GCM’s Board of Directors is stepping up with a $10K match Double your impact by donating today. Your local newsroom needs you now more than ever. Our 2025 Fall fundraising campaign continues, see pages 6, 7 and 40
W E D N E S D A Y
December 24, 2025 Vol. 46, No. 23
WJ45
2025
1980 - 2025
$2.00 @wednesdayjournalinc
J URNAL
Special Advertising Section
@wednesdayjournal
@oakpark
Page 18
Parks plan $40M referendum on indoor pool at Ridgeland Common
OPRF senior performs ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ at Bears game
Unexpected vote will be on March ballot
Anika Sherman sang the national anthem in front of 65,000 people at Soldier Field By ELIZABETH SHORT
Church guide
of Oak Park and River Forest
By BOB SKOLNIK Contributing Reporter
The staff gathered around and road trippers looked up as Sherman, wearing gray knit pajamas, gave her impromptu performance. Her best friend, Hollyn
Could Oak Park have two new indoor swimming pools within two blocks of each other in a few years? That will be up to the voters in March because on Dec. 18, in a move that seems to have come as surprise to most everyone outside the Park District of Oak Park, the park board unanimously approved a resolution putting a $40 million bond referendum on the March 17 primary election
See ANIKA SHERMAN on page 26
See PARK POOL on page 16
COURTESTY OF CHICAGO BEARS
Contributing Reporter
Anika Sherman singing at Soldier Field.
For warm up, Anika Sherman performed the U.S. national anthem at a Taco John’s in an Indiana rest stop. “I’m not actually here to buy tacos,” Sherman, singer-songwriter and OPRF senior, told employees. “I’m going to be singing the national anthem for
the Bears game next week, and I was wondering if I could practice.” Sherman said she needed to perform before the game “just to get the nerves off,” even if the audience was 10 people in a Taco John’s.
Happy
Holidays!
2
Wednesday Journal, December 24, 2025
1980-2025 – CELEBRATING 45 YEARS
OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM
Discover the magic at of truly living here
The Aerieltnecenlikheenoim other.
an exp ving li d n a r a e Y w e N a Cheers to rs! a e Y n e ld o G e h t to well in
The Altenheim 7824 West Madison Street, Forest Park, IL | 708-366-2206 | www.thealtenheim.com
OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM
1980-2025 – CELEBRATING 45 YEARS
Wednesday Journal, December 24, 2025
The challenges that defined Oak Park in 2025 JOURNAL W E D N E S D A Y
Midway Blitz, funding threats and big-time projects made for a historic year in Oak Park By BRENDAN HEFFERNAN Staff Reporter
What a year it’s been. Oak Park faced a bevy of political challenges in 2025, as national and regional crises played out time and again inside village limits. Oak Park’s ethos as a progressive, welcoming village has been put to the test, as have the ambitions of the village’s leaders. This is by no means an exhaustive list of memorable moments in this memorable year for Oak Park news. But it should serve as a moment for reflection, to examine the trials of this year in preparation for what looks certain to be a busy 2026.
ICE in the village Federal immigration agents’ presence in Oak Park and its neighboring communities presented the greatest challenge to community leaders this year. For weeks at a time, Oak Park residents found themselves glued to cellphone videos showing masked federal agents making arrests in the shadows of the old growth trees that line Oak Park’s quiet, residential streets. But those Oak Park scenes represented just a fraction of the impact that ramped-up immigration operations had on the Chicagoland region this year, as the dockets of federal district courts were quickly enveloped by challenges to the legality of immigration agency actions. President Donald Trump’s ongoing “Operation Midway Blitz” has promised to rid Chicagoland of dangerous criminals in the country illegally. But it’s been wildly unpopular among Oak Park’s overwhelmingly liberal citizenry, some of whom readily took to carrying plastic warning whistles and tailing immigration enforcement vans as they drove through town. The village’s elected leaders also didn’t
flinch while calling the operation a “fascist” power grab spreading fear and violating constitutional rights. “I’m here to unequivocally state that ICE is the aggressor,” said Oak Park Village President Vicki Scaman at a press conference in October. “There is no emergency here, we do not need ICE or the National Guard. What I need from our federal government as a municipal village president is dollars for housing, mental health, physical health, support for transgender individuals, school programs and food.” The Oak Park village board voted to abruptly cancel its contract with license plate reader provider Flock Safety over ICE and Border Patrol’s access to surveillance data. In the fall, ICE and Border Patrol agents were regularly spotted throughout the Oak Park area. Wednesday Journal reported on ICE questioning a caregiver outside of the Wonder Works children’s museum, ICE’s arrest of a laborer near Whittier Elementary during the school’s morning drop off, a blitz of ICE activity throughout the village on Saturday, Nov. 8, and many other instances. ICE and Border Patrol’s Chicago detainees were usually brought to a detention facility in nearby Broadview, which became the site of near constant protests and allegations of poor treatment. Those protests have resulted in arrests for a growing number of Oak Parkers, including a few elected leaders. Oak Park Township Trustee Juan Muñoz
The Wednesday Journal is taking a week off Dear readers, A heads up that the Wednesday Journal will not publish on Dec. 31. Yes, we are taking the final week of the year off, sending our dedicated colleagues home for the holidays, and getting recharged
for all that is ahead in 2026. If major news breaks we will be there online. Meanwhile, our deep thanks for reading and supporting our work. Hope your holidays are wonderful.
was arrested at a protest at the detention facility on Oct. 4. Oak Park Village Trustee Brian Straw was charged alongside several other progressive area politicians in an ongoing federal conspiracy case tied to a protest at the facility in September. At another protest, federal agents arrested Oak Parker Paul Ivery, an OPRF cafeteria worker who lives with a serious intellectual disability. The government dropped the charges against Ivery after reviewing records related to his disability, but not before keeping him in custody for several days at the Federal Bureau of Prison’s Metropolitan Correctional Center and seeking to impose parole conditions that would have banned him from interacting with students at his job. Ivery had walked from his Oak Park home to the Broadview protest to show support for local law enforcement officers he felt had been disrespected by ICE agents. Judge Gabriel A. Fuentes read a letter of support Scaman penned for Ivery into the record. It included comments from Oak Park Police Chief Shatonya Johnson that painted Ivery as one of the OPPD’s most loyal supporters. “Our officers know him as the kid who stops and salutes when he sees them on the street,” the letter said. “Paul contributes to all that makes Oak Park special. He’s a beloved member of our community.” This story is sure to continue its relevance in 2026, with Border Patrol Chief Greg Bovino making an appearance on Harlem Avenue just last week.
Police station plays Village leaders spent much of 2025 gearing up for a generational facilities project: building the OPPD a new police station and renovating Oak Park Village Hall. The village has recognized that its police force has needed a new space for over a decade at this point, as the OPPD has continued to operate out of Village Hall’s basement. The out-of-step facility is regularly cited as a hinderance to the department’s officer recruiting efforts. Over the years, the police station conversations gave way to an acknowledgment that Village Hall itself, a terminally funky architectural tribute to “open government,” also needed an overhaul to function as a modern See BIG STORIES on page 25
of Oak Park and River Forest
Interim Executive Director Max Reinsdorf Senior Audience Manager Stacy Coleman Staff Reporter Brendan Heffernan Viewpoints Editor Ken Trainor Real Estate Editor Lacey Sikora Contributing Editor Donna Greene Columnists Marc Blesoff, Nicole Chavas, Jack Crowe, Vincent Gay, Mary Kay O’Grady, John Stanger, Josh VanderBerg Shrubtown Cartoonist Marc Stopeck Design/Production Manager Andrew Mead Editorial Design Manager Javier Govea Designers Susan McKelvey, Vanessa Garza Senior Media Strategist Lourdes Nicholls Marketing & Advertising Associate Emma Cullnan Development Manager Mary Ellen Nelligan Circulation Manager Jill Wagner Operations Associate Susan Babin Social Media and Digital Coordinator Maribel Barrera Special Projects Manager Susan Walker Chairman Emeritus Robert K. Downs Senior Advisor Dan Haley
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Chair Eric Weinheimer | Treasurer Nile Wendorf Deb Abrahamson, Mary Cahillane, Steve Edwards, Judy Greffin, Horacio Mendez, Charles Meyerson Darnell Shields, Audra Wilson
H OW TO R E ACH US PO Box 6670, River Forest, IL 60305 ■ PHONE 708-524-8300 ■ EMAIL Dan@oakpark.com ■ ONLINE www.OakPark.com
CIRCULATION Jill Wagner • jill@oakpark.com • (708) 613-3340 PRINT/DIGITAL ADVERTISING Lourdes Nicholls • lourdes@oakpark.com • Ext. 3329 Emma Cullnan • emma@oakpark.com • Ext. 3304 CALENDAR EVENTS calendar@wjinc.com Wednesday Journal is published digitally and in print by Growing Community Media NFP. The newspaper is available on newsstands for $2. A one-year subscription costs $65 within Cook County and $105 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, PO Box 6670, River Forest, IL 60305. © 2025 Growing Community Media, NFP.
3
4
Wednesday Journal, December 24, 2025
1980-2025 – CELEBRATING 45 YEARS
OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM
River Forest Tennis Club withdraws lighting application A Checklist for Planning Your Next Project Planning and implementing an upgrade to your outdoor space is a lot like planning and hosting a holiday party. You start the planning process well in advance: picking Scott your theme, shopping McAdam Jr. for items, preparing your food, decorating, and then the party arrives. Here’s a checklist for planning your upcoming project: Planning your project: - Create your wish list - Establish your budget - Schedule an initial meeting to discuss your design Decision time: - Review the design, and revise, if needed - Pick your plants/hardscape products - Execute a contract - Obtain the necessary permits (with help from your contractor, if you have one) Implementation: - The easiest step for a homeowner— this is where you get to sit back and watch your ideas come to life, while our experts do what they do best. And finally, the last and most important step: Enjoy your new outdoor space! As we enter our 47th holiday season in business, McAdam Landscaping wishes you and your loved ones a happy and healthy new year.
2001 Des Plaines Ave. Forest Park • 708-771-2299 www.mcadamlandscape.com
Village President Adduci addresses Development Review Board ‘scrutiny’ By GREGG VOSS
Contributing Reporter
A plan that would add lights to multiple courts at the River Forest Tennis Club is apparently going nowhere – at least for now. “The River Forest Tennis Club has withdrawn their planned development application,” Village Administrator Matt Walsh said Dec. 18. “Accordingly, there will be no public hearing on Jan. 15.” A continuation of a Nov. 6 public hearing in front of the village Development Review Board was postponed from Dec. 4 to Jan. 15 to allow public comment on the revised application. Whether the application would be revised or resubmitted at some point in the future, Walsh said, “I am not sure if it is a permanent decision.” The original amendment application would have added 24 poles at 30 feet tall, with two LED lights on each pole, covering all 10 courts, arranged around the outside fence at the club located at 615 Lathrop Ave. According to a communication delivered to club members Dec. 3, the club had revised its application to light only Courts 1-3 and 6-8 to eliminate light spillage on the Jackson Avenue side of the club. Club president Dan Baker could not be reached for comment on the latest developments. Neither could club member Elias Yanaki, who served as applicant on the original application, and then recused himself from voting on it as a member of the village’s review board. Also on the review board are club members Maryanne Fishman, Jane McCole and Ron Lucchesi. When reached by phone Dec. 18, Fishman declined comment. McCole did not respond to an email seeking comment. But an informal coalition of neighbors opposed to the lighting amendment released a statement. “We are grateful River Forest has a system in place to allow all citizens in the village to participate in the review process for proposed developments and express needs and concerns,” the statement said. “Thank you to village leadership, mem-
GOOGLE MAPS SCREENSHOT
River Forest Tennis Club, 615 Lathrop Ave. bers of advisory boards and the RFTC for hearing our voices.” One of the neighbors opposed to the lighting, Paul Harding, noted that it’s not clear whether the application will return. “From my point of view, it’s good that they decided to pause it, but that’s all we know, it’s been paused,” he said. “A temporary pause or a permanent pause, they aren’t saying.” There is precedence against lighting at the club, he said, pointing to prior decisions involving Priory Park and Concordia University. “The lighting of public athletic fields at the Priory is not permitted, so that came up, and there is actually an ordinance that describes that, and it’s as permanent as you can possibly make it,” he said. “Some village leadership lives in that area. If it’s good enough for village leadership, why is this any different? “This outdoor lighting thing came up for Concordia and (what) they proposed (was) much further back from residential property than the tennis club. That was shot down.” The larger issue, though, in Harding’s mind comes down to ethics, which was addressed by Village President Cathy Adduci
at the Dec. 15 village board meeting. “Recently some of our volunteers that serve on the development review board have come under negative scrutiny,” Adduci said. “What is most concerning is that the recently amended ethics ordinance is now being used as a weapon to create fear among our volunteers. “Our village attorney will always guide our commissioners on the right legal and ethical path. I believe attorney (Lance) Malina has provided this guidance to the development review board. His advice is, so long as the commissioners can be impartial, then membership is not a conflict.” For Adduci, whether one agrees with a decision or recommendation, volunteers deserve respect. “These kinds of attacks not only undermine the integrity of our civic process, but they also discourage future participation threatening our ability to attract and retain dedicated community members,” she said. Harding disagreed. “You have 11,000 upper-class people in River Forest,” he said. “There are lots of qualified people to serve on village boards. “All I’ve been asking for is a recusal … create a level playing field.”
OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM
1980-2025 – CELEBRATING 45 YEARS
Wednesday Journal, December 24, 2025
5
Opening of new shelter helps move people out of Scoville Park
Housing Forward, village social service staff, help address homelessness in park during winter weather By BRENDAN HEFFERNAN Staff Reporter
Oak Park officials said the opening of a larger homeless shelter in the community has helped reduce the number of people living in Scoville Park. Village officials said that approximately 20 people had been sleeping in the vicinity of the park before local homelessness abatement agency Housing Forward opened a new overnight shelter in the village in October. The new shelter, located at 112 S. Humphrey Ave., doubled Housing Forward’s shelter capacity.
Earlier this year, Oak Park launched a new program to provide social services to homeless people and others in need as the village started up its Engaging Community for Healthy Outcomes pilot program, otherwise known as ECHO. As winter set in, ECHO staff were able to get several of the people living in the park into beds at the new shelter, officials said. While the park is now clear of tents, the village said it did not remove them. “The village’s ECHO team has actively been engaging with individuals that have been sleeping in Scoville Park and outside of the library for approximately the past 8-12 months,” staff said in a statement on the homeless population at the park. “Of the approximately 20 unhoused individuals that were in that area near Scoville Park and the Oak Park Public Library, about eight went into shelter. A handful of the individuals expressed that they were not interested in shelter at the time and they continue to work
with ECHO and Housing Forward’s street outreach team. Staff also learned that that some individuals in that area have either left Oak Park or have returned home with family around the time a few weeks ago when we had the cold snap. To answer your question, the village did not remove any tents.” The ECHO program’s development followed a 2022 study by consultant group BerryDunn that the village commissioned to help outline a vision for alternative response and social service programming in Oak Park. Besides working with people experiencing homelessness in the village, ECHO staffers regularly help clients needing help with senior services issues and mental health issues, according to the village. In addition to the team’s relationship with Housing Forward, the village said ECHO staff began collaborating with the Park District of Oak Park in October to develop a stronger understanding of needs of the unhoused population in Scoville Park. That
FILE
work will continue, the village said. “ECHO continues to monitor and engage with all unhoused individuals, ensuring they communicate and work with Housing Forward to update the by-name list and get people screened through the call center for shelter/housing,” village officials said. “ECHO also continues to hand out warming kits to help individuals with their basic needs at the moment, to build rapport and work to engage them until they are ready and willing to go to shelter.”
6
Wednesday Journal, December 24, 2025
1980-2025 – CELEBRATING 45 YEARS
OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM
Dear Wednesday Journal Readers, When our kids were young and throughout their high school years, we turned to the Wednesday Journal and its sports section to catch up on and to celebrate the achievements of our community sports programs and teams. We will never forget one story in particular, from February 2009. Our son John was an avid basketball player, and despite various injuries and setbacks, he persevered. In a crucial matchup against Lyons Township in his junior year at OPRF, John played the game of his life. According to the Wednesday Journal, “along with a clutch three-pointer and a free throw, Weinheimer made the play of the game on a critical three-point play inside to put the Huskies up.” The excitement of that game was unforgettable. The following week, the Wednesday Journal’s lead sports story was titled “Weinheimer Who?” That headline didn’t just celebrate a game -- it celebrated resilience and community, and it highlighted the power of local journalism. Friends and neighbors reached out with congratulations, and that recognition gave John a much-needed boost of confidence. The article still hangs framed in his childhood bedroom -- a reminder of what one can achieve with perseverance and community support. This is what community journalism does. It doesn’t just report facts -- it connects us. It shines a light on the stories, big and small, that are important to the community, and it reminds us that we are important members of that community. This kind of journalism only exists because of people like you, our community. Your support of Growing Community Media ensures these stories continue to be told -- stories that inspire, unite, make us proud, and strengthen the bonds that make this community truly ours. As GCM’s Board Chair, I am excited to share that between now and the end of the year, the Board of Directors is matching all donations up to $10,000 and challenging our community to meet that match. Your gift today will go twice as far in sustaining the kind of community journalism that shows up for our kids, our neighbors, and our shared moments. Any amount helps keep these stories being told -- stories that reflect who we are, celebrate what we accomplish together, and strengthen the ties that bind this community. Thank you, Eric Weinheimer Board Chair Growing Community Media
Growing Community Media Year End Fundraiser 2025
PUBLISHED BY GROWING COMMUNITY MEDIA, A 501(C)(3) NONPROFIT
Your community newsroom needs you.
DONATE TODAY.
1980-2025 – CELEBRATING 45 YEARS
OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM
Growing Community Media staff and supporters at a community event.
