A 4-year-old was struck by a car Tuesday evening on the Northwest Side. | Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times

Police responded to a call of a hit-and-run about 7:30 p.m. and found a child on the ground on West Foster Avenue and North Pulaski Road, police said.

A 4-year-old boy was struck in a hit-and-run Tuesday evening in North Park on the Northwest Side, according to Chicago police and fire officials.

The child was walking with a family member about 7:30 p.m. when he was struck by an unknown vehicle on West Foster Avenue and North Pulaski Road, police said.

He was taken to Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, where he was in serious-to-critical condition, according to a spokesperson for the Chicago Fire Department. Police later said that the boy was initially reported in good condition.

The driver of the vehicle went into the 17th District police station as police continue to investigate.

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Radio host Eric Ferguson has been accused by three women of inappropriate behavior. | 2006 handout photo

Melissa McGurren, former morning co-host on WTMX 101.9-FM, accused Ferguson of creating a “hostile working environment” in a court filing Tuesday, Chicago media columnist Robert Feder reported.

A third woman accused popular Chicago radio host Eric Ferguson of inappropriate behavior in court documents filed Tuesday, Chicago media columnist Robert Feder reported.

Melissa McGurren, former morning co-host on WTMX 101.9-FM, filed documents to the Cook County Circuit Court calling Ferguson the “serial abuser of women” at The Mix, Feder reported. McGurren worked at the Hubbard Radio Chicago station for more than two decades before leaving in 2020.

“For many years, Ferguson has grossly abused his power, and his conduct was the major reason the station became a hostile working environment,” McGurren said.

In a note to employees Tuesday, Jeff England, vice president and market manager of Hubbard Radio Chicago, said Ferguson would not be on air through the end of the month, according to Feder’s report. England also said in the note, “we do not agree with Melissa’s characterization of events.”

McGurren’s statements were added to a lawsuit previously filed by Cynthia DeNicolo, a former assistant producer on Ferguson’s show, Feder reported. According to DeNicolo’s lawsuit, Ferguson “coerced sexual activity” and made “unwanted demands for oral sex.” DeNicolo was fired May 1, 2020, and in the lawsuit alleges Ferguson was behind her firing.

A third woman, former sales employee Kristen Mori, said in a court document that Ferguson groped her at a station Christmas party in 2003, Feder reported. That statement, along with other allegations of misconduct, was included in DeNicolo’s lawsuit.

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The second-year player has been sidelined with a sprained left ankle, but according to coach Billy Donovan, there’s a good chance Williams will be ready for Detroit if the ankle can withstand cutting and lateral movement.

There are still some obstacles Patrick Williams has to pass the next few weeks if he wants to be in the starting lineup when the Bulls tip-off the regular season in Detroit.

Coach Billy Donovan sounded fairly confident on Tuesday that the second-year forward will answer that bell.

That didn’t seem to be the case when fall camp started and Williams was nursing a severely sprained left ankle, but if he shows that he can make lateral cuts in the next week and has no setbacks, the Bulls will indeed have their projected starting five ready to roll out for the start of the year.

“I think we’re pretty optimistic,” Donovan said. “What they really want to make sure is that the sprain has healed adequately, so we’ll probably be a little bit more on the cautious side just because I think once he starts randomly cutting they’ve got to see how he responds, and I think with as explosive and as powerful as he has been, one of the things they don’t want to do is have something where he’s not quite stable, he does something and tweaks it, and now he’s having to manage that in the middle of the year.

“There’s been nothing said to about, ‘Hey listen, this guy is going to miss the first week of the season, regular season.’ There’s been nothing like that.”

Great news, especially as far as Williams goes.

The former first-round pick from the 2020 NBA Draft had an excellent offseason, especially as far as working on his aggressiveness on the offensive end, and more importantly, getting his conditioning to the next level.

It’s that condition aspect that Donovan sees as the key for Williams to take that jump to elite two-way player.

