Living Here

The giant old Oak tree on Center Street.
The GSR X-Files investigators were sent from their secret office (above the Geneva Java Coffee Shop on Center Street) to check out the giant oak tree, rumored to have been Lake Geneva’s oldest tree, that had been hewn down because its center was deemed to be rotten and some of its giant limbs were falling, doing damage to nearby homes. It turns out that the tree is down, and its age established within approximately ten years. The rings were difficult to count because of the rough saw marks created by the big chain saws used to cut the tree down. Two hundred and fifteen years is the conservative estimate for the age of the tree. That would have put it at germination sometime around the year 1802. At that time, Wisconsin was completely covered by forest and the only ways to get around were either by water, or by following Indians or animal paths. No council of Indians sat around the tree early on because there would have been nothing to distinguish it from the trillions of other trees filling the area where the State of Wisconsin, and Lake Geneva in particular, currently sit. The tree fell on private property and the owners and neighbors nearby are a bit dicey about visitors stopping by the chunks of hewn wood. Be careful in stopping by there, It’s private property. Wisconsin is a carry conceal state.

The giant oak that had to come down. Born in around 1802, the giant has stood through the Civil War and all the wars since. It grew up to watch the forest convert from Indian occupied to the farm land its become today. It overlooked Center Street and it will be missed by everyone who lived under it or came to enjoy its relaxing shade.

Dan “Pants on Fire…or Poof” Draper, did his “man behind the curtain” act on Monday night in Lake Geneva.
When his feet were held to the fire about the Geneva Inn, a place that his office partner is the official attorney for, being outside the territory of the City (because it was being discussed), “Poof” said: “no, it’s not extra-territorial area …it’s in the 1.5 mile area outside the City that can be annexed.” Gee, that made total sense. Sarah Hill had asked the question with her usual penetrating icy precision, like one of those North Korean missiles, except hers really explode.  Poof did his thing. He said no but yes, but I really mean no and why do you ask such rotten questions?

Then, homing in on the soft marshmallow that’s taken over Draper’s body and mind, Hill asked Poof, was the Town of Linn, where the Geneva Inn currently is located, also doing its own comprehensive plan.  Poof, the “pod person” marshmallow, said that he knew nothing about Linn’s plan.  Must we repeat that the attorney sharing his office is the attorney for the Geneva Inn and working closely with Town of Linn on its comprehensive plan to make the Geneva Inn into God’s more awful version of the Dells?  Does Lake Geneva need a new city attorney?

Does Lake Geneva need a new attorney that is not attached at the hip to a big local business?  Does Lake Geneva need an attorney that does not quiver at the lip and shiver in his timbers when faced with a single tough kooky by the name of Sarah Hill?