With just about every political pollster and pundit predicting the outcome of Tuesday’s dead-heat presidential race, we decided to conduct our own friendly neighborhood poll on the Oak Lawn and Evergreen Park Facebook pages. The results revealed some interesting anecdotal information that may or may not be considered “trend worthy” of today’s political landscape. Veteran GOP strategist Mary Matalin predicted a Reagan-style victory for Romney by 7-percentage points during a talk at Saint Xavier University last week—the same spread that catapulted Republican Ronald Reagan into the presidency …

Nobody ever plans to get a cat, they just happen, as in the case of Noel and Julie Roberts who live near 96th Street and Menard Avenue. Subscribe to the O-L Patch newsletter and breaking news alerts. As Patch reported last month, a small, black-and-white cat just showed up at their house and adopted the Roberts. Being animal lovers, Noel and Julie started leaving food out for the petite miss. It turned out that she wasn’t alone and “Mama” began bringing her three kittens by as well. “Mama is a very friendly cat,” Julie said. “When you sit on the sette outside, she will come sit next to you.” …

There is always hope for missing friends. Just ask Don Moust. Last winter, Don’s Brittney spaniel, Quint, was lost for eleven days. Oak Lawn Patch sent out a breaking-news alert about the missing pooch and Don was inundated with Quint sightings. The Lost Dogs Illinois Facebook page helped too. We all followed Don’s anguished search for Quint. Then came the joyous phone call that Don had found Quint safe and alive. After weeks of looking for Quint, who was spotted in Oak Lawn, Evergreen Park, Mt. Greenwood and St. Casmir Cemetery, Quint turned up in Oak Forest just as Don was beginning to …

Around the time when my parents discovered I was practicing for my future career as a journalist interviewing bums down by the Soo-Line tracks, they correctly surmised that I would probably benefit from safer, supervised  activities. I was 9 years old, so I joined the Girl Scouts. Troop 3 was a brand new troop at my school. We met every Wednesday afternoon in the basement of West School in Des Plaines. Our troop leader was a hippie chick named Martha Kahle. Although a large woman who resembled a big comfy couch, she was as graceful as a willow. She was the only adult whom I ever addressed by …

Continuing the great “Trick or Toast” debate where second-graders were served toast and cream cheese as opposed to candy last Halloween, we asked our Oak Lawn Patch Facebook fans how they felt about cake and candy being served at their children’s Valentine’s Day school parties. We garnered plenty of comments from readers with children in Oak Lawn schools. Here are a few of their responses, including two of the “toast” moms from Oak Lawn-Hometown Dist 123: Jacqui Cook Podzius: “NEVER! We got a reminder in the letter home about the party that all treats must conform to the healthy guidelines or…

So what if the Bears aren’t playing in the big game this Sunday, at least we don’t have to watch the Packers play in it. In honor of that-which-we-may-not-call-by-its-legally-trademarked-name, Patch is holding its own championship. We’re talking pizza here, and no one knows Oak Lawn’s pizza places better than our loyal readers. In the next few days we’ll be pitting the best locally owned pizzerias against each other and Evergreen Park’s. And surely Oak Lawn’s pie can beat those wimpy pizzerias east of Pulaski Road to move on to the next round. By locally owned, we mean our village’s …

News that the South Side Irish Parade may be returning was greeted with excitement until everyone heard the catch: organizers must keep the neighborhood parade alcohol-free. The 30-year strong South Side Irish Parade began as a quaint family parade of scout troops, local business floats and high school marching bands with green-dyed hair marching down Western Avenue. Like Oak Lawn's Round-Up Day parades of the 1950s, the annual neighborhood celebration became a victim of its own success, attracting hundreds of thousands of intoxicated celebrants in its later years. READ: 'South Side Irish …

The Eagles and Junior Jordans hit the courts at Brother Rice High School on Saturday for the biggest game of the year. The Special Olympic teams square off for some thrilling and entertaining basketball, raising money for the Oak Lawn Park District’s special recreation programs. The high school-aged Eagles and younger Junior Jordans will split up their teams and face off against each other. “Not only are these kids great athletes, they’re great entertainers,” organizer John Zawaski said. READ: "Special Olympics Athletes Shoot for the Stars" The fun starts at noon Saturday, Jan. 14, at Brother…

As we bid goodbye to 2011 and say hello to 2012, Patch consulted the old Magic 8 Ball for some hyperlocal predictions. (Tell us your predictions at the end of the story.) Here are some of the answers we received: The ongoing legal investigation into the former village attorneys’ termination in 2009 for alleged overbillings and malpractice continues. The meter is still running and at last count the cost to village taxpayers was $200,540. Patch has filed another freedom of information act request so expect an update soon. Patch: Will the legal investigation ever end? Magic 8 Ball: "Better not …

To her neighbors, Lorraine Savage was the nice lady who lived down the 4600 block of West 99th Place with the somewhat odd son. Although the 73-year-old was a private person, she always had a wave and a smile for her neighbors. Savage was also a creature of habit, retrieving her garbage can from the curb almost immediately after Veolia Environmental Services collected the trash. So when a neighbor noticed her garbage can still sitting curbside days after the scheduled weekly trash pickup, he brought the can up to her house, thinking Savage was “under the weather.” It never occurred to him to …

