A standing room crowd attended the April 15 public hearing on a proposal by a Chicago-based marijuana company to open a store in the former Scott Credit Union at 9122 S. Kedzie Ave.

“The residents raised some really good points and the petitioner wanted an opportunity to address them,” said Village Trustee Norman Anderson.

So a second public hearing will begin at 6:30 p.m. Monday, June 17 in the Village Hall Board Room, 9418 S. Kedzie Ave.

Evergreen Park Mayor Kelly Burke said some people who spoke at the April 15 hearing were against the proposal and some were in favor of the village getting its first marijuana dispensary.

“It’s a mixed bag.”

Burke said she also has heard a variety of opinions from residents she meets and in emails she has received.

The 1937 Group, named for the Marihuana Act of 1937, is requesting an ordinance change and special use permit to open in Evergreen Park.

Marijuana stores have spread throughout Illinois since recreational use of the drug became legal in the state in 2020. The state lists more than 70 cannabis dispensaries open in Cook County, including in Burbank, Chicago Ridge and Tinley Park, as of May 21, 2024, but none have yet received zoning approval in Evergreen Park.

“There isn’t a cannabis dispensary within 3 1/2 miles of Evergreen Park,” Sonia Antolec, the chief legal officer for 1937 Group, said in April. “That revenue is going and those jobs are going to other communities.”

People at the April 15 public hearing questioned company officials about their revenue projections, security at the business and its traffic impact.

Kimberly Fornek is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.

They marvel at how far Clarke Christiansen has come since suffering a debilitating stroke last August and being unable to move his limbs or swallow. In fact, one nurse at the New Lenox hospital bought him a Superman T-shirt to represent his super achievement.

Christiansen, a software engineer, is back to work and back to one of his favorite past times — rock crawling.

He plans to complete a 10-mile walk in September and resume Brazilian jiu-jitsu. But at his lowest point, it took four people to get him standing upright, he recalled.

When Christiansen’s symptoms started Aug. 1, they were mild. He did not feel quite right and his vision was “weird.”

“My two eyes were not syncing,” he said.

But he went to bed, hoping to feel better in the morning.

“I didn’t sleep very well and my left hand was starting to tingle,” he said.

So at 5 a.m., he agreed with his wife, Jenn, that they should go to the hospital.

“Neither one of us suspected stroke. As a fairly in shape 52-year-old guy, I was not expecting to have a stroke,” said Christiansen, who had no significant health issues.

He walked into the ER at Silver Cross Aug. 2, where the staff quickly started ordering EKGs, MRIs and other scans.

Initially, he did not present the classic stroke symptoms — facial drooping, arm weakness or slurred speech, said Genevieve Shimkus, Silver Cross stroke program coordinator.

But his symptoms evolved over the new few hours and days.

At about 11 a.m. Christiansen noticed he was having trouble saying multisyllabic words and at about noon he felt weak when he tried to stand up.

“I continued to get worse,” Christiansen said. He was moved to the neurology floor and by that night, the doctors knew he had a stroke.

It had been more than four hours since the onset of his first symptoms the night before, so Christiansen was unable to receive the clot-busting drug tenecteplase, Shimkus said.

Strokes are caused by bleeding in the brain or blocked blood flow to the brain, such as from a clot, Shimkus said. The initial CT scan did not show bleeding or a clot.

“But if it’s not bleeding, it has to be a clot,” Shimkus said. “On the MRI, we were able to see the damage a clot caused,” but the reason a clot formed was never determined.

Christiansen could not swallow, so a nasogastric tube was inserted to give him nutrition and medicine.

By Friday, Aug. 4, he had hit bottom, he said. He could not walk or lift either of his arms to scratch his nose or wipe away a tear.

“I could move my left hand and one finger on my right hand and wiggle some toes. It was terrible. I could feel everything, but I lost the ability to move.”

“Most stroke patients have deficits on one side of their body or the other, Shimkus said. “He had deficits on both sides.”

He also was unable to control his display of emotions. He would cry uncontrollably, “ugly crying,” Christiansen said, or laugh uproariously at something that was only mildly funny.

“I was terrified these things were happening,” Christiansen said.

Later, he learned that the exaggerated emotions, known as emotional lability, were a result of the stroke.

His case was so severe, Shimkus said, because the blockage and damage was in his brain stem, which sends signals to the rest of the body and controls many body functions.

As frightened as he was, Christiansen recognized he had only two choices: “I could lay here and do nothing, and for sure I’d not get better,” or he could work hard to recover. “To me, it was a no-brainer.”

He and his nurses said his wife was instrumental in his working hard and not getting discouraged.,

“She wouldn’t let me do it any other way,” Christiansen said. “Her support was tremendous. I was so needy early on. When she would leave, I would start to get afraid.”

“The two of them had this dynamic, that we are going to face this together,” said Alyssa Aggen, one of his nurses. And they could make each other laugh, she said.

