Board bailed on its duty to residents
The bookends are complete. Just east of highway 41 south of Washington Street, Park City has the Superfund site, and now Gurnee has the salvage yard. What exists between these two public health hazards is a mobile home community.
Last Monday evening, the Gurnee board unanimously approved a salvage yard and car-crushing plant in the front yard of citizens who are least able to resist the push of big-money interests: the working class. In a move more often heard of in the third world, the Gurnee board, blinded by dollar signs, snubbed our fellow citizens and rather than do the right thing by creating a buffer between residential and industrial land, dropped a brand new salvage yard within 100 feet of a manufactured home community. Hundreds of people are affected by this decision.
I was sickened by the absence of any discussion about doing the right thing by our people. The issue was addressed in a crisp business- like manner. The board, in what seemed a practiced, already-decided issue, registered the concerns of state and county representatives as well the pleas of many residents, moved to box in this community, and signed off on the destruction of a small parcel of wetlands.
Language in the agreement claims the moral high ground on environmentalism, but I find that to be specious. The salvage company has promised to "clean up" the current salvage yard currently located on the north side of Washington. The clean-up mentioned is to scrape off some soil. The representative for the salvage company even noted that any further environmental clean-up needed would be handled by the state. That means you and I pay for their mess.
Park City, for its part, was suspiciously not present in this discussion, following a $1.2 million lawsuit settlement between Park City and the salvage company. I find something amiss here and I am saddened that the human factor (mostly the working poor) is again the least significant quantity to turn the hearts of society.
No good can come from barricading one of the only affordable housing locations in our community. This move punishes the people who work in our community and live in the manufactured homes. No amount of tax revenue is worth this.
Rather than allow this to happen, the Gurnee board should have ordered the salvage company to clean up their current site and place their "state of the art" facility on land that has already been rendered unusable for any other purpose and place a soccer field in the land to create a buffer. The working-class residents of this community will be punished for wanting to live near where they work. The bookends are complete. Pull the volume from these bookends and you will read, "Something stinks in Gurnee."
The Rev. Clyde Elledge
Annunciation Episcopal
Gurnee