Finishing touches are underway for a new park set to open next month at the site of the former Gurnee Grade School building, transforming the flood-prone land from a frustrating community dilemma into an asset.
A grand opening ceremony will be held at 5 p.m. Sept. 9 for the addition to Viking Park, which will formally mark the land’s transformation from an almost annual headache to new a community resource.
The former school, located at 940 Kilbourne Road, was a regular target of flood waters from the Des Plaines River during seasonal rains. The evacuation of students to other locations and volunteer sandbagging efforts became a recurring ritual.
The school was ultimately razed and relocated in 2012 through a largely grant-funded partnership between School District 56, the Gurnee Park District and the Lake County Stormwater Management Agency. Now, the property is being developed into a stormwater-friendly recreation area.
“I’m really extremely pleased about the result of this teamwork,” said Susie Kuruvilla, executive director Gurnee Park District. “What used to be a site that offered educational opportunities for many will now offer recreational opportunities for everybody.”
Jennifer Gilbert, marketing and public relations manager for the park district, said that in addition to a gazebo large enough to accommodate events from picnics to weddings, the park will feature lacrosse and soccer fields, open space and rain gardens with native plant habitation that encourages stormwater retention.
Gilbert said plans are also in the works to build a short trail connection to the nearby Des Plaines River Trail, a feature developed by the Lake County Forest Preserve District.
A Gurnee resident since the 1980s, Gilbert said many fellow residents have memories of the tribulations the school district and community went through with the repetitive flooding.
“I can remember seeing a canoe going down Grand Avenue in that area,” she said. “But the best part of the story is our community teamwork. The community came together to find a solution for our residents.”
Odi Pahl, a Gurnee Grade School Board member, said the park represents a positive finale to a long and frustrating situation for the district, it’s officials, students and parents.
“Gurnee Grade School is so much more than the ravaged building next to the Des Plaines River that everyone reads about. It had a real heart not seen, but felt by the generations that walked its halls,” Pahl said. “When it closed its doors in December, 2012, we were lost. We missed our old, battered friend. (Now) everyone has moved on and District 56 is proud of our current facilities and the environment we offer our students. There will always be a special place in our memories for Gurnee Grade. Thanks go to the Gurnee Park District for honoring this site.”
Gurnee Mayor Krysti Kovarik said the project represents one of the largest flood mitigation efforts for a single building in Lake County, encompassing years of work by partners and more than $3 million in federal grants, with the addition of local funding, to restore the property, as well as referendum funding for construction of the new grade school.
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“There are a lot of rough memories for me — the sandbagging,” Kovarik said. “What a turnaround. The best thing is that we were able to get the school out of there and get the land back to its natural state and that people will be able to use it.”
The most famous, or infamous, memories of the river’s assault on the former school date to the historic flooding in the fall of 1986, when the worst flood in Gurnee’s history sent Gurnee Grade School students to “Wiebolt U” — a 20,000-square-foot space in the former Wiebolt department store at Lakehurst Mall. Students returned to the school building the following January, with cleanup and relocation costs eventually estimated at around $1.5 million.
The former school, built in 1954, has been replaced by the new Prairie Trail School on Wadsworth Road west of Green Bay Road in Wadsworth. In November of 2010, a $28.5 million referendum to build a new school and demolish Gurnee Grade School was approved by voters.
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