Their 20-year-old son visited his father, too, but “It was tough for him to see his dad in a hospital bed,” Christiansen said.

Clarke’s younger brother, Brad, who lives in Dallas, took off from work to come and help his brother and sister-in-law.

Jenn, his wife of 32 years, started a blog on CaringBridge, a website where people can post updates and share information about a health problem with family and friends.

Within about two weeks, Christiansen was moved from the neurology unit to the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab at Silver Cross on the floor below.

Inspired by his “tremendous can-do attitude,” and that his first name is Clarke, like Superman’s secret identity, Clark Kent, Aggen gave Christiansen a Superman T-shirt.

“I told him he is going to be a brand new man.”

His recovery “was so much better than I expected,” Aggen said. She remembers one day she saw him in the AbilityLab.

“He said, ‘You want to see something cool?’ And he got up and started walking” without a walker or cane, Aggen said. “I started sobbing. It blew my mind the progress he made.”

“I still keep a tab open on my phone (to CaringBridge),” Aggen said.

Christiansen was discharged in early September, but continued therapy at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in Burr Ridge from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., five days a week. He was cleared to drive in November and resumed working from home Dec. 5.

His relatively young age probably was a factor in his remarkable recovery, medical staff said.

From 2018 to 2023, of the 2,526 total stroke patients at Silver Cross Hospital, 49% to 54% in each of the six years were between 66 and 85 years old.

But a significant number were younger. In 2023, for example, 144 stroke patients, or 29% at Silver Cross, were between the ages of 46 and 65.

The American Academy of Neurology reported that nationally the number of stroke patients younger than 55 rose from 12.9% in 1993/94 to 18.6% in 2005.

Christiansen estimates he has 75% of his strength back, but only 50% of his endurance level.

His goal is to walk the 10-mile course of the Warrior Walk Sept. 10, an event organized by the New Lenox Harry E Anderson VFW Post 9545 to raise money for an organization that provides counseling and other treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder.

Last year, just a day after he was discharged from Shirley Ryan, Christiansen, who is commander of the post, used a walker and a wheelchair to cover part of the course.

He is back doing many things he enjoys, including driving his camper by himself to Oklahoma for rock crawling, where he goes over very harsh terrain in a customized off-road vehicle.

His doctor advised him to wait a year from the stroke before resuming Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and Christiansen wants be ready.

“It keeps me in shape and I really enjoy it,” he said.

He also believes the 9.5 years he has practiced jiu-jitsu, “a very, very complicated martial arts,” has contributed to his recovery. The sport requires he continually learn different ways to move his body and new techniques, which he thinks prepared his brain to develop the new neural pathways he needs after the stroke.

“Having a positive mindset was really helpful, too,” Christiansen said. “And I learned having a positive mental attitude rubs off on the people around you. Of course, they are professionals and they will do their jobs well everyday, but when you are positive, it makes their day better. So they go the extra mile and that helps you get better faster.”

“There was a critical moment when I knew I would get 100%. It was probably the last week or so of rehab when I was finally able to raise my right hand over my head. So I had gained all my range of motion in both arms and was walking with a walker. Everything worked, it was very weak, but it all worked.  . . . I knew at that point, I have to get stronger now. It’s just a matter of work.”

Kimberly Fornek is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.

The redevelopment of about 12 acres on the northwest corner of Halsted and 115th streets into the Morgan Park Commons is under the direction of the nonprofit Far South Community Development Corps. The property was home previously to a Jewel Food store and the Halsted Indoor Mall.

In the fall, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration proposed buying the property to shelter some of the thousands of people who have been bused to Chicago after crossing the southern border into Texas to seek asylum. Aldermen opposed the idea, but relented when Albertsons Companies Inc., the owner of Jewel-Osco stores, agreed to sell its 6.5 acres of the property to the city for $1.

No tents were erected and no people are scheduled to occupy the property before construction of Morgan Park Commons begins, said Ald. Ronnie Mosley, who represents the 21st ward, which includes the site.

The City Council approved the purchase with the condition that the 6.5 acres would automatically transfer to the Far South CDC on or before Oct. 31, Mosley said.

The Far South CDC already owns the other 6 acres that will be part of the project, said Abraham Lacy, president of the organization that advocates for economic, environmental and social justice on Chicago’s Far South Side and in south suburban Cook County.

“This has been a vacant site since about 2008,” when Jewel moved from its 67,000-square-foot grocery store there to a new store farther west. The empty mall was torn down about 2014, he said.

“To get something going after so many years is going to be pretty phenomenal,” Lacy said. “This is almost the downtown of West Pullman and at a crucial intersection that ties together three neighborhoods, West Pullman, East Morgan Park and Roseland.”

Ideas for the property have evolved since 2018, when the Far South CDC became involved. The organization considered renovating the empty grocery store and using the entire property for retail or commercial tenants.

