At 7 p.m. on the first Friday in December for years, Santa Claus emerged from a Homewood fire truck to push the big white button that lights up the Irwin Park holiday tree. This year was no exception, but instead of gathering in a dense crowd, singing caroles and loudly[Read More…]

Over the last week, several Illinois utilities have announced that they voluntarily ceased disconnections for all residential customers through the winter months.  The voluntary moratorium on residential disconnections applies to customers of Ameren Illinois, ComEd, Liberty Utilities, Nicor, North Shore and Peoples Gas, providing greater protection to all residential customers[Read More…]

Special greetings won’t only be delivered by the post office this year.  Bigger-than- life holiday cards could be on your block. After a hiatus, the Holiday Yard Card program sponsored by the Homewood-Flossmoor Park District returned this year at the suggestion of a resident. More than three dozen people took[Read More…]

Additional COVID-19 mitigation efforts went into effect Wednesday, Nov. 11, in three of Illinois’ 11 health regions, including two near the South Suburbs. Region 5 (Southern Illinois), Region 7 (Will and Kankakee counties), and Region 8 (Kane and DuPage counties), are seeing a test positivity rate that remains above 8%[Read More…]

The Homewood-Flossmoor Park District is proposing an estimated 2020 levy of $5,479,473, reflecting a slight increase. Under Illinois’ tax cap law, government bodies are allowed to increase taxes yearly by 5% or the Consumer Price Index, whichever is less. The CPI for this year is 2.3%. Sharon Dangles, superintendent of[Read More…]

Many students were making the transition to college this past summer, even during a pandemic and civil unrest. During this difficult time, PLAN4SUCCESS was able to provide 23 scholarships to graduating high school seniors during this time. The organization is planning to raise money in November during their annual fundraiser to make[Read More…]

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced on Friday, Oct. 30, the release of $94 million in emergency relief funds for communities and small businesses statewide.  More than $46 million in small business grants through the Business Interruption Grants (BIG) program will provide relief to offset COVID-19 related costs for over 1,200 businesses[Read More…]

Flossmoor’s Community Relations Commission has been holding a Welcome to Flossmoor New Resident Event for roughly a dozen years. At the gatherings, Mayor Paul Braun likes to ask what brought people to the village. “The No. 1 answer is usually the schools, but also high on that list this year[Read More…]

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle on Thursday presented a proposed $6.9 billion budget recommendation for fiscal year 2021 that addresses the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic without increasing taxes or cutting critical services. “This 2021 budget is balanced with no tax increases or the need for immediate federal help.[Read More…]

Activities at Homewood-Flossmoor High School haven’t stopped – they’ve just gone virtual. Registration ends this week for the annual Operation Snowball event, a program H-F has run for nearly 40 years. Operation Snowball is an international alcohol, tobacco and other drug-use prevention program that focuses on leadership development to help[Read More…]