Little Gems

Salt scum can be found everywhere, following the record-breaking stint of subzero weather.
If you thought the use of salt on Lake Geneva roads, downtown or otherwise, was on the wane from the old Carstensen days, then think again. To judge its use you don’t need to go to the Department of Public Works in Lake Geneva or even the Street Department. All you have to do is drive around and open your eyes. The salt is everywhere. The first snows came and went. The streets were supposedly protected for safe driving by a special mix of salt and sand agreed upon by the city council many years ago. The percentage of salt was kept down so that only minimal damage would be done to the pure waters of the lake. So, what happened? Where’s the sand? There’s no sand. None. Not anywhere. Not on the road leading up the Geneva Inn on South Lake Shore Drive, or at the other end of BigFoot Beach when driving north on that same drive. No sand coming down or going up the road where Wrigley becomes South Lake Shore Drive. Just white powder. White salt powder. How is it that Lake Geneva allowed itself to convert over to using pure salt, when the environmental factors had been so studied and decided upon in years past that the former head of the Street Department was convicted and sent to jail for stockpiling and selling salt because he could not use the overwhelming supply he had on hand?

The non-functioning warning light is no longer blinking at the dangerous intersection of Linn Pier Road and South Lake Shore Drive.
A Town of Linn citizen and homeowner got up at the Monday evening meeting (held at the municipal building in that town) and talked about the fact that the blinking yellow light at the dangerous intersection was no longer functional. The light, according to this concerned citizen, has been out for many months. The head of public works for Town of Linn told the man that, because of the close proximity of the electrical transformer station only a hundred meters (or so) away, the electric company was going to take care of putting up a new four-way blinking warning light. The citizen was relieved until he asked the man when the electricity company would be putting up that new light. He was told that it would be sooner or later. That was it. Sooner or later! This small article is appearing in the Geneva Shore Report this week as a lawsuit warning. Now that the town board has been informed, as well as the Linn Public Works Department, there can be no question as to where liability will fall if there is a vehicular accident with injuries prior to the installation of a new light. It is doubtful if the electric company will be held liable. But then there is that big fat “bummer of a birthmark” being painted right across the chest of the Town of Linn Board. It might behoove those representatives to modify the ‘sooner or later’ thing to ‘now.’

Is this place ever going to open?
Ever? The word “soon” means at once; immediately; without undue time lapse; before “long.” The word long means: extending a great distance from one end to the other end; not short; extending a specified distance; lasting or continuing for a great amount of time. If you ask most residents when the Flat Iron Tap located at 150 Center Street, in the old Chicago Pizza building is opening, they will tell you soon. They’ll tell you soon because the sign in the window reads “Opening Soon Now Hiring” and has been there since April of last year. Nearly every day Geneva Shore reporters drive by the totally empty place in hopes that today is the day. Trying to figure out what exactly their idea of ‘soon’ is, has become quite challenging. If you look at the proper definition for both ‘soon’ and ‘long’ they definitely don’t, as used, fall close to the definition of soon, in fact, they fall much more within the definition of long. Like the rest of the local population, the GSR waits and will be waiting patiently for some time to come, apparently. Until that day, or night, the sign needs to be taken down and reprinted to read: “Opening soon, later, tomorrow, but not today, if we come in, or not, and yes, maybe.”