Wednesday Journal, December 24, 2025
7
FILE
2025 was a year for the books Day in and day out, Growing Community Media and its four community news titles showed up for our readers, telling the stories that mattered most and helping our villages stay informed and connected. Our small but mighty newsroom produced more than 2,000 original articles over the course of this busy year, covering everything from ICE activity and No Kings protests to local elections, our school boards and everyday life that binds our communities together. We also printed more than 400,000 newspapers across our four flags, representing 11 million pages, and delivered them directly to you or to a business nearby. For subscribers, that comes out to roughly a dollar per issue. Laid end to end, those pages would stretch over 1,000 miles, enough to cover every single street in the communities we serve. That feels fitting. Every page is hand designed by our staff, with every story placement and advertisement thoughtfully considered. But this work is not just about volume. It is about quality. This year, our publications earned dozens of honors from the Illinois Press Association. Our Forest Park Review was awarded the Kramer Trophy for best small newspaper in Illinois, one of the highest recognitions in our field. These awards reflect the care, rigor, and integrity our team brings to its work every day. Our impact extends beyond the page. Our dedicated sales team helped spotlight nearly 700 local businesses this year, connecting readers with the people and services that make our neighborhoods thrive. And just this week, as we rolled out a new digital strategy, our combined newsletter subscriptions surpassed 20,000 readers, representing a 40 percent increase over last year. We do this work because we believe in it. We live in these communities. We shop at these businesses. Our kids attend these
schools. Local news is not a particularly lucrative business these days, and the challenges facing nonprofit publishers continue to grow. Still, we show up. For you. For our neighbors. For our communities. As we head toward the end of the year, we are asking you, our reader, to show up for us. If you have never given before, now is the time. If you supported us in the past but have not in a while, we need you now. And if you have already contributed, thank you. Your generosity matters more than ever. These community institutions are not guaranteed to last forever. They survive only when the people who value them step forward to sustain them. Right now, your support is essential. To make this moment even more meaningful, a generous gift from our Board of Directors will match all donations now through the end of the year, doubling your impact on every dollar raised. All dollars raised up to $10,000 dollars will be matched, doubling the impact of your gift and helping sustain this work into the year ahead. From all of us here at GCM, happy holidays. Thank you for reading, for caring about your community, and for supporting local news. If you would like to see this work continue, we hope you will consider making a contribution today. With gratitude, Max Reinsdorf
Support your community newsroom by scanning the QR code
COURTESY OF ANDREW FREER/GO FOURTH MEDIA
Border Patrol agents question rideshare drivers near O’Hare International Airport.
Oak Park documentarian covers ICE, Border Patrol and 4th amendment Oak Parker Andrew Freer launched a video series on ICE’s impact in Oak Park and beyond By BRENDAN HEFFERNAN Staff Reporter
Oak Parker Andrew Freer needed to put a light on what was happening in his own backyard. When Freer, a professional filmmaker and documentarian who settled in Oak Park in 2007 after a childhood spent living between Indonesia and Mansfield, OH, witnessed how President Donald Trump’s “Operation Midway Blitz” immigration crackdown was playing out in the village he felt called to put his skills to use documenting the impact of ICE and Border Patrol’s increased presence in the region. Freer has published several short documentaries under the name Go Fourth Media, the name a tribute to the U.S. Constitution’s 4th amendment — people’s right to protection from unreasonable search and seizure.
“The idea that people are being stopped without warrants, without reasonable cause based on the color of their skin or the job they have, or if they have an accent, is just a violation of what the Constitution stands for,” Freer said. Freer started working on the project after his friend and neighbor Scott Sakiyama was arrested by ICE agents after he tailed them as they travelled through the village. Sakiyama, a local attorney, had been honking a horn and blowing a whistle while traveling behind the agents throughout south Oak Park when he was arrested by ICE agents outside of Lincoln Elementary, where both he and Freer have children enrolled as students. Sakiyama is the subject of the first Go Fourth Media documentary, which features an interview with him and an animated reenactment of the arrest. See DOCUMENTARIAN on page 15
8
Wednesday Journal, December 24, 2025
1980-2025 – CELEBRATING 45 YEARS
OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM
Locals protest Thorntons for serving ICE
Federal agents shopped at the gas station, Dec. 16, the day they were seen back in the Chicago area By JESSICA MORDACQ Staff Reporter
United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are once again active in the Chicagoland area after withdrawing their presence in mid-November. On Dec. 16, federal agents were reported in suburban Cicero and on the southwest side of Chicago, where they arrested at least 15 people. That same day, Customs and Border Patrol Chief Greg Bovino and immigration enforcement agents were seen at Thorntons gas station on Harlem Avenue in Forest Park. As local judges question the legality of ICE’s arrest tactics, citizens continue to protest the agents’ presence in their communities.
The day after Bovino was spotted in Forest Park, residents gathered outside Thorntons to speak out against the gas station for selling snacks and gas to ICE agents. About a dozen people stood outside Thorntons from 4 to 5 p.m. after a post on the Activate Oak Park Facebook page shared the location and time of the event. Many cars honked their horns in support of the protesters as they passed the corner of Harlem and Jackson. There were also Forest Park police officers present in a squad car in the gas station lot. Forest Park Police Chief Ken Gross told the Review that his department was aware of the potential protest and had a security plan in place. He added that police were in contact with Thorntons and a protest organizer.
You Make us Shine! Enjoy
25%
TODD BANNOR
Anti-Ice protesters outside Thorntons gas station at Harlem & Jackson, which allowed ICE agents inside the store, Dec. 16.
Antique & Estate Jewelry
125 N. Marion Street in Downtown Oak Park 708-445-0610 goldhatpin.com @goldhatpin
off
EVERYTHING
goldhatpin@comcast.net
Georgian Necklace
Wednesday Journal, December 24, 2025
1980-2025 – CELEBRATING 45 YEARS
OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM
9
Oak Park touts energy savings, sustainability efforts
Village government and school districts cut energy costs and usage this year with strategic energy management program By BRENDAN HEFFERNAN Staff Reporter
Oak Park’s village government and local school districts reduced their energy use this year as the town eyes its ambitious sustainability goals. Through participation in ComEd’s Strategic Energy Management Program, Village Hall, the Public Works Center, and local schools – including Oak Park Elementary School District 97 and Oak Park and River Forest High School District 200 – have achieved significant energy savings, reducing both environmental impact and operational costs, the village said in a news release this month. These efforts are part of Oak Park’s broader commitment to reduce municipal energy use by 30% by 2030 in a bid for carbon neutrality by 2050, the village said. “ComEd’s SEM program has been an
incredible tool both to identify opportunities for energy savings and to measure and communicate our work,” said Lindsey Roland Nieratka, Oak Park’s top sustainability staffer. “We have been collaborating with our school districts on energy efficiency through a Cross Agency Sustainability Exchange and the
SEM program provides great resources to align efforts and see the collective impact. We are proud of the results and the positive impact this has on our community and the environment.” Oak Park’s village government reduced its energy use by over 2.14 million kilowatt-hours and reduced energy costs by
over $225,000 through its participation in the ComEd strategic energy management program. D97 reduced its energy usage by over 1.55 million kilowatt-hours and saved over $164,000 while D200 cut its energy usage by more than 290,000 kilowatthours to save over $28,000 this year with the program, according to the village.
Sponsored Content
SOME OF MY FAVORITE THINGS IN OAK PARK (in no particular order) The Kale Scone at Broken Tart Bakery Elizabeth Court Austin Gardens The courtyard at 1012 Pleasant St. Almond Paste with Pecan Topping Coffee Cake at Oak Park Bakery The Tropical Room at the Oak Park Conservatory Bill Bower’s and Fran Scott’s spin classes at FFC Everything Bagel at Daly Bagel The Book Loft Vanilla Chocolate Dip Cone at Hole in the Wall
Local News, straight The St. Giles Campus and Larry’s Church decorations during the holidays The Herb Crusted Whitefish at Hemmingway’s Bistro to your inbox! The third floor in the Oak Park Main Library Subscribe to our The Breakfast Burrito at Amerikas (served before 3 pm) FILE newsletters today! Jewelry repair and design at the Bead in Hand Subscribe to our newsletter!
The Bread Pudding at Citrine The windows at Tulipia Floral design
708-819-1580 www.theresaclancylaw.com theresa.clancy@theresaclancylaw.com THERESA CLANCY Estate Planning Attorney
This content is made possible by our sponsor and is independent of GCM’s editorial staff.
10
Wednesday Journal, December 24, 2025
1980-2025 – CELEBRATING 45 YEARS
OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM
After battle for future of RF Community Center, pact is reached Daycare program stays in place as two sides settle By BOB SKOLNIK Contributing Reporter
After nearly five months of often contentious negotiations, the River Forest Civic Center Authority and the River Forest Community Center have agreed on a new four year lease that keeps the Community Center in the River Forest Civic Center building located at 8020 Madison St. but will give the Civic Center Authority control of the building as the landlord. The new lease will supersede an existing lease that was to terminate in 2028. This spring the Civic Center Authority, the legal entity that owns the Civic Center building, had threatened to terminate the Community Center’s lease leading to something close to panic among some families that have kids in the Community Center’s highly regarded childcare program. The Civic Center Authority Board of Managers, which has, by law, the same make up as the River Forest Township Board, unanimously approved the new lease on Dec. 16. The Community Center board of directors approved the lease two days later on Dec. 18. The new lease runs until Dec 31, 2029. “We’re very pleased to have an agreement,” said River Forest Township Supervisor John Becvar, who also serves on the Civic Center Board of Managers. “It allows us to move forward on a variety of things including, but not limited to, really discussing what the future of the building is. The agreement itself doesn’t solve the finances of the building.” Becvar says the building will need an infusion of cash in coming years to replace its roof and failing HVAC system and other mechanical systems. The Community Center runs a popular childcare program in the building and has been the main tenant since the building, which was built in 1955 for Laidlaw Publishing, become publicly owned around 1990. In an unusual arrangement the Com-
munity Center rented out much of the second floor of the building and paid for most utilities and maintenance. Becvar wanted to end that and make it clear that the Civic Center Authority Board of Managers was the landlord and the Community Center was the tenant. Starting in January the Community Center will cede control of the second floor in the two-story red brick building. The Community Center’s rent will initially decrease to $7,696 a quarter or $1.80 per square foot. That’s about half of the rent it had been paying but the Community Center henceforth only controls about 58 percent of the building, down from 94 percent and will no longer be subleasing any space to other organizations as it has been for decades. The Civic Center Authority will now collect rent from other users of the building such as River Forest Township, Opportunity Knocks, CAYR Connection and Oak Park Township. Those tenants will pay $15.40 a square foot in rent to the Civic Center Authority for the space they use on the building’s second floor. Becvar said that Community Center’s low rent until 2028 is a result of carrying forward the terms of the pre-existing lease that ran until 2028. The Civic Center Authority Board started the controversy this spring by threatening to terminate that lease claiming, among other things, that the Community Center had violated its terms by not getting its subleasing arrangements preapproved by the Civic Center Authority. Becvar said that contrary to what some thought the Civic Center Authority never took any legal steps to evict the Community Center from the building. “We sent them one letter and that caused all this brouhaha,” Becvar said. On July 1, 2028 the Community Center’s rent will jump to $68,245 a quarter as it will at that time begin paying the same rent as other tenants, $16.17 a square foot. “It went way up to the levels the Community Center was charging Opportunity
RIVER FOREST COMMUNITY CENTER
Kids program Knocks and the high school in the building adjusted for inflation between now and that future date,” said Becvar of the big jump in the rent the Community Center will begin paying in 2028. Leslie Farrer, a member of the Community Center’s board and negotiating team, said that she was also relieved that an agreement was reached. “I am excited for this chapter to be completed,” Farrer said. But the future spike in rent has caused the Community Center to begin a fundraising campaign, something it didn’t really do in the past as it relied on rent from other organizations that used the building’s second floor as well as fees from families that use its child care program. “We have been very fortunate for 30 years to be a self-sustaining non-profit with no taxpayer dollars coming into the building so we’ve had the good fortune of not having to focus a lot of our energy on fundraising and grant writing,” Farrer said. “With this new amendment we are having to switch our attention back to kind of what a normal non-profit would do.” The Community Center has launched a year end fundraising campaign. “We have made a massive sacrifice by relinquishing the second floor and our ability to rent out that space and use that revenue to subsidize the childcare and keep
up with the maintenance of the building,” Farrer said. Both Becvar and Farrer said that they are now looking to the future. “We all want the same thing,” Becvar said. Becvar said that finding the funds to do the necessary work on the 70-year-old building will be a challenge. “With less than $200,000 of cash liquid assets, and we already have a failing roof and we already have failing mechanicals even replacing one of them is impossible without additional funding,” Becvar said. But both he and Farrer are hopeful they can put the acrimony of the past few months behind them and work together to keep the building viable in the future. “We can hopefully put all that past us and work forward on the future so that we can make sure the building can stay open as a vibrant asset for the community for the next, 10, 20, 30 years, that’s our goal,” Becvar said. Farrer also hopes that the Community Center can remain in the building that has been its home for decades for the foreseeable future. “I believe that both parties were looking towards the longevity of the building,” Farrer said. “There were difficult conversations trying to make sure that everyone could come out of this with a future.”
Wednesday Journal, December 24, 2025
1980-2025 – CELEBRATING 45 YEARS
OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM
11
News report: West Sub owners in legal dispute with Pipeline, a previous owner Pipeline alleges Resilience Health is in default on $67M loan
By BILL DWYER Contributing Reporter
The future of West Suburban Medical Center is looking more uncertain than ever in light of a lawsuit reported by a Chicago real estate news website. In a Dec. 22 article, The Real Deal Real Estate News’ Emma Whalen reports that affiliates of West Sub’s former owners, Pipeline Health, have sued West Sub’s current corporate parent, New Jerseybased Resilience Healthcare, for failing to pay $67 million allegedly owed to the Pipeline entities. West Sub CEO Manoj Prasad told media outlets in early 2023 that the deal for West Sub and Weiss Memorial Hospital on Chicago’s North Side was worth $92 million.
The Real Deal reports that sale was funded in part by a $22 million loan from California-based First Credit Bank and a $67 million loan note from Pipeline with a December 2024 maturity date. Last December Resilience failed to pay back the $67 million owed to the Pipeline entities, The Real Deal reports. Attorneys for Pipeline and representatives of Resilience, they said, did not respond to requests for comment. Last June, six months after Resilience Healthcare allegedly defaulted on the $67 million loan, the federal Center for Medicare Services terminated Weiss Memorial’s participation in Medicaid reimbursement after the hospital’s air conditioning failed. With Weiss reportedly relying on Medicare and Medicaid for 87 percent of
its revenue, Resilience Healthcare made the decision to close the hospital on Aug. 8. Some medical services continue to be offered on the Weiss campus. “Due to a catastrophic HVAC failure, all inpatient units were evacuated on June 18,” Weiss Memorial said on its website. “The Emergency Department remained opened until Aug. 8, 2025 but also had to be closed pursuant to a loss of Medicare and Medicaid funding.” The Real Deal reports that the alleged $67 million debt default referenced in Pipeline’s lawsuit “is listed in public records as a subordinate mortgage, meaning Resilience is likely on the hook to cover the $22 million CMBS debt before making the lenders of the larger debt whole.” In the course of negotiating the sale of
West Sub and Weiss to the newly created Resilience Healthcare, Pipeline entered bankruptcy. At the time the Journal reported that Pipeline blamed its financial woes entirely on growing losses at its two Chicago hospitals. “For now, the tangled legal mess leaves West Suburban Hospital in a precarious situation and puts a heavier burden on Weiss Memorial Hospital’s potential to reopen,” The Real Deal reports. That set of circumstances likely places West Suburban Medical Center in serious jeopardy. Last summer Prasad told a press conference that West Sub’s future was uncertain and that the hospital made decisions on what bills to pay based on what cash was received on a given day.
Quality Vacuums in Oak Park
Local � Friendly � Experts
Assisted Living Centennial Special!
Wrap up our 100th year with BIG savings at Cantata— where vibrant autumn colors surround our 10-acre wooded campus, and generations of families trusted us for senior care.
100 Days With Us = 1 Month FREE Contact Us Today!
We’ve been keeping Chicagoland clean since 1983
(708) 387-1030 • info@cantata.org
Mention this ad for 10% off your next purchase Scan here to visit our website
*Secure your apartment by 12/31/25. 1 month credit applies after 100 consecutive days of residency
8700 West 31st St • Brookfield, IL 60513 • Cantata.org
Independent Living • Assisted Living • Memory Support • Short-Term Rehab • Long-Term Care • Home Care
CityHome
Vacuums & More
Oak Park 148 N. Oak Park Ave., Oak Park, IL 708�660�9800
12
Wednesday Journal, December 24, 2025
1980-2025 – CELEBRATING 45 YEARS
OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM
C R I M E
A Sensible Approach to Maintenance-Free Senior Living
Rent starts at just $2,000 a month No Entrance Fee, Amazing Amenities, Utilities Included, a Full Social Program, and Short-Term Stays
to Maintenance-Free Senior Living th coverage. Rent starts at just $2,000 a month at just $2,000 a month tts price. t here in town.
Call (708) 386-4040 to schedule an appointment.
A Sensible Approach toMaintenance-Free Maintenance-Free Senior Living A Sensible Approach to Senior Living A Sensible Approach to Maintenance-Free Senior Living
408 S. Oak Park Avenue, Oak Park, IL 60302 • www.oakparkarms.com
Rent starts at just a month Rent starts at$2,000 just $2,000 a month OPA_Ad_10x525.indd 1
a Full Social Program, and Short-Term Stays
a Full Social Program, and Short-Term Stays
Call (708) 386-4040 to schedule an appointment. Fee, Amazing Amenities, Utilities Included, Call (708) 386-4040 to schedule an appointment. 408 S. Oak Park Avenue, Oak to Park,schedule IL 60302 • www.oakparkarms.com ocial Program, and Short-Term Stays Call (708) 386-4040 an appointment. OPA_Ad_10x525.indd 1
408 S. Oak Park Avenue, Oak Park, IL 60302 • www.oakparkarms.com 3/22/24 7:18 AM
S. Oak Park Avenue, Oak Park, IL 60302 • www.oakparkarms.com -4040 to 408 schedule an appointment. OPA_Ad_10x525.indd 1
A_Ad_10x525.indd 1
3/22/24 7:18 AM
No Entrance Fee, Amazing Amenities, Utilities Included, a Full Social Program, and Short-Term Stays
408 S. Oak Park Avenue, Oak Park, IL 60302 • www.oakparkarms.com
Right Right price. price. Right here neighbor, Right here in in town. town. Colin Fane, Agent OPA_Ad_10x525.indd 1
® is there. 212 S Marion Street Fl G
5pm 5pm 7pm 7pm
3/22/24 7:18 AM
A Sensible Approach to Maintenance-Free Senior Living
deal. The right insurance should Rent starts at just $2,000 a month Good neighbor. el confident and comfortable. t good neighbor for that. Call (708) 386-4040 to schedule an appointment. Great auto rates. Right Right coverage. coverage. ay.
G
Oak Park man arrested on multiple counts of battery, aggravated assault 3/22/24 7:18 AM
nue, Oak Park, IL 60302 • www.oakparkarms.com
ent ent
3/22/24 7:18 AM
No Entrance Fee, Amazing Amenities, Utilities Included, Entrance Fee, Amazing Amenities, Included, a No Full Social Program, and Short-Term StaysUtilities No Entrance Fee, Amazing Amenities, Utilities Included,
With safe driving discounts and options to personalize your Bus: 708-383-3163 Here’s the deal. The right insurance policy,should I can help you get an Here’s the deal. The right insurance should www.colinfane.com help you feel confident and comfortable. help you feel confident and comfortable. auto I’m the right good neighbor for that. rate that fits your budget. Monday & Friday 9am-5pm Oak Park, IL 60302
I’m the right good neighbor for that. Tues/Wed/Thurs Call me today. 9am-7pm Call me9am-12pm today. Call, click, text Saturday Like a good neighbor, Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.®® State Farm is there.
