HS Board

By Arlene A. Juracek

I knew that a chapter in a future, yet to be written, history book about Mount Prospect would include my tenure as mayor during our Centennial Year of 2017. Little did I know that it could also include the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on the community and its leaders in 2020-21. Coming a century after the infamous “Spanish Flu” pandemic of 1918-1920, the experience was challenging on so many levels: personal, as an elected community leader for its residents and businesses, and as the top of the organization chart for our village manager, department heads, employees and their handling of resource allocations.

On a personal level, as a scientist/engineer, I understood a lot of the statistical and epidemiological information that was being broadcast on a daily basis. As someone who lived through the early 1950’s and 60’s immunization efforts in the United States I personally witnessed the eradication of serious diseases like smallpox and polio, and am glad that my own children and grandchildren needn’t suffer through measles and mumps like I did. With Covid-19, we were dealing with a novel virus of unknown proportions and individual and community-wide impacts, and a medical and supply chain delivery system that was ill-prepared to predict and execute a treatment and prevention plan. As the crisis first presented itself, early advice and prognostications for Illinoisans were geared as much towards preserving critically important PPE and ventilator resources for the most severely ill, while seeking to stop the virus in its tracks through eliminating opportunities for crowds to congregate. Thus, a lot of confusion was generated by early mask guidance that evolved over time as supply chains caught up and as the means of this specific viral transmission became better understood. As an engineer, it made sense that hypotheses be revised as data were able to be analyzed. This isn’t flip-flopping. This is learning. But for many folks, the evolving story was confusing and that confusion, unfortunately, became mired in political spin.

As a retired person living on social security and a pension, I was economically okay. As an introvert, the solitude of self-isolation didn’t bother me. And as someone with a small, albeit multi-generational family I was able to keep my “bubble” contained as we all pitched in to make remote working and child care doable. While considered higher risk because of my age, I am fortunate that I am relatively healthy. As far as this virus is concerned, I was in a relatively privileged position to deal with it.

As a community leader, however, I was in a position to see how business and school shutdowns wreaked havoc on personal and business economies, to see the broad differences among our families and businesses in their ability to cope, to recognize how confusing the evolving advice from county, state and national health authorities is to non-technical people and how political, generational and familial experiences influenced thinking and anxiety levels. Furthermore, print and broadcast news sound bites were often masking the nuances of the advice being given.

Wanting to be a fully informed community leader, I felt an obligation to tune in to the daily televised gubernatorial briefings, the City of Chicago and Cook County briefings, and the private briefings for mayors with these entities specifically arranged by our regional councils of government. As the days, weeks and months wore on I realized how all-consuming these had become for me, both in terms of time and emotional commitment. I became hostage to the daily schedule of briefings. I eventually had to take a forced break just to maintain some “normalcy” and stress relief. But I am grateful for the communications outreach by these entities, because I felt better equipped with statistics, information and rationale as I attempted to address the spectrum of concerns presented by our residents and businesses.

I know that some people in the community feel that the Governor’s phased mitigation plan and executive orders erred on the side of being overly cautious. And that caution spilled over into rules promulgated by Chicago and Cook County. In fact, I concurred with the concerns of the restaurant and hospitality sector that some of those rules painted too broad a stroke, for example lumping restaurants and bars into the same category. I was glad that my leadership and participation at the state and county levels resulted in my being asked to participate in a mayors’ task force charged with informing the governor’s staff on ways to revise the mitigation plan to better restore business operations without compromising public health. We were successful in those efforts as we progressed through Stage 4 to get to Stage 5.

Additionally, I took steps to ensure that our restauranteurs and liquor license holders were granted relief consistent with the emergency guidance issued by the Illinois Department of Public Health and the Illinois Liquor Commission. Some of these changes proved so successful that I hope we can make permanent changes to our liquor ordinances to accommodate new business models and customer expectations. Our Building and Inspection Services team was kept very busy working with our businesses to maximize carryout and outdoor dining opportunities and respond to resident concerns about enforcement of mask and social distancing rules. Social media certainly served to keep us all informed of business and resident anxieties and concerns, but highlighted the need to communicate facts in multiple and easily digestible ways. A complaint in a string of Facebook comments is not nearly as effective as direct communication with the mayor, village manager or a village trustee. But by monitoring the conversations, we could begin to proactively address many issues. I created an informative public service video on various types of masks, and posted a meme of me admonishing folks to “Stay Home and Save Lives” building on the popularity of those featuring Chicago’s mayor. These were pushed out on social media and the village’s dedicated Covid-19 web portal.