“But we saw COVID really depressed retail,” Lacy said. “The biggest need right now is housing. That’s where the trend is going.”

Lacy called Morgan Park “a real stable neighborhood,” but said, in the last seven or eight years, there has been no new housing.

By about 2021, the plan was for a mixed-use development, combining residential, primarily rental units, with some retail and office space, Lacy said.

The area lacks apartments for people who do not have the means to or interest in owning a home, local leaders said.

“We are predominantly single-family homes,” Ald. Mosley said.

The overall plan includes 16,000 square feet of retail or office space, a total of about 250 apartments, a 13,000-square-foot performing arts and culinary center, a public park and smaller parks with separate play areas for different age children. Lamar Johnson Collaborative is the architect.

Pedestrian paths will connect the area to public transit and Cook County Forest Preserve trails.

“A plaza on each corner and one in the middle will signal to the community that this is going to happen in a grand way,” Mosley said.

Lamar Johnson Collaborative

The project will be built in five or so phases, scheduled as funding and resources allow, Lacy said.

The first phase is expected to start in October or November, with demolition of the old Jewel store and installing underground utilities and streets, with DL3 Realty as a co-developer.

Construction of two four-story buildings, with retail space on the ground floor and apartments on the three floors above, will follow in 2025, Lacy said. The two buildings combined will have 84 studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments.

The CDC will fund the first phase with $15 million from the state and tax credits from Chicago for low-income housing. Sixty percent of the rental units will be reserved for low to moderate-income households, with Preservation of Affordable Housing Chicago involved.

The site also lies in the 119th and Halsted Street tax increment financing district, which is due to expire in 2026, so TIF funds for improvements are available. The Far South CDC has other financial partners, too, Lacy said.

Local officials hope the new rental units will reverse the area’s decline in population over the last 10 to 20 years. The total build out of the project likely will take seven to eight years, Lacy said, but getting apartments up early in the development is key.

People can start moving in, as the buildings are finished.

“That way you build momentum,” Lacy said.

The second phase includes putting in a 2.3-acre park in the northwest corner of the site that will connect with the Major Taylor Trail, which runs from the Dan Ryan Woods south to Whistler Woods. Lacy hopes the park and landscaping will make the location an attractive place to live as construction continues.

At this point, a 12,000-square-foot performing arts and culinary center will comprise the third phase. The center could include art and dance studios, kitchens for culinary classes and a cafeteria.

Lacy said the Far South CDC has a tenant interested in operating the performing and culinary art center, but is not ready to announce the party.

Twelve other buildings with office or commercial use at street level and one- to three-bedroom apartments above are planned. None of those buildings will be more than three stories, Lacy said.

The community doesn’t want “a tower neighborhood,” he said. But the residential component will provide customers to support the businesses that open there.

The project also will benefit from improved public transit to the site, with the extension of the CTA Red Line nearby and a new Pace Pulse line and station, with a heating element and free Wi-Fi, on Halsted.

“We are not used to having one like that on this side of town,” Lacy said.

Pace’s Pulse lines run with fewer stops, use technology that adjusts traffic signal timing to favor buses and may include dedicated bus lanes to make travel faster. An online Pace newsletter, says construction of the Pace Halsted Line is expected to begin in 2025, with the route operating in 2027.

A recreation center with an indoor pool, basketball and tennis courts and bowling alley also was envisioned as part of the project, but that component has been put on hold.

“We are still working through the details to determine whether that would be viable,” Lacy said.

Those kind of facilities are very expensive to build and construction costs keep rising, he said.

Kimberly Fornek is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.

The Village Board presented police Sgt. Finbarr Haran the Award of Valor for his bravery when a truck driver, Khambrel Lee, came to MN89 Inc., at 10825 Central Ave. in Oak Lawn, March 11, 2024, angry over a pay dispute.

The award is the highest honor the Police Department bestows for outstanding courage or heroism.

Police said Lee, 35, of Lauderhill, Florida, had been driving runs on the East Coast in the days prior to coming to Oak Lawn to confront the company management in person.

“There is no doubt that Lee came to that business to inflict a large number of casualties on the employees he felt wronged him,” police Chief Daniel Vittorio said Tuesday.

Haran was off-duty March 11 and working his first day as a security guard at MN89. When the argument escalated in the parking lot, he and another security guard prepared to intervene.
As Haran was talking to Lee, trying to calm him down, Lee walked to the back of a pickup truck and pulled a .45 caliber handgun from his jacket, police said. Haran was moving toward the rear of the truck, along the driver side, when Lee came around and began shooting at him, hitting him five times, Oak Lawn police said.

When Lee’s gun jammed, he struck the sergeant in the back of the head with the gun, causing more injuries, the prosecutor at Lee’s detention hearing in March said.

One bullet struck the sergeant in the thigh, another grazed his face and other rounds apparently were stopped by his bulletproof Kevlar vest, the prosecutor said.

