The Village launched its panhandling campaign with a panel discussion featuring Jayne Furlong of the Downtown Oak Park Business Alliance, Deputy Chief Dave Jacobson and John Harris from the Oak Park Homelessness Coalition. The panelists shared constructive approaches to addressing panhandling, emphasizing the Village’s strategy, “Make real change, not spare change.” The campaign seeks to educate the public on alternative ways to support individuals experiencing homelessness or poverty without giving directly to panhandlers. Residents and visitors are encouraged to donate to local non-profits that focus on systemic solutions, prioritize long-term strategies, support local businesses and coordinate community resources. This initiative is also aimed at improving public safety and fostering a stronger perception of security throughout Oak Park. Stay tuned as the Village will be sharing more information about this initiative with the community.

All buildings in Oak Park with more than 10,000 square feet are required to report energy and water use to the Village annually, but the Village doesn’t make building owners property managers do it alone. Every year Village staff joins with partners such as the Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance and Illinois Green Alliance to offer hands-on technical support in the form of webinars, office hours and data jams. In November, staff and partners held two data jams at the Oak Park Public Library’s main and Maze branches where they helped building owners gather data, enter usage and troubleshoot issues. Any building owners still in need of assistance are encouraged to stay tuned for more office hours to be scheduled in December or visit the Help Desk for tutorials or to ask questions. More information about benchmarking in Oak Park is at www.oak-park.us/building-benchmarking.

The Village’s Development Services Department and the Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (MEEA) hosted another three-hour training session this week at Village Hall to provide attendees with information about the Illinois Stretch Code. The information presented covered requirements for the state-developed code that is aimed at improving building energy efficiency. The first training for residential buildings occurred in early November and the second training, focused on commercial buildings, happened Wednesday. 

The Village is hosting an electronic waste recycling drop-off event on Sat., Dec. 14 at the Public Works Center, 201 South Blvd. Due to strict regulations on collecting and processing these materials, residents are required to register for a time slot between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. and identify their electronic waste items in advance. Click here to sign up for a time slot. The event is for Oak Park residents only. There is a limit of seven items per household, and within that there is a limit of two televisions and/or computer monitors. This special collection event is being offered in addition to the Village’s residential E-Waste Recycling Pickup Program and is particularly intended for residents in large multifamily buildings.

Residents in single-family homes and buildings with up to five units served by the Village’s waste-hauling contract can schedule an E-Waste Pickup from their home by filling out the form at www.lrsrecycles.com/oakpark. The Village's residential waste hauler LRS partners with a local, non-profit electronics recycler that is R2, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 certified. The recycling facility operates with the most stringent security measures for the proper management of electronics. For more information, contact publicworks@oak-park.us or 708.358.5700.

Phase 2 of the Village’s On-Street Parking Regulation Sign Upgrade Project is substantially complete, with updated signage installed on select blocks in the area bound by Garfield Street to the north, Austin Boulevard to the east, Roosevelt Road to the south and Harlem Avenue to the west. Residents on the effected blocks received a mailed notice from the Village earlier this month informing them of the project and its intended benefits.

This multi-year project’s goal is to standardize and simplify the effective hours of parking restrictions and provide resident exemptions from daytime parking restrictions. Residents with a valid Oak Park Vehicle License are exempt from the three-hour 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Friday, daytime parking restriction posted on their block. The resident exemption from daytime parking restrictions is intended to provide relief to residents from undue burden from parking restrictions that are truly intended to restrict parking for non-residents and commuters. The diagram below illustrates how the exemption applies to a typical residential block, with the star representing a residence and the green lines representing the street frontages on which that resident is exempt from applicable daytime parking restrictions. The Village is confident that these revisions to the parking restrictions and the resident exemption will continue to be a welcomed change.

If residents or their guests need to park overnight, night passes can be secured by downloading the Park Oak Park app in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. Once logged into the app, create a parking session for Zone Number 206 to secure a night pass. Between April 1 and Oct. 31, residents and visitors are eligible for up to 15 overnight passes per month, per license plate. Between Nov. 1 and March 31, the monthly limit is decreased to 10 overnight passes per month.

During the first 10 months of 2024 there were 634,536 daily parking sessions recorded at the Village’s Holley Court, The Avenue and Lake & Forest public parking garages. This represents a 5% decrease as compared to the first 10 months of 2023 and continues a trend of lower public parking garage utilization attributed to work-from-home office adjustments and shopping-habit changes that have lingered after the pandemic. When compared to the same time frame in 2019, the total number of parking sessions for the first 10 months of the year is down 25%, or 212,040 fewer daily parking sessions. As compared to last year, the Holley Court Garage has experienced a 9% decrease in use while use at the Avenue Garage is down 4% and use at the Lake & Forest garage is up 4%.

In terms of revenue generation, revenue is up $142,309 as compared to the first 10 months of 2023 thanks to the Village’s 2023 parking rate adjustment. However, even with the rate adjustment, revenue for the first 10 months is slightly lower by $3,470 than pre-pandemic 2019 totals, when daily utilization of the garages was at an all-time high.

