Our Place

Cindy Flower, maligned, attacked, derided, yet still standing tall and tough. In the last issue of the Geneva Shore Report, it was stated by a reporter, present at the last city council meeting, that Cindy Flower had tacitly offered her resignation as an alderperson by stating that she did not necessarily make decisions based upon what her electoral base told her it might want. She made her decisions based upon the facts she thought relevant and the conclusions she came to based on those facts. Many years ago a man named George Santayana said the words:
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

That wise man also said that men and women who are elected to office are elected for the exercise of their judgment because those that elect them cannot be present or aware of the most of the facts that might influence decision-making. Cindy Flower was absolutely correct in expressing her opinion about the vote she made and the Geneva Shore Report could not have been more wrong. The GSR extends an apology to this very special and talented alderperson.

Cindy Flower, contemplative and bright, with loads of questions…

The Second Fairfield Inn.
Rumor control has it that the owners of the Fairfield franchise, owners of the new Fairfield being completed on Sheridan Springs Road in Lake Geneva, have their sights set on a piece of land across Highway 12 from the current location. It must appear to these investors that there is plenty of business to be garnered because it is more than rare to see two hotels of the same name and brand right across a highway from one another. The rumor persists, however.

Dick Malmin, the intrepid adventurer, and Geneva Lake Activist, goes to court.
Back on the 14th of June, Dick Malmin set out with a crew (GSR investigators and reporters) in his boat to rescue a stranded abandoned yacht that had gone aground on the beach in downtown Lake Geneva. The rescue of the boat did not go well. The propeller of Malmin’s boat got caught up in the chain holding a line of the beach buoys in place. While Malmin and crew fought to clear the propeller a patrolman from the Geneva Lake Law Enforcement Department showed up and began giving orders from a rock near the end of the beach. The officer, V. Piacentine, wanted Malmin and his crew to abandon his boat like the sailboat had been written off earlier. The officer was nearly incoherent and way out of his element in giving his orders.

The crew finally obeyed this damaged member of whatever law enforcement agency he belongs to and abandoned Malmin and his twenty-thousand-dollar boat. But Malmin would not quit. When the Water Safety Patrol showed up and Morgan, the rescue first responder on the bow, dived in to help Malmin save his boat, everything changed. Officer Piacentine got madder and madder but both Malmin and Morgan both ignored him, got the boat secured to the Water Safety Patrol craft with a line and towed away. Malmin got to his own dock on the lake near the Geneva Inn, but Officer Piacentine wasn’t done with him.

An armada of seemingly miniature police boats showed up at his pier, blue lights wildly blinking. Malmin was yelled at, and then told he’d be getting a citation in the mail. Thankfully, the armada left. The citation came days later. The offense for “careless operation of a boat,” instead of the more serious “patrolman acting like a dork, so don’t notice,” violation. The fine assigned was $2000.00. Dick retained former Judge Robert Kennedy, of the Rizzo and Dierson law firm, and on the 24th of July at 7:00 p.m., Mr. Malmin, along with Judge Kennedy, is going to have his evening in court.