LITTLE GEMS

Wells Street (AKA: Fast Food Alley) has seen its share of shenanigans.
Last week a Lake Geneva burger joint was about to give up, but once again persevered and pushed on. Sometime very late on Wednesday, July 13th, the Burger King fast food restaurant on Wells was broken into. The perpetrators forced their way in and helped themselves to what they could. Access was made through a drive-through window, creating a mess of broken glass and bodily fluids (red fluids!). The suspects continued to enter the building fully masked, heading for the cash register drawer and then on into the walk-in cooler. The intruders removed their masks in the cooler, not knowing the cooler has a surveillance camera, as the rest of the store have more of those. The suspects left the store with food and the cash drawer which they would soon realize was empty.

The employees were the first to see the crime scene and reported the break before getting down to business and working with police to clean up and get open again. Cleanup was not an easy task, as everything had to be wiped down and sanitized; the glass had to be picked up, and repairs had to be made. Burger King has dealt with fraudulent managers, theft from the inside, a large turnover of employees, and a slew of bad luck when it comes to equipment breaking and, then making timely repairs.  But Burger King perseveres and does so in a great way.  Juicy well-cooked food served fresh, a super clean environment, and very accommodating employees…and then there’s that part about the money.  BK is the least expensive fast-food restaurant around.

They didn’t die.
Last week, there was another automobile accident on the feeder road (Hillside) that blends into South Lake Shore Drive not far from Willow Road in the Town of Linn on Lake Geneva’s southern border.  The auto accident caused three teenagers to be taken by ‘flight for life’ to critical care in Milwaukee.

What happened?  What’s been happening at the ‘intersection’ for the past two years.

The “YIELD” sign, that used to be posted where the two roads come together, went missing.  That sign has never been replaced.  When two roads come together the car on the right has what’s called the ‘right of way’ to proceed and the other car on the left must give way.  Well, in theory, no yield sign should be required, but in practice, most people are not thinking of who’s on the right or left, especially when two roads have traffic blending at 35 to 50 MPH.  Also, Hillside, just a tiny bit to the south of where the roads join, rises up from a shallow ‘valley’ which subtly but effectively impedes vision, and therefore predictability.  The Town of Linn needs to fix this problem, or these kinds of accidents will continue.  The three kids made it but that isn’t always the case in serious crashes.

Person of the Week

John Vacula, the ‘class act’ guy working at the Ridge along Highway 50.