But Haran was able to wrestle Lee to the ground and subdue him, authorities said.

With the help of the other security guard and bystanders at the business, Haran took Lee into custody. The sergeant then applied a tourniquet to his own bleeding leg before paramedics took him to the hospital, Vittorio said.

Police searched Lee and reported he had two more magazines, each loaded with 13 rounds of ammunition, authorities said.

“Sgt. Haran is a hero who saved countless lives that day including his own by moving toward danger, attacking the deadly threat and never giving up,” Vittorio said.

Haran, who has been an Oak Lawn police officer for more than 13 years, said his leg has recovered and he is back at work on the police force.

Vittorio said Haran is no longer working as a security guard at the trucking company.

The police chief also stated Lee showed no remorse for the shooting and allegedly said if his gun had not jammed, Haran would have been dead.

Lee was charged with attempted murder and is being held in the Cook County Jail. His next court date is June 5 in Bridgeview.

He bought the gun he used in the shootout legally in Florida, police said. It will be analyzed at the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms for ballistics and to determine if it was used in any other crimes, police said.

Oak Lawn hopes a new police recruitment video will attract more people of Haran’s character to its police force.

A video featuring several members of the Oak Lawn Police Department recommending the village as a place to work has been posted on the village website and theblueline.com, a website listing job openings in law enforcement across the country.

“It has been a struggle in the past year or two, not just (in Oak Lawn) but nationwide, to recruit law enforcement,” Vittorio said. Consequently, “we really put an effort into a recruitment program,” he said.

The village obtained a recruitment and retention grant of almost $80,000 from the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board, Vittorio said.

It covered the cost of making a 4-minute video, which shows officers and detectives praising the Oak Lawn department for being “very forward thinking,” offering lots of advancement opportunities and having “huge” support from the community and the Village Board. It includes action shots of officers responding to calls, using a drone, deploying the canine unit and doing firearms training.

The grant also is funding retention bonuses of between $2,000 and $6,000 paid to newly hired officers after they have been with the department from one to three years.

As a detective in the video says, Oak Lawn police officers reach the top salary after three years with the force, instead of seven years, which is the case in many other towns.

Oak Lawn police officers whose primary residence is in the village can also apply for tax credits of up to $8,000.

“We were looking at ways to entice more people to take our test and want to plant their roots here,” Vittorio said.

The salary for new police officers in Oak Lawn is $74,761. The starting salary for officers who transfer from another police department is $92,843. Applications, which will be accepted until June 21, are available at the Municipal Center, at 9446 S. Raymond Ave., or online from the village website, www.oaklawn-il.gov. Information can be found by clicking on “Apply for a Job,” under the heading “I Want to” on the home page.

The department has 107 sworn police officers and wants to fill three or four more positions immediately, Vittorio said.

People with no law enforcement experience, who pass the application process, oral interviews and background check, then have to attend the police academy before starting work.

Kimberly Fornek is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown. Hank Sanders contributed to this article.

The Oak Lawn Village Board this week unanimously approved a 12-year economic incentive agreement with the Nissan dealership, at 4300 W. 95th St., that would rebate some of the sales taxes the village otherwise would receive, beginning Jan. 1.

“Kelly Nissan is planning to remodel the first floor of their building which includes a show room,” said Oak Lawn Assistant Village Manager Jerry Dillon.

“As a result of this investment, Kelly Nissan is expecting an increased allotment of automobiles for sale from the manufacturer,” Dillon said.

More cars and trucks on display could mean more vehicles sold and serviced at the dealership, which would result in more sales tax revenue for the village, as well as for the county and state.

Oak Lawn is flush with auto dealerships, having 12, including CarMax.

“Auto sales are an important part of our budget,” said Mayor Terry Vorderer.

To induce dealerships to remain and expand in Oak Lawn, the village has agreed to rebate some of the sales taxes customers pay.

In the agreement approved Tuesday, the village will retain the first $275,000 in sales taxes it receives each year from Kelly Nissan. But the village will split 50-50 with Kelly Nissan the local sales tax generated between $275,001 and $375,000 each year.

The dealership also will receive 75% of any local sales taxes above $375,000, with the village keeping the remaining 25%.

So, for example, if the dealership generates $500,001 in Oak Lawn sales tax in any one year during the 12-year agreement, Oak Lawn will get $356,250 of that amount and Kelly Nissan will get $143,751.

The total taxes rebated during the life of the agreement is capped at $750,000.

Earlier this year, the village agreed to another 12-year sales tax sharing arrangement with Napleton Cadillac, after Napleton committed to building a new facility to replace the old Shirey Cadillac dealership at 10125 S. Cicero Ave. The terms of the rebate for Napleton were slightly different from the amounts and percentages in the deal with Kelly.

