LITTLE GEMS
Mayor Charlene Klein is chasing Mr. Pollard and the other bidding developers in Lake Geneva with a big ‘Impact Fee’ stick.
There will be a special city council meeting, called by the mayor, to determine what is to be done about re-instating the impact fees on all developed property, as was originally the case (until Mr. Conners, Pollard’s mayor of convenience, came along). The mayor wanted to set forth an executive order to take care of this deficit problem but discovered that she could not issue such an order without getting the council together and having a ‘study’ about the situation.
That is what is taking place on Thursday night of this week, and what everyone ought to be paying attention to. There is no way to go backward and require Symphony Bay to pony up more of a fair share of the infrastructure costs that that development has created, although that was not true when Pollard got the city to dump some vital part of those fees. The developer got a big check in repayment for past fees.
Hillmoor comes to mind, however, as that piece of property (still in litigation) finally comes online and is cleared to develop. Highway 50 has to be expanded. The intersection at Walgreens has to be fixed and Edwards Boulevard must be greatly enlarged. All of that work is going to take state assistance and some significant impact fees. You go, Charlene!
The Stop N Go on Wells Street will close on March 27th, and construction on the new Kwik Trip building there will begin soon after.
The new store is expected to be complete and open by October in the fall of 2022. This development has been a long time coming, after a lot of back and forth between the residents of the neighboring areas, city officials, and Kwik Trip representatives. The neighbors wanted a quiet, uncluttered, eye-pleasing, and convenient business to take the place of the current one…or nothing at all. City officials want the residents happy and want that area on Wells Street to be cleaned up, made more visually pleasing, and to be efficiently run, especially when it comes to the flow of traffic to and from it. Kwik Trip wants a financially beneficial store and to provide a convenient, well-liked, and patronized business. It looks like everyone is finally in agreement and Lake Geneva can look forward to a brand-new Kwik Trip store on Wells Street.
The cemetery board is alive once again.
City officials and residents have been wondering what happened to the cemetery board after all cemetery responsibilities were handed off to the public works committee. Public works has a large agenda every month, with challenges getting through all its items, let alone trying to get to the cemeteries.
This problem was a concern for many, so public comments started coming in and requests were made to bring the cemetery board back. In April of 2021 the Finance, Licensing, and Regulation Committee voted unanimously to eliminate the cemetery board and transfer its responsibilities to the public works department.
The reasoning for this decision was that it did not meet very often, with no meetings held in 2020, partly due to the pandemic. It has become evident that public works does not have the time to dedicate to the cemeteries and give them the attention they deserve, so at Monday night’s city council meeting Mayor Klein appointed a new board, including Alderperson Fessenmaier, Mary Sibbing, Patrick Quinn, Terry Krohn, and Ruth Ann Monico. The people spoke, the city listened, Charlene, the mayor acted, and now things are back to where they’re meant to be.
Business of the Week
Pink Moon Bay, a wonderful new women’s boutique, opened Saturday. This little shop is filled with unique fashions and friendly people. It’s located at 717 Main Street. Stop in and check it out.
