One way or another, Park Forest will benefit from nearly $600,000 in grants earmarked for the establishment of a clean energy training facility for electric cars and for much-needed local road improvements.
If you are thinking about getting a new kind of job, and looking for a career in electric vehicles because you want to have a more environmentally friendly planet, OAI of Park Forest will soon develop a clean energy demonstration site with a $100,000 check from Northern Illinois Community Initiatives, a Nicor Gas foundation committed to helping to elevate underserved communities.
Mayor Joe Woods lauded the work of OAI and its “exemplary” 10-plus year track record of job training.
“Jobs,” Woods said, “turn into solid income and careers.”
Woods said training for careers in electric vehicle charging station installation is the next frontier in OAI’s good work.
“It’s one thing to provide technical training,” said Woods. “It is another to provide guidance and mentorship on expectation of employees in the workplace.”
Contributions from the village of Park Forest, the Cook County Bureau of Economic Development and United Way will be used to build the clean energy demonstration site to be used as a hands-on electric vehicle training facility furnished with charging stations. OAI will use funds from the U.S. Department of Energy to flesh out a major electric vehicle training facility, allowing the group and its partners to train a new wave of technicians in the booming sector.
According to Amanda Allen, OAI’s executive director, the launching of a clean energy demonstration site and training space will “elevate the visibility of career pathways in the clean energy sector.”
Pothole parade
If you have ever tried to maneuver around the craters on what is left of both Forest and Norwood boulevards in Park Forest, you may take heart that Cook County, in its Invest in Cook grant program, is giving the village $480,000 to repair those shock-busting streets.
That is part of an overall $8 million program targeting 35 projects in low and moderate income communities and townships reported last week by fellow scribe Mike Nolan.
In his comments, Woods called attention to the heavy rail traffic on Western Avenue which he claims is often blocked by more than 32 trains a day, thus making Forest and Norwood bypass routes for both fire and ambulance vehicles.
“A project like this is never cheap,” said Woods, noting the entire endeavor “will run into the millions of dollars.” That is why, Woods said, the village looks to outside funding “to help meet the needs of the community.”
Some 16 years ago, when Canadian National purchased the rail line, we wrote that a major street blocked by a train could delay lifesaving services.
With the money from Cook County and with “adequate funds” from other sources to subsidize the work, Woods says the project has moved from a vision “toward becoming a reality.”
Personal note
We recently spent nine days with our daughter and her Colorado family. We traveled by car. Interstate 80 is an old friend. The speed limit in almost all of Nebraska and a chunk of Colorado is 75 and we “crawl” along at 77 in the “slow” right lane.
Smoke from a few mountain fires smudged our view of the Rockies for a couple of days, but by last Wednesday the tops of mountains were as a scalloped edge against cloudless blue sky.
On the road, we spoke to a Wisconsin driver whose car had a large horn mounted on the roof. He said it sounds like a blast from a locomotive. His father is a rail fan so that was the reason.
We did not ask for a demonstration.
Jerry Shnay, at jerryshnay@gmail.com, is a freelance columnist for the Daily Southtown.
