Oak- Park- Journal

Sept. 22, 2000

DID YOU KNOW?

Relocating Dominos to fill corner 
vacancy in Oak Park

By ERIC LINDEN

-- that the Domino's pizza restaurant currently at 239 Harrison St. will
be moving soon to another location in Oak Park?
Domino's has begun work on the new location at 329 Chicago Ave. The
space at the corner of Chicago and Ridgeland avenues has been vacant
since Prairie Title Services Inc. moved to its own building at 6821 W.
North Ave., also in Oak Park.

-- that, it was revealed at this week's Regional Exchange Congress in
Oak Park, LaGrange has a program aimed at recruiting, training and
encouraging African Americans to take leadership roles the west suburban
community?
Tim Hansen, village president of LaGrange, said he and other officials
of the village want to improve the participation and leadership as a way
to improve the diversity of the community.
"Leadership (on diversity) is more than the faces in the picture,"
Hansen said on a panel that also included Chester Stewart, a member of
the Oak Park and River Forest High School board.

-- that some members of the Forest Park Historical Society has risen up
to oppose the proposed merger of that society with the Historical
Society of Oak Park & River Forest?
The long-time president of the Forest Park group, Dr. Frank Orland, has
proposed the merger as a way of improving the future of the group, but
other members are now speaking out that new leadership is needed before
with the OP-RF society.

-- that the first-ever AIDS walk in the area will be held on Oct. 7?
The walk to raise money and awareness for AIDS assistance efforts will
kick off at 9 a.m. that Saturday from Fox Park, Jackson Boulevard and
Oak Park Avenue.

-- that the board of the Oak Park Housing Authority is currently seeking
"persons directly assisted by by the authority" to be board members?

-- that the Taxman Corporation soon will be wooing Pier 1 Imports to
open a new store in the Chatham area on the South Side of Chicago?
Tim Hague, a Taxman vice president, said he would soon be discussing the
move with Beth Cox, Pier 1's regional manager of the area that includes
both Oak Park and the city's South Side, among other areas.
Locally, the Taxman firm, in cooperation with Oak Park and River Forest
village governments, developed both the River Forest Town Center and The
Shops of Downtown Oak Park on facing corners at Harlem Avenue and Lake
Street and currently is progressing with a Town Center expansion at the
southwest corner of Lake Street and Bonnie Brae in River Forest.

-- that the Lake Theater currently draws about 660,000 patrons a year to
its location in Downtown Oak Park?
John Eckenroad, president of the Oak Park Development Corporation, said
the total does a lot to support several local restaurants near the
theater, 1020 Lake St.

-- that the League of Women Voters of Oak Park and River Forest will
hold its fall kickoff on Oct. 5 at Barbara's Bookstore in Oak Park?
The event at 7 p.m. that Thursday will feature Jody Raphael, an Oak Park
resident who will autograph her book "Saving Bernice: Battered Women,
Welfare and Poverty." Today's Chicago Woman magazine recently named
Raphael one of the "100 women making a difference."

-- that Seguin Services, a Berwyn-based social service agency that has
some activities in Oak Park, on Oct. 11 will dedicate its training
center as the Carr Family Center in honor of Allan C. Carr, who is the
Cook County Commissioner whose district includes River Forest?

-- that David Sokol of Oak Park signed copies of his new book during the
recent Art on Harrison street festival in Oak Park?
Sokol, a college professor and former village trustee, among other
things, has written "Oak Park, Illinois Continuity and Change," a
written and pictorial view of the village's history of nearly 100 years.
The photographs were donated for publication by the Historical Society
of Oak Park & River Forest, the Park District of Oak Park, the Oak
Park-River Forest Chamber of Commerce and the Oak Leaves, the newspaper
published by the Pioneer Press chain in Oak Park.

-- that Tyra Manning, superintendent of the River Forest District 90
elementary schools, attended an education conference in China over the
summer?

 --- that Oak Park Elementary School District 97 will sponsor a seminar
on "Anger Management" on Saturday, Oct. 7?
Thom Carr will make the presentation that Sunday at the Oak Park Public
Library main branch, 834 Lake St. Registration is required by Sept. 29,
and to register, call District 97's Department of Special Services at
524-3132 from 9 a.m. to noon on weekdays.

-- that three activities will be part of the entertainment at the Oak
Park Regional Housing Center's gala fund-raiser on Oct. 28?
At Mar-Lac Banquets that evening, those attending will hear dance music
by Hot Mix Entertainment Inc., will see a dance demonstration by the
Academy of Movement and Music in Oak Park and will be treated by the
OPRF High School Jazz Band.
The Housing Center, 1041 South Blvd., works in a variety of ways to
ensure long-term racial diversity in Oak Park and surrounding regions.

-- that in honor of Latino Heritage Month at the Oak Park Public
Library, the library's Joseph Randall Shapiro Gallery hosted an art
exhibit and poetry reading by Carlos Cortez with Frank Varela and music
by Victor Pichardo of Sones de Mexico?

-- that during a season without many rain outs and otherwise with good
attendance, Oak Park Festival Theatre's revenues from ticket sales,
merchandising and special events cover only about 65 percent of their
operating budget?
Grants and sponsorships ideally make up the difference.

-- that the Jenny Craig Weight Personal Weight Loss Management office
that was at the southwest corner of Lake and Marion streets in Downtown
Oak Park has relocated to Norridge?

-- that work continues on a new three-bay addition at Tassos Towing, at
8001 W. Lake St. in River Forest?

-- that  the members of the Free Inquiry Network are scheduled to hold a
dinner meeting in Oak Park on Sunday?
Free Inquiry has scheduled a dinner for members on  Sept. 24 at 6 p.m.
at Szechwan Beijing restaurant at 1107 South Blvd.

-- that Sherwen Moore, a police planner who spoke at the Regional
Exchange Congress in Oak Park,  had a nice story to tell about police
and their relations with the community?
On a law enforcement panel, Moore told a story of young friend who
recently moved from Chicago to Oak Park in large part to flee the gangs
in his family's city neighborhood. The young man told Moore he was very
much enjoying Oak Park and OPRF High and had much better relations with
police in Oak Park than he had in Chicago.
Moore warned, however, that if police in Oak Park acted only one time in
the wrong way toward the young black man it could "ruin his perceptions"
of his new home. That, Moore said, is how careful police need to be.

PADS looks to expand homeless shelter
beyond three local villages--and
toward a name change

By ERIC LINDEN

Did you know ...?

-- that Tri-Village PADS for its 2000-2001 season hopes to expand its
overnight shelter program beyond the Oak Park-River Forest-Forest Park
area?
PADS, which stands for Public Action to Deliver Shelter, currently
offers the overnight shelter to homeless persons in the three villages
and some neighboring communities and has sites at eight religious
institutions in Oak Park and Forest Park. Organizational leaders of the
program, however, are exploring ways to attract other congregations to
expand the overnight shelter program, which runs from fall to spring.
Also, look for the Tri-Village P.A.D.S. to soon change its name to West
Suburban P.A.D.S. to reflect the broader service area.

