Oak Leaves

Oak Park’s Lincoln School rewarded for composting success

Thu, 23 May 2013 06:21:23 -0500

OAK PARK — Patterson Grant, Damon Trout and Yana Keane got to play in the dirt at school this week. They were among 25 students at Lincoln Elementary School who helped plant a bald cypress at the school on Monday, May 13. Patterson, a kindergartener, along with Damon, a third-grader and Yana, a fourth-grader, each got to lift a shovel full of dirt from a mound, deposit it in a hole and pat it into place at the base of the tree, then hand the shovel to another schoolmate. The cypress was a gift to the school for its participation …

River Forest luncheon brings Celebrating Seniors Week to a close

Fri, 24 May 2013 20:15:20 -0500

RIVER FOREST — New River Forest Village President Cathy Aducci shared the podium with a former Chicago Bull May 23 at the concluding luncheon for the third annual Celebrating Seniors Week. Both spoke of the special gifts seniors possess and how it’s to society’s benefit to use them more. Only one, however, could tell inside stories about Michael Jordan. Adduci, who accompanied by her mother, Jackie, made her first public speaking appearance as village president. She aluded to the conflicted relationship many people have with aging, quoting businessman and politician Bernard M. Baruch, who said, “Old age is always 15 …

Latest location of School of Rock now open in Oak Park

Fri, 24 May 2013 19:41:48 -0500

OAK PARK — Rock songs may not top the charts like they used to but the genre’s influence is all around. “Most contemporary pop music was informed by the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and Zeppelin,” said Jennifer Malone, music director for the newly debuted School of Rock in Oak Park. She said tackling Black Sabbath and knowing “Abbey Road” inside-out helps pave the way for making modern music. “It’s kind of like going to art school where you learn to paint like the masters,” Malone said. “You learn to play the best before you start to develop your own material and …

Oak Park-River Forest District 200 hires new chief financial officer

Fri, 24 May 2013 19:45:39 -0500

OAK PARK The District 200 school board on May 23 voted to hire a new chief financial officer. Tod Altenburg’s hiring was approved at the regular meeting of the board which oversees Oak Park-River Forest High School. He starts July 1. Altenburg is in his sixth year as assistant superintendent for finance at Lombard Elementary School District 44. Since 2010, he has also served as an adjunct professor in education management at Concordia University in River Forest. Prior to Lombard, he was the chief financial officer and treasurer for the McClean County School District near Bloomington. He alsowas a teacher …

Oak Park survivor of childhood sexual abuse offers workshops to help others

Fri, 24 May 2013 16:52:20 -0500

OAK PARK — Duane Hughes is determined to make a difference by helping prevent the incidence of childhood sexual abuse. Hughes himself learned to thrive after such abuse, having suffered years of torment by his stepfather. “You have a person in your life who’s supposed to be someone of authority, someone you respect,” Hughes said, recalling his own abuse, which lasted from when he was 9 to 15 years old. “It felt like there was something wrong with me,” he said. “That’s how it started. But that turned out to be a complete manipulation.” Hughes recently launched Are You Playing …

Fenwick High School graduate returns as ordained minister, teacher at Oak Park school

Fri, 24 May 2013 16:27:33 -0500

OAK PARK — Newly ordained Dominican priest Nicholas Monco is returning to his alma mater. Rev. Monco, a 2002 Fenwick High School graduate, starts this fall at the Oak Park school as a priest and a teacher for students not much younger than himself. “I look almost as I did in high school. A lot of those kids will probably look older than I do,” Rev. Monco said. “There’s a way in which that will help. But, other than connecting to movies and pop culture, there’s a way that kids connect to people who are in love with something. They …

Federal assistance available for damage from April flooding

Fri, 24 May 2013 19:57:56 -0500

If you sustained losses or damage from severe storms or flooding you may be eligible for disaster aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. To apply, call (800) 621-3362; TTY number is (800) 462-7585; for 711 or Video Relay Service, call (800) 621-FEMA (3362. Or, go to www.disasterassistance.gov or apply on your smartphone at m.fema.gov. Required information includes: • Social Security number (including your spouse’s) • Private insurance information, if available • Address and ZIP code of the damaged property • Directions to the damaged home or property • Phone number where FEMA can reach you or leave a message …

