Nancy Wohlford

Randy Ernst • 773-290-0307

547 LINDEN • OAK PARK

217 N TAYLOR • OAK PARK OPEN SUNDAY 122

1147 JACKSON • RIVER FOREST OPEN SUNDAY 13

1403 FRANKLIN • RIVER FOREST

COLONIAL REVIVAL STYLE with Tudor Revival influences built in 1909. This stunning six-bedroom home displays sophistication and tasteful elegant décor. It offers wonderful space for family and entertaining with beautiful views of the spectacular oversized corner lot. ......................................................................... $1,395,000

RARELY AVAILABLE, “Cavalcade of Pride” award-winning home on 50 x 170 ft lot. Includes high ceilings, oak staircase, marble fireplace, separate formal dining area, spacious den/family room with stained glass and built-in bookcases, eat-in kitchen, and a large full basement with storage....................................... $599,000

GRAND SPRAWLING HOME with an abundance of interior and exterior living areas. 5 BRs, upstairs laundry, 3 full & 1 half BAs, 3 fireplaces, full basement with recreation room. Grand two story family room incorporated into an open plan kitchen. Hardwood floors throughout main level. ............................................ $787,000

STUNNING FRENCH NORMANDY house that has been remodeled and refinished from top to bottom. New wiring, plumbing, hvac, all floors, generator, roof work, and more. Just drop in your furniture and enjoy, from the fantastic front entrance all the way to the basement. .............................................................. $1,349,000

221 KEYSTONE • RIVER FOREST

520 N OAK PARK AVE • OAK PARK

301 S EUCLID • OAK PARK

1135 FOREST • RIVER FOREST

BEAUTIFUL, CLASSIC HOME offers everything for today’s modern living. Custom-built home has the highest quality finishes. No detail was missed. Brick and stone exterior, wrap-around porch, eleven-foot ceilings and oversized windows. LL has 2,000 feet of living area. ........................................................................$1,295,000

THREE STORY GRAND VICTORIAN on 100 x 218 lot in the heart of the Frank Lloyd Wright district. This estate features 6 Bedrooms, 2 Full baths, 3 fireplaces, many historic details including double front entry doors sourced from the Historic Pullman Estates section of Chicago. ...................................................................$650,000

ARCHITECTURAL INTEGRITY of this 4 BR, 3BA farmhouse has been preserved whenever updates were completed. Double door entry, antique light fixture, hardwood flooring, art glass windows, natural trim work and high ceilings are found throughout this home. ................................................................................... $599,000

ELEGANT CRAFTSMANSHIP can be found throughout this 5 BR French Normandy home. Sophistication is evident from the moment you walk in the door. Impressive foyer, formal LR with fireplace and built-in benches, family room, separate formal DR, updated kitchen, home office. ...........................................$999,000

1416 JACKSON • RIVER FOREST

1427 THATCHER • RIVER FOREST

922 N HARLEM • RIVER FOREST

26 GALE • RIVER FOREST

STATELY HOME located on a picturesque River Forest block! This 5 bedroom, 3 full/2 half bath home includes four floors of living with two finished family rooms, a large study and three fireplaces.

Large sun-drenched rooms with elegant cove molding and windows. In-ground outdoor pool. ......................................... $819,000

SPLITLEVEL HOME offers a newly refreshed contemporary style and wonderful space. Home offers three bedrooms, three brand new bathrooms, beautiful front entryway, vaulted ceiling family room, sunroom, game room, deck, spectacular backyard, attached two-car garage ................................................... $599,000

CENTER ENTRANCE COLONIAL offers wonderful space! Deep lot, large deck, and original details throughout the home. Features include large living room, sunny sitting room, hardwood floors, updated kitchen, family room, full finished basement, and a twocar garage. ...........................................................................$425,000

GREAT BLOCK! GREAT NEIGHBORHOOD! This 3 BR brick Cape Cod has charming vintage detail. Sun-filled living room with fireplace that opens to the dining room, mudroom, semi-finished basement with fireplace, laundry room, fenced-in yard with deck, and outdoor shed for extra storage. ..................................$399,000

CONDOS/TOWNHOMES/2 FLATS

OAK PARK Two Flat ...................................................................$699,000 OAK PARK Two Flat ...................................................................$550,000 OAK PARK 3BR, 2 full/1 half BA. Vintage beauty..................$285,000

OAK PARK 2BR, 2BA. Courtyard view......................................$249,900 OAK PARK 1BR, 1BA. Vintage building......................................$99,000 OAK PARK 1BR, 1BA. No stairs!...................................................$96,500

MELROSE PARK 3BR, 1-1/2 BA. Updated duplex .......... $239,000

RIVER FOREST 2BR, 2BA. Completely updated. .................$264,000 RIVER FOREST 1BR, 1BA. Move-in ready! ............................$169,000

Shop for homes online at GagliardoRealty.com

CHICAGO 2BR, 2BA. Chic, move-in ready! ....................... $499,950 CHICAGO 2BR, 2BA. Secure gated lot. ............................. $209,900

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Wednesday Journal, December 2, 2020

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

WE’RE BY YOUR SIDE 940 Bonnie Brae Pl River Forest | $1,139,000 Ed Bellock

947 Wenonah Ave Oak Park | $799,000 Swati Saxena

154 N Euclid Ave Oak Park | $648,900 Maya Puentes

1215 N Grove Ave Oak Park | $639,000 Keller Group Chicago

111 Home Ave, Unit 3 Oak Park | $569,000 Hughes Home Team

435 William St, Unit 208 River Forest | $540,000 Ed Bellock

527 S Ridgeland Ave Oak Park | $490,000 Peggy Letchos

1207 Rossell Ave Oak Park | $439,000 Catherine Simon-Vobornik

835 N Cuyler Ave Oak Park | $429,000 Ann Keeney

1030 Alexander Ln Oak Park | $400,000 Swati Saxena

328 N Cuyler Ave Oak Park | $399,000 Carla Taylor

1014 Hayes Ave Oak Park | $379,000 Bobbi Eastman

641 S Maple Ave, Unit C Oak Park | $339,900 Patricia McGowan

3431 Clinton Ave Berwyn | $329,000 Sandra Dita Lopez

512 S Cuyler Ave Oak Park | $325,000 Bobbi Eastman

7531 Brown Ave, Unit H Forest Park | $295,000 Liz O’Connell

324 N Marion St, Unit 2N Oak Park | $288,900 Sheila Price

15000 El Vista Ave Oak Forest | $249,900 Margarita Lopez

3505 Grove Ave Berwyn | $238,999 Sandra Dita Lopez

204 N Kenilworth Ave, # 1N Oak Park | $195,000 Catherine Simon-Vobornik

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

Wednesday Journal, December 2, 2020

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

The Joyful Giving Catalog

25

Everything you need for a better world: • More Art

• More Food

• More Compassion

• More Health

• More Education

• More Housing

• More Equity

• More Peace

Browse, read, share with your children. Give Locally – Give Joyfully!

Each of the organizations listed in this catalog paid a fee to participate. If you run a nonprofit and you would like to be listed here, or if you would like to sponsor a nonprofit to be listed here, please contact Lourdes Nicholls (Lourdes@oakpark.com) or Marc Stopeck (Marc@oakpark.com).

Animal Care League Animal Care League offers a safe haven for pets in need. Rooted in the community since 1973, Animal Care League takes a proactive approach to animal care and adoption as well as preventative measures to help reduce the number of homeless animals in our communities.

With over 1000 pets coming to our doors each year, Animal Care League counts on supporters to ensure that we can provide what is needed from routine vaccinations to life saving surgery.

Make a difference in the life of a homeless animal by visiting animalcareleague. org where you can sign up to volunteer, make a donation, view our adoptable pets, and learn about upcoming events.

Beyond Hunger When the pandemic hit, we revamped our service model to keep everybody safe. Instead of inviting people to shop inside our food pantry, we now prepack boxes with nearly 80 pounds of groceries and pop them into car trunks or shopping carts for participants. We’ve added more home delivery recipients knowing that elderly and disabled individuals are more at risk for COVID-19. The contents of each box is tailored to meet the needs of our community.

Along with food, we include toilet paper, toothpaste, and reusable washable masks.

With your support, we can make sure no one in our community goes hungry this winter.

Even a little goes a long way: every $1 donated can feed a neighbor for an entire day.

To donate, visit GoBeyondHunger.org or send checks payable to Beyond Hunger, 848 Lake Street, Oak Park, IL 60301

BUILD Since 1969, BUILD has helped Chicago’s most vulnerable youth escape gangs and violence to become positive leaders in their communities. These young people face enormous obstacles and trauma, and so we surround them with the counseling, mentoring, training, and opportunities they need to build a future and succeed. We engage youth at every stage, with specialized teams dedicated to street violence interventions, gang detachments, creative after-school programming, academic school and college support, mental health care, community violence crisis response, and enrichment activities ranging from art and music to sports, podcasting, engineering and gardening. Potential doesn’t discriminate, neither should opportunity.

Join us in BUILDing a better future. Visit and donate at buildchicago.org/

Cluster Tutoring

Cluster Tutoring is a nonprofit, community-based organization that provides free one-to-one tutoring to students in grades K through 12 from Chicago’s Austin neighborhood. Tutor-student pairs work together during the school year on reading, math, and other homework to prepare the student for a successful academic career. When Cluster started nearly 30 years ago, fewer than half of Chicago Public Schools graduated from high school. Now, all of Cluster’s seniors not only graduate but are accepted at colleges and other post-graduation programs. Donations go toward materials that help students learn.

To learn more or to donate, visit clustertutoring.org.

The Collaboration for Early Childhood

Celebrating Seniors Coalition Since our inception a decade ago, the Celebrating Seniors Coalition has been passionate about dispelling outdated and inaccurate myths about what it is to be a senior in our society.

At the same time, the Coalition has raised funds to help meet the basic needs of daily living for dozens of elders in our community.

As we get to the “other side” of the pandemic and embark on our second decade, join us in Celebrating Seniors—those people 60 and over in Oak Park, River Forest and Forest Park.

Learn how you can join honor and support these esteemed elders at our updated website: www.CelebratingSeniors.net.

Concordia University Chicago Concordia University Chicago is a liberal arts, Christ-centered, Lutheran university where truth, freedom, and vocation form students for lives of influence and service for the common good. Founded in 1864, the University is located on 40 acres in River Forest, Illinois. Historically a college for teachers, it now offers more than 100 areas of study through traditional, blended or online classes. Students can earn a bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degrees through one of four colleges: the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Business, the College of Education and the College of Graduate Studies. Professors are passionate about teaching, learning and preparing students for success in their chosen vocations. Beyond academics, Concordia offers NCAA Division III athletic teams, intramural sports, touring music ensembles and numerous student clubs and organizations focused on service, recreation, spiritual life and more. Currently, more than 6,400 students are enrolled.

To learn more, please visit CUChicago.edu or CUChicago.edu/GiveNow to support our students.

Support young children this giving season. For over 15 years, the Collaboration for Early Childhood has embraced the vision that all children should arrive at kindergarten safe, healthy, and ready to thrive. This year we sharpened our equity focus and responded to the needs of our community members affected by the health pandemic and national events of racist violence. We launched Ready, Set, Kindergarten! a virtual support system for 30 families whose children transitioned to kindergarten in the midst of COVID-19. We distributed 175 ‘Activity Kits’ to families of children with disabilities to enhance their at-home learning. We supplied 62 families in need with essential items, and the work continues.

For more information, or to make a donation, please visit us at www.collab4kids. org or follow us on Facebook.

The Day Nursery

Since 1912, The Day Nursery has provided exceptional early childhood education in an environment that welcomes all children, enhances individual strengths, and fosters the academic, social-emotional, and physical development that leads to school readiness.

You can help lay the foundation today for successful adults tomorrow.

To learn more about us and to donate, visit www.thedaynursery.org 1139 Randolph St, Oak Park, IL 60302 708.383.8211 - Fax: 708.383.0692 Email: info@thedaynursery.org - www.thedaynursery.org A United Way Community Partner/NAEYC Accredited

26

Wednesday Journal, December 2, 2020

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

The Joyful Giving Catalog The Friends of the Oak Park Conservatory The Oak Park Conservatory began as a community effort to house exotic plants residents collected during their travels abroad. Completed in 1929, it is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Free to the public with 50,000 visitors annually, the Conservatory offers a rich atmosphere throughout three indoor showrooms featuring more than 3,000 plants.

The Friends of the Oak Park Conservatory offers programs focused on enriching the visitor experience at the Conservatory. Toddlers through adults can participate in year-round educational and recreational programs, volunteer opportunities and special events. To learn more or to join, visit fopcon.org.

Growing Community Media Growing Community Media is dedicated to building community through independent, non-partisan local journalism. We believe that high quality community journalism preserves and strengthens the fabric of our democracy.

Independent community journalism holds local governments to account. It connects neighbors. It is the credible source when social media goes haywire, and it allows a community to debate and celebrate. Through Austin Weekly News, Wednesday Journal, Forest Park Review and Riverside-Brookfield Landmark, Growing Community Media reports local news and tells compelling local stories across many platforms. Our mission calls us to build fact-based accountability and connection, conversation and civility, diversity and a sense of belonging.

