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THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN’
Determinism will penetrate the smallest local governmental offices, officials, and functions as the new national movement of authoritarian power begins to influence the daily lives and pursuits of local citizens, shop owners, taxpayers, and even visitors. How far this directional change will go is too complex to begin to predict, but preparing for it should be part of the thinking process for citizens attempting to plan, work, or understand what can be coming down the pike with such changes in leadership mindset. Old “that was killed off and is dead and buried” kind of thinking concerning some projects that were great for some developers and some property owners may will surge back up from under the earth to reappear, given that this new ‘refurbished’ and battle-ready leadership could well be willing to consider and allow these bad old ideas and plans to suddenly reappear.
A great example of one of these dreary but horrid plans is the remaking of Maytag Lagoon to become a boat marina under the guise of the Lake Geneva boat ramp being too dangerous and busy to remain where it currently is (smack in the very heart of the Lake Geneva’s downtown beach area) and therefore the only rational and logical place it could be moved to is located in the very center of what’s currently known as Big Foot Beach, but back inside the current lagoon. This lousy ugly plan would also then entail the closing to South Lake Shore Drive and making everyone drive east to Highway H and then around the entire area to arrive at the one-mile southern shore where the current highway runs from Lake Geneva into the Town of Linn property.
Currently, one of the more authoritarian-leaning city council members and the current head of the Lake Geneva Development Corporation are conferring with the Department of Natural Resources to begin work on trying to make this happen. Another ‘deader than dead’ idea, long ago defeated resoundingly, is the plan to close Wrigley Drive and make it into nothing more or less than parkland or pedestrian-only walkways. That idea was put forward years ago as the biggest real estate company (now sold off and no more) wanted to take the entire south-oriented block of developed businesses (think Speedos, Popeyes, and the rest), move the library from where it currently sits to somewhere else (anywhere else!) and then have a resort constructed to replace all of it.
So far, the leadership is not, by and large, caving into such governmental changes as being seen on the national level, and the mayor, Todd Krause, the city council (seven of the eight of them), the city administrator, the clerk, and comptroller are not buying into any of this. The Geneva Shore Report is very sensitive to what is going on and ready to make seemingly paranoid assumptions and try to give warnings if such damaging things to the community might be in the offing.
The Frank Lloyd Wright hotel was lost because nobody knew in time that it was being taken down to be replaced by a badly designed and illegal tower of bad taste. The Railroad Station, turntable and complex, over by the power station, went through the same kind of rapidly evolving destruction. Walworth County is solid. The police departments are responsive and ready, the justice center and departments awake and aware, as well as the smaller municipal centers of leadership. Will the inflamed structural adjustments being made on the national level reach down to destabilizing the smaller but vital communities like those in and around Lake Geneva only time will tell. The GSR and you are, no doubt, hoping for the best.
