Gurnee putting finishing touches on Welton plaza
Almost three years after breaking ground on a tribute to the community's longest-serving and arguably most important mayor, Gurnee is putting the finishing touches on the Richard A. Welton Village Plaza.
In the next two weeks the village will install decorative brick pavers, filling in the circles left in the concrete sidewalk. Later this year workers will install new benches, landscaping and other features to make the 1-acre park more usable to village residents.
"I think it is going to be peaceful and beautiful," Mayor Kristina Kovarik said.
Even in its incomplete state, it isn't hard to appreciate the plaza's beauty. Flowers are blooming and vines are starting to wind their way up a striking half-circle pergola, making it seem as if the place is coming alive.
"Myself and everyone in the village is anxious to see that plaza get completed," Kovarik said. "Not only to honor Mayor Welton, who had an outsized influence on the village, but because it'll be a wonderful gathering place."
Welton served on the village board for more than 30 years. He was a trustee from 1970 to 1973 and then mayor from 1973 to 2001. In that time he oversaw the village's biggest period of growth in every way.
The two largest employers in town both arrived during his tenure. Marriott's Great America, now Six Flags Great America, opened in 1976, and Gurnee Mills mall opened in 1991. The village doubled in area and had a population boom, going from 2,738 residents in 1970 to 28,834 in 2000, according to U.S. Census data.
The plaza dedicated to Welton sits on Old Grand Avenue across from the Gurnee Fire Department, at 4580 Old Grand Ave. It is the same spot village hall once stood, where Welton helped shape the town.
Trustee Cheryl Ross said the spot was of particular significance to Welton because he attended church nearby and liked to stop by the Dairy Queen next to the park.
Although she doesn't like to take any credit, Ross was among those who advocated for the plaza. Ross' father, Gordon D. Gillings, served as Gurnee's mayor from 1949 to 1973 and encouraged Welton to be a trustee and then mayor.
Welton died July 31, 2015, so he never got to see the plaza completed, but he did know it was being built. At the groundbreaking ceremony in 2014 he told the crowd that when he was growing up in the village, many young people went off to college and never came back because Gurnee didn't have opportunities for them.
"We worked really hard to build a balanced community, full of opportunities," Welton said.
The plaza has been in use since it was unveiled to the public during Gurnee Days in August 2016. Later this year, the village will install Wi-Fi hot spots there.
"Once we get the Wi-Fi in there, it'll be a wonderful place to stop by on a walk or bike and access Wi-Fi there in the park," Kovarik said.
Even with all the village plans to get done this year, Kovarik said there still may be more in store in 2018, when the village plans to install plaques that describe the history of Gurnee.
"We want to capture the history of the village," she said.