Join our mission by donating at growingcommunitymedia.org or contacting dhaley@wjinc.com

Hephzibah Children’s Association Hephzibah is making a difference in the lives of vulnerable children and struggling families.

Oak Park’s oldest social service agency, Hephzibah is the only program in Illinois designated to care for the most severe cases of abuse and neglect of young children ages 3-11. Hephzibah Home provides comprehensive, therapeutic care for traumatized young children. Our Family Based Program supports more than 100 foster care children and stabilizes 150 families in crisis. Our Day Care

Program delivers quality, affordable day care and summer camp programming for elementary school children in Oak Park.

Make a difference with us at hephzibahhome. org.

Historical Society Forest Park The Historical Society Forest Park was founded in 1975 for the purposes of “collecting and preserving the rich heritage of Forest Park.” The historical society offers tours of Haymarket Martyr’s Monument in Forest Home Cemetery every Saturday in the summer, collect oral histories of Forest Park Veterans of Military service, hosts several historical events a year and celebrates Forest Park.

For more information about the Society, its events and programs, or to donate visit forestparkhistory.org or mail us: Historical Society of Forest Park, PO Box 311, Forest Park IL 60130

Historical Society of Oak Park and River Forest We are the community’s story tellers and our new facility is an 1898 Oak Park Landmark at Lake and Lombard called Oak Park River Forest Museum, selected

by Illinois Association of Museums as Small Museum of the Year. We invested $1 million in private funds to create a welcoming space in a former firehouse. Come and check out featured exhibit “Open House: The Legacy of Fair Housing,” before it closes in 2021. We are not supported by tax dollars and a gift of any amount funds our 2021 schedule of programs, our research center, and our knowledgeable staff.

Learn more and donate at oprfmuseum.org or 708-848-6755

Housing Forward Housing Forward is passionately focused on one vision – ending homelessness. We believe in bold, comprehensive approaches to prevent homelessness whenever possible, respond to housing crises, and stabilize individuals and families through permanent housing. With offices in Maywood and Oak Park, we offer wraparound services including case management, housing, outreach, employment, and emergency assistance. Last year, we served over 2,000 adults and families across 20+ communities. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, our emergency shelter and supportive services programs consolidated into a 24/7 Interim Housing model for clients

Jessica

The Benefit of an Internship

O

n the doorstep of celebrating its centennial year in 2021, the Oak Park Art League (OPAL)

has

re-established its intern program for young adults. Jessica Figueroa is in her final year of studies at Concordia University Chicago in River Forest. She will graduate in May of 2021, with a B.A. in Graphic Arts. Many young adults will tell you that practical knowledge and experience required to succeed in today’s service based economy amid a pandemic can be hard to come by. OPAL was able to offer Jessica an internship that would help her to gain those practical skills and additional knowledge so that she could be better prepared to enter the workforce upon graduation.

Jessica was accepted as a graphic design intern at OPAL in late August of 2020. While many of her responsibilities were directly related to her degree, there have been just as many that are directly related to business ownership and management.

Aside from designing OPAL branded program content, she has worked in customer service, member communications, gallery installation,

archive management, video content creation and catalog documentation.

“I have always wanted to own my own business and open an art gallery of my own,” says Jessica. “I have really been able to test those waters during this internship and experience a bit of what it takes to run a small business. I have had the opportunity to work outside of my comfort zone and build the confidence to try something new and challenging.” OPAL’s intern program works to create hands-on learning opportunities for young adults to gain valuable experience in a nonprofit visual arts organization to make them stronger job candidates upon graduation.

For more information about membership, internships volunteering or to make a donation to the Oak Park Art League please contact Executive Director, Jill Kramer Goldstein at 708-386-9853 or director@ oakparkartleague.org Oak Park Art League 720 Chicago Ave. Oak Park, IL 60302 386-9853 director@oakparkartleague.org

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

Wednesday Journal, December 2, 2020

Creating a Legacy of Giving

No other organization puts your money to work in our community like the Oak Park-River Forest Community Foundation. For 60 years we’ve connected individuals’ and families’ philanthropic aspirations with local organizations and initiatives, enhancing donor investments and changing lives for the better.

With the networks we’ve nurtured, we make your giving go further. We have the knowledge and expertise to turn your financial gift into a lasting legacy – starting today and for years to come.

To learn more about the Foundation and explore how we can help establish a charitable fund tailored to your unique interests, giving level and personal timeline, visit oprfcf.org or call 708.848.1560.

OA K PAR K-R I V ER F OR E ST

Community Foundation

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The Joyful Giving Catalog on a path to permanent housing—including medical respite. This site joins Sojourner House and Ohana House in assisting individuals and families, plus two new housing programs focused on youth and veterans.

To learn more, volunteer, or donate, visit housingforward.org, email giving@ housingforward.org or call 708.338.1724 ext.

262.

IWS Children’s Clinic Help us champion childhood health! The OPRF Infant Welfare Society and our Children’s Clinic have continuously been there for at-risk children and families since the start of the pandemic. We serve the dynamic whole health needs of children: sick visits, critical vaccines at well child check-ups, integrated behavioral health services, and preventive and restorative dental care, including for children with special needs.

Together, we are ensuring the health and well-being of children in our community, including Oak Park, Chicago’s West side, Berwyn, Cicero and beyond.

IWS Children’s Clinic serves 3,400 children each year, and your generosity is key as our costs of providing care have increased substantially due to COVID-19. A gift of $50 pays for two essential vaccines. A gift of $150 provides specialized dental services.

Maywood Youth Mentoring Program Organized in 1993 as a 501c3, the Maywood Youth Mentoring Program has served hundreds of middle to high-school youth providing a variety of programs, workshops, field trips, and experiences designed to increase academic potential and instill cultural pride. Since 2008, the program has hosted free monthly youth breakfasts with topics ranging from anger management/and conflict resolution, etiquette, police/community interactions, sexual health, drug and alcohol avoidance, and academic excellence. Youths practice critical thinking skills to encourage positive life choices. Volunteer mentors interact with youth providing positive role models for college and career choices. Funds are needed to continuously provide free services and incentives for participation.

To volunteer, or to donate, visit us at maywoodyouthmentoring.org, or contact Barbara Cole, founder/CEO at 708-344-3577.

New Moms

Champion Childhood Health – Give Today! www.oprfiws.org/donate or 708-4068661.

L’Arche Chicago L’Arche Chicago provides high quality care in community-integrated homes for adults with intellectual disabilities in the OPRF area. Our mission is lived through daily life shared in mutuality: afternoon walks to the park, doctor’s appointments, and dinner parties. Moreover, L’Arche is committed to life together in a way that welcomes difference. As our society seems increasingly fearful of difference, L’Arche offers a counter story: that the differences so often keeping people apart can become the substance of joyful and transformative relationships.

New Moms believes in the strength, skills, and potential of all families and communities to achieve audacious possibilities for their futures.

At New Moms, young moms take powerful first steps towards economic mobility and family well-being. Our 2-Generation Approach puts families experiencing poverty in control of their goals and unleashes their potential. We partner with families to construct the foundations of well-being by strengthening core life skills, incorporating early childhood development supports, building pathways to and preparation for education and employment, and expanding positive social networks and access to community resources.

Learn more and donate at newmoms.org.

The Nineteenth Century Charitable Association

been connecting with our community with weekly Monday Enrichment Zoom programs.

We are also providing community outreach to food pantries, shelters and first responders. We need your help keeping our ‘doors’ open.

If you would like information about donating, please contact us at 708-386-2729 x 3 or epayton@nineteenthcentury.org. You can also make a donation at nineteenthcentury.org.

Oak Park Art League Celebrating its centennial in 2021, the Oak Park Art League (OPAL) is one of the longest, continually running non-profit arts organizations in Illinois. OPAL is a vibrant cultural center where the invitation and challenge to use art as a medium for personal and community growth is made available to people of all ages. Since 1921, OPAL has brought arts education, appreciation, exhibitions, and the spirit of artistic inquiry to the surrounding community. OPAL is committed to meaningful community outreach to the population that makes up our greater community through partnerships and on-site art and programming with local social service agencies through our “Family stARTs” program.

For more information about membership, volunteering, or to make a donation, please contact Executive Director, Jill Kramer Goldstein at 708-386-9853 or director@ oakparkartleague.org. The Oak Park Art League is located at 720 Chicago Ave., Oak Park, IL 60302.

Oak Park Regional Housing Center For more than four decades, the Oak Park Regional Housing Center (OPRHC) has been an advocate for fair housing. Our mission is to achieve vibrant communities and promote intentional and stable residential integration throughout Oak Park. The OPRHC is the only non-profit in Oak Park and the Greater Westside Region that encourages pro-integrative housing options.

Our work is at the heart of why Oak Park is such a wonderful, diverse, and vibrant community, welcoming to everyone.

Support our work with a donation at oprhc. org/donate. To learn more about the OPRHC call 708.848.7150, inforequest@ liveinoakpark.com, 1041 South Blvd, Oak Park, IL 60302.

Make a needed local impact through our people and mission at www.larchechicago. org/opendoors

The Nineteenth Century Charitable Association strengthens our community through learning, giving, and sharing our landmark building through space grants to local non-profits (80% of its usage is non-profit). During COVID-19 our building has been largely closed, but we have

Oak Park-River Forest Community Foundation The Oak Park-River Forest Community Foundation is based on a powerful promise: to create an enduring institution where people can come together and pool their resources to meet our community’s most pressing needs — not just now, but forever. For sixty years, generations of thoughtful and caring donors and residents have empowered the Foundation’s work to safeguard and advance the community in which we live, raise our families and work.

From helping donors with legacy gift planning, to managing donor advised funds, to strengthening local non-profits, we connect. Visit oprfcf.org or call Rhea Yap at 708-848-1560 to start a fund, discuss your charitable estate plans, or make a donation today.

Oak Park and River Forest High School Alumni Association Through its Bobbie Raymond Summer Enrichment grant program, the Oak Park and River Forest High School Alumni Association helps current OPRFHS students experience life-changing experiential learning opportunities that advance their interests and knowledge in preparation for higher education and future career goals. All freshman through juniors are eligible to apply for awards, though students from under-resourced families receive greater consideration. For more than 20 years, students have traveled to destinations throughout the U.S. and the world, taking part in cultural exchanges, camps, and enrichment opportunities. The future outlook of these life-changing opportunities, and their accessibility for students most in need depends on your support today.

Donate at https://tinyurl.com/oprfalumnidonate

OPRF High School Scholarship Foundation In May 2020, the Oak Park and River Forest High School Scholarship Foundation granted $140,000 in scholarships to 63 graduating seniors. Since 1924, the Scholarship Foundation has been an important and growing partner in the community, providing much-needed financial assistance to OPRFHS students as college tuition and expenses continue to

Wednesday Journal, December 2, 2020

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

Charitable Giving Under the CARES ACT (2020)

O

n March 27, 2020, the CARES ACT (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security) was enacted. The Act included provisions to encourage immediate action by donors to Section 501(c)(3) charitable organizations. These provisions are for 2020 tax year only.

For donors who no longer itemize their deductions (for example, retirees who have moved into a senior living facility and no longer have a mortgage), they can now receive a $300 “above the line” deduction for donations in addition to their standard deduction.

For taxpayers able to make a more significant cash gift or gifts in total, the limit on gifts to charities has been raised in 2020 from 60% of adjusted gross income to 100% of adjusted gross income. These gifts must go to operating charitable organizations and not organizations designed to facilitate deferred giving (donor advisor funds, private foundations and supporting organizations). The point is for these gifts to have an immediate impact. The gifts can go to any charity and is not limited to the fight against COVID-19.

For traditional C Corporations (like Ford Motor, Target, Costco) the limit on contributions has been raised from 10% of net taxable income to 25%, to

encourage more impactful giving by companies. And business deduction limits for contributions of food inventory has been increased from 15% to 25% of a business’s taxable income.

There are additional ways to enhance your donations, including raising adjusted gross income by doing a conversion from a regular IRA to Roth IRA. There are also limitations on donations of appreciated property. As always, we recommend that you consult your tax advisor before making a major donation.

Many people have really stepped it up during this challenging year and have given very generously. But there are still many local organizations that are still trying to make up for lost program and event revenue. PPP loan benefits only lasted for the summer so many challenges remain. It is not too late to make donations that will help a local organization and have a positive impact on your 2020 taxes.

This information is brought to you

by Jeff Schroeder, a Partner at Sassetti LLC, in partnership with Oak Park-River Forest Community Foundation.

Jeff Schroeder brings over 30 years of audit and tax experience to the firm.

Prior to joining our firm over twenty years ago, he worked on the audit staff of an international accounting firm. Today, Jeff’s clients include not-for-profit organizations, individuals, and privately held businesses. Learn more at www. sassetti.com For over sixty years, generations of thoughtful and caring donors and residents have empowered the Oak Park-River Forest Community Foundation’s work to safeguard and advance the community in which we live, raise our families and work. Learn how the Community Foundation assists donors plan their giving at www.oprfcf.org/ library

Jeff Schroeder, CPA, Partner Sassetti LLC Oak Park / Naperville P: (708) 386-1433 | www.sassetti.com

increase.

