Igor Studenkov

Albanian American Association Ulqini-Chicago organization is looking to open its first-ever cultural center in a two-story building at 800 Busse Hwy., Park Ridge. The organization is planning to use the second story as offices, and the first story as a banquet hall for community and member events. Park Ridge zoning code treats this type of use as a social club, and social clubs require Special Use permits.

The Davis Street Metra station in downtown Evanston is scheduled to get some improvements — but it will be at least a year before riders see any of them.

The Chicago Transit Board has agreed to continue reimbursing off-duty police officers from suburban police departments, including Evanston Police

Park Ridge Planning & Zoning Commission members voted unanimously on Tuesday (Jan. 14) to recommend approving a Special Use permit that would allow Albanian American Association Ulqini-Chicago to have offices and an event space at 800 Busse Hwy. The organization plans to use the second floor as offices and storage, and use the first floor for classes, art exhibits and events.

Effective at the start of the 2024-2025 school year, the district set a universal standard for how students’ semester grades break down: 70% is based on ‘‘summatives”, or large assessments such as tests, projects and presentations; 30% is based on “formatives”, or small assessments, such as homework, quizzes and some labs. The district also created a universal policy on turning in late assignments -- sstudents now have until the end of the unit to turn it in.

The Planning & Zoning Commission has been working with the city on the update for the past year. While the final version isn’t expected to go before the council until spring, Community Planning & Development Director Drew Awsumb previewed the general outlines during last Tuesday’s (Jan. 21) meeting of the Procedures and Regulations Committee of the Whole. In addition to summarizing the plan, he touched on some of the changes Uptown went through since the pandemic, and flagged some issues that might become challenges down the line. The last version of the plan encouraged mixed-use development in Uptown. Denser and tall

Park Ridge Park District hopes to be able to hire 15-year-olds after all, assuming the latest amendment to the state child labor law clears the governor’s desk.In July 2024, Illinois General Assembly passed a child labor law overhaul that, among other things, required that employees younger than 16 always be supervised by someone age 21 or older. The change took effect at the start of this year.

Endeavor Health is considering layoffs as many as 100 staff members across its nine hospitals and other healthcare facilities — but it declined to share

Terry Wolf, the park district’s superintendent of buildings and grounds, said that using a robot would make the process about eight times as fast as it would with staff. The board awarded the contract to TinyMobileRobots, a Kennesaw, Georgia, based line drawing robot manufacturer. Wolf said that, out of the two potential options, TinyMobileRobots offered more flexible terms and had some technological advantages.

Mayor Marty Maloney will give this year’s State of the City address at Park Ridge’s newest restaurant. On Feb. 5, the Park Ridge Chamber of Commerce and city officials will cut the ribbon on Fire + Wine restaurant’s Park Ridge location at 608 W. Touhy Ave. The ribbon-cutting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Maloney will give the State of the City address at 6 p.m. The address will go over what the mayor saw as his accomplishments over the past year, and preview major initiatives coming in 2025.