“The biggest thing for me is I think it was really, really eye-opening for him,” Donovan said of Williams’ rookie year. “You think about a guy 19 years old, plays one season in college, came off the bench, probably never really played in a 40-minute game where he played the whole college game, so his minutes were whatever they were. Now all of a sudden he goes from that and he’s guarding some of the guys we know he’s had to guard. There’s an endurance component for that where even though I think he worked really hard, I think he has a much better awareness of the kind of conditioning he does need to be in.”

Welcome back

Lauri Markkanen wasn’t the only former Bull making a return on Tuesday, as free agent Denzel Valentine was also wearing a Cavs jersey.

The versatile wing signed a two-year, $4 million deal this offseason, and called the change a scenery part of the journey.

“Everybody’s journey is different,” Valentine said. “If it was perfect or easy, everybody would be doing it. I’ve gone through trials and tribulations. I’ve shown glimpses. I know what I’m capable of doing. I’ve done it here [with the Bulls]. I’m finally healthy now. This is going to be my second season coming in healthy, so I feel like my best basketball is ahead of me.

“I have no grudges, no nothing here. I don’t feel any type of way. Things just didn’t work out. But still I had great moments and great opportunities here and I had great teammates. I was blessed to play here.”

The replacements

With Williams sidelined, and also Derrick Jones Jr. (ankle) a late scratch, Donovan opted to start Javonte Green against the Cavaliers.

Jones’ ankle was expected to be short-term, while Donovan also announced that Tony Bradley was scratched, dealing with back soreness.

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ICUs in southern Illinois finally have more beds available after the Delta variant surge. | Getty file photo of COVID-19 patient care

Critical care units across the region’s 22 hospitals are still operating at 79% capacity, but that’s a better than the past few weeks, when only one or two beds were available on most given nights for southern Illinois’ 400,000-plus residents.

The COVID-19 Delta variant “wildfire” is still burning in southern Illinois, but it’s finally simmering down, hospital officials said Tuesday.

After a month that saw intensive care units stretched to the limit across the 20 counties that span the southern tip of the state, public health officials reported 17 ICU beds were available as of Monday night.

Critical care units across the region’s 22 hospitals are still operating at 79% capacity, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health — but that’s a great deal better than the past few weeks, when only one or two beds were available on most given nights for southern Illinois’ 400,000-plus residents.

The second week of September was as bad as any throughout the pandemic for the region, when all ICU beds were full for seven straight days. The shortage forced hospitals to divert some patients as far away as Kansas City and Nashville to receive critical care, and prompted the state to deploy 241 supplemental health care workers to the region that has Illinois’ lowest vaccination rates.

Graph not displaying properly? Click here.

Southern Illinois Healthcare, which operates four hospitals in the region, was treating more than 70 COVID-19 patients on some nights of this latest surge, which appears to be waning. That number was down to 47 last Thursday, according to Rosslind Rice, the hospital network’s communications director. All but three of those patients were unvaccinated.

“It’s been a Delta wildfire down here, but things are starting to look better,” she said. “We’re trending in the right direction. We’re still not where we want to be.”

The increased hospital bed availability follows a sharp decline in the region’s seven-day average coronavirus testing positivity rate, which has fallen by more than half since Sept. 18 to 4.8%.

That follows the statewide trend, with Illinois’ 2.2% positivity rate marking its lowest point since mid-July. Total cases have dipped about 38% overall since early September.

The numbers “continue to look really good in Chicago,” according to city Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady. Compared to last week, city cases are down 3%, new hospitalizations are down 54% and deaths are down 19%.

Other states are “slowly but surely making progress,” too, Arwady said, prompting the city to remove Connecticut from its quarantine advisory for vaccinated travelers. The advisory still applies to all other states except California.

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times file
Dr. Allison Arwady, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, discusses Chicago’s COVID-19 response during a news conference in August at City Hall in the Loop.

