Park Forest Mayor Ostenburg to be among panelist on proposed Illinois CURES planning workshop

Mayor John A. Ostenburg of Park Forest will be among the participants for a conference in Champaign August 20-21 that is part of the University of Illinois Initiative on Urban Sustainability.

The conference is described as a “planning workshop” for the proposed Illinois Center for Urban Resilience & Environmental Sustainability (Illinois CURES). Mayor Ostenburg will be a panelist discussing “How Can the New IL CURES Center Help Cities? What Are the Needs of Cities?”

A concept paper developed by the University of Illinois states that a key objective of Illinois CURES will be “a comprehensive center that becomes the ‘go-to’ place for cities to improve their resilience and sustainability.”

Mayor Ostenburg is chairperson for the Environment Committee of the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus, an organization that represents approximately 270 municipalities in the greater Chicago region.

Among the many accomplishments of the MMC Environment Committee has been the creation of the Greenest Region Compact, to which more than 100 MMC member communities now are signatories. Read more.