I received many expressions of concern early in the pandemic “stay-at-home” period that there was too much congregating in parks and neighborhoods of adults and children, and of suspected violations of the indoor dining ban. Some expected our police department to ticket perceived offenders. With no legal authority to ticket or arrest, I have high praise for our officers who did their best to patrol all areas of the village and offer reminders and advice when the need arose. Our health department also investigated every reported instance of restaurant rule violations. Our village manager convened regular meetings with park, library and school leadership to ensure the concerns we were hearing at the village level were being conveyed to parties responsible for the places people were congregating. This is just one example of the actions taken by our village manager, department heads and staff of which I am extremely proud. These included many hours spent by our police and environmental health staff investigating complaints and working with the community to ensure safe and healthy conditions. When birthday parties were replaced with drive by parades, our public safety officers were happy participants in those events.

As I mentioned above, early in the pandemic response the nation was gripped by personal protective equipment (PPE) supply shortages, and I am extremely grateful for the teamwork among the municipalities and health care providers in the northwest suburbs to ensure our first responders had access to sufficient PPE to do their jobs safely. Northwest Central Dispatch, our hospitals and fellow municipal leaders met regularly to ensure resources were being fairly allocated.

During my final State of the Village Address on April 20, 2021 I offered the following recap of our Covid-19 impacts on our revenues and on our services, and our response:

Little did we know that Covid-19 would throw village revenues for a loop during 2020. We first estimated a $5.6 million revenue shortfall. As 2020 progressed, that was lowered as some revenue streams actually outperformed initial estimates! In addition, we initially projected a Covid-19 residual impact of $1.2 million for 2021. Fortunately, the village developed a risk mitigation strategy that has served us well. This flexible plan provided us with direction for making budget adjustments as necessary, while still prioritizing key life safety and core customer service initiatives. The 5-step plan, which began implementation in April, was designed to reduce expenditures by up to $7 million as conditions warranted.

What was the plan?

• Capital projects worth $3.4 million were postponed to 2021 and beyond.
• Computer and vehicle replacement fund lease payments were suspended in 2020. Vehicle replacement fund payments have since been resumed.
• Various village-sponsored events were cancelled, and the village observed a self-imposed hiring freeze.
• All training and travel was postponed except for mandatory Police and Fire training.

Additional steps in the plan would have required a review of programs and services provided by the village and a review of staffing levels. Fortunately, we were able to retain a high level of service while living within our means. This proved to be invaluable during the stressful times experienced by our residents and businesses.

As we reported last week, when all was said and done, while a number of line item revenue streams fell short by $5.4 million dollars, remarkably others outperformed by $31,000 more than the loss. So on total, revenues held their own.

We also took proactive steps to cushion the blow to our residents and businesses.

• We extended due dates for water/sewer bills and vehicle stickers multiple times.
• We waived 50 percent of the liquor license fees for restaurants, and extended existing liquor licenses for 6 months without charge. We relaxed alcohol carry-out rules in accordance with State Liquor Commission guidance to facilitate restaurant cash flow and meet resident demand.
• We reallocated some existing budget amounts and used part of the Cook County allocation of Cares Act relief to fund $600,000 in grants to 60 restaurants, who each received $10,000 in December 2020.
• We helped restaurants to implement outdoor dining and provided strategic marketing support.
• Our Covid-19 web page portal is constantly updated with information about federal, state, county and local assistance programs, which we actively promote via several channels such as the Chamber and social media.
• Our Human Services Department has done amazing work as ad hoc vaccine hunters, contacting hundreds of our senior citizens who made previous contact with the village, to assist with securing vaccine appointments. They have also been recognized by the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning as models of how to connect our residents with state funding for emergency rent and food pantry assistance.
• The village partnered with Jewel-Osco and other communities for a vaccination event at the Schaumburg Convention Center and is seeking other partnerships, especially for those who are home bound and unable to travel.

