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CREATURES FROM THE BLACK LAGOON
The unutterable, thick and darkening scum at the bottom of the lagoon located at the northern end of pristine, pure and gorgeous waters of Geneva Lake are seldom discussed in such terms. But there it is, and there are the creatures who want to work to keep it that way, or at the very least make the rest of the non-lakefront public pay for dredging it out and cleaning it up. Joanie the Diner, Billy Joel, and Dr. Mark Bradon all support some bailout for the wealthy people who occupy the Towers right in the heart of the city, all looking down upon that black lagoon and then out over the beauty of the rest of the lake before them.
Joanie the Diner’s husband sits on the Towers board while she does what short-order cooks at diners do: stays in the back, complaining through a slot in the wall while working in hot, reused old grease. Dr. Bradon stood before the city common council to state that the Towers pay property taxes and, therefore, that amount of money should be used to pay for the Towers’ share of dredging and cleanup costs. As if the taxpaying public gets to choose what their specific tax money collected should be spent on. There are public referendums for that, as well as influencing elected representatives.
The system does not allow and cannot allow individual taxpayers to direct where their tax money is to be spent unless it’s using the tools put there by that system. But the history of what’s become the Black Lagoon is about as rotten as the bottom of that small part of the lake. The Towers and that lagoon go way back to the days of the existence of the Frank Lloyd Wright Hotel, which was plowed under by unscrupulous actors like Keefe and friends. They got rid of that wonderful place and built the illegal tower forty feet higher than allowed, and were going to build two, but ran out of money. They leased the waterfront by the hotel on the lagoon they didn’t own, and encouraged Barry’s to open a business on the water’s edge, and then the boat rental and jet ski place for years. They tossed Kenton out the other day for reasons unknown.
The wealthy people occupying the Towers today are not boat owners at all. They lease the piers they somehow came to own. But these creatures of and along the Black Lagoon have one thing in common. They don’t want to pay their fair share of keeping the lagoon dredged and available for what it is there for. It’s not there for slip owners or leasers. It’s there to act as the exit point for the lake’s overflow. All the communities around the lake pay to support the upkeep of that vital life-giving lake outlet and level moderator. Joanie the Diner, her husband, and even supposedly highly regarded Doctor Mark Bradon don’t want to pay.
What’s new from that crowd?
So, the upshot is that the lagoon is in bad shape. The water running under Wrigley Bridge is about one foot deep, and not deep enough to run jet skis and rental boats under, unless the dredging is done. The waters of Geneva Lake will still exit under the bridge, and then over the spillway to head down to become the White River, but there will be no slips occupied or usable, or boat and jet ski rentals being rented out and returned until the dredging is done. The city council and the city administrator, as well as the city’s ever-important and influential mayor, Todd Krause, have a lot to say about resolving this issue, and it is hoped they’ll simply let the creatures of the black lagoon remain mired in the muck of their creation and continuance.
The public that lives around, works around and uses the lake (residents, renters, owners, business operators and workers) all give a load of crap about caring for the people who live in the towers and don’t want to pay or even the boat lease crowd. Hopefully, Kenton will not be too impacted by getting the boot because he is a decent, bright guy. From Shakespeare’s Macbeth, no less: “…For a charm of powerful trouble, like a hell-broth boil and bubble. Double, double toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble.”