OUR PLACE
The Lake Geneva Park Board Chair, Cindy Fueredi, attended the Finance Licensing and Regulation Committee meeting to enlighten the commissioners on the severity of the parks and the equipment.
The park board believes the parks have serious needs that can only be remedied at a substantial cost. This issue is not new news as the public works director has been mentioning it at several different meetings in the past and did not receive an urgent response from any city officials. The park board believes it is now to the point of needing extensive repairs to the parks, and/or overall replacement or the playgrounds may need to be shut down for safety reasons.
All of the parks, including the tot lots, need repairs, but the more imminent need is with Veterans Park, Seminary Park, and Rushwood Park. The needs of the parks have gone unmet for way too long. The park board has done an audit and the playground equipment is unsafe and most are beyond repair, it has gotten to the point of being unsafe and unsightly. The condition of the parks is embarrassing, as equipment falls apart and yellow tape is used as the solution. The equipment is dangerous and will continue to fail. The Never Say Playground has been in the works for some time now and has raised a substantial amount of money ($299,999), over the past few years but just over three hundred thousand still needs to be raised. Veterans Park will be the location of this new ADA-accessible playground where those with disabilities and those without disabilities can play and relax together. Veterans Park has many needs, and a new playground is one of them.
The Never Say Never Playground could, and eventually will, take the place of vintage equipment that is currently there. Veterans Park has other issues, all needing extensive repair, including ADA bathrooms, groundwork, the lion’s den, and the basketball court has needed repair since the flood of 2019. Rushwood Park has equipment needs including the slide, teeter-totter, merry-go-round, tunnels, and swing set, all are vintage and unsafe. Rushwood also needs grounds work and other needs due to a lack of maintenance and timely upgrades. Seminary Park is in a prominent area of the city and is heavily used by locals and visitors. Seminary has failing platforms and swings are out of code. Most park boards typically have a budget. Why doesn’t the Lake Geneva Park board have a budget? The Park Board has a large wish list that comes with a large price tag. Now the ball is in the city’s court. It is now up to city officials to prioritize and take action.
Person of the Week
California Al is a regular visitor to Lake Geneva and he truly enjoys the area. The GSR has grown quite fond of Al and look forward to his visits.