Please visit our website at www.scholarships4oprfhs.org. and make a gift to our General Fund to help increase the number and amount of scholarships we offer or to the College Knowledge Project (CKP) Scholars Fund that supports our CKP alumni, many of whom are first generation college students.

We hope you will join us by investing in the future of OPRFHS students today and make a tax-deductible donation. Contact scholarshipsoprfhs@ gmail.com to learn more.

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The Joyful Giving Catalog

Oak Park Mutual Aid Oak Park Mutual Aid (OPMA) is a coalition of neighbors dedicated to directly caring for one another and those around us in greatest need. We provide direct community support including food, clothing and limited financial assistance. Our website and volunteer responders also share a collection of resources that can help support those living in Oak Park and the surrounding area during this difficult time. To date, we have raised more than $47,000 in donations and assisted hundreds of area residents.

As the situation will remain difficult for the foreseeable future, we need your help through donations and volunteering! https://oakparkmutualaid.com/

One Earth Film Festival By taking care of each other, we take care of ourselves. That’s the lesson that the COVID19 pandemic and the growing social & environmental justice movements are teaching us. And that’s the Power of We! The One Earth Film Festival continues to grow and expand our circle of engagement. Save the date for our exciting 10th anniversary One Earth Film Fest, March 5-14, 2021. The Festival was born in Oak Park, and this year, we will be screening virtually to a national audience. Join us for quality films, engaging discussion, meaningful action opportunities and community-building.

Memberships start at $25 ($15 for students / seniors). 0 For more information and to donate, visit oneearthfilmfest.org/give.

Opportunity Knocks Opportunity Knocks is dedicated to enriching life and community for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) as they live, work, learn, grow and connect within their community. We use a dynamic, person-centered and community-based approach to programming that

serves to engage the voice of our participants, foster interdependent connections, encourage exploration, promote holistic wellness and healthy relationships.

We are 95% privately funded so your support is more important than ever this year in keeping our mission moving forward. To join us in creating a more dynamic and inclusive community for all, visit opportunityknocksnow.org, 8020 Madison Street, River Forest, IL 60305.

The Parks Foundation of Oak Park The Parks Foundation of Oak Park promotes giving opportunities to support initiatives for the Park District. Our mission is to collaborate with residents, community groups and partner organizations to support exceptional projects that enhance and enrich our parks and community life.

We believe a commitment to equity and diversity is what makes our community strong.

Our fundraising efforts enhance scholarship funding to make it possible for all community members to participate in Park District programs. Last year over 200 scholarships were provided to enable individuals and families to participate in park district programs.

To learn more, and make a donation, visit parksfoundationop.org

PING! Providing equitable access to instrumental music for students in grades 4 through 12 in Oak Park and River Forest public schools has been the mission of PING!

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Wednesday Journal, December 2, 2020

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The Joyful Giving Catalog (Providing Instruments for the Next Generation) for more than 20 years. PING! loans band and orchestra instruments to students in need, and provides music enrichment through workshops; mentoring; and scholarships for summer music camps, school music trips, and private instruction. In this challenging year of COVID, PING! is adapting these enrichment programs to fit the needs of our students learning at home. Community support for our PING! students this year is more important than ever.

For more information, or to make a donation, please visit our new website at pingoprf.org.

If you have an instrument to donate, send us an email at pingoprf@gmail.com.

Pro Bono Network We believe access to justice should not depend upon your ability to afford an attorney.

There are simply not enough legal aid lawyers to help people in dire need of civil legal aid.

These include issues of safety from an abuser, adequate housing, critical care documents, and more. Pro Bono Network has enabled 400+ attorneys to give more than 24,000 hours of free legal assistance to over 4,300 clients whose lives were meaningfully changed.

To get involved or donate, visit pro-bononetwork.org. Your support will make an impact the lives of many!

Everything you need for a better world: • More Art

• More Food

• More Compassion

• More Health

• More Education

• More Housing

• More Equity

• More Peace

Browse, read, share with your children. Give Locally – Give Joyfully!

River Forest Public Library Foundation

River Forest Public Library connects our community with information and entertainment, with each other and the world.

RFPL Foundation works to enhance the Library today and for the future through fundraising and advocacy. The Foundation fully funded major updates in the Children’s Room in 2019.

We have provided support for the Lobby/ Circulation renovation, Summer and Adult Reading Programs, special programming, and the Anne Smedinghoff Memorial Garden.

Help ensure a strong community and a bright future for River Forest Public Library with your gift. We gratefully accept cash, credit/debit, securities and bequests. Visit RFPLFoundation.org/donate.

St. Angela School St. Angela School has walked with the families of Chicago’s west side for one hundred years— walked with a deep commitment to enriching the lives, and the futures, of their children. We have a rich and varied history – and a future of great promise. We provide our children with a safe and loving environment and challenging academics; we help them explore paths that lead to meaningful and rewarding careers; and we teach them, above all, to believe in themselves. As we prepare for our next hundred years, we’re proud to reaffirm our commitment to love and serve all those who choose to be part of our community.

UCP Seguin of Greater Chicago

UCP Seguin believes that all people, regardless of ability, deserve to achieve their potential, advance their independence and act as full members of the community. So we stop at nothing to provide life skills training, assistive technology, meaningful employment and a place to call home for people with disabilities, as well as specialized foster care for children.

Our goal: life without limits for people with disabilities.

Make a difference in the lives of people with disabilities. Donate online at ucpseguin. org or send gifts to UCP Seguin, 332 Harrison Street, Oak Park IL 60304

West Suburban Special Recreation Association

Youth Outreach Services

Youth Outreach Services supports youth ages 12 to 21 and their families, by providing free programs that offer skill development, therapeutic interventions, and mentorship to improve their safety and well-being. Through the past 60 years, YOS has offered outpatient, community-based behavioral health and substance abuse treatment, after school mentoring and outreach, family therapy, crisis intervention services, case management, foster care, transitional living and housing services, in-school prevention curricula, and juvenile justice programs.

Help youth flourish by donating at www.yos. org/donate or text @YOSCARES to 52014.

Or help empower youth to reach their goals, by calling 773-777-7112 to refer them for services.

West Suburban Special Recreation Association provides recreational programming for individuals with disabilities who reside in Oak Park, River Forest & nine other surrounding communities.

Join us for our Virtual Celebration Benefiting the Stars of WSSRA. Auction opens 9:00am November 30. View Auction Items or make a donation at https://one.bidpal.net/ wssrastars2020

Learn more about St. Angela School at saintangela.org or call us at (773) 6262655

Each of the organizations listed in this catalog paid a fee to participate. If you run a nonprofit and you would like to be listed here, or if you would like to sponsor a nonprofit to be listed here, please contact Lourdes Nicholls (Lourdes@oakpark.com) or Marc Stopeck (Marc@oakpark.com).

VIEWPOINTS

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

C O N S C I O U S

Wednesday Journal, December 2, 2020

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Never on Mondays? p. 34

A G I N G

Older Americans need to be less invisible The deceivers started with self-deception. … No matter how large the tissue of falsehood an experienced liar has to offer, it will never be large enough … to cover the immensity of factuality.

Hannah Arendt

T

his Friday morning at 10 a.m., please join us online for a free showing of the documentary Olympia. With salty language, guest appearances and an intimate connection with Olympia Dukakis, this next edition of the Wabi Sabi Film Festival is thoroughly entertaining.

Following the film, director Harry Mavromichalis will join us for a Q&A session, and he will stick around for the discussion. Get your free ticket at www. wabi-sabi-olympia.eventbrite.com.

The Wabi Sabi Film Festival (WSFF) is a presentation of “A Tribe Called Aging” and Growing Community Media.

We started WSFF one year ago with the screening of On Golden Pond at the Lake Theatre.

Anybody remember going to the Lake Theatre? Even with the roll-out of a vaccine in the next few months, it will probably be a while before I go back to a movie theater. And I say that with remorse because I am a big supporter of the Lake Theatre. I’m also a supporter of our local businesses, as are most of us older people.

We have work to do to help out our local economy.

The spending of Americans ages 50 and up in 2015 accounted for nearly $8 trillion worth of economic activity. But that’s because of the Baby Boom — there’s just more and more of us aging. The truth of the matter is that we are on the front end of hard times for the exploding older population.

One example is that by 2029, 54 percent of middle-income older people will not be able to afford “senior living.” That’s middle-income older people, not poor older people, and that’s in less than 10 years. The poorest of older people are already feeling the pinch. By the year 2030, one in every five Americans will be over the age of 60. What are we going to do when the number of older people has doubled from 2016 to 2060? We can barely keep up now.

As I’ve written here before, we are all behind this curve — individuals and institutions.

In announcing the creation of a Presidential Climate Envoy and naming John Kerry to that post, President-Elect Biden’s transition team stated, “The climate crisis demands nothing less than all hands on deck.” That is true, and I support that decision. But what about the aging demographic crisis? We need all hands on deck for that right now. The recent presidential campaign was virtually silent on this issue.

MARC BLESOFF

See BLESOFF on page 35

PROVIDED

Jan and Dave Brent both had COVID. Jan didn’t survive.

COVID-19 ended my mom’s journey last week

D

espite being careful and taking every precaution, my beautiful, amazing mother, Jan Daley Brent, died from COVID complications this past, Tuesday, Nov. 24, two days before Thanksgiving.

Her passing was violent and horrific, and she spent the last weeks of her life suffocating from COVID-induced pneumonia while in agonizing pain, writhing, screaming, and sobbing whenever she wasn’t heavily sedated. She described the pain as feeling like her body was “on fire” or being stabbed with hot needles, and morphine and a host of other serious painkillers did almost nothing to lessen her agony when awake.

In addition to the physical symptoms, the combination of heavy narcotics and COVID-related neurological issues also caused almost constant terrifying delusions and hallucinations whenever she was awake toward the end, and she was awake between 7-10 hours a day the last week of her life. I just can’t begin to articulate how hellish and horrifying the sum total of her experience must have been for her, and the complete and utter despair I feel at being so powerless to help or even touch her as she went through it is a crushing weight that’s hard to bear.

The last semi-lucid conversation I was able to have with my beautiful mom was more than a week before she died, and, being the selfless, loving mother to the end, her last words to me, gasped out over the telephone through ragged, panting, suffocating breaths and sobs and cries of terror and pain, will haunt me forever.

“Patrick ... this is terrible ... [sobs and cries of pain] ... Every ... breath ... I ... take ... just ... [chainsaw-like panting] ... just takes ... [violent coughing] ... everything

I have ... [more moans, drops phone and cries to the nurse “Oh god, please help me ...” I hear the nurse trying to comfort her as she hands her back the phone] ... Patrick ... I can’t talk ... [panting] ... I need to tell you one thing before I go ... and you need to listen ... [this was the longest, strongest sentence of our conversation] ... You and Heather [my wife] ... [sounds of my mom desperately gulping oxygen] ... and Finn, Joss, and Ruby [my kids, her grandchildren] ... [more cries of pain and sobbing] ... need to take this seriously ... [gasp, labored panting] ... Do everything you can to protect yourselves ... [cries of pain] ... I don’t want anyone I love to go through this ... I love you.” She drops the phone again and the nurse picks up, and I, still shocked by how bad things have gotten, listen in stunned silence as she tells me my mom’s condition has progressed rapidly, and they’re just trying to “keep her comfortable” at this point. The strain in the nurse’s voice was palpable through the phone.

My mom suffered for eight tortuous, horrifying days after that call, her condition seeming to worsen with each agonizing hour that ticked by. I can’t imagine the unspeakable pain she must have been in at the end.

I couldn’t see and comfort my wonderful mom in person as she was dying, and the astounding helplessness and resulting, seething rage is still very much with me as I type this. Her body was whisked away for cremation shortly after her death, and to think I’ll never see her sweet, loving face again or hear her voice and laughter twists my guts into knots, and makes me want to rage blindly at the unfairness of it all. These feelings have nowhere to go, and sit in my belly like a cold, leaden stone.

She deserved a much better death than this.

PATRICK BRENT One View

See BRENT on page 36

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Wednesday Journal, December 2, 2020

O U R

V I E W S

Let’s build Pete’s

W

e love the Hill Motor Sales building on Madison Street.

It is more than handsome. It is historic at 95 years and as a final representation of Oak Park’s legacy as the auto sales destination of the west suburbs for several decades.

Several decades that ended in the 1970s.

The building has been a relic now for about as long as it was a great place to display a Packard or, toward the end, a Cadillac.

Now it is time to bring out the wrecking ball and build a Pete’s Fresh Market.

The building is fully obsolete and pretty much a total wreck.

Every organization and the much-touted engines of capitalism have looked at how to save this building, to give it new purpose. They have all come up empty.

The building has no purpose.

What we can only assume was a semi-serious discussion of at least preserving the south and east façade as part of the new grocery store ran into practical design issues — got to have a loading dock — and a hefty price tag. Pete’s top exec put the cost at $2.5 million for a facadectomy. The grotesques, the great architectural details of the old dealership, will be preserved and somehow added to the exterior of Pete’s. That is something.