The numbers have improved as more people have gotten vaccinated. But while roughly 63% of all Illinois residents and 67% of Chicagoans have been fully vaccinated, only about 39% of southern Illinoisans have — a number that has “barely budged” since the Delta wave hit, Rice said. Alexander County has the lowest vaccination rate in the state at 17.6%.

“We’re still really preparing for the next wave. This is a nice dip here, but we’re waiting to see what happens when we get into the holiday season,” Rice said. “We know long-term, the way out of the pandemic is vaccination, so it’s a point of concern to get more people vaccinated and break down some of these barriers of hesitancy. Let’s talk with each other and not at each other.”

For help finding a vaccine appointment, visit coronavirus.illinois.gov or call (833) 621-1284.

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Arlington Heights Mayor Tom Hayes at Arlington International Racecourse. | Mark Welsh/Daily Herald

“We haven’t been asked for anything yet, we haven’t committed to anything yet, and we wouldn’t without plenty of thoughtful public discussions about it,” Arlington Heights Mayor Tom Hayes said.

Public financing of a new stadium isn’t among Arlington Heights’ opening plays as it tries to lure the Chicago Bears to the northwest suburb, but the village could offer some perks to the McCaskey family if the game goes into overtime.

Arlington Heights Mayor Tom Hayes said Tuesday that “everything is open to discussion” when it comes to negotiating with the Bears organization, but any taxpayer-funded incentives would only be considered “as a last resort.”

“We’re always willing to talk, but certainly since nothing has been asked for or suggested to us [by the Bears] at this point, we’re going to play it by ear,” Hayes said. “Like any business we’re trying to attract or retain, we certainly have an open mind.”

Arlington Heights, like many municipalities, does offer incentives to businesses, such as through the creation of tax increment financing districts. “But generally, we like to hold those as a last resort, if necessary,” Hayes said.

Mark Welsh/Daily Herald
Arlington Heights Mayor Tom Hayes

As for other ways the village could help subsidize the cost of a billion-dollar NFL stadium, “we haven’t been asked for anything yet, we haven’t committed to anything yet, and we wouldn’t without plenty of thoughtful public discussions about it,” Hayes said.

A week after the Bears announced their $197.2 million purchase agreement for the now-shuttered Arlington International Racecourse, Hayes said he expects to meet with team officials soon to hear more about their “specific vision” for the 326-acre parcel.

The sale, which is thought to be contingent on the Bears receiving village zoning approval, is not expected to close for more than a year.

Any stadium proposal would have to gain approval from Arlington Heights’ design commission, plan commission and ultimately its nine-member village board, which includes Hayes.

“We have a lot of time to talk these things through. We’re not rushing into anything,” he said.

A Bears spokeswoman declined to comment on whether the team would seek taxpayer-funded benefits, at either the municipal or state level.

The team would be on the hook for about $87 million if it were to break its Soldier Field lease with the Chicago Park District five years from now, pocket change in the grand scheme of potentially financing a new stadium that’s sure to have a 10-digit price tag.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times file
Arlington International Racecourse at 2200 Euclid Ave. in Arlington Heights. The mayor of the village said it would only offer tax breaks to the Chicago Bears to move there “as a last resort.”

Whether the team leaves the lakefront or not, taxpayers won’t be done footing the bill for Soldier Field’s 2002 renovation until 2033. The often ridiculed “spaceship” overhaul that made it the NFL’s smallest stadium was bankrolled by bonds issued by Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, debt that will total $660 million by the time it’s paid off.

That’s why several state lawmakers have moved to block any public funding for a new stadium. Last week, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said public financing for a new stadium is “not something that we’re looking at,” but he wouldn’t rule it out.

Meanwhile, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has invited the Bears to the negotiating table to stay at Soldier Field.

“I would love that the Bears be part of our present and our future,” she said last week. “But we’ve got to do a deal that makes sense for us in the context of where we are.”

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Montgomery has contributed 38% of the Bears’ offensive yardage this season. | AP Photos

Damien Williams steps into the No. 1 running back spot, followed by rookie Khalil Herbert and practice-squad options Ryan Nall and Artavis Pierce. But the Bears might learn that Montgomery is irreplaceable.

