SURPRISING STUFF

The clarity, purity, and beauty of Geneva Lake’s crystal-clear spring-fed water.
Nobody’s making bottled water out of Lake Geneva’s greatest asset yet.  It’s an idea that might be kicked around by all the communities around the lake.  That water, according to the Geneva Shore’s own private analysis reports, is potable and straight from the lake!

How extraordinary.  The GSR is not encouraging this data to be depended upon to survive or sustain humans living around the water or even to encourage water purification and sales companies to come to the lake, draw water from it, and then sell it as safe and pure.

What’s in the lake?  Starry Stonewort, for one thing.  That foreign invader was brought in by visiting boaters.  That single flora entity can kill the lake over time. Nothing has been done since its discovery three years ago.  It’s not that nobody cares, but it has generated the kind of care that non-tippers in a restaurant exercise.  Let somebody else take care of the staff, as I have my own problems, kind of a thing.

Nobody wants to pay for the dredging to make sure that the future of the lake looks like the present.  We don’t live in the future.  We are supposed to live for the future but that’s not a reality for so many people.  The machines intended to clean up the lake, in lieu of dredging to get rid of the existent patches of the underwater weeds, are an abject, expensive, and really idiotic solution that could and did fail to do anything at all.

“As I walked down the Streets of Laredo…”
How about the streets of Lake Geneva?  The local lyrics don’t work for the song, but they sure work as a statement of consideration about the reality of the street conditions in much of Lake Geneva proper.  Simply since most visitors and central residents do not travel to the back roads of the city, few people know how bad some of the roads really are.  Lack of sidewalks is another problem.  So many back streets do not have sidewalks.  The roads that get the attention in Lake Geneva are basically those that have paid parking along their curbs.

Mr. Earle, the head of Lake Geneva’s public works, has done a great job of making sure the restrooms located downtown are freshly painted, clean, and have doors and locks that really work (but did he have to put in those hand blowers…or whatever other body part one might want to expose under them…) that damn near blow out eardrums when they are on?

The possible annexation of various unincorporated areas within and around the City of Lake Geneva, specifically the Town of Geneva, has come to a dead end.
The thought of annexation came about after the Town of Geneva added speed bumps along Center Street to deter speeding because they didn’t have the manpower to station an officer on that road. Even though it’s a town road mostly residents of the city use the road to get into and out of the subdivision at the top of Center Street.

The residents brought their concerns up to the town about how large the bumps are and the worries about their vehicles getting damaged. The town ignored their concerns, so the residents then brought them to the attention of the city. The town was not willing to work alongside the city or purchase new speed bumps, so the idea was for the City of Lake Geneva to possibly annex that part of the Town of Geneva.

There are three ways to annex properties; one is if it’s a town island which this is not, direct annexation in which homeowners come to the city and asked to be annexed in, which has not happened, the last option is the most detailed and difficult. A resolution with a scale map of what would possibly be annexed would have to be brought in front of the city council. Then that would be given to the clerk to be published so residents being affected could object if they so wished. Then, it would be filed with the courts where a hearing would be set. If a majority of the residents object to the annexation it is automatically dismissed and over. If the hearing moves forward the residents affected in the Town of Geneva would have to vote on whether or not they would like to become part of the city. No matter the outcome, the city would be held responsible for all costs and disbursements.

This does not seem like a practical solution to speed bumps because no one has shown interest (in the Town of Geneva) in being a part of the city, the costs could be quite high, and this could be a timely process. Another concern is that the city would like to annex half of Center Street which is not really possible. Streets cannot be split, and courts have determined they are not owned by people but are easements. It was wonderful seeing the city council working together to help the residents and do what they thought was best. It’s unfortunate that nothing more could be done at the city level, but we could see more options to help the residents along Center Street in future council meetings. The speed bumps should be coming down by the end of this week and hopefully, they are a dead issue also.

The only final thing that might be considered is denying the Town of Geneva fire and police services in this area.  That has been done before in other states and might be considered here.  It does not appear that the Town of Geneva is much of a good neighbor.