The Thorn Creek Woods Nature Preserve, considered an oasis in the suburban desert, is now in need of major repair.
Although the site on Monee Road is a quiet slice of wilderness in the cramped suburbs south of Chicago, the effects of time and weather have taken their toll. A 15-year-old hiking bridge spanning the uneven banks of the creek for which the preserve is named was deemed “unsafe” this month because horizontal beams bracing the structure at water level seem to be splintering.
The bridge closing cuts access to the longest trail in the preserve.
“Right now, we are trying to find out what we can do and whether we can repair the bridge.” said Penny Chamberlain, president of the Friends of the Thorn Creek Woods, a volunteer group which tends the site.
How much repairs or a new bridge will cost and where the money will come from is anyone’s guess.
On a walk along its trails, one may hear the wind whistle through the trees, the croak of frogs or the rustling wings of hawks and owls. Muskrats glide noiselessly in the water of Thorn Creek and, if fortunate, you may come upon a doe resting in a shady spot.
She may not move. This, after all, is her home.
The nature preserve is a 1,000-acre site on Monee Road and for nearly 50 years has been a small patch of solitude in the midst of the often chaotic business of life. Walking its 3 1/2 miles of paths can be a mental coin flip for some and can exchange the routine for the unexpected and the hectic for some silent moments.
As with almost everything else these days, what will happen to the bridge depends on what has to be done, who can do it and how much it will cost. The preserve is governed by a management commission made up of the villages of Park Forest and University Park and the Will County Forest Preserve District, working with the citizen-led 55-year-old friends organization.
The group runs programs, tends the trails and staffs the nature center, which is housed in an Evangelical Lutheran church built in 1861 and which once stood at the corner of Cicero Avenue and Sauk Trail in Richton Park.
In 1974, the church was moved lock, stock and steeple, to its current site next to a parking lot. The structure was refurbished and now serves as an overview of the site, its history and its charm.
If all this reads like a one-sided infomercial for the preserve, so be it.
Local election yawn
It could be another post-COVID abnormality, a feeling of satisfaction about what’s going on in the village, or even a form of community shoulder-shrugging, but for the second consecutive election, there are no contests for any races for either for village or library board seats in Park Forest.
Incumbent trustees Maya Hardy, Erin Slone and Theresa Settles have no opposition, while Joshua Travis and Jessica Rodrigues will be elected to the two vacant seats for the Library Board.
Two years ago, then-Mayor Jon Vanderbilt dropped out of the race before election day, leaving then Trustee Joe Woods as the only candidate.
With this in mind, Park Forest’s Committee for Non-Partisan Local Government will schedule only one open forum on March 9 at Village Hall. In the past, when as many as five or six people were in the running for three Village Board seats, there was a need for three forums for residents to hear opposing views.
This lack of community involvement is surprising to anyone who reads those sometimes angry, sometimes cranky posts on social media in which nothing seems to be right in the 75-year-old community.
Jerry Shnay, at Jerryshnay@gmail.com, is a freelance columnist for the Daily Southtown.