Oak Park’s second Pete’s is a great project. The old car dealership is just a piece of a much larger parcel that has been waiting for new development for far too long. Turning the village-owned property at Oak Park Avenue and Madison into something useful, a commercial enterprise paying property taxes, sales taxes, liquor taxes, while providing good jobs, is overdue.

The new Pete’s and the senior housing development replacing another piece of the long-gone Foley Rice Cadillac, this one on the south side of Madison, are key components of what has been a remarkable remaking of the dormant Madison corridor over the past eight years.

This is really one of Oak Park’s success stories.

Lake Street is lovely Downtown Oak Park, greater downtown Oak Park if you include the Pleasant District and portions of the Hemingway District, are now done. They are as beautiful as they will ever be. Fancy sidewalks, brick intersections, light fixtures your grandmother would appreciate. All there.

Credit to recent Oak Park village boards which put a lid on the price tag for the Lake Street remaking just completed. Still costly, it somewhat reflected reality. And this massive project came in on time — in time for whatever it is the holiday shopping season will look like this pandemic year.

In addition to infrastructure and handsome street furniture, most of the development has also been accomplished in the greater downtown. A new apartment house will soon replace a bank drive-through on Lake and Grove. A mid-rise — possibly a couple of floors shorter than mid-rise — will replace the Drechsler Brown & Williams Funeral Home on Marion at Pleasant.

Beyond that, the buildable parcels are built (although someday the one-story strip mall — Gap/Old Navy — at Harlem and Lake will undoubtably be razed and rebuilt). But for now we need to focus on keeping businesses in the greater downtown alive until spring. Shopping local has never been more important.

V I E W P O I N T S

Adding one more crisis to the mix

T

his country is suffering from myriad crises at the moment: Trust (in government and each other), Faith (in our institutions, including voting), Health Care (during a pandemic), Opioids, Economic Inequality, the Culture War, Political Polarization, Police Violence, a Reckoning on Race, Global Climate (hurricanes and wildfires) and, of course, the biggest of all: the Truth Crisis. It’s overwhelming. You might say we’re afflicted by a crisis of crises.

But we need to add one more: We have a Labeling Crisis.

I realized this while editing Matt Baron’s letter last week in Viewpoints about an online commenter — a Muslim woman, which I didn’t know at the time — who labeled Village Trustee Dan Moroney, now a candidate for village president, a “white supremacist,” which might sound outrageous to anyone who equates white supremacists with white nationalists, the Ku Klux Klan, skinheads, and neo-Nazis. The latter four groups are abhorrent to most of us, but the label “white supremacist” has undergone some expansion in recent years. I resisted the term at first. In fact, I was downright defensive and felt unfairly labeled, but eventually I came around to accepting the notion that America is a culture built on the firm belief that white Americans are superior and Black Americans are inferior.

A less strident label for this would be “white dominance” or “white privilege.”

It has always been so and continues to this day, in spite of noteworthy progress. White supremacy (or dominance) has come to mean that pretty much all white Americans — to varying degrees — contribute to perpetuating our white-dominant system. It’s true that many of us work — to varying degrees — to change an unjust system where whites are privileged and “superior” over and against people of color, who are treated as “inferior” and remain generally underprivileged.

But until white Americans finally abolish this twotier system, we are all — to some degree — “complicit” in perpetuating a system of white supremacy. Though it is not of our making, it is definitely of our continuance. We sustain this system unconsciously, largely through our defensiveness and avoidance of the issue.

Few of us are intentional, deliberate white supremacists (or white dominators), and I know Dan Moroney just enough to believe he is not an intentional, deliberate supremacist. I hope he is working in his way to change that system by examining his own biases when he finds them, which is what I am also struggling to do — and it is a struggle.

Shaming him with a label, however, is like shooting a paint ball at someone else for a societal ill that, to some extent, we all suffer from. The “white supremacist” label has plenty of impact, but it doesn’t get us very far.

If you think Dan is not doing enough to change our white-dominant system in his capacity as a village

trustee, you should certainly say so — preferably while providing examples.

Maybe it will cause him to do some soulsearching — or not. But we’ll get further without the paintballs. As a reformed paintballer myself, I can attest to this.

The problem with labeling is that the terms are often inexact, confusing, and lead to wildly different interpretations.

Those interpretations, we need to point out, are often evasive maneuvers, used by defensive whites to keep from facing the real, and uncomfortable, issues underlying the labels.

“Defund the Police,” for instance, is probably the worst slogan in the history of slogans. It is dramatic and grabs your attention, but it has a serious strategic weakness: It allows the opposition to misinterpret it, often intentionally, leading potential allies to clamp their hands over their ears and tune us out.

What “defunding police” really means is “reinventing policing,” i.e. taking the pressure off police so they can more effectively focus on their real mission — which remains to be redefined by the public they serve, especially people of color. But if we really mean “reinventing policing,” we should say so instead of hiding behind misleading labels.

Black Lives Matter is a far better slogan, but it ran into similar troubles.

Defensive, evasive whites decided that it really meant “Black lives matter more than white lives.” As if that could ever happen. What it really means is “Black lives matter as much as white lives.”

That’s too long for a slogan, though, which allows too many white Americans to dodge the real issue.

Socialism is another misleading label, thanks to decades of right-wing media propaganda. Conservatives hear “socialism” and have been conditioned to think “Lenin!” “Stalin!” “Castro!” “Chavez!” instead of public libraries, national parks, and universal health care.

What socialism really means in this country is “Capitalism with a Conscience.” Conscientious Capitalism is a much better label than socialism.

Calling someone a “racist,” meanwhile, really means, “You have racism within you, just like the rest of us who grew up in this racist system. And your hidden biases at the moment are not so hidden.”

Our labels keep getting in the way of what we really mean. We should say what we mean instead of shooting paintballs. Labelism is a small but significant crisis.

I hope Dan Moroney is working to reduce whatever racism and white supremacy might lurk within him.

I also hope he’s working to change our system of inequity. I hope the same is true of Matt Baron, who attached the “terrorism” label to Dan’s accuser, who is Muslim, which was definitely out of bounds. And it was my editing oversight in failing to flag that.

Obviously, I have more than enough work to do on myself before I start slapping labels on anyone.

The only label I want to earn is “antiracist” and I still have a long way to go.

KEN

TRAINOR

V I E W P O I N T S

We need to have a conversation of repair

D

istrict 200 school board member Matt Baron wrote a piece in these pages one week ago wherein he claimed that an Oak Park community member had engaged in “a form of terrorism” [When you see something, will you say something? Viewpoints, Nov. 25]. What vile act had this community member performed? She had called Village Trustee Dan Moroney a “whyte supremacist” in a Facebook comment.

Baron started by defining the term terrorism as “the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims.” Immediately, he undercut himself by acknowledging that this community member’s words were in no sense illegal. But he went on to claim that “the attack on Moroney, while not unlawful, is emotional and psychological violence.”

I think Mr. Baron needs some perspective on violence.

Violence is living in a neighborhood stripped of economic and community resources because the people who live there are seen as unimportant. Violence is living in a country that has been destabilized by the U.S. military because the people who live there are seen as expendable.

Violence is being forced to live through this pandemic without health insurance. Violence is the lack of education funding in many parts of this state because we insist on paying for it through property taxes.

Violence is not a person of color calling a white man a white supremacist. Mr. Baron may disagree with the use of the term, but it is not violence. And it certainly does not justify saying that this community member of color was engaged in terrorism.

Mr. Moroney has made many problematic decisions during his time on the village board, not least of which was appearing on a right-wing radio talk show after a board discussion of a new equity policy about a year ago. But what troubles me even more than Moroney’s decisions has been his refusal to demonstrate any kind of self-reflection about those decisions, or any admission

that he could have done things differently. Instead, he has doubled down, insisting that he is in the right and that everyone else is wrong.

And now, after this Facebook comment, it has happened again. Moroney lashed out against this community member in nowdeleted Twitter posts, demonstrating no recognition of how his own decisions have led some of his constituents to think of him as a white supremacist. And Baron has rushed to Moroney’s defense, demonstrating no reflection on how his and Moroney’s whiteness informs this discussion, or what the impact might be of a white man claiming that a person of color has engaged in terrorism.

The only way we can address the crisis of white supremacy and racism in our country is for white men like Moroney, like Baron, and yes, like me to start by acknowledging when we make mistakes. This will not “solve” racism, but it would be a place to start. We must be able to say when we’ve made mistakes, acknowledge the harm, and seek repair.

In this case, I’d like to suggest that they pause, reflect on what has happened, and reach out to some other white community members who might be able to help them see how their actions have caused harm. I suggest that they start by having this conversation with other white people so that they don’t continue to perpetuate the harm they are causing to people of color.

Although I don’t know Mr. Moroney or Mr. Baron, I offer to have this conversation with them myself, or to connect them to other white people in the community who would be willing to have this conversation.

I am not claiming that this conversation will solve all these issues, but I think this conversation among white people could be a first step for us to understand the harm we are causing, acknowledge the harm, and start to repair. I hope that Mr. Baron and Mr. Moroney will agree.

Jim Schwartz is an Oak Park resident, an educator, and a blogger at Entwining.org.

JIM

SCHWARTZ One View

Free speech vs. Islamophobia I hope Wednesday Journal’s editorial team would address the fact that Matt Baron equated a Muslim woman’s speech as an act of or equivalent to an act of terrorism [When you see something, will you say something? Viewpoints, Nov. 25]. He did this in a comment on Nov. 22 and then in prime time in the published paper. In a piece deriding contemporary discourse as

The cranes overhead

What a beautiful column, Ken [The neverending search for meaning, Ken Trainor, Viewpoints, Nov. 25]. Thank you so much for it. I love reading your words. I stopped the masons working on my house the other day to have them listen to the cranes overhead. I then promptly brought out the Sibleys to show them a close-up pic. They loved it. All thanks to your column long ago alerting me to this wonderful trek of theirs.

Pat Kammeyer Oak Park

hostile and libelous, Matt Baron on behalf of elected Trustee Dan Moroney, traded in Islamophobia, belying a fundamental and hostile ignorance to marginalized members of our community and simple self-criticism and reflection.

Adam Paradis Oak Park

Wednesday Journal, December 2, 2020

W E D N E S D A Y

JOURNAL of Oak Park and River Forest

Editor and Publisher Dan Haley Senior Editor Bob Uphues Staff Reporters Michael Romain, Stacey Sheridan, Maria Maxham Viewpoints Editor Ken Trainor Real Estate Editor Lacey Sikora Food Editor Melissa Elsmo Arts Editor Michelle Dybal Sports/Staff reporter James Kay Columnists Marc Blessoff, Jack Crow, Doug Deuchler, Linda Francis, Mary Kay O’Grady, Kwame Salter, John Stanger, Stan West Staff Photographer Alex Rogals Design/Production Manager Andrew Mead Designers Mark Moroney, Javier Govea, Debbie Becker Business Manager Joyce Minich Marketing Representatives Marc Stopeck, Lourdes Nicholls Sales & Development Mary Ellen Nelligan Circulation Manager Jill Wagner E-MAIL jill@oakpark.com Chairman Emeritus Robert K. Downs

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About Viewpoints Our mission is to lead educated conversation about the people, government, schools, businesses and culture of Oak Park and River Forest. As we share the consensus of Wednesday Journal’s editorial board on local matters, we hope our voice will help focus your thinking and, when need be, fire you to action.

In a healthy conversation about community concerns, your voice is also vital. We welcome your views, on any topic of community interest, as essays and as letters to the editor. Noted here are our stipulations for filing.

Please understand our verification process and circumstances that would lead us not to print a letter or essay. We will call to check that what we received with your signature is something you sent. If we can’t make that verification, we will not print what was sent. When, in addition to opinion, a letter or essay includes information presented as fact, we will check the reference. If we cannot confirm a detail, we may not print the letter or essay.

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

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

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ADDRESS 141 S Oak Park Ave., Oak ParkIL 60302 ■ PHONE 708-5248300 EMAIL Dan@OakPark.com ■ ONLINE www.OakPark.com Wednesday Journal is published digitally and in print by Growing Community Media NFP. The newspaper is available on newsstands for $1.00.

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V I E W P O I N T S

Wednesday Journal, December 2, 2020

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D O O P E R ’ S

I COURTESY OF GEORGE’S FAMILY RESTAURANT

SEVEN DAYS A WEEK: Pies at George’s, open Mondays and every day of the week.

