More than 140 activity booths representing Oak Park civic, cultural, social service, educational and religious organizations filled Scoville Park on June 7 for the 52nd A Day in Our Village festival. The annual showcase of ways to get involved in community life attracted a steady stream of community members throughout the five-hour event. Multiple Village departments and citizen commissions were on hand participating and supporting the event. Live music, a food court featuring local businesses and extensive activities for kids were a few of the highlights. A Day in Our Village is sponsored by the Village and made possible thanks to organizing support from the A Day in Our Village volunteer committee. Click here for photos from the event.

The Village has received multiple Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and media inquiries regarding available footage from an incident that occurred on May 31 involving an Oak Park Police Department officer and Christian Wallace, a resident of Chicago. The Illinois State Police (ISP) Public Integrity Task Force is the agency overseeing the independent incident investigation. ISP has indicated concerns about the integrity of its investigation if any associated footage were to be released at this time. The Village intends to release the footage as soon as it is allowed pending the completion of elements of the investigation. Click here for more information.

Representatives from the Fire Department, Police Department and Neighborhood Services Department recently attended the seventh annual National Co-Responder Conference in Texas. The conference brought together public safety professionals, behavioral health experts, social service providers and community leaders from across the country to share best practices and innovative approaches for responding to individuals experiencing behavioral health challenges, homelessness, substance use disorders and other community needs. Oak Park attendees included Fire Chief J.T. Terry, Police Commander Kellie Murphy, Community Services Administrator Vanessa Matheny and E.C.H.O. Program Manager Mary Naughton. Throughout the conference, the team participated in educational sessions, panel discussions and peer-learning opportunities focused on strengthening alternative response models, enhancing community partnerships and improving outcomes for residents in need of support. The knowledge and strategies gained from this conference will help inform Oak Park's ongoing efforts to provide compassionate, coordinated and effective responses to community members while continuing to advance the Village's public safety initiatives.

Chief Sustainability Officer Lindsey Roland Nieratka recently spoke about Oak Park’s energy programs on a panel titled "Powering the Future” at the Illinois City/County Manager’s Association summer conference in Peoria. Panelists included Katie Kaluzny, Deputy Director of the Illinois Green Alliance, and Clair Brinley Vice President of Climate Bank Programs for the Illinois Finance Authority. The panel discussed resources and opportunities for renewable energy, energy efficiency and resilient infrastructure for communities in Illinois. Lindsey provided practical examples of how the Village has taken advantage of these resources to further the Village’s Climate Ready commitments.

John C. Melaniphy, Assistant Village Manager of Economic Vitality, was the featured guest speaker at the Mid-America Real Estate Corporation’s Annual Broker’s meeting in Oak Brook. Mid-America’s Downtown Chicago office also participated in the meeting. There were more than 100 employees participating in the meeting. The Office of Economic Vitality is actively engaged in business attraction efforts in Oak Park. Mid-America Real Estate Corporation and Mid-America Asset Management are recognized as some of the top retail brokers and asset managers in the Chicago Metropolitan Area. John has been invited to speak at this meeting for more than 20 years. The annual broker’s meeting provided an opportunity to showcase Oak Park with the new Holiday Inn Express, Pete’s Fresh Market, Barnes & Noble, restaurants and entertainment attractions.

The Development Services Department celebrated Takeshi Thompson’s swearing-in ceremony this past Tuesday. Takeshi was recently promoted to the role of Business License Officer and earned her International Code Council Property Maintenance certification. This achievement reflects her dedication, professionalism and commitment to serving the business community with excellence.

The Neighborhood Services Department welcomed TaKara Chimezie as the Village’s new Housing Programs Coordinator this week. TaKara’s degrees are in Fashion Merchandising and Fashion Design. She has experience in real estate investing and property management through which she has learned about everything from roofing and project management to grants, budgets and the role of a homeowner’s association liaison. Elsewhere, Abraham Koransky arrived as a Public Works Summer Intern. He will spend the summer helping the Street Lighting Division.

The Women & Minority Business Enterprise Resource Panel hosted earlier this year by the Village’s Office of Economic Vitality during National Small Business Week was recently featured in the Illinois Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity's (DCEO) Office of Economic Equity & Empowerment (OE3) June newsletter. Click here to view a PDF of the newsletter.

Emergency Preparedness & Response Coordinator Lee Christenson hosted a pair of tabletop exercises in the community this week. On Tuesday, representatives from many Village departments met with various stakeholder groups including local school districts, neighboring Villages, partner organizations and more to walk through and discuss modules pertaining to federal immigration enforcement. On Wednesday, Christenson facilitated an exercise with local school districts, first responders and hospital staff centered around handling and active assailant family reunification.

Strong storms pushed through the Chicagoland area on Wednesday afternoon and Thursday evening, and like many communities Oak Park found itself in the destructive path with significantly damaged trees. In the wake of the storms, Forestry Division crews have been busy clearing streets and mitigating dangerous situations across the Village.

