Should hotel remain a priroty for Fox Lake? Candidates can't agree

Numerous village administrations have tried for years without success to bring a hotel to the vacant Sayles property on Route 12 in Fox Lake.

A candidate for village board says that's because town leaders have approached the issue the wrong way.

"I've heard about for years how great it would be to have a hotel in Fox Lake," board hopeful Jonathan Mumford said Wednesday during an hourlong question-and-answer session with fellow candidates at the Daily Herald. "I think at some point in time, you put the cart in front of the horse."

Mumford, a 42-year-old firefighter, is challenging incumbents Greg Murrey, 58, Nancy Koske, 63, and Brian Marr. 56, for one of three available trustee seats in the April 7 election.

Instead of spending time and effort on recruiting a hotel developer, village officials should focus on improving Fox Lake's image, said Mumford, who served as a village trustee between 2009 and 2013.

"The image of Fox Lake needs to change, needs to tweak a little bit, before you put a hotel in," he said. "Developing that particular parcel of property would be fantastic, but I don't think a hotel on its own is going to support that kind of financial outlay of cash that it's going to cost to develop that."

Mumford said one way the village could improve its image is by hiring more code enforcement officers.

The incumbents, however, said bringing a hotel to the abandoned Sayles property is and should continue to be the number one priority for village officials. The hotel could host tourists in Fox Lake to use the Chain O' Lakes, and help existing business, or spur the creation of new ones, to serve those out-of-town visitors.

"We have the lakes, we have the park to hold (a fishing) tournament, we have the restaurants to eat, but no place for them to stay," Koske said. "Fishing tournaments, ice fishing tournaments, snowmobile races, you can't have any of that if you don't have a hotel to put them in."

Murrey called a potential hotel a "main pivoter" to creating new retail and commercial developments on Route 12.

"The Chain is a key tool out there," he said. "It's a key parcel."

"The beautiful thing about that property is it's a big piece of property. It's the last big piece of property on the water that's available commercially," Marr agreed. "As far as development goes, the hotel is priority one on order of development."

Mumford, though, said the village needs to do more to spur development that doesn't rely on visitors to the Chain.

"Winter is very long in Fox Lake," he said. "You have to make Fox Lake a destination more than three months out of the year."