SURPRISING STUFF
There was once this terrific older woman who ran the Lake Geneva cemetery operations.
A living woman, so get that thought out of your mind. She kept all the records of those who purchased cemetery plots, paid the bills for upkeep, and so on. There’s a white building on the cemetery grounds where the committee she reported to often met and where her office was. When Tom Hartz, the city’s former mayor decided to fire her and dismiss the cemetery committee (in order to turn the operation over to public works) the woman took her paperwork over to the city offices and gave it to them. Now, it seems, those records have either been lost or are missing a whole lot of data. People continue to pass on, as this all occurs, however. When a family shows up to bury someone in one of their family plots it has become disconcerting to be informed that there are no records of the family’s purchase of any plots. Troubling stuff for Tom Earle, and public works…and therefore the city of Lake Geneva.
One week until the 27th Annual Winterfest begins.
The event officially begins Wednesday, February 2nd,Cem and goes through the weekend ending on Sunday, February 6th. Next week the prep work that makes it all possible will be happening and is going to be a lot of fun to watch. The snow forms will be set up in Flat Iron Park and in Driehaus Park in front of the Riviera. The specially formulated snow (which has more homogeneous crystals artificially formed) will be trucked in from the Grand Geneva Mountain Top Ski Resort and the forms will be filled. The very talented teams will start sculpting Wednesday at 11 a.m., some even working through the night to meet the deadline on Saturday at 1 p.m. At that point, the judging will begin.
Every year Winterfest gets bigger and better. The main attraction is as always, the US National Snow Sculpting Competition part of the operation. There are some additional wintery events added to this year’s line-up. The downtown area businesses will be joining in for the third year with the Ice Sculpture Walk, which includes thirty-seven different artfully crafted ice sculptures. The Riviera Beach will be the place to be when the sun goes down, with cozy bonfires, warm drinks, s’mores, and live entertainment. For the first time, Igloos will be erected on the beach, however at the time all time of this issue’s publishing, all the slots are reserved. A waiting list is available in case there are cancellations. Winterfest 2022 is expected to be a remarkably fun-filled event for the entire family.
Lake Photo of the Week
The frozen waters of Geneva Lake are getting a lot of traffic, but is it safe? Be careful out there.
