Local News, Opinion

The Weeks | April 9: Election results, Walmart tax break suspended, meetings

THE WEEK >

Homewood School District 153 Board of Education will meet at 7 p.m. Monday, April 10, in the James Hart School media center, 18220 Morgan St., for its organizational meeting, followed immediately by the regular meeting.

  • Find the agenda for the organizational meeting here.
  • Find the agenda for the regular meeting here.
  • Highlights: Re-elected board members will be sworn in and officers elected during the organizational meeting. In the regular meeting, the board will hear a presentation on student performance.

Flossmoor Public Art Commission will meet at 7 p.m. Monday, April 10, in village hall, 2800 Flossmoor Road. 

  • Find the agenda here.
  • Attend virtually here. ID 836 9712 9791, passcode 938118. 

Homewood-Flossmoor School District 233 Board of Education will hold a committee meeting and two special meetings Tuesday, April 11, 999 Kedzie Ave. in Flossmoor.

  • Find the agenda for the closed session for the personnel committee meeting at 8 a.m. here.
  • Find the agenda for the school board’s special closed session meeting at 5 p.m. here
  • Find the agenda for the special open session meeting at 7 p.m. here.

Homewood Board of Trustees will meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 11, in village hall, 2020 Chestnut Road.

  • Find the agenda here.
  • Attend virtually here. ID 980 4907 6232, passcode 830183.
  • Write to the board by sending email to [email protected] or by placing written comments in the drop box outside village hall. Comments submitted before 4 p.m. on the meeting date will be distributed to all village board members prior to the meeting.
  • Highlights:  The board will consider releasing a $20,000 mortgage and promissory loan on the property at 18027-18029 Dixie Highway, formerly Vice District Brewery, to enable the purchase by a new owner who plans to open a martial arts academy there. The board will also hear a presentation on the preliminary 2023-24 village budget.

Flossmoor Public Library Board of Trustees will meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 11, at the library, 1000 Sterling Ave.

  • Find the agenda here.

Prairie State College One Book, One Community Book Club will discuss the graphic novel “Maus: A Survivor’s Tale” during two sessions, one at 2 p.m. and one at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 11, either on campus, 202 S. Halsted St., or virtually at meet.google.com/sey-mrmr-bvw or dial: ‪(US) +1 720-907-3642‬ PIN: ‪993 277 423‬#.

The Homewood-Flossmoor School District 233 Board of Trustees Planning Committee will meet at 7:30 a.m. Thursday, April 13, in the Viking Room.

  • Find the agenda here.

The Homewood Planning and Zoning Commission will meet at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 13, in village hall, 2020 Chestnut Road. 

  • Find the agenda here.
  • Attend the meeting virtually here. ID 991 8481 1606, passcode 573812. 
  • Highlights: The commission will hold three public hearings. One hearing will be for a requested special use permit for a salon establishment in the Southgate shopping area. One hearing will be for amendments to the zoning code governing basketball and other sports courts on private property. A third hearing will be for rezoning 16 non-conforming parcels in the Ravisloe neighbor from R-1 single family residential to R-2 single family residential.

< THE WEEK

Results from the April 4 election:

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Homewood trustees vote to suspend property tax relief for Walmart
Walmart closed its Homewood store on March 10. Village trustees decided on March 28 to ask the county to suspend the company’s Class 8 property tax relief designation, noting that the benefit was offered on the assumption that the store would be in operation.

The ghost of Walmart’s logo is visible on the facade of the store on Halsted Street in Homewood, which closed March 10.
(Chronicle file photo)

Flossmoor marks opening of Hidden Gem Guitars
Reporter Nuha Abdessalam reported on the ribbon cutting for the new guitar shop in Flossmoor.

Watching Hidden Gem Guitars owner Kyle Asche cut the ribbon are members of his family and Flossmoor officials. (Nuha Abdessalam/H-F Chronicle)
Watching Hidden Gem Guitars owner Kyle Asche cut the ribbon are members of his family and Flossmoor officials.
(Nuha Abdessalam/H-F Chronicle)

DEMOCRACY WATCH

Every two years, the Chronicle works to up its game in local election coverage. This year, we provided more election preview coverage than ever. In 2021, we published 35 candidate-provided profiles and seven candidate interview videos. This year, on our Meet the Candidates page, we posted 27 profiles and 18 video interviews with 20 candidates.

The profiles give voters the candidates’ views of themselves, what issues they think are most important and what their top goals are if elected.

The interviews give voters a chance to see how candidates respond to questions about issues we think voters want to hear about. This year, we invited voters to suggestion questions. We got only a few responses, but we hope in 2025 we can work together more as a community to generate questions for candidates.

The reason we are working hard to build richer election preview content is that the officials we are electing have the most immediate impact on our lives, but local elections typically get the least attention. Local elections regularly see the lowest turnout at the polls. This year was no different.

According to unofficial results on the Cook County clerk’s office website, the best turnout in H-F was for Flossmoor Board of Trustees, with 18.9%. The worst was Prairie State College District 515 with 11.53%. We are working on a story about turnout April 4, but we need some clarification from the county clerk’s office in order to properly compare 2021 and 2023. We hope to have that story done in the coming week.

We already have ideas for improving election coverage in 2025. If you have suggestions, please let us know ([email protected]). How can we help bring more voters into the local democratic process?

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