1901978
or stop by for a quote!
State Farm Bloomington, IL
By BRENDAN HEFFERNAN Staff Reporter
Police arrested an Oak Park man on several felony counts in connection with a reported attack on a Chicago resident. Oak Park police arrested a 36-year-old Oak Park man the morning of Saturday, Dec. 20 on two counts of battery and two counts of aggravated assault in connection with a reported attack that occurred in the 100 block of North Harlem Avenue, according to police. Police later discovered that the man had two active Cook County warrants for theft and criminal trespass to a vehicle, according to police. The man is currently in Cook County custody, appearing in court in Maywood for the first time on Dec. 23, according to county records. 3/22/24 7:18 AM
DUI arrest Oak Park police arrested a Chicago man
for driving under the influence in the early morning hours of Sunday, Dec. 21, according to police. Police stopped and arrested the 43-yearold man when he was found to have been driving under the influence in the 1100 block of Ridgeland Avenue just after 5:40 a.m. Sunday, according to police. The man was later released from Oak Park custody with a notice to appear in court, according to police These items were obtained from Oak Park’s Police Department reports dated Dec. 15–22 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 description of the suspect as they seek the public’s help in making an arrest.
Wednesday Journal, December 24, 2025
1980-2025 – CELEBRATING 45 YEARS
OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM
13
Twelve days of fantastic food
Deck your neck with a napkin and dig in By RISÉ SANDERS-WEIR Eats Reporter
On the first day of Christmas my true love cooked for me recipes from the Takeout 25 cookbook. On the second day of Christmas a local foodie grabbed a bag with two Parky’s hot dogs (and a mound of delicious
French fries). On the third day of Christmas a trio of Mulatta’s spinach and sundried tomato empanadas set a festive tone. On the fourth day of Christmas a double order of meatballs from Il Vicolo rolled their way to my door. On the fifth day of Christmas huevos rancheros from Breakfast House rounded up the score.
2
1
3
PROVIDED
Takeout 25 cookbook
PROVIDED
Breakfast House’s huevos rancheros
8
RISÉ SANDERS-WEIR
Hemmingway Bistro’s oysters
PROVIDED
Il Vicolo’s meatballs
7
10
9
PROVIDED
Mulatta’s empanadas
6
to choose from the nine flavors of margaritas at Margarita’s Restaurant. On the tenth day of Christmas Salerno’s baked a 10” pizza with pepperoni, onions, green pepper and black olives, just how I like it. On the eleventh day of Christmas Twisted Cookie’s peppermint bark shake shook up the carol singing choir’s tastebuds. On the twelfth day of Christmas I needed something gluten free (or nut-free or vegan or regular). A dozen cupcakes from Crumb Crusher came through for me.
4
PROVIDED
Parky’s dogs & fries
5
On the sixth day of Christmas I shared a dozen oysters with my boss at Hemingway’s Bistro. On the seventh day of Christmas I arranged a tray of Broken Tart’s mint chocolate brownies into a heptagon for sharing with friends. On the eighth day of Christmas ocho tacos from Taco Mucho filled us up while we got filled in on family news. On the nineth day of Christmas we had
RISÉ SANDERS-WEIR
PROVIDED
Broken Tart’s mint chocolate brownie
Taco Mucho’s tacos
11
12
PROVIDED PROVIDED
PROVIDED
Margaritas at Margarita’s
Salerno’s pizza
Twisted Cookie’s peppermint bark shake
RISÉ SANDERS-WEIR
Crumbcrusher’s cupcakes
14
Wednesday Journal, December 24, 2025
1980-2025 – CELEBRATING 45 YEARS
Y E A R
YOUR
withLisaCapone Holiday Warmth Wishes As the holiday season arrives, Cantata is filled with the spirit of togetherness as residents craft decorations, sing carols, and enjoy festive meals. Winter brings its charm, but it’s also a time to focus on safety and well-being. Seniors should dress warmly in layers, wear shoes with good traction, and keep walkways clear to prevent falls. Staying hydrated and checking on friends and neighbors helps everyone stay well throughout the season. For families traveling this holiday season, Cantata offers respite stays —a perfect solution to ensure loved ones are cared for while you’re away. These short-term stays provide professional support, nutritious meals, and opportunities for holiday activities in a welcoming environment. The holidays are about connection, joy, and peace of mind, and Cantata invites you to embrace the season safely while creating special memories. Happy Holidays! For more info, visit Cantata.org or call (708) 387-1030
Independent Living • Assisted Living • Memory Support Short-Term Rehab • Long-Term Care • Home Care
R E V I E W
-
O B I T U A R I E S
Departed, not forgotten
BEST
LIFE
I N
OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM
An incomplete list of those we lost in 2025 January ■ Edy Fielder Burton, 90, Oak Park Real-
tor, education advocate ■ Nancy Norton, Park District of Oak Park commissioner ■ Helen Robinson, co-founder of Robinson’s Ribs, First Baptist Church member ■ Glynne Gervais, 86, former Village Manager Association (VMA) president ■ Terry Rice, 75, owned the Foley-Rice Cadillac dealership on Madison Street ■ Fran Sullivan, 89, advocate for fair housing, women’s rights, good government, and reducing gun violence ■ George Manning, Austin preservationist who lived in a mansion on Midway Park and was always happy to give tours ■ Ann Marohn, 89, longtime docent and founding member of the Wright Home & Studio Foundation, now Wright Trust ■ Chuck Bassett, 70, architect, Plan Commission member
February ■ Jack Helbig, 66, Chicago Reader theater critic, high school English teacher, playwright (Feb. 5, p. 3) ■ Molly Philosophos, 60, Hephzibah development director, member of the board of directors
March
■ Jack Swanson, 96, former OPRF High School superintendent, interim District 90 superintendent, active community volunteer (March 5, p. 31) ■ Hannah Voigt, 87, piano teacher, church organist, gifted accompanist ■ Gail Hague, 88, Economy Shop volunteer for six decades, past president of Hephzibah Children’s Association
April ■ Betty Gehring, 96, violinist and music instructor who, with her husband gave up their retirement in Indiana to help her son raise their three adopted children from Russia after their mother died
■ Bill Dooley, 78, member of the Dooley Brothers band ■ Ken Uhlir, longtime Trinity High School volleyball coach
May ■ Mary Anne Brown, 80, dynamic director of Hephzibah Children’s Association for 40 years. She died on Mother’s Day Jordan Rifis, 79, known as the “lawyer for the underdog” ■ Nile Gossett, 60, diversity ambassador and former director of Project Unity
June ■ Bob Cullen, 70, pediatrician who practiced in a wheelchair after a car accident in early adulthood, also a poet, whose daughter became a professional ballet dancer ■ Wilmer Rutt, co-founder of Oak Park’s 10,000 Villages store, physician, medical missionary ■ Betty Peaslee, 94, co-proprietor with her husband Don of Peaslee Hardware on Madison Street in Forest Park, and a community activist ■ Ed O’Brien, 62, avid birdwatcher, Oak Park librarian ■ Bill Marshall, 86, former Oak Park village trustee
July ■ Tyra Manning, 78, former District 90
superintendent and an author who wrote about the grief she carried for decades after her husband died in Vietnam ■ Gus Boudros, 53, former proprietor of Oak Park Food Mart on Oak Park Avenue, a storefront that remains empty years later
August ■ Bruce Samuels, 82, community organizer who helped develop the Head Start program and Sesame Street in the 1960s ■ Tony Kinert, 85, owned Olde Town West in Forest Park ■ Connie Rakitan, 74, led the Faith & Fellowship Ministry at St. Catherine-St. Lucy for those with mental illness ■ Gerri Keating, 81, former CEO of the
Oak Park Board of Realtors ■ Gary Mancuso, 74, Oak Park Realtor, active in OPALGA, the Oak Park Area Gay and Lesbian Association ■ Gene McCormick, 85, teacher, coach and longtime Wright Home & Studio docent
September ■ Marion Biagi, 94, co-founded SEOPCO, the Southeast Oak Park Community Organization, following the massive environmental remediation of Barrie Park. She lived across the street and remained a staunch defender of the neighborhood through the entire nightmare ■ Robert Follett, 97, chairman of the Follett Publishing Company, which published college textbooks, son of Dwight and Millie Follett, who co-founded the VMA ■ Patrick Hemingway, 97, the last of Ernie’s three sons, who remained very active in protecting the Hemingway estate and literary legacy
October ■ Bruce Sagan, 96, newspaper publisher, who launched The World, a precursor to Wednesday Journal (Oct. 1, p. 10) ■ Jim Dooley, 76, founder of the Dooley Brothers band and brother of Bill Dooley, who died in April
November ■ Joan Ryan, 92, Wright docent and former director of the Infant Welfare Clinic
December ■ Mickey Baer, 82, owner of the Matter of Style Salon on Marion Street ■ Burt Andersen, 93, physician/musician, a soaring tenor who specialized in singing the songs of Stephen Sondheim and former head of Infectious Diseases at the University of Illinois Medical Center ■ Mel Noel Jr., 81, dedicated to justice and the arts, who argued cases before the Supreme Court ■ Jack Kernan, 100, whose first marriage lasted 65 years. His second marriage lasted only six, but it started when he was 94
— Ken Trainor
DOCUMENTARIAN Tracking ICE from page 7 Freer has also published a documentary cut from footage he gathered while following ICE and Border Patrol agents around the area on Halloween. Documentaries in production will profile subjects including the group of Oak Park-area moms arrested during a sit-in at ICE’s Broadview Detention Facility last month, a Chicago man detained by ICE despite his status as an asylum seeker and Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino’s recent return to Chicagoland, he said. Following Bovino last week took him from Harlem Avenue in Oak Park to O’Hare Airport, where he said he saw immigration agents question every rideshare driver who pulled through a parking lot, ignoring City of Chicago signage that said the area could not be used for civil immigration operations. From a few feet away, he filmed a man being pulled from his car and detained as he pleaded with agents. “He was a little older, he said he’d had two heart attacks,” Freer said. “He was just pleading for them not to take him. It was
Wednesday Journal, December 24, 2025
1980-2025 – CELEBRATING 45 YEARS
OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM
hard to film. It was hard not to start crying while that was happening. But they were just illegally there and stopping people at an illegal checkpoint in a space that they were not supposed to be at.” Freer said he’s taken a break from other projects to focus on Go Fourth Media like a full-time job. He is seeking donations to keep the project going. The videos published so far quickly gained over 100,000 views across social media platforms, Freer said. He hopes that the videos will help contribute to the national conversation about immigration enforcement by showing how the operations have been playing out in Chicago. “I don’t think you have to be an extremist to care about constitutional rights being violated,” Freer said. “I think that’s a core tenant of many Americans from the left and the right. I don’t think you have to be a radical to want to get involved and to protect Fourth Amendment rights, you know, to protect constitutional rights. I think there’s a lot of other reasons to be concerned by what has happened to our neighbors, but to me, I think that is a way to communicate with people across the board, across many different political ideologies. I think most Americans would agree with that statement.”
Happy Holidays! from your friends at Wednesday Journal
AUTO | HOME | LIFE | BUSINESS
May Your Days Be Merry And Bright. Wishing you and yours a healthy, happy holiday season.
(708) 383-9000 | relationinsurance.com ©2025 Relation Insurance, Inc. All rights reserved. IL License #3001721457
Support and donate here:
15
16
Wednesday Journal, December 24, 2025
1980-2025 – CELEBRATING 45 YEARS
OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM
PARK POOL
March referendum from page 1 ballot to raise money to build a new indoor swimming pool at Ridgeland Common which would replace the more than 50 year old outdoor swimming pool there. Asked when the proposal had been discussed in public before last week’s vote, Kassie Porreca, park board president, said an indoor pool was part of a discussion of capital projects and funding options at a public board retreat last June. In addition, she wrote in an email to Wednesday Journal that a property tax referendum on a pool project was recommended in another park district document on its website. In a Tuesday morning interview with the Journal Porreca said, “The park district is completely agnostic on the outcome of a referendum. My hope is that voters will become really informed and vote according to what they think is appropriate and that we have a great voter turnout so that we can be confident, and everybody else can be confident, that whatever happens is truly the desire of as big a part of the community as possible and what voters decide is what will happen and I will be happy either way.” Oak Park and River Forest High School is currently building, as part of its Project 2, a new swimming pool that is set to open when the 2026-2027 school year begins Aug. 25, 2026. For years there was talk of the park district and OPRF cooperating to build a new indoor swimming pool but those discussions never resulted in anything that both governing bodies thought fit their specific needs. OPRF wanted a pool that is heavily used throughout the day for physical education classes and then used for swimming and water polo teams before and after the regular school day. The park district wants a pool that adults could use during the day and one focused on enjoyment and lap swimming, not competition. “We need it at the exact same time and the amenities are different,” said Maureen McCarthy, deputy recreation director for the park district. Porreca said comparing the needs of the high school and the parks for an indoor pool was “apples and oranges.” The park district proposal calls for a smaller pool than what is being built at OPRF. The proposal, the details of which can be viewed on the park district’s website, calls for replacing the 50 meter Ridgeland Common outdoor pool with a smaller 25 yard lap swimming
FILE
pool with six to eight lanes, significantly smaller than the 25 yard by 40 yard pool being built at OPRF. Also planned is a warm water therapy pool and an indoor splash pad with slides designed for young children. The new indoor pool at Ridgeland Common, if voters approve the bond referendum, would not be suitable for competition and would not have starting blocks. The park district’s website elaborates on why a joint school and park district pool didn’t work out. “Based on discussions with the school district, the high school pool is used daily for physical education classes and is heavily scheduled after school, in the evenings and on weekends for swim and water polo team practices, meets, and games,” the website states. “Because of this extensive use, it is not a feasible shared resource. That said, collaborating on programs such as diving and youth swim team would be possible.” The park district’s website said that simply enclosing the current Ridgeland Common outdoor pool is not practical. “Ridgeland’s pool shell dates back to 1962 and enclosing a 50-meter pool would not allow for the modern amenities needed to help offset ongoing operational costs,” the website states. Plans also call for new locker rooms, an updated lobby and construction of a small room suitable for birthday parties and other special occasions. There would be no impact
on the ice arena at Ridgeland Common. According to the park district’s website the owner of a home worth $430,000 would pay an additional $160 annually in property taxes if the referendum is approved. According to the park district’s tax calculator the owner of a home worth $800,000 would pay $309 annually in additional property taxes if the referendum is approved. Monica Sheehan, who led the opposition to a 2016 OPRF pool referendum that was narrowly defeated and who has been a persistent critic of the OPRF school board’s decision to fund Project 2 without a referendum, had mixed feelings on the park district’s imminent referendum. “One could call this a stealth referendum as there’s been no reporting of the park board discussing it, and a scan of recent meeting agendas turned up no mention except in last Thursday’s under “New Business,” Sheehan wrote in an email. “There was also no mention of a new aquatic center at Ridgeland Common in the park board’s 2024-2028 Capital Improvement Plan.” If the referendum is approved a design would be created and approved by 2027. Construction is projected to begin in September 2027 and take about 18 months to complete so the pool would open in 2029. The park district’s still new Community Recreation Center on Madison Street, which opened in 2023 was built with the option to add an indoor pool there but the park dis-
trict’s website said that is no longer a viable option. “An indoor pool was originally included in Phase 2 of the Community Recreation Center (CRC) plan,” the website states. “As designs progressed and funding became available, the Park District took the opportunity to make the CRC a Net Zero Energy facility, which made including an indoor aquatics facility untenable.” The park district will host open houses at the CRC to inform the public about the proposal on Jan. 22, Feb. 4 and Feb. 25 from 7 to 8 p.m. Getting rid of the Ridgeland Common outdoor pool would leave Oak Park with just one large outdoor pool, the park district’s Rehm Pool at East Avenue and Garfield. McCarthy was asked if Rehm Pool could become too crowded during hot summer days if it becomes the only outdoor pool operated by the park district. “I don’t know,” McCarthy said. “Some people may want to go in for swim lessons inside so they don’t have to worry about the weather.” McCarthy noted that the park district will still operate two pools. “We’re not taking a pool away, so they’ll still be two bodies of water,” McCarthy said. Voters will decide whether they want to replace the Ridgeland Common outdoor pool with a new indoor pool. “It’s up to the public,” McCarthy said.
OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM
1980-2025 – CELEBRATING 45 YEARS
Wednesday Journal, December 24, 2025
17
7TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT RACE
Showalter declares state of urgency in run for Congress
The 7th district candidate has experience in crafting federal legislation to hold large corporations responsible and make life more affordable By JESSICA MORDACQ Staff Reporter
Editor’s note: Ahead of the March primary, Growing Community Media is profiling the candidates running in the 7th congressional district. This week, that’s Reed Showalter. Reed Showalter, 32, is the second youngest candidate running in Illinois’ 7th congressional district. A West Loop resident, Showalter’s entire career has been spent working in public service on federal policy as an attorney who targets big corporations. “I see a country that has let itself fall to the very rich, the well connected, the powerful,” Showalter said of why he chose to run for Congress. “It’s an economy that is more interested in extracting things from people than providing the things they need to live. I’ve worked basically my whole life to try to stop that.” Showalter describes himself as a “combination of a dream-bigger candidate and a know-how candidate, one of the youngest candidates in the field, and the one with the most relevant, federal experience.” Showalter grew up in Oak Park, where his parents were small business owners. After graduating from New York University, Showalter worked at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Following the 2008 financial crisis, he tracked various markets to see whether they were being manipulated. “I wanted to basically find the people that tanked the economy and go after them,” Showalter said. So he went to a derivatives exchange and targeted big agriculture companies. “Derivatives were the thing to tank the economy. And I was like, ‘When are they going to do it again, and how can
I stop that?’” Showalter said that everything we eat — from meat to the seeds that grow produce and grains — are owned by just a couple of companies that jack up prices on their goods and squeeze out small farmers. “Fighting against that consolidation, breaking up those giant companies and making it harder for them to pass on their price hikes through the system is the only way in my mind to lower food prices,” Showalter said. His experience at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange inspired him to attend Columbia University to study antitrust law and better understand how to prevent shady mergers and business practices. Showalter was on Capitol Hill his last semester at law school, where he worked in Congress on the Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law. There, he was part of a year-plus-long investigation on companies like Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google. Showalter helped develop five bills, four of which are continually introduced in legislative sessions and “seed the ground for breaking up a part of Google and [are] against Amazon for the abuse of their workers and small sellers.” The bill that passed increased funding for antitrust enforcement and made it easier for state and federal governments to work together. “That funding bill that we passed allows us to challenge a bunch more mergers and allowed us to bring generational cases against, not just big tech companies, but big ag companies and big pharmaceutical companies.” Showalter said one of the first things his team did after that bill passed was chal-
PROVIDED
Reed Showalter lenge a UnitedHealth Group merger to stop them from getting bigger and controlling more of the health insurance ecosystem. Showalter has also worked as an attorney at the Federal Trade Commission, on a counsel for economic justice work in the U.S. Justice Department, and as a senior policy advisor on the White House National Economic Council. At the White House, Showalter helped negotiate Medicare drug prices and worked with the FTC to make EpiPens and inhalers more affordable. He also pitched an executive order to ban the internal transfer pricing that many large health care companies practice. Showalter said something called the Medical Loss Ratio makes it illegal for a big health insurer to make more than a 15% profit. “The reason why all the big healthcare companies have gotten so big is because, if [they] can buy the hospital and the doctor’s office and the clinic and the pharmacy, [they] can say, ‘No, that’s not profit. That’s the cost I haven’t paid,’” Showalter said. “Now you have UnitedHealth Group, which is the third largest company in the world, making basically all of its money on the siphoning of the American healthcare
system.” Showalter said that, until the corporate or for-profit ownership of hospitals is banned, the for-profit insurance industry will likely remain the primary driver of the health care system. And he’s just as opposed to large companies involved in real estate. At the end of the Biden administration, Showalter said the Department of Justice developed a case that’s currently pending against RealPage for colluding to raise rent prices. “If you pay rent in Chicago, you pay about $470 to $500 more a year because of this one company, regardless of where you live, because they found a way to get all of the landlords together to say, ‘We can all raise our rents by $25 and no one will leave if we all do it together.’” Showalter said, when he was working at the White House, he pushed for a national price gouging ban. “I got in yelling fights within the White House with other people on the Biden team like ‘Why aren’t we doing this?’” Showalter said of the price gouging ban. “That type of fight is exactly what we are going to have to win, and win quickly, because See REED SHOWALTER on page 24
18 December 24, 2025
CHRISTMAS CHURCH GUIDE
OAKPARK.COM | FORESTPARKREVIEW.COM
Special Advertising Section
2025
OAKPARK.COM | FORESTPARKREVIEW.COM
firstumcoakpark.org firstumcoakpark.org firstumcoakpark.org
CHRISTMAS CHURCH GUIDE
324 N. Oak Park Ave, Oak Park, IL
324 N. Oak Park Ave, Oak Park, IL
324 N. Oak Park Ave, Oak Park, IL
CHRISTMAS SERVICE CHRISTMAS EVE EVE SERVICE Wednesday, December 24 6:00 p.m. CHRISTMAS EVE24 SERVICE Wednesday, December atat 6:00 p.m.
person and livestream In In person and livestream Wednesday, December 24 at 6:00 p.m. Scripture, Carols, Bells, Organ, and Communion Scripture, Carols, Bells, Organ, and Communion In person and livestream ~ O Carols, come let usBells, adore Organ, him... EVERY SUNDAY ~ Scripture, and Communion ~ O come let us adore him... EVERY SUNDAY ~
11:00 a.m. In Person and Livestreamed
11:00 let a.m. Person and Livestreamed ~ O come usInadore him... EVERY SUNDAY ~ 11:00 a.m. In Person and Livestreamed
December 24, 2025 19
20 December 24, 2025
CHRISTMAS CHURCH GUIDE
OAKPARK.COM | FORESTPARKREVIEW.COM
2025 holiday services at
Unity Temple Unitarian Universalist Congregation 875 Lake Street, Oak Park IL Winter Solstice Celebration Sunday, December 21
6pm In-Person Only Christmas Eve Services Wednesday, December 24
3pm Christmas Pageant & Worship for All Ages 7pm Choir & Candlelight Service New Year’s Eve Sangha Wednesday, December 31
5-7pm Community Center 1019 S. Blvd, Oak Park IL Services will be both in-person and live streamed with the exception of the Winter Solstice Celebration which is in-person only. To learn more go to: www.unitytemple.org
2025_holiday_schedule_wed_journal.indd 1
Join us for
Holiday Services at St. C’s! Christmas Eve, Wednesday, December 24th
4:30 pm • Kid-Friendly Christmas Eve Service 9 pm • Christmas Eve Choral Eucharist
Christmas Day, Thursday, December 25th
10 am • Rite II Spoken Christmas Day Service
Epiphany, Sunday, January 11th 10 am • Epiphany Pageant
545 S. East Avenue, Oak Park
www.stchristophersoakpark.org • 708-386-5613
StC Advent and Christmas25_WJ-ad_REV.indd 1
12/18/25 12:37 PM
12/11/25 10:58 AM
Park, IL 924 Lake St. Oak Park, IL
ve
Christmas Eve
OAKPARK.COM | FORESTPARKREVIEW.COM
CHRISTMAS CHURCH GUIDE
Episcopal Church stmas 4:45pm MusicGrace - Concert of Christmas Music Grace Episcopal Church 924 Lake St. Oak Park, IL harist 5:00pm - Holy Eucharist 924 Lake St. Oak Park, IL Christmas Eve istmas 10:30pm Music- Concert of Christmas Music Christmas Eve 4:45pm - Concert of Christmas Music 4:45pm - Concert ofEucharist Christmas Music charist 11:00pm - Holy 5:00pm - Holy Eucharist 5:00pm - Holy Eucharist 10:30pm - Concert of Christmas Music 10:30pm - Concert of Christmas Music 11:00pm - Holy Eucharist 11:00pm - HolyDay Eucharist Christmas
ay
charist
OME
10:30am Christmas - Holy Eucharist Day Christmas Day
10:30am - Holy Eucharist 10:30am - Holy Eucharist Grace Episcopal Church
ALL ARE WELCOME 924 Lake St.WELCOME Oak Park, IL ALL ARE ALL ARE WELCOME
Evening Compline Service
“Glory to God in the highest heaven, Sunday, December 14, 9pm and on earth peace among those Enjoywhom thirty minutes of beauty and stillness he favors!” Luke 2:14 sung service. Take time during this entirely
and spiritual reflection by Joinfor usmeditation to celebrate Christmas!
candlelight as the music washes over you in Grace’s historic, gothic-revival sanctuary.
Christmas Eve
Children's Services: 4:15 and 6 p.m. Both services are led by the students FREE AND OPEN TO ALL of Grace Lutheran Church and School Traditional Service: 8 p.m. Candlelight Service: 10:45 p.m. Prelude starts at 10:30 p.m.
Christmas Day Worship: 10 a.m.
7300 Division St, River Forest IL 60305 graceriverforest.org/708-366-6900
December 24, 2025 21
22 December 24, 2025
CHRISTMAS CHURCH GUIDE
Merry Christmas, West Cook Friends From Euclid Avenue United Methodist Church South Euclid Ave and Washington Blvd, Oak Park
OAKPARK.COM | FORESTPARKREVIEW.COM
JOIN US
Pageant–Dec. 21,10:30 Christmas Eve-5:00
Services @ Euclid Christmas Week: Sunday, Dec 21, 10:30am Advent Four Worship 11:30am Movie: The Shepherd
Pilgrim Congregational Church 460 Lake St, Oak Park www.PilgrimOakPark.org
Wed, Dec 24, 4pm Family Worship w/ Las Posadas 7pm Candlelight Service w/ Choir
Euclidoffice@euclidavenuemc.org
You are invited! Christmas Eve Candlelight Service Wednesday, December 24 | 5:00 PM FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF OAK PARK 820 ONTARIO ST OAK PARK, IL 60302 www.FBCOAKPARK.org
Happy Holidays!
OAKPARK.COM | FORESTPARKREVIEW.COM
CHRISTMAS CHURCH GUIDE
Christmas SERVICES
December 24, 2025 23
CATHOLIC COMMUNITIES OF OAK PARK AND NEIGHBORS Ascension and St. Edmund Parish St. Catherine of Siena-St. Lucy and St. Giles Parish
SOLEMNITY of the NATIVITY of the LORD Christmas Eve, Wednesday 12/24
Our Savior is Born !
3:00 PM Mass at St. Giles with the Children’s Presentation of the Gospel 3:30 PM Mass at Ascension with Ascension Schola 4:30 PM Mass at St. Edmund with St. Edmund Choir 5:00 PM Mass at St. Giles with Young Adult Choir 5:30 PM Family-focused Mass at Ascension with Ascension Choristers & String Ensemble 7:30 PM Family Mass Community Mass in the St. Giles School Gym Carols begin at 7 PM Adult and Children’s Choir; Children’s Presentation of the Gospel
10:30 PM Mass at St. Giles Carols begin at 10:00 PM with St Catherine of Siena-St Lucy and St. Giles Choir 11:00 PM Mass at Ascension Carols begin at 10:30 PM with Ascension Choir
Christmas Day, Thursday 12/25 8:30 AM Mass at St. Giles
9:00 AM Mass at Ascension with organ, instruments and cantor
10:30 AM Mass at St. Giles
11:00 AM Mass at St. Edmund with organ, instruments and cantor
SOLEMNITY of MARY, MOTHER of GOD World Day of Prayer for Peace Wednesday 12/31 5:00 PM Mass at St. Edmund (Mass of anticipation) Thursday 1/1 9:00 AM Mass at Ascension 10:00 AM Mass at St. Giles 7:30 PM Taizé Prayer for Peace at Ascension
For more information about the Christmas season services, scan the code:
24
Wednesday Journal, December 24, 2025
1980-2025 – CELEBRATING 45 YEARS
OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM
Thinking about a career in local government? The Village of Oak Park has job opportunities available. Please visit www.oak-park.us or scan the QR code
Community • Connection Service • Respect
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES ELECTRICAL
ELECTRICAL
A&A ELECTRIC
Ceiling Fans Let an American Veteran do your work Installed We install plugs for battery-operated vehicles We fix any electrical problem and do small jobs We install Surge Protectors • Home Re-wiring • New Plugs & Switches Added • New circuit breaker boxes • Code violations corrected Service upgrades,100-200 amp • Garage & A/C lines installed Fast Emergency Service | Residential • Commercial • Industrial Free Home Evaluations | Lic. • Bonded • Ins. • Low Rates • Free Est.
708-409-0988 • 708-738-3848 Sr. Discounts • 30 Yrs. Exp. Servicing Oak Park • All surrounding suburbs • Chicago area
FLOORS
FLOORS
KLIS FLOORING INC.
New hardwood flooring installation & pergo. Sanding, re-finishing, staining. Low prices, insured. Call: 773-671-4996 www.klisflooring.com
HANDYMAN
HANDYMAN
STUCCO TUCKPOINTING GUTTERS
LAWNCARE BRUCE LAWN SERVICE
Lawn Maintenance Fall Leaf Clean-Up Sodding/Slit Seeding Bush Trimming Senior Discount
brucelawns.com
708�243�0571
PAINTING & DECORATING CLASSIC PAINTING Fast & Neat • Painting/ Taping/Plaster Repair Low Cost 708.749.0011
ALEX’S PAINTING
INTERIOR & EXTERIOR
20+ yrs of experience Professional, reliable and reasonable rates
BEST PRICES • BEST WORK
708-567-4680 708-567-4680
SIMPLY THE BEST
ROOFING
WESTLAKE SERVICES 312-316-2849
HANDYMAN
Mike’s Home Repair Drywall H Painting H Tile Plumbing H Electric H Floors Windows H Doors H Siding Ask Us What We Don’t Do
708-296-2060
JOE ROOFING
Roofing repair, tuckpointing, gutters and painting--- bonded, insured For free estimate call 773 297�1121
PROVIDED
REED SHOWALTER from page 17 we’re going to have a chance as we build out of the ashes of this to do something awesome.”
Progressive politics At the end of Trump’s second term, Showalter said Democrats will need to reverse many of his administration’s changes. But before then, they need to band-aid the holes he’s left in the political system. “Whoever takes power, whoever wins this seat, is going to walk in in the middle of the Trump administration,” Showalter said. “So there’s no time to learn how the institutions work. You have no time to learn, for example, how to do a federal investigation of corrupt cabinet officials, or follow the chains of bribes and abuses of the institutions. That’s going to need to be done on day one.” Showalter said he’s in the position to do that, since his work in Washington D.C. has allowed him to build relationships with relevant committees and their staff. “Sometimes people forget that it’s not just can you introduce a bill, but can you get floor time for it? Can you get somebody to sign on to it? Can you get leadership to support it? Can you make sure that it gets out of committee and voted on by the full Congress?” Showalter said. In addition to knowing how to navigate that process, Showalter said that, if elected, he’d bring new energy and ideas following
Congressman Danny Davis’ 30-year career. “Whoever’s going to be [elected] doesn’t have 30 years of seniority on the Ways and Means Committee,” as Davis does, Showalter said. “So there’s another way to do that, and that’s to build energy for bold, exciting reforms.” To Showalter, this means investing in public works programs, building new houses and hospitals, having Medicare for all, training more nurses and doctors, and having the government make pharmaceuticals instead of big companies. “That’s the type of investments that government is really good at driving, if you let it drive, that isn’t just the zero-sum of ‘How can I get another subsidy from a budget bill?’” Showalter said. “It’s going to take a ton of energy to do it. This job done right is a burnout job. I will not need to be term limit-ed out of it because I’m going to sprint at full speed. If I’m still fresh enough to keep running for reelection 20 years from now, I didn’t do my job.” When it comes to representing a wideranging district, which covers the western suburbs and stretches to the Loop and Chicago’s South Side, Showalter said he wants to have more offices, which are opened every day of the week with staff trained to answer any question a constituent might have. “Unless you’re willing to take these big swings, then the people who have been underserved by the system are only going to be more underserved by the system,” Showalter said. “Our country, and our government, is delivering perfectly well for what it’s designed to deliver for. It’s just delivering for the rich.”
OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM
1980-2025 – CELEBRATING 45 YEARS
Wednesday Journal, December 24, 2025
25
Wednesday Journal’s Top 10 digital news stories Scoops on high school, village government and Frank Lloyd Wright lead the way
By BRENDAN HEFFERNAN Staff Reporter
With 2025 coming to a close, it’s time we take a look back at some of our biggest news stories from the last year. Wednesday Journal posted d 2,355 new stories this year, which hich generated over 1.86 million page views. The list below features our top 10 most viewed digital stories of the last year.
3. Iconic Wright remodel hits the market 17,081 page views
Lacey Sikora broke the news of this beautiful century-and-ahalf old Oak Park home hitting tthe market for the first time in decades. The home, which was remodeled by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1905, was listed for $2,295,000.
rope in the early days of President Trump’s “Operation Midway Blitz.”
Lloyd Wright Home & Studio and a local Wright-designed home in a moment of selfreflection.
6. Metra assumes control of Oak Park train station — 14,988 9. Resignation and firing impact Oak Park’s development efpage views Gregg Voss gave us this story on Metra forts 9,932 page views police’s response to homeless people congregating near the Harlem and Lake train station. Local homelessness abatement group Housing Forward criticized the move.
This story came together after I filed a series of FOIA requests hoping to get a sense of what caused the abrupt departure of both the new hires tasked to lead Oak Park’s revamped economic development efforts. The documents painted a picture of behind-the-scenes tension, dysfunction and, ultimately, disappointment.
4. Crowd of teens gather in 1. OPRF equity director resigns Downtown Oak Park on Hallow- 7. OPRF teacher put on leave after errant FB Live post proves een, bullet hole found in near- after report of touching student revealing — 43,794 page views by apartment — 15,455 page — 12,809 page views 10. Three young children struck FOIA requests I filed revealed that a FOIA requests filed by longtime Growing views My editor Dan Haley reported on the cha- former state teacher of the year had been by motorist in Oak Park — Community Media reporter Bob Skolnik outlined the end of OPRF’s equity direc- otic Halloween night scene that enveloped placed on administrative leave after a stu- 9,060 page views Downtown Oak Park. There was at least dent reported that he touched them inaptor’s time at the high school. Materials he reviewed related to her administrative leave included a short Facebook Live video in which she reportedly modeled a waist training device from her office at the school.
2. Oak Park Finance Director resigns after five months — 31,544 page views Carrie Marckess had been hired to be Oak Park’s finance leader after a year-long transition period. But she resigned after just a few months.
BIG STORIES from page 3 municipal office building. The idea was that the OPPD would get a new standalone building on the villageowned green space just south of Village Hall, while Village Hall would undergo significant renovations aimed at improving accessibility and functionality. The municipal campus project became one of the most obvious points of contention in Oak Park’s 2025 Village President’s election between Incumbent Vicki Scaman and Trustee Ravi Parakkat.
one shot fired, reports of several fistfights and two occasions of River Forest police using pepper balls near teens. While no one in the crowd was seriously hurt or arrested, the incident will be the subject of a third-party investigation.
propriately. No criminal charges were ever brought against him, but his firing was confirmed by the school board later this year.
8. The Bear visits Oak Park’s 5. River Forest couple with ex- Frank Lloyd Wright Home & Stu— 11,247 page views pired visas deported to Slovakia dio Lacey Sikora also gave us a look at Oak — 15,326 page views Park’s cameo in the latest season of the Dan Haley also brought in this story on two long-time River Forest residents who were detained and deported to Eastern Eu-
smash hit Chicago TV show The Bear. In Season 4, Episode 5 of the series, Chef Carmy visits Oak Park’s iconic Frank
While the two agreed on the need for a new police station, Parakkat slammed the Village Hall renovations as expensive and unnecessary. “I’m not talking about the police facility, that is absolutely required,” Parakkat said at a Wednesday Journal candidate forum in February. “The village hall is a facility where the average Oak Parker spends less than five minutes a year. To spend $150 million on that, and $150 million is just a conservative estimate. By the time you look at financing costs, interests, location or the logistical shifts required to move people to a new location and bring them back it is going to push close to $200 million and we don’t have a good handle on that. To sit here in 2025 and not have a han-
dle on that and not know how it’s going to impact our residents, that’s poor governance.” Scaman said that Parakkat was misleading the voters about the ultimate cost of the project, maintaining that the cost wouldn’t come anywhere near the $200 million that he referenced in speeches and campaign materials. “Putting out this false information is truly not how you want your village president to operate,” Scaman said at the Wednesday Journal forum. Scaman ultimately secured a comfortable reelection victory on April 1, but news on the future of the police station and Village Hall projects came slowly. Multiple dates for a Village Board discussion on the project appeared on agenda calendars, then never ma-
I learned about this tragic incident through Oak Park police activity reports, which I review each week for police blotter coverage. Three children under the age of 10 were hospitalized after being hit in a crosswalk on Lombard Avenue, one was released later that day while the other two were kept overnight.