-- that the River Forest Plan Commission is looking into an ordinance to
govern landscaping in the village?
The issue has come up from citizen complaints about some plants, bushes
and other flora that sometimes causes sight problems for drivers. A
suggested ordinance from village government staff is now being studied
by the commission, a volunteer panel of River Forest residents that
advises the village board. It is expected that the ordinance would be
recommended to the village board in December.
The ordinance is being readied by Wolff Clements and Associates, which
also is handling the Lake Street streetscape plan and a host of other
projects in River Forest.

-- that Asian Domestic Authority, an auto repair business currently in
Chicago, plans to open soon at 246 Lake St.. in Oak Park?
The building, which is across Lake Street from the Dominick's food
store, had recently gone into foreclosure.

-- that River Forest Police Officer Edith Verran is off duty because she
has been called to active duty by the U.S. Army?
Verran has been sent to serve in Kosovo for active duty and is expected
to be gone from the River Forest Police Department for six months.

-- that River Forest Elementary School District 90 never takes any heat
for transferring money from its education fund to the building fund?
As proposed in the 2000-2001 budget, District 90 would take about $1
million from the fund that pays for classroom activities into the fund
that covers building construction, materials and staff.

-- that, not surprisingly, an on-line poll on the Republican Party of
Oak Park's web site gives GOP presidential nominee George W. Bush a wide
lead over Democratic opponent Al Gore?
The Oak Park Republican site poses the question, "Which presidential
candidate has the better plan for education in America," and Bush leads
as of today 88 percent to 11 percent. The only question is how the 11
percent got in there.

-- that on its web site the League of Women Voters of Oak Park and River
Forest is publishing the state League president's message about the
Illinois League's coming plan to combat some anti-abortion
advertisements?
State president Jan Flapan said the Illinois League "has joined an
ad-hoc coalition" to put pro-choice ads on the 300 Chicago Transit
Authority buses and 200 CTA trains starting on Sept. 15. Plans call for
the ads to be up for about a month, or longer if the League gains enough
donation for the spending.
Flapan said ads coming later this month are in response to a recent CTA
ad campaign by anti-abortion organizations. And the "coalition" behind
the pro-choice ads includes Catholics for Free Choice, Chicago Catholic
Women, Chicago Foundation for Women, Chicago NOW, Joint Action Committee
(Jewish organizations), NARAL, National Council of Jewish Women,
Personal PAC and Planned Parenthood.
"As state League president, I thought it important that our name be on
these ads," Flapan said.

-- that the web sites of both Community Bank of Oak Park River Forest,
1001 Lake St. in Oak Park, and First Bank of Oak Park, 11 Madison St.,
OP both are still under construction?
The addresses are fbopcorporation.com and cboprf.com.

-- that Oak Parker Leonard Grossman has an essay about the death penalty
published in the current edition of WindowWatch?
WindowWatch calls itself "the Electronic Windows Magazine of the
Internet," and Grossman's current essay is billed as "an unusual take on
death penalty politics in Illinois and how it impacted the nation."
According to Grossman, the essay might be the first of an occasional
series of commentaries called The Ordinary Potato.

-- that Oak Park and River Forest village governments and the Blue Cab
Co. in Oak Park will be among the communities being served by a new
alternative fuel station being funded by the federal government and
promoted by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency?
Seven alternative fuel stations throughout the Chicago area are being
opened and will be used by the three mentioned local entities plus
governments and businesses like the Villages of Berwyn and Elmwood Park,
the City of Chicago, Coca-Cola, the CTA, Northwestern University, the
City of Evanston, the Villages of Downers Grove, Lisle, Lombard, Skokie,
Hodgkins, Countryside, Indian Head Park, LaGrange, LaGrange Park,
Western Springs, Lyons, Lake Zurich, and several park districts and
villages in the far northwest suburbs.

-- that an investment strategy seminar sponsored by the Stanley Dean
Witter firm will be held at the Carleton of Oak Park hotel on Sept. 23?
Beginning at 9:30 a.m. that Saturday, guests will hear from Gregg
Ruvoli, vice president and regional sales manager o Northbrook Life
Insurance Company.

-- that local people often make a mistake when talking about nuclear
power and Oak Park?
With ComEd experiencing problems with electricity service again the
other day, there will no doubt be comments around the village that Oak
Park could get away from ComEd and go to nuclear power except that Oak
Park voters once declared the village a nuclear-free zone.
Not. That old symbolic referendum declared the village to be a nuclear
WEAPONS free zone, so it has nothing to do with power or ComEd or
anything else having to do with energy

Study of Oak Park diversity
getting national forum soon

By ERIC LINDEN

Did you know ...?

-- that the research about Oak Park's pro-diversity efforts being
conducted by Jay Ruby will soon be presented to a national meeting of
the American Anthropological Association?
The panel on ethnography in the United States has been co-organized by
Ruby, a Temple University professor and Oak Park and River Forest High
School graduate who has spent a chunk of the last two years in Oak Park,
and Tom Fricke from the University of Michigan and is called
"Integration and Diversity Revisited in Oak Park."
The subject will be preliminary findings of Ruby's ethnographic study of
Oak Park, which is referred to as "a middle-class Chicago suburb, a
community regarded internationally as a model of an economic stability,
ethnic integration and diversity."
Ruby has recounted the generally known history of Oak Parkers fighting
white flight in the 1970s and trying to "integrate African Americans
into the community without causing white flight and resegregation common
to other places."
"It seems to have worked," Ruby reports. And then he will tell the
national panel that now "a new challenge to the maintenance of diversity
has appeared: the emergence of a public and politically active gay and
lesbian community."

 -- that the upcoming Oak Park Regional Exchange Congress is on the
calendar of the Illinois Municipal League?
The league, a cooperative of local officials across the state, is
encouraging members to attend the Regional Exchange Congress in Oak Park
and attend the planned panel discussions on a variety of
topics--theoretically with an eye on racial diversity. The Sept. 21
Regional Exchange Congress this year is planned as a prelude to a
national session to be held in 2001.

-- that Charity Piet, the assistant to the executive director of the Oak
Park Area Arts Council, is exhibiting her artwork from now until Oct. 31
at the Forest Park National Bank & Trust lobby?
The bank at 7348 Madison St. in Forest Park has lobby hours from 9 a.m.
to 5 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays; from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on
Fridays; and from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays.

