LITTLE GEMS
Back to school for Lake Geneva’s children.
The school year starts a week from today, Wednesday 1, 2021, and ends Friday, June 3, 2022. At the start of the 2020 school year, things were a lot less settled and uncertainty filled the air. This year’s preparation and plans are a little easier, as 2020 taught everyone a lot. The schools will be in full swing and in person. After much consideration, community input, and other health-related factors, face coverings are optional for students, staff, and visitors. With school back in session, busses will be running, and that means kids will be crossing the street and lining up at bus stops. It’s easy to be rushed and not pay full attention and that’s when accidents happen. Slow down, be patient, and try to empathize with each other. Have a safe and happy school year.
What about this Brian Pollard-related Symphony Bay impact stuff?
Where’s the beef? The City of Lake Geneva, following Freedom of Information Act requests, says it has no records available on any impact fees, nor about returning any impact fees. What’s going on? Where’s the beef and who has it? The Lake Geneva City Council made no decision on Monday night on how to consider the Symphony Bay request to have its impact fees waived because its purchasers are too old to have any impact on the community anymore. That bizarre request from Pollard remains laying on the table, quite possibly waiting to die. The issue is not going to go away, however, so the Geneva Shore Report will stay on top of reporting about what is happening and in pursuing the paper’s belief that the fees ought to be fully paid by every and any developer who builds in Lake Geneva.
The ‘Clean Boats, Clean Waters’ campaign for Geneva Lake continues to be debated.
The Geneva Lake Environmental Agency (GLEA) has staffed all municipal launches with two Clean Boats, Clean Waters inspectors for the summer but the question is are they doing their job? They aren’t always inspecting the boats as they enter and leave the lake and, in some instances, Starry Stonewort was found on boats leaving Geneva Lake.
This was a concern brought up at last week’s GLEA meeting with some wondering if maybe the inspectors are too young or inexperienced. The CD3 cleaning machine has made its full rotation around the lake and has since been fully inspected to make sure it’s ready for round two. During the first rotation, there were three hundred eighty uses with only thirty-eight being in Lake Geneva. The problem with Lake Geneva was that the location was in a back corner, hidden in Seminary Park. This made the process to use the machine long and tedious if boaters even found the machine.
Concerned members of the committee are trying to get the boat cleaning machine moved next to the Lake Geneva public boat launch but the concern is if there’s enough space to make it a reality. Those members supporting the move have encouraged the GLEA to write a letter to the harbormaster requesting the change of location but cannot force the move. As much as they want to see the CD3 cleaning machine being used regularly, in reality, it’s not physically possible for a lot of boat owners. A good portion of the boats are used by an older generation that makes it extremely difficult for them to physically get under a boat to clean and inspect it. Until the process is streamlined and sorted out at each launch the battle with Starry Stonewort continues.
As of now, the GLEA is planning on dredging Trinke Lagoon in the fall of 2022 and pulling out the Starry Stonewort plants in hopes of stopping the spread of the invasive species and possibly even eliminating it completely. Unfortunately, the plants pulled from last year came back and you can’t tell where they were pulled. The cost of such a large project is about seven hundred thousand dollars so fundraising needs to be done before anything can be started. Let’s hope the communities surrounding the lake can come together to raise the money and join the fight against Starry Stonewort and any invasive species concerning Geneva Lake.
