Gurnee trustee candidates address improving East Grand Avenue
Potential ways to improve Gurnee's East Grand Avenue business corridor have been addressed by four village board trustees seeking three seats in next week's election.
Incumbents Jeanne Balmes, Thomas Hood, Karen Thorstenson and Don Wilson are competing for the three 4-year trustee positions in Tuesday's election. That election quirk resulted because Thorstenson was appointed to fill two years of a 4-year trustee term that became open with Steve Park's resignation soon after he was elected in 2015.
Michael Jacobs, a former village board member, is the only candidate seeking the 2-year balance of the seat Thorstenson has occupied since Park's departure.
East Grand Avenue on Waukegan's border has long been a sore spot in Gurnee, with its mix of empty storefronts, thrift shops, nonstandard sign heights and overhead power lines - a contrast to the busy thoroughfare's more thriving section west of the Tri-State Tollway.
However, experts from the Urban Land Institute last summer recommended the village celebrate the low-cost shopping that could be promoted as an alternative to Gurnee Mills and other west-side retailers. One idea was "Vintage Garage Gurnee."
Wilson said the $15,000 spent on the Urban Land Institute "was a waste of money offering ideas that no resident in East Gurnee wanted." Wilson, 45, a senior sales account executive and trustee since 2013, said the village should become aggressive in forcing owners to clean up properties with vacant buildings, such as a former Handy Andy Home Center at Grand and Route 41 that closed in 1996.
Hood, 56, an attorney who's been on the village board since 2013, said he agrees with the Urban Land Institute's suggestion to embrace the low-cost stores on East Grand.
"The village is not called to lead the way in private market development," Hood said. "Rather, we are called to see where the market is going and to provide an environment in which that market can flourish."
Thorstenson, a project manager, said Urban Land Institute's suggestions can get traction by creating an action plan and timeline with short- and long-term goals. She said an East Grand corridor committee should be established to keep the ideas alive.
Balmes, 67, first elected as a trustee in 2001, said the organization's idea of weekly or monthly food truck visits or small festivals in the area would be realistic and bring exposure to the area as the village works with businesses and property owners to develop the East Grand corridor.
Grand: Not all candidates agree with recommendations