 -- that River Forest village government this month will be doing
micro-surfacing and slurry sealing of River Forest streets?
Micro-surfacing and slurry sealing, which Oak Park also does, results in
a petroleum-based material onto a cleaned road surface and is done to
prolong the life of the road. Streets will be closed for about three
hours for the paving measures to take effect, and residents will be
notified before it occurs on the their street. But here's the blocks
scheduled to be micro-surfaced in September.
* Lathrop from Lake to Division
* Linden from Forest to Thatcher
* Vine from Forest Thatcher
* Forest from the cul-de-sac north of Washington to Hawthorne
* Forest from Chicago to the railroad tracks
* Iowa from Thatcher to Park
* Central from Lathrop to Keystone
* Park from Central to Lake
Slurry seal will be put on LeMoyne from Park Harlem

-- that the Frank Lloyd Building Conservancy will hold its annual
conference and annual board meeting in Minnesota this month?
The Chicago-based Conservancy staff is headed by executive director
Sara-Ann Briggs of Oak Park and exists to preserve all buildings and
other property designed by Wright. According to the Conservancy, 20
percent of Wright-designed buildings already have been demolished,
although not the ones in Oak Park and River Forest.
The conference activities begin on Sept. 20 with an optional
pre-conference tour that Wednesday. The four-hour bus tour will include
a tour of historic properties on Owatonna, which is 70 miles south of
Minneapolis. After a bunch of discussion, the conference will end with
an optional post-conference tour on Sunday, Sept. 24 of three Frank
Lloyd Wright homes in Rochester, Minn.

-- that Homestuff, the home furnishings store at 120 N. Marion St., has
another location at 1509 S. Michigan Ave. in Chicago?

-- that White Fish Bay, Wis., the small town that has hired Forest Park
Village Administrator James Thomas to be its new village manager, is
known mostly for two other things?
It's the home of the only Wisconsin office of a Church of Scientology
organization, the Hubbard Dianetics Foundation of Milwaukee, and it's
still legendary in UFO circles--Men In Black-type folks, I guess--for an
incident that occurred more than 50 years ago.
As the story goes, at 2 a.m. on June 24, 1950, police officers from
White Fish Bay saw an object hovering in the sky above Lake Michigan,
and then watched as what they called "the eerie red object" glowed for
10 minutes and then disappeared.
Also according to reports, the incident came two hours after authorities
heard from Capt. Robert Lind, who was flying a DC-4 airplane with a crew
and other passengers from New York City to Minnesota the night of
Friday, June 23, 1950. As the plane passed over Battle Creek, Mich.,
Lind notified Air Traffic Control that he was going to change course to
avoid thunderstorms on Lake Michigan north of Chicago and was observed
between Battle Creek and the Lake Michigan shore. But shortly
thereafter, the aircraft vanished and the plane and the 58 people aboard
were never seen again.
A U.S. Coast Guard search the next day turned up no "debris fields" as
happened with the more recent crash of TWA Flight 800. Instead, all that
was reported found were a few miscellaneous items and what searchers
referred to as "fragments of bodies." But shortly after the plane
disappeared, the glowing "eerie red object" was seen above White Fish
Bay, which is also near Lake Michigan.
Do, do, do, do. Do, do, do, do

Amoco station closing brings another
key business vacancy to Oak Park

By ERIC LINDEN

Did you know ...?

-- that the Amoco gas and service station on the northwest corner of
Lake Street and Euclid Avenue in Oak Park closed recently?
The boarded-up station is now just another key corner vacancy in Oak
Park.

-- that the Youth of Fellowship Christian Church of Oak Park will hold
its fourth annual "Stompin' for Jesus Concert" this Friday night?
The evening at the church, 1106-1110 Madison St., will feature music,
dance and poetry beginning at 7 p.m. Last year's concert drew a full
house, so people are encouraged to come early. The doors open at 6:30
p.m.

-- that the ongoing  resurfacing of Madison Street in River Forest and
Forest Park is scheduled to be completed the week of Sept. 11?
Barring bad weather, the final paving and restriping of the road will be
the last step of the project, which began before Labor Day.

-- that Rev. Thomas Egan, the Oak Park native who was this year named
archbishop of New York City's archdiocese, was born on April 2, 1932,
that he was one of four children of Thomas and Genevieve Egan of Oak
Park and that Egan's siblings and parents are now all deceased?

-- that the River Forest village board recently negotiated a revision of
its cable television and internet service agreement with MediaOne and
extended the PACT to Sept. 30, 2003?

-- that the Forest Park village government recently purchased the land
of the shuttered Inne Towne Pet Motel at 7233 Madison St. in Forest
Park?
In an Oak Park-like move, Forest Park village government officials
wanted to control future use of the business property, which features a
municipal parking lot next door.

-- that Loret Carone has been named the new president of Flat Top Grill
in Oak Park?
The company runs several restaurants in the Chicago area, including at
726 Lake St. in Oak Park; recently expanded to other locations; and has
further plans to expand the stir fry restaurant chain. Company founder
Keene Addington remains with Flat Top Grill as CEO.

-- that work by the 11p.m.-to-7 a.m. shift on the River Forest Police
Department was credited by officials for a big decrease this summer in
the number of teens partying and drinking alcohol in the Cook County
Forest Preserves on the village's west end?

-- that Oak Park has much more than its share of dry cleaners?
According to the Illinois State Fabricare Association, which registers
the cleaners, River Forest has one such business, River Forest Dry
Cleaners at 7613-15 W. Lake St., and Forest Park has three, PJ Cleaners
at 7610 Madison St., Dove Cleaners at 208 Des Plaines Ave. and OK
Cleaners at 321 S. Harlem Ave. But check out this really long list of
the dry cleaners in Oak Park, according to the Fabricare Association.
Care Cleaners, 242 1/2 Chicago Ave.; Oak Cleaners, 900 S. Ridgeland Ave;
Poly Cleaners, 600 Madison St.; Jet Cleaners, 1111 Lake St.; Sun
Cleaners, 6811 W. North Ave.; Austin Cleaners, 430 N. Austin Blvd.;
O'Connors Cleaners, 1045 Chicago Ave.; Oak River Cleaners, 1112 Chicago
Ave.; Family Cleaners, 206 Lake St.; North Ridge Cleaners, 6323 W. North
Ave.; North Harlem One Hour J&J Cleaners, 7107 W. North Ave.;  Joy
Cleaners, 40 Chicago Ave.; Zephyr Cleaners, 130 Chicago Ave.; O'Connors,
217 Madison St.; Prime One Hour Cleaners, 723 Lake St.;  and PJ
Cleaners, 238 Madison St.

-- that it's been over a year since Calvary Memorial Church in Oak Park
has talked publicly about expansion plans?
Ray Pritchard, the senior pastor of the church, 931 Lake St., last June
had given a "State of the Church Message" that talked about some
ambitious plans, including the following:
-- "planting" or establishing a new church, perhaps in downtown Chicago
-- expanding the facilities on Lake Street, including expanding the
sanctuary, making a multi-level parking structure, adding a floor on the
east wing and "buying additional property"
At last report, The Meyne Company, a division of the high-powered Bulley
& Andrews firm on West Armitage of Chicago, was exploring a renovation
and expansion plan for Calvary.

-- that, speaking of expansion, the latest word is that the Wednesday
Journal newspaper in Oak Park next month will take over operation of the
Near West Gazette, a weekly in Chicago's Near West Side neighborhood?

Sprint seeking to build `communication
facility' in Oak Park

By ERIC LINDEN

Did you know ...?

