South suburban community briefing

The Village Board this week approved a liquor license and a special use for Tommy Nevin's Pub.

The new pub will move into 9680 Lincoln-Way Lane, the former site of The Galway Tribes, which closed earlier this year, citing a failing economy.

The company will move quickly to get the restaurant up and running, according to Steve Cin, one of the company's managing members. The pub's opening is planned for "late October or early November," Cin said.

"This will be a great enhancement to our group," he said.

The first Tommy Nevin's Pub opened in Evanston in 1990, and another opened in Naperville in 2007, he said. The group also owns Muldoon's in Wheaton and The Kerry Piper in Willowbrook, he said.

Like its predecessor, the Frankfort pub will have an Irish ambience, but it won't be a carbon copy, Cin said. "We'll put our own spin on it."

-- Pat Harper

Health program demand surges

Park Forest has seen a big jump in demand for a program for the uninsured in suburban Cook County, officials said.

As of Sept. 30, 37 Park Forest residents have applied this year for Access to Care, compared with a total of 15 for all of 2008, according to Brenda Walker of the Park Forest Health Department. Those numbers only reflect the people who applied through the department in Village Hall and "likely do not reflect" all local residents who applied directly in Westchester, where the program office is located, she said.

Access to Care connects low-income uninsured people to professional medical services from doctors, nurses, technicians and others. The program provides lab tests and X-rays, for example, for $5, and medication can range from $10 to $30.

Access to Care is benefiting a segment of the village's population that is in need of medical care but without the means to pay for it, according to Village Manager Thomas Mick. "In this economy where employers are trying to cut their expenses, health insurance coverage is less and less prevalent," he said.

-- Barbara Dargis

Dinner theater may bow in spring

Theater buffs may soon be able to catch dinner and a live show in downtown Plainfield.

Village trustees this week backed plans for a dinner theater, which would be located at 15014 DesPlaines St. Owners Jenny and Gary Giocomo plan to have the theater open in May.

Jenny Giocomo, who owns Encore Dinner Playhouse, said the dinner theater would have six to eight shows a week, Wednesday through Sunday.

The dinner theater will focus on "affordable family entertainment," featuring musicals and comedies, with tickets for dinner and a show starting at $37.95.

Giocomo also said she plans to have open auditions for roles in the shows, allowing an opportunity to feature local talent.

-- Alicia Fabbre

Convention space likely to grow

Village trustees set the stage this week for formal approval of a 60,000-square-foot expansion to Tinley Park's convention center.

The unanimous action also addressed plans for a 50,000-square-foot addition to the adjacent hotel and construction of 52,000 square feet of commercial space within a planned unit development at 183rd Street and Harlem Avenue.

Trustees are scheduled to consider formal approval next week.

A representative of the firm designing the convention center expansion said the additional space would "double what you have now." Mike Rodriguez, who works for the firm, Populous, also said convention center features include a large ballroom that can be reconfigured into six smaller rooms, and an outside corridor that maintains the look and feel of the interior.

Rodriguez said the expansion will position the facility to get 75 percent of the market.

In a related action, trustees set Nov. 18 for general contractors to bid on convention center expansion work. A pre-qualification application is available at Village Hall.

"We're not there yet, but this is a major leap forward," Mayor Ed Zabrocki said. "I'm confident we'll be able to move ahead."

-- Dennis Sullivan

O'Hare funding will aid wetlands

The Forest Preserve District is set to tap the O'Hare Modernization Mitigation Account for an additional $735,000, bringing the total funding for its wetlands-restoration project in southwest suburban Homer Glen to $1.9 million.

The amended agreement encompasses wetland creation and enhancement and upland prairie and savanna restoration on about 90 acres of the 625-acre Messenger Woods Nature Preserve.

The district board was expected to approve the pact during its monthly meeting this week in Joliet. The district's operations committee last week gave its blessing after Executive Director Marcy DeMauro said the project would restore hydrology to wetlands, protect eroding ravine heads and re-create a mosaic of woodland, savanna and prairie adjacent to the preserve's high-quality woodland.

The $25 million O'Hare mitigation fund covers the cost of restoring and creating 280 acres of wetlands in the Des Plaines Watershed. The City of Chicago, in response to the Army Corps of Engineers, created the fund to offset stream and wetland damage caused by O'Hare International Airport's expansion.