The following incidents were listed among the official reports of the Harwood Heights and Norridge police departments. Readers are reminded that an arrest does not constitute a finding of guilt. Only a court of law can make that determination. Harwood Heights DRIVING WITHOUT LICENSE Orly Melendez, 37, of the 2200 block of North Springfield Ave., Chicago, was charged May 12 with driving without a license following a traffic stop in the 4700 block of Nagle. Her next court date is June 4. Claudia Vergara-Fernandez, 27, of the 4700 block of North Lawndale, Chicago, was charged with driving without a license, …

Chicago Zoological Society officials say three Brookfield Zoo bottlenose dolphins are pregnant. Officials say Allie, 26, Tapeko, 31, and Spree, 10, are due to give birth this summer and fall.

HARWOOD HEIGHTS — Last summer — in the weeks preceding their final year as elementary school students — Union Ridge eighth-graders-to-be Jenny Esquivel and Katherine Resche made a pact. They resolved to do something big before their graduation. They just weren’t sure what. Or how big. And they had no idea, when they started, that they would make in the life of a student from their own school. “We wanted to do something bigger and different than anybody else had done before,” Katherine said. The girls brainstormed and spent much of their break discussing options. Then Jenny met another teen …

CHICAGO — Pietro Parto made several trips to the food tables at Our Lady, Mother of the Church’s International Taste. The 43-year parishioner enjoyed Italian pasta with peppers, a Danish roll, and a German bratwurst among other items, but he bypassed the sweets table filled with desserts on each trip.

NORRIDGE — Nearly 40 years after the Vietnam War ended, the village of Norridge is asking the public to help honor local soldiers who died in that conflict. To do that, the village is holding two Memorial Day ceremonies taking place this month and a memorial is being dedicated at a local school. U.S. Army Specialists Fourth Class Kenneth Wayne Wells and James Chris Shukas, U.S. Marine Cpl. Donald Warren Bollman and Privates First Class Neil Joseph Cacciotiolo and Ronald Chester Rogowski all left their homes in Norridge to fight in the Vietnam War. Each died in battle. However, they …

NORRIDGE — Veteran educator Brad Voehringer will begin his first term as Pennoyer School District 79 Superintendant on July 1. Last week, Voehringer spoke to the Norridge-Harwood Heights News from his office at Des Plaines School District 62, where he is the current Assistant Superintendant for Student Services. That system has about 5,000 students in 12 elementary and junior high schools. “Getting parents involved early in their child’s education and helping them connect with any needed [supportive] and community services is always part of what we do,” says Voehringer, has a contract to lead the one-school district for the next …

NORRIDGE — Lowering lot-size requirements and lessening the number of zoning districts are among changes being proposed for the village’s zoning ordinance. But the most welcomed change could be making the village document much more readable for residents and other interested parties.

Norridge Central Baptist Village, 4747 N. Canfield Ave., Norridge, will host a day of free health and wellness activities open to the public from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 29, at The Commons in the independent living facility. This event is in honor of the 20th anniversary of National Senior Health & Wellness Day, with featured events including: • Conductorcise Class led by Maestro David Dworkin. This is an upper body workout that relieves stress, builds aerobic stamina and helps with weight loss while you learn basic conducting techniques, improve listening skills and discovering the lives and works …

A Disaster Recovery Center, which will allow residents to apply for federal reimbursement and financial aid for damage caused by April 18 flooding, has opened in Des Plaines. The center is located at 1486 Miner St., next to the Des Plaines Theatre. It is operated jointly by the Illinois Emergency Management Agency and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Hours are 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week. Residents do not need to visit the center to register for FEMA reimbursement or assistance. Registration is available online at www.disasterassistance.gov or by calling (800) 621-3362. The center is an additional …