-- that SprintCom Inc., the telephone and communication company, wants
to build  a "Personal Communication Facility," which will include an
antenna and electronic equipment at 629-47 Garfield St. in Oak Park?
The address is the Garfield Terrace Apartments, a brick courtyard
building featuring one- and two-bedroom apartments on the south side of
Garfield Street between Wesley Avenue on the west and Clarence Avenue on
the east.
A hearing on the proposal for the facility will be held on Wednesday,
Sept. 6, at 8 p.m. by the Oak Park Zoning Board of Appeals at village
hall, Lombard Avenue and Madison Street. The zoning board, a volunteer
panel of Oak Park residents, will hold the hearing on whether to grant
Sprint a special use permit.

-- that CTA president Frank Kruesi spelled out in detail the ridership
increases on the Lake Street el while appearing at that dedication of
the new Metra-CTA transit center in Oak Park?
Kruesi said there have been 17 percent more people getting on and off
the el at the Marion Street station in the last year, and ridership is
up 7 percent overall in the last year on the Lake Street el leg of the
Green Line.
"We are encouraged by these continuing gains," Kruesi said.

-- that if weather allows work on the water system to proceed, water
service will be shut down for three hours on Ashland Avenue in River
Forest?
A new water system is being installed on the street, and plans call for
the water to be shut off from 9 a.m. to noon.

-- that when the Oak Park Sentinel began publishing this year it
"piggy-backed" on the Evanston Sentinel in that northern suburb?
The Oak Park version was started by publisher Walter Perkins III,
president of the NAACP Oak Park branch, and the Evanston version was
begun by the executive director of the Evanston branch of the NAACP.

-- that Katie O'Grady, a standout basketball player at Fenwick High
School the last few years, has signed to play college basketball at
Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wis.?

-- that Mike Shanahan, head coach of the Denver Broncos NFL football
team, was born in Oak Park on Aug. 24, 1952?

-- that members of Black/White Dialog, the Oak Park group that seeks to
build communication between village residents, especially between blacks
and whites, held a picnic on Aug. 12?

-- that Oak Park and River Forest officials and residents might be
interested in a recent development by the O'Hare Noise Compatibility
Commission?
The commission, which wants to reduce noise from O'Hare Airport, on Aug.
4 approved a plan to spend $73,000 on an independent review of O'Hare's
noise monitoring system. Using funds given by the Chicago City Hall, the
commission hired BBN Technologies to review the airport noise measuring.

Village government officials in both Oak Park and River Forest in the
past have secured monitoring systems in the villages after citizen
complaints about airport noise. The monitors showed, however, that noise
wasn't loud enough to justify taking steps to reduce airport noise in
the villages.

-- that "12th Nite," the modern version of William Shakespeare's
"Twelfth Night" and the 2000 production of Oak Park Festival Theatre,
closes on Aug. 26?

-- that a correction needs to be made in the Columbia Encyclopedia,
Sixth Edition?
The publication's 2000 edition says that Emaus Bible School is located
in Oak Park, which hasn't been the case for years. The bible school long
ago moved from the building at 156 N. Oak Park Ave., which since has
been remodeled and expanded into condominiums.

-- that Chicago.citysearch.com advises visitors to tourist sites and
businesses in the Downtown Oak Park area to park in the parking garage
and Lake Street and Forest Avenue and not to "park your car in the wrong
spot of this quaint suburb or the strict parking patrols will issue you
a ticket"?

-- that Coldwell Banker Sprafka Realtors in Oak Park lists on its web
site famous residents of Oak Park and of Galewood, the Chicago community
to the north of Oak Park?
The Oak Park list is familiar territory: architect Frank Lloyd Wright,
author Ernest Hemingway, dancer and choreographer Doris Humphrey and
Tarzan creator Edgar Rice Burroughs. The Galewood list stacks up with
these names:
World War II Army air ace William J. Cullerton, former state senator
Robert J. Graham, long-time Austin High School football coach Bill
Heiland, actress Kim Novak, former Illinois governor James R. Thompson
and Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner.

-- that work has begun to repair the exterior of Unity Temple, the
Wright-designed historic building at 875 Lake St.?
The work to repair the aging historic structure on the southeast corner
of Lake Street and Kenilworth Avenue comes courtesy of a state grant
from Gov. Ryan's famous Illinois FIRST fund.

-- that, as the Oak Park Fire Department does, the River Forest Fire
Department also offers classes to train residents in Cardio Pulmonary
Resuscitation?
River Forest conducts a three-hour CPR class approved by the American
Heart Association. There is a $15 fee for materials, and residents
interested should contact the Fire Department at 708-366-7629 for the
time and location of classes.

-- that part or all of the Oak Park YMCA will be closed for a time real
soon?
Due to renovations to the pool at the Y, 255 S. Marion St., the pool
will be closed from Aug. 20 through Sept. 4. And due to the annual
upgrade of the Y building, the facility will be closed entirely from
Aug. 27 through Sept. 4.

-- that a recent ruling in favor of the National Day of Prayer might
have an impact on the case involving Oak Park that is still in the legal
system?
The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco has ruled that an
event organized for religious reasons is not justification enough for a
municipality to deny free services during public events. The decision
overturned a previous ruling.
Organizers of the National Day of Prayer in Tucson, Ariz., sued after
city officials denied the group free services for their 1997 annual
National Day of Prayer observance. The city said it had a policy not to
use money from its Civic Events Fund for "events held in direct support
of religious organizations," and cited the separation of church and
state. The organizers sued, claiming their free-speech rights had been
violated.
The annual National Day of Prayer is the first Thursday of May, and Oak
Park organizers sued over Oak Park village government's denial of
holding the event in village hall, which also cited church-state
separation. Oak Park Day of Prayer organizers initially won the right to
hold the observance in village hall, but the government won on appeal.

Forest Park Historical Society thinking 
of merger with OP-RF counterpart

By ERIC LINDEN

Did you know ...?

-- that the Forest Park Historical Society is thinking about merging
with the Historical Society of Oak Park & River Forest?
The Forest Park society, which is based in the Forest Park Public
Library, at the southeast corner of Jackson Boulevard and Des Plaines
Avenue, has a membership that is aging, and its leadership is seeking to
keep the organization functioning and to make it more active.
A special meeting of Forest Park Historical Society members has been
called for November to vote on merging with the Oak Park-River Forest
counterpart, which is based in the Landmark Pleasant Home in Mills Park
at 217 W. Home Ave. in Oak Park.

-- that it must be time for school to start again pretty soon because
Fellowship Christian Church of Oak Park will be holding a school-related
prayer vigil on Aug. 30?
From 9 to 10 p.m. that Wednesday, congregation members and friends of
Fellowship will gather outside of the Oak Park Elementary School
District 97 headquarters, 970 Madison St. in Oak Park, and outside of
Oak Park and River Forest High School, 201 N. Scoville Ave. in Oak Park
to offer special prayers for Oak Park children, staff, parents, and, the
church said in an announcement, "all others connected with this coming
school year."
Prior to the vigil, Fellowship will hold a worship service at 7 p.m. in
the church, 1106-1110 Madison St. People can attend either the service
or the rallies.

