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December 9, 2020 Vol. 40, No. 19 ONE DOLLAR @oakpark @wednesdayjournal

JOURNAL of Oak Park and River Forest

Concordia faculty braces for cuts Process seeks closer ties to Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod By MICHAEL ROMAIN Staff Reporter

Faculty at Concordia University Chicago in River Forest are bracing for what could be a round of painful terminations and cuts to various departments as the institution implements what it is calling a “prioritization” process. In an email statement, Eric Matanyi, the university’s associate vice president for communications and marketing, said prioritization “will allow the university to realize $5 million in funds that will be reallocated to support existing under-resourced programs/operational areas, as well as new initiatives.” Matanyi said, in addition, that the university “is emphasizing its ongoing commitment to its mission and vision.” Part of that mission is to be “steadfast in Jesus Christ as revealed in the Holy Scriptures” and to faithfully practice the “confessional teachings of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod,” the Lutheran denomination that operates the Concordia University System. The system comprises seven colleges and universities across the country, including the one in River Forest, and one satellite campus. Concordia University Chicago’s vision is to be a “Christ-centered university where truth, freedom, and vocation form students for lives of influence and service for the common good.” But the members of the Concordia Faculty SenSee CONCORDIA on page 16

Cat-astrophe averted Photo provided via drone

NOW SAFE ON THE GROUND: It took more than a day of ingenuity but neighbors, and a generous tree service, finally brought this cat to safety.

It took a village (River Forest) to get this cat down from a tree in Thatcher Woods By MARIA MAXHAM

Staff Reporter

n Dec. 6, a cat stuck in a tree on forest preserve property near Thatcher Avenue and Hawthorne Avenue was rescued by Fernandez Tree Service, the same Chicago certified arborists who saved a cat from a tree in Chicago’s Galewood neighborhood in October. According to a post on the River Forest Neighbors Facebook page, Fernandez Tree Service refused to take money for the rescue. The cat, who was checked out by a vet, reportedly had a fever but

appeared otherwise fine. She is being taken in by Brett Gentile, one of the residents who helped with the rescue. That rescue had gone on since the previous day, when residents discovered the cat stuck about 40 feet up in a tree. Resident Irene O’Connor, who started a post about the cat on a River Forest Facebook page, said she was originally alerted to the problem when she saw two teenage girls trying to shake the tree to get the cat down. According to O’Connor and resident Brett Gentile, the police said they couldn’t help. Nor could the fire department or the village’s public works department. They said they’d also called the Cook County Forest Preserves, which was also not able to offer assistance. Residents left food out at the base of the tree overnight, but

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Wednesday Journal, December 9, 2020

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River Forest unlikely to ban gas-powered leaf blowers By ROBERT J. LIFKA Contributing Reporter

River Forest officials will address complaints from residents about noisy landscaping equipment with an awareness and education campaign. An extensive discussion at the Nov. 30 virtual village board meeting was sparked by complaints from residents to village staff and elected officials as well as posts on social media in October and November targeting noisy landscaping equipment, especially gas-powered leaf blowers. Village Administrator Eric Palm speculated that such complaints were more numerous this fall because many people are working from home and children are remote-learning from home. An unseasonably warm spell in early November also might have led to more people opening their windows. Officials appeared to be against an outright ban on gaspowered leaf blowers, but they acknowledged that electricpowered leaf blowers are quieter and more environmentally friendly. However, battery-powered leaf blowers need to be recharged frequently and residents are likely to oppose allowing landscapers to plug their electric-powered leaf blowers into their home outlets. Trustee Bob O’Connell said he was told by a landscaper doing business in River Forest that manufacturers are trying to lower the decibel levels of their equipment and that his firm replaces equipment every two years. He also said he was told that raking by hand would be too expensive. Trustee Tom Cargie expressed concern for older residents if village restrictions led landscapers to use practices that are more labor-intensive and, therefore, more expensive, noting it “might price seniors out.” Trustee Katie Brennan’s alternative was to have a “neighbor kid” rake leaves by hand for a less expensive hourly rate. “Most landscapers are small operators,” Palm said, noting

the amount of money they make is driven by volume. He also said that enforcement of any proposed regulation would “be difficult at best.” Cargie agreed, saying, “The biggest issue is enforcement.” Brennan called attention to the village’s existing time restrictions on outdoor contractors, including landscapers, and village President Cathy Adduci noted that a code enforcement officer is dispatched when complaints are received. Village code allows contractors to work from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Saturdays. It does not allow any work on Sundays and major holidays. Palm said there no decibel limits. In response to a question from Trustee Erika Bachner, Palm said landscapers are required to pay $125 for a license from the village and renew it annually. Trustee Respicio Vazquez suggested tying enforcement to the license, noting that a landscaper’s license could be revoked if the village receives multiple complaints. Trustee Patty Henek raised the environmental benefits of using electric-powered leaf blowers instead of gas-powered units and expressed concerns with noise pollution. She suggested that landscapers who comply be rewarded, perhaps with some type of recognition from the village. Referring to “living in a glass house,” O’Connell asked whether the village’s public works department uses gaspowered leaf blowers. Palm acknowledged that public works staff members use gas-powered leaf blowers, including when working along forest preserve property on Thatcher Avenue. The River Forest Park District also uses gas-powered leaf blowers. In reference to O’Connell’s comment about landscapers replacing equipment every two years, Brennan suggested that enforcement of a ban on gas-powered leaf blowers could be delayed for that period of time to allow landscapers to budget for different equipment. Bachner and Henek supported asking members of the

River Forest Sustainability Committee to research alternatives to removing leaves. “There’s a lot of work here,” Adduci said. “It’s not an easy decision and you can’t just snap your fingers.” She advocated sending a letter to all licensed landscapers reminding them of the village regulations and encouraging them to do things that are more sustainable and asking the Sustainability Commission to investigate alternatives to removing leaves. “For sure, we should enforce our laws,” she added. Palm said he expected the Sustainability Commission to discuss the matter “at an upcoming meeting.”

River Forest equity effort inching forward By ROBERT J. LIFKA Contributing Reporter

A discussion at the Nov. 30 virtual River Forest Village Board meeting on implementing the internal component of the effort to create a culture of equity and inclusion reopened a previous division among officials regarding obtaining resident input. In September, officials announced their intent to ensure the village committed to a culture of equity and inclusion by approaching the issue from internal and external perspectives. The external component was already in motion with the signing of the Twin Villages Covenant with Maywood in June and has since moved forward with the approval in October of a partnership with Dominican University in River Forest. Village Administrator Eric Palm acknowledged the existence of a group of 12 residents who have expressed an interest in serving on an advisory committee to study the internal component, but he advocated using a consultant with experience in this

area to help village officials determine goals and objectives. “As previously discussed, there is an importance to taking an inward look at our organization as it relates to equity and inclusion,” he said. “This will focus on various areas, including policies, practices, systems and structures in all of the operating departments.” As they did in a previous discussion in September, trustees Tom Cargie and Bob O’Connell expressed concerns with the group of 12 residents, who were organized by trustees Erika Bachner and Katie Brennan following the police-involved killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade and others earlier this year. O’Connell said he appreciated the work by Bachner and Brennan and acknowledged the qualifications of the 12 residents, but he objected to the process. “I still don’t feel that I have a seat at the table, and I feel like I’m owed a seat the table,” he said. “I feel like I’m on the outside looking in.” Bachner and Brennan defended their efforts, stressing the qualifications of the 12

residents, especially their “lived experiences,” noting that their fellow trustees had been encouraged to suggest additional people to the committee. O’Connell said he has been spoken to residents who he thinks “would add value to such an advisory committee” but who ask him questions about what work they will be asked to do and how much time it will take. “And I can’t answer those questions, because we don’t really know what path we’re going to go down,” he said. “We’re putting the cart before the horse a little bit. “I would like to engage a consultant sooner than later so that we can really understand what we need. We don’t know what the work is.” Cargie agreed, stating a desire to have a “concrete goal” as the first step. “We’re picking people to do a job, but we haven’t told them what their job is other than the broad concept of promoting equity,” he said. “Other than that broad concept, what are we asking them to do? “You don’t know who to put on the committee if you don’t know what you want

them to do. Let’s figure out what we want.” Village President Cathy Adduci and Trustee Respicio Vazquez noted that the process for forming the village’s Age-Friendly Committee, which Vazquez heads, began with creating goals. “Before we get there, I think we need to set out the goals and the mission and the purpose kind of like what we did with the AgeFriendly Committee,” Adduci said. Palm agreed with Adduci that staff members are asking to begin the conversation by talking about the goal, purpose and mission of the group. “I think that would be the next step,” he said. “We would want to memorialize and get feedback from the board in terms of how we then go ahead.” “It sounds like there’s consensus that we need to build the goals and mission,” Adduci said, adding she would assign to staff the task of “taking the lead on that in terms of beginning that discussion.” Palm said he and Lisa Scheiner, assistant village administrator, will work on that and have an update at the next village board meeting.

Wednesday Journal, December 9, 2020

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BIG WEEK December 9 - 16

The Three Baritones 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

Hanukkah Crafts and Treats 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

“Christmas Comes but Once a Year” Saturday, Dec. 12, 7 p.m., Livestream with Oak Park Festival Theatre 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

Holiday Housewalk for Healthy Kids Through Dec. 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.

Winter Reading Program for Kids #ReadGrateful challenge

“It’s a Wonderful Life: A Radio Play,”

Wednesday, Dec. 9, 7 to 8 p.m., Zoom with the River Forest Public Library

Travelin’ Tunes Saturday, Dec. 12, 2 to 3 p.m., Zoom with the Oak Park Public Library Enjoy a musical journey with jazz vocalist Petra van Nuis and her husband, guitarist Andy Brown. Hear favorites including “Come Fly With Me,”“Far Away Places,”“Caravan,” ”It Happened in Monterey,” and more. Free. Register: oppl.org/calendar

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.

Friday, Dec. 11, and Saturday, Dec. 12, 6 p.m., Livestream with OPRF 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/currenttheater-season

Through Feb. 28, Online with Oak Park Public Library For kids of all ages - reading together with people you love and cozying up with fun activities. Completing the challenge is as simple as reading an hour a week. Books, audiobooks, podcasts, listening to stories, magazines, newspapers. Log 10 hours and get a Cozy Cocoa prize pack (one per family). Each badge earned gets entry into a raffle for gift cards to local Oak Park businesses. Register and start tracking: oppl.org/readgrateful

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

Duo Diorama Concert Saturday, Dec. 12, 7 p.m., Virtually with Unity Temple Restoration Foundation Unity Chamber Music Series artistic directors Winston Choi and MingHuan Xu of Duo Diorama 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

Learning to Love Difficult People Saturday, Dec. 12, 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Virtually with Kadampa Meditation Center Buddhist philosophy and meditation offer clear methods for improving relationships with others simply by changing how to view them. During this workshop, we will practice meditations that help improve how we relate and respond to others, so we can be at peace regardless of how others behave. Available to watch up to 72 hours after workshop time. $20. Register: meditateinchicago.org/event-details/ learning-to-love-difficult-people

What’s Cooking: 100 Cookies Sunday, Dec. 13, 4 to 5 p.m., Zoom with the Oak Park Public Library Join fellow cooks to discuss 100 Cookies: the Baking Book for Every Kitchen with Classic Cookies, Novel Treats, Brownies, Bars, and More by Sarah Kieffer. This book group meets winter, spring, summer and fall. All welcome. Book available through Hoopla. Register: oppl.org/calendar

Wednesday Journal, December 9, 2020

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Oak Park to dispense Merry Christmas! COVID vaccines to hospital ON SALE! workers, paramedics First round expected in midDecember By STACEY SHERIDAN Staff Reporter

Hospital employees and local paramedics will be the first to receive COVID-19 vaccines from the village of Oak Park under a program shared Monday by Village Manager Cara Pavlicek with the village board. As a certified public health department, the village received approval Nov. 27 from the state to provide COVID-19 vaccinations. Pavlicek said staff feels “fairly confident” that the village would receive an initial allocation of vaccinations in mid-December. Front line personnel, including hospital employees, will be the first to receive the vaccination. “Another group that can receive those initial vaccines are paramedics,” said Pavlicek. “The village does employ paramedics so we will also have a process for vaccination of paramedics.” The COVID-19 vaccinations are completely optional. “While it seems odd to think of it like offering a flu vaccination to your work force, that’s how we’re approaching it,” said Pavlicek. “But obviously with a lot more seriousness.” Pavlicek believes the initial round of vaccinations will be two-dose vaccines and that every allotment the village receives will include the second dose.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as well as a “planning committee under the CDC,” are providing guidance for a “three-tiered system” to vaccinate individuals in the country, said Pavlicek. “Predominantly that results in the CDC providing vaccinations, once emergency use authorizations are provided by the [U.S. Food and Drug Administration], to state governments,” said Pavlicek. The states will then distribute the vaccinations to authorized providers, said Pavlicek. Residents living in nursing homes will not be vaccinated through the village but through “federal and statewide agreements with pharmaceutical companies.” “Nursing homes will also be vaccinated directly,” said Pavlicek. “We will neither receive their shipment of vaccinations nor deliver those vaccinations.” As for the people who are not hospital workers, paramedics or nursing home residents, when they will receive COVID-19 vaccines is not yet determined. “Probably right after the first of the year, we’ll be able to provide a little bit better guidance on how the public will be vaccinated,” said Pavlicek Pavlicek also said it was important to consider age and underlying health conditions when determining the order in which members of the public receive vaccines, so don’t throw away those masks yet. “This is going to take a process, but I have great confidence in our health department staff,” said Pavlicek.