A Park Ridge bank teller is accused of stealing several thousand dollars from the account of one her customers. Park Ridge Police on May 17 arrested Marianna Bonanno, 46, of the 4800 block of North Knight Avenue, Norridge, on charges of theft and aggravated identity theft after she allegedly withdrew over $12,000 from the account of a senior citizen while working at PNC Bank, 607 W. Devon Ave. Deputy Police Chief Lou Jogmen said the thefts occurred between April 2012 and January 2013. A total of 15 bank account withdrawals were made from the customer’s account, he said. Bonanno’s next …

NORRIDGE — A good ice cream treat could be just the thing as higher temperatures finally seem here to stay. A place that for six years has been celebrating the virtues of ice cream is The Sweet Oasis, at 7549 W. Montrose Ave. in Norridge.

CHICAGO — As a high school basketball coach, Joe Baffico visited the St. Patrick High School gymnasium many times between 1996 and 2009. But last month, he walked into the gym with a new purpose. Baffico, recently named principal of St. Patrick High School, stepped onto the gym’s floor — covered with protective green plastic and rows of metal folding chairs ­— to celebrate Mass with the high school’s community and begin his role in an educational tradition that spans more than 150 years. Faculty, staff, students and alumni of the school at 5900 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago, welcomed Baffico …

CHICAGO — Nearly 20 St. Patrick High School’s oldest graduates welcomed new principal John Baffico during a traditional alumni lunch immediately following the final mass of the school year. As one of the few surviving all-male high schools in the Chicago Archdiocese, St. Patrick’s — which sends 96 percent of its graduates to college — is run by the Brothers of the Christian Schools, an order established in 1680. Several older alumni still credit their high school with preparing them to live full, productive lives and said they look forward to contributing to St. Patrick’s legacy for years to come. …

NORRIDGE — Joining the circus could be good for one’s physical and mental health. Although they may not have known it, students at Pennoyer School in Norridge fine-tuned their fine motor and interpersonal skills during a visit from members of Detroit-based Circus Amongus. “I got to work on the different equipment,” said Mauricios Jimenez, an eight-grade student. “It was fun to do something different and learn about all the stuff that goes in to the circus.” Fifth-grader Luciano Cale said he enjoyed being a part of a circus. “I was one of the acrobats,” he said with a gleam in …

NORRIDGE — More than a dozen community leaders from the Norridge-Harwood Heights area met at Ridgewood High School recently to participate in an exercise of creativity. This group came together last week to make greeting cards for clients of the Seniors Assistance Center, a Norridge-based non-profit agency that delivers hot meals and other social services that help older adults live independently. But the activity wasn’t their sole focus. Their top priority was bonding with members of Ridgewood’s freshman class they’d been assigned to mentor. It was part of a year-long enrichment program to help these students successfully transition from middle …

NORRIDGE — Open barely two months, Boutique3 is striving to offer clothing and accessories made in this country. “We’re trying to stock all made-in-America labels,” said Carrie Ann Esposito, a Norridge resident and one of three partners in the business at Regency Plaza, 5050 N. Cumberland Ave. “We do our own buying, but it’s difficult to find vendors.” Eva DeFilippis of Elmwood Park has wanted to find space to open a boutique for some time. The graduate of Trinity High School in River Forest has a background in clothing. “My dad was a tailor and owned a clothing store,” DeFilippis …

Union Ridge School announces first trimester honor roll students in the Gold, Silver, and Bronze levels for the eighth, seventh and sixth grades.

GOLD

Eighth-Grade: Katarzyna Lechowska, Klaudia Podsada Heba Rubi, Nicholas Scaletta, Julia Tomczyk, Milica Videnovic, Adam Witusik

Seventh-Grade: Nadia Attia, Katherin Barnas, Evelyn Dziekan, Mateusz Wilk Juraszek, Aoife Lyons, Reagan Mceleney, Haley Pedd, Sophia Rasche, Karolina Szelag, Jason Tran, Audrey Trevino, Nicole Woloszyn

