The Village of Oak Park | 123 Madison St.  Oak Park, IL 60302 | village@oak-park.us

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November/December 2014

A  crowd of about 75 business supporters, owners and residents turned out last month to watch Village officials and senior executives from the development and construction teams ceremoniously break ground for the long-awaited redevelopment of the northeast corner of Lake Street and Forest Avenue....
Divvy, the popular bike-sharing program that rents bicycles in neighborhoods throughout Chicago, will be coming to Oak Park next year, thanks to a $3 million state grant. Oak Park’s share of the funds will go toward installing 12 Divvy docking stations in various locations in the Village. The state...
Applications now are being accepted for the Community Mental Health Board, whose eight volunteers decide how Oak Park Township funds will be allocated to local agencies to address mental health, developmental disabilities and substance abuse. Professionals, as well as citizens with an interest in...
Property owners who receive a letter from the Village asking them to call a private vendor or visit the company’s website to set up an appointment to replace a water meter are urged to respond promptly. Crews need access to the property, but the 10-minute process does not require any plumbing...
A series of mandatory seminars for all rental property owners to learn more about the Village’s Crime Free Housing Program is set to begin in November. The new program, which gives rental property owners and managers a powerful tool to help reduce the chances of criminal activity in individual...
The Village Board is seeking volunteers to help inform and guide policy decisions. Oak Park’s citizen boards, commissions and committees focus on a wide range of important areas and issues, often creating the public record that leads to important long-term board decisions. Most bodies meet monthly...
The Village will host a series of meetings to gather community feedback on developing a plan for how federal funds through the Community Development Block Grant and Emergency Shelter Grant programs should be spent in the community over the next five years. The Village received more than $1.5...
Shoppers who come upon a bagged meter in downtown Oak Park or in the vicinity of South Oak Park Avenue are in luck. They can park free for two hours. Beginning after Thanksgiving, anyone can park free for two hours at a bagged meter, in a pay-by-space lot or a municipal garage on Saturdays before...
Residents interested in learning more about how land will be used, policies developed and capital improvements prioritized over the next decade and beyond are urged to review Envision Oak Park, the comprehensive plan recently adopted by the Village Board. Envision Oak Park, the first update since...
With police officers stationed at the high school and two public middle schools, the Oak Park Police Department is in a unique position to reach out to kids and teens throughout their educational career in the Village. The School Resource Officer program dates back nearly two decades, when the...
The Oak Park Health Department is seeking opportunities to help residents better prepare for unexpected emergencies. The Village’s Emergency Preparedness Manager is available to address groups on a wide range of general or requested topics, such as home preparedness, general safety and...
The solar energy collection system on the Avenue Parking Garage, one of the largest municipal arrays in Illinois, continues to provide power to the structure and return excess green power to the grid. The modules were installed on the roof of the garage in spring 2012 using an innovative mounting...
Overnight, on-street parking restrictions are eased to accommodate visitors and guests during major holidays, including Thanksgiving and Christmas. Restrictions will be lifted from 2:30 a.m., Wed., Nov. 26 until 2:30 a.m., Mon. Dec. 1, and from 2:30 a.m., Sat., Dec. 20 until 2:30 a.m. Sat., Jan. 3...
The Village of Oak Park’s fresh take on television and online video programming took top honors from the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors at the organization’s October awards show. The Government Programming Awards honor excellence in broadcast, cable, multimedia and...
Private contractors soon will be pruning trees east of East Avenue from Madison Street south to the I-290 Eisenhower Expressway. The winter pruning cycle, set for January through March, will follow the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) guidelines for tree care to address three key issues...
Holidays affect waste collection schedule…Refuse, recycling and yard waste collection will be delayed by the holidays. For Thanksgiving, Thursday’s collection will be delayed until Friday and Friday’s collection delayed until Saturday. Collection also will be pushed back one day on Christmas and...
The annual fall leaf collection program will continue through Dec. 4. Leaves should be raked into the street at least 18 inches from the curb the day before the scheduled pickup dates indicated on the map. Residents who miss a scheduled pickup date should keep leaves on the parkway until the night...
After a two-inch snowfall, the Emergency Snow Removal Parking Plan goes into effect and the following parking rules are enforced seven days a week, including holidays: Main streets posted as snow routes must be cleared of all parked cars. These include Augusta, Austin, Chicago, Division, Garfield,...
Village ordinance requires snow and ice be removed from the public sidewalk within 24 hours following any snow, sleet or freezing rain. Property owners are urged to comply since so many sidewalks are walking routes to neighborhood schools. For more information on the shoveling requirement or...
Village officials are continuing to keep a close eye on the latest developments regarding the proposed expansion of the Eisenhower Expressway and future plans for the Chicago Transit Authority’s Blue Line. The Illinois Department of Transportation is working toward publication of a draft...