Living Here

The old Williams Bay Elementary School is nearly 100 years old, built in 1916, it will no longer serve generations of children as of August 2016.  
A November 4th, 2014 referendum passed, to construct a new elementary school for grades K4-5 that will be attached to the existing Junior/Senior High School. This change comes at a price of about twenty million. According to the referendum, the existing debt on the junior Senior High School should be paid off in 2015. All this seems to be good news but the question is what happens to the existing elementary school? Will it continue to sit and become an eye sore, will the property be sold and divided up for individual homes to be constructed, will a beautiful park be erected that is named after a famous person from Williams Bay, or will the existing building be used for other things like a nursing home or offices?

Since the building is apparently for sale. The Williams Bay School Board is attempting to sell the old elementary school that sits on five acres and is zoned public and institutional, with two offers submitted. Nobody’s supposed to know that because there is nothing (no signs) on the physical property listing a company or agent that would indicate that the property is even for sale. Don’t try talking to any school officials on site because they all say that they don’t know anything. If you ask, as the GSR X-Files investigators did, they may give you a number to a realtor but that realtor would not say what company he was working for. What he did reveal was that his is based in Madison. Apparently, the Williams Bay School deal is similar to the failed theater deal put forward in Lake Geneva a few months back.

Williams Bay, by referendum, is willing to pay $400,000 to whom ever buys the place to demolish it. But the money comes attachment free to that entity. Ergo, why could the buyer not demolish the place for a hundred thousand or less and then pocket the difference or apply it to the sales price. With a valuable cleared lot the new owner then sells the place and makes a hefty profit. From the taxpayers of Williams Bay. Secret deals are secret deals for a reason. In fact, they are usually secret because local “friends” of the decision-makers are involved and there’s taxpayer money to be redistributed. Is this the case in Williams Bay with the old school?
Nobody knows.
Yet.

The four-hour Lake Geneva Utility Commission meeting to find a replacement secretary for the director of the utility department:
The last Lake Geneva Utility Commission meeting really did last that long. Why is a new secretary necessary? There are already three still there. The director of the utility department says that the new secretary would take over responsibility for the department’s accounting. Lake Geneva’s city administrator, gunfighter Utah Blaine, indicated that the city of Lake Geneva would be happy to take over the accounting for the utility department, but there was no way that good old boys’ operation was going to surrender so easily.

No, the accounting, the secrecy, and the fiefdom of the utility department will continue until Utah Blaine can work through to a more fair and balanced result.

Maureen Marks is running for District 1 Alderperson.
Maureen is running in District One, where Elizabeth Chappell will be running to stay in office. Maureen does not crochet, so if she wins there would be none of the “Chappell crocheting” going on at city council sessions (the women like knitting and waiting for that blade to drop during the French Revolution). Maureen, by the way, runs her own bed and breakfast at 834 Dodge Street in Lake Geneva. She has an MA in counseling and guidance. She also holds bachelors in psychology, chemistry and biology. What can one say about those kinds of educational qualification other than outstanding? Maureen is a force to be reckoned with and it will be good to watch the campaign fireworks as she pursues a leadership position in Lake Geneva.

Maureen Marks Candidate for Alderman, District 1 Lake Geneva City Council

Larry Hansen, Mt Zion Church and Center

Pastor Larry from Mount Zion Church on Highway 120 just north of Lake Geneva; Pastor Larry has a last name but nobody uses it. It’s a Monty Python kind of a thing. Anyway, Pastor Larry is one neat guy and living the Christian dream by working at it. He takes Christmas cards over to the inmates at Walworth County jail so they will have cards to fill out and send home for Christmas. He takes former prisoners in at the church, and for room and board, only requires that they attend services every Sunday. Now that is the Christmas spirit. Everyone should drop by Mount Zion and thank him. The staff of the Geneva Shore Report is certainly going to.

U.S. Post Office is delivering for Amazon on Sundays.
But for Amazon only. They are not delivering packages you might ship using the United States Postal Service. At what point does the United States of America become known as the United States of Amazon. At least it will still be the USA when all is said and done.