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COVID spikes here in past week After their positivity rates dropped 6.54 percent, according to Northwestern a week ago, Oak Park and River Forest University’s COVID-19 database. had another alarming week battling CORiver Forest’s 14-day rolling positivity VID-19 as 155 Oak Park and 32 River For- rate has climbed to 8.04 percent, which is est residents tested positive for the novel four percent higher than it was on Nov. 4. coronavirus from Dec. 2 to Dec. 8. After six deaths in nursing homes and River Forest had 18 people test positive assisted living facilities in Oak Park, Nov. for COVID-19 on Dec. 3, its worst single23-30, there were no residents who died of day total since the start of the pandemic. COVID-19 this past week. River Forest’s Since March 18, when the Oak Park DeCOVID-19 database does not contain inpartment of Public Health started providformation regarding the health of those ing updates on coronavirus’ impact on the in assisted living facilities. community, 1,782 Oak Park residents have According to Cook County’s director tested positive for COVID-19. of communications, Natalia Derevyanny, Oak Park went from averaging 16 cases the county has had 6,954 COVID-19 related a day on Nov. 30 to 24.4 cases a day on Dec. deaths since the beginning of the pan6. The Oak Park Department of Public State Farm demic. There were 390 COVID-19 related Health reported 117 new cases ofBloomington, COVIL fatalities in Cook County since Nov. 30. ID-19 between Dec. 4 and 7. The village’s 14-day rolling positivity rate is now2001290 up to James Kay, staff writer

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Wednesday Journal, December 9, 2020

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ART BEAT

Madison Street Theater needs an HVAC system

No heat, no options for long winter, but GoFundMe underway By MICHELLE DYBAL

Arts Editor

he plan was made. Months of work had already gone into the Madison Street Theater (MST) building — much loved, but sorely needing work. Flooring was updated; fresh paint had been applied; a couple walls were added and the building was brought up to code. Many volunteer hours and generous offers from local tradespeople had gone into the $75,000 renovation. “An Evening at Madison Street Theater: Renovated and Reimagined,” planned for months, was going to raise the funds needed to tackle the next part of the project — dealing with the HVAC system, some parts of which were 25 years old, 10 years past its prime. The benefit was scheduled for March 12. Tickets were purchased by approximately 150 people. Then COVID hit. “It was a difficult decision, but we know we made the right decision, and cancelled the fundraiser,” said Tina Reynolds, Madison Street Theater board member. “Our hope for the fundraiser was to begin the capital campaign, to start fixing and repairing the HVAC.” The building itself, at 1010 Madison St., Oak Park, has a long history, starting as a tile warehouse and storefront in the 1920s, according to the MST website. In 1961, nonprofit Oak Park River Forest Civic Theater was founded and housed for years on South Blvd. In 1984, the group acquired the Madison Street space and opened the theater in 1984. Over the years, different groups used the space, including Circle Theatre and Village Players. In the previous seven or eight years, BRAVO, the theater program at Gwendolyn Brooks Middle School, and Ovation Academy, an award-winning performing arts program that offers classes and theater production for youth, used Madison Street Theater for additional summer theater camp space. Reynolds heads up both programs, as artistic director/program manager and artistic director/CEO respectively. Seeing the MST space decline over time, was breaking her heart, Reynolds said, and she recognized the building was a challenge for the nonprofit board at the time. She began talking to them over an 18-month period about acquiring the building. Then the theatre was also approached by a developer who was putting up condos in the area. “That space in particular, I thought, was so special having done shows in there, having seen shows in there, I couldn’t imagine it being demolished and turned into condos,” Reynolds said. “I know how much this community supports the arts and finds it important for their kids and for their own selves.” She saw an opportunity to save the Madison Street Theater and turn it into a professional-quality venue for both local and Chicago-area arts groups to perform. “It needed more TLC,” she said. “It really needed a board that was galvanized that could have the passion, the time and the connections to really turn the place around and save it.” In June 2019, the sitting board of directors agreed to dissolve and hand over the reins to an all new board. Reynolds is chairman and acts as VP, she said.

ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

SAY IT AIN’T SO: Tina Reynolds mourns the passing of MST’s heating system. “The previous board was thrilled,” she said. “What they were hoping for was that new life could be breathed into the building.” Working with Forest Park Bank, the new board was able to refinance and acquire that original nonprofit entity Oak Park River Forest Civic Theater, which owns MST. Ovation became the anchor tenant, paying rent and running its classes and holding its performances at the MST. It had been located in a group of rooms beneath Oberweis Ice Cream on Oak Park Avenue. “Ovation was kind of bursting at the seams at our previous location,” Reynolds said. Rental space at MST consists of a 200-seat mainstage theater, 65-seat black-box theater and rehearsal space. There is also a music room, pianos, dressing rooms, prop room and lobby areas. A drone tour on the MST website shows how the space has been updated. Since the shut down in March, the theater has not been able to be used to its maximum capabilities. It reopened in July with safety protocols in place. Ovation has a robust program in place, offering safe in-person classes, virtual classes and productions. However, rentals have been very slow. Directors have held auditions, musicians have rehearsed and there was even a marriage proposal -- a couple who met about six years ago at this theater during a show returned for a bit of romantic nostalgia. Still, MST is “just trying to make ends meet,” Reynolds said. With “strict guidelines for indoor events,” an upcom-

ing show scheduled for Dec. 18 by a dance company is now uncertain. The nonprofit has been creative in cutting costs, deferred its loan initially and may refinance its loan, Reynolds said. They are also applying for grants. “Because we’re so new and it takes a little bit of time to build and create a relationship with a lot of these foundations that provide grants,” she said, “we’re applying for them, we just have not been awarded any. Everything that is happening at Madison Street Theater right now is at the hands of our board and our volunteers.” And then, just before Thanksgiving, two of the HVAC units quit. Without getting the units replaced, the theater would need to be shut down for the winter. A GoFundMe was created by the board and in seven days, more than $34,000 was raised by 214 donors. The goal of $60,000 will pay for a complete replacement of the HVAC systems for the entire building, which includes renting a crane because units are located on the roof. The board is working with a local contractor and secured reduced rates and permitting has been granted by the Village of Oak Park. “For this community to rally around this gem of a theater, to keep it open, to keep it alive … it’s breathtaking, it’s incredible,” Reynolds said. More on Madison Street Theater or to donate: mstoakpark. com

Wednesday Journal, December 9, 2020

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RF village administrator takes job in Hoffman Estates By MARIA MAXHAM Staff Reporter

Eric Palm, River Forest’s long-time village administrator, will fill that same position in Hoffman Estates beginning in early 2021. Palm’s hiring was finalized Monday, Dec. 7 when the village board of the northwest suburb unanimously approved his hiring, according to the Daily Herald. His last day in River Forest will be Feb. 5 and he will start in Hoffman Estates a week

later. Lisa Scheiner, who has served as assistant village administrator since 2013, will serve as the acting village administrator when Palm leaves and until a new village administrator can be recruited in 2021. Village President Cathy Adduci said in a Dec. 2 press release, “Times are such that people might not want change, but the village will face this head on. These are challenging times, but with consistency and focus, we will be fine. Eric has been an ex-

ceptional leader and we are grateful for his leadership and commitment to River Forest.” Palm has served as village administrator in River Forest since 2010. In Hoffman Estates, Palm will lead a much larger community and village hall staff. With a population of 52,000 it is approximately five times the size of River Forest. Between full and part-time employees, Hoffman Estates has a staff of 400 people. Hoffman Estates is also a Home Rule community.

Palm will replace a village manager who retired in August after 22 years in the job. His salary will be $225,000. “I am thankful to all of the elected officials, residents and business owners that I have established relationships with during my time in River Forest. Most importantly, I want to thank the professional village staff who deserve the credit for our success. It is their hard work each day that allows us to achieve all of the village board’s goals,” Palm said in the release.

D97 attendance up slightly during remote learning

Increase across ethnicities, but factors unclear By MICHAEL ROMAIN Staff Reporter

At this point, students in Oak Park Elementary School District 97 have spent roughly half the year out of the classroom and learning remotely at home, but apparently the drastic change in circumstances hasn’t affected student attendance much. According to the most recent data released

by the district last month, the district-wide attendance rate between Sept. 1 and Oct. 31 was 93.1 percent. During the same period of time in 2019, D97’s student attendance rate was 91.5 percent. The attendance rate among white, Black, Asian, Hispanic and multirace students through Oct. 31 was 95.2 percent, 86 percent, 97.9 percent, 91.3 percent and 93.6 percent, respectively. The latest data shows an increase across every ethnic group. Last year at this time, attendance among those ethnic groups was 90.9 percent, 85.3 percent, 94.2 percent, 87.8

percent and 89.6 percent, respectively. According to a statement attached to each attendance report, D97 utilizes “the Illinois best practice ‘Time to Day’ automated calculation when taking daily attendance,” with the Illinois School Code tying attendance to “instructional minutes per grade level. “The state’s requirement for instructional minutes may mean that a child arriving very late or leaving very early from school will be counted as absent,” the statement explains. “The ‘Time to Day’ calculation simplifies this process by allowing the school to enter the time of day students arrive late or

leave early to automatically calculate their attendance for that day. The district’s middle schools do not utilize this calculation because they take attendance each class period.” Attendance in the district is taken each day by teachers and denoted in a student information system called PowerSchool. The factors behind this year’s slightly improved attendance data aren’t clear. D97 officials weren’t available this week to comment on remote learning attendance. More as this story develops.

CONTACT: michael@oakpark.com

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ComEd Relocation Complete at Lake and Lathrop

The developer of the mixed-use condominium project at the corner of Lake and Lathrop, completes electrical power lines removal

s soil remediation continues at the southwest corner of Lake and Lathrop, focus has shifted to updating the electrical and communication utilities in the village and for the new development. The electrical service that supplied the previous commercial buildings at Lake and Lathrop traveled by overhead power lines. After demolishing the buildings, the service lines remained running overhead through the property. These lines interfered with the new development and required relocation. ComEd, along with developer, and the Village of River Forest worked to accommodate the extensive electrical service relocation. It was a project that had to be performed sensitively as these lines provided active power to the entire block, serving commercial businesses and village residents. To begin, ComEd investigated their underground power grid and identified existing, unused conduit running to the site. Rather than disrupt the community with construction to lay new conduit, ComEd decided to activate the existing infrastructure and repair portions of the conduit to meet modern safety standards.

Additionally, three new utility poles were necessary for power redistribution throughout the block. To service the new poles ComEd had to design new boring routes underground. The redesign also included implementing a power switch-over that would bring separate power to the neighboring property, 7625 Lake Street. The switch-over required two new additional utility poles and as well as a new boring route under Ashland Avenue. The planning, design, and repair work took several months during the early part of 2020. In the midst of the conduit repair and pole location changes, however, ComEd faced another challenge – COVID-19. With shelterin-place implemented in March, crews were limited due to the virus. Many local and development projects were deprioritized to address electrical needs in the city. When ComEd crews finally ramped back up on-site in late summer, Hurricane Laura hit the coast of Louisiana, causing major power outages in the Southern region. In coordination with a national effort, ComEd sent over 100 crews to help restore power to Louisiana residents. This act of service, unfortunately, pushed back many Chicagoland projects that were scheduled for

completion, including Lake and Lathrop. By November, though, ComEd completed the power relocation and switchover work, finalizing the power redistribution to the entire block. Like ComEd, Comcast and AT&T will remove their existing overhead lines and re-route them underground by boring underneath Lathrop Street into the development site. The newly-abandoned utility poles will be removed from the site prior to excavation. The Lake and Lathrop development attracts both local residents looking to downsize as well as newcomers interested in joining the River Forest community. Each condominium delivers two car parking, private elevator access, a chef-quality kitchen and ten-foot ceilings. The homes have unmatched access to the outdoors, providing residents with private outdoor space that rivals that of a single-family home, without any of the maintenance. A large, covered terrace

runs the length of the combined living and dining room. Second floor homeowners enjoy an additional 1,000 square feet of south-facing terrace and penthouse homeowners benefit from larger indoor living spaces and access to private rooftop terraces. Corwin Partners at Jameson Sotheby’s International Realty is leading the sales and marketing efforts. Pre-construction pricing is available from $699,900 to $1,474,900. Call 312-335-5354 or visit www.RF-LakeStreet.com to schedule your private appointment or virtual presentation.

Wednesday Journal, December 9, 2020

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INSIDE REPORT INSIDE REPORT For 20 years, L’Arche Chicago has opened doors ~ providing lifelong homes for people with intellectual disabilities, building communities of mutuality and belonging, and revealing the many gifts of people with disabilities. With the high, state wide demand for community integrated living spaces and the growing accessibility needs of our aging members, L’Arche Chicago plans to acquire a fully accessible home for adults with intellectual disabilities. A new home provides opportunities for existing members to thrive in an adaptive environment as well as creating room for newCozzens, members, whoofseek community. could no longer afford to stay open,” said Jim co-owner Oakthe Parksame Brew- thriving

Oak Park Brewing joins hibernating restaurants

ing, 155 S. Oak Park Ave., announced the Cozzens. Join thishas effentered ort and make a needed by donating towards Concerned adjusting hours of operations restaurant a “temporary, but in- impact a home for life! definite” closure. A stimulus package would would sow confusion among regular customexpedite reopening, but without an infusion ers, Oak Park Brewing’s hibernation was an of cash the restaurant will remain closed “all or nothing” decision for the brew-pub. until indoor dining restrictions are liftedGo or to: Cozzens notes the restaurant industry www.larchechicago.org/opendoors has been devastated by the pandemic, but outdoor dining returns. “Some restaurants may have better re- his staff members were “remarkably underserves than we do, but we were looking at standing” about the closure. our bank account and it was very clear we Melissa Elsmo, Oak Park Eats editor

Oak Park Brewing joins hibernating restaurants Jim Cozzens, co-owner of Oak Park Brewing, 155 S. Oak Park Ave., announced the restaurant has entered a “temporary, but indefinite” closure. A stimulus package would expedite reopening, but without an infusion of cash the restaurant will remain closed until indoor dining restrictions are lifted or outdoor dining returns. “Some restaurants may have better reserves than we do, but we were looking at our bank account and it was very clear we

could no longer afford to stay open,” said Cozzens. Concerned adjusting hours of operations would sow confusion among regular customers, Oak Park Brewing’s hibernation was an “all or nothing” decision for the brew-pub. Cozzens notes the restaurant industry has been devastated by the pandemic, but his staff members were “remarkably understanding” about the closure.

