From our good friend, Wendy Tannenbaum, President North Avenue Business Association:

The City of Chicago unveiled a snow response website at www.chicagoshovels.org to assist residents and businesses during severe winter weather.  The site has a GPS system which will feature real time locations of Chicago snowplows.

The site includes online winter apps that will help people better navigate during the winter months.  Twoinch.es informs and alerts drivers of winter snow routes and parking bans.  Wasmycartowed.com uses data to assist with towed or relocated cars. There’s also a shovel-share program.

Call Oak Park’s snow info line at 708/358-SNOW (7669) to find out if the emergency snow parking ban is in effect.

For more info, go to Oak Park’s website at www.oak-park.us/publicworks.   Then click on the Winter Snow link.   Find out info about winter snow parking routes, snow parking FAQ’s and restrictions and sidewalk shoveling requirements. For more info, contact the Department of Public Works at 708/358-5700.

Shoveling requirements

Below, please find the requirements for snow removal from the City of Chicago and the Village of Oak Park.   To view, please click below:

• Chicago Snow Removal Ordinance
• Oak Park Snow Removal Ordinance

Emergency Preparedness Resources

NABA has put together an Emergency Preparedness Resource list. This valuable list includes phone numbers and websites.  To view,  click on NABA Emergency Preparedness Resource List.

Chicago’s Emergency Preparedenss info and resources:  www.AlertChicago.org

Oak Park’s link to Emergency Preparedness Planning and Response, go to: www.oak-park.us/prepared/index.htm.

Sign up for Emergency Alert Notifications:

Sign up to receive emergency alert notifications at www.AlertChicago.org.

Sign up for alerts from Oak Park’s Community Notification System by using this link: www.oak-park.us/notifyme/. You can be notified by phone, email or text when the no parking ban goes into effect.

Seconds Count in the Event of an Emergency

Please attach address numbers on the back of your building or garage abutting the alley, so that emergency vehicles can find your residence or place of business in the event of an emergency.

The closing of the Avenue Parking Garage, originally set for last Sunday has been rescheduled to next Sunday, February 19th.  The Avenue parking garage will be closed  from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. to all parking, bicycle and pedestrian customers, so that the new photovoltaic array may be lifted by a huge crane to the roof top.  The Village of Oak Park claims that this sun powered electrical generating device will create enough electricity to power the garage.  Seems to us as if the Village is wishing for a lit of sunny skies!  The direct cost to Oak Park Taxpayers is somewhere around $200,000.  Question: Will the project pay for itself before the garage falls apart?

Speaking of Sunny Skies, a new bicycle parking rack has made an appearance at the southwest corner of South Blvd and Oak Park Avenue.  We’re very fortunate that the snow over Friday was not the feared six or more inches originally forecast by the Weather Guys.  Even so, with any appreciable snowfall, how does the Village of Oak Park expect to clear the snow?  We think that there should be an over/under on when a motorist making the corner will just plow into the pylons and bicycles!

With this project and the Avenue Garage, it sure seems as if the new theme song for Oak Park might be “Blue Skies” (enjoy Willie Nelson’s 1978 version).

From our fiends at Berwyn Development Corp and the Roosevelt Road Business Association President, Paul Zimmerman

With construction substantially complete, a unified and more pedestrian-friendly Roosevelt Road welcomes back residents, visitors and commuters with the installation of traffic calming hardware. As part of the award-winning, comprehensive streetscape improvement undertaken by the City of Berwyn, Village of Oak Park and Town of Cicero, three lighted crosswalks have been installed along Roosevelt Road at the intersections of Home Avenue, Gunderson Avenue and Lombard Avenue.

The in-roadway warning lights are the first crosswalks of this type to be installed on an Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) roadway. The marked crosswalks have protective lights installed directly into the roadway that flash when activated by pedestrian push-buttons. Illinois State Law requires motorists to stop for pedestrians at marked crosswalks. The LED lights increase the visibility of the crosswalk and provide an early warning to motorists to brake to a full stop for crossing pedestrians. These energy efficient lights are solar-powered.