Oak Lawn also has financial incentive agreements with two other auto dealerships in the village, Webb Chevy, at 9440 S. Cicero Ave., and Berman Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram, at 4630 W. 95th St., Dillon said.

“All dealerships receiving an incentive agreement commit to upgrading their building and/or infrastructure to be more competitive in their auto sales,” Dillon said in an email.

Garbage rate hike

Effective Oct. 1, Oak Lawn residents will pay 5% more for garbage pickup.

The rates for most homes and businesses will be $24.36 a month, or $73.08 per quarter, instead of the $69.60 now billed quarterly.

Residents over the age of 65 and people with disabilities will pay the senior rate of $21.41 a month or $64.23 per quarter. Seniors and residents with disabilities are now billed $61.17 per quarter.

The price for nonresidential customers is the same as that for residents under 65, $24.36 a month, or $73.08 per quarter.

The village is continuing to contract with Allied Waste Transportation Inc., doing business as Republic Services of Crestwood, for its waste hauling. The contract covers removal of garbage, rubbish, recyclables and one large item, such as a sofa or television, per week.

The increase approved this week will raises his annual salary from $196,267 to $206,080, retroactive to July 1, 2023.

“I’ve been overly impressed with his commitment, his work, his budgetary performance and his staffing,” Oak Lawn Mayor Terry Vorderer said.

In a statement, the Village Board said Phelan “is diligent and dedicated to developing the economic interests of the village. He effectively manages the village staff and is focused on making sound financial decisions. His involvement and relationships with the community, the residents and surrounding towns is excellent.”

In addition to a cost-of-living increase, Phelan’s contract allows for annual merit raises, but he did not receive one in 2022, Vorderer said.

Phelan, who received a 3% cost of living raise in May, has been village manager since July 2021. Immediately before being hired for that position, he represented District 6 on the Village Board.

“In order to attract and retain top talent for this position, an increase to the salary is necessary,” the statement read.

The board was given a list of village or city manager salaries in 35 Chicago area towns that showed three-fourths were higher than Phelan’s, Vorderer said.

At the top of the list was the Buffalo Grove village manager, who oversees a town with about 42,600 residents. His Village Board this year gave him a $30,000 bonus on top of his base salary of about $292,000.

Elmhurst, with about 47,520 residents, paid its city manager $260,355, according to the research of Oak Lawn’s village staff earlier in 2023.

Their survey showed Naperville with about 149,525 residents, paid its city manager $214,853, while Downers Grove, with an estimated 48,260 residents, paid $217,158.

Closer to Oak Lawn and its estimated population of 58,362, were Tinley Park, home to about 54,800 residents, which paid its village manager $179,600, and Orland Park, with an estimated population of 56,890, and a village manager salary of $188,200.

The Village Board on Tuesday also approved a 3-year contract with the Oak Lawn Police Supervisors Association.

The contract, retroactive to Jan. 1, 2023 and expiring Dec. 31, 2025, covers 23 members of the Fraternal Order of Police, who have the rank of sergeant, lieutenant, commander or division chief, said Janie Vulich, the village’s human resources director.

They all will receive a 3.5% salary increase in each year of the contract.

Sergeants’ salary will be $136,920, retroactive to Jan. 1, 2023 and rise to $141,712 on Jan. 1, 2024, with a subsequent 3.5% increase in the third year of the agreement.

Lieutenants will be paid $147,788 as of Jan. 1, 2023 and $152,961 starting Jan. 1, 2024.

The starting pay for commander is $160,965, retroactive to Jan. 1, and will rise to $166,599 on Jan. 1, 2024.

The salary schedule states those amounts include 16 hours per month of extra duty pay.

The village has yet to finalize a new contract with other members of its Police Department. The patrol officers are operating under the terms of their four-year contract, which expired Dec. 31. They are represented by the Metropolitan Alliance of Police, Oak Lawn Chapter 309, Phelan said.

“We have been in negotiations with (the union) for several months and hope to have a new agreement in the next few weeks,” Phelan said.

Vorderer said Sept. 12 there are a few matters which the village and the police union have yet to agree and that may go to arbitration.

Kimberly Fornek is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.

In August, Brown’s store, Educational Depot, marked one year at its new location in Calumet City, after 10 years on 127th Street in Calumet Park.

Monique Moore, an eighth grade teacher in Dolton, said she was “definitely impressed” the first time she came to the store, now located in a shopping center on the north side of 159th Street just east of Interstate 94.

Moore, who lives in St. John, Indiana, said, “I pass a lot of other stores to come here.” Granted, “there is not a teachers store on every corner,” Moore said, but she could get some school items at a Walmart or Dollar Store.

Educational Depot, however, offers a wider selection, good quality materials and a knowledgeable owner.

“This is a business I would recommend,” Moore said.

Brown, who has a technical background, taught more than 30 years in five Chicago Public Schools, including Corliss, Wendell Phillips and Kennedy high schools and Simeon Career Academy, and at Olive Harvey and Moraine Valley Community College. She retired as a test data coordinator for CPS.