Melissa Elsmo, Oak Park Eats editor

RESIDENTIAL — COMMERCIAL — RETAIL — CHURCHES — SCHOOLS

OPRF grad loses bid for Congress New York has been the slowest state in the nation to count votes from November’s election. But on Friday, a month after Election Day, nearly complete results have been reported and Oak Park native Nancy Goroff has come up short in her attempt to win a seat in Congress representing the eastern half of Long Island. With 98 percent of the vote counted Goroff, a Democrat, trails incumbent Republican Lee Zeldin. Zeldin has received 55.9 percent of the vote to 44.1 precent for Goroff. The OPRF grad is a chemistry professor at the Stony Brook campus of the State University of New York.

The result is a disappointment to Democrats who had hoped to flip the seat in New York’s 1st Congressional District. Goroff ran a strong campaign raising nearly $6 million, including a $1,150,000 loan from herself to her campaign. Goroff won a close primary in June to become the Democrat nominee. House races nationwide were a disappointment to Democrats as the Republicans have gained 10 seats in the House with two more races still too close to call. Goroff could not be reached immediately for comment.

Bob Skolnik, contributing reporter

Harmon re-elected senate prez The Illinois Senate Dec. 3 re-elected Oak Park’s Don Harmon as senate president, this time for a full two-year term, according to Shia Kapos, in Politico’s Illinois Playbook. Harmon, first elected to the Illinois Senate in 2002, took over as senate president earlier this year to serve the remainder of former Senate President John Cullerton’s term, following Cullerton’s retirement in early 2020. The Illinois Senate Democratic Caucus threw its support behind Harmon, who will begin his full-term Jan. 13 as president of the Illinois Senate’s 102nd general assembly.

“I am honored and humbled to have the support of my colleagues to serve as president of the Illinois Senate,” said Harmon in a statement sent to Wednesday Journal by the caucus. “We have a fantastically talented collection of Senate Democrats who are ready to make their mark, solve problems and lead Illinois through an upcoming year that will be filled with both challenges and accomplishments.”

SERVING OAK PARK AND RIVER FOREST SINCE 1976 Stacey Sheridan, staff reporter

Bob Skolnik, contributing reporter

Stacey Sheridan, staff reporter

Wednesday Journal, December 9, 2020

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C R I M E

Man robs 7-Eleven for smokes

The 7-Eleven convenience store at 240 Chicago Ave. was robbed at 5:15 a.m., Dec. 6, by a man in need of nicotine. With his hand in his pocket, the man entered the store and announced he had a firearm. The man then walked behind the checkout counter and grabbed two packs of Newport cigarettes. He fled the scene riding a blue Divvy bicycle and was last seen traveling northbound on Harvey Avenue. The estimated loss of the cigarettes is $15.

■ Someone

poured gray paint all over a vehicle and slashed all four of its tires between noon, Nov. 24 and 7:27 p.m., Nov. 30 in the first block of Garfield Street. ■ Someone set a garbage can on fire at 4:47 p.m., Dec. 2 in the 100 block of Garfield Street. The estimated damage is unknown. ■ The front driver’s side tire belonging to a vehicle parked in the 6700 block of Roosevelt Road was slashed between 6:30 p.m., Nov. 30 and 6 p.m., Dec. 2. The estimated loss is $120.

Aggravated robbery A man forcibly removed a woman’s handbag from her shoulder at 11:02 a.m., Dec. 6 in the 200 block of South Marion Street. The offender then got into the front passenger seat of a black Honda Civic, last seen traveling west on Pleasant Street.

Burglary Someone smashed the driver’s side window of a vehicle then reached inside the vehicle and took a wallet from the center console at 4:34 a.m., Nov. 30 in the 1100 block of South Ridgeland Avenue. The estimated loss is $230.

Criminal damage to property

Motor vehicle theft

Theft

■ The 2016 Nissan Sentra reported stolen Nov. 23 from the 1100 block of Lake Street was recovered by Chicago police at 3:31 p.m., Dec. 4 in the 10000 block of South May Street, Chicago, without apprehension. ■ Someone took an unlocked and running 2000 Lexus RX300 from the 1000 block of Madison Street between 6:45 p.m. and 6:49 p.m., Dec. 4. Estimated loss is unknown.

■ Someone took two reindeer Christmas decorations from the front yard of a residence in the 1200 block of Columbian Avenue between 9:30 p.m., Dec. 2 and 8:15 a.m., Dec. 3. The estimated loss is $130. ■ A vehicle’s front and rear license plates were taken between 9:30 p.m., Dec. 4 and noon, Dec. 5 in the 400 block of Home Avenue.

These items, obtained from the Oak Park Police Department, came from reports Nov. 30 – Dec. 7 and represent a portion of the incidents to which police responded. Anyone named in these reports has only been charged with a crime and cases have not yet been adjudicated. We report the race of a suspect only when a serious crime has been committed, the suspect is still at large, and police have provided us with a detailed physical description of the suspect as they seek the public’s help in making an arrest. Compiled by Stacey Sheridan

Woman attacked on Blue Line Suffering from head trauma and eye injury By STACEY SHERIDAN Staff Reporter

CTA Blue Line service was closed temporarily Friday, Dec. 4, after a woman was attacked by a man on an inbound train that

had stopped at the Blue Line station at 720 S. Austin Blvd at 1:30 p.m. The woman appeared to suffer from head trauma, as well as an eye injury, but was conscious and breathing. “Oak Park detectives are conducting a preliminary investigation,” said Oak Park Deputy Police Chief Shatonya Johnson. “At this time, the only information that I can share is the female victim was stabbed multiple times by an unknown male subject.”

House Hunting?

Witnesses told Oak Park police that the woman had either been stabbed with a knife or struck by a hammer, according to Oak Park spokesman David Powers. The victim was transferred to Loyola Medical Center in Maywood. Police are searching for the offender, who is described as an African American man, approximately 30 years old, of medium build and height and wearing a “lock” hair style. He was last seen wearing a dark hood-

ed jacket, blue jeans, white tennis shoes and a blue surgical mask. Anyone with information is directed to call the Oak Park Police Department at 708-386-3800. Those who wish to remain anonymous can call Oak Park police at 708-434-1636. Anonymous tips can also be submitted online by visiting the police department page of the village of Oak Park website.

Find a Realtor. Find a home. Get a list of Open Houses. Every week, every day in

Wednesday Journal, December 9, 2020

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Wonder Works is making it work

Museum available to rent for small learning pods By STACEY SHERIDAN Staff Reporter

Wonder Works Children’s Museum, 6445 W. North Ave., is offering an alternative to virtual schooling at home. For those looking to switch up an uninspiring learning atmosphere for a more stimulating one, Wonder Works is opening its doors to learning pods and children’s enrichment groups. “I just can’t wait to have kids and people back in the museum again,” said Julianne Nery, Wonder Works board president. Learning pods are small in-person groups of about six to 10 students who learn together under the guidance of a supervisor. With schools moving to remote learning due to COVID-19, learning pods are meant to safely educate children without sacrificing socialization with their peers. Wonder Works offers a change of space for kids who have been cooped up at home, learning from their kitchen table. “The kids can go and read their books in the treehouse that we have inside,” said Nery. “They can sit and talk about class on the stage. We have an art room where they can do projects.” Wonder Works can partition the space to separate different learning pods and enrichment groups to reduce contact. The premises will be sanitized after each pod or enrichment group with a special electrostatic sprayer. No group has rented yet, but Nery hopes the museum will begin hosting groups in December. “We’ve had a lot of interest. We’ve had quite a few calls and emails,” said Nery. Cost is dependent upon time, according

to Nery. A period of four and a half hours costs $300 or $25 per person in a group of 12. To gauge demand, the Wonder Works board is offering rentals Monday through Wednesday, but Nery said they are flexible if groups require certain times and days. “We’d love to work with bigger community groups that might be interested in renting on a steady basis,” said Nery. The children’s museum closed back in March under state order and has been closed since. Like many other non-profits, the pandemic has dealt Wonder Works a considerable financial blow. The museum relies heavily on grants and donations, as well as membership fees. With no guests visiting, revenue dwindled, requiring the volunteer board to lay off the entire Wonder Works staff. The museum launched its first ever appeal to donors this year. The board has taken over fulfilling staff duties but was recently able to rehire their technology person and hopes to bring back more staff members. “If we can have a steady rental schedule in the first half of the year, that would be awesome, because then we can bring back some former employees,” said Nery. Due to its interactive activities and toys, which small children often try to put in their mouths, Wonder Works cannot reopen as a museum until phase four of Governor J.B. Pritzker’s Restore Illinois plan. The toys and other “loose parts,” as the museum says, will not be available to rental groups out of concern for safety. In the meantime, Wonder Works has gotten new air conditioning, new flooring and sanitizing stations. A separate lobby was created to safely check-in guests. With all the new improvements, Wonder Works is ready to operate as a museum again, whenever the time comes.

ALEX ROGALS/Staff Photographer

File photo

IT WORKS: (Top) Wonder Works exterior, (above) Fantasy Kingdom exploration area.

Oak Park passes 2021 village budget Property taxes raised 3 percent By STACEY SHERIDAN Staff Reporter

Oak Park’s village board passed its 2021 fiscal year budget Dec. 8 during its last meeting of the year. The budgeting process went together smoothly, despite the major financial concessions made to counteract the economic repercussions of COVID-19. Spending in the new budget is down roughly $22 million from last year’s levels. The 2021 budget was put together entirely by village staff without input from the board’s finance committee and reflects $138.4 million in overall revenues and $146.3 million in overall expenditures. Property taxes were hiked by three percent. The village board praised staff for the work put into creating the budget. All but Trustee Arti Walker-Peddakotla

voted in favor of passing it. Mayor Anan Abu-Taleb said the village board had a responsibility to keep the government going and if four trustees were to vote against the budget, the village government would shut down. “Do we have everything we need in this budget on a personal level and for our own views? No,” said Abu-Taleb. “But this is what government is all about. It’s compromise.” Walker-Peddakotla, who believes budgets are “moral documents,” said she could not vote for the budget “in good conscience.” “I think the biggest failure of all in this budget was really the failure to reduce the police department budget after countless demands that we heard from the civil rights movement of 2020,” said Walker-Peddakotla. She continued, saying the village has done “very little” to address policing in Oak Park this year. Walker-Peddakotla said she had thought a lot about the

changes in budgets over the last decade. “Ten years ago, in 2011, the village spent around $600,000 on public health and over $18 million in police,” she said. “In this proposed budget… we’re spending $500,000 roughly on public health and over $26 million on police.” This year’s budget includes $26.3 million for policing compared to the 2020 budget at $25.5 million. Despite spending cuts made to the police budget, police pension hikes account for the majority of the increase. Calls to defund the police, Walker-Peddakotla said, were “calls to rewrite the budget so that our spending aligns with the needs of our community.” Abu-Taleb repeated his previous stance that the village would not defund the police while he was in office. “This board has voted we are not going to defund the police. I don’t understand why this conversation keeps happening,” he said. “It’s time for us to recognize that our role is to serve the community as a whole.”

Wednesday Journal, December 9, 2020

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Homes

Riverside tops Chicago suburbs for home sales in 2020

Other near west ‘burbs also on track for great year By LACEY SIKORA

Contributing Reporter

hroughout the Chicago suburbs, home sales in 2020 have been brisk. Despite, or perhaps because of the pandemic sweeping the nation, houses have been selling quickly in Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake and Will counties -- up 7 percent in the first 10 months of 2020 when compared to the same period of 2019. In Riverside the numbers are attentiongrabbing. Year-to-date home sale were up a whopping 53 percent, the most of any suburb in the five counties. Other near west suburbs also saw substantial sales increases, but no other local suburb came close to cracking the top 10 in sales as measured by local industry groups. Keller Williams realtor Rory Dominick has lived in Riverside since 2008 and focused her real estate practice there since 2012. She says this year has been unlike any other year she’s seen since she started selling homes in 2005. She says it has not been unusual to see homes garner three, four or five offers, and she has heard of interested buyers knocking on doors in the suburb to inquire about

homes that are not even for sale. In part, she says the unusual selling season has been due to “an incredible increase in the activity of buyers coming from the city.” Realtor Jeff Baker of the Burlington Group of @properties says the summer season was the busiest he’s seen since he started working in Riverside in 2004. “You could put a house on the market on Friday and have 30 showings over the weekend,” Baker said. Noting that inventory in the village, whose population is roughly 8,800, is down 10 percent and sales up over 50 percent, Dominick says of 2020, “It’s the perfect storm of high demand, low inventory.” Like other suburbs, she says that the pandemic moved a lot of potential city buyers into certain suburban buyers. As the pandemic and its accompanying restrictions dragged on, young buyers in the city were desperate for more space to work from home or school from home. On top of that, they were looking for a bit of green space to stretch their legs, and those of their children and pets. Dominick says these young buyers looking for their first suburban homes fueled a lot of sales in Riverside. “Anything priced between $400,000 and $600,000 is going fast,” Dominick said. See SUBURBS on page 25

Photo provided

HOT MARKET: 399 Shenstone Road in Riverside (top) just went on the market for $479,000 to multiple offers, while 293 Scottswood Road (left) and 123 N. Cowley (above) sold recently for $460,000 and $645,000, respectively.

