SURPRISING STUFF
There is talk among city officials of a Riviera roof related need for bird eradication.
Seagull leavings and the mess of it where it occurs has caused some residents to call the city and complain. This motivated a discussion at the piers, harbor, and lakefront committee meeting related to the Riviera roof and bird eradication. The public works department, harbor master, and city hall claim they have received repeated calls with concerns about the smell and mess at the Riviera. Nobody, apparently, has figured out that those seagulls very artfully are trying to cover up the nightmare roof result of Mayor Mayor’s unauthorized and surprise use of ugly ‘spotted cow’ kind of roof tiles used to replace the old roof.
The seagulls like to congregate on the Riviera roof to see what’s going on around them. The lake is also marginally affected by the birds as the sea wall is connected to the Riviera. This portion of the lake is the same area that almost always tests higher than the rest for E. coli, because the drift of the lake is northward and when the water laps against Lake Geneva’s south facing beach, the water naturally is directed to run out toward the White River. Consequently, there’s a whirlpool that forms in the crook where the foundations of the Riviera stick out into the water. The aerator under the pier has already been implemented to help the E. coli levels in the area, but is there more to be done? The Lake Geneva Harbor Master report is researching ways to handle the problem.
No studies have been done, by the way, to assess what the effect of thousands of humans urinating in the lake on a regular basis might be, or the fecal matter of the many fish in the shallows near the beach. The Harbor Master admits he is not a bird specialist, has no interest in pursuing humans urinating in the waters along his beach, nor following visiting fish around with a little fine collection net, and recommends the city hire a bird reclamation specialist. Some basic ideas discussed are much like what boaters do that dock their boats at the Lake Geneva piers and buoys. Shiny items placed on the roof could help discourage the birds from landing on it, but that may not be very visually pleasing to the public. A thin wire has been used at the peaks of buildings preventing birds from perching on them, but what about the rest of the roof? A more high-tech solution has been used in some lake communities involving a green laser that works like a motion detector.
Whatever, if any, solution is utilized is better than the wording on the piers, harbor, and lakefront agenda, eradication is NOT OK.. If the city does proceed to kill (cull, eradicate or provide some ‘final solution’) the seagulls, not many of which choose to visit Lake Geneva every summer, then there’s going to be trouble in ‘River City.’ Real trouble!
Place of the Week
Baker house on Wrigley Drive is one of the great places you can visit on the Great American Ghost Walk in downtown Lake Geneva.