Maybe you could stay open Mondays

T

he Take Out 25 Oak Park initiative is tough jobs, and they deserve at least one day off way worthy. As soon as I heard about it, I every week. Usually, after a hectic weekend, resmade The Pledge to order carryout from taurants go dark on Mondays because staff need a local restaurant every week throughout a break and, one assumes, because business-asthe winter. As explained on the site, this usual is less intense on Mondays. will help generate the necessary revenue to get Alas, in the current climate, most restaurants these places through what promises to be a most long for a hectic weekend, with tables full of brutal business environment. happy diners. The days of the bustling restauLast Monday, pumped by the thought of helprant dining room are, for the moment, gone. ing local businesses while bringing in some Business now is anything but usual. tasty grub to our bunker, I checked out Oak So I would suggest to restaurants: Maybe you Park’s Keep Calm and Carry Out listing, which should stay open on Mondays. If restaurants helpfully indicates if a restaurant offers regular were to stay open all week, they could perhaps takeout, curbside takeout, or delivery. rehire some workers, and, of course, generate But then I realized many restaurants I wanted additional revenue. Everybody deserves a day Local Dining to check out are closed on Mondays. We’ll try to or two off per week, but by rotating different & Food Blogger order from somewhere else this coming week, people into position to handle the extra day, staff though with Thanksgiving intervening, that could still get a day off while others get a needed could be tough. But a pledge is a pledge. day of work.

To get through the pandemic, many restaurants have pivThere are restrictions on how late restaurants can stay oted to offering takeout and delivery, and some of Chicago’s open. Early closures hurt business. So restaurants could very best restaurants — like Ever and Michelin-three-star stay open an extra day every week and make up for the busiAlinea — are offering holiday meal kits, something that ness lost due to early closures. would previously have been unthinkable.

Perhaps suggesting such a model for restaurant business Restaurants from Evanston to the South Side are now is presumptuous. I’ve worked in a restaurant, but I’ve never offering groceries that you can take out with your dinner run one, and there could perhaps be pitfalls to staying open order (need eggs for tomorrow’s breakfast? Have them packone more day every week. Still, there are local restaurants aged with your dinner order). like the hugely popular Poor Phil’s and George’s that have The pandemic has also fueled the rise of ghost kitchens/ been around for years, which are open every day of the virtual restaurants, which operate out of unprepossessing, week. Other local restaurants might do well to follow that sometimes warehouse-like buildings to provide food for demodel. livery from chefs who once worked in the spotlight at some One benefit of the pandemic is that restaurants, though of the region’s finest restaurants. struggling, are uncovering new revenue streams. Staying In such ways, chefs and restaurants are experimenting open one more day a week could make a difference to Oak with innovative strategies for doing business to get through Park’s beloved, and struggling, restaurants. It might be worth a try. the pandemic.

If you like the idea of Take Out 25 Oak Park, check out “Dark Mondays” are standard in the restaurant industry. their Facebook page.

Lord knows, the people who make and serve our food have

DAVID

HAMMOND

M E M O R I E S

The gift of Al De Georgio

first met Al in the fall of 1952.

My family lived next door to the Oak Park Art League, and Al was the custodian and part-time art instructor at the Art League. Every Thursday after school, my job was to burn papers in a wire receptacle near the fence that separated our yard from the Art League.

Al would do the same job at about the same time, so he and I talked to each other. I told him what I was studying in school, and he would tell me what he had been doing for the past week.

One day I told him that my class was studying World War II in history class, and he asked me if I wanted to hear about his wartime experiences. I was anxious to learn of his life as an infantryman, so over a period of time, I heard his story.

Al came from Springfield and enlisted in the army the day after he graduated from high school in June 1942. He served in Europe for almost three years.

He told me he had a buddy who was a dead ringer for the movie star Robert Cummings, so whenever Al’s outfit went through a liberated town, his buddy was mobbed by women who thought he was Cummings.

Al and his buddy got out of the army in the summer of 1945, and even though Al’s outfit was engaged in heavy fighting, both he and his friend were not harmed.

Al had a talent for art, so after a series of nondescript jobs, he enrolled in the Art Institute on the G.I. Bill. When he graduated, he got the job at the Art League where he lived, taught a few classes, and gabbed with me.

My family got to know Al, so he was frequently invited for supper on Sundays, and also for Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter.

He often spoke to me about the value of an education, so when I was in high school, he would ask me how I was doing and what my plans were for college. He was pleased when I told him I planned to major in math in college, an area, he said, that was foreign to him.

In the mid-1950s, Al decided to pursue an MFA degree at the Art Institute and to obtain teacher certification. He attended night school and received the MFA in 1958.

To celebrate his graduation, my family had a party for him, and he was so overjoyed that he wept.

Al obtained a teaching position at a Chicago public high school, and he moved to an apartment on the North Side of Chicago.

My family continued to invite him to our house to celebrate the various holidays with us, but in 1963 he accepted a teaching position in Springfield.

Even though my family received Christmas cards from him for many years, we never again saw Al, but I will always remember the kindness he showed toward me and the solid advice he gave to me.

Al De Georgio was truly a gift.

JOHN

STANGER

V I E W P O I N T S

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Appreciating River Forest, from several angles

resident Trump refuses to accept that he has not been re-elected to the presidency, although he is allowing for the transition of administrations to begin.

It’s certainly understandable that Trump would be shocked to lose the election after receiving over 74 million votes in his favor.

However, the facts are that Joe Biden received over 80 million votes and Electoral College votes (306 to 232) and, therefore, legally, Joe Biden has earned the status of President-elect.

The problem we face is President Trump’s angry, vengeful and totally outrageous response to the loss. This behavior threatens the sanctity of the vote and he is causing serious damage to our country’s security. He is furthering the spread of the pandemic because of his tunnel-vision drive to reverse the election result. He has completely neglected his presidential duties.

Although I’m alarmed by Trump’s behavior, I have the privilege of escaping some of this frightening atmosphere by living here in River Forest. This village seems like a peaceful island in a sea of chaos. I have often remarked about River Forest’s scenic beauty — trees that extend their leafy branches, arching across the streets; buildings of architectural note; and elegant 100-year-oldplus vintage homes (frequently known as “Painted Ladies”). A winding river surrounds its forests and many parks dress up the River Forest village-scape. But this small village is more than just a pretty face.

River Forest has successfully combined a diverse population of folks who care for each

other, and provides services that satisfy their needs. Opportunities for education, cultural, and religious pursuits are offered at the colleges, churches, synagogues, and the unique library within its small boundaries. I have personally enjoyed many of these benefits over, thus far, 66 years of residency here.

Additionally, I have had several occasions to request police and fire department services. The fire department’s answers to my emergencies were prompt and efficient, and also, empathetic and reassuring. The police answered every alarm with courtesy and patience, even in a situation which required their capture of an intruder … a squirrel in my home! And I will be forever grateful for their rescuing my frightened, frost-bitten lost dog in zero-degree weather on Christmas Day 2013.

Now, during this dreadful pandemic when so many folks are in isolation, the village has established a “task force” to address the needs of the residents. Community volunteers aid in this project, which speaks to the “specialness” of River Forest.

Because of the peace and comfort afforded the village’s residents, it would be easy to shut out our nation’s problems — COVID-19, which is an increasing menace; hate and racism raging under the Trump leadership; and even hunger in this country of plenty. But we cannot ignore the actions by President Trump and his revengeful denial of the election. To question the truth and value of America’s vote is to threaten our democracy. A peaceful transfer of power is crucial for the uninterrupted transition from one administration

BLESOFF

Joe Biden is today — and he thinks we all should want that too. In the October 2014 issue of Atlantic magazine, in an article titled, “Why I hope to die at 75,” Ezekiel Emanuel wrote: “Here is a simple truth that many of us seem to resist: living too long is also a loss.

It renders many of us, if not disabled, then faltering and declining, a state that may not be worse than death but is nonetheless deprived. It robs us of our creativity and ability to contribute to work, society, the world.

It transforms how people experience us, relate to us, and, most important, remember us. We are no longer remembered as vibrant and engaged but as feeble, ineffectual, even pathetic.” (https://www.theatlantic.com/ magazine/archive/2014/10/why-i-hope-todie-at-75/379329/?utm_source=atl&utm_ medium=email&utm_campaign=share) This is ageism to the core — it broadbrushes all older people as “feeble, ineffectual, even pathetic” and judges olders to be less important than younger people.

How about we make an early New Year’s resolution — let’s refuse to be invisible.

HARRIET HAUSMAN

to the next. It is absolutely necessary to have some wise Republican heads influence and stop Trump’s rage.

It is frightening to contemplate how this situation will be resolved. We can’t expect that when President-elect Biden takes office, all will be calm. Trump’s threats of war with Iran and the unsettling of the Middle East will certainly cause more problems for President Biden while trying to find answers to the COVID-19 scourge and vaccine distribution.

The security offered by our village becomes even more valuable during these troubled

times. You may think that I have painted too idyllic a picture of River Forest. Perhaps I have, and I know there are some problems, as well as people who may disagree with my perspective. I am proud to call our community home, and I wish other villages, similar to ours, will develop with the same theme of peace and love — blotting out the past four years of governing with hate and fear that we’ve had to endure.

Thank you, River Forest.

Harriet Hausman is a 66-year resident of River Forest.

One View

Stay visible from page 31

It’s time for a Presidential Aging Envoy.

I am relieved and I am celebrating that Joe Biden won the election. And we are all still behind that aging curve.

President-Elect Biden named all kinds of doctors to his coronavirus task force — experts in public health, surgery, infectious disease, oncology, tuberculosis, cancer, there’s even a pediatrician — but no geriatrician, no medical expert in aging. And this, despite the fact we olders are most susceptible to suffering fatal repercussions from COVID-19.

And having no geriatrician is bad enough, but Biden named bioethicist Dr. Ezekiel Emmanuel (Rahm’s brother) to his coronavirus task force. This is the guy who wrote a few years ago that he wants to stop medical interventions at age 75 — younger than

OAK PARK TOWNSHIP LEGAL NOTICE TRUTH IN TAXATION HEARING NOTICE OF PROPOSED PROPERTY TAX INCREASE FOR OAK PARK TOWNSHIP I. A public hearing to approve a Proposed Property Tax Levy for Oak Park Township for 2020 will be held at 7:00 p.m. Tuesday, December 8, 2020 virtually via GoToMeeting at https://global.gotomeeting.com/ join/901817693 Attendees may also dial in using your phone, +1 (312) 757-3121, Access Code: 901-817-693 Any person desiring to appear at the public hearing and present testimony to the taxing district may contact Gavin Morgan, Township Manager, at 708-383-8005.

II. The corporate and special purpose extended property taxes extended or abated for 2019 were $5,222,170.00.

The proposed corporate and special purpose property taxes to be levied for 2020 are $5,367,532.00. This represents a 2.8% increase over the previous year extended levy.

III. The property taxes extended for debt service and public building commission leases for 2019 were $0.

The estimated property taxes to be levied for debt service and public building commission leases for 2020 are $0. This represents a 0% increase over the previous year.

IV. The total property taxes extended or abated for 2019 were $5,222,170.00.

The estimated total property taxes to be levied for 2020 are $5,367,532.00. This represents a 2.8% increase over the previous year.

Dated this 30th day of November 2020.

Gregory P. White Township Clerk

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V I E W P O I N T S

Fair Tax post-mortem Tom DeCoursey’s recent essay on the Fair Tax [“We do not have an informed electorate,” Viewpoints, Nov. 25] led to the following, remarkably civil back-and-forth: Mr. DeCoursey, I read with great interest your piece in this week’s Wednesday Journal regarding the vote that defeated (for now) the progressive tax amendment. While there is much in your piece with which I agree, I have one fundamental disagreement. I write to respectfully voice that disagreement in the hope that I can persuade you to rethink at least one part of your argument.

But first let me start with where I agree with you.

I agree with you that the arguments you have identified against the progressive tax are ultimately not persuasive, though I take some of them more seriously than you do.

I also agree that many citizens are not sufficiently informed about the economic and policy arguments for and against a progressive tax to vote intelligently on such a tax. I think that is true of most if not all tax-related referenda and that is why, among other reasons, like the founders, I strongly favor small “r” republican democracy over direct democracy. Having said that, if the case for a progressive tax were as lopsided as you suggest, then it should not have required much knowledge or sophistication for a majority of voters to find the “fair tax” preferable to the “unfair tax.” The fact that they didn’t suggests that maybe the right answer isn’t so clear, and that there is more going on here than a lack of information.

So that gets to my disagreement. Allow me to preface my disagreement with my credentials as a voter. I received a bachelor’s degree with

honors in American History from the University of Chicago. I am also a lawyer. I went to law school at UCLA, where I graduated near the top of my class and obtained a prestigious clerkship with a judge on the federal court of appeals in Los Angeles. I have practiced law in Chicago for nearly 30 years. I read the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune nearly every day, and I read and listen to podcasts on politics and public policy from a variety of sources, liberal and conservative. I read op-eds and other materials arguing for and against the “fair tax.” So I consider myself a pretty informed voter.

And yet I voted “No” even though I believe we should have a progressive tax in Illinois, and have supported one for a long time. I voted “No” even though I am a Democrat who voted for Pritzker for governor. I voted “No,” not because I am uniformed, but because I am very informed.

I struggled over my vote, but at the end of the day I concluded that if the referendum passed, an opportunity would be lost to get a deal on other necessary reforms — most notably pension reform and property tax and school funding reforms, but also other cost-reducing measures like reducing the number of administrative units in Illinois government. I also recognized that until such a grand bargain can be achieved, the state can increase tax revenue fairly by increasing the flat tax and providing more tax credits to lower- and middle-income earners, and by taxing services and financial transactions that are currently undertaxed.

