OUR PLACE
The Lake Geneva Ford Dealership.
This smallish dealership snuggled into the back of a small hill at the north border of Lake Geneva is a rare center of warmth and good cheer upon every encounter. The general public is rightfully timid, and a bit put off about going into any automobile-related operations, be they repairs, oil changes, or auto and truck sale-related.
But then there’s the Ford dealership on Interchange North (just before going under the Highway 12 overpass heading east). The sales team is not aggressive in anybody’s face, the service team of Jim and Chris at the duty front desk, are not only cheerful, bright, and accommodating, they are also entertaining and funny. Chris plays the steel guitar in a rock band. Want new tires, shock absorbers, alignment and almost everything else, the Ford team assembled in this small dealership is ready and waiting…and really timely in getting customers scheduled and the work completed. And then there’s the price.
The Geneva Shore Report investigated a double tire replacement at five other shops that do such work in and around the city. Two shops were “totally booked” and could not do the work for at least two weeks into the future. The other three shops all estimated between one and three days for the work and all three were more expensive than what was found to be the case at this special dealership. The company van was taken in almost by accident because nobody on staff thought that a dealership would bother with mere tire replacements, and especially not new tires for a non-Ford product either. Ford quoted the price, and it was the lowest by far. Then Jim Jones, at the counter, asked if we wanted to wait for the work to be done or be called when it was finished. We looked at him in such shocking surprise that his buddy Chris started to laugh. We gave our phone number and left, wondering when they’d call. One hour and ten minutes later the call came in. The van was ready. The work was excellent. The tires and wheels were also washed and cleaned (which is uncommon in getting vehicles back from most tire places) We don’t write articles like this very often, and the employees at the dealership won’t be aware of this story until they get this issue of the paper. Lake Geneva has a ‘jewel’ of a car sales and repair facility, and the GSR is happy to write about it.
Year around parking is still on the table for downtown Lake Geneva.
Seth Elder shares some data and it looks like a cost of $100.000 dollars to extend the paid parking and make it all year. The cost would include staff, maintenance of equipment, snow removal around kiosks, and other unexpected expenses. Revenue is a little trickier to predict, but it could be a couple hundred thousand more than the cost. However, Parking Manager Seth believes those numbers are a little optimistic and thinks it could be a bit lower than that.
Part of the reason this even became a topic, and an agenda item was to alleviate any confusion for visitors, and then the idea grew among city officials, snowballing into a real agenda item. Alderperson Fessenmaier disagrees with the extension of paid parking and made it clear at the meeting she was allowed her opinion and didn’t care if others didn’t agree. Even if her fellow colleagues aren’t backing Fessenmaier, a lot of residents are not happy about losing the little bit of free parking they currently have. Nonetheless, the issue is off to the Finance, Licensing, and Regulation Committee for further discussion.
Person Of The Week
Jim Jones…one of the terrific guys running the service desk a the Ford Dealership in Lake Geneva.
