LIVING HERE
Thomas and Kathy George aren’t going anywhere and have big dreams to expand their businesses even more in downtown Lake Geneva.
The former Derrick Funeral Home, located at 252 Center Street has been home to several businesses in recent years. The building was most recently purchased by the very classy couple; Thomas and Kathy George. The George’s own other thriving businesses in the downtown area, including the Brick & Mortar right next door. With the purchase of the property, the plan is to raze the building and start over. The Georges did try to build a new building rather recently without any support on Cook Street) so the plan changed to a very extensive beautiful remodel, salvaging the beautiful historic cream city brick on the exterior of the Victorian structure at “The House.” The House actually sits at the very southeastern corner of Cook and Geneva Street.
Thomas and Kathy always build with quality, and their latest undertaking will be no different. The Georges joined the meeting last week via zoom from California. The building was presented as a multi-purpose space with two retail spaces approximately 900 square feet or one space of 1800 square feet on the front of the main floor. The backside of the main floor will be an assembly and set up space for the furniture pieces sold and displayed in the brick and mortar store. The rest of the space, and possibly the most exciting as well as challenging, will be upstairs. The upstairs will be converted into three apartments (or air B&B’s if allowed).
The property will have sufficient parking with 18 spaces in the back. Deliveries will now be made in the parking lot and not the ally which will speed the delivery process. They requested a conditional use permit to raze the building and do it in a timely manner. If approval goes through at next month’s meeting they’ll be right in the middle of the construction season so the couple would like to start building after the busy summer season. As to not create an eyesore the in-between time the property would be turned into a green Georges to possibly utilize the building for training for swat and fire teams, creating a win for both parties involved. The next step will be the third Monday-next month as a public hearing for approval of conditional use permit to raze the building. The question now becomes; how will the public respond, and will this change (the building is really a teardown if you go inside), be allowed by a public sensitive to its cultural heritage?
Bridge construction has started on Highway 12 from Highway 50 in Lake Geneva to County H in Genoa City.
The state has a 7.2-million-dollar contract to improve multiple bridges along Highway 12 in Walworth County. Bridge locations that will be receiving improvements are Highway 50, Townline Road, Bloomfield Road, Clover Road, Pell Lake Drive, County U, Nippersink Creek, and County B. The contract includes bridge re-decking, structure overlays, concrete surface repairs, girder painting, upgrades to guard rails, and paving along Pell Lake Drive.
Highway 12 will remain open to traffic but crews will be directing traffic as it goes down to one lane and with crossover traffic patterns. Please remember to slow down at worksites and use extra caution because accidents happen way too quickly and we want to keep all crew members safe. Follow the signs and any direction you get from the crew. The work is weather-dependent but expected to be finished by the end of the year. This same highway was under construction for most of last year so get ready for a long run of single lane traffic at slower speeds.
Never impressed when an original Victorian in downtown is subjugated to an ugly and detrimental remodel like “the house” you mentioned as the George’ s Bricks & Mortar business location. What they did was ruin an original structure’s inherent beauty in order to place a glass and mullion shell that circumnavigates what was formally an elegantly designed, handcrafted, well-maintained work of deck and porch-building artwork in the Maple Park area — for generations and generations. Now “the house” that the George’s turned into a tacky shop/storefront looks like some child learned he could take his great-grandmother’s 1860 gorgeous, pristine, miniature and highly-detailed Victorian dollhouse and slap plexiglass and popsicle sticks all around the first floor and call it an improvement. Yuck. People suck. They have no appreciation for history, conservation or wastefulness. And the costs and materials were horribly unnecessary to the property, project and environment. Some people have more money than brains and an awful arrogance.
It is so wonderful in this country we can all have opinions.
Thank you for sharing yours