Anthony "Tony" Garbis, who in 1981 transformed a shuttered Jewel food store in downtown Riverside into the independently owned institution known as Riverside Foods, died peacefully on Dec. 4, 2019, at the age of 80.

Adding insult to injury, less than a week after two men smashed their way into the Citgo minimart, 539 Longcommon Road in Riverside, and made off with the top half of a non-functioning ATM, two people on Dec. 3 stole the machine's remaining shell, which had been placed outside after the Nov. 28 burglary.

If you plan to do some of your Christmas shopping at the North Riverside Park Mall, 7501 Cermak Road, in the next few weeks, take a few minutes out to browse the shelves of the pop-up library and pick out a book for you or your kids to read there or simply take home with you.

Riverside voters will be asked to vote on whether to issue $1.5 million in bonds for the renovation of the library's lower level next spring after village trustees voted unanimously to place the question on the March 17, 2020 presidential primary ballot.