Pollinator, rain garden coming to Des Plaines Ave.
The village will have a new green space this summer in a garden on the small plot of land across the street from Forest Park Village Hall on Des Plaines Avenue.
At a village council meeting on March 24, two representatives from the Oak Park Area Association of Realtors gave public comment to announce that the National Association of Realtors awarded Forest Park a $7,500 grant that would fund most of the cost for a new pollinator and rain garden.
Pollinator plants provide nectar and pollen to the likes of bees and hummingbirds, which help plants to reproduce. The new pollinator garden will include Willowleaf Amsonia, Buttonbush, Beardstongue, Culver’s Root, Swamp Rose Mallow, Brome-Like Sedge, Wild Bergamot, Cape Breeze Switchgrass, Spotted Joe Pye Weed, Swamp Milkweed, Golden Alexander, and Queen of the Prairie.
The rain garden element comes from landscapers installing screening underneath the pollinator plants, which absorb more water than other plants.
“We were originally going to make that parking lot a paver lot to absorb some of the rainwater,” Sal Stella, Forest Park’s public works director, told the Review
The preparation for the garden will likely start in early spring, and the garden will be open by summer.
Mayor Rory Hoskins told the Review that he met the two representatives who gave public comment – Sharon Halperin, CEO of the Oak Park Area Association of Realtors, and Michael Bailey, Oak Park Area Association of Realtors’ government affairs director – last summer at a forum with other local mayors. He said Halperin and Bailey presented the idea of the grant afterward.
“We didn’t necessarily seek this out,” Hoskins said. He originally wanted to put a gazebo across the street from the village hall, but that would’ve been several thousand dollars more expensive than the grant amount.
According to Stella, the National Association of Realtors grant was given for a beautification project that the public could interact with.
“It’s a central space that can be enjoyed by people visiting village hall or passing by,” Hoskins said.
“The new garden will not only provide several ecological benefits, but it will also offer an opportunity for residents to interact, for community engagement and for youth education,” Halperin said during public comment.
Stella said that the Forest Park Public Library and the Howard Mohr Community Center down the street from Forest Park Village Hall often ask staff about opportunities to bring children in their programs to village facilities for outdoor time and education.
The proposal the village received puts the garden cost at $7,569.15. The village will be on the hook for about $70 of that.
According to Rachell Entler, village administrator, that cost is within the staff’s spending authority, so the village council doesn’t need to approve the grant.
Because it’s a reimbursement grant, the village must provide the money up front. It will submit receipts and invoices to the National Association of Realtors after the garden is complete and before the reimbursement deadline on Oct. 1.
