Gurnee names Thorstenson to village board

Karen Thorstenson, who has a long history of community involvement, has become the newest Gurnee village trustee.

Village board members Monday evening voted 5-0 to ratify Mayor Kristina Kovarik's appointment of Thorstenson to the vacant seat. The opening became available after Steve Park's resignation.

Citing family circumstances, Park resigned last month after a little more than four years in office. Thorstenson will fill Park's trustee seat until the April 2017 election.

Thorstenson was sworn in as trustee after resigning her post on the advisory planning and zoning board. She said she's been an informed and active Gurnee resident.

"I've learned quite a bit about village services in my roles with both the (advisory) economic development committee, as well as the planning and zoning board," she said. "Additionally, I have a long record of a lot of volunteer service in the community, which I think has afforded me to learn about those other taxing bodies and services they provide."

Kovarik said she selected Thorstenson from five applicants.

"I was very glad when she threw her hat in the ring," Kovarik said of Thorstenson.

Thorstenson was one of three trustee candidates who were part of late Mayor Richard Welton's political slate in 2001. Neither the Gurnee First Team trustee candidates nor Welton won in the election that saw Donald Rudny become mayor.

"I feel very fortunate that Mayor Welton has been a friend of mine, as well as a mentor and somebody that I really worked with on a variety of projects through the years," she said.

Kovarik also remembered Welton, a lifelong Gurnee resident who served 28 years as mayor and died in late July.

"I think he (Welton) would be very happy to know Karen is stepping up to trustee," she said.

Kovarik said she's known Thorstenson since about 1989, when the women worked at what then was called Sears Mortgage Banking Group. She said Thorstenson will give maximum effort every day as a village trustee.

"I know her thought process," Kovarik said. "She's a good project manager."

Before she ran for village trustee in 2001, Thorstenson worked to promote a referendum that led to construction of Gurnee's first public outdoor pool with the Hunt Club Park Aquatic Complex. Voters supported the pool idea in November 2000, which officials said would not cost more in taxes.

Thorstenson has been a Gurnee Days volunteer for about 15 years. She also has volunteered roughly 14 years at the Libertyville-area location for the Ron Santo Walk to Cure Diabetes.

In addition, Thorstenson has been active in Warren Township High School District 121 in Gurnee.