Sixth-Grade: Anita Borawski, Taylor Chan, Claire Kelly, Natalia Kwak, Isabel Larose, Matthew Le, Julia Miezal, Hailey Niedholdt, Holly Pistolarides, Yaraslau Varabyeu

SILVER

Eighth-Grade: Giuseppe Caringella, Alexandra Drozdowska, Nur Z. Abdel Halim, Olivia Jarosz, Paula Kopec, Szymon Kuligowski, Taylor McFall, Jovana Stanojevic, Victoria Stogowska, Alyssa Valdivia, Justin Varela

Seventh-Grade: Paulina Buczynska, Raine Michelle Calimutan, Kathryn Jackowski, Piotr Biel, Jacob Dunaj, Nicholas Lagorra, Mateusz Perkowski, Christian Longo, Paul Plichta

Sixth-Grade: Caitlyn Adams, Annamaria De Ceglie, Joshua Gonzalez, Natalie Pecaro, Natalia Skyba, Krystian Szczech, Thomas Velisaris, Nikolija Videnovic

BRONZE

Eighth-Grade: Barosz Baran, Ahmad Bendaoud, Andrea Big, Karen Cumba, James Degrazia, Mairead Fagan, Jeremy Garcia, Ayleen Guardado, Sami Haidouchi, Hamza Husein, Lucas Meier, Rebecca Minutillo, Stefania Santoro, Gintare Survilaite, Jamie Tran, Luis Rivadeneira Wandem

Seventh-Grade: Zachary Ali, Destiny Araujo, Anna Bidnik, Sidney Calderon, Maxwell Dignos, Maysa Hasan, Leslie Hernandez, Alex Trinh, Damian Las, Jeremy Linares, Nataliya Oliynyk, Aailyah Samano, Jocelyn Santiago, Vincenzo Santoro, Marina Ventrella

Sixth-Grade: Yasmeen Alqaissi, Kiara Cannon, Richard Chen, Dominic Colletti, Diana Garcia, Adam Klopotowski, Konrad Kruszek, Jack La Course, Tomasz Lechowski, Hailey Moll, Vasilios Tsagaris

The village’s aging water main system will get a makeover next year with the help of an $800,000 state-issued grant awarded to Harwood Heights this month.

Another grant that will pay for the remaining $400,000 of the $1.2 million project to replace the Gunnison water main was issued in 2010, according to Village President Arlene Jezierny.

Village officials waited four years for the second grant to be approved before announcing this week they would finally move forward with the project, which will revamp and update Harwood Heights’s entire water distribution system.

The water main on Oak Park Avenue stretches from Gunnison Avenue to Forest Preserve Drive, and was constructed of cast-iron back in the 1960Hares.

Jezierny said water mains throughout the village have surpassed their time, and need to be replaced to avoid the possibility of a “series of catastrophic water main breaks.”

“We’ve had a lot of water main breaks recently,” Jezierny said. “It doesn’t come as a surprise because the water mains were put in at least 60 years ago.”

The outdated cast iron metal covering the underground piping system will be replaced with modern ductile iron, reducing the chances of a major break in the main.

The project also calls for the resizing of the water main running along the 4600 and 4700 blocks of Nagle Avenue to allow for better pressure and flow.

Beyond the water main projects, the grant will also pay for the roadway to be resurfaced on Oak Park Avenue, and renovations to the pumping station at the Public Works building.

The New Year will bring three new chain restaurants to Harwood Heights, including Buona Beef, Starbucks, and WingStop.

Construction crews are expected to break-ground in January for Buona Beef, a Chicago area-based fast-casual restaurant chain set to move into the former Village Hall site on Lawrence and Oketo Avenues.

The village of Harwood Heights sold the property at 7343 W. Lawrence Ave. to Harwood Heights Investments, LLC for $950,000 in June.

Newport Builders Group had purchased the property in 2006 for $1.3 million, but the village later revoked the developer’s site permits and bought the property back after the company neglected to build on the site in a timely fashion, according to Village President Arlene Jezierny.