JT Terry, Deputy Fire Chief of EMS Operations and Infectious Disease, has been appointed to serve a three-year term as a member of the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) State Stroke Advisory Subcommittee as a representative of a municipal EMS provider. The role of the committee member is to provide valuable insight and practical prehospital experience regarding stoke assessment, rapid identification, appropriate transport protocols and overall improvement of stroke care within our community and the State of Illinois. This committee is part of a large public health initiative that specifically focuses on evidence-based prehospital stroke assessment tools, treatment protocols, dissemination of educational materials and participation in decision-making policies for stroke transport leading to the best possible outcome for all potential stroke patients.

Vanessa Matheny, Community Service Administrator for Neighborhood Services, recently attended the Built for Zero (BFZ) Conference in Minneapolis with peers from across the U.S. BFZ is an inspiring gathering of leaders and changemakers working to end homelessness. Together, attendees uncovered new strategies, celebrated communities' progress and deepened shared commitment to equity. Key takeaways included innovative approaches to data-informed decision-making, fostering cross-sector collaboration and embedding equity into every facet of the work. Matheny said this conference reaffirmed participants’ collective resolve to ensure that homelessness is rare, brief and nonrecurring for all.

It will be a battle of the villages as the Oak Park Fire Department takes on the River Forest Fire Department during the Oak Park River Forest Museum’s Firehouse Chili Cookoff at 5 p.m. on Thurs., Dec. 5 at the Oak Park River Forest Museum, 129 Lake St. Admission is a $10 donation with proceeds split between the Museum and the Illinois Fire Safety Alliance. Reservations are required by Sat., Nov. 30 by emailing oprfhistorymatters@sbcglobal.net or calling 708.848.7655.

Village Hall will be closed Thursday and Friday, Nov. 28 and 29 for the Thanksgiving holiday. The next weekly Village Manager's report will be issued Dec. 6. Refuse, recycling and leaf collection will be delayed by the Thanksgiving holiday, with Thursday’s collection pushed to Friday, and Friday's collection delayed until Saturday. The collection schedule is posted on the Village website. Should an incident that doesn't quite rise to the level of a 911 emergency occur when Village Hall is closed, residents are urged to call the Police Department non-emergency number 708.386.3800 for assistance.

Overnight on-street parking restrictions will not be enforced on most Oak Park residential streets during the Thanksgiving holiday. Overnight restrictions will be lifted at 2:30 a.m., Wed., Nov. 27 and resume at 2:30 a.m., Mon., Dec. 2. Restrictions will remain in effect in paid overnight permit areas, including on-street zones. Posted daytime restrictions and regulations related to traffic and public safety also remain in effect. More information about parking guidelines and restrictions is posted www.oak-park.us/parking.

Shopping local will be made even easier beginning the Friday after Thanksgiving on Nov. 29 and continuing every Saturday through Dec. 21 when parking will be free in the three Village-operated public garages and for two hours at pay-by-plate parking spaces downtown and in the vicinity of south Oak Park Avenue. Parking is always free on Sunday throughout the year. Village officials say they hope this small gesture will benefit both customers and the businesses they patronize. For more information about parking in the Village, email parking@oak-park.us or visit www.oak-park.us/parking.

Stern Glassworks and Carnival Grocery are sponsoring the third annual Winter Wonderland Artisan Market & Winter Celebration this Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 23-24 on the 800 block of S. Oak Park Ave. The event features local artisans showcasing unique, handcrafted items such as glasswork, ceramics, textiles and more. In addition to supporting creative artisans from Oak Park and other nearby communities, Winter Wonderland serves as a fundraising event for the OPALGA+ Scholarship Fund. More information is at www.sternglassworks.com/winterwonderland.

Madison Street improvements – The south leg of Wesley Avenue at the intersection with Madison Street was reopened to traffic earlier this week. The contractor is currently working on removing old light poles and installing permanent pavement markings along Madison. The proposed diverter at the north leg of Wesley Avenue will be installed next week.

Water & sewer improvements – The contractor will be working on South Boulevard into next week to complete the punchlist tasks for the project. The remaining traffic control will be removed from the site before the end of November.

Pavement preservation update – All work for the annual pavement preservation project is complete. A total of nine road segments received rejuvenator treatment, six segments received micro surfacing treatment and crack fill was placed across various streets throughout the Village. Check out the 2024 capital improvement map to see the specific locations where pavement preservation work occurred this year.

Pete’s Fresh Market roadwork – All paving associated with the roadwork on Euclid Avenue to the north of the new Pete’s Fresh Market on Madison Street is complete. No parking signs and barricades were removed from the site earlier this week.

Austin Boulevard sewer improvements – The remaining roadway patching along Austin Boulevard between Garfield Street and Roosevelt Road is scheduled to occur on Mon., Nov. 25. Minor traffic delays are anticipated.