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MAYOR KLEIN TAKES AIM…
Development is truly coming to Lake Geneva and this fact, as well as much of the development that has skyrocketed in volume over the last few years, has not been missed by Mayor Charlene Klein. She’s said little about the fact, under the stewardship of Mayor Jim Conners, years ago, the city council obliterated the developer impact fees that have always been there to make certain that developers include, among their expenses in building and selling, that they enough money to cover things like roads, traffic control devices and the utilities that must be built in to handle the number of residents the development will hold.
Mr. Conners, although he made the impact fees go away for all, really was helping out a local developer named Pollard. Yes, the same guy who built Stone Ridge, located at the northern end of Center Street, up that big hill. Mr. Pollard promised to build two roads to access that property but then finished only one, leading to a nightmare of cross community ownership that has left Stone Ridge residents who bought houses there having to travel in and out of the development on a road not owned or managed by the City of Lake Geneva, the city where the land under their homes is administrated. Mr. Pollard has done extremely well ‘getting by’ in working the soil in Lake Geneva’s land area.
On Monday night Mayor Charlene Klein went to the podium before the city council’s Meeting of the Whole and notified that council that she was going to get the impact fees put back on the agenda and then go after making sure that all developments being built in and around the city pay the impact fees they should. Bill ‘The Barber’ supported her as a citizen, as did a few others who spoke out. The city council took note, and the impact fees will go back on the agenda for reconsideration. The mayor didn’t stop there, however. She reported that she’d found out that Expedia, one of the big travel conglomerates, had failed to send a check to the city for the three percent increase in bed tax the city had passed last year, in excess of the old five percent. Expedia ignored the city and the mayor for months, until Charlene reached the CEO of the company. A check for $37,000 was generated and paid to the city immediately following her conversation with him.
Finally, the mayor informed the council, and citizens gathered at the Meeting of the Whole, that the disabled children’s playground, intended to be built at quite some expense, had been overlooked as a grantee by the state. That children’s playground was to be built in Veteran’s Park, and when the grant was applied for, it seemed a ‘no-brainer,’ or shoe in to be included in one of the state grants for such purposes, especially since the old children’s playground, not built to be accommodating to disabled children, is in such tatters that it must remain closed for safety reasons. Mayor Klein outlined her plan to create an appeal and get it filed with the state immediately. The grant appeal may not be successful, but the generation of the appeal, and the other two items the mayor has gone after, does indicate that Mayor Klein is being successful at being mayor of Lake Geneva, as she proceeds headlong into a disputed election with Todd Krause who had a substantial lead in getting votes for the primary.
It was satisfying to see another leader (Charlene) acting like a leader in today’s rather upside-down world. It can only be hoped that the voting public will take note and reward both her and themselves in the coming April Election.
