Little Gems
Ed Yaeger.
That masterful mechanical genius who raced cars successfully for many years, sat on the Lake Geneva City Council for more years and is
The city council will meet December 5th to consider what they might do this land. They are going to listen to Ed Yaeger seriously for the first time since he was on the council, and his presentation is going to be all about bringing back some railroad interest to Lake Geneva.
Come and support his ideas.
That fine new sign shown above is near the site of the old turntable on Sage Street about a block north of City Hall. It explains a lot. Go see it! Pictured: on the left Ken Etten, Ellyn Kehoe, on the right, Joe Piersen, P. L. Behrens, author of “Steam Trains to Geneva Lake” & Ed Yaeger,
Just what in hell is the BID doing?
Last year at Winterfest the Business Improvement District (Bid) put on a bonfire at the beach, serving hot chocolate and S’mores. This year they got a permit to do the same thing. Really? Nope. They made one slight change. They added alcohol. That’s right, forget the hot chocolate and the S’mores. Now you get beer and wine. Forget the kids. Everyone is going to be carded before entering the fenced beach area. What happened to the good natured spirit being shown to one and all last winter? If you are a drinker and can stagger down from Hogs and Kisses or Fat Cats then the beach event is now for you. Don’t worry about falling in the lake because they are fencing the water, too, because the people putting on this event know all about drinking.
What other great things are now being sponsored by the BID?
How about full surveillance video cameras to be mounted up and down Main Street and Broad. Every member of the BID can purchase one, put it up and then have it tied into the Lake Geneva Police Department system for constant police review. Apparently, this will take care of the rampant downtown vandalism problem, (that does not exist). Whether the cameras will be picking up audio (conversations) or not is not currently known (at least not by the police department). When you go downtown to shop in the future you better wear your best attire and speak rather quietly. If the business you own is not in the BID district, then you can’t get a camera. For those of you who want to avoid surveillance (you know who you are) the GSR will be publishing a list of businesses who can’t put up cameras in the next issue.
Now, what’s the good news here? The video feed is going to be seen by about the best police department on earth. The Lake Geneva Police Department is the finest, bar none. For example, the police chief himself will take a shift starting at three a.m. on Christmas morning so one of his officers can go home. On what planet is that kind of policing found? Mike “Santa” Rasmussen is this terrific chief’s name.
What is lost when you combine and change the city committee structure in Lake Geneva?
They’ve combined the parking committee with the public works committee, and the communications committee with the finance committee.
What was lost?
The former committees, standing alone, were populated with regular citizens. The new committees will be made up of exclusively selected city council members. The public part of that just slipped by the wayside. But these are the times we live in. The public has less to think about and less to take its mind off of working for a living. The council voted on Monday to combine those committees. In theory, this makes things more efficient so that people can go about doing more real work instead of sitting around and being concerned about parking or communications issues.
