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“I COULDA BEEN A CONTENDER”
The movie called Never Say Never Again, which was a Bond movie put out in 1983, was about stolen nuclear weapons, not disabled children’s playground equipment, although much of the physical workout equipment in the opening scenes of the movie was destroyed. Never Say Never in Delavan is the name of the wondrously inventive and effective playground equipment installed at Gordon Yadon Park after the non-profit and partially self-funded equipment was turned down to replace the aging and falling apart old stuff at Veterans’ Park in Lake Geneva.
Never Say Never, the park equipment was paid for partially by the City of Delavan and partly by donations. The total cost was around $750,000. When the Never Say Never people came to Lake Geneva’s leadership of the time (the council, mayor, and city administrator all changed since then), they had already raised about two hundred thousand. Pollard, the developer of Symphony Bay, the tiny boxy shack-like residences built out there along Edwards Boulevard, had promised to contribute hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the city was being asked to pick up a good portion of the money necessary to order and build the system in.
Pollard’s money silently disappeared while the city decided it was not going to be hoodwinked by the developer into footing most of the bill…or so was the story up until now. Lake Geneva was the only contender for this wondrous attraction system (which has waiting lines daily since it opened a few weeks ago). What a difference some time going by makes, by looking at the moves made following this loss to the city. At the last city council meeting a week ago, the council voted to approve the placement of new park equipment at Veterans’ Park. The amount approved was just at $500,000, which would have been about the same as what would have been required to put up the Never Say Never stuff. What a loss and why?
The answer to that question is what the Geneva Shore Report staff are in pursuit of. Was Pollard, the rather slippery developer, the bad guy in this loss? Was it the former mayor who, time after time, was opposed to the Never Say Never plan, or even the people working to raise the money? Or is this result something darker and deeper? This brings back to mind the effort to build the parking structure that the GSR was against years ago. It was bid at five million dollars, but independent estimates, paid for by the GSR, came in at figures in the three-million-dollar range.
The GSR used that nearly two-million-dollar profit situation to help have the parking structure voted down, which it was. Unfortunately, no better structure was sought after, and the GSR stands today to be blamed for the city not having one. The GSR wanted Never Say Never in Lake Geneva. It’s a wonderful concept, and the equipment is heads and shoulders above what the city will be getting when the regular playground stuff is put in.
Who’s getting paid, what money, and what’s the profit on this one? Was Never Say Never given the boot because someone related to someone in the city wanted that job? The money, at half a million, does not seem motivational enough to have that going on, but then a couple of hundred thousand is occasionally worth fighting over or playing games to get. The GSR is researching the company that got the successful bid and also trying to figure out why the lowest bid, coming in at $295,000, wasn’t chosen (and why). It’s not about millions of dollars nor about stealing nuclear weapons, but it is about doing the right thing and also adding accountability if necessary.
This new hire leads us into the Veterans Park playground…The Lake Geneva City Council just approved the playground bid, which includes other work, including a concrete sidewalk, playground equipment, furnishing and installation, removal of sand volleyball court, poured-in-place rubber safety surface (furnish and install), restoration of disturbed area, and asphalt pavement repair. The price is not to exceed $495,159.00 and was awarded to Kompan California.
