🌱 Recreation Center Plans Groundbreaking + Women's History Walk

Good morning, Oak Park and River Forest! Thanks for reading the Monday edition of the Patch Daily.

First, today's weather: Cloudy with snow, 1-2". High: 37 Low: 26.

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Here are the top 5 stories today in Oak Park-River Forest:

1. Local leaders are seeking funds to improve the railroad bridge at Harlem Avenue and South Boulevard. River Forest President Cathy Adduci said this week she is working with the mayors of Oak Park and Forest Park to “put pressure on” Illinois senators for federal infrastructure funding. (Wednesday Journal)

2. A groundbreaking ceremony will be held March 19 for the new Oak Park Community Recreation Center, the park district announced. Construction could be completed as early as next spring. (Patch)

3. A Ukrainian woman wed her fiancee in a backyard ceremony in Oak Park this weekend before leaving to volunteer in her home country. She plans to fly to Poland today and cross the border to aid Ukrainians during the Russian invasion. “There’s always a need for volunteers,” she told the Associated Press, asking that her name remains anonymous for safety reasons. (AP)

4. The Oak Park Housing Authority will begin accepting pre-applications on March 14 for the Housing Choice Voucher Program to help low-income families pay rent. The deadline to apply is March 25 and 150 households will be selected at random. (VOP)

5. This Sunday, the Lake Forest Civic Orchestra will perform an 80-year-old piece found in an Oak Park basement. Arlen Parsa will be in attendance to discuss finding his great-grandfather Eustasio Rosales’ composition, dating back to the 1930s. (Paid source: Lake Forester)

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Today in Oak Park-River Forest:

• Coffee Monday at River Forest Public Library. (10 a.m.)
• Author Allison Epstein presents “The Spy Who Knew Shakespeare” at The Nineteenth Century Club. (1:15 p.m.)
• One Earth Film Festival presents the virtual premiere of "2040: The Regeneration." (6:30 p.m.)
• The Oak Park Village Board meets. (7 p.m.)

From my notebook:

• An Oak Park 10-year-old is raising money for Ukraine by selling her artwork online. Rebecca LesStrang is hoping to raise $1,000 by selling NFTs. (ABC)
• The River Forest Village Board is working on a new contract with Lakeshore Recycling Systems. LRS will also become Oak Park’s new refuse collector beginning April 1. (VRF)
• Masks are required for most in-person children’s activities at River Forest Public Library. (RFPL)
• Registration is open for this weekend’s Women’s History Month Walk in Thatcher Woods, highlighting conservationist Isabel Bassett Wasson and the discoveries she made in River Forest. (Forest Preserve)
• Frank Lloyd Wright’s Oak Park architecture is featured in National Geographic this month. (NG)

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That's all for today. See you tomorrow for more local stories!

— Georgi Presecky

About me: Georgi is a Chicago-based newsletter writer and partner content curator. She spent five years on the entertainment beat for FF2 Media covering film festivals across the U.S. Her feature articles have been recognized with awards from the Illinois Women's Press Association and National Federation of Press Women. As editor-in-chief of the Lewis University newspaper, she and her staff earned honors from the Associated Collegiate Press and American Scholastic Press Associations. She began working for Patch in 2019.