Just when the Bears’ rushing attack — and the offense as a whole — showed signs of coming together, the man at the center of it got hurt.

Running back David Montgomery, who has emerged as an essential part of the offense, left the 24-14 win over the Lions in the fourth quarter with a knee injury after rushing for 106 yards and two touchdowns. ESPN reported Montgomery is expected to miss at least four games with a sprained knee.

That will almost certainly prompt the Bears to put him on injured reserve by Saturday so they can add a replacement while he’s out.

It’s a cruel blow for an offense that was desperate for an identity and thought it finally found one with a powerful, Montgomery-driven running game. He has proven he’s more than just a generic running back after a 1,000-yard season in 2020 and willing his way to gains behind a beleaguered offensive line.

As every football coach likes to repeat, Matt Nagy said it’ll be the next man up in place of Montgomery beginning with the game Sunday at the Raiders. But while Damien Williams is a solid, veteran option, he’s not Montgomery. They might also be inclined to maximize quarterback Justin Fields’ running ability, which hasn’t been a big part of the game plan yet.

Williams is also working through a thigh bruise, by the way, which means sixth-round pick Khalil Herbert is the only healthy running back on the roster.

The ripple effect on personnel led to the Bears trading for punt and kick returner Jakeem Grant so Herbert, who had been returning kicks, will be able to focus exclusively on offense.

They have Ryan Nall and Artavis Pierce on the practice squad. Pierce, who spent most of last season on the practice squad and appeared in five games, rejoined them Tuesday.

The Bears thought Tarik Cohen would be part of the equation, too, but he’s still recovering from a torn ACL and is on the physically unable to perform list. The earliest he’s eligible to return is Week 7, but there has been no indication of when to expect him. The Grant trade suggests it could be a while.

Montgomery is fifth in the NFL with 309 yards rushing, along with three touchdowns, and has accounted for 38% of the Bears’ net yardage. He’s averaging 4.5 yards per carry, up from four over his first two seasons.

He played one of the best games of his career Sunday — not only statistically, but stylistically.

Montgomery dragged defenders throughout the game, including on a nine-yard touchdown run in the second quarter when he hit a crowd of players at the 4-yard line but plowed through them to the end zone.

Montgomery had five runs of nine or more yards and averaged 3.8 yards per carry on first downs, opening up the offense on second down instead of the Bears constantly being in obvious passing situations.

Williams, who at 5-foot-11, 225 pounds is nearly identical to Montgomery’s build, must show he has the same combination of powerful running and deft receiving. In his last full season, with the 2019 Chiefs, he averaged 4.5 yards per rush and 7.1 per catch with seven touchdowns before starring in their Super Bowl win with 133 total yards and two touchdowns.

Montgomery has looked irreplaceable and indispensible, so it’s a huge request to ask Williams to fill that void, but the Bears badly need his help until they get their star back.

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Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx speaks to reporters during a news conference at Hope Manor II in Englewood on the South Side, Tuesday morning, Oct. 5, 2021. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

The dueling statements Tuesday reveal the stark division between Lightfoot, an ex-prosecutor herself, and the county’s top law enforcement official over what evidence is needed to charge five suspects with murder and aggravated battery after a gunfight in Austin.

Facing heavy criticism after her office rejected charges against five suspects in a deadly shootout in Austin, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx on Tuesday slammed Mayor Lori Lightfoot for raising alarms about the case and said the mayor had her facts wrong.

But a short time later, Lightfoot brushed off Foxx’s claims and announced that she’d effectively circumvented her by asking U.S. Attorney John Lausch to review the evidence in the gang-related gunfight Friday morning in Austin that left one shooter dead and two suspects wounded.

“I’ve also reached out to the U.S. attorney to ask him to also evaluate the evidence that was there to see if there’s a possibility for federal charges,” Lightfoot told reporters.