Page views help us know what you want to read the most. Are there any of these articles that you want me to do a deeper dive into? Or do you have any stories you’d like to see me pursue in the new year? Email me your thoughts at brendan@oakpark.com. terialized. It wasn’t until November when the board openly discussed the project again, in a conversation that represented a major shift in the potential shape of the project. Rather than building a brand-new police station, the village was now angling to buy the U.S. Bank building that had been put up for sale a few blocks away from Village Hall on Madison Street with the plan to convert it into a police station. In that meeting, the board approved the potential use of eminent domain to acquire the building, if necessary. At another meeting a few weeks later, the board voted to officially endorse the U.S. See BIG STORIES on page 26
26
Wednesday Journal, December 24, 2025
1980-2025 – CELEBRATING 45 YEARS
OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM
ANIKA SHERMAN
will always be “Ultralight Beam” by Kanye West. Sherman’s artist name is Anika Hail, and next week she will be releasing her single “Known Better” on all streaming platforms. Earlier this fall, the Bears outreach program contacted the OPRF girl’s flag football program, asking if there were any singers on the team to audition to sing the national anthem. Sherman, varsity flag football player, worked with her mom to record a video audition. Sherman figured she hadn’t been selected; then, a month later, the team reached out to tell Sherman she would be performing before
the game. At first, Sherman was “super-duper excited,” she said. But then she thought about what it would mean to actually perform the national anthem. “I would say I’m a patriotic person, but I’m not patriotic for how the world and America is right now,” said Sherman. “What do I do?” she wondered. “And so I decided, if I’m going to be doing something that I don’t 100% stand with, I need to do something that I can [be happy] with. So I wore a Palestinian flag necklace. And I also wore a little gay rights pin. Because that’s me. And if you want me to do this, I’m gonna be
myself and stand for what I believe in.” The day of the performance, Sherman and her parents arrived at the stadium before the game. She rehearsed the anthem on the field twice, practiced vocal warm-ups in the locker room and then stood outside as people filed into the stadium. The Bears were playing the Pittsburgh Steelers, and every ticket was sold out. When it came time for the performance, “I was really excited,” said Sherman. “I was like, ‘This is my moment.’ I was really, really excited” All Sherman could see was the blaring sun and the camera. It felt “unreal.” Sherman said that during the performance, she wasn’t nervous at all. “In my head, I was just like, it’s time.” Sherman remembered every cue, and her voice stayed clear throughout the song. The performance ended up going “really well,” said Sherman, and walking away she felt proud of herself. “It was such a cool, beautiful opportunity. Everyone was so supportive,” she said. Singing the national anthem, especially at a time like this, “meant a lot” to Sherman, she said. “I was able to wear the Palestinian necklace, and I was able to wear the gay rights pin, and say, ‘Even though I don’t support our government right now, I’m still here,’” said Sherman. “I feel like I represent the people, not the government...It was a really, really proud moment.”
“Every resident, regardless of immigration status, is entitled to access village services without fear of deportation or other immigration-related consequences,” local officials said. “The village will continue to uphold the principle of confidentiality for residents and ensure that any personal information shared with the village is not disclosed to federal immigration enforcement agencies, except in cases where disclosure is mandated by law.” While those public sector funding threats have yet to materialize as was once feared by village leaders, the impact of federal spending cuts have been felt sharply by Oak Park’s nonprofits. Housing Forward, the main homelessness services provider in Cook County’s western suburbs, felt the impact of the Trump presidency throughout the year as the new administrations brought ideological changes to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Those changes included billions in proposed cuts to national housing assistance programs, with the administration’s seeking a 43% decrease in funding for federal rent assistance that serves 9 million Americans. Shortly before the end of the year, HUD leaders told Housing Forward and its peer orga-
nizations that it would put a hard cap on how much grant money could be spent on longterm housing. Long term housing is the organization’s main way of supporting people experiencing chronic homelessness, according to Housing Forward CEO Lynda Schueler. “It’s not just a loss of funding. It’s also a loss of permanent supportive housing as our answer and as a demonstrated and proven solution to end homelessness,” Schueler said. “This is a really hard pill to swallow right now.” Beyond Hunger, the area’s premier food service agency, said it served more clients than it had ever before amid panic caused by the administration’s plans to halt SNAP benefits during the government shutdown. The agency provided food to over 1,200 individuals during the first weekend in November, the most it had ever served in one weekend in its nearly 50 years of existence, according to Beyond Hunger CEO Jennie Hull. “In my many years working in the food insecurity field, I have never been more concerned about families struggling with hunger,” she said. “Food is not something families can ‘wait out.’ Our neighbors who depend on SNAP to afford groceries each month will
see their benefits disappear quickly and completely. For some, that will happen within days. Facing heightened food insecurity, especially during the holidays, is an unfathomable situation that will become a reality for many.” In at least one case, the funding cuts put a wrench into work Oak Parkers were doing to help people on the other side of the globe. The blanket freeze that Trump and his then-ally Elon Musk put on USAID funding killed a contract that Oak Park-based nonprofit Women’s Global Education Project had signed to run a library and computer center in rural Kenya. The agency had just opened up the facility, before learning through a memo that the project would no longer receive funding support, according to agency leader Amy Magilo. “Women’s Global does not want to have to close the doors of our newly built and equipped library and computer center — it provides access to books and technology to over 10,000 community members and is the only one of its kind in the whole county,” Magilo told Wednesday Journal. “Without WGEP’s USAID funded program a generation of students will be illiterate, are likely to drop out of school, girls will undergo FGM, become mothers in their early teens and the cycle of poverty continues.”
Star-spangled singer from page 1
Meadows, and her parents, Victoria and Dave Meadows, who were all on a road trip back from Michigan, pushed her to give the performance. On Nov. 23, about a week after the Taco John’s performance, Sherman performed “The Star-Spangled Banner” for more than 65,000 people at the inaugural Women and Girls in Sports game at Soldier Field. Sherman, 18, remembers her first performance at the Unity Temple fall family retreat when she was five or six years old. Dressed in a planets costume, she sang “Interplanet Janet” from Schoolhouse Rock in the talent show. “As a little kid, like, I loved attention,” said Sherman. “I love performing. I don’t get too scared when I’m performing. I feel like it really comes natural to me.” Since “Interplanet Janet,” Sherman has taken voice lessons with Emi Lee Frantz at Elfi Music Studio, traveled to the Junior Theater Festival with Ovation, and sung R&B and jazz duets with her mom, Victoria Storm. Sherman is always listening to music. Her favorite artists are Lauryn Hill and Erukah Badu, and she said her favorite song
BIG STORIES from page 25 Bank plan as its preferred way forward for the police station project. The village has not reached an agreement to put the branch under village ownership, and Oak Park leaders will spend much of 2026 looking to put these plans into action.
Funding threats Federal budget cuts also presented significant challenges in Oak Park. In May, Oak Park was included on a U.S. Department of Homeland Security list of immigration “sanctuary cities” that were said to be set to lose access to federal grant money due to having local policies against complying with federal immigration agents. The village’s inclusion on that list followed warnings by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy that cities with sanctuary policies would lose out on federal infrastructure funding. Oak Park leaders responded to the funding threats in a statement.
PHOTOS BY BY JASON SHERMAN
OPRF student Anika Sherman at Soldier Field, preparing to sing the national anthem before the Bears game.
Homes
NEED TO REACH US?
email: dhaley@wjinc.com
Wednesday Journal, December 24, 2025
27
Demolition planned on Elizabeth Court New single-family home design presented to Historic Preservation Commission
By LACEY SIKORA Real Estate Reporter
It’s not easy to tear down a house in Oak Park, but a house on Oak Park’s Elizabeth Court has a date with a wrecking ball in the near future. Built in the 1950’s, the ranch home is considered a non-contributing structure in the Frank Lloyd Wright Prairie School of Architecture Historic District. The new owner of the property at 12 Elizabeth Ct. is planning to demolish the current home and is working through the village’s approval process to build a new two-story brick and sided home. Although demolition of properties in historic districts typically requires a certificate of appropriateness (COA) issued by the Historic Preservation Commission (HPC,) buildings which are outside the
TODD BANNOR
GOING, GOING, GONE? This mid-century home on Elizabeth Court will be demolished and replaced by a new two-story home under a proposal from its new owner.
THOMAS H. DONALEK ARCHITECTURE
Proposed design of the new home at 12 Elizabeth Court.
scope of the historic district and not considered historic do not require that certification. Brenton Boitse, the village’s new Urban Planner in Historic Preservation, said noncontributing structures are not protected buildings under the village’s historic preservation ordinance. In order to issue a permit for demolition of a non-contributing structure, the Advisory Review Committee of the HPC first meets with owners and provides opinions on the designs of new construction. The review process is considered purely advisory. At the Dec. 11 meeting of the Historic Preservation Commission, the ARC conducted that advisory review for the newly
proposed home. Warrior Construction, LLC, owned by Oak Parker Lesny Slawek, purchased the existing home for $560,000 in May 2025. Slawek declined to comment for this article. Slawek, who is a general contractor, presented plans for a new, single-family home he intends to build on the property. He worked with architect Thomas H. Donalek to design a two-story home built of Chicago common brick and vertical siding. Asha Andriana, acting chair of the commission, began the discussion by sharing the guidelines for new construction within an historic district, which state: See NEW HOME on page 29
28
Wednesday Journal, December 24, 2025
OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM
New Year New Floors!
7040 West North Avenue • 773-889-7500
OPEN: Monday-Thursday 9am – 5:30pm • Friday-Saturday 9am – 5pm Located in the North Ave Business District
Since 1906 Chicagoland’s Oldest Floor Covering Store
Custom Stair Runners & Rugs • Carpet • Hardwood • LVP & LVT
Happy Holidays! SEASON OF CHANGE: a wellseasoned agent can help you make the move. Buying or selling, contact us today!
KATHY & TONY 708.772.8040 708.772.8041 IWERSEN tonyiwersen@atproperties.com Real Estate Brokers
Happy Holidays! from your friends at Wednesday Journal
kathyiwersen@atproperties.com Support and donate here:
Wednesday Journal, December 24, 2025
OAKPARK.COM
29
NEW HOME
Bigger home proposed from page 27 “When designing a new building to be compatible with the neighborhood and adjacent buildings, consider carefully how the new structure relates to the character of the neighborhood in terms of scale, massing, street frontage, materials, height, windows and door placement, details, and finishes.” Commissioner Amy Peterson evaluated the existing streetscape of Elizabeth Court, a winding one-block long street that runs between Kenilworth and Forest Avenues, commenting that she walks the street frequently. “One of the lovely parts about that street is there are so many different styles.” Peterson added that this area of the street contained a mix of houses -- some from the 1960s and some older homes with more traditional siding, so she thought the two materials in Slawek’s renderings would blend into the neighborhood. Commissioner Ron Roman said he didn’t want people walking by to say this house is too modern and doesn’t belong. “I think it looks fine,” he said. “But if you can, make it even a little bit more vintage-looking to fit into the neighborhood. Again, the neighborhood is really mixed, but I wouldn’t want this to be another house that people look at and say, ‘This doesn’t fit in.’” Commissioners discussed the rear-facing façade, which some thought looked more historic than the front-facing façade. Slawek said the site was “pretty tough” to work with, with no alley access to the house. He said working with the required zoning offsets meant it was not easy to configure the new construction house on the lot. After learning from the village forester that he could not take out two trees in the parkway in front of the lot, he had to locate the new driveway around the trees. Slawek said the real “front” of the house is the east-facing portion along the driveway and says that he tried to keep the north facing elevation of the home in keeping with other homes on the block. The lot measures approximately 6,250 square feet and the existing home clocked in at 1,175 square feet according to Cook County, which assessed the home’s value at $470,000. Village zoning requirements for R-1 resi-
dential zoning provide that the maximum building coverage for a building is 35% of the lot. Village zoning also dictates front, rear and corner setbacks for buildings. Talking about the façade of the planned home, the commissioners discussed the large expanses of window and wondered if breaking up the more modern expanses of glass would help the house fit into the streetscape more. Slawek said he was trying to avoid having the front of his house look like a face, or Halloween pumpkin, with windows as eyes. He lamented that this is the effect the windows have in his current home in south Oak Park, and he said he wanted to avoid that in his new home. The commissioners praised the various roof lines, saying that detail fit in with the homes on the street. They questioned the plan’s colors of pale grey for the brick and the dark brown for the vertical siding. Slawek said the architect had not chosen colors yet. The commission recommended he consider the colors of other homes on the street to create an exterior that is in har-
THOMAS H. DONALEK ARCHITECTURE
Renderings of the new single-family residence at 12 Elizabeth Court. mony with the existing homes. Boitse concluded the conversation by noting that the commission would follow up with a list of its recommendations. Although Boitse indicated at the Dec. 11
meeting that the home had been demolished, on Dec. 15, Dan Yopchick, Oak Park spokesperson, said no demolition permit had been filed with the village. As of Dec. 16, the 1950s home was intact.
30
Wednesday Journal, December 24, 2025
Shrubtown Year in Review p. 33
VIEWPOINTS
Why not put the kids in charge?
S
ometimes I wonder what would happen if we put our kids in charge of the village. I say that not to take anything away from the grown-ups who make the brave choice to enter into the thankless yet vital job of public service. But to paraphrase Fran Lebowitz: Little children are more original than adults because they aren’t yet filled with cliches. Our children are unencumbered by the status quo, by the way things have always been done. They bring a clear-eyed vision to what could be, and they state it plainly. My 8-year-old daughter intuitively grasps concepts that many adults refuse to see, no matter how strong the evidence. One night my husband and I were discussing the challenges Oak Park is facing around homelessness, and she overheard us. Without lifting her pencil from her drawing, she piped up matter-offactly: “It’s because we have too many houses.” I looked at her incredulously. Too many houses? Say more about that, Naomi! “We need more apartments. They’re cheaper and you can have more of them.” I stood up and gave her a slow clap right there in the dining room. Naomi, are you referring to research that shows cities with restrictive single-family zoning have higher homelessness rates because limiting apartments drives up housing costs for everyone? And that allowing more apartments increases housing supply, keeps rents affordable, and prevents the cycle of eviction and housing loss that leads to homelessness? Of course she wasn’t. The concept just made logical sense to her, and she came to it on her own. Someone get Naomi on the Shape Oak Park Steering Committee, stat! Perhaps what we’ve needed all along is an 8-year-old to finally put the tired concerns about parking and property values in perspective. And don’t count my 5-year-old out. Children see the world very differently than we do, giving us new perspectives on things we take to be normal. The other day we drove by a crossing guard, and she wondered out loud, “Why is that stop sign connected to a human?” Why indeed, Margot? Is that stop sign connected to a human because we’ve designed streets for cars to move quickly rather than for people to cross safely? Because our car-centric culture means we cannot trust our fellow humans to safely drive 4,000 pound weapons of mass destruction around our community? That our solution to keeping kids safe is deploying an army of human-connected stop signs, putting their own bodies at risk every day for the sake of our children? Calling Public Works! Our implementation of the Vision Zero plan needs Margot’s bold questions at the table. Our infrastructure decisions could use a few 5-year-olds relentlessly asking us “Why?” a dozen times to challenge our assumptions and pave the way for new understanding. Here’s my bold idea: an elementary school council that weighs in on all of the village’s planning efforts and infrastructure decisions. Their perspective would weigh just as heavily as any other group, their ideas perhaps taken even more seriously. If the children are the future, let’s let them take a leading role in designing it. Nicole Chavas is an Oak Park resident who leads a sustainable planning and design firm. She is also an unbelievably proud Mom.
NICOLE CHAVAS
DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS IS FRIDAY 5 P.M.
Call Viewpoints editor Ken Trainor at 613-3310 ktrainor@wjinc.com
Unwrapping hope This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.
O
Luke 2:12
strengthening our trust in Divine guidance. In our culture, gift-giving and hope-affirming occur within and beyond the Christian tradition. Movingly, for example, Hanukkah celebrates a time of light and hope emerging from darkness. While not always associated with a particular faith, the holidays for many involve gifts and the celebration of family. There’s an expectation inherent in this period: sacred time has come again, affirming our bonds and confirming our hope that we are still loved. In my journey, selecting holiday gifts has evolved in ways that sometimes make me wonder whether the mystery and anticipation are still there. For example, we seem to manage the PHOTO PROVIDED process more consciously now to eliminate error and, as a side effect, can diminish the surprise. Rather than distribute informal Christmas wish lists, we often send each other links to the exact items we want, including, if it’s clothing or footwear, the desired size, brand, style, color and other details. Or if buying for children, parents can direct others to the online sites where the desired airplanes, dolls, animals, games or books can be clicked on and purchased. There’s an efficiency in this approach. After all, moms and dads know what their kids already have and want. But despite the technical efficiency of modern shopping, there are still plenty of ways to set the magical or spiritual stage for the exchange of gifts. There are classic movies, like It’s a Wonderful Life or White Christmas. More modern, sometimes animated, options abound. (I still
RICH KORDESH One View
n Christmas when I was a grade schooler, I’d often get up in the very early morning – maybe 3 or 4 a.m. – and in my pajamas would quietly slide down the stairs in the dark to sit on the living room floor in front of the tree. I’d gaze upon the wrapped gifts and the wooden creche built by Dad. Within the scene, surrounded by packages with bows and ribbons, Joseph, Mary and an angel hovered over a baby lying in straw in a manger. The presence of the gifts placed by my parents, the Nativity Scene and the tree itself adorned with ornaments Marion Street aglow signaled to me that my expectations were once again about to be fulfilled: Mom and Dad had come through, Mary had delivered the wondrous baby, and our tree was ready once more, bursting with glistening trimmings, waiting for us to turn on her lights. I’d wait then for my sisters to wake up and join me, one by one, as Mom arose to prepare breakfast; the time to open the gifts approached. What is it about opening this particular holiday’s gifts? Since those mornings when tearing open a Christmas wrapping would reveal a Roy Rogers cowboy hat or baseball glove, to now when doing so might reveal a tasty bottle of Woodford Reserve Bourbon, unpacking presents fulfills a kind of hope: Dad cared enough to get me this toy … my son came through with one of my favorite spirits. And more broadly, given our context of faith and the story of Jesus’ birth: the Lord had arrived yet again, renewing our hope and
See RICH KORDESH on page 34
OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM
O U R
I
V I E W S
Defining impartiality
t is good news that the River Forest Tennis Club has fully withdrawn its application to install lights at its Lathrop Avenue facility. After first scaling back its proposal to light all 10 of its tennis courts and instead lighting just 6, the private club has now pulled back its application. Unclear if it will return in some other form at some other moment. The tennis club has been fully closed-mouthed about its plans throughout this public debate. So we will see. We understand that under village code, proposals related to zoning at recreation-related entities are sent to the Development Review Board for consideration. While that seems clear under the code, it also makes no sense in terms of fairness and public perception as four of its seven members are also members of the tennis club. That is a point we’ve made on this page and that critics of the lights have also raised as an ethical concern. Village President Adduci, who inevitably is going to defend her volunteer commissioners, says she and the village take their cues on such matters from the village attorney. And Lance Molina, she told our Gregg Voss, has said the DRB members can hear the case and make a recommendation to the village board so long as they feel they can be “impartial.” We’re not casting aspersions on any member of this commission and we thank them for their service. We are raising doubts that any recommendation that ever comes from this group will be seen by the public as impartial. This pause should allow the village to come up with Plan B on how it might better resolve this issue.