Wednesday Journal, December 9, 2020

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Wednesday Journal, December 9, 2020

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The property information herein is derived from various sources that may include, but not be limited to, county records and the Multiple Listing Service, and it may include approximations. Although the information is believed to be accurate, it is not warranted and you should not rely upon it without personal verification. Real estate agents affiliated with Coldwell Banker Realty are independent contractor sales associates, not employees. ÂŠ2020 Coldwell Banker Realty. All Rights Reserved. Coldwell Banker Realty fully supports the principles of the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Opportunity Act. Owned by a subsidiary of NRT LLC. Coldwell Banker and the Coldwell Banker Logo are registered service marks owned by Coldwell Banker Realty LLC.

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SUBURBS

Sales are good all over from page 21 Baker says he saw a lot of buyers from the city move up their timelines due to the pandemic. He notes that with shutdowns in place, young couples weren’t able to enjoy the restaurants and amenities of the city anymore, so they started looking for a place that provided more green space and access to good schools for the future. While young families in the past typically left the city when their kids were ready to start school, this year it was different. “We’re seeing clients with young babies looking now,” Baker said. “We didn’t see that in past years.” What makes Riverside so special? According to Dominick, the village hits a lot of notes that appeal to first-time suburban buyers. “It’s only 11 miles from downtown,” she said. “So, for someone who is thinking ‘I’m not ready to leave the city, but if I have to do it, I want something special,’ Riverside is close to the city but has that uniqueness of a cute town and tons of green space.” Baker says the suburb is on more buyers’ radars this year and thinks that the fact there is a Metra station downtown as well as highly rated schools is a part of the appeal. He says low interest rates have helped fuel the sales market, too. He also has seen a lot more activity on larger homes as people within Riverside upsize, looking for more space to work and school from home. Dominick also has had a handful of clients move within Riverside. Again, she says these moves were often influenced by the pandemic. “People who lived here already realized their space wasn’t

working for them anymore when they needed space for work and schooling at home,” Dominick said. “I had one couple that was planning to downsize who are now looking for a home with more space because their college-aged kids are at home.”

Good stats for other suburbs John Lawrence, managing broker of Berkshire Hathaway Home Services in Oak Park, says that while Riverside is having a fantastic year for sales, other near west suburbs are doing well, too. “The nice thing is that there’s good things in all of our markets,” Lawrence said. “There’s a different headline for each, but good news for all of them.” Lawrence compares Riverside to River Forest’s market, noting that the two suburbs are similar in size and appeal and both are near train lines with great housing stock. “Both of them are sort of hidden gems in that they don’t have a huge area that draws in people from outside for dining or entertainment,” he said. He points out that while Riverside’ detached housing did well -- 158 single-family homes closed in the first 10 months of 2020 compared to 103 in 2019 -- the suburb’s No. 1 spot was also due to attached housing sales, which increased almost 100 percent from 11 units in the first 10 months of 2019 to 21 in the first 10 months of 2020. While attached housing sales might have decreased this year in River Forest, primarily because previous years saw higher sales when new developments were listed, Lawrence says detached housing is on track to have its best year ever in River Forest. “As of today, we are only six units off our all-time high, and with 19 properties pending, we should see probably a 40 percent increase year-over-year in detached housing.” In Oak Park, Lawrence says sales are on track to give the village perhaps its third best year in sales. He says that

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Photo provided

This restored 1889 Victorian home at 945 Longcommon Road in Riverside is listed at $975,000. there are 474 closed sales and predicts that with pending transactions, Oak Park could get close to its all-time high of 544 sales for the year. While Forest Park has not seen the same highs in terms of numbers of sales, Lawrence says the village is also a good news story. “They have 100 closed sales at this point and will not get to their all-time high of 133,” Lawrence said. “It might be their fourth best year of all time.” That said, he notes that the average price in Forest Park has increased almost 40 percent over last year, and Forest Park can also boast that its median prices have risen above pre-recession levels, something few other suburbs can say. Lawrence says that Forest Park can also claim an almost 60 percent increase in the median price of attached housing in the past two years. “There’s a lot of good in Forest Park,” he said.

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your Community your Foundation Please, give to the Oak Park-River Forest Community Foundation's Annual Fund today.

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

Community Foundation

The Oak Park-River Forest Community Foundation is a unique and vital part of the fabric of our community. With leadership, advocacy, and perseverance, the Foundation has mobilized essential resources to help those most in need in our neighborhood and beyond. Our service to our local organizations, donors, and scholars has continued without interruption, pushing for a more just and socially equitable community.

Together, we can create a brighter future for all. Donate today at oprfcf.org or call 708-848-1560

Wednesday Journal, December 9, 2020

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The Joyful Giving Catalog

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

Wednesday Journal, December 9, 2020

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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

Help Someone find their Silver Lining

ast January, sixteen-yearold Ja’Nya endured series of misfortunes that led her to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS). Before being connected to Youth Outreach Services (YOS), she frequently got into trouble and had little support or guidance. “Before, it was a struggle for me,” says Ja’Nya, “but now, since I became a part of [YOS], I changed a lot...I came to YOS to be a better me.” At YOS, we believe that a holistic approach is best when treating youth, meaning that we work on improving all aspects of their life and involve many people in their treatment plan, such as the caregiver, community members, friends, or school personnel. We ask them to join the youth on their unique journey towards overall health and a positive life path. It is this support system that carries each youth long after our services are done. Ja’Nya was placed in multiple residential centers via DCFS but always had hopes of being placed into foster care where a caregiver could offer a more permanent home. After 10 months between two residential facilities, she was placed with a caring woman named Rebecca, who Ja’Nya now calls Mom. Rebecca says that she has always been family-oriented and active in her community. “Nya brought me to ya’ll,” explained Rebecca, “I’m happy that she is here with me.” Ja’Nya says Rebecca is one of her closest allies, that she has been “in my corner always and has never let me down.” Ja’Nya represents so many youth who desire additional mentorship, community support and a family who loves them. She is fortunate that YOS was able to find her a safe home and a loving caretaker. She continues to receive support and resources from Youth Outreach Services’ case worker, Hayley, who has made such a positive impact.

This modern-day family still has their ups and downs, like any other family. They continuously work on communication skills, together with Hayley. “It’s still a struggle, but I now have more support.” Ja’Nya now calls Rebecca and Rebecca’s son, Mikey, family. Even Mikey has enjoyed having a sibling, saying “so far, having a sister has been great. I have someone to talk to and play video games with.” The future looks bright for this family, and Youth Outreach Services hopes to continue to help more just like them. Ja’Nya now loves basketball, track and field, and writing. “I’ve learned that I can’t let negativity get to me,” she says, “I’ve grown by changing my ways. I see myself going to college, owning my own place to help the homeless, [and] supporting youth with anything that they’re going through.” This child’s story may be afflicted by hardships, but there is a silver lining in everyone’s challenges. Through their struggles, each has found resilience and a loving relationship to carry them humbly throughout their journey. Help ensure every youth realizes their silver lining in life. Donate at YOS. ORG/DONATE or text @YOSCARES to 52014.

Wednesday Journal, December 9, 2020

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L’Arche Is a Home for Life

have an older brother, John, who lives with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Throughout his adult life, he has lived in four different places. The first, was lovely, but illequipped to handle his temperament at the time. The second was a state-run institution that seemed like a great place, where he seemed happy. Note the use of the word “seemed.” You see, one day (as one of his guardians) I received notice that a criminal case against some of his caregivers had been dismissed. The sad reality is up to that point, I had been kept unaware that he had been hit and that an investigation had been underway. Thanks to my sister (another guardian), we quickly re-located him to another, privately-run group home for adults with disabilities. This went well for a stretch of years, but we again hit a crisis when his weight dropped, mistakes with medications were made, and the overall level

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

of care dropped immensely. We were again on the search for a permanent home for him. Enter L’Arche Chicago, a faith inspired organization committed to welcoming adults with intellectual disabilities. Thanks to L’Arche Chicago, John now lives in a lovely home in Forest Park, Illinois which he shares with a handful of people with and without disabilities. His caregivers are smart, enthusiastic and view what they do as connected to their life’s mission. Recently John needed surgery and one of his caregivers spent hours upon hours with him in the hospital. She was constantly keeping us up to date, while accompanying him as they watched reruns of M.A.S.H. episodes. Our family feels so fortunate to have found such a place for John to live out the rest of his life. I can’t fully express the stress it has relieved for our entire family, including my elderly mother who has lived with

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

Maywood Youth Mentoring Program Organized in 1993 as a 501c3, the Maywood Youth Mentoring Program has served hundreds of middle to highschool 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,

John [center] surrounded by his siblings, Catherine [left], Bill [back] and Mary [right]. the ongoing worry of, “what would happen to John?” L’Arche Chicago is raising money to open a new fully accessible home for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The first $40,000 raised will be matched dollar for dollar! Please donate to help L’Arche expand

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 708-3443577.

New Moms

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.

its impact and enable others like John to live in this thriving community. Learn more at www.larchechicago.org/opendoors -- Mary Monday Sister of L’Arche Chicago core member, John

The Nineteenth Century Charitable Association

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 been connecting with our community with weekly Monday Enrichment Zoom programs. We are also pro-

The Joyful Giving Catalog

Wednesday Journal, December 9, 2020

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The Joyful Giving Catalog

Estate Planning With an Eye Toward Community

hat silver linings have you discovered during these challenging times? For many, it’s spending more time with family. For some it has been time in person, as outside social opportunities are limited. For others, it has been more intentional visits with family by Zoom when they cannot gather in person. As we think of our families, our thoughts may also turn to estate planning and how we intend to provide for our families when we are gone. While the concept of stewardship of our assets may start with considering how to pass wealth on to our families, it need not end there. Many of us believe that stewardship also entails providing for our communities — whether they be geographic, faith, learning, arts, social welfare or other forms of community. There are so many wonderful ways to provide for your community in the viding 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.

estate planning context. An obvious option is to direct in your will or trust that a certain amount or percentage of your estate pass to favorite charitable organizations upon your death. Just be sure that your attorney understands how to properly specify that these gifts are funded with taxable retirement plans, so there is less tax for your family to pay when you are gone. There are other options that may be less familiar, but which can provide you with lifetime benefits and a current income tax deduction. These are referred to as “planned giving” vehicles. A charitable gift annuity set up through a charitable organization provides you with a lifetime stream of income much higher than you would receive from savings accounts. A charitable remainder trust provides you with a lifetime stream of income and can be used to avoid or at least defer capital gains taxes on

Oak Park Regional Housing Center

the sale of low-basis assets. A gift of a remainder interest in a home or other real estate provides you with an immediate charitable deduction, while allowing you to remain in the home for the rest of your life. A skilled estate planning attorney should be able to discuss these and other death-related and lifetime charitable planned giving options with you and incorporate them into your estate plan. Just be clear with your attorney that you see the “objects of your bounty” as your family and your community! This information is brought to you by Melissa H. De Vries, a partner at Hoogendoorn & Talbot LLP, in partnership with Oak Park-River Forest Community Foundation. Melissa De Vries’ practice focuses on estate planning, estate administration, special needs planning, elder law, tax planning and preparation, charitable planning and advising

charitable organizations. Learn more about her at https://www.htlaw.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

have empowered the Foundation’s work to safeguard and advance the community in which we live, raise our families and work.

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.

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

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.

Melissa H. De Vries, Hoogendoorn & Talbot LLP 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 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.

Wednesday Journal, December 9, 2020

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Oak Park Mutual Aid

Housing is Key! Athena Williams, Executive Director, OPRHC

ak Park Regional Housing Center was birthed out of the Fair Housing Act and the need, in the late 1960s, to create a welcoming community. Over the decades the Housing Center, by introducing over 100,000 diverse individuals into the village, has helped transform the very nature of Oak Park. Housing is the foundation that is essential for establishing healthy lifestyles, including mental and

financial stability, that are crucial for creating successful households and vibrant neighborhoods.

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

• Helping 100 families become homeowners

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

• Assisting 75 individuals to improve their credit score

For more information and to donate, visit oneearthfilmfest.org/give.

On average, Oak Park Regional Housing Center works with 3,000 people per year. They receive services that include Fair Housing Education, Rental Apartment Referrals and Locations, Property Management Training, Financial Education, and much more!

Our accomplishments for 2020 include: • Providing COVID-19 support to 1,450 renters • Assisting 2,000 registrants to find apartments in Oak Park

In 2021, we look forward to providing more support to renters and homeowners, bringing the community together around racial healing transformations and helping people with money management strategies. If you would like more information, to donate, or volunteer, please visit: oprhc.org. And remember, housing is key! -- Athena Williams, Executive Director

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 Joyful Giving Catalog

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! (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.

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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-bono-network. org. Your support will make an impact the lives of many!

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

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. Learn more about St. Angela School at saintangela. org or call us at (773) 626-2655

The Joyful Giving Catalog

UCP Seguin of Greater Chicago

West Suburban Special Recreation Association 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

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 773777-7112 to refer them for services.

