It is Thursday, Dec. 19 at 10:17 p.m., and I'm sitting at the computer putting together my column for next week -- early deadline due to Christmas -- and I check the inbox one more time only to see an email from Fire Chief Matt Buckley. 

While we're on the subject of Brookfield and recreation programming, we're impressed that the Brookfield Recreation Department is making its pitch to operate a proposed new aftercare program for District 95 students at Brook Park School.

'Twas the week before Christmas and all through the house, there is a mess. Packages are strewn on the floor everywhere, waiting to be wrapped or, better yet, thrown in a gift bag. 

Brookfield officials are right to have pumped the brakes on applying for a state grant that could help fund the construction of a new or radically altered existing recreational facility.

Husband Joe often remarks that our mail lady is most happy when she gets to our house so she can get rid of a lot of what's making her bag heavy. This time of year, especially. 

Talk of a Harlem Avenue underpass or overpass have been topics of conversation and study for so many years that it's hard to get too excited about a recent announcement that the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) is about to take another crack at it.

Turkey day is over and now we can think about the next holiday as if we haven't been barraged by it for at least a month.

There is no denying that facilities at Komarek School District 94 need substantial upgrades. There is also no getting around the thumping that local taxpayers handed down last spring when the school district proposed a big process of demolition, new construction and renovations along with a stiff price tag — $22 million.

The saga that is North Riverside's relationship to its firefighters and contracted paramedics is an epic fail. We're five years out from an actual contract between the village government and the unionized firefighters.