A pool referendum
We will stipulate that our fully stretched reporting staff does not pay close attention to the Park District of Oak Park. That’s on us. So we were surprised to receive the press release from the park district last week that on the previous evening the park board unanimously approved placing a tax hike referendum on the March 2026 ballot to raise $40 million to build an indoor pool at Ridgeland Common. An indoor pool has been on the park district’s wish list for a long time. They have surveys saying a majority of villagers would support a mythical pool in an unnamed location at an unspecified price tag. Asked by the Journal when this specific plan to replace the outdoor pool at Ridgeland Common with an indoor facility was discussed publicly, we’re told it was talked about last June at a public park board retreat. And that it is included in a park district planning document. That said, the first time it turned up on a board meeting agenda was last week. The park district will make its case to voters in the new year. Voters will decide in March if they’re satisfied with how this plan came forward and if they are willing to pay the cost.
V I E W P O I N T S
Wednesday Journal, December 24, 2025
31
A beautiful Christmas and season of gladness
T
he long train of Christmases adds another carriage. For many seasons, melancholy curdled the messy merryness of the holidays, my life passing me by, December by December, and I wondered, would I ever get the hang of it? This year, something unfamiliar: gladness. My grandsons, Bryce and Tyler, have turned 12. This could be their last innocent Christmas. I remember the loss of magic when the bubble burst for me, so I wanted this season to be special. I resolved to stop watching the holidays from the sidelines and get into the game. On the playing field, the view is different. The excess is less annoying and the lights shine brighter. A friend wished me “a beautiful Christmas,” which changed my perspective, as did Primal Intelligence, a book by Angus Fletcher, who advocates approaching life not with logic first and foremost, but leading instead with intuition, imagination, emotion, and commonsense. Pay attention, he says, to the “exceptions,” the unusual, the unconventional, the offbeat, the out of the ordinary. Applied to Christmas, that might mean a Nativity scene of figures “abducted” by ICE, seeing the parallels between our era and the time Jesus was born, when his parents became refugees, fleeing Christmas to avoid the massacre of innocents. Expect the unexpected, the doorways to Christmas. Every holiday season, something new is born. Something good, something important. Most of all, hopefully, us. Christmas — the beautiful version — makes us want to be better human beings. More caring, more generous, more sensitive to others’ needs, all the qualities the Herods of our day do not possess. It’s the season for focusing on the good in spite of the ugliness. There is so much ugliness — but so much beauty also. If my grandsons’ enchanted bubble bursts, now or next year or the year after, I will try to help them find the unexpected beauty in their Christmases. Meanwhile, my 3-year-old granddaughter, Charlotte, is just climbing onto the bubble for her magic ride. And I’ll climb on right behind her, anticipating enchanted Christmases yet to come. Why, amidst the human wreckage of our national chaos-and-cruelty crisis, this Christmas season should brim with meaning, more than the Christmases that came before, is a mystery, but it makes this one feel like a miracle in its own right.
All these years I waited for a Christmas miracle that never arrived. Then there it was, like Dickens’ Christmas Carol — a series of visitations, a conversion, an open door inviting entry, defying expectations. With Christmases past parading in my mind, this Christmas presented itself and joined the parade in all its finery. A Christmas for refugees, escaping the massacre of innocence, and I, a stranger in a strange land, stranger than all other times, showed up, unbound by obligation. Returning like the prodigal son to Christmas with conviction, hoping for scraps but surprised to be accorded a place at the feast like any other, welcomed with a sense of belonging, re-admitted and forgiven, no questions asked, based on the proposition that all souls are endowed with life, equality, and ensuing gladness. A succession of pageantry soon surrounded me: a deep earlyDecember snowfall; shoppers milling; gifts thrusting themselves in my direction as if they knew who for, windows on State Street reimagined, as if emerging from more charming beforetimes; Christkindlmarket aglow with mulled wine, wood carvings, glass ornaments and warm cinnamon-sugared pecans; young skaters gliding behind animal figures to stabilize them. The mirrored Bean, reflecting a shining tree that gave its life for holiday spirit, Morton Arboretum awash with luminous color. Having breakfast at George’s, showered with bacon, picking out a Balsam/Frasier hybrid at the Dombrowski tree lot (Christmas-tree evolution!) on a single-digit Saturday morning, giving it glorious ornamentation and a spangled last hurrah, my two 12-year-old decorating consultants lining my bedroom walls with white lights and Scotch tape. How I’ll sleep at night is anyone’s guess. But they may not be sleeping either, if enchantment has anything to say about it. I read, the other day, a line from a church sermon a few years back: “On Easter Sunday, death began to die.” If that’s true, then on Christmas, life began to be born. I’m approaching this Christmas like I approach each summer. You only get a limited number in a lifetime, and each is one less left. So it’s well worth showing up. We are the holidays, in all our perfect imperfection, like every generation that passed this way before. And every December, we have the opportunity to find our place in the parade. Have a beautiful Christmas and a holiday season filled with gladness.
KEN
TRAINOR
32
Wednesday Journal, December 24, 2025
V I E W P O I N T S
A stiff-necked people, loving our neighbors Delivered during the Community of Congregations’ Multifaith Thanksgiving Service at Unity Temple on Nov. 23: ver the last year I have been honestly amazed at how organized the faith communities of Oak Park and the western suburbs are, how principled, how faithful; y’all have been throwing down especially over the last few months in such powerful ways. Before starting to organize with Arise Chicago this past February, I spent a little more than half a year in Guatemala. While I was in Guatemala I learned a piece of Torah, of sacred teaching, from the Esh Kodesh, Holy Fire, a Rabbi who wrote and taught in the Warsaw Ghetto establishes a difference between those who are kishui oref, stiff-necked, stubborn, even when they are tested and those who are hafachpach, flip-floppers, who shift their principles to fit whatever is comfortable. God criticizes the Israelites for being kishui oref, but Moshe responds that it is exactly this quality of kishui oref that merits the Divine Presence. Like every quality, kishui oref can be used for good or used for bad. But in moments of trial, of overwhelming violence, a little bit of kishui oref is required to insist on the liberatory threads of our traditions, to insist that when our sacred scriptures talk about loving our neighbor, talk about tearing down the rich and powerful who exploit them, we take them extremely seriously. The last three months in Chicago has been a moment of trials. It has been the closest I’ve ever been to large-scale fascistic violence. Between Sept. 9 and Nov. 15 of this year, more than 3,000 of our neighbors have been abducted from their homes, workplaces, schools, communities, places of worship: ■ On Friday, Sept. 12, Willan Gimenez, a day laborer and member of the workers center Latino Union, was detained by ICE on his way to a barber shop in Little Village. His lawyers believe he was targeted because he had been involved in a lawsuit against Home Depot for racial profiling. ■ The same day, Silverio Villegas Gonzales was murdered in Franklin Park. ICE stopped his vehicle as he was on his way back from dropping his kids off at daycare and on his way to work. When Silverio attempted to drive away, ICE officers shot him in the neck. ■ On Wednesday, Sept. 17, six roofers in Naperville were surrounded on all sides by ICE agents while fixing a roof. The ICE agents kicked down the ladders so all the roofers had to jump off. Five of them did jump, try to run, and were detained. The sixth worker remained on the roof until ICE
O
was gone. All six of them were documented. ■ On an overnight raid Oct. 3, ICE detained every single person in a building in South Shore Chicago, zip-tying children together – putting the Black residents on one side and the Latino residents on the other. Thirty-seven undocumented immigrants were detained, and citizens were asked if they had any outstanding warrants. ■ Oct. 17, our worker member at Arise Chicago, Diego, a 28-year-old immigrant from Guatemala, was leaving his shift at El Milagro Tortillas when he was abducted by ICE. He spent four days at the Broadview Abduction Center where he reported there were no showers, insufficient toilets, and they kept the temperature intentionally cold in order to pressure detainees to sign selfdeportation orders. ■ On Oct. 26, here in Oak Park, ICE detained a man about a block from Whittier Elementary School right as children were being dropped off at school. Nov. 6, ICE agents forced their way into Rayito del Sol daycare center. Pushing aside students and parents dropping off their children, ICE abducted the teacher, Diana Santillana Galeano, an immigrant from Colombia. But stories of violence are not the only stories from the last two months. There have also been stories of solidarity, of courage and compassion, maybe also at a scale this city has never seen before. Immigrants and their neighbors took a whole host of strategies to fight back, in which I know many people in this room have participated: ■ We have organized school patrols to accompany our neighbors dropping off their kids ■ We have accompanied neighbors to court appointments ■ We have distributed thousands of whistles to signal ICE presence ■ We have donated and delivered food, baby formula and medical supplies to neighbors who don’t want to leave their houses At Arise, we have trained hundreds of business owners on their rights in case of an ICE raid. We have targeted enabling businesses like AT&T and Relo Direct to end their contracts with ICE. We have participated in lawsuits limiting ICE’s ability to use tear gas, and to detain immigrants without a warrant. We have passed state legislation that limits ICE’s ability to enter educational institutions, hospitals, and courthouses, and local ordinances to prevent ICE from operat-
ing in public institutions. And we have protested at the Broadview Abduction Center. We have been, in other words, a stiff-necked people, kishui oref, in our insistence on loving our neighbor. ICE escalated their tactics: they used tear gas, pepper bullets, began dragging protesters into the facility to detain them. We were undeterred, and came back each week stronger than the week before. Many of the clergy engaged the ICE agents in theological conversation. Are you Christian? we asked them. Do you go to church? we asked them. What verse, in any part of the Bible justifies tearing parents away from their children? “Love your neighbor, love your God,” we chanted, “Save your soul and quit your job.” “A world without cages,” we sang, “is at the tips of our fingers, in the palms of our hands.” “Who do you serve, who do you protect?” we chanted. “Do your duty and defect!” The initial activists organizing the protests were, I think, a little surprised and caught off guard by how many of the people showing up to these protests were people of faith. On Oct. 3, the day after Yom Kippur, we organized a traditional Jewish Shacharit service, where over 150 people came out to pray together, sing together, and then brave tear gas together in solidarity with our neighbors. The next week a group of Protestant Clergy came to offer communion to the detainees – they were denied. The next day a group of Catholics processed from a nearby parish, including dozens of priests and a bishop to give communion – they were denied. The week afterward the Mennonites organized a service, and the week after that the Unitarian Universalists held a flower Communion. Our goals in bringing people of faith to Broadview were simple: ■ Get in the way. Do everything we could to impede ICE operations in our city. ■ Build pressure on ICE to allow religious ministers to enter and pray with detainees. ■ Use the platforms of people of faith to highlight the moral and spiritual desecration happening in our city, and amplify the call to “Shut Down Broadview.” On Nov. 14, we tried for the fifth time to peacefully enter Broadview and provide pastoral care. This time, the Illinois State police responded with violence: they arrested 21 of us, including seven clergy, tearing away our banners, kettling a large group of people in a small space, breaking wrists with their batons. We drew out the violence of the system: we knew that whatever the police and
ETHAN ARONSON One View
ICE would do to clergy in broad daylight, so much worse was happening to brownskinned immigrants behind closed doors. I spent the next 13 hours in the Maywood County lockup – the first six hours singing and reciting poems with fellow protesters, the next seven hours alone in prayer. On Nov. 13, we heard that at long last CBP had left Chicago, and while ICE continues to operate in Chicago, Broadview occupancy has returned to its pre-Midway Blitz levels. Day laborer Willan Jimenez was released. Arise member Diego was released in Brazil, Indiana, where a group of religious sisters and one of my Arise colleagues coordinated to get him home. Daycare worker Diana Galeano was released and welcomed back by loving parents, kids and community members. Another 600 immigrants, of which it was revealed 97.5% had no criminal background whatsoever, were ordered released as well. When CPB left Chicago, Bovino promised he would return with four times as many agents in the spring. And maybe this is the true meaning of kishui oref, stiff-neckedness – that despite the cycles of acceptance and demonization, detention and release, attack and withdrawal, a Democratic deporter-in-chief or Republican, we remain fixed on not only what we’re fighting against, but what we’re fighting for. Even as ICE and CBP prepare what my coworker Jorge Mujica calls “el proximo engano, the next trick,” we too tend to our wounds, analyze our mistakes, mend our fractured coalitions, and get back up again, sing again, about a world without cages. Put our bodies in the breach again. Because we can see the Divine Presence doesn’t just dwell in a utopian future. I know I’m not the only one who’s felt her – hearing news about an immigrant who’s been released and returned, or moments of prayer and song that burn through the tear gas like holy fire: at Broadview and every place neighbors choose to cross lines of race and language and class and faith to fight for each other. So this Thanksgiving, I want to end by blessing us all with rest after a long three months and, with kishui oref, stiffneckedness, the persistence to, in the face of trial, dig in a little deeper, commit a little harder, holder our neighbor’s hands a little more tightly, insist with all our heart and all our soul and all our might on a world overwhelmed by grace and love. Ethan Aronson is a faith community organizer for Arise Chicago who lives locally. You can find his bio at https://www.arisechicago. org/staff.
V I E W P O I N T S 2 0 2 5
-
A
Y E A R
I N
S H R U B T O W N
by Marc Stopeck
Wednesday Journal, December 24, 2025 W E D N E S D A Y
JOURNAL of Oak Park and River Forest
Viewpoints Guidelines The goal of the Viewpoints section is to foster and facilitate a community conversation and respectful dialogue. Responsible community voices are vital to community journalism and we welcome them. Space is at a premium and readers’ attention is also limited, so we ask that Viewpoints submissions be brief. Our limit for letters to the editor is 350 words. For One View essays, the limit is 500 words. Shorter is better. If and when we have sufficient space, we print longer submissions, but when space is limited — as it often is — we may ask you to submit a shorter version or hold the piece until space allows us to print it. We reserve the right to edit submissions. We do not have time to allow the writer to review changes before publication. We also do not have time to do more than superficial fact-checking, and because of our national epidemic of misinformation and conspiracy theories, when writers include statistical evidence to support their opinions, we require them to include the source of that information, such as credible websites, print publications, titles of articles and dates published, etc. Be as specific as possible so that we and our readers have some way of assessing the credibility of your claims. Links may also be included for the online version. We follow the Society of Professional Journalists’ code of ethics: seek the truth and report it and minimize harm. As a result, we will do our best not to publish pieces that espouse doubtful or debunked theories, demonstrate harmful bias, or cross the line into incivility. While we will do our best not to engage in censorship, we also do not intend to be used as a platform for misinformation. Your sources for fact-checking are a critical step in keeping the discourse honest, decent and respectful. All submissions must include your first and last name and the municipality in which you live, plus a phone number (for verification only). We do not publish anonymous letters. One View essays should include a sentence at the end about who you are. If we receive your submission by 5 p.m. on Sunday, you can expect your opinion to be included in that week’s paper (and online), space permitting.
Pieces can be submitted through our online form at oakpark.com or directly to Viewpoints editor Ken Trainor, ktrainor@wjinc.com. For the latter, we prefer attached Word files or plain text included in the email. LETTER TO THE EDITOR ■ 350-word limit ■ Must include first and last
names, municipality in which you live, phone number (for verification only)
‘ONE VIEW’ ESSAY ■ 500-word limit ■ One-sentence footnote
about yourself and/or your connection to the topic ■ Signature details as at left
33
34
V I E W P O I N T S
Wednesday Journal, December 24, 2025
Oak Park is installing 40 “Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons” (aka, “Pedestrian Activated Flashing Signals”), at a cost of $628,252. These are placed on busy streets where walkers cross without the benefit of traffic signals or stop signs. The pedestrian activates the signal, which is a rectangular structure that alternates between two flashing yellow lights. This alerts drivers to slow
W
Do flashing pedestrian beacons help? down and yield to pedestrians. The RRFS’s result in a 67 percent automobile “yield rate,” which is two percentage points better than marked crosswalks that do not have the flashing signals. The deployment of these traffic safety devices makes theoretical sense, but are they effective? It may be wishful thinking. There are many computer simulations that show
reductions in pedestrian accidents with the pedestrian activated blinking systems, but I could find no data based on real-world observations. I also found some studies that show an adverse effect on pedestrian safety. There is solid information on rear-end collisions associated with RRFPs — they are increased. I cannot dismiss the negative findings. Given the rather low compliance rate with
Stranger strangers
ho doesn’t stop at a gas station and grab a cup of joe before hitting the road? ICE agents are no exception. So last week, at Thornton’s Gas Station in Forest Park, on Harlem near the Eisenhower Expressway, the mundane mixed with the existential. Social media photos on Oak Park Facebook groups featured a Tik Tok sensation: Border Patrol Commandant at Large Greg Bovino inside the store. Sometimes Bovino appears in Chicago in a long green coat that looks it was designed for a film by Leni Reifenstahl, Hitler’s documentarian. But in the Thornton’s photo, Bovino was dressed as if he would be parachuting into Normandy on D-Day. Instead of a rifle, he packed tear gas canisters clipped to his chest. Note: On his last visit to Chicago, he testified in federal court about whether ICE routinely beats bystanders for no reason. The judge found they did. The judge also found that Bovino repeatedly lied under oath, including about why he tossed tear gas into a crowd.
From Thornton’s, Bovino and the boys were processing through Cicero, Berwyn and the Southwest Side of Chicago for one thing: hit every Home Depot and Menards parking lot. The mission: throw Hispanic-looking construction workers to the ground. Bust pickup truck windows as helpless-looking men in the driver’s seat look on. The cruelty is the point. And the social media hits. It’s Christmas message: Abandon all hope, ye who enter Home Depot. The subtext? We own the Libs. This Christmas season, I’ve had a different photo image in mind. A young man detained by ICE for 40 days. His lawyer gets him released the day before the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the most sacred day of the year for many Catholic Mexicans. On a cold winter night, he joined his friends processing on foot 14 miles to the Guadalupe shrine in Des Plaines. To give thanks. That’s the image I’ll keep.
Jack Crowe Oak Park
RRFBs, I have often wondered whether these signals might actually be a hazard to walkers, as unwitting pedestrians may erroneously rely on the signal at peril to their safety. References: https://highways.dot.gov
In the Dec. 17 Wednesday Journal article, “Oak Park drops ‘Make Real Change, Not Spare Change campaign’, an Oak Park official was quoted: “We do know [emphasis added] that the individuals panhandling … they are not unhoused … They come here, they stay for the day and then get in their cars and leave and go somewhere else.” How is this known? What is the source of information supporting this statement? I’d be interested in learning the opinions of people working at
Val Gee
Oak Park
Housing Forward. Anyway, I never understood how “Make Real Change” could meet someone’s immediate need for food, hydration, or transit fare better than someone directly giving the person cash, a sandwich, or a bottle of OJ right in the moment. Of course, there may be some people scamming, like in every other aspect of human interaction. Quoting a former Pope, though, I have to say, “Who am I to judge?”