Going forward, most of the deferred capital projects are budgeted and funded as part of the 2021 CIP. And over the next year we will receive about $6 million in federal Covid relief. While we are awaiting federal guidance, Staff is preparing a plan to share with the finance commission and village board to best use these funds. This is on top of staff’s excellent track record across all our departments in securing federal, state and local grants to fund our important infrastructure and service needs.

I could not be prouder of our Village Staff, who under village manager Mike Cassady’s leadership performed as a cohesive and responsible team to best serve our residents and businesses. While our village board met via teleconference when necessary, it was a cumbersome process to ensure public participation. We did our best. Our public works and digital communications departments did creative work to ensure we could safely meet remotely and in person as circumstances allowed. They did such a good job providing unobtrusive Plexiglas shielding between board members on the dais for our in person meetings that it appeared to some residents we were flaunting the rules! So the stresses of normal business were compounded by Covid-related stress and misunderstandings. Our village board proved itself to be resilient under the circumstances and thoughtful and responsive in meeting the community’s needs.

As I write this, our nation and locality are not out of the woods when it comes to Covid-19. While vaccination rates are high among the population eligible to receive it, the emergence of the Delta variance and social dynamics between the vaccinated and unvaccinated are driving a resurgence of cases. It is likely we’ll be in this state of flux for some time. But I believe Mount Prospect has shown itself capable of dealing with this crisis and will continue to do so. I am honored to have been mayor during this unique period of our history.

By Neal Bradley

As Governor Pritzker was issuing statewide closures and quarantining for live group events in March of 2020, we were weighing our options. Would we survive without live, in-person worship? How could we continue to reach out to our members who were in need, spiritually as well as physically and financially? We didn’t panic. We knew that God would give us a solution.

Most of us at Trinity United Methodist Church in Mount Prospect had never even heard of the online meeting application called “ZOOM.” We were investigating Facebook Live, YouTube and a myriad of other platforms that might work. Under the direction of our pastor, Rev. Wendy Hardin Hermann, we formed a small group of church members and staff and investigated the options.

We then discovered that one of our congregants used Zoom every day in business and was very versed in its functionality. From that point, we moved forward. It was a huge learning curve for most of us but we took it one step at a time. We purchased a Zoom account to accommodate large groups and let everyone know that we would have regular worship on Sunday via Zoom and Facebook Live and also embedded on our website. We then had a few seminars to get everyone in our congregation up and running. It took off from there. A big thank you to our A/V team for doing an incredible job each and every week, not to mention our office administrator Lise Renee, Zoom hosts, greeters, attendance keepers, facilitators, music committee, “ReTurn” committee, and worship committee. It truly has been a community effort.

We were one of the first churches in the area to have live worship on Sunday morning. We felt it was important for all of us to stay in contact with each other one way or another, and Zoom was our platform. We decided to have a before-worship “meet and greet” at 10:10 am, a one-hour service followed by a virtual “coffee hour” so that everyone who wanted to, could socialize and keep in contact with fellow members.

We continued to use Zoom for most church activities including Sunday School, Wednesday Evening Prayer, staff meetings, UMW meetings, choir meetings, bible study, committee meetings, several community groups including B.R.E.A.T.H.E., book club and youth meetings. We even started a “lunch bunch” for those who wanted to connect during the week at noon for lunch. One of our members, Jerry Hug, a well-known photographer, hosted an online iPhone photography course. All proceeds were generously donated by Jerry to community outreach.

One of our favorite Christmas time events has always been our Christmas Pageant. In 2020 church members Lorelei Junkel, Carolyn Schneider and Carmen Talbott led the Christmas pageant movie production team. The movie was streamed via Zoom during our Sunday Service. We also offered Christmas caroling via Zoom. The choir sang on several Sundays via prerecorded individual submissions merged into one movie by one of our choir members, Doug Nafis. We sang the Hallelujah Chorus on Christmas Eve using that same method.

We used our website for volunteer sign up sheets, questionnaires, monetary donations, registration for worship forms, prayer requests, getting to know you forms, event registrations, etc. We also fine-tuned our communications to members by sending out the weekly Tidings newsletter, as well as notifications for special events and prayers, through the mailchimp e-blast platform.

