THE BRIGHT SIDE

The City of Lake Geneva Fire Department could have an edge over the rest of the county in the near future.
Chief Peters is researching the possibility of bringing in more emergency room tools to the scene of serious accidents and emergency calls. The chief is considering the purchase of an ultrasound machine to help patients with internal medical problems. The ultrasound machine would help detect internal bleeding, abdominal injuries, finding difficult veins, fluid around the heart and lungs, along with the cardiac activity. Without this device, and the training needed to operate them, paramedics aren’t always able to determine exactly the proper care an injured or extremely ill patient needs, and this makes it difficult to transfer to the best facility possible to handle the specific needs. Without the machine, it’s almost impossible to diagnose among certain heart issues that require very different treatments.

The plan would be for the city’s paramedics to work with Mercy hospital for training, along with a medical professional from Mercy being on call to assist the paramedics with reading the results of the ultrasound to determine which facility would be best for the patient. This would allow the hospitals to have surgeons and staff ready when the patient arrives because many times every minute saved is crucial to the patient’s recovery. The advancements in technology available today, and bringing drastic price reductions, make the ultrasound machines more affordable for communities to purchase and maintain. This one machine could help save many lives and bring better care to patients much quicker. An ultrasound machine would be an impressive addition to the City of Lake Geneva’s ambulance tools and set the standard for other local communities.

Chief Peters has the right idea by wanting to be a leader in the local community and setting the bar for high expectations to give the residents the best emergency care possible.

What has happened to the tourism committee here in Lake Geneva?
The commission is responsible for the coordination of tourism promotion and development within the City of Lake Geneva. This includes ensuring all room tax dollars that it receives from the city, per State Statutes, are spent on tourism promotion and development. “Tourism promotion and tourism development” means any of the following that is significantly used by transient tourists and reasonably likely to generate paid overnight stays at more than one establishment on which a room tax may be imposed; These businesses are owned by different persons and located within the City of Lake Geneva in which a tax under this section is in effect; or, if at any time the City of Lake Geneva has only one such establishment, is reasonably likely to generate paid overnight stays in that establishment.

The tourism committee is all about ‘heads in beds’ and supporting events that bring overnight stay to the Lake Geneva hotels and lodging. Any entity putting on an event in Lake Geneva is invited and encouraged to apply for a tourism grant to help cover the costs of marketing. After such an application is accepted, the event coordinators are invited to speak at the next meeting and plead a case for requesting a grant. Of course, there are the typical repeat grants that receive approval without much thought or discussion, such as Venetian Fest, Art in the Park, and Regional News supported fest and Winterfest, just to name a few. Those events are almost always supported by the tourism committee usually with enthusiasm. Why is it that when the Business Improvement District (BID), whose primary responsibility is to plan events that bring visitors to Lake Geneva and bring ‘heads to beds,’ gets picked on when asking for a grant? The BID has stepped up its game by bringing new events to the city during the downtime to keep a steady flow of visitors coming to the city. When requesting two fifteen-thousand-dollar grants at last week’s meeting, one for Honkey-Tonk Fest and one for Oktoberfest, they were interrogated pretty viciously, which made everyone attending the meeting uncomfortable.

The BID representative handled it beautifully and pointed out all the support that tourism gives to the community, along with events that pay the Regional News advertising affiliate to advertise those events. Yet the BID, which has a small operating budget, has been asked to provide its financials to prove to the tourism commission how they spend the little money it does have. How is it possible this strangely dependent commission can require that of the BID, but not of the other entities applying for a grant? Why do the commissioners feel the need to scrutinize the BID so intensely when these people should be working together since they supposedly have the same end goal?

Place Of The Week

The Lake Geneva Farmers Market, held by Horticultural Hall , is the best market around