The dueling press conferences reveal the stark division between Lightfoot, a former federal prosecutor herself, and the county’s top law enforcement official over what evidence is needed to prosecute the suspects Chicago police had hoped Foxx would charge with first-degree murder and aggravated battery.

“Whatever evidence that needs to be gathered, the police department is going to be Johnny on the spot and make sure we get it,” Lightfoot after she appeared in Pilsen with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge at an unrelated event. “But this is, to me, a very compelling case.”

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
People sit on the street near the 1200 block of North Mason Avenue in the Austin neighborhood, where a person was fatally shot and two were injured, Friday morning, Oct. 1, 2021.

On Tuesday morning, Foxx had told reporters that it was “wrong” for Lightfoot to publicly discuss details of the high-profile case, alleging that some of the mayor’s previous statements about the evidence “simply weren’t true.”

“I was quite honestly mortified by what happened yesterday, particularly because the mayor as a former prosecutor knows that what she did yesterday was inappropriate,” Foxx said during her news conference in Englewood.

The rebuke came after Lightfoot and five West Side City Council members voiced concerns Monday about the blanket rejection in the case and urged Foxx to at least reconsider charging two of the alleged instigators.

Though Foxx wouldn’t say what she believes Lightfoot got wrong, she noted that Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan conceded during a budget hearing Monday that the evidence was insufficient to bring the charges against the five members of warring factions of the Four Corner Hustlers street gang.

Deenihan also acknowledged that police video footage doesn’t clearly show some of the shooters, and that none of those arrested were willing to cooperate with investigators. Asked about those comments Tuesday, Lightfoot said she planned to speak to Deenihan directly and insisted that his boss, Supt. David Brown, “does not agree with a no charging decision.”

The state’s attorney’s office previously told the Sun-Times that the “evidence was insufficient to meet our burden of proof to approve felony charges,” but Lightfoot contested that claim as she appeared to reference police POD camera footage that captured the shooting.

The footage, which has circulated online, appears to show two people firing shots next to two waiting Dodge Chargers. When a police cruiser pulls up, one of the shooters jumps into one of the waiting cars, while the other is left lying in the street.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times
Mayor Lori Lightfoot responds to questions regarding Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx at Concordia Place Apartments in Eden Green, Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2021.

Lightfoot noted that two suspects were ultimately found with guns “used in that firefight,” a claim backed up with a law enforcement source with direct knowledge of the investigation. She said investigators have also collected body-worn camera and dashcam video from officers in Chicago and Oak Park, where the source said one of the suspects was apprehended after crashing one of the Chargers.

Deenihan said he thought prosecutors could pursue lesser charges against at least some of the suspects, though Foxx noted that cops haven’t sought any other charges. While she has refused to discuss the evidence related to the ongoing investigation, Foxx said her office needs a victim, a witness or someone else to tie a suspect to a crime, even if it’s caught on video.

“In order for us to bring charges in a case, it’s not simply, we saw a video of something happening,” Foxx said. “We need to be able to say that the person who we have arrested and charged is the same person who engaged in the act.”

Lightfoot conceded “there are circumstances when we absolutely need to have a witness to identify who did something,” but she noted this shootout was captured on “multiple videotapes” as she questioned why no charges — even disturbing the peace — were filed in connection to the shootout.

“We cannot send a message that it is OK and you get a pass that you shoot up a residence in broad daylight, captured on film, and no consequences will happen to you,” she said. “That can’t be a world that we live in.”

Whether the feds will get involved is unclear. A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment late Tuesday.

Foxx: ‘This isn’t me pointing fingers’

Amid the dispute, Foxx made a public request to meet with Lightfoot, Brown and Area 5 police leaders to address her concerns about recent investigations and information that has been leaked to the media.