“This is a win-win situation for businesses and their patrons and has unified the business district by creating more defined paths for pedestrians. On bustling roadways like Roosevelt Road, this type of crosswalk helps clarify right-of-way and increases everyone’s safety,” stated Paul Zimmermann, President of the Roosevelt Road Business Association. “The lighted crosswalks have been effective at reducing roadway incidents and are being used nationally with excellent results. They are a great addition to the corridor,” added Anthony Griffin, Berwyn Development Corporation Executive Director.

The entire streetscape project, spanning just over one and a half miles, consists of very few traffic signals where safe pedestrian crossing is permitted. The addition of three lighted crosswalks adds much needed safety to this pedestrian-oriented commercial corridor.

For more information about the Roosevelt Road streetscape project, visit www.rooseveltroad.com.

One of the vexing issues associated with any major municipal construction project is that the “punch list” – the odds-and-ends of any construction project, can often drag on for a very long time after the project has been substantially completed.  Kudos to Paul Zimmerman for keeping the focus on Roosevelt Road!

What I wanted most for my daughter
was that she be able to soar confidently in her own sky,
whatever that may be.
— Helen Claes

Tina Valentino is the Editor/Publisher

Cinderella. If only I had the nerve to print the picture of me in my cowgirl  Halloween costume, complete with red hat, red boots, holster and six-shooter at about age 6, you might imagine that I wasn’t much of a Cinderella fan. And you would be right. I probably watched more episodes of Bonanza than anyone in my first grade class. Over the years, I had been Tweety bird, a bunny, a scarecrow, a hobo and a dozen other impersonators at Halloween but never once a princess.

Until I was in high school. Prom was one of the first teenage stress tests, along with getting a driver’s license, my first dent and taking the ACT. In today’s world, however, sexting, bullying, drugs, peer pressure, date rape, unemployment and social networking, to name a few, give the average teen—and their parents—a lot more to worry about than the color of the corsage. While well-off teens will charge their expensive dresses and be chauffeured in Hummer limos, what about the girl whose parents work two jobs just to get by? Or aren’t working at all? True, it’s not the worst thing in the world to miss your Prom. There are poor, lonely, sick people, homeless veterans and numerous other causes that deserve our attention. But “The Cinderella Project” isn’t asking for much. Just a little self-esteem for the average girl.

I had never even heard of it before until the director of the Forest Park Community Center brought it to my attention. After Googling it, I see it’s been accomplished with great success around the country from New Hampshire to Los Angeles. The local idea came from Kiwanis member Jerry Lordan who inspired Mary Win Conner and Karen Dylewski to run with it and do their best to give some area girls a chance to find their inner princess. It’s not a charity. “It’s a way to make it a fabulous experience for proud young teens who simply can’t afford the dress, accessories, beauty salon costs that are all a part of going to Prom,” explained Dylewski, the mother of two girls. “Many of us know what it’s like to be that girl who simply cannot afford to spend a lot of money but every girl should be able to attend her Prom if she wants to.” So, the fairy godmothers have been busy and continue to welcome donations of dresses, shoes, purses, jewelry, hair and makeup services so that any girl, no matter her financial status, can find her inner princess on this special night. “I am just hoping that we can show some girls that they can be anything they want to be,” added Dylewski, who currently has 22 dresses in her office. Wardrobe donations are being accepted by Karen at the Howard Mohr Community Center at Desplaines and Jackson Boulevard in Forest Park and by Rachell Entler at the Park District of Forest Park. If anyone wishes to contribute makeup, hair or nail services, contact Mary Win Connor at winbaldy@aol.com or Karen at kdylewski@forestpark.net.

I was one of the lucky ones. I had an awesome dress. My friend did my hair and makeup. And my date, the only person I wanted to go with, said yes. I remember it like yesterday and I commend these neighbors for trying to make some simple wishes come true.