Living Here
The plan commission meeting last Monday was all about Lake Geneva’s City Planner, Mike Slavney.
Mike got to do what he does best, drone on and on about stuff most people don’t notice or pay attention to. Slavney’s plan is to remedy some ordinance issues that have been left unattended for far too long. Mike openly admits Lake Geneva needs to update some of the existing conditional use permit requirements and policies, so the verbiage matches the actions and procedures the city has historically followed. Really?
The city planner came right out and let the public know things were not done according to the written policy, and so the remedy is to change the ordinances to coincide with how the city would like to continue to do business. Is this how the Lake Geneva city government is run? The ordinances do not match procedure, so the plan commissioners have a tough job, and then there are the unwritten policies. What are the commissioners to do; follow the ordinance and law, or follow what city officials say to do? Plan Commissioners have a lot on their plate keeping track of numerous different zoning and ordinance regulations and applying to them. The recent ten-year comprehensive plan update that Lake Geneva just went through, kept the commissioners on their toes, asking questions and learning through the entire process. With the difficulty level the comprehensive plan displayed, the question left on the table, is how the commissioners could possibly know everything they need to know and what is expected of them? The idea of training and educational sessions for plan commissioners was suggested. This idea has been met with a lot of positive support. The city council has shared some free sessions, available to the plan commissioners. It also approved for some money to be used towards that in the 2021 budget. It has been said that every committee and every department could benefit from some form of educational sessions, so all members share the same baseline knowledge regarding the areas they are making decisions about.
The snow came, finally, and without much recourse, other than constant plowing, shoveling, and mean invective.
It snowed most of the night on Monday and then well into the day on Tuesday. Winter storm warnings were reduced to snow advisories, as the second round of heavy snow prepared itself to descend on the Geneva Lake communities. Tom Earle (this time, not on vacation) had days to prepare Neal and his crews. Out they went, making certain to stay ahead of the snow accumulations, particularly the snow that was gathering in front of businesses. Businesses were, for the most part, closed in the morning, however, as the weather was such a blowy mess of mixed greys, falling snow, and a strange kind of winter fog. The businessmen did not show but neither did potential customers, allowing the city snowplows in downtown Lake Geneva to keep well ahead of the game. The attention paid to places like South Lake Shore Drive was not that great, however. The roads coming into and leaving Lake Geneva itself were in terrible icy and pack snow states, with only a thin line here or there where a sliver of salt particles melted a slim guiding way. The snow clearing under Tom’s guidance goes from a D Minus in the last foray to a B Plus for the work done during this series of small blizzards. It will be interesting to see just how many business operators and owners clear their walks in the time allowed for such clearance. The hottest winter topic this year, as discussed at the Business Improvement District’s meetings, has been about raising the money to have a specific snow removal service hired next winter to clear all downtown business fronts so the specific businesses will not have to be on the hook for either showing up and shoveling in time or paying the fine.
Abominable Snow Race is coming to Lake Geneva on January 30, 2021. Lake Geneva Ziplines and Adventures at N3232 county Road H in Lake Geneva is the location of this super fun extreme winter competition. The Abominable Snow race is sure to be great fun for participants and spectators. The course map has been revealed and is the perfect combination of pleasure and pain. The course map consists of almost five miles with six stations all with a number of challenges. Station one will include abominable burpees and hoses, whatever that is. Station two is the Yeti’s pipe and artic crawl. Station three Yogi the Bear crawl ad lumber jacked. Station four is ice breakers and snow gauge. Station five includes Scotty’s hammers, catapult, and avalanche. The last station, number six, is the brock slide, ice bucket brigade, and the polar bear crawl. Come check it out, challenge yourself, or just enjoy watching some extreme athletes having a great time.