Lightfoot later confirmed that she and Foxx would meet. Police spokesmen didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Police officials in Area 5, which investigates crimes in parts of the West, North and Northwest sides, had already been at odds with the state’s attorney’s office over other high-profile cases prosecutors refused to take up, including the fatal shootings of National Guard member Chrys Carjaval in July and 7-year-old Serenity Broughton in August. Foxx apparently referenced those cases when she insisted it wasn’t part of her job to “try cases in the media, nor to play politics on the deaths of children and veterans and people in our community.”

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx speaks to reporters during a news conference at Hope Manor II in Englewood on the South Side, Tuesday morning, Oct. 5, 2021.

“We would expect that our partners, especially those who served as prosecutors, would recognize that,” said Foxx, taking a not-so-veiled shot at Lightfoot. “And more importantly, if engaging in that, [they] would tell the truth. Tell the truth.”

Facing renewed criticism that she’s week on crime, Foxx also apparently sought to deflect some of the blame back onto the police department amid the city’s continued surge in violence. Of the 13,374 citywide shootings that have occurred since she took office in 2016 and July of this year, Foxx told reporters, police have made arrests in just 2,447, or 18%, of them.

“This isn’t me pointing fingers. … This isn’t me playing the victim,” she insisted. “This is us in the state’s attorney’s office wanting to work with our law enforcement partners because when we know we have that many unsolved shootings there is a sense that people can get away with murder with impunity, and that makes our communities less safe.”

Contributing: Cheyanne Daniels

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Arlington Heights Mayor Tom Hayes at Arlington International Racecourse. | Mark Welsh/Daily Herald

“We haven’t been asked for anything yet, we haven’t committed to anything yet, and we wouldn’t without plenty of thoughtful public discussions about it,” Arlington Heights Mayor Tom Hayes said.

Public financing of a new stadium isn’t among Arlington Heights’ opening plays as it tries to lure the Chicago Bears to the northwest suburb, but the village could offer some perks to the McCaskey family if the game goes into overtime.

Arlington Heights Mayor Tom Hayes said Tuesday that “everything is open to discussion” when it comes to negotiating with the Bears organization, but any taxpayer-funded incentives would only be considered “as a last resort.”

“We’re always willing to talk, but certainly since nothing has been asked for or suggested to us [by the Bears] at this point, we’re going to play it by ear,” Hayes said. “Like any business we’re trying to attract or retain, we certainly have an open mind.”

Arlington Heights, like many municipalities, does offer incentives to businesses, such as through the creation of tax increment financing districts. “But generally, we like to hold those as a last resort, if necessary,” Hayes said.

Mark Welsh/Daily Herald
Arlington Heights Mayor Tom Hayes

As for other ways the village could help subsidize the cost of a billion-dollar NFL stadium, “we haven’t been asked for anything yet, we haven’t committed to anything yet, and we wouldn’t without plenty of thoughtful public discussions about it,” Hayes said.

A week after the Bears announced their $197.2 million purchase agreement for the now-shuttered Arlington International Racecourse, Hayes said he expects to meet with team officials soon to hear more about their “specific vision” for the 326-acre parcel.

The sale, which is thought to be contingent on the Bears receiving village zoning approval, is not expected to close for more than a year.

Any stadium proposal would have to gain approval from Arlington Heights’ design commission, plan commission and ultimately its nine-member village board, which includes Hayes.

“We have a lot of time to talk these things through. We’re not rushing into anything,” he said.

A Bears spokeswoman declined to comment on whether the team would seek taxpayer-funded benefits, at either the municipal or state level.

The team would be on the hook for about $87 million if it were to break its Soldier Field lease with the Chicago Park District five years from now, pocket change in the grand scheme of potentially financing a new stadium that’s sure to have a 10-digit price tag.

AP file
Arlington International Racecourse, pictured in 2000, when it was purchased by Churchill Downs Inc. The corporation is now selling the track.

Whether the team leaves the lakefront or not, taxpayers won’t be done footing the bill for Soldier Field’s 2002 renovation until 2033. The often ridiculed “spaceship” overhaul that made it the NFL’s smallest stadium was bankrolled by bonds issued by Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, debt that will total $660 million by the time it’s paid off.

