Home prices have gotten slammed in the Chicago area over the past few years, but not so much when it comes to Oak Park and River Forest.

The village is holding a forum to discuss economic development at 6:30 p.m. on April 16 at village hall, 123 Madison St. Elected officials have started hosting quarterly forums on specific topics to gather residents thoughts, with the first one in October focused on public safety.

Plans to transform a long-vacant historic auto dealership on Madison Street into an Aldi grocery store may be moving forward. For months, the Batavia-based retailer has been sizing up the golden brick building at 644 Madison St. in Oak Park, which has sat empty since Foley-Rice Cadillac closed several years ago.

A well-regarded Chicago restaurant — owned by a couple of Oak Parkers — has been shuttered by city inspectors for going on three weeks. But after fixing a myriad of issues, the proprietors of the Depot American Diner hope to resume dishing out their famous pot roast and homemade donuts sometime next week.

Positions have been cut and functions farmed out at Oak Park's still new $30 million public works center. But does that mean that the village has room to share with other taxing bodies?

A potentially $17 million decision to narrow Madison Street down to three lanes from four could come in the next couple of months. Oak Park has been talking for more than a year about the possibility of squeezing the car-dominated stretch in order to add bike lanes in either direction, along with safer crosswalks for pedestrians heading north and south.

The March primary is barely in the rearview mirror, and a heated U.S. presidential election looms in November. But already some Oak Parkers are talking about who is going to lead the village at the local level, with the election coming up next April. Voters will get to decide the next Oak Park village president, three spots for village trustee, and the next village clerk.

Oak Park and River Forest voters came out to support former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney last week in the Republican primary, mirroring statewide results.

Oak Park's now-former village manager, Tom Barwin, has already been gone for a month, but he stands to collect another $125,058 from taxpayers following a decision on Monday.

Oak Park residents whose basements filled up with sewage last summer can start applying for village relief on April 2. Village trustees gave their final approval to the new grant program on Monday, in a narrow 4-3 vote.