The developer, together with Taxman Corporation and Antunovich Architects, had taken steps to start building on the property, but nothing ever materialized.

Representatives of Newport Builders held several meetings in 2006 with residents who live near the property to gather input on what they wanted to see built in the spot. For unknown reasons, a solid plan for the site was never pursued.

“We ruled in the contract (with Newport Builders Group) that if they didn’t build within a year we could buy it back,” Jezierny said.

The mayor said the Buona Beef would bring new property tax dollars to the community.

The property has been tax-exempt since 2010 when the village repurchased the site for $990,000—a $310,000 cut from its selling price four years prior.

“Buona Beef will be added to the tax rolls because it’s no longer a government-owned property,” Jezierny explained. “It’s a positive move because it will produce sales tax and generate new jobs for our residents.”

The Italian-style restaurant chain specializes in Italian Beef sandwiches, pizzas, salads and Paninis. There are 14 locations in the Chicago area.

Coffee-lovers will be pleased to hear that Harwood Heights will get its first Starbucks (with a drive-through window), opening next year  at the Holiday Plaza shopping center on Harlem and Lawrence Avenues.

The Seattle-based coffee giant will open a new location in an 1,800-square-foot out lot building, according to information from the village.

Pizza Hut-owned WingStreet will also open sometime next year across the street from Holiday Plaza on Harlem and Wilson avenues, Jezierny said.

WingStreet’s franchised restaurants specialize in buffalo wings served with a variety of sauce options.

The village is expecting to pinpoint specific opening dates for each restaurant early next year.

NORRIDGE

4103 N Osceola Ave, Norridge 60706-1123: Giamalva Trust sold the property to Ronald J Witt for $205,000 on November 21

4513 N Oriole Ave, Norridge 60706-4512: Lillian Mary Cierny Estate sold the property to Robert Zychowski & Anna Zychowski for $240,000 on November 21

HARWOOD HEIGHTS

4720 N Newcastle Ave, Harwood Heights 60706-3904: Joseph D Kudrys sold the property to Richard Paszek & Marianna Paszek for $245,000 on November 20

7420 W Lawrence Ave 205, Harwood Heights 60706-3467: Robert E Klevin sold the property to Elzbieta Zofia Siewniak & Michael David Siewniak for $160,000 on November 25

PARK RIDGE

1308 S Prospect Ave, Park Ridge 60068-5345: Stanislaw Syjud sold the property to Robert Breslow & Monica Breslow for $439,000 on November 20

1321 S Crescent Ave, Park Ridge 60068-5364: Ornig Trust sold the property to Magdalena Sweifel & Robert Zweifel for $395,000 on November 20

1415 Lahon St, Park Ridge 60068-2521: Robert M French sold the property to Christopher Browning & Jennifer Browning for $330,000 on November 18

1705 Des Plaines Ave, Park Ridge 60068-3868: Steven J Wilkos sold the property to Nikola Nozinic for $750,000 on November 21

1740 Evergreen Ln, Park Ridge 60068-1104: Maryla Wozniakowski sold the property to Petro Pariychuk for $601,000 on November 21

1812 Newton Ave, Park Ridge 60068-5613: David A Griesbaum sold the property to Anna J Gaj for $625,000 on November 24

2030 Glenview Ave, Park Ridge 60068-1718: Saul Birholtz sold the property to Jeffrey Partyka for $315,000 on November 17

222 S Vine Ave E, Park Ridge 60068-4195: Brendan Mcneill sold the property to Gregory C Weiland & Laura J Weiland for $399,000 on November 24

25 N Delphia Ave, Park Ridge 60068-3238: Barbara M Low sold the property to William Georgakis & Rachel Georgakis for $370,000 on November 19

318 N Home Ave, Park Ridge 60068-3032: Peter Maciejewski sold the property to Eugene Suh & Courtney K Suh for $689,000 on November 18

