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BILL GAGE DEFENDS GAGE MARINE

Bill Gage, the owner of Gage Marine, the company selected by the communities around the lake to be the one and only cruise operation providing boat and other marine services for one and all around Geneva Lake, came to the Lake Geneva City chambers and laid out exactly what he and his company had done to replace the controversial gas tanks near the northern front of the Riviera Pier Complex.

The Lake Geneva City Administrator preceded Bill in laying out how the replacement of the old gas tanks and the installation of the new ones was done most properly according to all rules and regulations, city, county and state.  Bill stood up for fifteen minutes and very adroitly and elegantly laid out his plan to make the tanks safer and larger, and also do a great job at working on the small plot of the park to make it suitable for the public to occupy and enjoy.  Bill was visibly upset with some of the criticism that has been directed toward him and his company.  There was no variance applied for or permitted by the city, and some members of the complaining public pointed that salient fact out.

Was there a need for a variance?  Was the disturbance of the leveling and rising of the berm something so important that it demanded a variance?  It would seem, just from looking at the work, and not as a professional in any field close to being qualified as an inspector for the city, that work did not call for a variance.  That matter is something to be taken up with the city administrator and the building inspector.  If they felt no variance was necessary then Bill’s project appears to have been something he could do.

The Geneva Shore Report has not always been kind, or even nice, toward Bill Gage and his Gage Marine operation.  We, and the staff of the GSR, apologize to Bill and his wife for slights made that were not deserved or necessarily true.  The GSR does not always get it right and on this one it is apparent the GSR was wrong.  Bill Gage runs an operation that is not only vital to the survival of the lake and the communities around it, but also does a really great job at doing what it does.  The boats are wonderful.  They are well maintained and safely tended to and captained.  Pier 290, part of the Gage family, is also a great restaurant and one of only two (the other is the Geneva Inn) that take full advantage of what the lake offers.  Both are built right on or above the edge of the water and that makes them special, indeed.

There was no vote to be taken on anything at the Lake Geneva City Council meeting held on Monday night.  The city administrator (David Nord) did not have to appear before the council and defend or lay out the gas tank replacement operation.  Bill Gage did not have to show and discuss and defend what had been done.  Both men did this because they believe the result justifies whatever steps were taken to get the old tanks replaced with new well-monitored and tougher tanks.  Bill Gage stood and delivered and it was a pleasure to see him speak straight from the shoulder (and also from his heart) about what Gage Marine is up to, plus the how and why of its operations.

The GSR staff finds the result of the tank installation a plus in many ways, including appearance, and if some rules were bent or even broken then those issues need to be addressed, but the tank installation remains a blessing as summer approaches…far in the distance, but it is coming.