-- that the residents of Maywood have formed the Maywood Alliance for
Better Government, which is a local group based on the Village Manager
Association political group in Oak Park?
Earlier this year, Maywood residents, led by Karen Yarbrough, Democratic
candidate for state representative from the 7th District that includes
Maywood and part of central Oak Park, met with VMA officers to get a
briefing on the Oak Park group slates and runs for candidates for local
elections. After forming a VMA-style selection committee, the Maywood
group expects to field candidates in next spring's village board
elections their village. The Maywood group plans to meet next on
Saturday, Aug. 19 at the Maywood Public Library.

-- that the VMA itself on Sept. 10 will start its traditional selection
process to pick candidates for the Oak Park village hall elections next
April.
In 2001, Oak Park voters will pick candidates to fill the expiring seats
of Village President Barbara Furlong, Village Clerk Sandra Sokol and
Village Trustees Gus Kostopulos, Rick Kuner and Joanne Trapani.

-- that River Forest village government is looking to employ cisco
system developers to enhance the computer capability of village
hall--with hopes of making the operations more efficient?

-- that the Forest Park is seeking people to become
firefighter/paramedics?
The Forest Park Board of Fire and Police Commissioners, a volunteer
panel of village residents, is charged with compiling a list from which
firefighter/paramedic vacancies are filled, and the process begins anew
this month.
Starting salary for the positions is $26,436.91 per year, plus benefits,
and the mandatory orientation will be held on Thursday, Aug. 17 at 7
p.m. in the council chambers of Forest Park village hall, 517 Des
Plaines Ave. in Forest Park. Applications are available from the village
clerk's office in village hall and must be filled out and returned
before the orientation meeting.

-- that Ald. Isaac Carothers, who represents the 29th Ward in Austin,
the Chicago community adjacent to Oak Park on the east, was among the
alderman to appear at Mayor Daley's South Side press conference on Aug.
7 to tell owners of vacant residential buildings that they have to
purchase liability insurance for their buildings to rectify any
neighborhood damage caused by crimes related to the vacant property?

-- that Jens Jensen, the landmark architect who designed Columbus Park,
on Jackson Boulevard across Austin Boulevard from Oak Park in Chicago,
also was responsible for developing the park system in Door County,
which is a popular Wisconsin vacation spot for many Oak Park residents?
The publication "Key to the Door Illustrated" in a profile this summer
called Jensen "the father of Door County parks."

-- that the school board of River Forest Elementary School District 90
recently abolished its working cash fund?

-- that visitation for Maywood Police Lt. Carl J. Peterson, who died
last week of cancer at age 42, was held at Corbin Colonial Funeral
Chapel at 5345 W. Madison in Chicago's Austin neighborhood?

-- that Joan Mercuri, the president of the Frank Lloyd Wright
Preservation Trust--which used to be called the Home and Studio
Foundation--recently traveled to New York state to advise western New
York officials on their upcoming restoration of the Wright-designed
Darwin Martin House in Buffalo, N.Y.?
New York preservationists plan to spend $23 million to restore the
historic Martin House, which is in a residential area reportedly similar
to the area around the Wright Home and Studio, 951 Chicago Ave. in Oak
Park. Buffalo officials hope that the Martin House one day will draw
80,000 tourist visitors per year--about the same number the Home and
Studio does now. Neighbors of the Buffalo landmark have expressed
concerns about--surprise--parking and traffic in their neighborhood and
officials thought Mercuri could help them come up with solutions.
"Oak Park and Buffalo have a lot in common," Mercuri said during her New
York visit. "We're like brothers and sisters."

-- that River Forest native Paige Fumo--who's now Paige Fumo Fox after
her recent marriage--works as a reporter covering education for the
Pantagraph newspaper in Bloomington, Ill.?
Fumo worked as a staff writer for the Wednesday Journal newspaper in Oak
Park and was once managing editor for the Forest Park Review newspaper.

-- that the Oak Park Health Department wants to form a "Community Rodent
Control Advisory Coalition," a volunteer citizens group that would
advise the department on rat control in the village?

-- that the International Association of Machinsts labor union (IAM),
which is still fighting Oak Park village hall to represent some village
government workers, gained a big victory Aug. 1 when it was joined by
286 workers at UAL, the parent company of beleaguered United Air Lines?
Some 44,000 UAL employees, who reportedly often have to answer to
customers about the airline's frequent flight delays, already had been
represented by IAM, and employees in four additional job classifications
voted to join last week.
When the election is finally certified, 226 station operations
representatives, 23 air freight coordinators and 15 cargo support
representatives will be covered under the terms of the current IAM-UAL
labor contact. In a separate election, 22 food service employees at
United also voted to be represented by the IAM.

DID YOU KNOW ...?

Villages notice increased ridership 
on CTA el lines

Did you know ...?

-- that ridership on the CTA, including the rapid transit lines that
touch Oak Park, River Forest and Forest Park, was up during the first
half of 2000?
The CTA said 3.6 million more train riders, a gain of 5.2 percent over
last year on all the CTA lines. The agency did not publicly break down
the increases on individual lines, including the Green Line, which is
the Lake Street el, and the Blue Line, which runs down the middle of 
the Eisenhower Expressway, but it did say ridership was up across the
board--and has been on the increase since the famous
closing-and-reconstruction of the Green Line.

-- that according to the Chicago Tribune, former National Basketball
Association  player and current NBA coach Doc Rivers "developed his
game" at Maple Park in Oak Park?
As the Tribune pointed out, the star at Proviso East High School in
Maywood, Marquette University in Madison, Wis.. and several pro teams
couldn't do that now because there are no longer basketball hoops at
Maple, which is at Harlem Avenue and Roosevelt Road.

-- that the web page for Ascension School, 601 Van Buren St. in Oak
Park, still tells people to tune into "The Collins Show" on WGN-AM 
radio to find out if the school is closed for weather reasons?
Bob Collins, of course, hasn't done the morning show on 720-AM and it
hasn't been called "The Collins Show" since he died in a plane crash
last year.

-- that the Forest Park building that for years housed the Krader-Wolf
furniture business is still vacant and for sale?
The real estate firm Kritt is selling the building on the northeast
corner of Circle Avenue and Madison Street and can be contacted at
773-486-4900.

-- that the web site for St. Giles School in Oak Park was designed by
students at the school at 1020 N. Linden Ave. and is updated by 
students and a teacher advisor?

-- that InterCultura Foreign Language Immersion Montessori School in 
Oak Park is the only total foreign language immersion school of any kind in
Illinois?
Besides InterCultura at 301 S. Ridgeland Ave., there are three other
Montessori schools in the villages: West Suburban Montessori at 1039 S.
East Ave. in Oak Park; Alcuin Montessori at 324 N. Oak Park Ave. and
Keystone Montessori at 7415 W. North Ave. in River Forest.

-- that River Forest Elementary School District 90 and Oak Park and
River Forest High School District 200 both received plaques from River
Forest village government praising the school districts for their
"Resolutions Recognizing Academic Accomplishment"?

-- that Metra, the commuter rail system that has a line running through
Oak Park and River Forest, in 2002 will be getting 26 new locomotives?
Fifteen of the new ones will replace current trains and 11 new ones 
will expand the line's capacity.

