Red-light cameras increase our safety

I moved into Gurnee from Waukegan in 1976. My daughters were in grade school at the time, and I worked for a local municipality. I became involved in the community in many ways. I served on the zoning board and planning commission, was involved in the schools as a volunteer parent, and served in many community organizations.

While on the zoning and planning commissions we were developing the small town of Gurnee into a larger, vibrant community, but we also kept safety in mind! We realized that more people meant more children, and so we never let developers build their subdivisions without sidewalks, too. We knew increasing residential and commercial developments were also going to increase traffic.

It was also apparent that people moving to Gurnee were still working out of the area, and speeding was increasing because people were always in a hurry, unlike all of us older longtime residents, who lived in Gurnee and worked here, too.

The candidates who are bashing the red-light cameras are wrong in their claims that it will hurt Gurnee as far as business and people coming here for other reasons. I assume they are just thinking about saving money, not the safety of the residents. Police cannot be everywhere, running radar or sitting on a street corner, keeping traffic safe. This is no longer an option, because they have too many calls for accidents and other things as well.

Gurnee residents, look for candidates for your board who still have community safety in mind, and will get you more red-light cameras so your children can again walk the community safely.

Kenneth Hellstern

Fox Lake