“I’ve been around education for a little bit,” Brown said with understatement. “I wanted to be an all-around educator, so I would know what I was talking about.”

She was retired about six months, when she told her husband she wanted to open a store selling school and education materials for teachers, students and parents.

“It was very important to me that I brought resources to my community,” Lillian said. “When I was teaching, it was difficult finding the resource material.”

Her husband, Sherman, who worked 36 years at Chicago’s 911 Center, retired about a year before his wife. He had looked forward to hanging out with his friends at McDonald’s and doing his “own things” during retirement, he said.

“That didn’t work out so well,” Sherman said.

Instead, he supported his wife’s idea and has been working with her in the store from the beginning.

“I was on board with whatever she wanted to do,” Sherman said.

“That’s my left hand,” Brown said, pointing to her husband. The couple, who have four children, celebrated 50 years of marriage this month.

“We try to make a difference in the community,” Sherman said.

And nothing is more rewarding than seeing a teacher’s face who finds what she or he is looking for in their store, Sherman said.

Their customers come from schools in Matteson, Richton Park, West Harvey-Dixmoor School District 147, Thornton Township High School District 205 in South Holland, as well as Calumet City and Chicago.

Joe Ann Millender said she comes to the store “because I know they have everything I need.”

“I work at a day care center and I’ve come in here before for attendance books and things like that,” Millender said. “I’ve been to Dollar General and Staples. At least I can find everything I need here and I don’t have to look for someone to help.”

If a customer wants something specific, the Browns can show them right where it is. If they don’t have it, they will order it.

Educational Depot carries a large selection of maps, bulletin board borders and informational posters and cutouts, such as “America’s Founders” for social studies and “Chemistry Basics” for science.

“We have resources for pre-K through 12th grade,” Lillian Brown said.

The store carries standards-based curriculum materials, workbooks and classroom items such as puzzles, fraction cubes, flash cards and clocks for learning to tell time.

It also sells children’s shirts and pants for school uniforms, backpacks, stools, accessories like hall passes and stamps, and has a laminating machine and printing service.

Jannette Smith, who teaches special education students at Wendell Green Elementary School on 96th Street in Chicago, brought in posters for the Browns to laminate. She shopped for paper and other supplies while she was there.

“My school gives us a credit to shop here,” Smith said.

The store is an authorized Chicago Public School vendor, but is still recovering from the pandemic.

“COVID shut us down for about eight months,” in 2020, Brown said. “It was real bad. It took me a long time to build the business to that capacity.”

Brown said she applied for loans and grants for businesses affected by the coronavirus, but received none.

She considered closing for good. “I just started praying on it.”

Brown decided to reopen and is working to build the business back up, spreading the word to area schools that the store exists and wants to provide teachers and students what they need at the store or online at educationaldepot.net.

She is proud of all the items she stocks.

“Everything you see is of interest to me,” Brown said. “I love everything about the store because that is who I am.”

Educational Depot, at 2010 River Oaks Drive in Calumet City, is open from Monday through Saturday.

Kimberly Fornek is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.

The kits are plastic totes containing games, read-aloud books and activities suitable for individuals with varying levels of memory loss or cognitive decline.

The library has five kits, each with a different theme residents with Oak Lawn library cards can borrow for three weeks at a time.

One has musical bingo, where players listen to music on a DVD and cover pictures of the instruments they hear on their card.

The kit called “Golden Oldies” is filled with photos, cards and DVDs of actors and music from the 1950s to the 1970s.

The kit named “In the Garden” was designed with people who like to garden, or used to garden, in mind. It includes a matching game with different types of flowers, small bottles of scents, such as rose, honeysuckle and cut grass, and a jigsaw puzzle of Monet’s garden. But the puzzle has only 63 pieces, so it would not frustrate someone with mild cognitive loss.

“The kits are meant to be enjoyable and engaging, so the person has a positive experience with the materials,” said Meghan Moran, assistant department head of customer services.

Some of the games can keep a person with dementia busy, while their caregiver tends to another task for a brief period of time.

One kit has laminated pictures of flowers with holes to thread a colored red cord through. It’s a tool to improve dexterity and might appeal to someone who used to crochet or knit, Moran said.

Several of the kits have Aquapaints, which have invisible pictures on white cards. When someone dips a paintbrush in water and “paints” on the card, the image and colors appear.

“The person does not have to worry about staying within the lines,” Moran said.

There’s also a board with laces, zippers, snaps and other fasteners for practice or merely to occupy a person’s attention.

Some people in the late stages of dementia “fidget” a lot, she said. “Sometimes, it’s agitation.”

So Moran included tactile toys a person can manipulate, like moving a marble through a maze in a gel-filled pad. Instructions and ideas on how to use each component are in the totes.

Moran says the kits have been well received. Since March, when the kits became available for circulation, 23 have been checked out.