-- that two anniversaries are upon us?
In 1999 at this time, the Amli development firm in Chicago sold the
Prairie Court apartment complex at Lake Street and Euclid Avenue in Oak
Park to Archstone Communities Trust of Denver. Prairie Court, which
opened in 1987 on the site of the former Oak Park village hall 
building, sold for $13.5 million to Archstone, an apartment management firm that
made its first business move to the Midwest by purchasing properties in
Oak Park, in west-suburban Schaumburg and in the state of Minnesota.
And on Aug. 11 of 1988, Loyola University Health System in Maywood
formally voted to dissolve its affiliation between Loyola and West
Suburban Hospital Medical Center in Oak Park. The health system ended
after doctors at West Sub objected to having to the religious health
directives that govern practices at Catholic health care institutions.

-- that Forest Park Mayor Anthony Calderone is president of Illinois
Alarm Service Inc. at 7340 W. 15th St. in the village?

-- that Chicago Digital Online was the first CD store in Illinois when
the store opened in 1985 at 905 S. Oak Park Ave.?

-- that according to the Center for Responsive Politics, U.S. Rep. 
Danny K. Davis in this year's election cycle has raised $176,612 and has
$143,149 on hand and that U.S. Rep. William O. Lipinski in the same 
time has raised $253,964 and has $123,464 on hand?
Davis, a Democrat whose district includes River Forest and Oak Park
north of the Eisenhower Expressway, is unopposed for re-election this
year. Lipinski, a Democrat whose district includes most of Oak Park
south of the expressway, in November's general election will be facing
Republican Karl Groh, a somewhat perennial candidate who Lipinski has
defeated handily before.

-- that Oak Parker Joanne Trapani is a member of the Chicago Gay Hall 
of Fame?
Trapani was inducted in 1993, four years before she was elected a
village trustee, the first openly gay person to be elected to office in
Illinois. She was cited by the Hall of Fame for a history of activity 
in the gay community dating back to her life in New York City. Trapani now
staffs the Cook County Commission on Human Rights.
Other members of the Gay Hall of Fame, who don't have to gay, include
the late playwright Lorraine Hansberry, who wrote the landmark play "A
Raisin in the Sun" fame; tennis champion Billie Jean King; Illinois
Secretary of State Jesse White; radio personality and former Chicago
alderman Clifford Kelly; Joel Hall, the great Chicago dancer and
choreographer; and internationally known dance choreographer Randy
Duncan, who is an alumnus of Austin High School in the Chicago 
community adjacent to Oak Park on the east.

-- that the owners of Oberweis Dairy, which has a store at 124 N. Oak
Park Ave. in Oak Park, recently opened a new store in Joliet and that
new Oberweis stores are planned to open in Naperville and Hoffman
Estates later this year?

-- that Oak Park Country Club, which is in Elmwood Park to the north of
River Forest, is undertaking a concerted effort to save and replace the
elm trees on the club's grounds?
Many of the American elms planted in the 1920s on the Oak Park golf
course have succumbed to old age or Dutch Elm disease over the years,
and now the club is pursuing a root flare injection program to save the
remaining 120 or so older elms. Also, club officials are replacing the
American elms that have been lost with the new Liberty elms. The 
Liberty elm seedlings were planted in 1989 in a nursery and are now being
transferred to the club grounds.
 "They've grown from those tiny, pencil-thin saplings to prominent 15-
to 20-foot trees," said Alan Fierst, the superintendent of the club who
also teaches lawn and turf management at Triton College, the River
Grove-based community college that serves Oak Park, River Forest, 
Forest Park and other near-west suburbs. Fierst also said he might have his
lawn and turf management class "involved in working with the large
nursery of these American Liberty elms."

-- that it's too bad the following restaurant didn't make it?
A Chicago magazine review called the Oak Park establishment "a bright,
if plain, double storefront (a few) blocks east of Downtown Oak Park;
street parking is ample." The magazine said the food was kind of
"uneven" but the "portions were generous and the prices are reasonable
especially considering that most entries include a choice of two `side
kicks.'"
Too bad for Orlissie's Place, the Louisiana Southern Cuisine restaurant
that used to be at 529 Lake St. Owner Loretta Ragsdell had financial
problems and it didn't help when Oak Park and River Forest High School
moved to seize the property for creation of new athletic fields.
And another thing, Orlissie's was family friendly. "Small orders of
macaroni and cheese, meat loaf and fried catfish or chicken should
satisfy  the kids," wrote Chicago magazine reviewer Jeanne Rattenbury, "and, if
they don't, there's always the sweet potato pie, bread pudding, and
peach cobbler."
We'll also miss the live jazz and blues on Friday nights.

-- that Oak Park has two historic districts, which put rules on
construction and preservation of properties; that River Forest and
Forest Park have none; and that a report from Eastern Michigan
University raises some questions about the wisdom of historic district
rules?
"The Limitations of Historic Districts," a report from some professors
at the Ypsilanti, Mich. university, tells this story:
"Consider, for example, the situation of Oak Park, Illinois. In the
early 1900s, Oak Park was one of the most desirable suburbs of Chicago.
Its tree-lined streets were fronted by stately Victorian homes, many in
the ebullient and showy Queen Anne style. The homes were tall, with
steep roofs, turrets and many gables.
"Into that setting, a young architect named Frank Lloyd Wright brought 
a new style for residential design, eventually to be known as the Prairie
... style, largely
inspired by the broad midwestern plains. Wright's houses were more
horizontal than vertical, with low sloped roofs and wide, overhanging
eaves. There could not have been a sharper contrast to the Victorian
houses in Oak Park than this new style of the prairie.
"A question arises from this example: If Oak Park at the time had a
historic ordinance and had set up a historic district commission to
review new construction, would Frank Lloyd Wright's designs have been
approved? Or would the commissioners have denied the requests because
the designs were incompatible with the residential character of the
neighborhood?
"Today, we recognize the brilliance of these early houses by Wright,
which are among our country's architectural treasures. Yet in 1910 or
1915, they were new, incompatible, and probably would have not been
built if a strict review procedure had been required. What a tragedy
that would have been.
"In that same vein, we must ask ourselves today whether our historic
requirements prevent truly innovative and important architecture from
happening. In our attempt to protect against the worst designs, are we
also not allowing the best to come out? Sometimes it is necessary to
recognize truly significant architecture before it has had a chance to
`age'; excellence must be nurtured and encouraged wherever it is 
found."

DID YOU KNOW ...?

A new business soon to fill one of the
Downtown Oak Park vacancy

By ERIC LINDEN

Did you know ...?