Everything you need for a better world: • More Art

• More Food

• More Compassion

• More Health

• More Education

• More Housing

• More Equity

• More Peace

RFPL Foundation Helps Library Serve Safely

n normal times, River Forest Public Library welcomes more than 100,000 visitors through its doors each year. While there, patrons check out more than 250,000 physical items—an average of 20,000 books, movies, kits, CDs, DVDs and more per month. During the COVID pandemic, RFPL needed to move to self-service checkouts only to improve safety for patrons and staff in a heavily used public building. Unfortunately, two of the Library’s 3 A young patron checks out her book self-checkout machines without assistance in the Children’s Room are obsolete and need at River Forest Public Library. A new selfto be replaced. The check machine in the lobby will make Bibliotechia\ self-check checking out materials safer and easier machine purchased in for all patrons thanks to a grant from the 2019 is highly reliable RFPL Foundation. and easy for patrons of all ages to use without assistance. It has been moved to the Children’s Room where circulation volume is highest. The RFPL Foundation has given the Library a $10,000 grant to purchase a new Bibliotechia self-check machine for the main lobby to provide more efficient borrowing and help maintain social distancing for patrons and staff. The Library will fund replacement of the other obsolete machine from its capital reserve fund. The Foundation was established in 2015 to enhance the Library today and for the future. It has funded the 2019 renovation of the Children’s Room, special programs, and other initiatives. Your donation to the RFPL Foundation has impact today and for years to come by supporting the Library in providing a safe and welcoming space for people of all ages to imagine, learn, explore, and connect. Learn more and donate at www.rfplfoundation.org.

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

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

If you read a racist letter, would you speak up?

was shocked by Matt Baron’s recent letter to the editor [When you see something, will you say something? Viewpoints, p. 39], its invocation of racist stereotypes and fear-mongering. In response to a Facebook commenter who called Trustee Dan Maroney a white supremacist, Baron labeled the commenter, who is a Muslim member of our community, a terrorist. He went on to speak of a “local farleft progressive bloc” that engages in “character assassinations” and “smear tactics.” Given our national leadership over the last four years, all of this felt incredibly familiar — the scapegoating, the hyperbole, the dog-whistling, the clear subtext that he is speaking to “us” while vilifying and dismissing the voices of a “them.” I found Baron’s letter particularly disappointing and problematic given that he, like me, is an elected official in Oak Park. I serve on the District 97 school board (although these views are entirely my own). It’s a role, like Baron’s, that requires me to be accountable to our entire community. This means hearing folks who call me out and tell me I need to do better, even if it’s harshly communicated. And any Oak Park elected official will tell you that we get called out all of the time — by e-mail, in public comment at board meetings, on Facebook threads, and in the neighborhood. Oak Parkers are not shy about sharing their opinions. Sometimes the criticism is shared with an expression of gratitude, sometimes it’s put in frank and unflattering terms. I don’t always enjoy it, but it’s my responsibility to hear it. I’m certain that the criticisms Baron and Moroney face don’t come from some radical fringe of Oak Park. I know from my own experience that they come from everywhere on every side of an issue. Despite this, Baron publicly singles out one commenter for harsh treatment. He then tries to rally Oak Park and its candidates to condemn the fictitious “intimidation squad” that she belongs to, by which he seems to mean people of color, and perhaps their allies, who are calling for us to do better on racial justice. I don’t need to tell anyone that 2020 has been an incredibly challenging year. We are in the midst of a pandemic that has put into relief the inequities that continue to plague our nation. And we’ve seen the continued killing of Black people in the most callous and egregious ways — George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and on and on. Out of this has also come a reckoning with the ways in which racism has shaped and continues to shape our society. In spite of our progressive values, Oak Park does not exist outside of this reality. Because of our progressive values, I am confident that Oak Park is a community that can confront and move forward from it. This is already happening and so many Oak Parkers are doing hard work to alleviate the pandemic’s harms and build a just and resilient future. To continue and grow this, we need leaders who are willing to not only tolerate, but engage with criticism. For white folks who aspire to represent our entire community (including Matt, Dan, and me), we also need a commitment to self-examination, to checking egos and bruised feelings, to hearing other people’s voices, and to finding a constructive and collective way forward. Gavin Kearney is a member of the District 97 Board of Education.

GAVIN KEARNEY One View

Wednesday Journal, December 9, 2020

VIEWPOINTS

Plugging in to the digital library p. 38

Now is the time to reach further for education equality

discovered that only one school district in t was a sad day for OPRF High School the country had significantly reduced the when Supt. Joylynn Pruitt-Adams anachievement gap between whites and minornounced her retirement. However, now ities. It was in Maryland where the supermight be just the right time and environintendent had been on the job for 12 years ment for the communities of Oak Park and he was in charge with K through 12. Anand River Forest to decide to reach for other piece of information was the fact that equality through education. at the third-grade level, you can definitely When I graduated from Hawthorne (now identify those students who need extra help to get on Julian) in 1947, OPRF High School was rated one of track to reach grade level in reading and math. the top 10 high schools in the United States. Forty-five If the superintendent covered K-12, plans could be years later, after a very critical article by Wednesday put into action to help bring students up to date. PresJournal about the high school, I became a volunteer. ently the elementary school has the students through My first student was a very polite African-American fifth grade and then they are off to middle school for freshman who was taking Western European history. three years. With one school system, there is a better He had graduated from Emerson (now Brooks) as a B opportunity to develop methods to help many more and C student; however, he was a fifth-grade reader. His students get to grade level. There hasn’t been any real mother was very disappointed that he was having so much difficulty at the high school. After three years at OPRF, I realized that volunteering at the grammar school level made more sense. I have been at Irving School for 24 years and have enjoyed the experience. The pandemic has eliminated volunteering since March. Since the 1980s, U.S. high schools have decreased from No. 1 worldwide to No. 26 today out of 36 industrial countries. Education became a lower priority and there are inconsistencies among various school systems. Back in the ’90s and early 2000s, District 97 and District 200 did not exchange information on students because of the SEEKING EQUITY: D200 Supt. Joylynn Pruitt-Adams is leaving but the need for privacy issue. One example was a young white student educational equity remains. from the junior high with no grade better than a D, who progress since 1994. comes to the high school, which has no idea of his lack Interestingly, KIPP Charter Schools were founded of interest in education. in 1994 by a graduate of OPRF, Michael Feinberg and Besides Irving, I have spent a lot of time at a private a friend. There are now 225 KIPP schools around the school and two charter schools. I have seen better country. The private school I am involved with takes methods in handling children who are well behind students who are mainly underperforming in the grade level. If we can’t offer a quality education at Chicago Public School system in fifth grade. Using OPRF for 85-90 percent of the students, then where else a popular teaching method and putting two hours can it happen? Oak Park is 3,000 acres, and I would bet into reading each day — both classroom teaching and with over 55,000 residents, we may have more doctors, private reading — these students’ average reading level lawyers, professors and other advance-degreed people is near 10th grade by the time they graduate. They have than any area that size in our country. We also have two universities (Dominican and Concordia in River close to the same success with math. They do spend Forest) that have a school of Education that could and more time in school. Is it possible for students who are do offer after-school help to those students who are well behind to catch up during a short school day? behind. We know that our schools will continue to receive In reading many books about current education, I See FLYNN on page 39

JACK FLYNN

One View

Wednesday Journal, December 9, 2020

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Concordia cuts

oncordia University Chicago is a private religious institution. The River Forest school has every right to make changes to its programs, its staff, its compensation structure. And apparently in the weeks leading up to Christmas, it is about to make plenty of changes. The school calls the effort that began in the fall a “prioritization process.” Our reporting this week is that the new administration, led by Russell Dawn, will go to its Board of Regents this week with a plan to cut $5 million in costs by, among other things, changes to tenure and severance, the potential elimination of some academic departments (and maybe additions, too). Following action by its board, the changes are expected to be announced on Dec. 16. There are many smaller liberal arts colleges doing major rethinking. Higher education is becoming a disrupted industry with online learning, more career focus and less humanities. We get that. However, the River Forest campus is aquiver from the Faculty Senate to the heads of some departments who feel they might be on the bubble. The many Oak Park-area nonprofits and government bodies focused on supporting seniors has been buzzing all weekend about the potential loss of Concordia’s esteemed Center for Gerontology. From our outside view and with the perspective of many years, we’d simply note that Concordia University is really bad at engagement related to change, awful at responding to inevitable controversies. We don’t think the Lutheran school’s faculty believes nothing should change at the school. We don’t think anyone involved believes Concordia is immune to challenges roiling higher ed. But they’d like less top-down management and more input into the future of an institution that they are also dedicated to serving. Assuming the school reports in some public fashion on the changes it is undertaking, we will report the results to our readers. We’d just like to see this critical institution get better at being open about change.

The unflappable Eric Palm If ever a town and its professional manager were a match, it has been River Forest and Eric Palm. Over his 10 years as village administrator, much has been accomplished but always calmly and without drama. Palm seldom made headlines in his own right and, clearly, that was his plan. Elected officials took the lead, received the kudos and the criticisms, while he led a staff of increased professionalism using more modern tools than was typical in River Forest. Last week he announced his coming departure. He will wrap up in River Forest in early February and take his steady act on the road to northwest suburban Hoffman Estates where he will serve as manager. It will be a major step on the career ladder as Hoffman Estates has a population of 52,000 vs. roughly 11,000 in River Forest. He will lead a staff of 400 full and part-time employees. He replaces a village manager who retired in August after 22 years in the post. Clearly Hoffman Estates likes stable. The village president there said Monday night as Palm’s hiring was unanimously approved, that they are counting on Palm to bring “efficiency and growth.” Seems a likely outcome. We wish him well. He deserves the promotion and he leaves River Forest, even in the midst of this pandemic, in good shape. The village board will begin its search for an administrator in the new year.

An apology, and then some

s the editor of Viewpoints, our opinion section, I err on the side of inclusion and free speech. So when Matt Baron wrote a letter to the editor, recently, criticizing someone on Facebook for calling Village Trustee Dan Moroney a “white supremacist,” it caused an uproar because he compared the Facebook post to an act of terror. Since Baron was referring to someone on social media, I assumed that person was a typical online troll, someone with extreme views and axes to grind. I don’t have a lot of respect for online trolls or social media. You have to be pretty well armored to enter that minefield, and I rarely do. It is not a place for the faint of heart. My first inclination — and top priority — as Viewpoints editor is to give readers their say. I recently pulled a letter because I knew it was factually incorrect and that inaccuracy was integral to everything else in the letter, so there was no way to “fix it.” But that doesn’t happen very often. Sometimes, though, my passion for letting people have their passionate say gets me in trouble. If I had known the target of this letter’s criticism was a Muslim woman, my red flag would have gone up over the terrorism references. Even without knowing that, however, I should have stopped and run the letter by another “set of eyes” for discussion as I often do, then contacted Baron to see if he wanted to revise it. And then find out who made the original comment online. Instead, swept away by the myriad details of a Monday-Tuesday deadline, I didn’t find out till the following Monday that the person who called Moroney out was Muslim. And from what I’ve learned since, she doesn’t sound like a well-armored internet troll. I acknowledged my mistake in last week’s column, but as several people pointed out, I didn’t apologize. And from what I hear, my compounded mistake caused this Oak Parker suffering, which is never acceptable. This is a time of great uncertainty and insecurity, especially among people of color, especially after the last four years of Trump’s assaults on Muslims. My mistake caused her pain and fear of further harm during a volatile time. For that, I apologize. It was an error in judgment, and I will try to do better in the future. I will try to learn from this mistake. First and foremost, I learned that comparisons between online comments and terrorism should never go public without very careful consideration. That sounds pretty obvious … in retrospect. Should have been obvious to me at the time. But there was a deeper mistake that I need to acknowledge. It has to do with dehumanization, which is at the heart of this incident, and also at the heart of a society based on inequity and unfairness, on superiority and inferiority, a society that can fairly be characterized by the controversial term “white supremacy.” Dehumanization is likewise at the heart of

what is so wrong with so much of social media — and our politics of polarization, and so much else in a culture that makes it so easy to dehumanize one another. In this particular case, Baron wrote his outraged letter because he believed the Facebook comment dehumanized Moroney by unfairly labeling him a “white supremacist.” The person who posted the original comment, along with others on social media, clearly feel that Moroney, through some of his past statements and actions, dehumanizes people of color. But in criticizing the commenter, who is Muslim, and comparing her post to an act of terror, Baron dehumanized her. I printed the letter because I assumed the person making the offending comment was “just another internet troll.” In doing so, I dehumanized her as well. The ensuing uproar, meanwhile, definitely felt dehumanizing and confirmed my worst assessment of social media. I’m sick of the warfare of mutual disrespect we wage online, assuming the worst about people we disagree with or who disagree with us. It has to stop. I’m guilty of it, too, and I’m sorry for every time I came at people as if they were disembodied ideologies instead of fallible human beings who make mistakes just like me. Last Thursday, one of the supporters of this woman contacted me directly. She not only humanized her friend but also acknowledged my humanity while asking me to repair the situation. That enabled me, finally, to apologize to this fellow resident (whose name I don’t mention because she fears retaliation) and to start working on this public apology. I see this entire episode as a clinic on how easy it is to dehumanize one another. Our society, in fact, seems set up to do just that, making all of us perpetrators or victims, and sometimes both. Which is why it’s essential that we all start working together to change the system, starting by examining ourselves. Opposing dehumanization is not enough. We also need to practice re-humanizing. I’m grateful to the friend who contacted me. She managed to re-humanize me by communicating how much her friend was suffering because of my mistake. Sometimes, yes, we need to be shown the way. I’ve been preaching the new paradigm of antiracism for some time now, but I knew it was going to take more than mere words to be part of an actual groundswell for change. You have to live it — and that means making mistakes and then making amends. Errors in judgment are going to happen, no matter how well intentioned we are. We have to accept that and keep moving forward. It’s our responsibility — white people in particular — to change this system of human inhumanity to humans, especially to people of color, but not only to people of color. And if, in our efforts we come up short, we need to set aside our egos and check our tendency to get defensive. And when we hurt someone, we need to apologize. Take it from one very imperfect white guy who screws up plenty.

