The Village Manager’s weekly report with updates about municipal government activity is rolling out a new look. The report is now being produced using the GovDelivery platform that is part of the Village’s Granicus Government Experience Cloud contract. The email marketing platform will also be used for sending the Village’s weekly e-news messages, and plans are in the works for community members to be able to choose to receive messages from specific departments or related to specific topics based on their interest.

The Village continues to gather feedback from a wide range of stakeholders as part of a comprehensive housing study being conducted with the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus that will result in an updated Homes for a Changing Region report for the community. A public meeting is planned for 7 to 8:30 p.m. next Wed., Sept. 20 in Council Chambers at Village Hall. The meeting offers the public an opportunity to directly share input related to current and future housing needs in Oak Park. More than 300 individuals have also completed a survey about housing posted at www.engageoakpark.com/housingsurvey. The survey will be available online through at least the end of September. Additionally, the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus has completed four focus group sessions, one-on-one interviews with key Village staff members and interviews with several Village Trustees. Plans are also in place to engage the Village’s governing partners to ensure their feedback is incorporated in the study. A status report about the project will be presented to the Village Board in October as the feedback-gathering portion of the project winds down.

Today marks the start of Hispanic Heritage Month, and the Village is celebrating the occasion with a series of community events planned for the next few weeks. Author Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez will visit the Oak Park Public Library at on Sept. 24 for a discussion of her book “For Brown Girls with Sharp Edges and Tender Hearts.” A Latinx roundtable discussion is planned for Sept. 28 at the Oak Park Public Library, and a language access listening session will take place Oct. 4 at Village Hall. Fun for the whole family awaits at the Village’s ¡Viva! Festival planned for Oct. 7 on the south lawn at Village Hall, and the Hispanic Heritage Month celebration wraps up the evening of Oct. 13 with an outdoor screening of Disney’s Encanto on the south lawn at Village Hall. Find more information about all of the events on the Village website at www.oak-park.us/HispanicHeritage.

The Village Clerk’s Office is marking National Voter Registration Day by hosting a registration event from 1 to 3 p.m. on Tues., Sept. 19 in the courtyard at Village Hall. During the event, Village Clerk Christina M. Waters will register new voters and also assist those who may be new to Oak Park or have recently changed addresses within the community. In addition, a voter registration table will be set up during the Oak Park Farmers’ Market from 10 a.m. to noon on Sat., Sept. 23 at 460 Lake St. More information is at www.oak-park.us/voterregistrationday.

Owners and managers of large buildings in Oak Park are invited to the second leg of a two-part workshop hosted by the Village and Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (MEEA) to assist with compliance with the Village’s new energy and water benchmarking ordinance, which requires buildings 10,000 square feet and larger to report their annual energy and water consumption using ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager. The focus of the upcoming workshops will be on data entry, troubleshooting and energy upgrade financing. An in-person workshop is slated for owners/managers of multifamily buildings next Mon., Sept. 18 followed by an in-person workshop for owners/managers of commercial properties on Tues., Sept. 19. A virtual workshop is also scheduled on Wed., Sept. 20 for anyone who is unable to attend the in-person workshops. The first set of workshops were held in August and focused on data collection. More information and links to register for the workshops are available on the Village website at www.oak-park.us/building-benchmarking.

Pawfficer Howie, the Police Department’s officer wellness and community service dog, is turning 4! The Police Department is hosting a birthday party for Howie from 5 to 7 p.m. on Mon. Sept. 19 on the south lawn of Village Hall. All are welcome to stop by. In lieu of gifts and treats, donations to the Animal Care League would be welcomed and appreciated. Follow Howie on Instagram at www.instagram.com/pawfficer_howie to see more of his life as a therapeutic service dog.

The Oak Park Farmers’ Market hosted its fifth annual Pie Bake-off on Sept. 9, and a father-daughter team took home first prize with a pie entitled “The Goat Ate my Apple Pie,” featuring local apples and goat cheese. The pair will be invited back next year as judges and will also receive a personalized engraved pie plate as an award. The winning pie and the other nine entries were required to include ingredients from Farmers’ Market vendors, and local peaches, sweet potatoes, berries, butter, cheese and flour were featured in various pies. Contestants were asked to make two pies: One for judging and another for sampling, so Market shoppers were able to taste the baked goods from the participants. The recipes of the top three pies will be posted on the Farmers’ Market website at www.oak-park.us/farmersmarket.  