-- that work is underway at 1109 Lake St. in Downtown Oak Park, where
Paper Source next month will fill one of downtown's nagging retail
vacancies?
Paper Source, which also has stores at 232 W. Chicago Ave. in Chicago
and at a location in north suburban Evanston, carries papers, envelopes
and other stationery products, including custom invitations. Sounds a
lot like Fitzgerald's Fine Stationery, which is around the corner at 
131 N. Marion St.
Still, it's good news that a retail store on Lake Street and the Shoe
Place at 134 N. Marion St. will be coming soon to a commercial district
that already includes the following other vacancies:

* 1101 Lake St., where 2,700 square feet will be available when Jenny
Craig Weight Loss Centre leaves
* 130 N. Marion St., the famed and seemingly eternally vacant former
Sawyer Business College space
* 118 N. Marion St.
* 1016 North Blvd.
* 1000 Lake St.
* 1105 Westgate St.
* 1116 Lake St.
* And, of course, 1132 Lake St., the former Powerhouse Gym/Club West
space, the largest of them all

-- that none of the Oak Park and River Forest High School students who
competed in the recent national ACTSO competition took home prizes?
At the competition during the NAACP's national convention in Baltimore,
only two Illinois residents scored well enough in the academic and arts
competition to come away with medals and cash awards. Both of the
Illinois winners live in Chicago's south suburbs.

-- that according to an ad in the current issue of Crain's Chicago
Business newspaper from Oak Park's Gloor Realty, River Forest's has a
"street of dreams"?
I don't know where it is, but the house, according to the ad, has three
stories and plenty of room and land, and you can walk to parks, schools
and the Metra line.

-- that Woden, Val Camiletti's beloved cat at her Val's Halla Records
store at 723 1/2 South Blvd., died earlier this month?
Woden lived from 1984 to 2000 and was left with this message from Val:
"The dogs in heaven are in for a bumpy afterlife."

-- that the Cook County Sheriff's Police list of sexual offenders in 
the county contains 27 local residents?
Seventeen of the listed offenders live in Oak Park, eight live in 
Forest Park and two live in River Forest.

-- that Lindberg Park in Oak Park is named for Gustav Lindberg, Oak
Park's first superintendent of parks?

-- that Maple Park originally was called Perennial Gardens?

-- that Oak Park Police Sgt. Anthony Thomas will be one of the many
seminar presenters at the upcoming "Best Gang Training Conference in
History" to be held in Chicago in August.
"Gang College 2000," as it's also called, will be held Aug. 16, 17 and
18 in downtown Chicago, with an enormous roster of gang prevention
experts, including Thomas. Technically, the conference is the third
International Gang Specialist Training Conference and is designed "to
get the best and latest and most up-to-date gang specialist training
from the best in the business."
Thomas will present a session titled "The Gang/Drug Connection to
Nigeria and Ghana: The International Distribution of Southeast Asian
Heroin by Chicago's Folks and People's Nations." The seminar will
address what is described by Gang College 2000 organizers as delving
into "the current heroin epidemic."
A gang specialist for the Oak Park Police Department, for the last 
seven years, Thomas has been assigned to the Heroin Enforcement Group of the
Chicago office of the  U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Thomas 
also has participated in international heroin investigations in assignments
for the DEA, the FBI and U.S. Customs.

-- that Pro Printing Specialties, which provides promotional products,
recently was opened by Oak Parker and company president Donald J. 
Felton II?

-- that a seminar on the 10-year-old Americans with Disabilities Act 
has been scheduled for Sept. 9 at the Forest Park Public Library?
The seminar will be given that Saturday at 10 a.m. in the library, at
the northeast corner of Jackson Boulevard and Desplaines Avenue, by
Rocco Esposito, who is president of CHANGE, an advocacy organization
that stands for Community Health Action Network to Gain advances for
Epilepsy Inc.
Subjects like employment for disabled people, what is "reasonable
accommodation" as called for by ADA and the history of the act.

-- that U.S. Rep. Danny K. Davis is a co-sponsor of the bill in 
Congress to give slavery reparations to African Americans?
House Resolution 40 would form a committee that would recommend
"appropriate remedies" for people who suffered through slavery. Since
Davis, whose district includes River Forest and Oak Park north of the
Eisenhower Expressway, co-sponsored the measure, the bill has 
languished in the House's Subcommittee on the Constitution.

-- that former Oak Park Police Chief William Kohnke is now Major Kohnke
and an assistant director in the Division of Detention with the Broward
County Sheriff's Office in Florida?
After being fired in Oak Park in 1990, Kohnke became police chief of
Greenwood Village, Colo. then moved on to chief in Bristol, Conn. and
then to chief in Pampano Beach, Fla., a job that he denied he had
applied for while he was chief in Oak Park. Kohnke was chief in Pampano
Beach until last year when that police department merged with the 
county sheriff's office. Kohnke now reports to County Sheriff Ken Jenne and as
a major is responsible for South Operations for the county, overseeing,
among other things, the main jail and the county's "stockade facility."

-- that Kohnke's name came up last week in a story in the Wednesday
Journal newspaper that contained something I'd like to straighten out?
In an interview, Oak Park Police Chief Joseph Mendrick was quoted as
saying a former Journal writer "used to play in a poker game with the
village manager and the police chief and the park district guy." I
figure that's referring to me because I always talked about trying to
play in that regular poker game.
But it never came about. Then-chief Keith Bergstrom and "the park
district guy," former executive director John Hedges, never had a
problem with me playing and neither did some of the other regulars, who
included Greg Mihalic, a former director of the old Community
Development Department at village hall. But Ralph DeSantis, who was
village manager and recently fired at the time and was another one of
the regulars, would have none of it, so I never got in.
And not to mention Kohnke again and not to puncture too many police
department myths and rumors, but I never had a fling with Patty 
Andrews, either.

DID YOU KNOW ...?

Housing developers show new interest in 
River Forest Lake Street corridor

By ERIC LINDEN

Did you know ...?

-- that developers have made initial proposals to build new housing on
Lake Street in River Forest?
One proposal making its way through village government circles would
have a four-flat with underground parking built on two lots east of
William Street on the north side of Lake Street. The other plan would
have a two-building, eight-unit condominium project on the nearby open
lots of what is 500-506 William St..
Across Lake Street, the new William Place Condominiums are going up to
eventually house residents of the Bonnie Brae Condominiums at Bonnie
Brae and Lake Street, which is to be demolished to make way for the
River Forest Town Center Phase II commercial development.

-- that there is other news on the development front in River Forest?
The Development Review Board, an appointed volunteer panel of River
Forest residents that advises the elected village board, is to meet 
soon to start the review process for the River Forest Park District's plans
for Washington Commons Park and to review plans for The Good Earth
Garden Center's proposed location in the village.

The park, about 1.8 acres, would be on Washington Boulevard on what is
now open space between the new single-family homes at Keystone Avenue
and the train tracks to the east. The Park District recently received a
$200,000 state grant to help with the cost of the park, which is to
include a soccer field, two baseball diamonds, walking paths, a play
area, a bathroom and shelter building, bike racks and other features.
Depending on schedules, bids and other arrangements, the park could be
open next spring.

The Garden Center  tentatively is slated for a now-empty spot on 
Madison Street between Keystone and Forest Avenues.

-- that in Oak Park, meanwhile, a couple of high-profile businesses are
on the way out?
Jenny Craig Weight Loss Centre at 1101 Lake St. in Downtown Oak Park,
has stated its intention to close the spot sometime in or near fall. 
And Centuries & Sleuths Bookstore, owned by Oak Park resident August Aleksy
at 743 Garfield St., will be moving in the next month or so to 7419
Madison St. in Forest Park.

