Gurnee Park District expects to own Gurnee Grade School land near Des Plaines River
Gurnee Park District board members may approve a deal that would lead to ownership of five acres near the Des Plaines River after a school is demolished on the site next year.
Board members, at a meeting Tuesday evening, will consider approving the expenditure of about $37,500 as the park district’s share in a three-way deal to acquire and develop the parcel where flood-prone Gurnee Grade School has stood for 58 years.
Gurnee Elementary District 56, the Lake County Stormwater Management Commission and the park system are collaborating in the school’s demolition and initially returning the five acres to open space near the river.
Park district Executive Director Susie Kuruvilla, in a memo to board members, said her agency and District 56 have been asked to reimburse roughly $75,000 to the stormwater management commission for its project expenses. That means the school district and parks will contribute $37,500 apiece for the reimbursement.
Kuruvilla, who recommends the board approve the $37,500 expenditure, said the park district will receive ownership of the five acres after the school is demolished. District 56 officials have said they expect Gurnee Grade School to come down next spring.
“As we move forward,” Kuruvilla said in her memo, “we will look at further opportunities for the site such as a parking lot to accommodate parking during soccer at Viking Park, picnic shelter, etc.”
Gurnee Grade School will be replaced by a new building in Wadsworth. Gurnee Grade pupils will move into the renamed River Trail School on O’Plaine Road in January.
River Trail students will shift to Prairie Trail School in December. River Trail previously was known as O’Plaine School.