The Public Health Department staff took part in the annual Barrie Fest community festival on Sept. 9, offering resources and health education to community members. Staff members featured the Oak Park Opioid Prevention Project and were able to hand out more than 35 opioid overdose prevention kits, which include two doses of Naloxone, also known as Narcan. And as Cook County and Illinois overall is seeing an uptick in COVID-19 cases, the Public Health Department gave away free at-home rapid tests. Fest-goers took more than 75 test kits home with them. If you or anyone you know would like a free rapid test, please reach out to the Public Health Department at 708.358.5480 or health@oak-park.us.

A ribbon cutting for the new “Our Time to Grow” mosaic mural on the exterior of Oak Park and River Forest High School is planned for 6:30 p.m. on Mon., Sept. 18 on the west side of the building where the mural is located. The mural commemorates OPRF’s sesquicentennial and was created by participants in Off the Wall, the Oak Park Area Arts Council’s summer arts employment program under the guidance of Off the Wall master artist Carolyn Elaine and renowned OPRF art teacher Tracy Van Duinen and. The project was made possible through a partnership between the Arts Council and the OPRF Huskie Booster Club. The ribbon cutting is free and open to the public. Click here for a video highlighting the creation of the mural produced by Joe Kreml, the Village’s Media Production Manager Joe Kreml.

Water and sewer improvements – The contractor spent the past week installing water main connections and new catch basins along Augusta Street between Humphrey Avenue and Austin Boulevard. Temporary lane closures have been installed at the Augusta/Austin intersection for the upcoming water main connection on Austin. Once connections are complete, the contractor will shift to the sewer work at the intersection of Augusta and Hayes Avenue.

Street resurfacing project – Saw cutting is in progress along stretches of Augusta Street, Berkshire Street, Greenfield Street and Cuyler Avenue where street resurfacing is scheduled for this fall. The contractor installed tree protection and performed root pruning at the Elmwood Avenue location this week. Next steps include curb and sidewalk removals, beginning along the Augusta location. Meanwhile, the final task for the 2022 resurfacing project that carried over to this summer is parkway restoration that is slated to occur next week.

Sidewalk improvements – The contractor for the annual sidewalk repair project anticipates saw cutting for sidewalk removals today (Sept. 15) followed by sidewalk replacements next week. “No Parking” signs will be posted in all impacted areas. The focus for this year’s project will be sidewalks on east-west streets in the south half of the Village.

Forest and Ontario improvements – A detour for the work at Forest Avenue and Ontario Street was set up this week with all through traffic being rerouted around the site. Concrete and brick removals started this week with the installation of brick crosswalks to follow. The lighting contractor is also working on installing two crossings, one of which will require open cutting the roadway outside the closure.

Pete’s Fresh Market update – ComEd is scheduled to finish its overhead work the first week of October at the site of the new Pete’s Fresh Market on Madison Street. The final restoration from the ComEd underground work is expected to start the last week of September and take five weeks to complete. AT&T is also mobilizing to begin cable pulls that will take five weeks to complete.

Division Street update – The installation of thermoplastic pavement markings along the entire stretch of Division Street in Oak Park is now expected to occur next week. Once that is complete, the contractor will proceed with sod placement where the parkways were disturbed during the months-long project that included water and sewer repairs and street resurfacing.

Nicor sewer televising – Nicor Gas spent much of the summer inspecting Oak Park sewer mains and laterals to locate gas line cross bores in the sewer system south of the expressway. All inspection work is complete, and several locations have been selected for excavation. Nicor will restore all landscaping and paving impacted by the work to its original condition. Excavations will start this week at the following locations: 800 block of S. Elmwood Ave, 800 block of Gunderson Ave., and 900 block of Highland Ave. Partial lane closures are anticipated when work is ongoing.

Alley lighting project – Approximately 900 alley lights have been replaced as part of the ongoing project to install more than 1,000 new energy efficient LED bulbs. Crews are working through alleys between Roosevelt Road and the Eisenhower Expressway and are expected to wrap up the project within the next two weeks.

Miscellaneous construction updates – The lobby staircase is being installed at the new development at Pleasant and Marion Streets, after which work on the main entrance and revolving door will be wrapped up. Elsewhere, the contractor for the alley improvement project is working on punchlist items for the project and other corrective work.