That’s why several state lawmakers have moved to block any public funding for a new stadium. Last week, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said public financing for a new stadium is “not something that we’re looking at,” but he wouldn’t rule it out.

Meanwhile, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has invited the Bears to the negotiating table to stay at Soldier Field.

“I would love that the Bears be part of our present and our future,” she said last week. “But we’ve got to do a deal that makes sense for us in the context of where we are.”

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A worker with the city’s Department of Streets and Sanitation loads a garbage truck in the 7500 block of North Ridge Boulevard in Rogers Park | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times file photo

Newly-appointed Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Cole Stollard said the shortage of 96-gallon garbage carts will be fixed, thanks to $918,000 provided by the Office of Budget and Management. Also, a year-long wait for tree-trimming will be cut by adding 11 crews, for a total of 25.

Newly appointed Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Cole Stollard on Tuesday delivered the news that City Council members wanted to hear: the shortage of garbage carts will finally be eliminated and an influx of crews will reduce the year-long wait to get a tree trimmed.

Stollard’s Department of Streets and Sanitation can make or break a Council member.

If the garbage doesn’t get picked up on time or the streets don’t get plowed fast enough after a major snowstorm, the Council member not only gets the blame; he or she could be thrown out of office.

That’s why Stollard’s debut performance at Council budget hearings was music to the members’ ears.

Stollard said the chronic shortage of 96-gallon garbage carts will be eliminated, thanks to $918,000 provided by the Office of Budget and Management in response to his appeal.

“I looked back three years because I know, being a former ward superintendent, the importance of cart delivery. I met with aldermen. The No. 1 thing on everyone’s agenda was access to carts,” Stollard said.

Then he met with Budget Director Susie Park, and “when I laid it out that for the last three, four years, we’ve been taking from January to the following year to fill our fourth quarter — and it’s pretty much the same number every year — I said, ‘Is there any way we can find $918,000 to become current? … And she gave us that $918,000 to become current. So the carts are on the way.”

The good news for Council members extended to tree-trimming, another historically backlogged and shortchanged service with a one-year lag time that is critical to Chicago residents.

“Again, that was something that I heard loud and clear from everybody when I came in in July,” he said.

“We’re getting laborers at the end of this quarter and at the beginning of next year. So, we’ll be going from 14 crews that we’re putting out a day now to 25. And we’re in further discussion to see if we can make that a little bit better”

Ald. Jason Ervin (28th), chairman of the City Council’s Black Caucus, was thrilled with that news and with Stollard’s claim that 30 seasonal laborers will be added between April 15 and Nov. 1 to “assist in areas of need.”

“We should have got you years ago, man. You’re getting trees trimmed. You’re getting all of this stuff,” Ervin said.

Budget Committee Chairman Pat Dowell (3rd) cut Ervin off — playfully.

“Don’t be suckin’ up,” Dowell said to laughter.

Ald. Carrie Austin (34th) added, “It truly was.” Then she did some of her own buttering up of the man who replaced retired Streets and Sanitation Commissioner John Tully.

“Cole, it couldn’t have happened to a better person….We’re glad to see you there as commissioner,” Austin said.

Ald. Chris Taliaferro (29th) said there are trees in his West Side ward that have been waiting to be trimmed for two years along with dead trees in danger of falling that need to be removed.

“I can’t say it enough: Forestry, forestry forestry,” Taliaferro said.

The news was not so good for the parade of residents who used the public comment period that preceded Tuesday’s hearing to plead for $2 million in additional spending to treat and save Chicago’s 50,000 remaining Emerald Ash Borer trees.

Malcolm Whiteside, deputy commissioner of the Bureau of Forestry, pretty much shot down the request.

For one thing, Whiteside said the $2 million cost cited by residents was “misleading,” a low-ball figure that’s “just for the chemicals.”

“We’re missing the $4 million that needs to be added for the personnel, the equipment and the vehicles. Also, you have to take a pesticide and applicators license [exam] through the state of Illinois,” Whiteside said.

