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THE SOUND OF SILENCE

After a good deal of time and thought, the issue of sound radiating through the community has finally come (once again) to the attention of Lake Geneva city leadership.  Lake Geneva’s Finance, License, and Registration Committee added this item to its agenda: “Discussion/Recommendation regarding Ordinance 24-06, an ordinance amending Chapter 46, Nuisances, Article I, General Regulations, Section 46-4, Loud and Unnecessary Noise, Subsection (b) Loud and/or Unnecessary Noise Prohibited, deleting times that loud and/or unnecessary noise is prohibited.”  Supposedly, changing this ordinance, which not only limits the decibel levels of projecting sounds coming from either residences or businesses for more than 75 feet, and taking out the special hours of ‘quiet time’ will allow the police to be more specific and attentive to limiting abusive music and other sounds from either injuring or bothering nearby residents, visitors or even passersby.

There have been problems lately with the sounds coming out of Fat Cats on Broad Street and Magpies on Main, as well as a few other of the late night ‘piano bar’ style of heavy alcohol serving businesses located up and down Lake Geneva’s downtown streets and a few of the short-term rentals located deep inside residential neighborhoods.  That there’s a sound projection problem is not in question. Police have been called about these loud projection issues time after time this summer, especially with the increase in live music being provided much more prolifically than ever before. More than likely because of the huge increase in tourism that has occurred since the fading (but not disappearance, as the publisher of this newspaper, proved a few weeks ago when struck down by that virus for the second time) of the Covid 19 virus.

The sound of silence is a phrase that’s just great when used for the title of a famous song but it’s not something that’s part and parcel of a city that summer brings almost a continuous assault of sound that is almost completely overwhelming in the downtown area if experienced for any significant length of time. The huge trucks with diesels constantly running the beeping of horns from cars stuck in endless traffic jams and the quiet roaring hum of people talking everywhere all the time. If activity is something sought by regular citizens, then it certainly can be found in Lake Geneva’s downtown areas every weekend of summer.

Stephany Klett and her team at Visit have done a magnificent job of building the tourism level to unbelievable heights, but at what point is that ‘height’ so high that the area cannot support the increase in population anymore? Total gridlock of traffic in downtown Lake Geneva has occurred this summer like never before and the frustration of the drivers and passengers caught in those nightmares does not result in a bunch of ‘happy campers’ when they finally find a place to stop and rest.

Without a resort tax, which has been many times denied, and with the loss of the TIF funding (wherein the surrounding communities were forced to contribute to the tax base of the City of Lake Geneva because of services and location usage) there is no way to build the kind of funding structure that will support the roads, parking structures, traffic control devices and more to support the increased tourist arrivals (or infestations, as they are becoming). There needs to be more sounds of silence in Lake Geneva accompanied by significant whiffs of cold hard cash funding.