Sensory toys and activities for dementia patients are sold online, but they cost upward of $15 each, and there is no guarantee a particular game will interest the buyer’s loved one. By borrowing the totes from the library, caregivers can see what puzzles or activities their family member enjoys at no cost.

Moran assembled the contents for the kits based on her research of aging and cognitive decline, and with input from Rush University Medical Center.

“My department does a lot of programs for seniors,” Moran said.

The library applied for and received a three-year grant from Age Options, a nonprofit agency that works to improve services for older people in suburban Cook County. The grant the Oak Lawn library received funds about $7,500 a year for materials and services for people age 60 and older.

The first year, the money had to be used for technology-based materials and programs. The Oak Lawn Library bought Chromebooks reserved for its older patrons and Wi-Fi hot spots that provide users internet access.

The second and third year grants are to be used to address social isolation among seniors, Moran said. She looked at what other organizations were doing and saw some had memory kits they lent to seniors and caregivers.

The Orland Park Public Library, for example, has offered bags, called caregiver kits, filled with games and activities for individuals with dementia since 2021.

One of the objectives in the Orland Park Library’s 2021 strategic plan was to add more programming and services for people with dementia and their caregivers.

Toward that goal, the library is partnering with the Alzheimer’s Association to offer an Early Stage Memory Loss Support Group and hosts a caregiver support group.

At a community outreach event, the Oak Lawn Library staff had a table next to a group from the Alzheimer’s Association and Rush University. The association was partnering with hospitals across the country to conduct a two-year clinical trial of risk factors for cognitive function, called U.S. Pointer.

“They were there to recruit people for the study,” Moran said. “We told them we do programs for people 60 and older and we would welcome any input they have. They were excited about the memory kits.”

Moran had begun to purchase materials for the kits. How many items to put in the totes was partly a monetary decision, and wanting them to be light enough to be easily carried. She sent the list of materials to Rush personnel involved in the Pointer study for them to provide feedback.

An associate professor from the Rush Institute for Healthy Aging also came to talk to the library staff about cognitive decline and the purpose of the materials in the kits.

Personnel from Rush suggested adding bilingual materials and kits for people who are just beginning to show signs of cognitive decline. Moran is exploring those ideas.

The library continues to offer separate craft projects for seniors, such as a birdhouse to paint.

Kimberly Fornek is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.

After Evergreen Park Mayor Kelly Burke read commendations for police officers who had made arrests in several recent crimes, including a carjacking and attempted armed robbery at a gas station, several residents at Monday’s Village Board meeting asked why they do not get alerts when such crimes happen.

Terry Daley said she saw an officer in a patrol car on her block when she was walking her dog early June 20. She said she wondered what was going on, but when the officer merely wished her a good morning, she assumed there was no danger.

Later she learned the police were looking for a person near 93rd Street and Ridgeway Avenue who had driven away when an officer tried to pull him over. There was gunfire after the offender crashed the vehicle and ran, Burke said.

With the help of a canine unit, the police found the suspect, who had a prior arrest for aggravated battery to a police officer and unlawful use of a weapon, recovered his pistol and arrested him. There were no injuries or property damage, Burke said.

“My complaint is we are not being made aware of what’s going on,” even when suspects still are at large, Daley said.

She said she used to get alerts from the village, but has not received any texts or phone calls about emergencies or unusual situations for several years.

“I get ones Oak Lawn sends out,” she said.

Burke and police Chief Michael Saunders said sometimes officers are too busy responding to a crime to send out community alerts. Once a suspect is custody, they do not see the point in alerting residents.

“We are not going to put the message out after we make an apprehension,” Saunders said Monday.

“I’m out with the dog at 5 o’clock in the morning and as I’m coming back there is a police squad cruising down the middle of my block … with both windows down looking driveway to driveway,” Daley said.

The officer inside said, “Good morning,” to her, Daley said. “I think maybe a more appropriate message would have been, ‘you need to go home.'”

“At 5 o’clock in the morning, we are not going to wake everybody up,” Saunders said. “Unless it is really something horrendous that we don’t have under control or we feel would be a general problem.”

Daley said she thinks searching for somebody loose in the neighborhood with a gun warrants a community alert.

“It seems like a pretty big thing,” Daley said. The situation was reported at 3:34 a.m., she said

Burke explained when police are in the middle of responding and investigating an emergency or crime, “there may not be the time or there may not be the communication person available at 3 in the morning.”

“I wasn’t looking for it at 3:30, but I would think by an hour and a half later, if you haven’t apprehended the person, we should be notified,” Daley said.

Burke said she gets emergency alerts from the village, though she did not say she had received alerts about the crimes in June and July.

Perhaps the notification system has changed, Burke said, and Daley and other residents need to re-register.

Burke said the staff would look into what happened and suggested a village employee residents could contact to find out how to receive alerts.

