OUR PLACE
Don’t forget to change all clocks ahead one hour on Sunday, March 13th.
Daylight saving time begins at 2 a.m. Sunday morning, and clocks will ‘spring forward’ one hour. This means we lose an hour of sleep but will gain more sunlight in the afternoon, with later sunsets. Daylight hours have been increasing slightly since the winter solstice on Dec. 21st, but the biggest change will come Sunday morning. Evening commutes will now be brighter, and hopefully warmer weather will be following. On the 13th after the change, sunset will come at 6:58 p.m. and last light at about 7:20. This will continue to change about a minute a day (later and later) until we reach summer solstice which occurs on June 21st at about four a.m. in the morning. Sunrise is going to jump from around 6:07 in the morning to 7:07, also on the 13th.
Mike Rasmussen is leaving as the Lake Geneva Police Chief.
Town of Linn will be announcing its new police chief at the town meeting to be held in Zenda at the municipal building there on the 14th of March. In quick succession the lake loses two of its best officers and leaders. There are police departments in Lake Geneva, Town of Linn, Walworth, Fontana, Williams Bay and Town of Geneva, and there is also, of course the sheriff’s department for all of Walworth County, which includes the areas where small departments usually provide first responder services. So many people are going to be sorry to lose Rasmussen, who has led the city through the virus and so much more. The new chief will be selected later in the year, although that may continue into 2023.
Year-round parking could be coming to Lake Geneva as soon as the end of the year.
The public works committee asked the parking manager, Seth Elder, to research if there would be a benefit to the city if there was a change to year-round parking. Elder did the research, ran some numbers, and then presented several scenarios to the public works committee. Changing to year-round parking would entail hiring one more full-time employee aboard and increasing the budget for salaries (including more part-time employees), insurance and benefits. An estimate of the additional funds needed to enforce the increased paid parking would be around $96,500. Projected revenue coming in could be estimated to be $180,000-$310,000 meaning the city would net roughly between $83,500 and $213,500. Some members of the committee thought that was a significant amount of income for the city to consider, while others thought it was to big price to pay in possibly discouraging visitors from coming to Lake Geneva. Both sides had valid concerns and reasons but in the end the city needs to bring in revenue to continue making it the best it can be.
After a lively discussion the committee voted to recommend to city council to change to year-round parking. The Business Improvement District (BID) then got wind that the city wants to charge for year-round parking and the board there was not happy. The downtown businesses think that this will deter visitors from shopping downtown, and that visitors are already confused about when and how to pay the parking and that businesses might suffer. The businesses are in agreement that free parking is a better draw for the city and their stores, and they plan on having their voices be heard at the next city meeting. The issue of year-round parking is very divided, with both sides wanting what’s best for their particular needs. This month will be very telling as to the future of parking in downtown Lake Geneva.
Speaking of parking…
Parking prices, that is. So, you think parking is bad in Lake Geneva, well, take a look at other places. Try parking in Chicago or Milwaukee for an event and you will pay, on average, twenty to thirty dollars an hour. Of course, both places have city lots that charge hourly but those are not always available and fill up quick. Most recently a GSR reporter was on the road in Daytona, Florida and yes there are public parking lots that you pay by plate hourly, which is about the same as Lake Geneva, but once those are full which happens often and very early in the day you are looking at supplemental lots that are run privately, and the prices in those range from twenty to thirty dollars an hour.
