Living Here
What is the real story about the expansion of the beach?
Is there a real need, or is this just another sign of the city’s extravagance and its addiction to spending? What is the driving force behind the expansion of the city’s beach? Is it the city administrator, the city council, the Pier’s & Harbor Committee or those who will do the work? We don’t know, but the price and options went up between the Pier’s and Harbor meeting, and the city council meeting. So it was done behind the scenes, as most financial arrangements in the city are done, and the option to not expand the beach is no longer one of the options being presented to the city council.
This beach expansion can serve as a perfect illustration of how the contractors use the commissions and committees to short circuit the city council completely. The city council is given options A, B & C from which to choose, while the best, most fiscally responsible option isn’t even listed. Some repair may be needed to the Riviera beach area, that can’t be denied, but not $121,000 to $330,000 to expand the beach area when it is only 79 % full on the busiest day of the year.
The Piers & Harbor minutes of June 21, 2017 listed that, on the busiest day of the year, there are 1900 people on the city’s one-acre beach, but that is 500 or 21% less than the maximum number of 2400 for the beach. Numbers and statistics can be misleading, but to put these numbers into perspective, and to visualize how crowded the beach actually is on the busiest day of the year, let’s look at how much room a family of 5 (two adults and three children) should have. One acre equals 43,560 sq. ft. Divide that by 1900 people. then multiply it by 5 and you get 114.6 sq. ft. per family, which is larger than a 10 ½ ft. by 10 ½ ft. room. That beach area would not be crowded for a family of 5. Another way to look at it is that if every one of the 1900 people were all on the beach and had a standard beach towel (which is 30 inches by 60 inches spread on the out), then it would leave 45% of the beach open for walking around the 1900 people. Besides it is very unlikely that all of the 1,900 people who go to the beach on the busiest day of the year would ever be on the beach at the same time, and even if it happened, it would only be for a short period of time during the day. Furthermore, a crowded beach attracts more people, as anyone who has been to Hawaii has seen. There are all kinds of beautiful sandy beaches in Hawaii, but most people would rather go to the crowded ones. Why? When you understand the answer to that question you know why we should not expand the beach.
Another issue of concern is the land that the expansion will consume, and the trees that the expansion of the beach will destroy. The land and trees add to the esthetics and ambiance of the area, which adds to a visitor’s experience and enjoyment as they walk on the lake front by the beach as they go to or from The Riviera. The least expensive proposed expansion would cost about $27 per additional square foot of beach or $613 dollars for each additional spot for a beach goer at current maximum crowding or it would only add an extra 1.2 inch clearance around their beach towels for the 1900 people at a cost of $66.84 per person. People with money talk, and the city council listens. The burden to pay for this will fall on the tax payers, and although the property taxes are higher for the wealthy in the City of Lake Geneva, the bulk of the tax will be paid by the typical resident not the wealthy, because there are fewer wealthy residents who live within the city limits. Most of the residents have a moderate to low income with an average household income of $41,000 per year. City Council members need to remember this, and listen more to those who pay for the spending they approve and less to those who benefit from the spending that they approve.
Cartoon of the Week
by Terry O’Neill
