Park Forest, Illinois

there. So, it would take a week or two to mow it and by the time theymowed it, they would have to start over, again. So, that was a lot of staff resources, and greenhouse gas emissions going into the air. “And so, in the mid 1990s, our Recreation & Parks Department decided that, for a large part of that park, 45 of the 50 acres, they were going to let it go back and be what it really wanted to be,which was a wetland. So, they disconnected the drain tiles in the park and just let the water stand there.Without doing anything else, all of the native plants came back up.We do have to manage it, but right in the center of town,we have this beautiful, 45-acre wetland.They’ve counted over a hundred species of birds out there; there are frogs and deer.That’s one of the early things - long before we thought about doing a sustainability plan-we let that land be what it wanted to be.” An unanticipated, added benefit of the project was that pesticides and insecticides were no lon- ger needed.“The wetlands act as a natural barrier collector for mosquitoes,” says Zoellner.All of the birds in it manage that, so we don’t have to spray, anymore, or rely on Cook County, or anyone else to spray for mosquitoes here, like they do in other com- munities.”“The birds eat all the larvae,” adds Kingma. “You can do tests of the water in the wetlands and you hardly get anymosquito larvae, at all.” While preserving its natural assets, Park Forest is also forging ahead with economic development. “The Village of Park Forest is dedicated to economic development and bringing jobs to our community,” states Kingma.Amajor infrastructure project on its current agenda is meant to position the Village for increased growth along southWestern Avenue, a north/south arterial that goes from just south of Park Forest, all the way north to Chicago.“It’s a major arterial through the Chicago metropolitan PARK FOREST, ILLINOIS area,”Kingma relates.“We hope that at some point in the future, the southern terminus will be at a new, south-suburban airport that’s been talked about for decades. So,Western Avenue is an important artery through Park Forest, as well.” The southWestern Avenue project is a three-quar- ters-of-a-mile installation of a 12-inch water line. “We’re extending this 12-inch water line, initially, to assist a local business called Continental Midland,” Kingma reports.“They’ve been there for 35 or 40 years.Theymake fasteners for the automotive in- dustry.They’ve been on a well systemwith a water tower to supply themwith the pressure they need, but the tower is at the end of its useful life and so they’ve decided to come onto public water, now.And this is really important for the Village’s economic development.” Not only is Continental Midland paying half the cost of the newwater line, Kingma says that once it’s in the ground,manymore opportunities for development become possible: “This roadway out southWestern Avenue is an industrial corridor, so, once we get this water line in,we’re not only going to be serving Continental Midland, but we sized the water line sufficiently to serve others.There’s quite a bit of vacant land on the western side of Western Avenue, and we hope to able to use that as a way of attracting new industrial development.We also hope that, in installing this water line,we’ll open up all the land between them and the Village limits to entice development.Over the last 13 years,we’ve had a handful of those property owners come in