Gurnee trustee seeking online friends to help clean village

Gurnee Trustee Kirk Morris is using online social networking and other means to get volunteers interested in beautifying the village.

Morris said a Facebook page called Gurnee Town Forum is where suggestions may be submitted on what areas of the village could use tidying. He hopes the first beautification and clean-up effort can occur next month.

Gurnee Mayor Kristina Kovarik said while Morris' idea isn't officially connected to village government, she supports it.

"You don't turn away help," Kovarik said Tuesday. "I've always talked about the community spirit and volunteering."

Morris said a stretch of Grand Avenue near the Des Plaines River tops the list of places needing removal of trash and nuisance vegetation.

"It's ugly on either side," said Morris.

Along with the Facebook page, he said, a Web site is being developed to accept suggestions on how Gurnee can look better. Patrick Muetz, assistant to the village administrator, has helped by providing an electronic map of public property.

Other sites on Morris' radar include the railroad bridges over Old Grand Avenue and Washington Street. He said he believes it's realistic the railroads would grant permission for volunteers to paint the bridges so they look nicer.

"These are the kinds of inexpensive things we can do right away," said Morris, who was elected to the Gurnee village board in April.

Gurnee isn't the only Lake County town where volunteers are being sought to improve its appearance.

In Hainesville, several avenues of pursuit are under way to recruit volunteers for the village's first official clean-up day, June 27. The effort is focused primarily along Hainesville Road from Route 120 to Washington Street and at the Cranberry Lake area, which includes a milelong trail.

At about 2,600 residents, Hainesville is much smaller than Gurnee, although organizers think they have their bases covered to snag volunteers.

"We put it out in our newsletter. It's on our Web site. We have a little place to write blurbs on the water bill, so we did that," said Georgann Duberstein, an active community member who was elected village trustee in April.

She said the word also is being circulated among about 100 members of a resident computer network group established about a year ago.

"It's become a good place to put out information ... just a community information service," she said.

Daily Herald staff writer Mick Zawislak contributed to this report.