“We are continuing our progress,” River Forest Village President Cathy Adduci said in her State of the Village address at the March 11 Village Board meeting, citing making safety a top priority, continuing to strengthen the village’s property values through quality of life initiatives and ongoing efforts to stabilize property taxes among the village’s accomplishments over the past year.
Regarding safety, Adduci noted that the police and fire departments are fully staffed and the first village-wide traffic safety study that was completed in the fall “will help to determine needed changes and interventions to make our streets safer and more easily traversable.”
The police continue to hold quarterly safety meetings and are partnering with the Thrive Counseling Center in Oak Park to help address mental health issues. Village officials also ratified a three-year contract with the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 46 and approved purchase of body cameras for all police officers and expansion of the village’s street camera system. Adduci said the body cameras “will hold officers accountable as well as provide more footage to assist with criminal investigations” and the FOP contract “allows us to remain a competitive and attractive destination for law enforcement professionals.”
Firefighters have focused on training and education for themselves and for residents, working with a recently acquired training prop and a cardiopulmonary resuscitation device. Adduci said the prop simulates fighting a fire “enabling personnel to practice hands-on skills in-house” and the CPR device has saved six lives in the past year.
Regarding quality-of-life initiatives, Adduci cited the sustainability commission’s involvement in village officials’ decisions to ban the use of polystyrene, better known as Styrofoam, commonly used on food packaging, and single-use foodware. She also pointed to the partnership with the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Department of Urban Planning and Policy to create a climate action plan for the village, which she said “will help to steer future initiatives in the areas of renewable energy and reduction of emissions” and “aligns extremely well with the village’s participation in the Electric Vehicle Readiness Program.” She noted electric vehicle usage in the village has grown by nearly 500 percent over the past five years.
In addition, Adduci cited the efforts of the age friendly advisory committee and diversity, equity and inclusion advisory group. The age friendly committee presented a final report to officials which she said “has driven our focus on improving accessibility at our intersections and sidewalks.” The DEI group is working with a consultant who “specializes in organizational strategy that looks through a lens of equity.” She added she and other officials are “looking forward” to the group’s final report.
To stabilize property taxes, Adduci said officials are targeting economic development while being financially accountable.
She said officials hope demolition of village-owned properties along Madison Street will spur greater interest in the site for new development. “After years of marketing the existing buildings for adaptive reuse, we determined it would be best to market the property if it were cleared for development,” she said.
Officials also hope that making changes to the village’s zoning regulations will lead to additional economic development. “We strongly believe this effort will help grow our tax base and provide for additional housing that will be affordable to new buyers,” Adduci said. If approved, the proposed changes would apply to the village’s four commercial districts and simplify regulations.
“Growing our tax base if only one factor that helps stabilize our property taxes,” Adduci said. “We also need to be disciplined and fiscally responsible.” She said she is “proud to say” that village officials have adopted balanced budgets for 16 consecutive years. Helping balance the budget has been the use of grant funding, she said.
She said the village had received more than $1 million in grant funding, including $60,000 for the police body cameras; $350,000 for the demolition of the Madison Street buildings; $90,000 for the green alley program; and $100,000 for upgrading sidewalks. In addition, more than $1.1 million for general infrastructure improvements and $22 million in shared grants have been appropriated directly to the village for fiscal year 2024/25 in the state budget, Adduci added.
“I want our community members to know that you’re in good hands – great hands in fact – through a team of individuals on our boards, commissions and committees; our staff; and, of course, our village board,” she said. “We truly have something special here in River Forest.”
The only trustee comment came from Respicio Vazquez, who noted Adduci had left herself out of the address and thanked her for her leadership.
“It’s hard work but it’s nice work,” she responded.