Forty Years Ago

There’s ups and there’s downs, and sometimes ups within downs. A referendum to save our swimming pool was a washout, 1071-716. A companion referendum to restore the park’s ball fields was shut out 1215-553. The pool had been closed by the state because it was “plain old worn out and couldn’t comply with the modern standards of sanitation,” said Park Board President Milton Eggerding. Yet, to cut to the happy ending, before that fiscal year was over, Forest Park again had one of Chicagoland’s finest public pools and a great, spacious park to complement it. We always come back. Sometimes we never go away. Good old Forest Park!

From the Oct. 26, 1967, Forest Park Review

Thirty Years Ago

What if they gave a party and nobody came? Attendance at the twice-monthly village council meeting just about hit bottom when the council outnumbered the audience, 5-3. What agenda could have kept so many away?

The first significant action was the awarding of a $30,000 commercial rehabilitation study to choose the best possible use of a Cook County grant for central business district development. That alone might be reason aplenty for not attending–especially if the “Smothers Brothers” was on.

In other “action,” the council passed a new salary ordinance, entering into wage negotiations with the police and fire departments. The agreement with the police drew this comment from Village Attorney Ed O’Shea: “I’ve never seen one like it before.”

There’s more, but it wasn’t as interesting as what had already taken place. And Tommy and Dickey were pretty funny that night.

From the Oct. 26, 1977, Forest Park Review

Twenty Years Ago

When you think of the tools and skills needed in police work, math, physics, algebra and geometry seldom come to mind. But those are the tools used by Officer Martin Moy, who investigated all of Forest Park’s serious traffic accidents, except those on the expressway, which were handled by the state police.

Moy, who regularly took academic and police classes since joining the force in 1977, had recently taken a two-week course in “On-the-Scene-Traffic Accident Investigation,” at the Northwestern Traffic Institute. He learned the calculations necessary to determine the minimum speed of a car; radius of a curve; effects of road grading; brakes and slopes; atmospheric pressure; the speed of a car that went off an embankment and even how far a vehicle can flip.

Working mostly as a patrol officer, he was always on-call to handle “serious” accidents–those involving life-threatening injury or death. “It’s not that I do this every day,” said Moy. “Routine accidents are taken care of by the responding officer, because all policemen receive fundamental accident investigation training at the police academy.”

More on this article next week.

From the July 29, 1987, Forest Park Review

Ten Years Ago

“All things differ with time.” “Time is a stone fortress resistant to change.” Which statement is true?

Let’s compare in the area of local human misbehavior. Like, the police reports section of this paper 10 years back, verses the one in today’s paper. I chose the first two items from the Sept. 24, 1997, edition. Did we improve? Did we fall? Did we remain discouragingly the same?

During that week, police were searching for two men posing as water company employees. They were suspected of stealing $600 from an apartment in the 200 block of Madison Street. After knocking and being let in, they said they were looking for a water leak. While one repeatedly flushed the toilet, the other wandered. Bingo! An envelope containing money was found on a bedroom closet shelf.

Also, a 22-year-old man (no point in revealing the name) dropped his pants in the 7500 block of Madison Street dropped his pants, exposing himself to a woman who was parking her car. She called police, who charged him with public indecency and lewd, disorderly conduct. The subject was on probation for a previous exposure.

From the Sept. 24, 1997, Forest Park Review