Cermak Aquatic Center officially re-opens today

The Riverside/Brookfield Landmark (Bob Uphues) has an article on the re-opening of the Cermak Aquatic Center. The pool is under the jurisdiction of the Cook County Forest Preserve District and getting it re-opened was a project that Commissioner Tony Peraica (R-Riverside) expended considerable effort.

An older Maywoodian told me that before Fred Hampton succeeded in intergrating the Maywood public swimming pool that now bears his name. African-Americans would go to the Cermak Pool where they were allowed, if not welcomed.

stingrays die at Brookfeild Zoo

The stingray exhibit at Brookfield Zoo is closed until further notice. A July 14 mishap resulted in the deaths of 19 stingrays. See Riverside/Brookfield Landmark (Bob Uphues).

The remaining 15 stingrays survived and appear to be doing well. Nurse sharks, spotted sharks and horseshoe crabs that also are part of the exhibit appear not to have been harmed.

The Chicago Tribune (William Mullen) has a discussion that ties together stingray die-offs at four North American zoos.

The Chicagoist (Amy Mikel) also coverd the story.

Richard Mayers running in the Green primary for IL-03

Richard Mayers, Berwyn, is running for Congress in the Green Party primary. The other candidate is Jerry Pohlen, a Berwyn library trustee.

Like Republican candidate Art Jones, Mayers holds views that are characterized as "white supremacist". Riverside/Brookfield (Bob Skolnik) has an article on Mayers.

From what I've heard, Mayers is probably more mentally ill than a figure that has the capability to build support for his ideology.

Rita Bogolub and Kevin O'Connor, the Proviso Green Party committeeman, are challenging Mayers nominating petitions. See Illinois State Board of Elections.

Brook Park School addition about to begin

Riverside/Brookfield Landmark (Bob Uphues):

Brookfield-LaGrange Park School District 95 will break ground on its most significant building project in decades on Sept. 13, officials announced last week.

On Aug. 28, the project received the green light from the Village of LaGrange Park, whose trustees unanimously granted a special use permit for the construction of a 19,000-square-foot addition to Brook Park School, 1214 Harrison Ave. That same night, the District 95 school board awarded $6.8 million in construction contracts to over a dozen contractors to complete the addition at Brook Park in 2007-08 and significantly renovate S.E. Gross Middle School in 2008. Gilbane Construction is the general contractor for the construction projects at both of the district's schools.

Professional Learning Community at RB

Riverside-Brookfield High School (District 208) is trying a new system called Professional Learning Community (PLC). See Riverside/Brookfield Landmark (Bob Skolnik).

The emphasis is supposed to shift from teachers teaching to students learning. Teachers are supposed to cooperate more, instead of emphasizing each classes curriculum standing alone.

scam gets sniffed out; chase ensues

Best Buy scam in North Riverside leads to carecar chase. See Riverside/Brookfield Landmark (Bob Uphues). [UPDATE: Thanks to the person who left a comment for catching the mistake.]

severe weather coverage

Riverside/Brookfield Landmark has a slide show. There's also a Bob Uphues article "Severe storms swamp area" and a slide show of the 1987 flood.

Suburban Life also has a slide show.

Proviso Herald (Jolie Lee, Cathryn Gran and David Weese) have the effects for the following communities: Bellwood, Berkeley, Hillside, Westchester, Stone Park and Broadview.

Forest Park Review (Bob Skolnik) has the Forest Park perspective.

R-B grads will picnic on Saturday

Riverside/Brookfield Landmark (Chris Stach):

Are you ready to be there, or be square? Saturday, Aug. 18 is the date of the next "Blast from the Past, Everyone's Invited Grove Party" at Kiwanis Park for alumni of Riverside-Brookfield High School.

Last year, the "Blast from the Past, Intergenerational Reunion" for all RB students was such a success that it has been expanded so that "everyone who attended RB, young and old, past or present, and to all their friends and relations, including those friends of RB who went to other schools [you know who you are] in the area" can attend.

Brookfield Library allows people to print from home

Riverside/Brookfield Landmark (Bob Skolnik):

Now you can work on your computer at home or any other location and print out your work on the state of the art printers at the Brookfield Public Library without even being there. You can print from anywhere if you can connect to the Internet....

Print jobs cost 10 cents a page for black and white printing and 20 cents a page for color printing. Print jobs remains in the print queue for five hours. You pay when you come to the library to pick up your printing.