Temporary gallery set to pop up in Oak Park

Fri, 24 May 2013 20:15:19 -0500

OAK PARK — While Bryan Northup attended high school in his native California, he was exposed to many artistic media but was particularly drawn to glass. Even so, it was in photography that Northup earned his degree at the California College of the Arts. In 1999, however, Northup returned to his first love, fusing glass into jewelry, mosaics and stained-glass panels. He also makes functional items from recycled bottle glass. “I got my degree in photography but then I circled back to art glass,” he said. “It’s similar to photography in that you’re manipulating color and light, but it’s with …

Oak Park’s Heurtley House hosts historical society fund-raising event

Fri, 24 May 2013 16:15:47 -0500

OAK PARK Sipping glasses of white wine, Josephine Bellata and John MacManus were particularly interested in the view into the backyard from the south balcony of the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Arthur Heurtley House. “With Frank Lloyd Wright, it’s always been a mystery to us what the landscapes were,” said Bellata, a landscape designer. MacManus, an urban designer, chimed in that from the drawings he’d seen and the nature of the architecture, Wright’s intended landscapes had a sort of Japanese quality. What each agreed on, however, was that the backyard as it appears today at Heurtley House, 318 Forest Ave., almost …

Oak Park’s annual Day in Our Village festival set for June 2

Fri, 24 May 2013 19:45:29 -0500

OAK PARK — Cedric Melton knows that to many people, Oak Park is a way of life. And that’s why the annual A Day in Our Village festival – a celebration of Oak Park and everything it has to offer – is so popular, said Melton, the village’s director of community relations. “It’s basically the village’s premier festival,” he said. Always held the first Sunday in June, the fest runs from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. June 2 in Scoville Park. Kids’ activities will be set up from 1 to 6 p.m. at Rehm Park. What started in 1975 as …

Oak Park village board pledges to shorten its meetings

Fri, 24 May 2013 15:56:02 -0500

OAK PARK — It’s been like a mantra around Oak Park village hall in recent years. “Do more with less.” The newly installed 2013-2015 village board has now made clear its intention to “do more in less time” as well. With fewer meetings, to boot, they hope. At its May 13 organizational meeting, the board agreed to a “hard stop” on its meetings at 10:30 p.m. At its next meeting, May 20, the board did just that, ending its deliberations nine minutes short of the new deadline. The brevity is part of a more general makeover of board meetings. Agendas …

Pointing toward her future

Fri, 24 May 2013 17:18:41 -0500

OAK PARK — Like many little girls, Noelani Ho was enthralled with ballet dancers, rising onto their toes in their satiny pointe shoes. “Its sort of every little girl’s dream as a dancer. You envision having these shiny shoes. You barely want to touch them when you first get them,” the Oak Park and River Forest High School senior said. But when she finally received her first pair of pointe shoes around age 11 after eight years of dance lessons, Noelani was dismayed at how ineffective they really were at protecting her feet. And her mother was dismayed by the …

Oak Park police officer’s lawsuit accuses supervisor of harassment, battery

Fri, 24 May 2013 20:15:19 -0500

OAK PARK — A veteran Oak Park police officer has filed a lawsuit accusing a female police sergeant of shoving him while on duty because he reported her for sexual harassment. Officer Rasul Freelain states in the lawsuit that Sgt. Dina Vardal pushed and threatened him last May after he reported her to superiors. That report came after five years of alleged retaliatory and harassing behavior triggered by his spurning her sexual advances in 2007 and more recently in 2012. In the lawsuit, filed May 17 in U.S. District Court, Freelain claims she and the village retaliated against him for …

OPRF grad commissioned as Army officer

Wed, 22 May 2013 15:28:10 -0500

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3 Brookfield Zoo dolphins expecting

Tue, 21 May 2013 11:48:20 -0500

Chicago Zoological Society officials say three Brookfield Zoo bottlenose dolphins are pregnant. Officials say Allie, 26, Tapeko, 31, and Spree, 10, are due to give birth this summer and fall.

Oak Park police blotter for May 23, 2013

Fri, 24 May 2013 18:05:44 -0500

The following incidents were listed among the official reports of the Oak Park Police Department. An arrest does not constitute a finding of guilt. Only a court of law can make that determination. THEFT Jose Nieves, 35, of the 2600 block of West Cermak Road, Chicago, was arrested on the 1200 block of Clinton Avenue at 3:01 p.m. May 14 and charged with felony retail theft after he was allegedly observed stealing a quantity of cosmetics and nail polish in the CVS Pharmacy, 6700 W. Roosevelt Road. He was ordered held in lieu of $15,000 bond. BATTERY Erick Craelius, 27, …