OUR PLACE
Snow is coming and with it the shoveling complications for downtown businesses in Lake Geneva.
Neither the BID (Business Improvement District) board, nor the Lake Geneva City Council, have one whit of care about shoveling sidewalks. The weather moderated in early January, and it’s now like there will be no more threat of real snow as this winter wears on. The rough average of snow in January of any year is about eight inches and about the same for February. That’s plenty of snow to consider, although those numbers can be skewed considerably by some record storm blowing in. Shoveling and plowing can most definitely be a serious problem in and around Geneva Lake. Businesses need to be relieved of their shoveling burden. Shoveling the snow themselves is ineffective, burdensome and hurts business. Let’s get together before the deep snow comes and do something, or so should be the mantra of both the BID and the city council.
The meeting of the whole, wherein the city council regularly listens to all comments from the public, was cancelled again.
Rich Hedlund has to go and no, he did not fail to file his papers as he indicated that he might. No, he’s all in, but he’s opposed by someone of quality, intellect, education, and merit. Her name is Peg Esposito, and she’s also been very active in the community. This woman knows her way around a gavel, and she will not pull the self-serving stunts of Rich Hedlund. Rich has been behind the formation of a resort area tax but that’s about it when it comes to being in favor of productive things. He’s not one whit interested in hearing from the public about almost anything except on election day, so please, on that day, and with your vote, let him hear from you. Hedlund has made reporting on city council decisions and affairs interesting, because he’s got an interesting intellect and delivery, but the apparent size of his heart, when it comes to caring about the local citizenry, would put him on a list of potential heart transplant donors only populated by hamsters.
The enormous parking increase in charges issue, coming in February, is a long way from over.
There are some important people who want a parking lot built on the edge of town (either on the newly acquired Hillmoor land or up on Sheridan Springs Road across from the Fairfield Inn). Putting a large asphalt or concrete pad on either parcel disturbs some other citizens, as the cost is high and the ability to shuttle parkers back and forth to the downtown an unproven capability in any efforts to do so to this date. For some reason, the creation, analysis of the creation, and then the funding of any approval for the project has somehow become tied into the parking rate increase (not to mention the outrage of the increase in fines for being late to pay a meter of $50 instead of $20) coming to full application when the free parking period in downtown Lake Geneva ends on February 1st of this year.
The parking rate increases, and the fines, need to be reconsidered by the city council, as they are the ones that stand to pay the biggest price (if you don’t think every local who gets hit with a fifty buck fine is not going to sign recall documents, then you are not from Wisconsin) even if that ‘price’ is not yet at all evident. Included with locals in this category are the business owners, operators, employees and even citizens who live in surrounding communities but come to Lake Geneva all the time to shop or just hang out. Those people might not be able to vote but they are sure as hell can mightily influence citizens who do.
