IRMA's Featured Retailer
We Are Retail: M.D. Trains
M.D. Trains in downtown Woodstock is a full-service hobby shop owned by Matt Drennan, offering model trains, cars, and collectibles for hobbyists of all ages.
The store has become a welcoming community hub for those with a passion for railroading and model building. From vintage finds to modern supplies, M.D. Trains has it all for nostalgic and creative collectors.
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OCT 07, 2021
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Citywide public approval for the Chicago Park District fell by 13 percentage points between June and September, the latest Chicago Index survey found.
The Chicago Park District, typically one of the city’s most popular agencies, is losing favor with city residents as it becomes consumed with a widening sexual harassment scandal and faces the Chicago Bears’ departure from Soldier Field, a new Chicago Index poll suggests. The poll also shows flagging approval for Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and stubbornly low marks for Chicago Public Schools and Mayor Lori Lightfoot.
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OCT 07, 2021
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The Chicago Human Relations Commission investigates claims of discrimination, including housing discrimination. [Facebook]
Chicago’s Commission on Human Relations is an immensely important and often undervalued resource that needs sustained funding — possibly more than is allocated under Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s 2022 spending plan — to continue its grassroots mediation and fight against ignorance and racism, aldermen told the commission’s chair during a budget hearing Wednesday.
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OCT 07, 2021
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The Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities has been working with the Chicago Department of Transportation to make the city's pending e-scooter system more accommodating to disabled Chicagoans, the head of the office told aldermen Wednesday. [Hannah Alani/Block Club Chicago]
The Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities should work tightly with other city agencies to ensure accessibility is baked into new infrastructure, housing and other processes across Chicago, aldermen told the head of the office during a budget hearing Wednesday.
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OCT 07, 2021
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Department of Planning Development Comm. Maurice Cox and Deputy Comm. Eleanor Gorski took flak from aldermen during their budget hearing last year.
In the penultimate day of departmental budget hearings, leaders of the city’s Department of Housing, Department of Planning and Development and Office of Inspector General are set to detail their 2022 budgets in what will likely be another marathon day of meetings.
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OCT 06, 2021
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Chicago Department of Buildings Comm. Matthew Beaudet answers questions during a budget hearing on Tuesday. [Alex Nitkin/The Daily Line]
Chicago’s top building regulator mulled a series of strategies on Tuesday to crack down on dangerous “problem properties,” including by barraging by deadbeat landlords with fines and working with the city’s housing department on a new program to put buildings in more responsible hands.
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OCT 06, 2021
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Department of Streets and Sanitation acting Comm. Cole Stallard answered questions during a budget hearing on Tuesday.
It now takes city workers a full year to respond to requests for trees to be trimmed, but a near-doubling of crews the city sends out to do the work is expected to shrink that lag time, leaders of the city’s Department of Streets and Sanitation told aldermen on Tuesday.
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OCT 06, 2021
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The Chicago Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection plans to dedicate $5 million from the American Rescue Plan to fund new “community farms” around the city. [Neighborspace]
The Chicago Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection will next year oversee spending of about $46 million of federally sourced money for a suite of programs aimed at improving neighborhoods’ food options, boosting first-time entrepreneurs, padding the budgets of local nonprofits and more, officials told aldermen Tuesday.
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OCT 06, 2021
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Chicago Fire Department Comm. Annette Nance-Holt is set to answer questions from aldermen during her first budget hearing at the helm of the department. [Mayor's Office/ Twitter]
Aldermen are scheduled on Wednesday to examine next year’s proposed budgets the Mayor’s Office of People with Disabilities, Chicago Fire Department, Commission on Human Relations and the Office of Public Safety Administration during the ninth day of departmental budget hearings.
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OCT 05, 2021
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Chicago Police Supt. David Brown responded to nearly nine hours of questions from aldermen during a Monday budget hearing.
The city’s controversial contract with gunshot detection technology company ShotSpotter came under heavy scrutiny during a Monday hearing on the Chicago Police Department’s budget, even as police leaders deflected responsibility for the partnership to a different department.
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OCT 05, 2021
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Leaders of the Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation are primed to field a barrage of questions and complaints from members of the City Council on Tuesday. [Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago]
Departmental budget hearings are set to push forward on Tuesday as aldermen interrogate leaders of the Chicago Department of Buildings, Departments of Streets and Sanitation and Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection. The departments represent three of the most public-facing corners of city government and rely on tight relationships with ward offices, promising hours of rigorous questioning by the City Council.
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OCT 04, 2021
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The Chicago Department of Water Management has so far only replaced 10 of the city's approximately 400,000 lead service lines, Comm. Andrea Cheng said during a budget hearing on Friday. [Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago]
The share of contracts the city’s water department awarded to African American-owned companies in the past year has not met multiple aldermen’s expectations, they said Friday.
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OCT 04, 2021
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Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communications Executive Director Rich Guidice answers questions during a budget hearing Friday.
Employees in Chicago’s 911 response center are “very excited” about a co-responder pilot program the city launched to send combinations of mental health professionals, paramedics, police officers and substance abuse clinicians to residents experiencing mental health crises, the office’s leader said Friday.
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OCT 04, 2021
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Flight volume at O’Hare Airport was about 73 percent of pre-pandemic levels this summer, Chicago Department of Aviation Comm. Jamie Rhee said Friday. [Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago]
Domestic travel to Chicago’s airports — especially Midway International Airport — is steadily rebounding from its pandemic doldrums, but international travel will take longer to complete its comeback, the city’s top aviation official told aldermen Friday.
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OCT 04, 2021
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Chicago Police Department Supt. David Brown is set to face questions during a marathon budget hearing on Monday.
The City Council is poised on Monday to kick off its final week of budget hearings by picking apart the $1.9 billion proposed budget for the Chicago Police Department, typically one of the longest and most contentious of departmental hearings aldermen attend to each fall.
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OCT 01, 2021
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Chicago Public Health Comm. Allison Arwady answers questions during a budget hearing on Thursday.
The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare a wide range of racial inequities among Chicagoans, and the leader of the city’s public health department hopes to address those issues as the city moves out of the pandemic, she said Thursday.
