Front Page
NEVER SAY NEVER GOT SAID!
Lake Geneva just said “never” for a great opportunity to help disabled, and even not-so-disabled kids. The Never Say Never Playland, which was originally going to be placed in Veterans Park in Lake Geneva, has decided to pick up and move the coming installation to Delevan. Lake Geneva continues to lack just about everything when it comes to its ‘so-called’ parks department, with many of its parks in need of serious repairs and updates and some tender-loving tree-hugger type of care. The Never Say Never Playground could have really helped in the effort to get the ball rolling in this vital ambiance area. Lake Geneva is a gigantic tourist destination with one of its top draws being the beauty of nature and enjoying the great outdoors on and around Geneva Lake. After a lot of fundraising attempts and requests for help from the City of Lake Geneva the Never Say Never group, having no success whatever, decided to give up and move to a “friendlier environment.”.
Some would say the City of Lake Geneva sabotaged the efforts of the group every step of the way. The Never Say Never playground to be built in Delavan will be approximately 13,000 square feet in size. The playground will feature activities and equipment that will be accessible to children and adults of all physical abilities but particularly aimed at the physically and mentally challenged. The area will be fully fenced and constructed with an engineer-cushioned play surface for safety and comfort. The components of the playground will bring children of varying abilities together from all over. This is a beautiful thing to build and to have and a great asset to any community. These kinds of attractions are a huge draw for families when planning a day trip, or even a vacation. The city missed out on this opportunity to replace one of its dilapidated parks in Veterans Park and to put many ‘heads in beds,’ which is Lake Geneva’s Tourism Commission’s main goal.
The Never Say Never Organization decided to make Delevan its home largely because of the overwhelmingly warm welcoming reception it received from the Delevan community and its parks and recreation department. Yes, Delevan has a Parks and Recreation Department, as most communities of size and quality do (and Lake Geneva does not). Having such a dedicated department allows a municipality to keep up with maintenance and updates of its parks and offer programming to local families and children. Until Lake Geneva takes its need for a serious look creating a parks and recreation department (as well as the communities need for such a things and have to make up for it. This same City of Lake Geneva did purchase a giant new park, but without a real parks and recreation department to express experience-driven vision and applied assets and work, well, the developers currently salivating over dividing it up to ‘pave over paradise and build a parking lot’ may well have their way. The City of Lake Geneva has an extremely difficult time trying to figure out what the word ambiance might mean for it. For example, the first murals recommended are dungeons and dragons. Is this the direction city beautification should take? Beauty is not just in the eye of the beholder!