R-B constructing prior to school year

Riverside-Brookfield Landmark (Bob Skolnik):

With the start of school less than a week away, construction activity continues at a feverish pace at Riverside Brookfield High School. Hallways have been blocked off for much of the summer and the dust has been flying.

Workers are racing to put on the finishing touches in 21 renovated second-floor classrooms. Earlier this summer workers created a new temporary student services office suite from a conference room and two classrooms to replace the old office suite. That space will be part of a new music area that is being built as part of a courtyard infill. This week, massive new air-conditioning units that have been sitting on the school's front lawn will he hauled into place on the roof.

Illinois EPA orders Triton to clean-up mess

Riverside/Brookfield Landmark (Bill Dwyer):

The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) has ordered Triton College to removed numerous large piles of asphalt and other assorted waste materials that may include sewage sludge from Cook County Forest Preserve land adjacent to the college.

Last week the IEPA paid a visit to the campus to survey the dump site after receiving an anonymous phone complaint. Those officials subsequently ordered Triton Operations Director John Lambrecht to clean up the mess.

Proviso East was improperly dumping--mostly yard waste--in the forest preserve. After I complained the mess was cleaned-up.

Development: how dense is too dense?

Development density is an issue in Brookfield. See Riverside/Brookfield Landmark (Bob Uphues).

Last year there was a proposal to build a 60-unit condo building in the Hollywood section of Brookfield. Community opposition killed the proposal.

[The] village's director of planning and zoning, Keith Sbiral, will host a special town hall meeting on July 12 at 7 p.m. at Brookfield Village Hall, 8820 Brookfield Ave., to specifically discuss the future of Hollywood in relation to the Brookfield 2020 Master Plan.

"If the community doesn't want density there, if that's really the case, then the community plan should reflect what the community thinks," Sbiral said.

What test should be applied to new development regarding density?

R-B #2 in Illinois according to Newsweek

Riverside/Brookfield Landmark (Bob Skolnik) reports on Newsweek magazine ranking Riverside-Brookfield High School the second best in Illinois. The system used divides the number of students taking AP exams by the number of graduating seniors.

GOV, new "welcome to Brookfield" signs [BF]

Brookfield will install at least ten "welcome to Brookfield" signs. See Riverside/Brookfield Landmark (Bob Uphues). Will the signs include the names of any politicians? How prominently will they be displayed?

CRIME, Postulka indicted for DUI & wreckless homicide [NR]

Riverside/Brookfield Landmark (Bob Uphues):

A Cook County grand jury today indicted Brookfield resident Thomas J. Postulka, 45, charging him with reckless homicide and multiple counts of aggravated driving under the influence for the hit-and-run death of Helen Lilly.

Postulka has been in jail since his arrest.

In response to Proviso Probe's first entry on this story some people who knew Postulka posted comments.

The next entry referred to the Sun-Times story that reported Postulka was arrested for DUI two days before the incident that killed Helen Lilly.

SPORT, two significant local hoops games tonight and tomorrow [D208, D209]

In regional girls hoops playoff action Proviso East will be at Riverside-Brookfield tonight at 7:30 PM. See Riverside/Brookfield Landmark (Brad Spencer).

And tomorrow Proviso West goes to Oak Park and River Forest (boys hoops). Both the Pirates and the Huskies have one conference loss. The Huskies won the first encounter at Proviso West. See Wednesday Journal (Marty Farmer).

GOV, Brookfield is on the cutting edge of open gov't [BF]

Riverside/Brookfield Landmark (Bob Uphues):

With the arrival of new recording equipment at village hall, citizens and other interested parties will soon have 24-hour access to the voices of their elected officials debating the hot topics of the day. After the Feb. 12 village board meeting, the full audio record will be available in a streaming MP3 format online at the Village of Brookfield website, www.villageofbrookfield.com.

Meanwhile, those who don't have computers can get a CD version of the recording by filling out a Freedom of Information Act form at village hall. Assistant Village Manager Keith Sbiral, who was responsible for purchasing the new recording equipment, said that the village may also provide a way for residents to save the online MP3 files as podcasts, which can be downloaded on the user's iPod.

This will be great for blogging. Citizens can listen to the tapes and refer to the MP3 file along with the times of when someone said something. It will make gov't more transparent.