Fireworks, festivals on tap for 4th of July

By Bob Rakow
Desplaines Valley News

There’s no shortage of  4th of July celebrations in the area next week as several communities host parades, fireworks shows and festivals to mark Independence Day.

The Bridgeview Park District will host its annual fireworks show at dusk on July 3 at Commissioners Park, 8100 S. Beloit Ave.

The show will be preceded by the inaugural Art in the Park Expo from 3-7 p.m.

Artists and budding artists 18 years old and younger are invited to submit their work for display. Participants are asked to label their work with their name, age, school and phone number. Only one submission per person is allowed. Artists must drop off their work by 5 p.m. July 2 at park district office, 8100 S. Beloit Ave.

In Summit, the Summit Park District will host an Independence Day celebration July 3 at the park district offices at 5700 S. Archer Road.

The event will include children’s games from 6-7 p.m. as well as free throw shooting and bean bag throwing contests at 6 p.m. Interested participants must sign up before the events. 

A concert of patriotic music performed by the West Suburban Concert Band will begin at 7:30 p.m. followed by the fireworks display at 9 p.m.

The village of Lyons will celebrate its quasquicentennial during the town’s annual Independence Day parade, which steps off at 1 p.m. July 4 on Joliet Avenue. The theme of the parade is the village’s 125^th anniversary.

The village will host a kid’s party at 7 p.m. at Veterans Park, Ogden and Lawndale avenues, and Smith Park, which is located across the street. The family-friendly event is designed for younger children and will feature music, games and face painting.

The annual fireworks show will begin at dusk at Smith and Veterans parks. Organizers encourage people to walk rather than drive to the event, which drew nearly 10,000 cars last year. The show’s grand finale will be longer than usual this year in celebration of the village’s 125^th anniversary.

Brookfield also will celebrate the 4th of July with a parade, which begins at 10 a.m. at Washington and Cleveland avenues and proceeds down Grand Boulevard to Brookfield Avenue and ends at the Village Hall.

The parade will be followed by music, food and fun beginning at noon at Kiwanis Park, 8820 Brookfield Ave. The Neverly Brothers are expected to perform from 12:30-2:15 p.m. followed by Deja Vu from 2:45-4:30 p.m. Battle of the Bands winners Far Sighted and Something's Not Right are expected to take the stage from 5-6 p.m.

The Pleasant Dale Park District will hold its annual fireworks show on July 3 at dusk at Walker Park, 7425 S. Wolf Road, Burr Ridge.

The following day, Boy Scout Troop 69 will hold its 14^th annual 4^th of July Pancake Breakfast. The event will take place from 7:30-11:30 a.m. at Walker Park.

Breakfast will feature pancakes, eggs, sausage, egg strata, fruit, orange juice and Starbucks coffee. There will be raffles, door prizes and a bake sale at the event. The cost is $5.

Those who’d rather see tomatoes than fireworks explode can take part in the Tomato Battle on July 6 at Toyota Park in Bridgeview.

Some 5,000 participants are expected at the event, which will feature dancing, beverages and a food fight involving 300,000 pounds of over ripe tomatoes being tossed at each other. 

Organizers describe the event as a combination of a German Oktoberfest and Spain’s La Tomatina tomato-throwing festival.

Festivities begin at noon with live entertainment and costume contest. The tomato battle commences at 4 p.m. when bathing suit-clad participants converge on a giant pile of tomatoes and pelt them at one another for three hours.

Eye protection, shoes with good tread and a change of clothes are highly recommended. Participants must be at least 14 years old. The cost is $50. Register at www.tomatobattle.com.

Bedford Park police seek public’s help in finding hit-and-run suspect

Police sketch

From Staff Reports
Desplaines Valley News

Cook County Sheriff’s Police released a sketch last week of a man wanted for a hit-and-run crash that left a man critically injured in Bedford Park.

Sheriff’s Police, South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force and the Bedford Park Police Department are seeking the public’s help in finding the driver of the car.

A dark gray Jeep Grand Cherokee struck a man in his 30s about 10:15 p.m. on June 13 in the 5800 block of 73rd Street in Bedford Park, according to the Cook County Sheriff’s Police. The victim was left critically injured.

