Forest Park is a village of wonderful, odd and valued traditions. We often come back around to them and actively cover them because they reflect so well the welcoming nature of this little town.
This week on page 1, we cover the “Popcorning of the Principal” celebration last week at Field-Stevenson School. Just what is involved? Well, first the students, and we suspect their parents, grandparents and next-door neighbors, have to buy and sell a lot of popcorn. It is a PTO fundraiser across the village. This year, the PTO raised about $12K, and Field-Stevenson made up about half of that total.
Do the kids pull this off because they like popcorn? As a point of school pride? Or because the school assembly where Susan Bogdan, the principal, gets “popcorned” is just so much silly fun?
This was the third consecutive year where Bogdan was honored with bags of popcorn dumped over her head. The kids who sold the most popcorn at Field-Stevenson earned the privilege of having that fun.
A good time was had by all. And the PTO has the funds it needs for its programs.
Jackson Blvd. water project
Cobbling together a range of its funding options – both local and state – Forest Park is ready to tackle its top infrastructure project. That would be a new water main under Jackson Boulevard, from Des Plaines to Harlem. The project, which should necessarily tie up traffic for the summer months, will also include the replacement of all lead water lines along the route and the repaving of the boulevard.
This is an essential project, the cost of which has been exponentially increasing. So finding a combination of funding sources and tackling the project is the right choice.
That said, we’d note that Commissioner Maria Maxham again raised her hand at the recent council meeting, where commissioners unanimously approved rearranging village finances to help fund the project, to point out the multiple necessary but essential projects the village has taken on, even as its overall finances remain an immediate challenge.
Finding a balance between investing in the village while remaining solvent is the number one challenge Forest Park faces. Hard choices on both containing spending and ratcheting up revenues need to be front and center in the imminent budget discussions this mayor and council face.