One thing you can say about Oak Lawn is that it's never boring. From blizzards and microbursts to politics and involuntary possum slaughter, the year 2011 was filled with memorable moments and interesting public access television. Patch recounts a few of them here, not necessarily in any order. We can hardly wait for 2012. 'Petition-Gate' The first inkling of trouble came in January when village clerk Jane Quinlan discovered her son's and daughter-in-law’s names on an election petition to put a referendum on the April 5 ballot to change the village’s form of government. Before it was all over…

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Each photo in this Veterans Day slideshow is connected to Oak Lawn. Many of them were submitted by Patch readers. While some of the veterans may not have lived or grown up in Oak Lawn, they mean something to our readers. Some we wrote about during the past year, like Sgt. Brad Hojek, the Army Ranger who was wounded in Afghanistan in March, or the Hurst brothers, two soldiers who came home last week to give their mom away at her wedding. Jake is coming home from Afghanistan; his big brother, John, leaves for there next month. Marine Cpl. John Peter…

By now we’ve all survived the federal government’s first nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System. Like many Americans, I grew up watching the old “Emergency Broadcast System” tests on TV. As a child, I found them scary and depressing. They reminded me of the Cuban Missile Crisis, when my family was going to wait out the big one in our basement. We had a couple of months’ supply of Campbell’s soup and my father taught my brother how to shoot a .22. He was instructed to shoot any Russians that might stray down our suburban street. The first nationwide test of the emergency alert system …

At last week’s village board meeting, 10 costumed residents showed up to protest the shortening of trick-or-treat hours in Oak Lawn. Even though the issue wasn’t on the village board’s agenda, the mayor allowed residents to speak their piece during the public comments portion of the meeting. Dan Lupesco, a self-described Halloween nut, was moved to start a “Save Halloween in Oak Lawn” Facebook group after learning of a village trustee’s proposal to shave an hour off the trick-or-treat curfew. Residents had hoped to convince trustees to reverse an earlier village board vote and reinstate the …

Last night on my way home from the Oak Lawn Village Board meeting, I was pulled over on 95th Street because of a rear light that I did not know was burned out on my car. Unbeknownst to me, the Illinois Secretary of State had also apparently suspended my driver’s license last week because of some unpaid parking tickets in Chicago prior to my moving to Oak Lawn a year ago. This is what the police officer told me, and everything that I know as of 12:24 a.m. Wednesday. I was handcuffed—a first and last for me—and taken to the Oak Lawn police lockup. I was fingerprinted and had my mug shot taken. …

In many ways, the past year has been an “annus horribilis” for Mayor Dave Heilmann—marked by the death of his father and his wife’s cancer diagnosis shortly after the birth of the couple’s fourth child. He said as much at last Wednesday’s groundbreaking ceremony for the new outpatient pavilion at Advocate Christ Medical Center hours before the news broke of a community activist’s indictment that she had forged signatures on an election petition to place a referendum on the 2011 ballot. The mayor, who couldn’t be reached for comment last week, responded by email to other village board members…

In case this doesn't make the Oak Lawn Village Board's parish reports, the First United Methodist Church of Oak Lawn has opened its pumpkin patch this week and is selling a amazing selection of pumpkins and gords. Pumpkins range in price from 50-cents to $30 for the huge granddaddies. Beautiful gords of all shapes, sizes and colors are ready to purchase for your fall harvest centerpiece. The good people of First United Methodist are also selling homemade scarecrows, crafts and baked goods. There are activities for kids, tractor hay rides and a giant leaf pile to jump into. Of course, you can …

In addition to possibly filling a vacancy on the village board this evening, Oak Lawn trustees will also be voting on another highly important matter: whether or not to cut back the hours children are allowed to go trick or treating. Trustee Alex Olejniczak thinks the candy grab should end at 7 p.m. instead 8 p.m. on Oct. 31. While he doesn’t want to be “the trustee that took away Halloween” he thinks trick or treating until 8 p.m. “might be excessive.” I’m sure there is a civics lesson I’m missing here. It appears that the village board, like any legislative body of lawmakers, creates the …

Inspired by a story in Patch about Oak Lawn's food pantries being at an all-time low, the Oak Lawn Raiders Social and Athletic Club wanted do something to help. Enter the Southland's Lions Clubs, who were hosting their first-ever grocery dash, a variation of the old "supermarket sweeps" in the 1950s and 1960s, where crazed couples ran through supermarkets cramming carts with turkeys, steaks, canned goods and TV dinners before the clock ran out. It made for riveting television. The Oak Lawn Raiders bought ten raffle tickets at $10 a pop. If they held the winning number, they would donate the …

Just when we thought it was safe to get off the roller coaster of village politics, the Oak Lawn Tax Watch referendum comes along to take us for another wild thrill ride. The referendum petition that was said to contain hundreds of fraudulent signatures reminded us last week that it never really went away, but just sat out the next couple of dances in the corner. You know which petition I’m talking about. It was the one to put a referendum on the ballot last April asking residents if the village manager’s position should be eliminated, restoring power to an elected mayor. Trustees Bob Streit …