KEN

TRAINOR

V I E W P O I N T S S H R U B T O W N

by Marc Stopeck

Wednesday Journal, December 9, 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

Growing Community Media

Celebrating Inclusive Schools Week

Stories appear daily about the state of our schools and their failure to meet the educational needs of our children. While there is much to be done, we have made progress toward including more children into the nation’s academic agenda. Not that long ago, many of our children were excluded from our classrooms, with children left out due to race, language, economic status, or mental or physical challenges. In the past 20 years, our schools have worked toward access for all to public education. Children who were once isolated and marginalized are now thriving, productive members of a larger school community. Children who were routinely denied educational opportunities are now discovering, exploring, and, most importantly, achieving. Schools that were once homogeneous are servicing a rich array of students, and while these inclusive practices have been, at times, difficult to implement, their positive impact is clearly demonstrated through each individual success. This week marks the 20th anniversary of Inclusive Schools Week. During this week, school districts across the country are working to educate their staff, students, and parents about what it means to be inclusive. Inclusive is not about being politically correct. It is about making sure that our country’s educational system works for all students, including students with disabilities. Research has consistently demonstrated that inclusive teaching practices are not about teaching to the

lowest common denominator but rather ensuring that the classroom offers opportunities for all children to succeed. Inclusive teaching means presenting information in ways that are relevant and meaningful to each and every student. Discussion, hands-on learning experiences, and inquiry-based projects are all examples of inclusive teaching practices that have, again and again, been shown to improve academic achievement for all students. While noting that there is so much more to be done, let’s applaud the progress being made every day toward building more inclusive schools and communities. Join me in celebrating Inclusive Schools Week this Dec. 7-11. Visit www.inclusiveschools.org or follow #InclusiveSchoolsWeek on Twitter for more information and resources. As the diversity of learners within our classrooms continues to grow, the need to structure curricula, lessons, and activities that not only meet the needs of all students, but celebrate the diversity among those learners, becomes critical. Whether the children in your life are already sharing a common learning environment or you are just beginning to create an atmosphere of accessibility and acceptance for all, these resources will help to encourage and inspire movement toward a more inclusive community.

Lauren Arends

OPRF High School special ed teacher, inclusion facilitator, Special Olympics coordinator, CPI instructor

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Chair Judy Greffin Treasurer Nile Wendorf Deb Abrahamson, Gary Collins, Darnell Shields, Sheila Solomon, Eric Weinheimer

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

‘ONE VIEW’ ESSAY

■ 250-word limit

■ 500-word limit

■ Must include first and last names,

■ One-sentence footnote about yourself,

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

■ Signature details as at left

your connection to the topic

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

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ADDRESS 141 S Oak Park Ave., Oak ParkIL 60302 ■ PHONE 708-5248300 EMAIL Dan@OakPark.com ■ ONLINE www.OakPark.com

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Wednesday Journal is published digitally and in print by Growing Community Media NFP. The newspaper is available on newsstands for $1.00. A one-year subscription costs $41 within Cook County and $51 outside of Cook County. Advertising rates may be obtained by calling our office. Periodical rate postage paid at Oak Park, IL (USPS 10138). Postmaster, send address corrections to Wednesday Journal, 141 S. Oak Park Ave., Oak Park, Il 60302. © 2020 Growing Community Media, NFP.

V I E W P O I N T S

Wednesday Journal, December 9, 2020

Admit the harm, work to repair it

wo weeks ago in this newspaper, District 200 school board member Matt Baron claimed that a member of this community, who is a Muslim woman, had engaged in “a form of terrorism” and referenced the 9-11 era slogan, “If you see something, say something.” Baron was writing in defense of Village Trustee Dan Moroney, who this community member had labeled a “white supremacist” in a comment on one of the newspaper’s Facebook posts. Last week in this newspaper, Wednesday Journal editor Dan Haley and editorial page editor Ken Trainor each wrote separate pieces explaining their role in this situation and their reactions to it. As editors of the paper, both were responsible for Baron’s letter being published. Both of them acknowledged that they should not have printed it because of the references to terrorism. “It was my editing oversight” that led to Baron’s piece being included in the paper, admitted Trainor. “We need to do better,” stated Haley. However, both of them wrote about these two distinct actions — a Muslim woman calling a white man a white supremacist, and a white man claiming that this Muslim woman had engaged in terrorism — as being morally equivalent. “We should say what we mean instead of shooting paintballs,” wrote Trainor, equating both of these actions with

shooting those paintballs. Haley described each term as “a pejorative label.” However, these two distinct actions — a Muslim woman calling a white man a white supremacist, and a white man claiming that this Muslim woman had engaged in terrorism — are not actually morally equivalent. This white man might feel uncomfortable at being labeled. This Muslim woman might feel a very reasonable fear of a hate crime being perpetrated against her for her perceived “terrorism.” Both Haley and Trainor admitted to fault, but neither apologized for the harm they caused. In fact, they gave the white man the benefit of the doubt not extended to the Muslim woman by removing the Muslim woman’s Facebook comment almost immediately while allowing this white man’s writing to stay posted on their website for over a week. I wrote here last week that the only way we can address the crisis of white supremacy in this country is for white men to start acknowledging our own mistakes. I appreciate that Haley and Trainor acknowledged their error in printing Baron’s letter, but this acknowledgment doesn’t go far enough. We white men don’t just need to acknowledge our mistakes. We need to admit the harm we have caused, and then actively work to repair it. We all know this when we think about our personal relationships. When we make

JAMES

SCHWARTZ One View

a mistake that hurts our spouse, our child, our parent, it is not enough to say, “What I did was wrong.” We also must acknowledge the impact of our mistake in that relationship and say, “I’m sorry.” And then we need to demonstrate through changed actions that we are trying to do differently in the future. In addressing racism, we must do the same at all levels — in our personal relationships, in our work relationships, in private, in public, and even with ourselves. That is by no means enough to remove the systems of oppression — mass incarceration, education funding dependent on community wealth, the financial wealth gap, and on and on — that define our society. But if we white men could truly grow and learn through our mistakes in this way, it would be a start to addressing each of those systems. By showing up in a way that demonstrates our commitment to changing ourselves and the system, it would be a beginning. So Mr. Haley and Mr. Trainor — you have admitted a mistake. How can you acknowledge and apologize for the harm you have caused to this Muslim woman community member? How can you commit to doing better in the future and then follow through? I am asking you those questions. I am asking them of myself and every other white man in this community too. Jim Schwartz is an Oak Park resident, an educator, and a blogger at Entwining.org.

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

The Zoo

Mommy, what’s a human? Well dear, humans evolved from an ape-like ancestor, and we evolved from humans. We look a bit like them, Mommy. What makes them different? Well honey, humans love to fight and argue. The zoo had to build a 27-foot steel wall to stop them killing each other. Humans are very emotional. They fight about everything: God, skin color, taxes, life, love … even masks and toilet rolls during the Great Pandemic! Yes, Daddy told me about that. And the leader who didn’t care. Yep, they’re clueless. They voted for a liar and a cheat. It was a disaster. I get emotional, Mommy. Sometimes I don’t like my friends when they point out my differences. Yes honey, but you’re evolved. You’re in charge of your emotions. You communicate. You would never shoot someone, put children in cages, lock people up, burn fossil fuels, create tons of garbage, forget to recycle, or eat an animal. Wow! Is that what a human does? Did sweetheart. Did! That’s why they’re a protected species and live in a zoo. If we didn’t evolve, learn to collaborate and take care of our planet, we’d all be dead by now. That’s why it’s got Danger — Human written above their cage. They nearly killed us all.

Val Gee

Oak Park plugs into its digital library

he pandemic has changed so much of our everyday lives and routines. Since March, community members have had to deal with temporary closures of their library buildings, interrupted access to physical materials, and cancellation of in-person programs and events. Yet during this year of upheaval, Oak Parkers have continued to be loyal and frequent users of our public library. As we’ve prioritized people and their health and safety, we’ve created flexible and safe new ways to provide what patrons have come to expect: fast, open access to great amounts of information and resources, supported with knowledgeable and caring personal support — now delivered as safely as possible through your digital library. Your digital library includes all the virtual services we’ve introduced or expanded since March: experiences such as live Zoom storytimes, meditations, and book groups, plus on-demand videos and tutorials; remote customer support; and 24/7 access to a growing collection of ebooks, digital audiobooks, movies, TV shows, music, magazines, newspapers, and online resources for research and

learning. And for the digital library, it has been a very good year. When compared with 2019, the average monthly use of digital collections has increased 90 percent.

What’s new and popular ■ Virtual customer support Since March 13, we’ve continued to work remotely and have processed more than 4,000 inquiries via live chat, oppl.org/contact, phone, and social media. ■ Instant access with a digitalonly account - Almost 1,000 new accounts have been created since mid-March. It’s easy: you fill out a form, get an account number, log in at oppl.org, and start reading, watching, and listening to new materials immediately. ■ Weekly “We suggest” title lists by topic or genre of what to read, watch and listen to next. ■ Personalized title recommendations from an Oak Park librarian, all done online. ■ Virtual meeting spaces (supported by our staff) to help you connect with friends and family via Zoom. ■ More than 3,000 titles added to OverDrive, our most-used platform for ebooks and digital audiobooks, which expanded offerings and

DAVID J. SELEB One View

reduced wait times. ■ New virtual learning experiences for kids and families, especially for the age 5 and under crowd and showcasing multicultural experiences. ■ New program partnerships with Chicago Public Library’s Austin Branch and with Oak Park’s middle school teachers and families that shine a light on antiracism learning. ■ New training videos to walk you through using resources like Ancestry.com, Consumer Reports, online newspapers, ebooks, digital audiobooks, movies, music, and TV series. ■ A new elementary school liaison who collaborates with local educators teaching kids remotely. ■ Virtual summer and winter reading programs for babies through kids in grade 8. ■ And our latest tech offerings: mobile hotspots by mail, and biweekly tech tips by email. Your public library is here for you. Contact us at oppl.org/contact, at 708-383-8200, and via live chat on our website. We are available 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays; 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Fridays; 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturdays; and 1-6 p.m. Sundays, and we strive to respond to you within 24 hours. David Seleb is executive director of the Oak Park Public Library. To explore your digital library, get started at oppl.org.

Oak Park

Pass the Clean Energy Jobs Act As a longtime resident of the area, I’m calling on Springfield and my state senator, Don Harmon to commit to passing the Clean Energy Jobs Act this January in the lame-duck session. The coronavirus has damaged and is still damaging our local economy. In Oak Park, suburban Cook County, and the rest of Illinois, thousands are still unemployed and businesses are struggling. We’re standing at a turning point in our community. We can call on Illinois to help us recover from the pandemic with well-paying jobs to help bring a clean energy future to Illinois. We don’t have to wait for Washington to act. The Clean Energy Jobs Act will help us modernize our dirty electric grid, help bring clean transportation options to our community, and provide well-paying jobs along the way. It will bring more than $30 billion in private investment to our state. Senator Harmon, as president of the Senate, will you make clean energy a reality in our community?

Judy Fulmer

V I E W P O I N T S

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

Madison St. Theater needs your help

Madison Street Theater (MST), home to Ovation Academy for the Performing Arts in Oak Park, is calling on urgent community support in order to update their HVAC systems so the theater can make it through the winter. The theater is facing this urgent need after two of its five HVAC systems recently stopped working and have been deemed beyond repair. The theater has been turned down for financing for replacement systems, and can’t afford to wait for a grant to come through if they did qualify. They are now hoping to purchase new, emergency HVAC systems before the first big snows, in order to continue operation. MST’s board of directors, along with an army of volunteers, have been working for nearly 18 months to bring the theater back from a decade of neglect. Many improvements have already been made, but any further delay in restoring heat to our facility could cause significant damage to the building and will force us to close. Recently, Madison Street Theater launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise $60,000 to support the purchase of these new, emergency HVAC systems. You can learn more here: https://charity.gofundme.com/o/en/campaign/helpheatmadisonstreet Thanks,

Sam Gibson

The Madigan albatross

Mike Madigan is the albatross around the neck of the Democratic Party in Illinois. It’s a major reason the recent Fair Tax Amendment to the Illinois Constitution failed. His personal failings include: 1. being at the center of the recent pay-toplay Con Ed scam which led to $150 million in higher energy costs for Illinoisans and indictments, including Madigan-aligned lobbyists and the CEO of Con Ed; 2. sexual harassment allegations in his legislative and political offices that have led to departures of some of his most senior advisors in the last few years; 3. his iron grip on legislators who depend on his fundraising prowess from unions and others to get re-elected, making them afraid to speak out; and 4. his limiting of ethics reforms, including term limits. Madigan, 78, has been in office since 1970. His singular grip on power has led to Illinois having among the worst finances of the 50 states, something that will take decades to fix. I’ll say publicly something that many of my progressive friends will only whisper: Illinois will not advance unless Madigan exits the stage.