We also had to be innovative for other special events. At Christmas time we organized an outside drive-through “Cookie Walk” sponsored by United Methodist Women, a “Drop Off & Give Back” event which included a Baby Jesus Diaper drop-off and a Pop-up Nativity scene.

During Lent we sponsored several neighborhood prayer walks through the “Love Your Neighbor” campaign organized by our Community Ministries Director Jacki Bogolia. One weekend a group walked over to pray at Robert Frost School, which we continue to support through Trinity’s Food4Kids gift cards program. The Trinity community donated almost $5,000 in gift cards for food insecure families last year.

In the spring of 2021 we held several children’s events including our annual Easter Egg Event and a celebration of Earth Day on the church grounds. Early summer we also hosted an Ice Cream Social and a Pride Month celebration outside in the front of the church along Golf Road.

As Illinois has slowly opened up, we have continued to follow recommended guidelines and practices. As of June 2021, we are again at full capacity. We will, however, continue streaming our services every Sunday via Facebook Live so that members who are housebound and other former members from around the country can still tune in.

It truly has been a wild ride for the past year and a half. But with much prayer and God’s guidance, we made it through.

By Nelia Bernabe
Manager of Social Media and Communications 

Maryville, which is located just over Mount Prospect’s eastern border, was founded in 1883. It is a child care organization rooted in Catholic social teaching and dedicated to the preservation of the dignity of children at every age. Our mission is to protect children and strengthen families while helping them reach their fullest potential by empowering their intellectual, spiritual, moral and emotional growth. 

Maryville serves the children and families through our life-changing programs in the following areas: behavioral health services, early childhood services, education services, family and residential services. We care for babies and young adults, ages birth to 21, across all of our programs in Bartlett, Chicago and Des Plaines. 

During fiscal year 2019 Maryville served more than 8,700 children, families and adults and more than 5,000 children, families and adults in fiscal year 2020 (the decrease in number served was due to the pandemic). Maryville has about 500 staff members at its Bartlett, Chicago and Des Plaines campuses. On the Des Plaines campus, we have approximately 70 children in residence. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, serving our beautiful ministry of protecting children and families in our care was paramount. As soon as Gov. Pritzker ordered the lockdown, our Executive Director Sister Catherine M. Ryan, O.S.F. and Maryville’s leadership council moved to action swiftly. Necessary precautions were taken immediately to protect the children, families and staff. 

Our Jen School Principal Anne Craig submitted its remote learning plan to the Illinois State Board of Education and received approval right away. Our Jen School faculty took up the challenge of going from in-person to remote learning. Maryville shelter, residential and health care programs continued to care for the children. 

When Gov. Pritzker announced the stay-at-home order in late March of 2020, some Maryville staff in support departments did so and worked from home. Staff in family and residential homes continued to report to work daily to care for the children who are not able to be at home for a period of time. 

Maryville did not have any serious outbreaks. Safety protocols such as social distancing of at least six feet from any other person, frequent hand washing, wearing of face coverings and checking of temperature at each building were strictly implemented and followed. Deep cleaning was enforced and air filtration in our homes and administrative offices was improved. Additionally, all programs were closed to outside visitors and non-essential medical appointments for our children were canceled. 

To accommodate remote learning, our information technology (IT) department provided additional Chromebooks to our youth whose school buildings were closed. 

In addition to providing tools for a successful remote learning experience, the children and young adults in our residential programs were engaged with different educational activities that allowed them a virtual classroom experience. For instance, the girls on our Eisenberg campus engaged in arts and crafts such as painting, decorating small tote bags with donated art materials, making a piñata, brainstorming science fair ideas, learning the history of the Ferris Wheel in Chicago while they bult popsicle stick Ferris Wheels, playing games and many more. 

Maryville’s IT department made it possible for our children and youth to learn remotely and for staff to hold meetings virtually. All of our programs adapted – and warmed up – to using technology to communicate and get connected. 

Maryville’s leadership team, led by Sister Cathy, sent daily communication via email to all staff. She made sure that staff had the most up-to-date information from Gov. Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Lightfoot’s offices, IDPH, CDC and other partner agencies, and what that meant for Maryville and staff. One of the first communication emails that Sister Cathy sent was announcing to staff that no one would be laid off. Sister Cathy and her leadership team had daily conference calls to discuss communication and updates to staff. 

