THE BRIGHT SIDE
What the heck are they doing to McDonald’s?
The local Lake Geneva McDonald’s, a place phenomenally successful, especially in the summer, wants to add an additional line for cars to use when they order from outside the facility. McDonald’s sits right on the curve of the most dangerous small stretch of road in all of the south of Walworth County. More cars in and out of there simply make no sense. Wells Street is the name of that road, and it has Culvers across from McDonald’s (and is a complete mess to use the drive-through there too), Joni’s Diner, also right across and then the YMCA, right across, and finally Burger King and KFC just a bit further north up the street to the signal. Wells Street is one big downhill run all the way from Campbell down to Highway 50 (Main Street) and just as the street gets to the YMCA and McDonald’s it curves to the west before curving back to the east just near the signal.
The whole stretch is one disaster for safe vehicular navigation. The escape valve for all this could be South Lake Shore Drive, which runs behind McDonald’s and Burger King. Why not have all traffic to those two businesses enter off of Wells but then be required to exit onto South Lake Shore Drive, which is one way headed south at that point? This would be a great relief for drivers using Wells and for drivers using McDonald’s and Burger King. Both of those businesses make so much money they could well afford to rebuild or do whatever was necessary to accomplish such a curative and effective solution.
The plan commission, on Monday night, unanimously approved the new auto processing line for the McDonald’s drive-through and parking lot. It should be interesting, as the construction gets underway, to see if the results of adding another drive-through line will actually make the operation run smoother, faster, and be safer, as the proponents are all claiming.
It is assumed that the city council will also pass this plan unopposed. There is no consideration for using the virtually unused road (South Lake Shore Drive) running with driveways behind the McDonald’s structure. Too bad.
Restaurant Week was a huge success with twenty-five restaurants participating, offering specialized menu offerings.
During the event, diners were asked to vote for a favorite local nonprofit organization to receive a Lake Geneva Restaurant Week Charity Check. The charity with the most votes, and winner of the $5,000 check, was the Agape House in Walworth. The four runners up, each receiving $1,000, included the Walworth County Food & Diaper Bank, Side by Side, Kishwauketoe Nature Conservancy, and Dementia Friendly Community Initiative of Walworth County. Congratulations to all the winners! What a truly great affair this was.