The motorist was described as a 5-foot-6, 150-pound Hispanic man with short hair, sheriff’s police said. He was driving the Grand Cherokee, which has front-end damage.

Calls to the Bedford Park Police Department for more information were not returned.

Anyone with information should call Bedford Park police at 708-458-3388.

State Rep. Zalewski named to Illinois pension reform conference committee

Zalewski

From Staff Reports
Desplaines Valley News

State Rep. Michael Zalewski, a staunch supporter of the Madigan proposal to solve the state's pension crisis, was one of the House members named to the conference committee charged with forging a compromise solution to the pension mess.

“I thought it was a good bill,” Zalewski (D-23rd), of Riverside, said earlier this year. “I spoke for it on the House floor."

Zalewski was one of three lawmakers named to the 10-person conference committee by House Speaker Michael Madigan, who sponsored a draconian House pension reform bill that easily passed that chamber before being shot down in the state Senate.

“The state is on the brink of fiscal collapse," Zalewski said. "We have to right the ship."

Zalewski said the Madigan plan was more painful than the one offered by Democratic Senate President John Cullerton and was tough on retired state employees.

“There were things in the bill that I wish we could have softened,” he said. “But the bill was necessary.”

Gov. Pat Quinn hopes the rarely used legislative conference committee can help both sides reach a compromise solution to resolve the state's daunting pension crisis.

The committee was the result of a special session last week called by Quinn to address the pension problem.

That session, just like the recently concluded regular session, failed to deliver a plan to rectify the state's $100 billion unfunded pension liability.

The problem has been and continues to be the inability or unwillingness of Madigan and Cullerton to budge on their competing measures.

The conference committee, made up of five members each from the House and Senate, is designed to "bridge the differences and forge agreement on a comprehensive pension reform plan," a statement from Quinn's office said. 

Legislators used last Wednesday's session to vote to create the committee, and Quinn plans to call another session on July 9 to pass legislation, the statement added.

Legislative leaders said that was probably too soon for a deal to have been hammered out, if one can be reached at all.

Political paralysis over fixing the worst-funded state retirement system has led to a series of credit downgrades for Illinois, which now has the lowest ratings among U.S. states.

Quinn has expressed frustration over the inaction and its impact on the state's ratings and borrowing costs. Illinois is in the midst of a $31 billion capital improvement program, partly funded by the sale of bonds, and it is set for a planned sale of $1.3 billion of general obligation bonds this week.

The Illinois General Assembly last turned to a conference committee to hash out a compromise on legislation in December 2005.

Madigan has favored unilateral cuts to retirement benefits to reap savings of up to 30 percent over 30 years,  an approach labor unions have said violates the Illinois Constitution. Cullerton has advocated a plan, backed by labor unions and passed by the Senate, that gives workers and retirees choices between reduced benefits and continued access to state-sponsored healthcare in retirement. Actuaries says the Cullerton plan achieves just one third as much savings as the Madigan plan does.

A third plan that addresses only the State Universities Retirement System is being pushed by the heads of universities as a way to save as much as Madigan's approach, while having a better chance of withstanding a constitutional challenge in court, its backers allege.

That plan calls for higher worker pension contributions, gradually shifts pension payments currently made by the state onto the universities and community colleges, and ties pension payment increases to inflation. 

Both of the original authors of the toughest bill that's passed either the Senate or the House — Sen. Dan Biss (D-Evanston), and Rep. Elaine Nekritz (D-Northbrook) — are included on the 10-member panel.

Biss was named along with Sen. Kwame Raoul (D-Chicago) and Sen. Linda Holmes (D-Aurora), by Cullerton. Raoul will be the committee chairman. 

Madigan named Nekritz, Zalewski and another ally state Rep. Art Turner (D-Chicago).

Senate GOP Leader Christine Radogno, of Lemont, selected Sen. Matt Murphy (R-Palatine), her point person on budget matters, and Sen. Bill Brady (R-Bloomington), who ran for governor against Quinn in 2010.