Shelley Sandow Oak Park
Hey, village of Oak Park, grrrr …
I agree with both Frank Stachyra and Kris Hansen who wrote letters recently in praise of the glorious American Sycamores. Many reasonable points in favor of these wonderful trees were made. Just as live classical music moves me to tears, the sheer majesty of the American Sycamore
moves me to tears in the same manner. I want to add my support in favor of planting more beautiful native American Sycamores and less planting of repulsive, non-native London Planetrees, please.
RICH KORDESH
open each other’s presents and that later, kids and grandkids will come over for brunch and gift-giving. Our faith creates an aura that carries through the day. We prepare for the morning by singing with the Ascension choir the night before, and then by celebrating Mass. There’s a creche under our tree. As the sun is just rising, I pray privately, day-break coffee in hand, thankful that I get to experience this special day for the 72nd time. Hope is alive and affirmed through many traditions this holiday season. We unwrap it gift by gift.
from page 30
Let laughter rise across the land, Let love step forward, hand in hand. For joy’s power turns dark to light, And quiets fears that haunt the night. ’Tis love and peace, divinely spun, Lifts our hearts till we shine as one.
James Whalen
Medical Beat blog Oak Park
Who are we to judge?
Hope stays alive
Shining as one
When angels sing and peace fills the air, And Chanukah kindles light we share, When Kwanzaa’s seven days bring hope anew, And prophets’ voices widen our view, The greatest gift we can bring Is joy that makes the spirit sing.
OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM
find inspiration in Home Alone every year.) Light displays that beautify, uplift and guide us along commercial and residential streets proliferate. And I confess that I still wake up on Christmas morning early, alive with anticipation that Maureen and I will
Nancy Trock Oak Park
OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM
Jewel Butler, 86
O B I T U A R I E S
Jack Kernan, 100
Wednesday Journal, December 24, 2025
35
Karen Croyle, 44
Sheldon Bruno, 43 Sheldon Jason Bruno, 43, died on Dec. 14, 2025. Born on Jan. 7, 1982 in New York, New York, he came as an infant to Oak Park because of his father’s job transfer. He graduated from St. Giles Catholic School and attended Fenwick High School, then Valparaiso University. He studied veterinary technology at Fox College in Tinley Park because of his love of animals and was employed at Eye Care for Animals in Chicago. He loved every type of animal from a very young age and traveled extensively with his parents to places such as Australia, New Zealand, China, Japan, England, the Caribbean, the Polynesian Islands, Hawaii and most of the United States, especially Alaska. His love of animals meant that zoos and animal reserves ranked at the top of his to-do lists, followed by amusement parks, rollercoasters and water. A heavenly celebration of Sheldon’s life will be held at 10 a.m. on Jan. 7, 2026 at St. Giles Church, 1045 Columbian Ave., Oak Park, 60302. Arrangements were handled by Sciaraffa Funeral Directors.
Corrected and mentored youth
Twice a groom, always the best man
Investment banker, avid traveler
Jewel Edward Butler, 86, died peacefully at his home in St. Augustine, Florida, surrounded by loved ones, on Dec. 13, 2025. Known affectionately as “Buddy” to many, he lived a life of selfless service, touching countless lives with his warmth, guidance, and unwavering love. Born on Sept. 20, 1939, in Danville, Illinois, to Jewel Cosby Butler and Magnolia Butler, he grew up rooted in the values of hard work and family. He proudly served his country in the U.S. Air Force, earning the lasting title of veteran that he carried with deep honor. After his service, Jewel pursued higher education, graduating from the University of Illinois in June 1972. He then dedicated his career to the Illinois Department of Corrections, where he became assistant director, using his compassion, fairness, and leadership to guide many toward better paths in life. Beyond his professional life, he mentored youth as a coach for the Aurora Flyers track team, finding great joy in working with young men and fostering their potential. A loving husband for 45 years to his best friend and devoted wife, Andreen Neukranz-Butler, he was the heart of his family. His quiet strength and kindness will be missed. He was a resident of Oak Park for 30 years. Jewel was the proud father of Jane Kmetz, Francine Butler, Andrea Butler, Maria Hoye, Suzanne Hunter, Jewel Adrian Butler, Jewel Ashley Butler, Kira Fobbs, and Heather Drawhorn; grandfather of Julian Butler, Terrin Harris, Kelsey Carroll, Jayden Hunter, Hailey Elmore, Londyn Butler, Mikala Hunter, Cole McKeever, Tres Drawhorn, Jewel Dawson Butler, Danika Kmetz, Isabel Kmetz, and Lauren Kmetz Weisman. He was preceded in death by his son, Jewel Ashley Butler; his brother, Truman Butler; his sister Maria Miller; and his parents. A memorial service celebration will be held in Illinois and will be announced at a later date. Flowers are welcome, and donations in his memory may be made to a veterans organization or youth mentoring program, honoring his lifelong commitment to service and the next generation. A beautifully amazing man, Jewel “Buddy” Edward Butler will be missed forever.
John “Jack” (aka Muddy) Kernan, 100, died peacefully at home on Dec. 16, 2025 with his family by his side after a brief stay in hospice. Born on Feb. 17, 1925, in Chicago to John and Agnes Kernan, he was the second of three children. Jack was married to Patricia “Patsy” (O’Neill) Kernan for 65 years. Together they made their home in Oak Park and were longtime members of St. CatherineSt. Lucy Parish. They raised four children: Kathy (Milton Dudley), Jake (Gay), Mike, and Bridget. Jack was preceded in death by Patsy, Jake, and Bridget. For the past eight years, he resided at Casa Scalabrini in Northlake, where he met and married Kathleen “Kate” Schwaighart. They married when Jack was 94 and Kate was 84. Kate passed away this summer at the age of 90. Jack was the proud grandfather of seven grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren, and is also survived by many nieces and nephews. He lived a remarkable life rooted in faith, family, and gratitude. An avid athlete well into his later years, he played tennis until age 85 and cycled daily from spring through fall until age 96. At age 90, he rode 20 miles in “Bike the Drive” alongside his daughter. Bangs Lake was especially dear to him; he spent countless hours captaining his pontoon boat there, often surrounded by family and friends. He also enjoyed kayaking in the Adirondacks, Michigan, and Florida well into his 90s. Daily walks and hikes kept him strong in body and spirit. A lifelong student of baseball and devoted White Sox fan, he was honored by Harold Baines and the White Sox organization on his 100th birthday. After retiring from Sears at age 62, he volunteered at Rush Oak Park Hospital for 32 years. He was the inaugural recipient of the Volunteer of the Year Award and retired only when COVID ended his service at age 95. A Catholic funeral Mass and celebration of Jack’s life will be held at the Chapel of Villa Scalabrini early in the new year, honoring a life well lived and a man now at peace in God’s loving embrace.
Karen Marie Croyle, 44, died peacefully at her home in River Forest, surrounded by family, on Dec. 7, 2025. Born on May 9, 1981, she was a proud graduate of the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, where she earned her MBA, and the University of Illinois. Her drive and intellect led to a successful career in investment banking at multiple firms in Chicago. Exploring new places and cultures around the world with the people she loved most was deeply important to her. With Ryan, she traveled to Thailand, Cambodia, Italy, and Norway, immersing herself in the food, history, and beauty of each destination. Other favorite trips included visits with her sister, Ellie, in Kuala Lumpur; her brother, Tom, in New York City; and family vacations to Hawaii and Paris. An avid reader, she ranged from Pulitzer Prize-winning novels to explorations of quantum physics and the universe, along with the occasional chick-lit guilty pleasure. Her curiosity and depth of knowledge allowed her to connect effortlessly with people from all walks of life, both personally and professionally. Her greatest passion in life was her two children, Avery and Benjamin. Avery’s kindness and creativity always shone brightly in Karen’s eyes, and Benny’s tenacity, determination, and love of life filled her with pride and warmth. Whether going on adventures to Block Island, watching the kids’ youth soccer games, or simply spending a lazy afternoon reading together, she cherished family time with her children and her husband, Ryan. Karen is survived by her daughter, Avery (10); her son, Benjamin (7); her husband, Ryan; her mother, Chris; her father, Terry; her sister, Ellie; her brother, Tom; and an immeasurable number of friends and extended family whose lives she touched deeply. The family is planning a Celebration of Life to be held in the spring of 2026, with details to be shared at a later date. In lieu of flowers or gifts, please consider a donation to Wellness House in Hinsdale.
Loved animals and travel
W E D N E S D A Y
JOURNAL of Oak Park and River Forest
To run an obituary Please contact Ken Trainor by e-mail: ktrainor@wjinc.com before Monday at noon. Please include a photo if possible.
36
Wednesday Journal, December 24, 2025
SPORTS Local schools hit the hardwood, holiday-style
Area basketball teams are looking forward to their tournaments By MELVIN TATE Contributing Reporter
With high schools across the country on holiday break for the next two weeks, it’s an opportunity for basketball programs to see how they look going into the New Year. OPRF, Fenwick, and Trinity high schools are all hitting the highways to test themselves against top competition. “I think playing in holiday tournaments gives you another opportunity to play teams that you may have never gotten a chance to see. I think it also helps with measuring where your team is heading into the second part of the season,” said Fenwick girls coach Lenae Fergerson. Here are the holiday tournaments OPRF, Fenwick, and Trinity will take part in:
OPRF Boys (4-4) Where: Pontiac Holiday Tournament, Dec. 29-31 First Game: Joliet West, Dec. 29, at 9 a.m. Info/Updates: pontiacholidaytournament.com OPRF started out this season strongly with victories in four of the first five games. But the Huskies enter Pontiac having lost their last three outings, including a 98-59 defeat at Niles North, Dec. 15. “We caught [Niles North] rolling; they hit 20 threes,” said OPRF coach Phil Gary. “We weren’t ready to play out the gate, and they had one of the best shooting games I’ve ever seen from high school kids.” Gary said OPRF has placed emphasis on defense during practice as the Huskies attempt to regain the momentum they had earlier this year. But facing Joliet West won’t be easy.
“They’re a good team. They’ve got a couple of good young guys, they’re scrappy and pretty athletic. It’ll be a good matchup for us,” Gary said.
OPRF Girls (2-9) Where: Loyola Academy Christmas Tournament, Dec. 22-23, 26-27 Info/Updates: Instagram - @lachristmastourney After an 0-6 season start, OPRF came into Loyola having won two of the past four outings. But in the first round, Dec. 22, the Huskies fell 60-16 to Carmel Catholic. “We’ve had some great practices lately where we’ve had the opportunity to get back to the basics and fundamentals,” said OPRF coach Renee Brantley. “I understood we’d start off kind of slow, but this is the time of year when I want us to start hitting our stride going into January with confidence and working out the kinks.” While Brantley realizes the record is not where she’d like it to be, she likes the way the Huskies have developed good chemistry, and she looks forward to seeing how they fare against good competition at Loyola. “It’s always great to compete and play the game you love so much against high-quality, non-conference opponents. I’m eager to see how our team makes adjustments on the fly, and how well we compete against other great teams,” Brantley said.
Fenwick Boys (4-6) Where: Jack Tosh Holiday Classic at York, Dec. 26-27, 29-31 First Game: Perspectives-Leadership, Dec. 26, 10:30 a.m. Info/Updates: jacktosh.godaddysites.com Fenwick is still working out some kinks, as evidenced by losses in four of its past five games, including a 58-35 defeat at Mount Carmel, Dec. 19.
COURTESY OF CAROL DUNNING
Fenwick’s Avani Williams brings the ball upcourt against Marian Catholic at the Marian Catholic Christmas Shootout, Dec. 20. Williams scored 15 points in the Friars’ 49-31 defeat. “Mount Carmel’s a solid program and we didn’t play our best brand of basketball,” Fenwick coach Dave Fergerson said. “We’re still trying to figure things out and we’ll keep putting one foot in front of the other.” Fergerson thinks the Jack Tosh is one of the best holiday tournaments in the state and says his team is excited to compete. “We’ll go out there and give everything we have,” he said. The Friars’ first-round opponent, Perspectives-Leadership, won’t be easy to beat. “They’re a solid team that’s on the rise, they’re rolling,” Fergerson said. “We’re going to have to be clicking on all cylinders in order to compete.”
Fenwick Girls (3-7) Where: Komarony Charger Classic at Dundee-Crown, Dec. 26-27, 29-30 First Game: Buffalo Grove, Dec. 26, 1 p.m. Info/Updates: @dcgballtourney on X (Twitter) Following a 2-0 season start, the Friars have struggled, losing seven of their past
eight games. “We’ve had a tough beginning. We’re still working to play consistently for four quarters,” Lenae Fergerson said. “We’re still nursing a few injuries … once we get our full team back and continue to gel, I think we’ll be good for the second half of the season.”
Trinity (9-3) Where: State Farm Holiday Classic, Bloomington-Normal, Dec. 26-27, 29-30 First Game: Springfield, Dec. 26, noon Info/Updates: theclassic.org The Blazers come into the State Farm tourney with momentum following a 4738 victory over Andrean of Indiana at the Marian Catholic Christmas Shootout, Dec. 20. Zaria Goins had 16 points and Keyera Gamble added 12 points and eight rebounds. “We’re ready,” said Trinity coach Kim Coleman. “We’re excited to get down and compete, see some different teams that we don’t normally get to see, experience some different officiating, and bond as a team.”
S P O R T S
OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM
Wednesday Journal, December 24, 2025
37
OPRF wrestling takes fourth at Whitlach
Senior Zev Koransky (13-4) took second Fenwick wins three matches place at 144 pounds, losing to Barrington’s
By MELVIN TATE Contributing Reporter
Under first-year head coach Jason Renteria, OPRF High School’s boys wrestling team is off to another strong season start. The Huskies took fourth in the Rex Whitlach Invite at Hinsdale Central, Dec. 20, with 191.5 points. OPRF saw three wrestlers win titles. Junior MJ Rundell, the defending IHSA Class 3A champion at 106 pounds, took home the 113-pound championship, pinning Gabriel Richmond of West Aurora in 1:31 in the final to improve his season record to 16-1. Junior Jamiel Castleberry also raised his record to 16-1, winning the 126-pound title. In the final, Castleberry defeated Saul Ramirez of Barrington via major decision, 16-4. Senior David Ogunsanya was the Huskies’ third champion, getting a major decision (145) over Ty Smart of Rockford East to claim the 157-pound title. Ogunsanya’s record is 14-3 this season.
Jimmy Whitaker in the final via major decision, 16-6. OPRF’s other placers were senior Aiden Noyes (15-4) who was third at 150, and senior Jeremiah Hernandez (13-7) who was seventh at 165. The Huskies, who have won both of their dual meets in the West Suburban Silver, will compete in the Grant Invitational on Jan. 3.
Fenwick On Dec. 19, the Friars hosted a triangular meet against DePaul Prep and Morton. Fenwick defeated DePaul 54-21, but lost to Morton 42-22. Sophomore Maurizio Campana (8-5) won both of his triangular matches at 113, pinning Aston Parker of DePaul and edging Tristan Rodriguez of Morton 6-5. Others who won both triangular matches were junior Harrison Brown (15-5) at 126, senior Solanus Daley (11-1) at 144, senior Robert Arroyo (8-9) at 157, and senior Zikomo Mbewe (13-4) at 215. Brown
STEVE JOHNSTON
OPRF’s Jamiel Castleberry wrestles Barrington’s Saul Ramirez at 126 pounds during the Championship match at the 59th Annual Rex Whitlach Invitational, Dec. 20, in Hinsdale. defeated Morton’s Nicolas Jaramillo 15-12 and pinned DePaul’s Linc Burnell. Daley prevailed 5-4 over Morton’s Ethan Martinez and pinned DePaul’s Thomas Trybula. Arroyo defeated Morton’s Damien Marillo 10-4 and got a forfeit win against DePaul, while Mbewe pinned Morton’s Benjamin Kearns in 4:23 and pinned DePaul’s Nico
Trautman. The following day at the Fenwick Quad, the Friars defeated Nazareth Academy 5121 and Round Lake 39-36. Fenwick competed in the Steve Eckert Holiday Classic at Morton, Dec. 23 (after deadline), and will participate in the Deerfield Holiday Duels, Dec. 27.
IHSA expands state football playoffs 16 schools added to each of the eight classes
By MELVIN TATE Contributing Reporter
In the first significant change to the state football playoffs since 2000, the IHSA announced, Dec. 16, an increase in the number of eligible schools from 256 to 384, effective next year. This means there will be an additional 16 schools in each of the eight playoff classes, and all teams who finish with three and four victories will be eligible for qualification. The IHSA members voted for the expansion proposal, with the voting process concluding Dec. 15. The results were as follows: 377 yes, 252 no, and 96 with no opinion. In a press release, IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson said the proposal was designed to preserve conferences. “Too often throughout the years, football decisions have negatively impacted other
sports at IHSA schools,” he stated. “We are hopeful that this football playoff expansion will provide intended relief to our schools by stabilizing conference movement and eliminating the difficulty of scheduling football games that many of our schools face each year. It may create some shortterm complications for some schools, conferences, and coaches, but we remain optimistic it will create long-term stability in football and beyond.” Under the new playoff format, the top 16 schools in each class receive first-round byes. It also mandates a change in Week 1 scheduling – the first games will be played on Aug. 20, 2026 rather than Aug. 27 on the original IHSA calendar. The first day of practice, Aug. 10, 2026, remains the same. Moreover, the no-contact period is being moved from early August to June 29-July 5, 2026. Schools cannot hold practices, com-
petitions, open gyms, and conditioning and weight training sessions during that time. Oak Park and River Forest High School head coach John Hoerster, who said the school voted yes, thinks it’s a good idea to expand the playoff field. “Generally speaking, I believe more football is a good thing. And a team’s record only tells part of the story,” he said. “I’ve seen plenty of 6-3 teams across the state that weren’t particularly strong, and I’ve also seen 3-6 teams that were quite talented. There are so many variables – conference strength, scheduling, matchups – that it makes sense to let more teams into the playoffs and allow the games themselves to sort things out. “The positives are clear: more students get the opportunity to play meaningful football, scheduling flexibility improves with less pressure to chase five wins, and
teams in strong conferences are less penalized for competing against high-level opponents week after week. The primary drawback is losing a week in an already busy summer.” While Fenwick coach Matt Battaglia doesn’t have any thoughts on the playoff expansion, he’s more focused on adjusting his program to an earlier season start as well as the moving of the no-contact period. “I focus on what we can control. We just have to make sure we do a great job preparing our guys in being ready for the earlier start time,” Battaglia said. “That’s probably the biggest adjustment. It’s going to be tinkering and reworking some stuff to make sure the players are staying fresh and getting their free time to be kids while also making sure we maximize our time as a team.”