We purchased PPEs, enforced deep cleaning and improved air filtration in our group homes and administrative offices at all campuses. 

Once vaccines became available, as essential workers, Maryville’s frontline workers were included in the first phase of the rollout. The majority of Maryville’s staff are vaccinated and we are working on having the youth in our care, ages 12 and older, get vaccinated. 

Maryville does not foresee any long-term changes due to the pandemic but having the option of offering remote learning to students and virtual meetings to staff when needed – and knowing that they work – shows how Maryville proactively reacted and acted swiftly to address the challenges that unfolded. We strictly adhered to, implemented and followed safety protocols that protected our children and staff; allowed Maryville to operate daily; and allowed staff to keep their jobs. 

Planning for the future includes consideration of what actions we would take in the event of another pandemic.

By Liz Mika, Office Manager

Much of Mount Prospect’s Polish community gathers for worship and fellowship at the St. Thomas Becket Catholic Church in the northeastern corner of the Village.

The word came from the Archdiocese to close all churches due to COVID-19 on Friday, March 13, 2020. The last Mass celebrated that day was at 7 p.m. in Polish. This was a huge shock, especially to the faithful of Polish descent. They remember World War II, Communism and other persecutions to our faith, but the church had never before fully closed. 

We announced the sad news via our email blasts, Facebook, parish website, signs on the door and the media was blasting this, as well. Yet, there were many people who still stopped by and called to ask if it was really true. Our current pastor, Fr. Chris Kulig, started livestreams of Masses via our Facebook: on Saturday in English and on Sunday in Polish. Easter was only four weeks into the pandemic closure. The inability to be at church as a community during the three most Holy Days in our faith was especially tough on parishioners. 

When parishes first reopened on June 6, 2020, under strict Covid-19 guidelines, St. Thomas Becket was one of the first parishes in the Diocese to receive needed certification to safely reopen with limited capacity and with trained volunteers. Marks in church were set to show where parishioners could sit and stand. Since that first Sunday, reservations were taken to attend Mass to ensure everyone’s safety and limit attendance. Our volunteers wore construction vests when checking people in at the door. They sprayed guest’s hands with sanitizer, sat parishioners at least six feet apart, followed strict guidelines for receiving Holy Communion and enforced face masks. 

Each week, when the reservation link was opened, there was an incredible rush to register, especially for the Polish Masses. Our pre-pandemic attendance was 800+ per Mass, and the limit went down to 50, and then to 150! Christmas of 2020 was also interesting, as a very limited number of parishioners were allowed in the church under a strict reservation and safety system. 

Easter of 2021 was still under limited capacity of worshippers in the church. Holy Saturday is extremely big in the Polish tradition with the blessing of food baskets. We realized that the need would be great and to accommodate all, we held the blessing on the parking lot for over three hours straight! The cars just kept coming. We were told that the streets in the neighborhood were grid-locked with traffic. Our estimate is that we had over 1,000 cars, plus probably over 2,000 people on foot who stopped by to have their baskets and families blessed. 

To accommodate the rising needs for live Mass streams, in spring of 2021, St. Thomas Becket installed a state-of-the-art projection system in our overflow hall space and at the same time a connection to our Facebook Mass transmission. Before then, Fr. Chris used his cell phone to transmit Masses. 

With complete opening on June 11, 2021, the church is once again full to the brim. 

As a parish, we continued to collect food and share it with the Catholic Charities Food Pantry in Des Plaines and the St. Alphonsus Liguori Food Pantry in Prospect Heights. We continued to teach religious education to our youngsters via Zoom sessions. 

As for the staff, all but a few worked from home. Only the office manager and Fr. Kulig were always in to follow the frequent updates from the state and the Archdiocese. We did our very best to keep parishioners updated and current on all events. Mass at our parish was said and streamed every day, be it only with Fr. Kulig present when the pandemic began. 

This has been a tremendous trial for us all, but we are very happy to see most parishioners return to church, with smiling faces not hidden under masks. 

We are looking forward to resuming our regular activities, fundraisers and just being together as a family — a community of faith.

St. Thomas Becket parish was founded in the fall of 1969, more than 50 years ago. The first Sunday Masses were said on September 28, 1969, in the gymnasium of Maryville Academy. During the following week, arrangements were made with the local public school district to use Indian Grove Elementary School, which is directly across from where the parish now stands, for services. 

