The Hound's Gurnee correspondents are still tittering over the latest issue of "Keeping Posted", the village's newsletter. What has them guffawing is Mayor Kristina Kovarik's monthly message .
"The winter did expose some flaws in our ability to deal with heavy snowfalls," her honor notes with a straight pen. "I'm happy to report that Village staff has taken the initiative to conduct some intense planning sessions that will correct deficiencies in our snow removal operations."
What the mayor doesn't address is why the public works director resigned suddenly and that two long-time public works employees were disciplined. Did it have to do with the poor street-clearing performance during the winter of ought seven and eight? That would be the winter when the village ran out of salt --- not that Gurnee was the only governmental agency to be caught short of sodium chloride. Or is is calcium chloride they use on Midwest roads? Or is there something more to the issues with the three public works guys?
The copy of "Keeping Posted" The Hound saw has Mayor Kovarik concluding: "We listened to the feedback received and the message was loud and clear --- pristine roads and optimal driving conditions are of the utmost importance."
Nothing gets past some public officials, eh?
Despite bad snowplowing, Gurnee does have some of the best fireworks in the county on July 4 and during Gurnee Days. Maybe bread and circuses will get the chill off village residents.
Gurnee needs a new mayor, PERIOD. Kovarik has done little positive since becomming mayor. Besides screwing up snow removal (which should be down to a science here in the midwest) she has begun to screw local buisness so that she can make the village appear to be more ethnicaly diverse. Instead of hiring minority police or firemen (which there are no blacks in either department) she decides to allow Lake County Towing to come in and share towing responsibilites with McClures (who have been towing in Gurnee since towing began) and Gurnee Towing... To make it worse, Firemens Towing wanted to come in to Gurnee last year but were rejected because they said they already had two companies, yet somehow she brings in a non-Gurnee buisness to add ethnic diversity. Somehow I find this wrong and in ill taste. Maybe she should worry about local buisness owners and keeping them in Gurnee rather than what ethinicity they are - guess it comes to no surprise because they also changed the policy with DUI arrests - the tow companies now have to give the offenders 3 free days of storage and the village gets the money rather the garage... I for one cannot wait for mayoral elections in Gurnee so I can vote for anyone other than Kovarik. I'm tired of seeing Gurnee turn into Waukegan!
PS Mayor - the eastside of Gurnee still exsists, maybe focus some attention and funding on the older 'original' parts of Gurnee instead of the westside and all the new money!
THE HOUND SEZ: Gurnee turning into Waukegan. Now there's a prospect those Gurnee residents who fled Waukegan must shudder about. Unsure if Gurnee needs a new mayor, but you make a good point about how snow removal should be down to an exact science here in the Snow Belt. By the way, mayoral elections in the village are next year. Is Dick Welton ready for a comeback?