When the organizers of Buffalo Grove’s largest festival learned that heavy road construction would soon be invading their space, they responded by moving the whole party away from Lake Cook Road.
Long Grove has a series of similar community activities in its downtown, and has a similar street-repair agenda ready to cause problems.
But trying to move the Chocolate, Strawberry and Apple festivals elsewhere would negate their original intention, organizers say.
“The whole point of the festivals is to have people say ‘Hey, Long Grove is here, it’s a great place to shop,'” said Sharon Fine, executive director of the Long Grove Business and Community Partners. “Leaving downtown would defeat the purpose.”
So, Fine’s outfit has begun looking at options for how to address the complete reconstruction of Old McHenry Road through the downtown area, which the Lake County Division of Transportation had scheduled for the summer of 2017. Buffalo Grove Days is moving from its traditional, busy intersection to an enormous park to avoid a massive street project, but as Fine explained, Long Grove’s festivals are intrinsically tied to the downtown.
That’s forced Fine to consider how to lure shoppers into a construction zone.
“It’s going to be something to deal with,” she said. “I’m not sure what we’ll end up doing.”
But she said they have some ideas. In the years to come, the festivals might be morphing into new shapes.
LCDOT project manager Chuck Gleason said the plans call for a complete rebuild of Old McHenry Road, plus a traffic signal at the Robert Parker Coffin Road intersection, a bicycle path on the street’s north side and curbs and gutters replacing ditches.
The work is scheduled for 2017, if the county can secure all the rights-of-way in time, Gleason said. There will be no widening or new lanes, he said — but while all that is going on, Long Grove will do its own sidewalk-replacement project.
“It’s just a myriad of ‘whatever’ out there right now,” Gleason said of the existing intersection’s ditches, stop signs, on-street parking and warped sidewalks. “It’s going to be a pain in the butt when they’re building it, because it’s a downtown area, but it’s going to be complete improvement.”
Fine wondered if organizers could place the Chocolate Festival earlier in the spring and return the Apple Festival — once an October event — to later in the fall in hopes of missing the summer road crews. If left as it currently exists, Fine said the late-June Stawberry Festival would probably be lost.
The solution, she said, might lie in changing how the festivals look and feel. Instead of banking on three make-or-break weekends, all of which already cling to the volatility of good weather, Fine said the LGBCP will start experimenting with smaller, more frequent attractions.
A higher volume of events that do not attract a swarm of cars might be able to coexist with road-work crews, she said.
The group is already experimenting with that idea:
* On Oct. 3, the LGBCP organized a make-your-own-scarecrow event for local families with young children. Using small bales of hay left over from the Apple Fest, kids brought funny clothing, masks and accessories to build an amusing collection of scarecrows, which currently stand alongside Old McHenry in front of Towner Green.
* On Oct. 24, the Long Grove Artists Guild will try its first “Back Seat Gallery and Truck Show,” during which photographers, painters and craft-makers will park their cars next to Towner Green, open their back-seat doors and trucks and sell wares out of their vehicles.
More Top Picks Best Sewing Tables
Fine said more of these smaller scale ideas are coming.
“We’re going to use 2016 as a transition year, and we’ll see where that takes us in 2017,” she said.
Long Grove Village President Angie Underwood said Village Hall — which does not collect any of the revenue at the festivals’ gates, but appreciates the sales-tax spikes — would be glad to hear ideas for road-work adaptation from the LGBCP.
“That’s a discussion that will have to happen a year or so down the road, when we have more certain info,” Underwood said. “The county, they’re very conscious of the festivals, and they know that’s very important to our economy.”
Fine said she expected to work closely with the Village Board as heavy equipment gets closer.
“We have the most creative people,” Fine said. “We’re never at a loss for ideas. We won’t be shutting down, I can tell you that.”
Twitter: @RonnieAtPioneer