Letters to the Editor

First and foremost, thank you for the news you provide to the residents and visitors of our awesome community.  Secondly, have you noticed the very slow progress of the Lake Geneva water tower renovation located on Host drive? Very ugly cell phone towers have gone up, supposedly as temporary towers, why they redo the water tower. As a result, residents of Hudson Trail and the surrounding neighborhoods have occasionally lost cell phone service and the signals remain much weaker than they used to be.

The lack of progress on the water tower renovation (it’s been over a month), the ugly new cell phone towers, and the reduction of cell phone signals have many residents frustrated especially in the new subdivision as we get a front row seat to the inefficiency of this project. Can you do some digging and possibly a report on this? 

Thank you for your time.

Paul, Lake Geneva Resident 

 

In 2015 the citizens of LG were clamoring for the city to complete the approved TIF #4 projects, and to add any new projects the city needed so that the city would close the TIF before the 2017 deadline. The city council deliberated over a number of possible new projects for the eight to ten million in the surplus TIF account and succeeded in adding the Geneva Theater reconstruction, Traver Hotel tear-down, widening of Highway 50 (Dan Winkler’s pet project), new downtown signage, burying utility lines on HWY. #50, and wasting about $250,000 on landscaping for the Riviera.

What they didn’t approve was the only item desperately wanted by the public, the purchase of Hillmoor. Bob Kordus and Dan Draper managed to put the kibosh on the city buying Hillmoor by claiming Hillmoor was under contract. The fake purchase contract was for the fake development, of the fake lake, but it served its purpose by stopping Hillmoor from going on the TIF list. Water rates were drastically raised, the water towers that needed to be repaired 10 years ago are now in dire shape. Earlier this year the public was informed that the Riviera needed renovation and the city gave $66,500 to Mr. Henry of Kehoe & Associates (Oborn’s new darling after throwing Ken Etten under the bus) to find out that the building itself would need $5,725,241 to renovate after spending over $900,000 in 2009.

This 5-million-dollar renovation figure doesn’t include repair to the Riviera foundations and the three long Riviera piers used by the Gage Tour boat business. Nor does it include replacement of the beach boardwalk expected to cost $15,000 to 20,000 that was improperly repaired 2 years ago.  Nor does it include the new beach wall supposedly needed to correct the beach erosion caused by the storm water run-off from Library Park. All of these problems are the same problems that Dan Winkler knew about and was looking at 5 years ago. All of these expenses could have been included in the 2015 new TIF Projects, but leaving them off was Dan’s parting gift to the city, along with a middle finger salute.

Thank you, Dan Winkler

Ed Korzinski, Town of Linn Resident and Geneva Lake Activist

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