What the advocates “need to understand is that the chemical was never to save the trees,” Whiteside said.

“We started this in 2008. The application was just to keep us going until we was prepared with the personnel to be able to remove the remaining trees. When we started this, there was 96,000 Ash trees. Now, we’re down to 50,000,” he said.

“So we feel in our business that there’s enough chemicals in those trees to last for another 10 years. And [then], we can start removing those trees.”

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With Abreu and Anderson leading the way, the Sox have as much business winning the AL as any other team. | Photo by Nuccio DiNuzzo/Getty Images

Remember: The Sox went all-in for this thing.

Do the White Sox have to do some real damage in the playoffs for the 2021 season to be considered a success?

Manager Tony La Russa turned that question on its side Tuesday. That’s a nice way of saying he took it and bent it into the shape of a mutant pretzel.

“It comes in categories of fans and media,” he said. “There are some fans who I think believe, and some of the media, that the most difficult thing to do is win the division.”

Really? Who are these maniacs and where are they hiding?

But La Russa went on to confirm that opinion as a “fact.” Over 162 games, he said, with so many clashes against division rivals, with injuries and other obstacles and challenges, just making it to the finish line first is the heaviest of all baseball lifts.

To think otherwise is to “disrespect the regular season,” he said.

But I know better than that. You do, too. Even your Cousin Earl knows that what awaits the deep-run-or-bust Sox is both the hardest part and the only part that really matters. And Earl still records and catalogues every inning from April through September on VHS cassette tape.

A division title? The Sox have won six of those — and the Cubs seven — since the major leagues went to a divisional alignment in 1969. Not that 13 is a lot. Matter of fact, it’s kind of a puny number. But one of these occurrences isn’t exactly cause for a parade, either. That’s why Sox players sleep-walked more than they celebrated after clinching the American League Central in Cleveland.

In all that time, though, Chicago’s teams have only one World Series appearance each to show for it. You knew that already. They have one World Series championship apiece since 1917. You knew that, too.

So: “Success,” getting back to the original question? The World Series is where it’s at, folks. Winning it would be ideal. Even losing it would likely come — for fans, for the media, for the team — with a large measure of satisfaction.

Anything shy of that? You can decide how you feel. Technically, winning the division already gives the Sox a leg up on Rick Renteria’s wild-card squad of 2020. Getting past the Astros in a best-of-five round that starts Thursday would be an exciting additional step.

But here’s a different way to look at it: The Sox went all-in for this thing. They traded for Lance Lynn and signed Liam Hendriks in the offseason. They doubled down at the in-season deadline by dealing for Craig Kimbrel, Ryan Tepera and Cesar Hernandez. They built a lineup around an MVP first baseman in his mid-30s, a catcher who’s been in the big leagues since 2012 and a .300-hitting shortstop who is now three seasons into his prime.

Injuries aren’t a big issue for the Sox anymore. They can check their playoff roster against those of the Astros, Rays, Red Sox and Yankees and say, “OK, we’ve got everything they’ve got — and maybe more.”

And, of course, before embarking on this deep-run-or-bust season — because they thought they had as good a shot as any AL team to win a pennant in 2021 — the Sox went out and got a Hall of Fame manager to make it all come together.

“We have the opportunity to have one of the greatest managers in the game’s history in our dugout at a time when we believe our team is poised for great accomplishments,” Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf said after hiring his old friend.

“Tony is the best man to help us win championships over the next several years,” general manager Rick Hahn added at the time.

“I think we’ll get to where we need to be,” All-Star shortstop Tim Anderson said after the clincher in Cleveland.

You don’t have to read between any of those lines to find “World Series.”

“You want to be the last team standing,” La Russa said, “and, if you’re not, you’re disappointed. If we [are], we’ll celebrate. If we don’t, everybody’s disappointed and we’re going to be disappointed, too.”

Wait a second: Did he just say it all?

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