Only two weeks into a new year and our shiny 12-month calendar we received in the mail last month, from an organization whose name I have forgotten, is filled with numerous notes and lots of question marks.
As an example, on the first of each month I scribble the words “Autumn Ridge” in some squares. It is a reminder that the tenants of the decrepit Autumn Ridge apartments at the Will County end of Park Forest must still put up with Third World living conditions in the nearly 400-unit complex of apartments and town homes.
We are told that only about 40% of the housing units are now occupied and seldom does a week or so go by without some housing calamity taking place. When we discussed the problems in the past we wrote about unheated apartments in winter, broken air conditioning units in the summer, stolen mail, elevators that do not move, broken doors and leaky roofs.
When COVID-19 hit us some six years ago, the outdoor pool closed. These days, we assume the only water in the facility comes from an occasional rainstorm.
We discussed the terrible conditions of the complex more than once. We even included a photo taken by village Mayor Joe Woods of mushrooms growing in a soggy hall carpet.
One is reminded of the tale of the little Dutch boy who stuck his finger in the dam to safeguard a town. The trouble is the village does not have enough fingers to plug all the holes that crop up at Autumn Ridge and its hands are tied.
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When one problem is fixed it seems two other problems seem to crop up.
So why doesn’t Park Forest do something, you may ask.
The trouble is there is very little it can do outside of looking hard, issuing citations, threatening to go to court and ask for receivership as well as seeking investors willing to invest millions to correct the problems faced by tenants, many of whom pay more than $1,200 monthly rent to a seemingly uncaring management.
The management company owes the village about $900,000 in unpaid water bills, according to Village Manager Jon Kindseth. For both health and safety reasons, Park Forest cannot cut off water to residents who pay their water bills to management.
Because of the lack of housing in the area, the village cannot force people out on the street to look for a place to live in an area with little available, affordable housing.
Well, there is that 44-unit apartment complex nearing completion at Orchard Drive and Indianwood Boulevard. The last we heard was there were more than 1,000 applications with about half the units earmarked for people with special needs.
One more year
I eagerly await the 2027 calendar so I can pencil in the reopening date of the village’s Aqua Center.
The four-pool Park Forest Aqua Center, closed for the last two years, needs a $10.5 million repair that will keep it in dry dock until next year when it opens as a two-pool complex with the four-lane adult pool and a reconfigured zero-depth swim pool and water slide.
In recent years, massive water leaks in all its pools cost the village more than $80,000.
As a frequent dog-paddler in the adult pool in past years, I realized there was an “in group” who were always full of rumors, stories, gripes and at times real news of the village and its residents. In past years, if you wanted to know what’s going on in town, the adult pool was the place to go.
It is to be noted that the adult pool will be the first to open,
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Stop the presses!
Jerry Shnay is a freelance columnist for the Daily Southtown.