38 Wednesday Journal, December 24, 2025 HOURS: 9:00 A.M.– 5:00 P.M. MON–FRI • Deadline: Monday at 5 p.m.
PUBLIC NOTICES
PUBLIC NOTICES
PUBLIC NOTICES
PUBLIC NOTICES
Let the sun shine in... Your right to know...In print • Online
BY PHONE: (708) 613-3333 | BY FAX: (708) 467-9066 BY E-MAIL: EMAIL@GROWINGCOMMUNITYMEDIA.ORG
REAL ESTATE FOR SALE
REAL ESTATE FOR SALE
REAL ESTATE FOR SALE
IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS COUNTY DEPARTMENT - CHANCERY DIVISION US BANK TRUST NATIONAL ASSOCIATION, NOT IN ITS INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY BUT SOLELY AS OWNER TRUSTEE FOR VRMTG ASSET TRUST Plaintiff vs. UNKNOWN HEIRS AND LEGATEES OF WILLIE G. HENRY; FLORENCETTA HENRY; TCF NATIONAL BANK; ANITA HENRY; COURTNEY HENRY; EBONEE HENRY; MERCEDES HENRY; TIARA HENRY; JACK LYDON, AS SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE OF WILLIE G. HENRY; UNKNOWN HEIRS AND LEGATEES OF FLORENCETTA HENRY, IF ANY; UNKNOWN OWNERS AND NON RECORD CLAIMANTS; Defendant 17 CH 13529 Calendar 61 NOTICE OF SALE PUBLIC NOTICE is hereby given that pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure entered in the above entitled cause Intercounty Judicial Sales Corporation will on January 13, 2026, at the hour 11:00 a.m., Intercounty’s office, 120 West Madison Street, Suite 718A, Chicago, IL 60602, sell, in person, to the highest bidder for cash, the following described mortgaged real estate: P.I.N. 15-09-315-063-0000. Commonly known as 635 Rice Avenue, Bellwood, IL 60104. The real estate is: single family residence. If the subject mortgaged real estate is a unit of a common interest community, the purchaser of the unit other than a mortgagee shall pay the assessments required by subsection (g-1) of Section 18.5 of the Condominium Property Act. Sale terms: If sold to anyone other than the plaintiff, 25% down of the highest bid by certified funds at the close of the sale payable to Intercounty Judicial Sales Corporation. No third party checks will be accepted. The balance, in certified funds or wire transfer, is due within twenty-four (24) hours. The subject property is subject to general real estate taxes, special assessments or special taxes levied against said real estate and is offered for sale without any representation as to quality or quantity of title and without recourse to plaintiff and in “AS IS” condition. The sale is further subject to confirmation by the court. Upon payment in full of the amount bid, the purchaser will receive a Certificate of Sale that will entitle the purchaser to a deed to the real estate after confirmation of the sale. The property will NOT be open for inspection and plaintiff makes no representation as to the condition. IF YOU ARE THE MORTGAGOR (HOMEOWNER), YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO REMAIN IN POSSESSION FOR 30 DAYS AFTER THE ENTRY OF AN ORDER OF POSSESSION, IN ACCORDANCE WITH SECTION 15-1701¬© OF THE ILLINOIS MORTGAGE FORECLOSURE LAW. For information call Sales Department at Plaintiff’s Attorney, Codilis
& Associates, P.C., 15W030 North Frontage Road, Suite 100, Burr Ridge, IL 60527. (630) 794-5300. 14-23-01315 INTERCOUNTY JUDICIAL SALES CORPORATION intercountyjudicialsales.com I3277542
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 151701(C) OF THE ILLINOIS MORTGAGE FORECLOSURE LAW. You will need a photo identification issued by a government agency (driver’s license, passport, etc.) in order to gain entry into our building and the foreclosure sale room in Cook County and the same identification for sales held at other county venues where The Judicial Sales Corporation conducts foreclosure sales. For information, contact HEAVNER, BEYERS & MIHLAR, LLC Plaintiff’s Attorneys, 601 E. William St., DECATUR, IL, 62523 (217) 4221719. Please refer to file number 2044189. 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. HEAVNER, BEYERS & MIHLAR, LLC 601 E. William St. DECATUR IL, 62523 217-422-1719 Fax #: 217-422-1754 E-Mail: CookPleadings@hsbattys. com Attorney File No. 2044189 Attorney Code. 40387 Case Number: 25 CH 04295 TJSC#: 45-2279 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 # 25 CH 04295 I3277709
IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS COUNTY DEPARTMENT - CHANCERY DIVISION PNC BANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION Plaintiff, -v.CHARLES S TRNKA, UNKNOWN HEIRS AND DEVISEES OF GEORGIANA M. TRNKA, DECEASED, UNKNOWN CLAIMANTS AND LIENHOLDERS AGAINST THE ESTATE OF GEORGIANA M. TRNKA, DECEASED, UNKNOWN CLAIMANTS AND LIENHOLDERS AGAINST THE UNKNOWN HEIRS AND DEVISEES OF GEORGIANA M. TRNKA, DECEASED, SUSAN R WEAVER, SHERYL L TRNKA, ILLINOIS HOUSING DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY, CARY ROSENTHAL, AS SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE OF GEORGIANA M. TRNKA, DECEASED Defendants 25 CH 04295 1811 DOWNING AVE. WESTCHESTER, IL 60154 NOTICE OF SALE PUBLIC NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale entered in the above cause on September 5, 2025, an agent for The Judicial Sales Corporation, will at 10:30 AM on January 6, 2026, at The Judicial Sales Corporation, One South Wacker, 1st Floor Suite 35R, Chicago, IL, 60606, sell at public in-person sale to the highest bidder, as set forth below, the following described real estate: Commonly known as 1811 DOWNING AVE., WESTCHESTER, IL 60154 Property Index No. 15-20-403016-0000 The real estate is improved with a single family residence. The judgment amount was $206,676.20. Sale terms: If sold to anyone other than the Plaintiff, 25% down of the highest bid by certified funds at the close of the sale payable to The Judicial Sales Corporation. No third party checks will be accepted. The balance, in certified funds/or wire transfer, is due within twenty-four (24) hours. The subject property is subject to general real estate taxes, special assessments, or special taxes levied against said real estate and is offered for sale without any representation as to quality or quantity of title and without recourse to Plaintiff and in ‘’AS IS’’ condition. The sale is further subject to confirmation by the court. Upon payment in full of the amount bid, the purchaser will receive a Certificate of Sale that will entitle the purchaser to a deed to the real estate after confirmation of the sale. The property will NOT be open for inspection and plaintiff makes no representation as to the condition
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING VILLAGE OF OAK PARK PLAN COMMISSION Oak Park Zoning Ordinance at the DOCKET NUMBER� PC 26�01 � Zoning Ordinance Text Amendment Subject Property located at 6549 and PC 26�02 � Special Use Permit North Avenue, Oak Park, Illinois, Property Index Number 16�06� HEARING DATE� January 15, 2026 204�005�0000, in the NA � North TIME� 7�00 p.m. or as soon Avenue Zoning District. The Plan thereafter as the agenda permits Commission may also consider LOCATION OF HEARING� Room 201 any related and additional relief � Council Chambers, Village of Oak that may be discovered during the Park, 123 Madison Street Oak Park, review of this docket. Illinois 60302 A copy of the applications and each PETITIONER/APPLICANT� TAT3 of the applicable documents for Chicago, Inc. the proposed text amendment and OWNER OF RECORD� Iron Mountain the special use permit are on file Prop, 5816 Laurel Avenue, La and available for inspection at the Grange Highlands, IL 60525 Village Hall, Development Services Department, 123 Madison Street, SUBJECT PROPERTY ADDRESS� Oak Park, Illinois 60302, during 6549 North Avenue, Oak Park, IL regular business hours, Monday 60302 through Friday, between 9�00 a.m. ZONING ORDINANCE TEXT and 5�00 p.m. The Plan Commission AMENDMENT may continue the hearing to REQUEST� The Petitioner, TAT3 another date without further notice Chicago, Inc., seeks a text by public announcement at the amendment to the Oak Park Zoning hearing setting forth the time and Ordinance Amending Article 8 place thereof. (“Uses”) � Table 8�1 �“Use Matrix”) Persons with disabilities planning by adding “Body Modification Establishment” as a special use to attend and needing special in the NA � North Avenue Zoning accommodations, should contact District. the Village Clerk’s Office at 123 Madison Street, Oak Park, Illinois SPECIAL USE FOR 60302, or call �708� 358�5670. BODY MODIFICATION ALL PERSONS INTERESTED ESTABLISHMENT IN THESE PROCEEDINGS ARE REQUEST� The Petitioner also INVITED TO BE HEARD. seeks Village approval of a Michael Sturino, Chairperson special use permit to operate a OAK PARK PLAN COMMISSION, body modification establishment Sitting as a Zoning Commission pursuant to Article 8 �“Uses”) – Table 8�1 �“Use Matrix”) of the Oak Park, Illinois 60302 Published in Wednesday Journal, December 24, 2025
PUBLIC NOTICE NOTICE TO CONTRACTORS Notice is hereby given by the President and Board of Trustees of the Village of River Forest, Cook County, Illinois, that sealed bids will be accepted for: 2026 Street Improvement Program This project includes the replacement of curb and gutter, sidewalk and driveway aprons, hotmix asphalt surface removal, frame/ lid adjustment, resurfacing, and other associated work. The bidding documents are available for download starting Wednesday, December 24, 2025 at: www.vrf.us/bids Bids must be submitted by Wednesday, January 21, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. at: Village of River Forest 400 Park Avenue River Forest, IL 60305 The bid proposals will be publicly opened and read at that time. Proposals will be considered not only on the basis of cost, but also on past performance, experience and ability to perform the work. No bid shall be withdrawn after the opening of the Proposals without the consent of the President and Board of Trustees of the Village of River Forest for a period of thirty (30) days after the scheduled time of the bid opening. Bidders shall be prequalified by IDOT for: HMA Paving The Village of River Forest reserves the right in receiving these bids to waive technicalities and reject any or all bids. Published in Wednesday Journal December 24, 2025, January 7, 2026
PUBLIC NOTICE ADVERTISEMENT OF BIDDING Request bids for Geothermal HVAC System at Cheney Mansion. Owner: Park District of Oak Park 218 Madison St, Oak Park, IL 60302 The Park District of Oak Park will accept sealed bids for the Cheney Geothermal HVAC System Rebid Project at 220 N. Euclid Av. in Oak Park. The project consists of the full installation of all HVAC equipment, necessary ductwork, electrical work, existing geothermal well manifold hookups and components. The Park District of Oak Park will receive individual sealed Bids until 10:00 a.m. (Central Daylight time) on Wednesday, January 28th, 2026, at 218 Madison St., Oak Park, Illinois. Copies of the bidding documents and requirements will be available at 12pm, Monday, December 29th, 2025, via the Demand Star website at: pdop.org/rfps-bids A non-mandatory Pre-bid walk-thru is scheduled for Friday, January 9th, at 10:00 a.m. (Central Daylight time) at Cheney Manion, 220 N. Euclid Av., Oak Park, IL 60302. For additional information, contact Bill Hamilton at bill.hamilton@ pdop.org or 708-725-2052. Bid bonds will be required by bidding contractors. Th is contract bid must adhere to the Prevailing Wage Act of 2025. Minority and Women Owned businesses are strongly encouraged. Park District of Oak Park By: Sandy Lentz, Secretary Park District of Oak Park 218 Madison St. Oak Park, Il. 60302 Published in Wednesday Journal December 24, 2025
PUBLIC NOTICE SCHEDULE OF PUBLIC MEETINGS, VILLAGE OF OAK PARK NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN THAT THE SCHEDULE OF REGULAR MEETING DATES OF THE VILLAGE OF OAK PARK AND ITS BOARDS, COMMISSIONS AND COMMITTEESIS AS FOLLOWS FOR THE YEAR 2026 Community Relations Commission, Village Board Regular Meetings, 3rd Wednesday, 6�00 pm Tuesdays, 7�00 pm Disability Access Commission*, Village Board Special Meetings, 4th Wednesday, 6�00 pm Irregular, Notice Posted 48 Hrs. Before Mtg. Environment & Energy Commission, 1st Tuesday, 7�00 pm Finance Committee Of The Board, Irregular, Notice Posted 48 Hrs. Farmers’ Market Commission, Before Mtg. 2nd Wednesday, 7�00 pm Personnel Committee Of The Fire & Police Commission, Irregular, Board, Irregular, Notice Posted Notice Posted 48 Hrs. Before Mtg. 48 Hrs. Before Mtg. Firefighter Pension Board, Irregular, Reinventing Government Notice Posted 48 Hrs. Before Mtg. Committee Of The Board, Irregular, Historic Preservation Commission, Notice Posted 48 Hrs. Before Mtg. 2nd Thursday, 7�30 pm Aging In Communities Commission, Architectural Review Committee, 2nd Thursday, 6�00 pm 4th Wednesday, 7�30 pm Board Of Health, 2nd Thursday, Housing Programs Advisory 6�00 pm Committee, 3rd Wednesday, Building Codes Advisory 7�00 pm Commission, 3rd Thursday, Liquor Control Review Board, 5�30 pm 4th Tuesday, 7�30 pm Citizen Involvement Commission, Plan Commission, 1st Thursday, 1st Wednesday, 6�30 pm 7�00 pm Citizens Police Oversight Police Officer Pension Board, Committee, 3rd Monday, 7�00 pm Irregular, Notice Posted Civic Information Systems 48 Hrs. Before Mtg. Commission, 3rd Thursday, Transportation Commission, 7�00 pm 2nd Monday, 7�00 pm Community Development Citizens Zoning Board Of Appeals Advisory Committee, 2nd 1st Wednesday, 7�00 pm Thursday, 6�00 pm *********************************
Unless Otherwise Designated, Meetings Above Are Scheduled At Village Hall, 123 Madison St., Oak Park, Il. � For Additional Information Call �708� 358�5670 * Locations Vary, Per the Illinois Open Meetings Act, no public meeting may occur on an election day. In 2026, election days are February 3, March 17, and November 3. As such, any regularly scheduled meeting which would occur on an election day will not be held. If you require assistance to participate in any Village program or activity, contact the ADA Coordinator at 708.358.5430 or e-mail adacoordinator@oak-park.us at least 48 hours before the scheduled activity. Published in Wednesday Journal, December 24, 2025
PUBLIC NOTICE The Village of Oak Park intends to request approval of legislation by the Illinois General Assembly that will authorize the Village of Oak Park to acquire the real property described below by eminent domain using “quick-take” authority under the Illinois Eminent Domain Act, 735 ILCS 30/20�5�5 et seq, for a public building and facility or other legitimate public use or public purpose. The Village of Oak Park will hold a public hearing on the question of the acquisition of the property described herein below by eminent domain using “quick-take” authority in the Oak Park Village Hall Council Chambers at 123 Madison Street, Room 201, Oak Park, Illinois 60302 at 7�00 p.m. on Tuesday, January 13, 2026. The public is invited. The following property is subject of the public hearing: Legal description: LOTS 1 THROUGH 10 ALL INCLUSIVE, IN WILSON’S AUSTIN BOU� LEVARD AND MADISON STREET SUBDIVISION IN THE NORTHWEST QUARTER OF SECTION 17, TOWNSHIP 39 NORTH, RANGE 13 EAST OF THE THIRD PRINCIPAL MERIDIAN, ACCORDING TO THE PLAT THERE� OF FILED IN THE OFFICE OF THE REGISTRAR OF TITLES OF COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS, AS DOCUMENT NUMBER 91638. AND LOTS 1, 2 AND 3 IN HOLTON’S SUBDIVISION OF THE EAST HALF OF LOT 2 OF HENRY C. WILSON’S SUBDIVISION OF THE NORTH HALF OF THE EAST 10 ACRES OF THE WEST HALF OF THE EAST HALF OF THE NORTHWEST QUARTER AND THE NORTH HALF OF THE EAST HALF OF THE EAST HALF OF THE NORTHWEST QUARTER OF SECTION 17, TOWNSHIP 39 NORTH, RANGE 13, EAST OF THE THIRD PRINCIPAL MERIDIAN, �EXCEPT THE EAST 337 FEET THEREOF� IN COOK COUN� TY, ILLINOIS. Street address: 3�31 Madison Street and 509 S. Humphrey Avenue (sometimes known as 11 Madison Street), Oak Park, Illinois P.I.Ns.� 16�17�107�035�0000, 16�17�107�034�0000, 16�17�107�004� 0000, 16�17�107�003�0000, 16�17�107�002�0000, 16�17�107�001� 0000, 16�17�106�017�0000, and 16�17�106�018�0000 Published in Wednesday Journal, December 24, 2025
Wednesday Journal, December 24, 2025
OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM
Events
Submit events and see full calendar at oakpark.com/events
9 %$
8 / ; 1 2 87 9/8 5:9 6 ; 8 " (-$# " 4
1 $ 6 % 0 0 *$ 6 : * ; 9 <= 99>
! " ##$% & ' ! " ()%*++,*(,-. ! " #$ # #% $ & ' ()) / 0 1 2 /3 3442 /56 7 8 3 98 /3&&5 : 3 8 / ; 1 " (-$# " 4
? 6 0 8 2 =5 8/ > 931 ? 6/ = > @7&8 ' 6 0 8 6 ; 8 " (-$# " 4
% # 0 + . % 6 #% 1 @ * @@ $ & ' A= 99B
5 45 <:8/ &= 5:9 &76" 6 * * 6 **7! *$ % * * * 4 8 45 <:8/ &= 5:9 &76" 6
3H $ & ' ?!() 5 / ; 1 2 * 85 / ; 1 " (-$# " 4
*9"#.9 * / - #% ./* I -+. " , ##+ 6 = +9 1
/ ; 1 2 , ? 5 & > = A 6 AA ; / ; 1 " (-$# " 4
5 45 <:8/ &= 5:9 &76" 6
$ & 0 C $ 9D $ 0 #% 9 $ $ E / ; B 8C ? 8 %); 1 C / > / ; 1 " (-$# " 4
=$ % % +19*" 0 #-9 " #- C * / 7/" #9#
$ *$ % % +,-# ./* 0 1+"2 1*" 34
% * & 9
39
C9 291C - 'F .+G9 1: 6 / #1 ' * $H= $ 6 ' $$ *I - ' 1: "2 2+# 5) ) 8 * ;C 963" " D !" 3/8E & C =@" A " ! " ##$% & ' ! " ()%*++,*(,-.
C
!() 45 <:8/ &= 5=86 /" 6
* * 6 **7! -+ ", , " 1 #" 1 8 45 <:8/ &= 5:9 &76" 6
# 5) C $ " D $ $ % 0 $ & ' 5 / ; 1 2 3B /363 #) B8 / 5F8/ /B 931 / ; 1 " (-$# " 4
C C A C G
40
Wednesday Journal, December 24, 2025
OAKPARK.COM | RIVERFOREST.COM
GCM’s Board of Directors is stepping up with a $10,000 match
Double your impact by donating today. Your local newsroom needs you now more than ever. Your community newsroom needs you.
DONATE TODAY.
Growing Community Media Year End Fundraiser 2025
PUBLISHED BY GROWING COMMUNITY MEDIA, A 501(C)(3) NONPROFIT