Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Three veterans of the board and one newcomer round out slots for village president, trustees.
Three sitting members of the Oak Park board of trustees and one newcomer to municipal politics will run on the slate of the village's longest-standing political organization. Follow elections on our Local Election Hub page here. Trustee John Hedges, who announced recently his intention to run for village president, is at the top of the ticket of the Village Manager Assn., or the VMA as it's known here. Current trustees Colette Lueck and Glenn Brewer will stand for-relection. And new to the VMA is Peter Barber, who since 2005 has been a member of the Oak Park Elementary District 97 school board. Teresa Powell will round out the ticket, running for her second term as village clerk. The slate was chosen recently; an announcement was made on …
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Controversial residential and retail building — "the symbol of the new Oak Park" — gets approval from village board.
The Oak Park Village Board has approved plans for a new retail and residential building, one that will effectively change the face of downtown. The approval paves the way for Sertus Capital Partners to begin construction on a 20-story tower that will contain 20,000 feet of retail space and 270 residential luxury apartments. The agreement also means Sertus will construct on the property a parking garage with 588 spaces – 300 public spaces and 288 private spaces. "It's all part of a whole, all part of an objective," Village President David Pope said at Monday's meeting, which stretched more than four hours. "That fundamentally is...what we come back to, [that Oak Park] is the vital, vibrant place that everyone wants to live, and the idea of …
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Village could look at limits on other shops that want to open in town.
As Windy City Firearms prepares to open its doors and its gun safes as soon as next week, Oak Park officials are considering placing regulations on any new gun stores looking to set up shop. Officials at Tuesday's community meeting at Washington Irving School said they would consider several measures to regulate new stores, including the creation of zoning restrictions and security measures as well as limitations on the number of gun shops within the village's borders. All efforts, they said, would have to meet the constitutional muster that came last year when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Oak Park’s long-standing handgun ban. Earlier: Oak Park Exploring New Gun Rules "Clearly we have much more work to do...within the parameters that …
41.865345
-87.783333
6338 Roosevelt Rd, Oak Park, IL
/articles/oak-park-roosevelt-road-gun-shop-justin-delafuente-windy-city-firearms
/locations/5905401
41.867993
-87.782782
Washington Irving School
1125 S Cuyler Ave, Oak Park, IL
/articles/oak-park-roosevelt-road-gun-shop-justin-delafuente-windy-city-firearms
245410
/locations/5905402
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Village officials honor late, iconic public official.
Oak Park Village Trustees unanimously approved a resolution honoring the community service and the life of former trustee Gus Kostopulos, who died earlier this month at age 81. The resolution, brought forth at Monday's village board meeting, addressed his work as a trustee, as a member of the Oak Park Housing Authority and Oak Park Residence Corporation. It also noted his efforts as an architect, preservationist and fisherman. Kostopulos’ family was in attendance as President Pro Tempe Ray Johnson read the measure aloud. Read More: Gus Kostopulos obituary Johnson, who served on the board with Kostopulos, said he was a valuable member of the community who led by example. Trustee Colette Lueck noted that the presence of so many trustees …
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Village Board could recoup funds for snow removal and considers a new flat fee structure for some building permits.
If you missed Tuesday's Oak Park Village Board meeting, Patch has some of the highlights: CDBG resolution tabled: A resolution to keep Community Development Block Grant funding at current levels through 2012 was tabled after two trustees asked the measure be tweaked to reflect the current economic reality in Washington. With two trustees and Village President David Pope absent – and concern looming that a deadlocked board could mean the defeat of the resolution – trustees sent it back to be updated with language that reflected the call for shared pain in resolving the federal fiscal crisis. Supporting the resolution in its original form were Trustees Ray Johnson and Colette Lueck; seeking changes were Trustees Jon Hale and John Hedges, …
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Pros, cons, opportunities and 'threats' discussed during economic session.
With about 30,00o people working here and roughly 1,600 businesses, Oak Park is a thriving, diverse eco-conscious community with a population largely determined to bolster the village's independent, vibrant local economy. Those are the positives. There's also a glut of traffic, a built-out residential and commercial landscape and competition for retail revenue with nearby Oak Brook shopping center and Chicago — all taking place against the backdrop of a village and its people still digging out of a recession. The good and the bad were explored as Oak Park village officials gathered this week to discuss the local economic outlook. The meeting, held Monday at Oak Park Village Hall, was the first of its kind, at least since the arrival of …
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Oak Park officials give green light to new energy purchasing program.
The Oak Park Village Board has approved a measure that paves the way for a new way to purchase energy in bulk, potentially saving customers a bundle on their power bills. A plan known as Community Choice Aggregation will be included as a binding referendum question on the April 5 consolidated election ballots. The measure to place the referendum question on the ballot was passed by a 4-1 vote at Monday's village board meeting, with Trustee John Hedges opposed. Trustee Jan Pate was absent. Community Choice Aggregation, or CCA, programs allow a municipality to bundle power accounts from households and commercial customers, then, with the help of a third-party consultant, dangle that account in front of energy companies looking to bid on…
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
First forum on proposed Madison Street development scheduled for Dec. 16.
A controversial affordable housing development proposed for the long-empty Comcast building on Madison Street will get its first formal public hearing next month before the Oak Park Plan Commission. The session, slated for Dec. 16 at 7 p.m., will not be the last. At Monday's Village Board meeting, trustees unanimously decided to move the project forward, acknowledging that the commission will need to hold several hearings and review reports from a variety of village departments before gathering testimony and writing a recommendation — all of which could take months. "This needs a fair and forthright hearing before it comes back to us," Trustee Ray Johnson said. Residents will also have a chance to weigh in at a series of forthcoming …
41.879754
-87.795173
820 Madison St, Oak Park, IL
Site of the proposed affordable housing redevelopment
/articles/affordable-housing-project-moving-forward
/locations/2518957
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Trustees, community collaborate to create video for national project.
Oak Park Trustees Colette Lueck and Ray Johnson are starring alongside a few dozen community members in a new YouTube video contribution to the It Gets Better project. Aimed at offering words of encouragement in the face of anti-gay bullying, the "It Gets Better" project has created a feel-good Internet sensation, prompting video message uploads by thousands of people, from one-time Oak Parker and funnywoman Kathy Griffin to President Barack Obama. The trustees announced their plans to create the video at a recent village board meeting, where Johnson made an emotional speech detailing his own struggles with coming out. "Close-minded school administrators and parents may not let LGBT adults talk directly to their children about their …
Oak Parker
12:26 am on Thursday, January 12, 2012
Due to the Village Board approving this project; I have come to the conclusion that no one at any level of government listens to or cares about the average citizen anymore. Money is what talks and if you don’t have it, your opinion doesn’t count. I used to think at least my local government wasn’t like the Feds, Cook County or the State - that apparently was a naive belief. I feel sorry for those… more ›