April 22, 2020 Update from the Mayor

April 22, 2020 Update from the Mayor

Today, the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) announced 2,049 new confirmed cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois. Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 35,108 cases, including 1,565 deaths, in 96 counties in Illinois.  Hickory Hills has 38 confirmed COVID cases and 2 deaths related to COVID.

Linked here is the most recent edition of their Daily COVID-19 FAQs.

Young Joy Riders Ticketed For Driving Across Lawn

It is amazing what a lengthy Stay at Home Order can do to our youth.  Early in the Stay at Home we posted a video of the O’Callahan children pulling each other along the sidewalk in a red wagon.  In just over a month, Jack and Fiadh O’Callahan have ditched the wagon for a Mustang convertible and proceeded to do a lawn job across the neighbor’s front yard.    Fortunately, no one was injured in the incident, but each was issued a citation.

Public Works News

Public Works has been busier than usual with brush pick up duties since I believe many of us have tried to get an earlier start on spring clean up in our yards.   The Cook County Roberts Road reconstruction project is slated to start this August.  Local Hickory Hills various street resurfacing is expected to start in May.

My Father’s Book Recommendation To Me

 

My father was an avid reader of books about American history  and often would tell me that he had just finished a book that I must read.  Unfortunately, all too often I would just catalogue the book in my memory and wait for the day that I would indeed read that book.  Well, this crisis has certainly changed many of our leisure habits and for me it has afforded me some time to read a few of my father’s suggested books.  David McCullough’s Pulitzer Prize winning biography of Harry S. Truman, for one.  Truman, was often referred to as the accidental president for how he ascended to the Presidency.  Many also called him America’s common-man president for how he rose to the most powerful position in the world after an impoverished upbringing on the Missouri frontier and decorated service in World War I.  Like all of us, Truman made his mistakes, but during his tenure our country met unprecedented challenges and among other many others, famously kept a sign on his desk that read “The Buck Stops Here” referring to his belief that the President has to make the decisions and accept the ultimate responsibility for those decisions.  Glad that I listened to my father and found the time to read this one.  A few down and many more to get to from my father’s “highly recommended” list.

truman

We could all use a little more cow bell

Have a great Thursday!

Mayor Mike