Publications & Sites 
Your chance to be heard
If you’ve always wanted to put your two cents in about what goes on in the village, now’s your chance.
Envision Oak Park is your opportunity to participate in a community-wide process to develop the Village’s long-range Comprehensive Plan. So let your voice be heard at a kick-off event from 7:30 to 9 p.m. Feb. 20, at the 19th Century Club, 178 Forest Ave.
The Comprehensive Plan is the Village’s governing document for goals for the future of Oak Park. The plan being updated is from 1990. You can help planners set priorities in economic development, diversity, education, the environment, transportation, and more.
“The Comprehensive Plan is THE guiding document for the community,” said village planner Craig Failor. “It is a document that will provide guidance to elected and appointed officials and village staff, assisting with the crafting other plans, regulatory documents, and community initiatives. It also provides residents, property owners, business owners, etc. with an expectation for their community’s development into the future.”
The event is for anyone who could be affected: residents, property owners, business owners, governmental agency representatives, nonprofits, etc. Attendees will be asked a series of questions; results will be instantaneously tabulated and projected on a screen.
Responses will help solidify topics and set priorities; the plan will be completed by year’s end. Failor said people should take the online surveys if they can’t attend the workshops.
Contact Community Planning (708) 358-5418, or planning@oak-park.us or go to www.envisionoakpark.com.
Applicants sought for grant program
Calling all charitable realtors! …Realtor Magazine’s Good Neighbor Society is seeking applications for its Volunteering Works Program from realtors who work on small-scale charitable efforts with growth potential. Five realtors receive a $1,000 grant and are matched with a Good Neighbor Award-winner for mentoring.
“The idea is that the experienced Good Neighbors can help these fledgling organizations get off the ground by offering the benefit of their experience,” said Sara Geimer, manager of REALTOR Magazine’s Good Neighbor Awards/National Association of Realtors.
Applicants must be members of the National Association of Realtors.
“I know there are a lot of realtors doing great volunteer work out there,” she said.
Deadline is Feb. 22, www.Realtor.org/gna and click on “Volunteering Works.”~.