Throughout the summer, the Village is continuing to install traffic calming treatments on Oak Park streets in accordance with the community’s Vision Zero Action Plan and Bike Plan Update. This includes the installation of dozens of speed cushions and traffic diverters at strategic locations throughout Oak Park’s Neighborhood Greenway Network. The Village is accepting feedback from the community about these traffic calming treatments at www.engageoakpark.com/traffic-calming-measures. The webpage includes a map where community members can leave comments related to a specific location. Residents can also submit questions and find maps of speed cushion and traffic diverter locations.

Renew the Avenue updates – The outer blocks of Oak Park Avenue from Randolph Street to Pleasant Street and from Lake Street to Ontario Street are set to open today, two weeks ahead of schedule! Click here for an updated traffic flow map. Parking will still be restricted on these blocks for the next week while parkway restoration (topsoil and sod) is completed. Other Renew the Avenue project updates include:

• The Renew the Avenue team is working with the Hemingway District to highlight 150 bike parking spaces for cyclists as a way of encouraging community members to bike to local businesses. Click here for more information about the initiative, including a map of bike parking locations in the Hemingway District.
• The electrical contractor will soon begin removals of the existing traffic signals at the intersection of Pleasant Street and Oak Park Avenue to make way for new traffic signal equipment. 
• Water service transfers have been completed along South Boulevard, and the crew is completing the water main loop through the Hunter Court. Next, the crew will jump back down to South Boulevard to complete the final storm sewer installation that requires removal of the old water main.
• Union Pacific continues concrete abutment repairs to the bridge overpass between South and North Boulevards on Oak Park Avenue. This work is ongoing for the next three weeks.

Alley improvement project – Brick pavers will be installed next week in the alley between the 100 blocks of S. East Ave. and Clarence Ave. This alley is expected to reopen to traffic by the end of June. Crews are currently working in the alley between the 1100 blocks of S. Oak Park Ave. and S. Grove Ave. This alley is planned to be completed by July 4. The final two locations for this year’s project – the alley between the 800 blocks of N. Harvey Ave. and Mapleton Ave. and the alley between the 200 blocks of S. Kenilworth Ave. and S. Grove Ave. – will begin in mid-July.

Rectangular rapid flashing beacon (RRFB) installations – Parkway restoration is ongoing and will continue until all parkways have been restored, which is excepted to take a few more weeks. The 40 new RRFBs and 18 new bike buttons are planned to be installed by mid-June. The location of these RRFBs and bike buttons comes from the Oak Park Bike Plan. The installation locations can be seen on the Oak Park Bike Network Short-Term Concepts map. Two of the locations – Scoville Avenue at Jackson Boulevard and Scoville at Washington Boulevard – were installed in 2024 on the annual bike boulevard project. Eleven locations are to be installed this year as part of this project. The remainder of the locations from this map will be installed through future capital improvement projects.

Oak Park residents and businesses continue to make meaningful progress toward a more sustainable future by reducing energy use and adopting clean energy solutions. In 2025, Oak Park saw 52 new solar energy systems installed and 65 additional community solar subscribers. Residents are also taking advantage of energy-saving opportunities through ComEd's energy efficiency programs, which have served more than 6,900 participants since 2018. These collective efforts help lower utility costs, reduce emissions and support the Village's climate goals while demonstrating the community's ongoing commitment to sustainability. Click here for ComEd’s municipal clean energy transition data report and click here for ComEd’s energy efficiency report for Oak Park.

The Village is excited to welcome Oak Park Prime Steak to the local business community. The new restaurant anticipates opening later this year at 1122 Lake St. and is the second steakhouse concept from the owners of Hinsdale Prime Steak. The Office of Economic Vitality is targeting restaurant concepts that provide unique dining experiences for residents and visitors to the community. The Economic Vitality team invited owners Antonio Monroy and Ignacio Martinez to Oak Park as part of these business recruitment efforts, with Economic Vitality staff drawn to their high-quality product, extensive positive online reviews and the possibility of bringing a desirable fine dining concept to the heart of Downtown Oak Park. The Office of Economic Vitality and the Development Services Department conducted a walk-through of the new tenant space with Oak Park Prime Steak’s ownership and contractors, offering advisement on building codes, permits and licensing. In addition to serving the finest cuts of USDA prime steak, the restaurant will also offer daily brunch, happy hour every Monday through Friday and an extensive seafood menu. Oak Park Prime is now hiring, and anyone interested can contact the restaurant at info@oakparkprimesteak.com. 

Village Staff joined community members and the Oak Park River Forest Chamber of Commerce in celebrating Lumi Skin Studio’s grand opening in Downtown Oak Park. Located at 115 N. Marion St. in Suite 1 on the second floor, Lumi Skin Studio offers a variety of facials, waxing services, eyebrow tinting and other skin care treatments. Esthetician and owner Phuc Huynh brings long experience and great skill to help her clients look and feel their best. More information is at lumiskinstudio.glossgenius.com/, and visit www.pickoakpark.com for information about other salons in the area.

Fundamental Flow by Tracy is bringing Pilates in the Park to the south lawn at Village Hall this summer. Rooted in the classical method and designed for real bodies, this 45-minute beginner-friendly class will leave participants feeling lengthened, strengthened and centered. Sessions will be held on June 20, July 11 and Aug. 1, all beginning at 8:30 a.m. on the south lawn. Pilates in the Park is free to attend, but space is limited and registration is required. Click here for more information and to reserve a spot.