So, starting on October 5, 1969, and for more than nine years thereafter, Indian Grove was the “church” for weekend and some Holy Day Masses. Folding chairs, a portable podium and a collapsible altar were stored in the garage of a parishioner who lived next to the school. Each week, the church would be set up on Saturday afternoon and taken down on Sunday afternoon. During the first month, 247 families registered as members of the parish. 

With time, the neighborhood’s demographics changed. The English-speaking families had grown children who have moved away from home, and more Polish immigrants were moving to Mount Prospect and the surrounding suburbs. There was no Mass offered in Polish close by, so a group of parishioners approached then-pastor Fr. John Roller to ask if they could start one at St. Thomas Becket. The first Polish-language Mass was celebrated on December 1, 1996, with a couple hundred in that first Polish congregation. The present number is pushing the 1,000 mark!

Since 2004, the assigned pastors to this parish have been required to be fluent in Polish to accommodate the needs of the parish community. 

In August of 2019, renovations to the church were completed to adapt to growing membership, especially the Polish-speaking community. The long-standing circular church model  was restored to St. Thomas Becker’s original all-facing the altar and a new tile floor and new pews were installed. This allows for 245 more seats. Two new projection screens were also added. This proved to be especially helpful during the pandemic when we could not have any worship aides in the pews. 

Presently, there are two Polish Masses held each Sunday. Many celebrations, sacraments and liturgies are also celebrated in Polish.

When the Pandemic closed everything down on a Friday in March of 2020, the leadership team at St. Paul Lutheran Church sprang into immediate action. Just two days later, the church broadcast its first on-line service via Facebook Live. 

As the Pandemic wore on, the technology was upgraded from simply using an iPad to ‘point and shoot’ to volunteer congregational members who are professional videographers. 

Services were filled with all of the things people loved, sometimes including music ensembles brought together via Zoom.

No matter the tech being used, congregational members would greet each other in the comment section each week, allowing for a sense of fellowship even though they couldn’t gather in person. Yard signs were given out to show unity and to remind people that although they might be separated physically, as part of the congregation, they are never truly alone. 

Within a week of the shut down, the church started sending out nightly devotions to its members. These were led by pastors, DCE, music leaders, the school principal and later, teachers and students. Some were videos and some were written, but all provided Bible-based words of encouragement for the difficult and unprecedented time.

On-line Sunday School and VBS (Volunteers packed hundreds of bags with supplies for pick up.) were offered, as well as Parking Lot Communion and individual, in-person communion scheduled in ten minute slots on an evening and weekday morning. 

The sixth graders’ First Communion service was held outside on a gorgeous evening.

In November of 2020, after almost a year as Interim, leading the congregation through unprecedented change in the church and the world, Pastor Bo Graham was officially installed as Senior Pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church. (He had previously served as Associate Pastor.)

The church’s Bethlehem Walk took on a new look for Christmas in 2020 with a drive-by Nativity. And the 2021 Easter Egg Hunt took to the road, visiting neighborhood houses of congregational members in ‘trick-or-treat’ style to deliver plastic eggs filled with goodies using a contactless ladder chute.

One of St. Paul’s most noteworthy community ministries, Breakfast with Baby, took on a new format as well. The ministry, which Pastor Bo received the Shining Star Open Arms Award for in 2019, provides diapers, clothing, fellowship, Bible study, and breakfast for those in need. Prior to the Pandemic, families were welcomed into the church for breakfast, Bible study, and children’s activities the second Saturday of each month. When the Pandemic struck, the volunteers who oversee this ministry quickly adapted the procedures. Through all seasons and weather conditions, they continued to pass out needed items and groceries in a well-organized, drive-through system, while fostering a sense of connection and community with those who visited. The ministry continues to thrive.

 Eventually things started to slowly open up again, and Pastor Bo and Vicar Valencia put together a fun video to show people what to expect when they returned to church in person: entrances and exits, temperature checks, masks, sanitizing, limited numbers, and assigned pews.

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Through everything the Pandemic brought, the leadership and congregation of St. Paul Lutheran Church stood strong together: Apart but Not Alone.