Jack Crowe Oak Park

FLYNN

Reaching for equity from page 35 students who are not equipped to handle the curriculum. I paid for some Dominican students to work with a dozen Irving students after school for an hour. D97 found some money and decided to take over the program with teachers. We know there are some young people who have no interest in school and having an alternative would be helpful. We also know that if you are in a class you don’t

understand, you will be very unhappy. We have had five or six superintendents at OPRF since Don Offermann and about the same for D97 after Jack Fagan. They were both in their jobs over 10 years. Perhaps we should try to hire locally? Consolidating into one school district would save money and more eyes would be seeing where more effort needs to be placed. The inner-city schools I am involved with are all African-American or Hispanic. These students perform well. The discipline is strong, but each student is given support because many come from a difficult situation. I expect that the Oak Park schools offer similar support. However, if the teaching continues on

Wednesday Journal, December 9, 2020

with no ability to catch up to grade level, a student will probably be a discipline problem and that leads to the discussion of inequity. We might even need a class to get them up to grade level in reading, which is the only way they can move forward. We need equity, but it can’t happen if those students who are behind through no fault of their own, don’t get the opportunity to catch up. If 5 or 10 percent need extra help, can’t our well-paid school system develop a program to make that happen? Maybe talk to Michael Feinberg. Jack Flynn is a River Forest resident and a longtime education advocate.

River Forest

FOOT CLINIC

7351 Lake St. (Just west of Panera Bread)

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Dr. Linda Lambert

eel pain is one of the most common conditions I treat" says Dr. Linda Lambert of the River Forest Foot Clinic. If you wake up having difficulty putting your feet on the floor, Dr. Lambert can help.

Heel pain or plantar fascitis is caused when the foot flattens out with weight bearing. Sometimes a heel spur forms where the plantar fascia attaches to the heel bone. A heel spur can be diagnosed with an in office x-ray. There are many ways to treat heel pain without doing surgery. Rest, ice, antiinflammatory medication, supportive shoes and stretches help in most cases. Custom made orthotic devices or cortisone injections may also be needed. Call Dr. Lambert, you don't have to live with foot pain. Aetna, AARP, Blue Cross PPO, United Healthcare, Healtspring, Humana, PHCS, Medicare Assignment & most other insurances accepted • CIGNA PPO

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Wednesday Journal, December 9, 2020

V I E W P O I N T S

Doing Oak Park proud

Now that the Better Lake Street project is concluding, I just want to say that in my opinion they did an outstanding job. They managed to finish the construction project, during a pandemic, and dealt with all the other “surprises” that no doubt occur when excavating infrastructure many decades old. Even better, I thought their regular and sometimes witty communication about the project over these months has been something that others involved in similar projects could learn from. I felt like we citizens were kept really well informed about where the project was focused week by week, and that made us “regular folks” feel like we were kind of participants in the project, too. Kudos to all involved, and thank you for being so professional and considerate; you did Oak Park proud.

Marty Berg Oak Park

Notice of Proposed Property Tax Increase for Oak Park and River Forest High School District 200 I. A virtual public hearing to approve a proposed property tax levy increase for Oak Park and River Forest High School District 200 for 2020 will be held on December 17, 2020 at 7:30 p.m. Anyone desiring to submit a comment can go to: https://forms.gle/izDpX9b9ssPCVGAT9. Comments should be submitted by 5:30 p.m. on December 17, 2020 to have them read at the Board meeting. To join the webinar Board meeting go to: https://oprfhs-org.zoom.us/j/82300655331?pwd=UEl YR2x0VHpmUHZmVTFDaVdPZ0RGZz09 and enter Passcode: 305974 or telephone in the U.S. 312-626-6799 and enter Webinar ID: 823 0065 5331. II. The corporate and special purpose property taxes extended or abated for 2019 were $73,099,996. The proposed corporate and special purpose property taxes to be levied for 2020 are $73,409,473. This represents a 0.4% increase over the previous year. 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 from the previous year. IV. The total property taxes extended or abated for 2019 were $73,099,996. The estimated total property taxes to be levied for 2020 are $73,409,473. This represents a 0.4% increase over the previous year.

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

The transfer of power

he aftermath of the 2020 election thrust America into a tumultuous uproar. The incumbent president claims that the election was rigged against him. A month after the election, Trump continues to insist that the election was stolen from him by massive vote fraud. On Nov. 11, Trump fired Chris Krebs, the director of Homeland Security, who issued a statement that the 2020 election was the most secure in the history of our nation and that there was no evidence of discernable interference in the election process, either foreign or domestic. The firing of the director is a new version of killing the messenger of bad news. In his resistance to vacate the Oval Office, Trump deluged the courts with lawsuits demanding vote recounts, and the negation or reversal of the election results. In fact, it appears that Trump is the only one who tampered with our election. He tried to discredit the validity of mail-in ballots. He had his appointee U.S. Postmaster General attempt to sabotage the functioning of U.S. Postal Service by removing the blue mail drop boxes in numerous communities. Fortunately, that effort was halted in a timely fashion. During the few days after the election, the tedious vote counting showed an apparent stalemate in the election. During that time, Trump filed more than 30 lawsuits claiming vote fraud and irregularities in vote counting. As a citizen of the United States, Trump is afforded Constitutional rights to seek recourse in the courts for perceived wrongdoing. Most of the filed lawsuits have been thrown out, dismissed for lack of merit. Several recounts of votes revealed a Biden victory.

As the post-election debris and dust settle, issues of a peaceful transition of power arise. Yes, the transition of power will be peaceful. The only shots fired will be those of the two ceremonial 2-gun salutes. But it’s evident that the transition is not smooth between the two administrations. The non-cooperation of the Trump administration with the Biden transition team is so blatant that it has become a threat to our national security. Is this is the man and the administration who promised to make America great again? In a protracted childish temper tantrum, Donald is acting out like a latent adolescent who sits behind the wheel refusing to leave the driver seat, and he threatens to render the vehicle inoperable, even after he had been informed that his driving privileges had been revoked. In his efforts to maintain his image as a fighter, the president has forgotten the words in “The Gambler,” song: “You got to know when to hold ‘em, Know when to fold ‘em ...” Currently, political pundits have begun to speculate that Trump and his followers, of what once was the GOP, are already laying the groundwork for the 2024 election. By not cooperating in the transition, they seek to decrease the new administration’s efficacy and sabotage Biden’s agenda. Another Trump campaign for the presidency cannot be ruled out. It would be within his behavioral style. From my master’s studies in Counseling Psychology, I recall that individuals with Antisocial Personality Disorder tend not to learn from their mistakes, and aspects of narcissism motivate to seek aggrandizement. Fred Natkevi is a longtime Oak Park resident who grew up in Eastern Europe during World War II.

FRED NATKEVI One View

Support your local bookstore I recently needed a book that the Oak Park Public Library didn’t have, so I went to Amazon and it was $30.94 with shipping. On a whim, I checked the Book Table in Oak Park and it was $22.46. No shipping required because I’m often out running errands anyway so just used their outside pickup service. Total savings was $5.98. The Book

Table will ship, but even at that I would have saved 43 cents. Either way is a savings, but both methods support a fine local business which also happens to be the only bookstore left in our area.

Send letters to the Editor Ken Trainor, Wednesday Journal 141 S. Oak Park Ave., Oak Park, IL 60302 E-mail: ktrainor@wjinc.com Please include name, address and daytime phone number for verification.

Steven Olderr Oak Park

OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM

Bryan Miller, 68

Wednesday Journal contributor, St. Louis music critic Sarah Bryan Miller, 68, a former freelance writer for Wednesday Journal, died on Nov. 28, 2020, following a 10-year battle with breast cancer. Known as Bryan, she used her full name professionally because one of the papers she wrote for, the New York Times, already had a Bryan Miller on staff. Starting with the Journal in the 1980s and ’90s and in addition to the Times, she also wrote for the Chicago Reader and Sun-Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the St. Louis PostDispatch, where she became that paper’s classical music critic. According to the Post-Dispatch obituary, which ran on Nov. 30, she was born in Kansas City, Missouri, the daughter of Thomas Wade Hampton Miller III and Eleanor Cosens “Dolly” Simons Miller and grew up in Prairie Village, Kansas. The family moved to the Chicago area in 1967. After graduating from Carthage College in 1974, she began singing in the chorus at Lyric Opera of Chicago and also sang several featured roles, including Cherubino in Chicago Opera Theater’s first production of Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro in 1975. She wrote a weekly column on classical music for AOL and a music critic with the New York Times took notice and she became a regular contributor to both the New York Times. In 1998, she relocated to St. Louis to become the classical music critic for the Post-Dispatch. In 2019, she was honored as one of the St. Louis Press Club’s Media Persons of the Year. Bryan is survived by her daughters, Louisa B. Rix and Eleanor M. Rix; her brother, Thomas Wade Hampton Miller IV (Lynn); her nephew, Thomas Wade Hampton Miller V; and her niece, Celia J. Miller (Bill Forsko). The inurnment service was private; a public memorial service will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers, donations to the music fund of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Ladue; Opera Theatre of St. Louis; or the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra are appreciated.

James Lauderdale Sr., 76 Illinois State Police officer

James W. Lauderdale Sr., 76, of Oak Park, died on Dec. 1, 2020. Born on April 15, 1944, he was a veteran of the U.S. Air Force and a member of the Illinois State Police for over 25 years before his retirement. James Lauderdale was the husband of the late Denise E. Lauderdale; the father of James W. Jr. (Angela), Sommer and Teragus (Tiffany) Lauderdale; the grandfather of

O B I T U A R I E S Trevor and Briana, Imani, and Na’Avayah; the great-grandfather of 4; brother of Shelly Rae (Scharinell) and Everett (Tina) Lauderdale; uncle and cousin of many; and friend and former brother-in-law of Marie Lauderdale. Visitation will be held on Thursday, Dec. 10 from 10 a.m. until time of military honors, 12 noon (outside the funeral home) at Drechsler Brown & Williams Funeral Home, 203 S. Marion St., Oak Park. Due to current COVID-19 restrictions, a maximum of 10 people at a time, will be allowed in the funeral home. To enable others to pay their respects and to allow for social distancing, we ask that people pay their respects and move on so others will have an opportunity. Private interment will take place at Oakridge Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations to The Israel of God (theisraelofgod.com) are appreciated.

Joann Moles, 98 Obstetrician/gynecologist, community volunteer

Joann M. Moles nee Miller, age 98, of Oak Park, died on Nov. 30, 2020. Born on Feb. 25, 1922, she earned a master’s degree in Entomology at the University of Illinois, including the honor of having a species of corn-borer, which she identified, named after her. She then went on to complete her medical training at the University of Illinois, followed by obstetrics and gynecology training at Harper Hospital in Detroit and finally entered clinical practice at West Suburban Hospital in Oak Park. She was a longtime volunteer at numerous organizations, including decades of service for the Infant Welfare Society. Having been stationed in Morocco with her husband as he served in the Air Force in Rabat during the Korean War, the couple continued to travel the world with their family, including extensive excursions across the American heartlands as well as southern and central Africa, Asia and South America. An engaging conversationalist, avid bridge player, and talented gardener, she sustained cultivars passed down to her from her mother. Joann was the wife of the late Joseph B. Moles; the mother of Pamela (James) Mulshine, Richard (Heidi), Nancy (Thomas) McGarry, and Betsy (Jay) Tharp; the grandmother of Christine, Michael, Laura (Wilson Karalus) and Eric Mulshine, Joseph (Abigail) and Heather (Mitchell) Riederer, John McGarry, and Matthew (Lauren), Emily and Ellen Tharp; the great-grandmother of Otto James Karalus, Rowan and Willow Moles, Taylor and Jillian Riederer; and the sister of Richard (the late Helen) Miller. Private interment took place at Queen of Heaven Cemetery. A public memorial will be held later. In lieu of flowers, donations to the Salvation Army (salvationarmyusa.org) are appreciated.

Wednesday Journal, December 9, 2020

Timothy McNeil, 45

Lenore Raboy, 78

Timothy Allen McNeil, 45, of Forest Park, died Nov. 1 at John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County from complications following an aortic dissection. A longtime resident of Oak Park and Forest Park, he worked for many years behind the deli counter at JewelOsco in River Forest and held earlier groceryrelated jobs at the old White Hen Pantry on South Boulevard in Oak Park and at the longdefunct Oak Park Market on Oak Park Avenue. He more recently worked at Mariano’s in Lincoln Square and two years ago returned to manage the deli at Jewel-Osco in Stickney. Born on June 18, 1975 and raised in the southwest suburbs, Tim was a 1993 graduate of Carl Sandburg High School in Orland Park. A lifelong autodidact, he had a complicated relationship with formal schooling, eventually earning a bachelor’s degree in psychology with honors from Roosevelt University in 2008. He also spent time at Triton College and those classes were among his best experiences in higher education. He had a ranging, curious mind and a decade ago undertook a selfdirected, multi-year reading program, which he chronicled in a blog for friends and family. The Forest Park Public Library served as his base of operations for that project. He was active in the Chicago-area gaming community for several decades. Dungeons and Dragons was a mainstay, but he dabbled in many group roleplaying games. He enjoyed creating fantasy worlds for others to explore at area game stores and at regional and national gaming conventions. He enjoyed immersing himself in fictions and was passionate about movies and books — low-brow, high-brow, and no-brow. Tim never married and lived for many years with his mother, Brenda B. McNeil, who preceded him in death in 2015. He is survived by his brother, Brett; his sister-in-law, Lindsay Koriath; and his nephew, Ian McNeil, all of Mishawaka, Indiana. Also surviving are multiple aunts and cousins. Tim’s family wants to acknowledge the extraordinary care he received at Stroger Hospital during a lengthy hospitalization. The doctors and nurses of Stroger’s SICU and MICU departments deserve special thanks. In lieu of flowers, please direct memorial donations in Tim’s name to the Forest Park Public Library. The donations will be earmarked for history and fiction titles.. Tim was a donor to Gift of Hope Organ and Tissue in Itasca. Cremation was handled by Neptune Society in Downers Grove. A memorial service will take place at 1 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 12 inside the Aquatorium in Gary, Indiana’s Miller Beach neighborhood. Please write to brettmcneil@gmail.com for information about the service or to RSVP.

