WE NEED ACTION

Anyone who is required to use Green Bay Rd. between the Wisconsin state line and Sunset Avenue in Waukegan knows very well the consternation and aggravation associated with that highway.

The two-lane roadway is a bottleneck as well as a hazard and now two new developments on this highway are going to be adding traffic at a tremendous rate. The Waukegan Park District's athletic fields located South of Wadsworth Rd. on the old Orchard Hills property will add significant traffic throughout the summer. At the same time Zion is planning a ball field at ninth and Green Bay Rd. which I understand, will be a major attraction and that too will increase the traffic load on Green Bay Rd.

For several years we have been getting nothing but lip service from the Illinois Department of Transportation and from our elected officials but we have been getting zero action. They have had several roadshows presented by an agency engaged by the Department of Transportation to play games with us. We attend these meetings where they break us up into groups for example, red, green, and orange and like little children in school and we are instructed to enumerate our wishes and desires for Green Bay Rd. improvements. I have news for them. We just want Green Bay Rd. to be widened and we want it done now.

I have been laden with promises and phone calls with the indication that there were funds available or soon would be available to begin action on widening the highway, but the phone calls never materialized nor did the funding. While Green Bay Rd., a major thoroughfare, and a road that carries an abundance of local traffic lies fallow, highways are being widened, turn lanes added and traffic signals installed by the dozens in other Lake Country locations. One must ask why not here?

The situation on Green Bay Rd. in Winthrop Harbor, Zion, Beach Park in Benton Township is deplorable to say nothing of the fact that it is absolutely dangerous. During the rush hour in the morning and evening the patience of drivers attempting to enter the highway wear thin and the result is that they take chances that they would not normally take. Consequently, accidents are on the increase and that will continue until something is done.

Intersections in Beach Park that are extremely hazardous include 29th street, Kenosha Road and Green Bay Rd. in addition to cross traffic at 33rd street. Regarding the 33rd St. traffic signal, the village of Beach Park has the money to pay for the installation at that location however, the Department of Transportation claims that the traffic count does not warrant a signal at there. Read on.

I must tell you it's very strange that they would determine that 33rd. and Green Bay which services 800 homes, while on State line Road at the entrance to Zion's trumpet Park, which serves three manufacturing companies at a three-way traffic signal has been installed. That too is a state highway under the control of IDOT. There can be no logical explanation for this. It surely is not traffic count.

This is an election year and the seats of our state representatives for this district are up for bid. Both incumbents and challengers are seeking your vote. If there is any single item that affects you directly and should have an influence upon that vote it must certainly be the debacle of Green Bay Rd. I'm asking all of you to help me do something about this problem.

Notify our present representatives as well as those who seek to replace the incumbents that your support for their election or reelection might well hinge directly upon how quickly they act to do something with Green Bay Rd. and I don't mean more telephone calls, more silly little meetings or political double-talk.

I am referring to action and nothing less. Let's get together and make this happen.

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