I am not the only informed voter to strike the same balance. For example, the Civic Federation of Chicago opposed the Fair Tax amendment for much the same reason I do. I know

BRENT

same “Very High” risk group alongside my mom, the virus didn’t affect him at all ... not a single symptom. Married 47 years, my parents’ love was deep and profound, and my dad is shattered not only by the loss of the love of his life, but even more so by the horrific way she was taken from us, and the unimaginable agony and suffering she had to endure before the virus finally killed her.

It was like she was tortured to death.

This thing is very real, and it’s an absolute

Take COVID seriously from page 31 On the opposite end of the spectrum, my dad also had COVID at the same time, and despite being 75 years old with a host of pre-existing conditions that put him in the

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

other knowledgeable voters who voted for the Fair Tax but who struggled as much as I did before they came down on the other side.

I expect you are aware that there were voters who voted “No” for the same reasons I did, and yet you did not address those concerns in your article, which makes you vulnerable to the same criticisms you lob at opponents of the tax.

Finally, let me humbly suggest that you are unlikely to persuade people to your position if you start by insulting their fitness as citizens or their intelligence.

I hope you will join me in advocating with our elected officials to start a new fight for a progressive tax built on an economically sturdier and politically more palatable platform than the one I voted against.

Ed Malone

Mr. Malone, Thank you for your informed response. I am happy to learn how an intelligent person could arrive at your position. I agree with you on two main points, namely (1) that structural reforms to the state budget are needed, and (2) my writing style tends to alienate those with whom I disagree. The latter trait is unlikely to change despite occasional efforts, ever since I was nearly run out of the small Kansas town where I grew up after producing an underground newspaper in high school in the late ’60s.

Where I disagree is not whether structural reforms are needed, but rather I fail to see how “an opportunity would be lost.” Your side won, but where is this opportunity to be found now? Who is pushing for the needed reforms you list? How will the loss of a strong step forward facilitate any other step in the directions you mention? Perhaps I am somewhat cynical about politics — if you can win on even one tiny point, I think you have to accept it. Inroll of the dice on how it will affect you.

I can say, without reservation, that at this point, anyone who is refusing to wear a mask or take other simple precautions to protect those around them have made it abundantly clear they couldn’t care less about anyone but themselves, and they are, unequivocally, putrid piles of steaming, soulless, self-flatulating, selfish garbage.

They are not “decent” people in any way shape or form, and I’m actively cutting the

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cremental progress is better than no progress at all. I do not believe that to repair a corrupt system you must first make things worse to foment a revolutionary reaction among the populace. It sounds as though you do not want any progress unless the entire problem can be solved at a single bound.

Maybe you are right. Another example would be whether the Affordable Care Act was worth passing vs. holding out for a single-payer system like those in every other country in the advanced world. I am assuming you agree that a single-payer system would be better, fairer, and far less costly than what we have now. Obama had to compromise to get the ACA passed. It is certainly much better than the previous nonsystem in which predatory insurance companies maximized their profits and dumped sick people from their coverage whenever possible.

But can we get to a single payer system all at once or incrementally or at all? The problem seems to be strategy. Do you accept an incomplete partial solution as being better than nothing, or do you demand the whole fix all at once?

My suspicion is now that Pritzker has been burned on this issue he will be reluctant to try any major change. The state will fall deeper into debt and toward fiscal collapse. If you now see a path toward fiscal responsibility, then I could feel less depressed about our prospects.

Finally, your decision was well-reasoned and carefully thought out, and given further expansion of the ideas, I might possibly have been won over. That said, I do not believe that 95 percent of those who voted against the Fair Tax did so for such logical reasons at all. I think they fell for the lies: “This will raise your taxes” and “Do not give power to Illinois legislators because we do not trust them, and they will raise your taxes.” I have already heard from one who “explained” that even with a flat tax, rich people pay a larger amount of taxes.

Tom DeCoursey

few I know like this out of my life forever, and encourage all of you to do the same.

Their lethally self-indulgent, supremely selfish and murderous behavior in the name of whatever warped, perverted concept of “personal freedoms” or “rights” they claim has already killed tens of thousands of our friends, family members, and neighbors who didn’t have to die, and these wretched folks deserve whatever’s coming to them, Karmic or otherwise.

Please be safe.

My name is Patrick Brent, and I’d originally written my mother’s story above as a comment in a COVID forum. People began asking to share it publicly, and after discussing it with my dad and several of my mom’s closest friends, we feel that, in honor of her spirit of selflessness and helping others, and in the hopes her experience may save just one life, we wholeheartedly encourage you to share far and wide, and please feel free to share my mom’s name, my name, and all those included. I want people to know my lovely mom and my family are real people who experienced this hell, and that she was someone who was deeply loved and adored by many. Her death needs to stand for something ... anything ... at this point, and potentially changing someone’s view or getting someone to be more careful is more than a worthy cause, and my mom would agree.

Wednesday Journal, December 2, 2020

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O B I T U A R I E S

Alice Bone, 99 Nurse and teacher

Alice Hope Bone, 99, of Oak Park, died peacefully on Nov. 24, 2020 at King Bruwaert House in Burr Ridge. Born on Dec. 30, 1920, in Witt, Illinois, she was the third child born to George and Suzanne (Degan) Gulanick.

At the age of 17, she entered the St. Anthony De Padua Nursing School in Chicago. In her mid-20s, she decided to take to the skies as the airlines hired nurses as stewardesses. She signed with Western Airlines, based in Los Angeles. On a flight from Los Angeles to Omaha, she met Joseph H. Bone. They played cards in the back of the plane to pass the time. By the end of the flight, he asked for her number and the courtship began. Three “dates” later he proposed; six months later, Nov. 8, 1947, they were married in Los Angeles.

The couple moved to Oak Park to raise their family close to Chicago relatives. Joe completed his schooling in dentistry, and Alice continued her passion through nursing. Whether it was private duty, covering shifts at hospitals, or taking on administrative roles, she was by nature a nurse. At St. Anthony Hospital, she held several leadership positions. In later years, she became a loyal and active member of the St. Anthony School of Nursing Alumni Association.

Once retired from nursing, she found another niche. DePaul University was looking for someone to teach Anatomy and Physiology, along with Medical Terminology to court reporters. She delighted students with her quick wit and depth of knowledge for the next five years.

She enjoyed time with her family, hosting family celebrations, and visiting family who lived afar. One of her grandchildren recently said, “I loved how Grandma had a way to always bring the family together.”

Alice is survived by her four + 1 children, Richard “Rick” (Kathleen Van Kampen) Bone, Edward “Ted” Bone, Susan (Bone) Merritt, and Mary Jo (Bill) Caselton and her plus one “Third Son” Gregory (Sharon) Voss; 10 grandchildren, Chad (Kim) Falco, Joseph Merritt, Daniel Merritt, Matthew Merritt, Aaron Merritt, Jennifer (Simon McAleese) Caselton, Jessica Caselton, Jason (Tracy) Narancich, Justin (Kelly) Narancich, and Jordan (Jennifer) Narancich; 10 great-grandchildren, Kallen O’Shea, Addison Falco, Ebin Merritt, Amelia Merritt, Ryan, and Brooklyn Narancich, Camron, McKinley and Lochlan Narancich, and Milan Narancich.

She was preceded in death by her father, George Gulanick; her mother, Suzanne (Degan) Gulanick; her sister, Margaretta (Gulanick) Wise; her brother, Edward (Mary) Gulanick; and her loving husband, Joseph

Hunter Bone, who passed 31 years prior, to the day.

She will be laid to rest next to Joseph in Queen of Heaven Cemetery in Hillside.

There will not be a visitation due to the state of the pandemic. We wish all friends and family to keep safe and stay well.

In lieu of flowers, we ask that a donation may be made to King Bruwaert House COVID-19 Response Fund https://interland3.donorperfect.net/weblink/weblink. aspx?name=E351787&id=4 A celebration of life will be held this spring.

Stephon Mobley, 60 OPRF graduate

Stephon Mobley, 60, of Oak Park, died on Nov. 24, 2020. Born on July 18, 1960, he was a 1979 graduate of Oak Park and River Forest High School where he played football, basketball and hockey.

Stephon was the father of Bronwyn Mobley; the grandfather of Antwon MobleySumerall; the brother of Van Derick (Patricia), Dwight (Janice) Mobley, and Alice Chryar; and the cousin and friend of many.

Visitation will be held on Saturday, Dec. 5, 2020 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Drechsler, Brown & Williams Funeral Home, 203 S. Marion St., Oak Park. Due to current COVID-19 restrictions, a maximum of 10 people will be allowed in the funeral home. To allow for others to pay their respects and to allow for social distancing, we ask that people pay their respects and move on to allow others the opportunity. Masks are required. Info: 708-383-3191 or drechslerbrownwilliams. com.

Gloria Harrington, 59

Landscape designer, caregiver Gloria Harrington (nee Kuehn), 59, of Berwyn, formerly of Oak Park, died peacefully at home on Saturday, Nov. 21.

She was born on May 30, 1961 to the late Heinz and Regina (nee Nowak) Kuehn, both of whom proceeded her in death, as did her nephew, Marcel Fremont.

She lived in Oak Park for most of her life, attending Ascension Grammar School, Oak Park and River Forest High School and Triton College in River Grove.

A joyful, gifted and multitalented woman, in her young adult life, she honed her peopleloving skills by bartending. Her great love of nature and plants became the impetus for pursuing an education in landscape design.

A reputation for growing beautiful gardens inspired her to open her own business, Harrington Design. The economic downturn of 2008 led to using her marketing skills to represent organic food producers with outlets throughout the U.S. She was headquartered in California and lived on a horse farm.

Having returned to Oak Park to care for her mother, she began her engagement with Right At Home, a local home care organization, together with the owner, Robert Stelletello. She planned and carried out many village-wide meetings, events and legendary celebrations. She was well known for her attention to detail and outsized fun, as well as the energy she brought to these events.

During her home care work, she took an interest in the care of patients with dementia. Certified to train caregivers, in 2019 she became director of Dementia Care Education for RAH. She loved hosting educational events for the police department, park district, and elder-care organizations.

Gloria was a loving sister, aunt and friend to many. She is survived by her sisters, Angelika Kuehn, Veronica Kuehn (Frederick) Fremont, Birgitta (Brian McHaffee) Kuehn; her brothers, Christopher (Lynn Wesley) Kuehn and Clement (Elizabeth Angele) Kuehn; her nieces, Ellison (Brian), Erica (Matt), Sarah (Samir), Kate, Sophia, and Johanna; and her nephews, Aaron (Orchidia), Stephen (Jennifer), Nathaniel (Juliet); and many great-nephews and great-nieces.

A COVID-safe event will be planned for 2021, to memorialize her bright, fun-loving nature. Please go to the Drechsler, Brown & Williams site, drechslerbrownwilliams.com for updates. Because of COVID, the family regrets missing the opportunity to meet with all of Gloria’s friends. We appreciate any stories or comments left on that website.

Gloria went out of her way to care for animals. In lieu of flowers, donations to Chicagocaninerescue.org or other animal charity would be appreciated.

Hannah Mathias, 64 Nurse, fitness enthusiast

Hannah R. Mathias (Aren), 64, of River Grove, formerly of Oak Park and River Forest, died suddenly on Nov. 25, 2020. Born on Feb. 12, 1956, she graduated from Oak Park and River Forest High School in 1973, received her bachelor’s in Liberal Arts from Judson University in Elgin, and later pursued her passion and earned a nursing degree from Concordia University in River Forest. A dedicated nurse for over 30 years, she spent 23 of those years caring for patients at the Marjorie Weinberg Cancer Center (Gottlieb/Loyola) as if they were her own family

and friends. She provided compassion and care to all those she touched and healed with her humor. Her smile was infectious.

Full of energy and light, she was enthusiastic about fitness. She loved her garden, the beauty of nature and all four-legged companions, especially her rescue dogs, Logan and Loki. She formed relationships with her friends that spanned decades.

Selfless and kindhearted, to know her was to love her.

Hannah was the wife of Jack D. Mathias for 43 years; the mother of Dan (Lavette) and Laura (Gavin) Reeves; grandma of Madeline, Stella and Myles; sister of Debbie Hopper; aunt of Ericka (Zach) Adams, David (Brooke) and Randy Hopper; daughter of the late Edward and Regina Aren.

Due to COVID-19, a memorial gathering will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to: Loyola Medicine-Marjorie Weinberg Cancer Center at Gottlieb or Magnificent Mutts & Meows Rescue.

Arrangements were handled by Drechsler, Brown & Williams Funeral Home.

Aljean Taylor, 84 Longtime employee of Bell Telephone Co.

Aljean Taylor, 84, a longtime resident of Oak Park, died on Nov. 29, 2020. Born in Tennessee on March 9, 1936, she moved to the Chicago area when she was very young. A graduate of McKinley High School in Chicago, following high school she married Garfield Taylor. They were married for over 47 years before he died. She worked for Illinois Bell Telephone Company for over 35 years before her retirement.

Aljean is survived by her daughter, Janice, and was preceded in death by her son, Jeffrey. Other survivors include her grandchildren and great-grandson, along with many many other relatives.