Lenore (Tabachneck) Raboy, 78, died on Dec. 1, 2020 at the age of 78 in Northlake. Born on April 29, 1942 in Albany, New York to David and Flora (Simonovitz) Tabachneck, she and her extended family were active members of Congregation Ohav Shalom. Growing up, summers were spent relaxing with her brother, cousins and family at Helderberg Lake. She attended the State University of New York at Buffalo where she met her former husband, Michael Raboy. She also resided in Aberdeen and Montgomery Village, Maryland and Oak Park. A keen office assistant with a sharp eye for numbers, she worked in dental and medical offices for much of her life. She loved reading, crossword puzzles and shopping for herself and with friends and family. Finding meaningful gifts brought her great joy. She hosted numerous fun get-togethers with family and friends at her Faber Court house, relished by all. More recently, she enjoyed cooking and playing games with her daughter and grandchildren in Oak Park. Her organizational skills were top-notch, famously aided by colorful sets of pens and writing pads. She is remembered as a dedicated volunteer at her children’s school and in their extracurricular activities, a loyal friend and adept listener to many, great with advice for those seeking it, and for her wonderful cooking. Anyone lucky enough to have sat around the kitchen table with her was always better for the experience. But above all, she was a devoted grandmother, closely following the lives of her four grandchildren with great interest and love. Lenore is survived by her children, Stephanie Raboy (Rudy Kratz) and Becky Raboy (Alain Dabdoub); her grandchildren, Olivia and Chloe Kratz and Alexandra and Joseph Dabdoub; her brother Alan Tabachneck; and many cousins, friends and in-laws who cared for her very much. In recent years, she had several kind and attending caregivers looking after her, including Flora Fait, to whom we are very thankful. A memorial service will be held at a later date. If anyone wishes to make a memorial donation, we suggest the American Heart Association (https://www.heart.org/en/getinvolved/ways-to-give). Arrangements were handled by Zimmerman-Harnett Funeral Home.

Longtime Jewel, White Hen and Mariano’s employee

Office assistant, avid reader and shopper

To run an obituary Please contact Ken Trainor by e-mail: ktrainor@wjinc.com before Monday at noon. Please include a photo if possible.

Wednesday Journal, December 9, 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.

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Wednesday Journal, December 9, 2020

CLASSIFIED

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Public Notice: Your right to know In print • Online • Available to you 24/7/365 OakPark.com | RiverForest.com | PublicNoticeIllinois.com PUBLIC NOTICES

PUBLIC NOTICES

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. 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

Published in Wednesday Journal November 25, December 2 and 9, 2020

LEGAL NOTICE VILLAGE OF RIVER FOREST NOTICE TO BIDDERS FOR Bicycle Sign and Pavement Marking Project The Village of River Forest is now accepting sealed bid proposals for the Bicycle Sign and Pavement Marking Project. TIME AND PLACE OF OPENING BIDS Notice is hereby given that the Village of River Forest, Illinois, will receive sealed bids at the River Forest Village Hall, 400 Park Avenue, River Forest, Illinois until Tuesday, December 22, 2020 at 11:00 a.m. local time for Bicycle Sign and Pavement Marking Project, at which time the bids will be publicly opened and read. Bid proposals for this project will be considered not only on the basis of cost, but also on past performance, experience and ability to perform the work. The Village of River Forest reserves the right to accept the proposal deemed to be in its own best interest based on all of the above considerations. Bids will be acted upon by the President and Board of Trustees. DESCRIPTION OF WORK The proposed work is officially known as “Bicycle Sign and Pavement Marking Project” and further described as the construction of bicycle signs and pavement marking at various locations in River Forest, Illinois, as further described in the contract documents for the said work prepared by Kenig, Lindgren, O’Hara, Aboona, Inc. (KLOA, Inc.). AVAILABILITY OF CONTRACT DOCUMENTS Prospective BIDDERS and suppliers may obtain contract documents at Village of River Forest, 400

Park Avenue, River Forest, Illinois, 60305, upon a non-refundable deposit of $45.00. Payment shall be in cash or check payable to the Village of River Forest. Contract documents may be examined at Village of River Forest, 400 Park Avenue, River Forest, Illinois, 60305. BID SECURITY All bid proposals must be accompanied by a bid bond, certified check, or bank cashier’s check payable to the Village of River Forest for five (5) percent of the amount of the bid as provided in the General Provisions. No proposals or bids will be considered unless accompanied by such bond, or check. PREVAILING WAGE RATES When engaged in construction of a “public work,” within the meaning of Illinois Prevailing Wage Act, 820 ILCS 130/.01 et seq. (“the Act”), the Act requires Contractors and Subcontractors to pay laborers, workers and mechanics performing services on public works projects no less than the “prevailing rate of wages” (hourly wages plus fringe benefits) in the county where the work is performed. For information regarding current prevailing wage rates, please refer to the Illinois Department of Labor’s website at: www.state.il.us/agency/ idol/rates/rates.HTM. All Contractors and Subcontractors rendering services under a Contract for the construction of a public work must comply with all requirements of the Act, including but not limited to, all wage, notice and record keeping duties. Published in Wednesday Journal December 9, 2020

The term general prevailing hourly rate, when used in this requirement will mean the hourly cash wages plus fringe benefits for health and welfare, insurance, vacations and pensions paid generally, in the locality in which the work is being performed, to employees engaged in work of a similar character on public works. As a condition of making payment to the Contractor, the Village may require the Contractor to submit an affidavit to the effect that not less than the prevailing hourly wage rate is being paid to laborers, mechanics and other workmen employed on this Contract in accordance with Illinois or federal law, as applicable. PERFORMANCE BOND The successful BIDDER for the construction of the improvements will be required to enter into Performance and Labor and Material Payment bonds equal to 100% of the amount of the bid with sureties to be approved by the President and Board of Trustees, when entering into the contract for the work, which shall be conditioned upon the proper and faithful performance by the CONTRACTOR of the work specified in accordance with the contract documents therefore, and the ordinances providing for the work. REJECTION OF BIDS The VILLAGE, reserves the right to defer the award of the contract for a period not to exceed eighty (80) calendar days after the date bids are received, and to accept or reject any or all proposals and to waive technicalities.

PUBLIC NOTICES

PUBLIC NOTICE VILLAGE OF STICKNEY, COUNTY OF COOK, ILLINOIS PROPOSED CICERO/PERSHING TAX INCREMENT FINANCING DISTRICT REGISTRATION FOR INTERESTED PARTIES REGISTRY

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

On December 1, 2020, the Village Council of the Village of Stickney (the “Village”) adopted “An Ordinance Authorizing the Establishment of Interested Parties Registries and Adopting Registration Rules for Such Registries for Redevelopment Project Areas in the Village of Stickney.” The purpose of the Ordinance was to establish a system for interested persons to obtain certain information relating to the Village’s establishment or amendment for any redevelopment project area under the Tax Increment Allocation Redevelopment Act (65 ILCS 5/11-74.4-1, et seq.) (the “TIF Act”). The Village is currently exploring the proposed Cicero/Pershing redevelopment project area (the proposed “TIF District”) under the TIF Act. The proposed TIF District is located within an area that is generally bounded by: 35th Street to the north; Cicero Avenue to the east; Sanitary and Ship Canal (the “Canal”) to the south; and Laramie Avenue to the west. The Registry for the Cicero/Pershing Redevelopment Project Area, together with the rules and regulations approved by the Village Board for the Village of Stickney for the Registries (the “Rules and Regulations”), are on file and available for public inspection during normal business hours at the office of the Village of Stickney Village Clerk’s Office, Village Hall, 6533 Pershing Road, Stickney, Illinois 60402. All interested persons or organizations may register with the Village Clerk for the Registry for the proposed Cicero/Pershing Redevelopment Project Area, as provided in the Rules and Regulations, in order to receive information related to this proposed Cicero/Pershing Redevelopment Project Area. Audrey McAdams Village Clerk Village of Stickney, Illinois Published in RB Landmark 12/09/2020

PUBLIC NOTICE OF COURT DATE FOR REQUEST FOR NAME CHANGE STATE OF ILLINOIS, CIRCUIT COURT COOK COUNTY Request of Simone Michele Bartlett Paul Case Number 20206007305 There will be a court date on my Request to change my name from: Simone Michele Bartlett Paul to the new name of: Simone Michele Bartlett. The court date will be held: On January 11, 2021 at 9:00 AM at 16501 S. Kedzie Parkway, Markham, Cook Count, Illinois] in Courtroom # 207 Published in Wednesday Journal 12/9, 12/16, 12/23/2020

Wednesday Classified 3 Great Papers, 6 Communities To Place Your Ad, Call: 708/613-3333

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. Published in Wednesday Journal 11/25, 12/2, 12/9/2020

REAL ESTATE FOR SALE IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS COUNTY DEPARTMENT CHANCERY DIVISION U.S. BANK NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, AS TRUSTEE FOR MASTR ADJUSTABLE RATE MORTGAGES TRUST 2007-1, MORTGAGE PASS-THROUGH CERTIFICATES, SERIES 2007-1 Plaintiff, -v.ELLEN M. RAVITZ, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE, UNKNOWN OWNERS AND NONRECORD CLAIMANTS Defendants 18 CH 03457 123 S. EUCLID AVENUE OAK PARK, IL 60302 NOTICE OF SALE PUBLIC NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale entered in the above cause on February 13,

REAL ESTATE FOR SALE

2020, an agent for The Judicial Sales Corporation, will at 10:30 AM on January 11, 2021, at The Judicial Sales Corporation, One South Wacker Drive, CHICAGO, IL, 60606, sell at a public sale to the highest bidder, as set forth below, the following described real estate: Commonly known as 123 S. EUCLID AVENUE, OAK PARK, IL 60302 Property Index No. 16-07-400-0160000 The real estate is improved with a single family residence. The judgment amount was $657,505.06. Sale terms: 25% down of the highest bid by certified funds at the close of the sale payable to The Judicial Sales Corporation. No third party checks will be accepted. The balance, including the Judicial Sale fee for the Abandoned Residential Property Municipality Relief Fund, which is calculated on residential real estate at the rate of $1 for each $1,000 or fraction thereof of the amount paid by the purchaser not to exceed $300, in certified funds/or wire transfer, is due within twenty-four (24) hours. No fee shall be paid by the mortgagee acquiring the residential real estate pursuant to its credit bid at the sale or by any mortgagee, judgment creditor, or other lienor acquiring the residential real estate whose rights in and to the residential real estate arose prior to the sale. The subject property is subject to general real estate taxes, special assessments, or special taxes levied against said real estate and is offered for sale without any representation as to quality or quantity of title and without recourse to Plaintiff and in “AS IS” condition. The sale is further subject to confirmation by the court. Upon payment in full of the amount bid, the purchaser will receive a Certificate of Sale that will entitle the purchaser to a deed to the real estate after confirmation of the sale. Where a sale of real estate is made to satisfy a lien prior to that of the United States, the United States shall have one year from the date of sale within which to redeem, except that with respect to a lien arising under the internal revenue laws the period shall be 120 days or the period allowable for redemption under State law, whichever is longer, and in any case in which, under the provisions of section 505 of the Housing Act of 1950, as amended (12 U.S.C. 1701k), and subsection (d) of section 3720 of title 38 of the United States Code, the right to redeem does not arise, there shall be no right of redemption. The property will NOT be open for inspection and plaintiff makes no

representation as to the condition of the property. Prospective bidders are admonished to check the court file to verify all information. If this property is a condominium unit, the purchaser of the unit at the foreclosure sale, other than a mortgagee, shall pay the assessments and the legal fees required by The Condominium Property Act, 765 ILCS 605/9(g)(1) and (g)(4). If this property is a condominium unit which is part of a common interest community, the purchaser of the unit at the foreclosure sale other than a mortgagee shall pay the assessments required by The Condominium Property Act, 765 ILCS 605/18.5(g-1). IF YOU ARE THE MORTGAGOR (HOMEOWNER), YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO REMAIN IN POSSESSION FOR 30 DAYS AFTER ENTRY OF AN ORDER OF POSSESSION, IN ACCORDANCE WITH SECTION 15-1701(C) OF THE ILLINOIS MORTGAGE FORECLOSURE LAW. You will need a photo identification issued by a government agency (driver’s license, passport, etc.) in order to gain entry into our building and the foreclosure sale room in Cook County and the same identification for sales held at other county venues where The Judicial Sales Corporation conducts foreclosure sales. For information, Alexander Potestivo, POTESTIVO & ASSOCIATES, P.C. Plaintiff’s Attorneys, 223 WEST JACKSON BLVD, STE 610, Chicago, IL, 60606 (312) 263-0003. Please refer to file number 109484. THE JUDICIAL SALES CORPORATION One South Wacker Drive, 24th Floor, Chicago, IL 60606-4650 (312) 236-SALE You can also visit The Judicial Sales Corporation at www.tjsc.com for a 7 day status report of pending sales. POTESTIVO & ASSOCIATES, P.C. 223 WEST JACKSON BLVD, STE 610 Chicago IL, 60606 312-263-0003 E-Mail: ilpleadings@potestivolaw. com Attorney File No. 109484 Attorney Code. 43932 Case Number: 18 CH 03457 TJSC#: 40-924 NOTE: Pursuant to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, you are advised that Plaintiff’s attorney is deemed to be a debt collector attempting to collect a debt and any information obtained will be used for that purpose. Case # 18 CH 03457 I3155622

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Wednesday Journal, December 9, 2020

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