Living Here

Gordy’s Fine Dining, Fontana, WI

Nightmare nightlife along the ‘scrambled eggs for brains’ southern shore of Lake Geneva on weekend nights.
The Geneva Shore Report has nothing against Gordy’s or Chuck’s Lake Shore Inn, located over on the lake shore in Fontana. Both serve decent food and pour decent drinks at decent prices. Go there every day of the week, but not every night. Be very careful going to those places on Friday or Saturday nights.

What’s going on just outside of those establishments on those nights, it’s a feeding frenzy. Several law enforcement agencies have gotten together to target these establishments for drunk driving. They are even pulling people out of cars to breathalyze them as soon as they put their car keys in the ignitions of their cars in the parking lots!

It turns out that in Wisconsin you cannot have your keys in the ignition of your car and have been drinking over a certain limit. It doesn’t matter if you are listening to music or trying to sober up. You are operating a vehicle. When the police grow bored or there are not enough people coming out then all passing cars become ‘COI’s.’ That’s Cars of Interest. The bridge heading into Fontana on South Lake Shore Drive is still out.
That’s good news on Friday and Saturday nights.
Don’t drive drunk.
Ever.
But don’t go out of your way to put yourself through hell, either.

Some hidden facts about the water rate increase.
Although the water rate may not have been officially increased, the actual water “cost” that residents pay per gallon and that the Lake Geneva’s Water Dept. receives per gallon has been increased. Per Mr. Winkler’s conversation several years ago, “We are able to maintain the water rates as follows:

• First, there’s an extra levy on the water bill to pay off a water department bond, however, when the bond was paid off the department continued to collect that tax levy as part of the water bill.
• Second, 35% of the water that the city wells pumped is not being charged to a user. That percent is reduced to 17% which, although it was a good thing, effectively gives the water department an 18% pay increase for the water that the department pumps from its wells.”

Figure the complexity of that verbal accounting out for yourself! When the city’s control of the sewer department was transferred to the water department years ago the three million dollar (plus) sewer fund was transferred to the water department. Due to limited (secret) oversight of the water department financial transactions, this transfer has further obscured and intertwined sewer and water fees and costs. The utility rate being requested from the State of Wisconsin should not be granted without a complete independent audit of the Lake Geneva Water Department’s financial transactions, including the selling of department vehicles to department employees and the spending of Water Department funds to build two parks and giving donations to the city’s Museum (including one at $50,000) and instead of paying its taxes to the city it gives an arbitrary amount in lieu of its taxes (as recorded in city audits). To give this outrageous increase in water rates to Lake Geneva’s Water Department would be to justify and reward their financial misuse of taxes and fees and undermine citizen trust in government.