Visitation will be held on Thursday Dec. 3 from 3 to 8 p.m. at Drechsler, Brown & Williams Funeral Home, 203 S. Marion St., Oak Park. Due to current COVID-19 restrictions, a maximum of 10 people will be allowed in the funeral home. To allow for others to pay their respects and to allow for social distancing, we ask that people pay their respects and move on to allow others the opportunity.

Masks are required.

Visitation on Friday at 10 a.m. will be followed by an 11 a.m. funeral service at Garfield Park Community Worship Center, 4100 W. Jackson Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60624.

In lieu of flowers, donations to Garfield Park Community Worship Center (www. gparise.com) are appreciated.

38

Wednesday Journal, December 2, 2020 New local ads this week

HOURS: 9:00 A.M.– 5:00 P.M. MON–FRI

WEDNESDAY

CLASSIFIED Deadline is Monday at 5:00 p.m.

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

YOUR WEEKLY AD

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

Please Check Your Ad: The publisher will not be responsible for more than one incorrect insertion.

Wednesday Journal Classified must be notified before the second insertion.

The newspaper reserves the right to edit or reject any advertisement.

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

LIBRARY SERVICE UPDATE The Library is now under the Essential Service Model. Computer Sessions by appointment only. 30 min sessions. Call 708-366-7171 or sign up at fppl.org/computersignup. Copy machine (copy/scan) available for drop in. Vestibule Pick Up of library holds available. Place holds online at fppl.org or call.

HELP WANTED

HELP WANTED TEACHER AND TEACHER AIDE MINI ME BUNCH seeks teacher and teacher aide to enhance and expand daycare serving children ages 6 weeks to 5 years. Teacher must have at least Associates’ degree in Early Childhood Education. Minimum 1 year experience preferred in each position. Must love children and be outgoing, patient, flexible.

Contact 773-521-9499.

Wednesday Classified 3 Great Papers, 6 Communities To Place Your Ad, Call: 708/613-3333

HELP WANTED

River Forest Public Schools District 90 is seeking a Part-time School Social Worker (One Day a Week) Qualifications: a) Valid State of Illinois Professional Educator License b) Licensed Clinical Social Work (LCSW) preferred Job Duties: The School Social Worker provides needs-based behavioral and social-emotional services to the students, parents, and faculty/staff of a school. The role includes, but is not limited to, individual and group counseling with students; direct and indirect consultation with students and teachers; assessment, behavior planning and intervention implementation and monitoring; and universal screening/prevention of behavioral & social-emotional concerns. The individual hired for this position will be required to develop ISP goals, monitor progress towards goals and participate in annual reviews and re-evaluations as needed.

The School Social Worker hired for this position will work with D90’s team and provide services at one of the private and parochial schools located in River Forest. The social worker will collaborate with parents, faculty and administration at the private and parochial school to meet the needs of students. This individual fulfills the requirements of the role as stated in Rules and Regulations for Special Education. Apply online at district90.org

SUBURBAN RENTALS

SUBURBAN RENTALS

OAK PARK: ROOSEVELT/ OAK PARK AVE. CORRIDOR 2BR 4RMS close to blue line. On site laundry, parking, heat & water incl. $1200/ month 708-383-9223

M&M

OFFICE SPACE FOR RENT RIVER FOREST–7777 Lake St. *1116 sq. ft. suite *569 sq. ft. with patio OAK PARK–1053 Lake St. *Entire 3rd Floor, 1275 sq. ft.

OAK PARK– 6142-44 Roosevelt Rd. *3 and 5 room office suites Strand& & Browne Strand Browne 708-488-0011 708-488-0011

COMMERCIAL/ RETAIL SPACE

COMMERCIAL/ RETAIL SPACE

A RETAIL SPACE FOR RENT–

1635 Sq Ft. IN SHOPPING CENTER: 315–325 S. Harlem Ave., Forest Park, IL.

• Very Good Condition–Recent Updates: NEW: Ceiling/floor tiles, basebrds, HVAC Unit, bath lav & sink/faucet, drywall. White primed walls throughout. • Suitable for almost ANY business type.

• Heavy traffic area; Across: Rush-Oak Park Hosp.

No Agents, pls. CALL: Jim (708) 828-6491

ITEMS FOR SALE

CEMETERY PLOTS

10 FT CHRISTMAS TREE In box.

708-447-1762

TWO BURIAL PLOTS WOODLAWN (2) burial plots at Woodlawn Cemetery side by side. Located in Birchwood Section. $5000 for both 847-858-7726 Andytarnoff@comcast.net

POOL TABLE Complete setup pool table 708-447-1762 SMALL CHEST Small plastic chest with six dustproof drawers. Pretty burnt orange color, like new. 33”h x 12”d x 15”w.

708-488-8755 SMALL METAL FILE CABINET 13”w x 30”h x 10”d. 6 skinny drawers.

708-488-8755 Items for Sale ads run free in Wednesday Classified.

SUBURBAN RENTALS

property management, inc.

708-386-7355 • www.mmpropmgt.com 649 Madison Street, Oak Park Contact us for a complete list of available rentals throughout Oak Park and Forest Park.

Apartment listings updated daily at:

AUTOS FOR SALE 2013 CHEVY CAMARO 3000 certified miles.

708-447-1762 2002 MERCEDES BENZ S430 10,000 miles.

708-447-1762

WANTED TO BUY WANTED MILITARY ITEMS: Helmets, medals, patches, uniforms, weapons, flags, photos, paperwork, Also toy soldiers – lead, plastic – other misc. toys.

Call Uncle Gary 708-522-3400

FIREWOOD UNLIMITED

Fast Delivery MIXED HARDWOODS CBH & MIX 100% OAK CHERRY OR HICKORY 100% BIRCH

847-888-9999

You have jobs. We have readers!

Find the best employees with Wednesday Classified!

Call 708-613-3342.

Ceiling Fans Installed

Order online:

www. suregreen landscape.com

Credit Cards Accepted

Lost & Found, Items for Sale, and To Be Given Away ads run free in Wednesday Classified. To place your ad, call 708-613-3342

ELECTRICAL

A&A ELECTRIC

Let an American Veteran do your work

We install plugs for battery-operated vehicles We fix any electrical problem and do small jobs We install Surge Protectors • Home Re-wiring • New Plugs & Switches Added • New circuit breaker boxes • Code violations corrected Service upgrades,100-200 amp • Garage & A/C lines installed Fast Emergency Service | Residential • Commercial • Industrial Free Home Evaluations | Lic. • Bonded • Ins. • Low Rates • Free Est.

708-409-0988 • 708-738-3848 Sr. Discounts • 30 Yrs. Exp. Servicing Oak Park • All surrounding suburbs • Chicago area

FLOORS KLIS FLOORING INC.

New hardwood flooring installation & pergo. Sanding, re-finishing, staining. Low prices, insured.

Call: 773-671-4996 www.klisflooring.com

HANDYMAN Mike’s Home Repair Drywall H Painting H Tile Plumbing H Electric H Floors Windows H Doors H Siding Ask Us What We Don’t Do

HEATING/ AIR CONDITIONING HEATING AND APPLIANCE EXPERT Furnaces, Boilers and Space Heaters Refrigerators Ranges • Ovens Washer • Dryers Rodding Sewers

708-296-2060

Lic/Bonded 25 yrs experience

CURT'S HANDYMAN SERVICE

FREE SERVICE CALL WITH REPAIR AND SENIOR/VETERAN DISCOUNT.

Drywall Repair • Painting Fans Installed • Carpentry Trim Gutter Cleaning • Window Repair

FREE ESTIMATES Excellent References No Job Too Small

708-488-9411

FIREWOOD HANDYMAN Roofing Repairs

Seasoned 2 years Stacking Available

Find your new apartment this Saturday from 10 am – 4pm at 35 Chicago Avenue.

Or call us toll free at 1-833-440-0665 for an appointment.

ELECTRICAL

Concrete Repairs • Drywall All types of handiwork Call For Free Estimates

773-637-0692 Ask for John

708-785-2619 or 773-585-5000

HAULING BASEMENT CLEANING

Appliances & Furniture Removal Pickup & Delivery.

708-848-9404

Attention! Homeimprovement pros!

Reach the people making decisions your target demographic Advertise in Wednesday Classified.

Call 708/613-3342

PAINTING & DECORATING CLASSIC PAINTING Fast & Neat Painting/Taping/Plaster Repair Low Cost

708.749.0011

PLASTERING McNulty Plastering & Stucco Co.

Small & big work. Free estimates.

Complete Plaster, Stucco & Re-Coating Services

708/386-2951 • ANYTIME Work Guaranteed

Licensed, Bonded, Insured, & EPA Certified Expert craftsmanship for over 50 years

PUBLIC NOTICES PUBLIC NOTICE Notice is hereby given, pursuant to “An Act in relation to the use of an Assumed Business Name in the conduct or transaction of Business in the State,” as amended, that a certification was registered by the undersigned with the County Clerk of Cook County. Registration Number: Y20005148 on November 12, 2020 Under the Assumed Business Name of FREELAND & THATCHER with the business located at: 805 LAKE ST UNIT 429, OAK PARK, IL 60301.

The true and real full name(s) and residence address of the owner(s)/ partner(s) is: HAWANYA BLAKELY 479 N HARLEM AVE UNIT 501 OAK PARK, IL 60301, USA Published in Wednesday Journal 11/18, 11/25, 12/2/2020

PUBLIC NOTICE Notice is hereby given, pursuant to “An Act in relation to the use of an Assumed Business Name in the conduct or transaction of Business in the State,” as amended, that a certification was registered by the undersigned with the County Clerk of Cook County. Registration Number: Y20005178 on November 12, 2020 Under the Assumed Business Name of INCLINE REAL ESTATE ADVISORS with the business located at: 319 UVEDALE ROAD, RIVERSIDE, IL 60546. The true and real full name(s) and residence address of the owner(s)/partner(s) is: JEFFREY K. CERMAK, 319 UVEDALE ROAD, RIVERSIDE, IL, 60546, USA Published in RB Landmark 11/18, 11/25, 12/2/2020

Wednesday Journal, December 2, 2020

CLASSIFIED

(708) 613-3333 • FAX: (708) 467-9066 • E-MAIL: CLASSIFIEDS@OAKPARK.COM | CLASSIFIEDS@RIVERFOREST.COM

PUBLIC NOTICES

PUBLIC NOTICES

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING VILLAGE OF OAK PARK ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS

Public Notice: Your right to know PublicNoticeIllinois.com

PUBLIC NOTICES LEGAL NOTICE LAW OFFICE OF LINDA EPSTEIN Attorney for Petitioner 722 W. Diversey Parkway, Ste. 101B Chicago, iL 60614 STATE OF ILLINOIS) COUNTY OF COOK )ss Circuit Court of Cook County, County Department, Domestic Relations Division.

In re the marriage of WILLIAM JESUS GONZALES, Petitioner and FRANCISCO JAVIER ESPARRAGOZA ESPINOSA, Respondent, Case No. 2020 D 008427 The requisite affidavit for publication having been filed, notice is hereby given to you, the above named Respondent, that a Petition has been filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, by the Petitioner, for Dissolution of Marriage and for other relief; and that said suit is now pending.

Now, therefore, unless you, the said Respondent, file your Appearance and Response electronically to said Petition in the Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, on or before December 23, 2020, default may be entered against you at any time after that day, and a judgment for Dissolution of Marriage entered in accordance with the prayer of said Petition.

DOROTHY A. BROWN, Clerk.

HEARING DATE: December 17, 2020 TIME: 7:00 p.m. or as soon thereafter as the Agenda permits CALENDAR NUMBER: 15-20-Z APPLICATION: The Zoning Board of Appeals (“Board”) will conduct a public hearing on a special use application filed by the Applicant, Hinsdale Bank & Trust, pursuant to Section 8.3 (“Table 8-1: Use Matrix”) of the Oak Park Zoning District to construct and operate a two (2) lane drive-through facility for a bank at the property located at 400-406 Madison Street, Oak Park, Illinois, Property Index Number 16-07-423-025-0000 & 16-07-423-026-0000 in the MS Madison Street Zoning District.

break during Governor JB Pritzker’s current disaster proclamation. It is also not feasible to have a person present at the public hearing due to public safety concerns related to the COVID-19 outbreak.

All interested persons will be given an opportunity to be heard at the public hearing. Interested persons may provide written evidence, testimony and public comment on the application by email to Zoning@oak-park.us or by drop off in the Oak Park Payment Drop Box across from the main entrance to Village Hall, 123 Madison Street, Oak Park, Illinois, to be received no later than 5:00 p.m. on December 17, 2020. An individual’s name and their testimony or comment will be read aloud into the record at the public hearing if received no later than 30 minutes prior to the start of the public hearing. Interested persons may also sign up to participate in the hearing to cross examine the applicant and its witnesses, present evidence, testimony or public comment by emailing Zoning@oakpark.us before 5:00 PM on the day prior to the public hearing to sign up. Individuals who sign up to participate in this manner will receive an email from Village staff with information about how to join the meeting online through Zoom webconference means or by phone.

