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THE GRAND HILLMOOR REFERENDUM
Mayor Todd Krause, the elected ‘boss’ of Lake Geneva, keeps his word. When he was campaigning for his position, and then winning it overwhelmingly, he promised that he would take any development issues or plans to the people. That’s exactly what’s happening in the coming November elections. There will be a referendum, already submitted, for the sale of a parcel of the Hillmoor property to the YMCA for fair market value. This is about the only maneuver that would put the parcel under discussion (near the southwestern end of Hillmoor) should the referendum bring about an agreeable response from the voters of Lake Geneva. No property of the entire tract of now vacant land can be donated or given away, according to deed restrictions written into the agreements that were signed when the property was acquired from the White River people who owned it but were prevented from developing it. There was no requirement that a referendum would have to be drawn up and then placed in front of the public for its consideration.
That is something Todd is doing all on his own, with council approval, of course. The agenda listing was placed last Friday on the publishing of city council agendas which have to be published within twenty-four hours of a meeting to be held (and therefore allowing residents and voters to know what’s to be discussed so they can give their opinion if attending. Here is the applicable and short entry from the agenda publishing: “Discussion/Consideration and Possible Action regarding an Advisory Referendum question for the November 3, 2024, General Election about the potential sale of a portion of the City-owned Hillmoor property for possible construction of a new YMCA and/or museum.”
November seems like a lot of time off for people to wait for this huge decision. The way our small polls have it is as a dead heat right now. The people opposed to the placement of the YMCA on the Hillmoor property, using a purchase as the vehicle to accomplish it…and having no real design chosen for what will be built there if the referendum passes are louder and much more emotional about the “Y” moving there, however. As the recent entry of Kamala Harris has definitively proven over the last couple of weeks, however, everything can change quickly when it comes to politics and voting. With all his experience the ‘trick’ of his services might be in getting him to stay. As an executive of the very search company the city selected to find a new administrator, he may well want to get back to his situation there. With his undergraduate degree from Cardinal Stritch University (A very Catholic college) and coming out of a city of 25,000 in Waukesha County that is a little more right of Genghis Khan politically, the full charm and affability of this rather unique man are going to be challenged.
Lake Geneva is a rough tourist-driven, and funded city, and its politics can be painful and harsh. The last mayor was voted out by a landslide but didn’t deserve that kind of drubbing, even though the Geneva Shore Report wasn’t that kind to her either. The elected positions in Lake Geneva pay ‘diddly squat’ in the way of compensation but come with tons of complaints and accusations. The city administrator’s position is a bit better than that but, even so, it’s very hard to run a city that’s now reached the breaking point in summer traffic and from the piling on of mostly Chicago tourists. The combo of David De Angelis (interim city administrator) and Todd should be quite something to watch and live among.
