Living Here

The old guard.
City government is all about leaders and their control, and the people’s compliance to that control. Every government requires compliance permitted limits. If one does not control one’s behavior so that it is compliant to within the government’s permitted limits, then the government will attempt to motivate you with penalties, fines, legal action, etc., all of which will be painful and certainly not be to your benefit. The only real difference in governments is “who or what controls the government, and that changes with time”.

For some time now, the old guard that actually run Lake Geneva’s local government has been leaving office in one form or another. The old guard was a good old boys group that was interested in using its authority to direct benefits to friends and associates. If you were in the “in group” then (so to speak) the path to contract or job was paved, and if you were not, then the paths in front of you were littered with obstructions.

For example: If you were not associated or approved by the old guard, and you wanted to put up a six-foot high solid fence facing the front of your property, then you were told you couldn’t do it because there was an ordinance against it, but if you were associated with the old guard, then you could just build it and, if someone complained, then you could always apply for and receive a variance to make it legal. It is good to see the old guard slowly being phased out of city government, but what is replacing it?

The old guard consisted of political associations, businesses and business associations that were concerned about financial dealings and use projects (later called their accomplishments) as a capitalistic cover for their own financial success. There’s a new guard. It’s a loosely knit, but tightly guided, association of citizens. The members include churches, charities, non-profits, volunteer groups, fund raisers, a union and more. To this loosely associated group Lake Geneva’s appearance is the means used to justify actions and city financial expenditures. What is most interesting is that one character is holding an unflinching and unthreatened position of authority. The man is common to both groups.

Dan Winkler.

Like Talleyrand of the French revolution, he knows how to run the city to accomplish what the new leaders want, just like he knew how to pander to the old guard. Mr. Winkler, like Talleyrand, is deliberately protected because it is believed that he is needed to run the city, just as Talleyrand continued to run France for each new group that came to power, even though most of those around him were being beheaded.

On February 23 at 11:07 in the morning an alarm alerted the emergency communication center about a tactical situation for Reek Elementary School in Linn.
First responders, police, S.W.A.T. team, and a helicopter were all dispatched to the school. Their response was immediate, thorough, and text book perfect. So immediate, that the responders were already at the school before they got the information that it was a false alarm.   The button on the new “WAVE INSTANT NOTIFICATION ALARM SYSTEM” that had recently been installed in the elementary school had accidentally been pushed.

“We are proud of our responders and comforted by how efficient and immediate their response was and hope we never have to call them for the real thing” said one resource. The school was quick about letting parents know immediately via the Internet that it was a false alarm but if you tried to call the school you couldn’t get a hold of a teacher or the staff to get any information. According to students not knowing what was going on exactly made the situation scary but the students kept calm, cooperated and followed the safety instructions given to them.

“This was a very serious situation but we hope to brush this off as a practice run for everyone, including teachers, staff, and students.   We are grateful that this was a false alarm and no one was hurt but it also reminds us that we are vulnerable and need to be made aware and prepared for this type of situation.”

This story is about the official response to the false alarm. The “streaker” part of the story in the accompanying photo may have been made up by the Geneva Shore Report X-Files investigators…so they are being investigated.

The new “WAVE INSTANT NOTIFICATION ALARM SYSTEM” at Reek Elementary School was activated. It was false alarm, but good to know it works!

Tiny bubbles, tiny bubbles, in the wine, make me happy, make me feel fine.
Except these bubbles are under the ice. Decades ago an inventor figured out how to keep the ice from forming around piers and other structures so that the movement the ice over time would not destroy them. Bill Gage first used them to protect his piers, instead of removing and replacing piers every season as most shore property owners do. Bill eventually went to a different system because his bubbles protecting his piers migrated under the ice to arrive near the shore opposite of Williams Bay where snowmobilers and ice fishermen fell into the holes cause by the migrating bubbles. Lake Geneva does not have Bill Gage.

Lake Geneva has Dan Winkler, head of the Utility Department and the man responsible for having the bubblers that protect the Riviera piers turned off in warmer weather, and the man did not perform when the weather changed a few weeks back. The result? The Riviera bubbles migrated under the ice, just as they had done years ago from Gage’s bubblers, and weakened the ice under where a bunch of visiting cars were parked not far from the pier. Sploosh.   In they went, creating the largest most widespread single story ever to be printed or carried on television in Lake Geneva’s history. People called in from New Zealand, Russia and all over Europe when images of Lake Geneva aired in their locales. Any news is good news in this modern world or Donald Trump would not be a name you recognize so easily.

Did Lake Geneva needs its name to be so inexorably linked to a few cars sinking through the ice on a sunny weekend day? Did the poor visiting drivers need to be blamed for ignorance or stupidity? Or does Dan Winkler have to be properly thanked for this latest debacle?

The nearer pool of water, free of ice, is the exact area where 16 cars went to the bottom two weeks ago. The bubblers that keep the Riviera Pier Complex in the distant free of ice all winter are still running away. It takes not stretch of the imagination or a logical person to conclude that the only other open water area of the lake is right where it is.