TribLocal Oak Park - 14-20 June 2012
TribLocal.com
Oak Park • River Forest Forest Park
JUNE 14-20, 2012
OPRF Garden walk set; tickets now available
Page 6
Football standouts to compete in All-Star game
Page 18
Foundation sells Hemingway’s boyhood home
By Bridget Doyle
TRIBLOCAL REPORTER
Left-lane access to the Eisenhower Expressway at Austin Boulevard and Harlem Avenue could shift to the right under a plan the Illinois Department of Transportation presented to Oak Park residents.
Antonio Perez/ Chicago Tribune
IDOT proposes moving left-lane ramps on Ike
By Bridget Doyle
TRIBLOCAL REPORTER
Kurt and Mary Jane Neumann often walk their dog by Ernest Hemingway’s boyhood home, admiring the piece of American history located just one block from their Oak Park home. So when it went on the market, they wasted no time in making an offer. “When we stepped inside the house, we immediately fell in love,” said Kurt Neumann, an Oak Park resident since 2006. The couple closed on the \$525,000 purchase Tuesday and plan to restore the building that has been divided into three apartments to a single-family home, said John Berry, chairman of the Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park. The home at 600 N. Kenilworth Ave. has been owned by the
foundation since 2001, when the group bought it from a private owner. The foundation and Dominican University in River Forest created a \$1.5 million plan in 2009 to turn the home into a cultural center and scholarly retreat, but economic pressures pushed them to put the house back on the market for \$525,000 in February. Given the circumstances, this sounds like the best resolution, said Susan Beegel, editor of the Hemingway Review. “I’m very sorry it won’t be a historic home turned into a museum for all of the public to see,” Beegel said. “But it’s better as a singlefamily home than an apartment building.” Berry said the foundation received several offers, but the Neumann family had the
PLEASE SEE HOME, PAGE 12
Left-lane access to the Eisenhower Expressway at Austin Boulevard and Harlem Avenue could shift to the right under a plan the Illinois Department of Transportation presented to Oak Park residents Monday night. The goal is to increase safety, though the plan is being developed as part of larger widening project for Interstate 290. IDOT offi-
For meeting coverage about this topic, go to Page 3.
cials said a timeline and budget have not yet been established. Statistics show the stretch of I-290 between Mannheim Road and Cicero Avenue has the highest crash rate of any in the Chi
PLEASE SEE IDOT, PAGE 9
Oak Park wins first state baseball title since ‘81
By Jeff Vorva
TRIBLOCAL REPORTER
Oak Park River Forest High School’s baseball team needed a seventh-inning single from Mike Brennan to score Jack Picchiotti to set off a wild celebration as the Huskies won the Illinois High School Association
Class 4A title Saturday night. The Huskies nipped defending state champion Lyons Township, 4-3, at Silver Cross Field in Joliet. Lyons was denied the opportunity to become the first team since Maine in 1958 and 1959 to win back-to-back
PLEASE SEE TITLE, PAGE 12
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