Local News

Here First | Thursday, Dec. 30

Snow coming. Juneteenth adds a Royal Court. Only one local government meeting next week, but we list the dates of the ones scheduled for the following two weeks. Ever wonder why the Chronicle continues to publish a print edition when other news organizations are cutting back or giving up on paper? And the county is starting to develop a regional bike plan. Homewood already has one, but it’s more than 14 years old. How well did it do?

Predicting the future

Prognostication is a pasttime fraught with peril, especially when it comes to precipitation. Nevertheless, we’re going to go out on a limb and confidently predicting that …

It’s going to snow. Probably. The National Weather Service seems fairly confident we’re going to have precipitation, possibly starting late Friday and ending early Monday, and it’s likely to be in the form of snow (with rain mixed in here and there). “The chances continue to increase for a significant winter storm to impact the area New Year’s day and night with the potential of several inches of accumulating and blowing snow.”

Travel will be tricky. The first snow event or two usually are trickier than usual because we all have to remember how to drive in foul weather.

Monday will be cold, NWS says, with subzero wind chills. Finally, real winter.

Flossmoor trustees will give it a miss. The Jan. 3 meeting has been canceled because of lack of business to consider. The next meeting will be Tuesday, Jan. 18. The agenda will be posted online.

The Homewood-Flossmoor Park District commissioners will meet as a committee on Tuesday, Jan. 4, at 7 p.m. via Zoom.

No other local government bodies are scheduled to meet next week. The next meetings include:

  • District 153 school board: Jan. 10.
  • Homewood trustees: Jan. 11.
  • District 161 school board: Jan. 11.
  • Flossmoor Public Library board: Jan. 11.
  • District 233 school board: Jan. 18.
  • Homewood-Flossmoor Park District board: Jan. 18.
  • Homewood Public Library board: Jan. 19.

Juneteenth 2022 will have royalty. You Matter 2, the lead organization for the festival, announced the addition of a Juneteenth Royal Court. Contest entries will be accepted from Jan. 1-14. There are four age categories from kindergarten through 12th grade.

Chronicle corner

Why print?

Print is cool.

We know this will come as news to many people. You might not think it’s so if you notice how newspapers across the land are reducing the size and frequency of their print editions. Some are even giving it up entirely. You might even come to think printing a newspaper is a really bad idea.

It’s not. Here’s why the Chronicle continues to publish a monthly print edition.

We think local news should be accessible to everyone in the community. Knowing what’s going on around us is one of the things that binds us together as a community.

Reaching everyone online is not as easy as it looks. This past year we asked readers to subscribe in order to help the Chronicle provide better, more thorough coverage of our two villages. About 300 people did so in a community of almost 10,000 households.

And print advertising still makes up 86% of our revenue.

Print production is hard work, and expensive, and we love it.

What do you want to know?

Last week, I noted that doing big reporting projects in 2022 might follow the experience we had with the State of Golf documentary. That is, we ask readers to pitch in to do things that are useful but outside the reach of our usual budget. I asked what kind of projects readers would like to see us do.

So far, I’ve gotten one response. It was a good one. I’d love to get some more, and then we could post a list of ideas and see which ones have the most appeal.

What big projects would you like to see us do in 2022? Send suggestions to to: [email protected].

And if you find yourself with a little unclaimed time over the holiday weekend, check out the State of Golf videos at hfchronicle.com/stateofgolf. Let us know what you think.

What we’re watching

Not on TV. These are things we’re paying attention to in the H-F community. Let us know what you’re watching. We’ll watch, too.

Better biking, better world. WBEZ posted a story Wednesday about a new Cook County initiative to develop a countywide bike plan.

That reminded us that Homewood has a bike plan that was adopted in 2007. I admit I have not read it carefully, but now I will. I am not sure if Flossmoor has a similar plan, but I will check.

I wonder how much of the Homewood plan was implemented, what wasn’t and why. I also wonder if after 14 years, it’s time to take another look and see what our communities can do to better support cycling and walking.

I know the folks at GoodSpeed Cycles in Homewood pay close attention to the cycling community. They not only sell bikes, they also advocate for cycling and cyclists, and create cycling opportunities. They are out there on the streets frequently, so they know our community’s strengths and weaknesses.

I will be checking in with them, too, and will report what I learn.

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