The Village of River Forest has staffed up, or rather contracted up, to ramp up its opposition to the proposed O’Hare Flyer project, a fast train service that would run through River Forest on its route between downtown Chicago and O’Hare airport. The project has generated vehement opposition from many River Forest residents and the village government which says the project would negatively impact River Forest.
At its Sept. 26 village board meeting the village board voted unanimously to hire the well known public relations firm Jasculca-Terman to handle day to day communications work for the village as well as do extra work to oppose the O’Hare Flyer project. It also hired the Prescott Group, run by veteran public affairs consultant Jim Prescott, to do public affairs consulting, and a Washington, D.C. lawyer with railroad regulatory experience to do legal and lobbying work on the federal level to oppose the O’Hare Flyer project.
Jasculca-Terman was founded in 1981 and is still led by long time River Forest resident Rick Jasculca. The 78-year-old Jasculca, who has lived in River Forest since 1975, has worked for two presidents, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. He said that it is an honor to work for the village that he lives in.
“I’m proud that I have the opportunity not only to live here, but to do work for the community I love and be here with people I care about,” Jasculca said in a telephone interview with Wednesday Journal.
Jasculca-Terman is replacing the Arlington Heights based communications firm Vicarious which has done the day-to-day communications work for the Village of River Forest since 2021.
This summer Jasculca-Terman did communications work on a Madison Street development project for the village and will be paid $30,000 for three months of that work. In 2024 Jasculca-Terman organized the neighborhood dialogues project that was connected to the Madison-Ashland apartment project for the village.
Jasculca-Terman will be paid $5,575 a month for day to day communications work and also be paid $5,000 a month for “critical issues strategy” work on the O’Hare Flyer issue. Vicarious was being paid $6,500 a month for the day to day communications work for the village.
Jasculca-Terman will provide better analysis of the reach of the village’s communications outreach, said officials.
“We’ll have a better reporting methodology with this new firm,” said River Forest Assistant Village Administrator Jessica Spencer. “So we’ll be able to keep track of what our actual impressions and how our social media outreach is actually reaching our audience.”
The Oak Park based Prescott Group, which mostly consists of Jim Prescott, will focus on advocating for River Forest’s interests and positions working with state politicians and agencies. Prescott has done some past work for the Village of River Forest and has done work for the Village of Oak Park and the River Forest Civic Center Authority’s Board of Managers which has just been disbanded.
“They work on a lot of state legislative advocacy,” said River Forest Village Administrator Matt Walsh of the Prescott Group. “We worked with them on a specific goal to help free up some grant money that was owed to us. So they work directly with the Speaker of the House’s office and other state leadership on that initiative, and they also work with other municipalities in the area. I think their charge, in this respect, will be building, hopefully, expanding our coalition.”
The Prescott Group will be paid $6,500 a month.
While Prescott and Jasculca-Terman will work to build public opposition to the O’Hare Flyer proposal the village retained Washington, D.C. lawyer Daniel Elliott, a partner in the firm GKG Law, to work on federal legal aspects of the O’Hare Flyer. Elliott has expertise in railroad issues having served two terms on the federal Surface Transportation Board which regulates freight railroads. Ellliott’s hourly billing rate is $450. GKG’s pay is capped at $25,000.
The village board will have to adopt a budget amendment to pay for this unexpected additional spending.
The village has put an O’Hare Flyer page on its web site outlining the village’s opposition to the project as currently proposed and providing additional information.