A copy of the application and applicable documents are on file and are available for inspection at Village Hall, 123 Madison Street, Oak Park, Illinois 60302, Monday through Friday between 8:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., by contacting the Zoning Administrator at Zoning@oak-park.us.

The Board will conduct the public hearing remotely with live audio available and optional video. The meeting will be streamed live and archived online for on-demand viewing at www.oak-park.us/commissiontv as well as cablecast on VOPTV, which is available to Comcast subscribers on channel 6 and ATT U-Verse subscribers on channel 99.

The remote public hearing is authorized pursuant to Section 7(e) of the Open Meetings Act. The Village President has determined that an inperson public hearing is not practical or prudent due to the COVID-19 out-

The public hearing may be adjourned by the Board to another date without further notice by public announcement at the hearing setting forth the time and place thereof.

Published in Wednesday Journal December 2, 2020

Published in Wednesday Journal 11/25, 12/2, 12/9/2020

NOTICE TO BIDDERS Sealed separate bids will be received by the Board of Education, Oak Park Elementary School District 97 (the “Board”) for the following project: OAK PARK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL DISTRICT 97 SD97 - SUMMER 2021 ADDITION & RENOVATIONS BEYE, LINCOLN, LONGFELLOW, WHITTIER OAK PARK, IL 60302 BID GROUP 1 – DEMOLITION, EXCAVATION, CONCRETE, MASONRY, STEEL, GENERAL TRADES, MILLWORK/ CASEWORK, ROOFING, METAL PANELS, DOORS FRAMES & HARDWARE, GLAZING, DRYWALL & ACT, FLOORING, PAINTING, SPECIALTIES, ELEVATOR, WHEELCHAIR LIFT, PLUMBING, HVAC, and ELECTRICAL Bids will be received until 2:00 p.m.

CST on Friday, December 11, 2020 at the Oak Park Elementary School District 97 Administrative offices, 260 Madison Street, Oak Park, IL 60302, and will be virtually opened via zoom and read at 2:30 p.m. CST on that date. Bids shall be submitted in an opaque sealed envelope clearly marked: Oak Park Elementary School District 97 260 Madison Street, Oak Park, IL 60302 Attention: Bulley & Andrews Project: SD97 - SUMMER 2021 ADDITION & RENOVATIONS Virtual Bid Opening will be held at 2:30pm CST on 12/11/2020 per link: https://us02web.zoom.us/ j/84381616944?pwd=cGRPcVZuVVh5S0tmZmVBUXlFSEJ5QT09

Meeting ID: 843 8161 6944 / Passcode: 039859 / +13126266799,, 84381616944# US (Chicago)

LLC One Drive, located at the following link. No username or password is required.

Scope of work for Bid Group 1 generally includes, but is not limited to: Demolition, excavation, concrete, masonry, steel, general trades, millwork/ casework, roofing, metal panels, doors frames & hardware, glazing, drywall & ACT, flooring, painting, specialties, elevator, wheelchair lift, plumbing, HVAC, and electrical.

https://bulleyandrews-my. sharepoint.com/:f:/g/personal/amantel_bulley_com/ EnFU50U2lZJHvgH8M5EOgUsB37AO8_Gejp_4_ry47Ql0mQ?e=AyfkWu

All bids must be submitted in accordance with the bidding instructions contained in the Bidding Documents for the project. Bid security in the form of a bid bond in an amount equal to ten percent (10%) of the base bid amount shall be submitted with the bid. Should a bid bond be submitted, the bond shall be payable to the Board of Education, Oak Park Elementary School District 97, 260 Madison Street, Oak Park, IL 60302. All documents and information required by the bidding instructions contained in the Bidding Documents for the project shall be submitted with the bid. Incomplete, late or non-conforming bids may not be accepted.

No bids shall be withdrawn, cancelled or modified after the time for opening of bids without the Board’s consent for a period of ninety (90) days after the scheduled time of bid opening.

The Bidding Documents for the project (which include the bidding instructions for the project and other related documents) will be available Wednesday November 25, 2020 and are available for viewing/ download online without cost or purchase on the Bulley & Andrews,

The Board reserves the right to reject any or all bids or parts thereof, or waive any irregularities or informalities, and to make an award that in the Board’s sole opinion is in the best interest of the District.

The site will be available for visits by appointment to be coordinated with Bulley & Andrews, LLC. Interested parties may inspect the existing conditions. Schedule an appointment with Alex Mantel of Bulley & Andrews in advance if you wish to visit the sites.

All bidders must comply with applicable Illinois Law requiring the payment of prevailing wages by all Contractors working on public works. If during the time period of work, the prevailing wage rates change, the contractor shall be responsible for additional costs without any change to the contract amount. All bidders must comply with the Illinois Statutory requirements regarding labor, including Equal Employment Opportunity Laws.

PUBLIC NOTICES

PUBLIC NOTICES

VILLAGE OF RIVERSIDE, ILLINOIS NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING Notice is hereby given to all interested persons that a public hearing before the Planning and Zoning Commission of the Village of Riverside will be held on Monday, December 21, 2020 at 7:00 p.m., or as soon thereafter as the business of the Planning and Zoning Commission may permit, to consider an application from the Village of Riverside for a Special Use Permit for a government/public service use to allow the installation of a radio antenna and 100 ft. tall support structure (tower) at the Riverside Public Works Facility in the R1-A Residential Zoning District for the property located at 3860 Columbus Blvd.

Due to the ongoing public health emergency and consistent with the Governor’s most recent emergency declaration, various Executive Orders entered by the Governor, and the recent amendments made to the Open Meetings Act in Public Act 101-640, the public hearing will be conducted electronically. The hearing will be streamed live via Zoom and on Riverside Television, where it will be available on YouTube’s Riverside TV channel. The Zoom Meeting ID and access code will be made available on the Village’s website prior to the hearing. Video of the public hearing will subsequently be posted and made available to the public on the Village website.

Application No.: PZ20-007 Petitioner: Village of Riverside Property Commonly Known As: 3860 Columbus Road PIN: 15-36-315-028, 15-36-315029, 15-36-316-008 Proposed Special Use: A special use for a government/public service use is sought to install a radio antenna and 100 ft. tall support structure (tower) at the Riverside Public Works Facility for the purposes of supporting wireless communication between the Public Works Facility and Village Offices and a new village-wide water meter reading system in the R1-A Residential Zoning District.

The above application can be made available for inspection by contacting the Village Clerk, by phone at 708-447-2700 or via email at chaley@riverside.il.us.

Public comments regarding the proposed special use are welcome when received by email or in writing by the Community Development Director prior to 4:00 p.m. on the day of the meeting. Emailed comments may be sent to Director Sonya Abt at sabt@riverside.il.us.

Written comments may be submitted to the attention of the Director at 27 Riverside Road, Riverside, Illinois. While written comments are strongly encouraged, live public testimony and comments can also be made during the hearing by persons participating via Zoom.

The Public Hearing may be continued from time to time without further notice, except as otherwise required under the Illinois Open Meetings Act. Dated this 2nd day of December, 2020 Jill Mateo, Chairperson Planning and Zoning Commission Published in RB Landmark

12/02/2020

LEGAL NOTICE The Village of Oak Park will receive sealed Bids from qualified contractors at the Public Works Center, 201 South Blvd., Oak Park, IL 60302 Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. local time until 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, December 17, 2020 for the following: Village of Oak Park 2021 Village Wide Emergency Water and Sewer Repair Work Bid Number: 21-106 Bid forms may be obtained from the Public Works Customer Service Center by calling 708358-5700 or by stopping by the office located at 201 South Boulevard, Oak Park, Illinois between the hours of 7:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Information is also available from the Assistant Public Works Director, Rob Sproule, rsproule@oak-park.us and the Village’s website http:// www.oak-park.us/bid.

The Village of Oak Park reserves the right to issue proposal documents and specifications only to those vendors deemed qualified. No proposal documents will be issued after 4:00 p.m. on the working day preceding the date of proposal opening.

For more information call the Public Works Service Center at 708.358.5700.

Published in Wednesday Journal December 2, 2020

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING VILLAGE OF BROOKFIELD PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION DECEMBER 17th, 2020 at 7:00 PM NOTICE is hereby given that the Village of Brookfield Planning and Zoning Commission will conduct a public hearing on Thursday, December 17th, 2020 at 7:00 p.m. in the Edward Barcal Hall located at 8820 Brookfield Avenue, Brookfield, Illinois for the purpose of considering a request for a special use for an indoor assembly use at 9207 Broadway Avenue, Brookfield, Illinois 60513 (PIN 15-34-307-026-0000).

The public is invited to attend the public hearing and present oral and/ or written comments.

The application may be viewed at the Village of Brookfield Village Hall during normal business hours. Written comments may be provided prior to the public hearing to: Village of Brookfield, Planning and Zoning Commission c/o Elyse Vukelich, 8820 Brookfield Avenue, Brookfield, IL 60513 or evukelich@brookfieldil.gov.

Individuals with disabilities requiring a reasonable accommodation in order to participate in any meeting should contact the Village of Brookfield (708) 485-7344 prior to the meeting. Wheelchair access is available through the front (South) entrance of Village Hall.

By the Order of Chuck Grund, Planning and Zoning Commission Chairman.

Published in RB Landmark 12/02/2020

For additional information on the project, contact Alex Mantel of Bulley & Andrews, LLC at amantel@ bulley.com or 219-678-8383.

Dated: 11/5/20 Alex Mantel Bulley & Andrews, LLC

OakPark.com | RiverForest.com

❄ ❅ ❆

PUBLIC NOTICES

PUBLIC NOTICES

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING VILLAGE OF OAK PARK ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS

Published in Wednesday Journal November 25, December 2 and 9, 2020

❄ ❅ ❆

39

Are you a “For Sale By Owner?” Call 708-613-3342 to advertise.

HEARING DATE: December 17, 2020 TIME: 7:00 p.m. or as soon thereafter as the Agenda permits CALENDAR NUMBER: 07-20-Z APPLICATION: The Zoning Board of Appeals (“Board”) will conduct a public hearing on a special use application filed by the Applicant, McDonalds Corporation, to modify and expand its existing single-lane drivethrough facility pursuant to Section 8.3 (“Table 8-1: Use Matrix) and Section 15.2 (B) (Expansion) of the Oak Park Zoning Ordinance to add a drive-through lane for a dual-lane drive-through facility at the property located at 111 Madison Street, Oak Park, Illinois, Property Index Number 16-17-105-003-0000 in the MS Madison Street Zoning District.

A copy of the application and applicable documents are on file and are available for inspection at Village Hall, Development Customer Services Department, 123 Madison Street, Oak Park, Illinois 60302, Monday through Friday between 8:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. The Board will conduct the public hearing remotely with live audio available and optional video. The meeting will be streamed live and archived online for on-demand viewing at www. oak-park.us/commissiontv as well as cablecast on VOP-TV, which is available to Comcast subscribers on channel 6 and ATT U-Verse subscribers on channel 99. The remote public hearing is authorized pursuant to Section 7(e) of the Open Meetings Act. The Village President has determined that an in-person public hearing is not practical or

prudent due to the COVID-19 outbreak during Governor JB Pritzker’s current disaster proclamation. It is also not feasible to have a person present at the public hearing due to public safety concerns related to the COVID-19 outbreak.

All interested persons will be given an opportunity to be heard at the public hearing. Interested persons may provide written evidence, testimony and public comment on the application by email to Zoning@oak-park.us or by drop off in the Oak Park Payment Drop Box across from the main entrance to Village Hall, 123 Madison Street, Oak Park, Illinois, to be received no later than 5:00 p.m. on December 17, 2020. An individual’s name and their testimony or comment will be read aloud into the record at the public hearing if received no later than 30 minutes prior to the start of the public hearing. Interested persons may also sign up to participate in the hearing to cross examine the applicant and its witnesses, present evidence, testimony or public comment by emailing Zoning @oakpark.us before 5:00 PM on the day prior to the public hearing to sign up. Individuals who sign up to participate in this manner will receive an email from Village staff with information about how to join the meeting online through Zoom webconference means or by phone.

The public hearing may be adjourned by the Board to another date without further notice by public announcement at the hearing setting forth the time and place thereof.

Published in Wednesday Journal December 2, 2020

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Wednesday Journal, December 2, 2020

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

WEST COOK YMCA

48th Annual

Christmas Tree & Wreath Sale

CONTINUE THE TRADITION THREE WAYS TO PURCHASE

Curbside Pickup With Online Purchase Reserve Private Viewing of Lot Your purchase comes with this special offer:

NO JOINER’S FEE PLUS 1 MONTH FREE CREDIT (to be applied towards annual membership fees) Offer Code: 20TreeMem Expires: 12/31/2020

Open Lot with Social Distancing For more details, to purchase online, or to make a reservation, visit: www.westcookymca.org/christmas-tree

Tree Sale Begins Friday, November 27

Your purchase ensures access to the West Cook YMCA through a scholarship to those who may not have the means to join. We change lives every day, and you can help us make that happen.

COVID-19 measures in place.

255 S. Marion St., Oak Park, IL 60302