I’m a complainer. Sorry about that. I can’t help but write about the Village of Williams Bay today. Once described as the garden spot of Walworth County, I think we’re taking that whole garden thing a little bit too far. At question are a series of developments over the past several years that I’m growing tired of. First, a compliment. The new beach house and fencing around the beach is beautiful. They did a great job on that, and I’m glad to see it done and done well. Now back to the complaining.
The Village planted “wild flowers” along the lakefront at Edgewater Park, and along the banks of Southwick Creek. The wildflowers grew. And grew. They grew so high that it appears now we’re trying to shield our residents and visitors from the aesthetic nuisance that is Geneva Lake. Like we’re pretending it’s not there. Like when Wrigley Field threatened to float large balloons above the bleachers to block the view from the rooftops. It’s really lame. The weeds, sorry, wild flowers, are as high as 8′ along the lakefront. They recently cut down the weeds in front of the park benches so that you can now sit and actually see the water. The trimming just makes the whole thing look all the more silly. The signs that now grace the entrance to our Village are equally as goofy. We deserve better.
Here’s my plan. Cut down the weeds. Cut them down. Remove the new metal signs. Here’s what we do next…
Order two new sandblasted signs similar to those that we used to have. We deserve classy signs like Lake Geneva and Fontana have. If our school can build a million dollar football field, we can certainly afford sandblasted signs.
Install a boulder shoreline along Edgewater park, starting at the Bayshore property to the Southwest, and extending all the way Northeast to the first boat ramp. Not only are the boulders much more appealing to look at, they’ll control erosion better and provide more control over the potential winter damage from ice shifting.
Continue the brick walkway from the current termination point at Southwick Creek all the way Southwest to the Bayshore property. This will allow residents and visitors to continue the shore path walk without having to slog through the goose poop parkway.
Install subtle, low voltage landscape lighting along that path. Our friends at Twilight Solutions can help with that.
Repair the existing boulder edging at Southwick Creek.
Those few simple adjustments to our Village would greatly improve the aesthetics of our most valuable asset, Geneva Lake. Let’s stop trying to hide the lake behind weeds and let’s make it the focal point of our Village.