One resident questioned whether the village was sending out alerts that she and others had not received, or whether no official alerts had been sent.

“I think the chief’s point is if everything is wrapped up and the person is in custody, there is no risk to public safety and sending the alert might not be appropriate,” Burke said.

Kathy Wiggins said she comes from a “Chicago police family,” so she is supportive of the police and did not come to the board meeting to criticize their work. But the village needs to be more transparent, she said.

“Someone needs to be assigned to inform concerned residents like me somehow,” Wiggins said.

She believes crime is increasing everywhere.

“We need to be assured that something is being done, that (the village has) a plan and that residents can feel safe because a lot of us right now don’t feel safe,” Wiggins said. “Within a very short amount of time, I’ve seen real crime happen.”

Wiggins said a suspected carjacker ran through her backyard and threatened her.

“That doesn’t mean I don’t trust I can pick up the phone and call 911 and they are there on the spot. But I walk my dog. I ride my bike,” Wiggins said, “so safety is a real issue right now.”

She suggested more police officers should be hired.

Village Trustee Mark Phelan said the village has ample officers, but maybe communication with the residents needs to improve.

One resident advised the board that all means of communication should be used, not just texts on cellphones, because not everybody uses technology. He suggested the village include instructions on how to sign up for alerts when it mails water bills.

Doyle Landry suggested the village hold mandatory safety workshops for businesses. If all the employees in the Mariano’s grocery store in Evergreen Park had known one of the employees had an order or protection against her ex-boyfriend, someone might have called the police when they saw him enter the store July 13, Landry said. Police might have responded and prevented the offender from fatally shooting the 21-year-old employee in a backroom, he said.

“This has been a great discussion,” Burke said. “We will take all this to heart.”

Kimberly Fornek is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.

The Oak Lawn Chamber of Commerce saw a decline in membership when COVID-19 was causing people to stay home and forcing businesses to close or limit their capacity. The chamber had 273 members at the end of 2021, said Anne Fritz, but as of July, membership has rebounded to 367 members.

Businesses were nervous about how they spent their money, Fritz said.

The cost of membership in a southwest area chamber of commerce can range from $80 to $600 a year, depending on the particular chamber and type of membership.

The main purpose of any chamber is to help businesses and organizations market themselves and network with other community groups, Fritz said.

“It’s a huge advantage when you are able to make these connections,” she said.

Churches, nonprofit agencies, park districts and school districts, including Oak Lawn Hometown District 123, Ridgeland Elementary District 122 and Mother McCauley High School are members of the Oak Lawn Chamber of Commerce, Fritz said.

“If businesses are successful, they look for ways to give back, such as by sponsoring Little League teams or donating to the community food bank,” she said.

Golf outings are often major fundraisers for chambers of commerce, but they also sponsor other activities. In April, the Oak Lawn Chamber held a health and safety expo, attended by more than 200 people, who could receive free blood pressure and blood sugar screenings. About 40 vendors in the health and security fields handed out bags with information about their services, and residents could bring paperwork for free shredding.

The Oak Lawn Chamber will hold a business showcase on Oct. 21, as part of Oak Lawn Community High School’s Parent Teacher Student Association’s craft fair.

“Usually there are more than 80 crafters and vendors there,” Fritz said.

Membership in the Palos Area Chamber of Commerce fell to about 60 during the pandemic, said Veronica Studnicka, who was chamber president from 2020 to 2022.

“Its relevancy was dwindling,” as were its revenues, Studnicka said.

The chamber eliminated its executive director position to save money and recruited board members who would be willing to do the chamber’s work themselves.

“It was challenging to find business owners that are already stressed running their businesses and having families who were willing to roll up their sleeves and give time to the chamber,” Studnicka said. But, “I was able to find individuals who said I’m in.”

She sought out small-business owners “because they were vested in getting their name out there, getting their brand out there and getting their face out there.”

Together they started new events open to the community, including a St. Patrick’s Day Party at Franklin’s Public House, a Halloween Bash at Joe Daniel’s Neighborhood Eatery and Pub, a Kris Kringle Market, the Majestic Trail Runs and a St. Patrick’s Day Party at Franklin’s Public House, all in Palos Heights.

“We knew people wanted to go out and network, but they also wanted to have fun,” Studnicka said.

The chamber also will host a Health Fair on Oct. 7 at the Palos Heights Recreation Center.

With the hands-on involvement of the board members and strong recruiting efforts, membership in July has grown to 224 members, said Todd Probasco, current president of the Palos Area chamber. The member businesses and organizations are located not just in Palos Heights and Palos Park, but include some from Orland Park, Tinley Park, Lockport and Hickory Hills.

A vibrant chamber of commerce benefits the area’s residents, Studnicka said.

“It strengthens the sense of community. These individuals are all vested in the viability and the prosperity of the community. And the residents who live there want to live in a good community.”

Kimberly Fornek is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.