-- that because of this summer's unseasonably cool weather, the Park
District of Oak Park is behind in revenue forecasts for its two public
pools?

-- that the Interreligious Sustainability Project has one of its 
circles in Oak Park?

The project works to get Chicago-area religious congregations to take
action on various societal issues. With involvement by Catholics,
Protestants, Baha'is, Unitarian-Universalists, Muslims, Sikhs and
others, the project does grassroots organizing to enhance equity, to
improve people's ability to learn to live together and other goals.
There are circles in Oak Park, north suburban Evanston, the southwest
suburban LaGrange-Hinsdale area, Naperville in DuPage County, the
Humboldt Park community on Chicago's West Side and Chicago's Austin
community, which is adjacent to Oak Park on the east .
The next meeting of the Oak Park circle will be held on Tuesday, Aug. 8,
by Unitarian Universalist Congregation at 7 p.m. at Unity Temple, 875
Lake St. The Austin circle met Monday night at St. Martin's Episcopal
Church, 5710 W. Midway Park, and details of the next meeting are not
known yet.

-- that the Lake Theater in Oak Park says it does not allow young
children to attend some R-rated movies even if they are accompanied by
parents or other adults?

The theater, 1020 Lake St., says underage people will not be admitted 
to any R-rated movie after 6 p.m.

-- that the River Forest Community Center Band will hold two more
public concerts in August?

On Aug. 6 and Aug. 20, the Sunday concerts return to the Cook County
Forest Preserve property on the northwest corner of Lake Street and
Harlem Avenue. From 4 to 6 p.m., the Community Center band, which
includes village residents of all ages, will present classical, ragtime
and popular music and waltzes and marches.

-- that the Oak Park Regional Housing Center is scheduling its annual
anniversary gala for Oct. 28 at Mar Lac Banquets in Oak Park?

-- that River Forest Village Administrator Charles Biondo plans to be
off this Friday to take a long weekend and a trip to St. Louis?

-- that U.S. Rep. Danny K. Davis has scheduled a meeting with suburban
elected officials on Aug. 3 at 7 p.m. in Bellwood village hall?
Davis' 7th Congressional District includes River Forest and the area 
Oak Park north of the Eisenhower Expressway.

-- that 88 years ago this month, the River Forest Public Library was
open 11 hours per week in a building on Park Avenue and new librarian
received a salary of $35 per month?
The library didn't move to its current home at 735 Lathrop Ave. until
the 1920s.

-- that Imoni Baxter of Maywood has been appointed to fill a vacancy on
the school board of Proviso High School District 209, which runs 
Proviso East High School, the public high school that Forest Park residents
attend?
Baxter, who is to serve on the school board until the election in May
2001, is a kindergarten teacher at Grant Elementary School in Bellwood
School District 88.

-- that Dr. Conway T. McLean has joined Valinsky Foot Care Center at 
163 S. Oak Park Ave. in Oak Park?

-- that Oak Park village government officials have decided not to join
the effort by Chicago city government and some suburban municipalities,
including River Forest, to band together and explore the possibility of
buying electricity from a source other than the ComEd utility?
Officials from River Forest village hall signed up last month, agreeing
with Chicago's Mayor Daley that there might be price and service gains
by giving ComEd some competition and from economies of scale by
combining their electricity needs. Oak Park village hall officials,
though, felt too much of the negotiating influence would be given over
to Chicago.

Some dangerous Oak Park intersections 
in line of traffic diverters

By ERIC LINDEN

Did you know ...?

-- that Oak Park village government parking and engineering staff plan
to soon make recommendations to rectify a serious traffic problem at
several locations in the village?
As part of its famed "traffic calming" efforts in recent years, the
village board approved right-turn-only designations to several
intersections where left turns by cars had caused traffic tie-ups and
had contributed to accidents. The right-turn only restrictions, 
however, have been indicated only by signs and pavement markings that are often
ignored by motorists and have contributed to some more-serious
accidents.
Now, government staff is preparing to recommend that the 
right-turn-only restrictions be strengthened by installation of concrete traffic
diverters. The matter is to be discussed at a meeting at village hall,
Lombard Avenue and Madison Street, at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 25 by
the Parking and Traffic Commission, an appointed volunteer panel of
residents that advises the elected village board.
Sure, some concrete diverters, such as the one at Jackson Boulevard and
Maple Avenue, are ignored by some drivers but diverters would be big
improvements over the pavement markings.

-- that Jazz Age Chicago, an organization which focuses on "urban
leisure from 1893 to 1934," a period also known as the jazz age, fondly
recalls those times in Downtown Oak Park, which was much different from
today.
The downtown district at and around Lake and Marion streets in Oak 
Park, initially was a residential area, but developed during the jazz age and
by the second World War, says Jazz Age Chicago, "stores and theaters
along Lake Street catered to patrons from all across the West Side of
Chicago, as well as from Oak Park and other western suburbs."
The major changes in Downtown Oak Park, which is holding its annual
sidewalk sale this weekend, are pointed out clearly in a Jazz Age
Chicago map titled "Oak Park during the 1920s-1930s". Consider this 
list of selected locations.

LOCATION -- NOW -- IN JAZZ AGE --
Forest-Lake -- 100 Forest Place apartments -- Lowell Elementary School
1000 Lake St. -- various shops and offices -- Lytton's department store
1020 Lake St. -- Lake Theater -- Lake Theater
1100 Lake St. -- Barbara's Bookstore and others -- The Fair department store
1144 Lake St. -- Borders books and offices -- Marshall Field department store
And finally, Jazz Age Chicago remembers, the southwest corner of Harlem
Avenue and Lake Street in River Forest housed a Wieboldt's department
store on what today is the River Forest Town Center.

-- that Oak Park village government is getting ready to demolish the
eight-unit apartment building at 616 S. Austin Blvd. in Oak Park?
Readers will remember that the Oak Park village board in April voted to
purchase the building, whose newish owner could not keep up with
management duties and with repairs and who had not rid the building of
code violations. The board at the time said the choices were to rehab
the building, try to sell it to a private owner who could do the fix-up
or tear down the so-called motel-style building that is immediately
south of the Shell gas station on the southwest corner of Harrison
Street and Austin Boulevard.
Purchase price for the building was $248,000, which village hall paid
for from the parking fund. Demolition of the building and creation of
the new parking lot will further cut into that parking fund.

-- that the Oak Park Art League is now hiring a part-time assistant
director for the management program run out of its headquarters at 720
Chicago Ave. and  a part-time manager for its satellite location that
will be opening soon on Harrison Street in Oak Park?

-- that the Oak Park Visitors Bureau recently received $38,050 in a
state tourism grant?
The grant to the agency at 158 N. Forest Ave. was the third highest
amount given this year by the Illinois Department of Commerce and
Community Affairs--behind those given to the Chicago Convention and
Tourism Bureau and the Rockford Area Convention and Visitors Bureau,
which each received in the millions. In all, eight agencies in Illinois
received grants totaling $3,681,465.60.

-- that the 32nd annual No Gloves Nationals softball tournament will be