403 N Washington Ave, Park Ridge 60068-3418: Joseph Ropski sold the property to Jason Cooga & Jason Coogan for $627,000 on November 18

416 S Dee Rd, Park Ridge 60068-3738: Robert Demeo sold the property to Christopher L Rasch for $253,000 on November 21

417 N Redfield Ct, Park Ridge 60068-3785: Cloonfinish Club Inc sold the property to Yi Zhang & Xinxin Dong for $830,000 on November 24

NILES

6815 N Milwaukee Ave 505, Niles 60714-4567: Suzanne Viverito sold the property to Harry Ashner for $220,000 on November 19

7000 W Greenleaf St, Niles 60714-2133: Fannie Mae sold the property to Saquib Saleem for $167,500 on November 25

7051 W Touhy Ave 510, Niles 60714-4383: Demosthenes P Nikolopoulos sold the property to Erica Collins for $154,000 on November 18

7344 W Howard St, Niles 60714-3654: Michael J Guinane sold the property to Lilly Brown & Frank Madonia for $260,000 on November 24

7549 N Nora Ave, Niles 60714-3741: Lynn Story sold the property to Steven N Kowalisyn for $250,000 on November 20

7643 N Olcott Ave, Niles 60714-3117: John A Foggia Estate sold the property to Vilma Papaleka for $155,000 on November 19

8560 W Betty Ter, Niles 60714-1833: Solomon G Apostol sold the property to Hermaz G Hermaz for $270,000 on November 18

8815 W Golf Rd 5 D, Niles 60714-5710: Kitty Marks Finkelman Estate sold the property to Fata Suljic & Hasim Hairlahovic for $76,500 on November 20

8836 N Prospect St, Niles 60714-1611: Federal Home Loan Mtg Corp sold the property to Bassam Ahmed Khan for $142,100 on November 20

8916 N Elmore St, Niles 60714-1721: Shahin Kesheshian sold the property to Syed Hussaini & Syeda N Unisa for $275,000 on November 19

FRANKLIN PARK

3532 Lincoln St, Franklin Park 60131-1551: Fannie Mae sold the property to Perikli Haxhi for $97,000 on November 21

3548 Louis St, Franklin Park 60131-1636: Double B Investments Llc sold the property to Jose Garay for $158,000 on November 19

ELMWOOD PARK

1801 N 73rd Ct, Elmwood Park 60707-3706: Federal Home Loan Mtg Corp sold the property to Javier Yataco & Ada Yataco for $175,500 on November 20

2043 N 75th Ct, Elmwood Park 60707-3603: Michael A Lepore Jr sold the property to Cleve M Cascallares for $227,000 on November 18

2143 N 73rd Ct, Elmwood Park 60707-3107: Zahara Investments Inc sold the property to Samuel Hale & Holly Hale for $331,000 on November 24

2211 N 76th Ct, Elmwood Park 60707-3040: James J Montalto Jr sold the property to Stephen J Messina for $216,000 on November 21

2406 N West Brook Rd, Elmwood Park 60707-2425: John J O Keefe sold the property to Daniel Yacovacci for $214,500 on November 21

2645 N 74th Ave 2, Elmwood Park 60707-1938: Steven E Nowak sold the property to Tommy Colon & Inez Medina for $140,000 on November 24

2742 N 73rd Ct 2w, Elmwood Park 60707-1569: Shore Holdings Ltd sold the property to Anna Kutwoska for $113,500 on November 20

3132 N 76th Ave, Elmwood Park 60707-1130: Witkoria Buda sold the property to Damaris Miranda & Gilberto Diaz for $185,000 on November 24

7830 W North Ave L12, Elmwood Park 60707-3538: Rose M Flores sold the property to John Falagario & Valerie Falagarig for $64,000 on November 25

7905 W Fletcher St, Elmwood Park 60707-1033: Andrzej Kubis sold the property to Piotr Grabowski for $140,000 on November 17