Hillmoor, a prized stretch of public land in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, is fast becoming a battleground between competing visions.
“Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.” PJ O’rourke
The Hillmoor commission voted to send a modified Knows-Nelson grant application for “trails “to the Lake Geneva city council. Voting for: Mayor Todd Krause, Alderperson Cindy Yager and Consultant Michael Krajovic Mark Davids, Kenneth Etten, Dan Getzen, Happ, Paula Porubcan, Peggy Schneider, Lowell Thompson. But the trails will be only located where the very popular disk golf course is now and not part of the 189 acres the city purchased in 2022. And the “trails“ will be 12-foot-wide asphalt paths. The commission is also interested in putting several park pavilions or shelters on that tiny strip of land which is used as the disk golf course by several generations of residents for free. It was originally created by Lake Geneva city council when Jim Connor was mayor, and the city got the land back during the great financial crisis of 2007 – 2009. It was leased to a business that went under but has always been owned by the city. It was Mayor Connor who proposed the residents could use it for disk golf. It showed a lot of foresight and is very beloved by the residents. He was not alone the whole city council approved the use, currently the only person still on the council who approved the use is Mary Jo Fesenmier who is now council president.
Disk golf has grown tremendously in the United States. The number of disk golf courses increased from a few hundred in the late 1990s to over 9000 by 2021. In recent years, disc golf has grown faster than regular golf. The Professional Disc Golf Association’s membership increased from about 36,000 active members in 2018 to over 50,000 in 2021. Additionally, the number of courses has surged, with over 1,100 new courses added in 2024 alone.
Mayor Todd Krause’s Hillmoor Commission plans on that narrow strip of land include to putting tat least two structures for gatherings, read weddings, and other tourist amenities. What will be left to play disc golf on is anyone’s guess. The main point is that the rest of the 189 acres seems to be reserved for commercial development.
Lake Geneva alderman Joel Hoiland spoke in opposition to the 12 wide trails being planned he was rightfully upset, or at least as “upset” as the former Minnesotan can be. Yes “Minnesota nice” is real. Your correspondent has been there. He was also not to happy that Mayor Krause did not release the detailed plans until right before the meeting.
“They were issued basically that day and then you know, action was sort of asked for. And I thought, you know, that’s a little rough because if you haven’t seen the grant application and if you have a day job, it’s hard to read all that the public did not have an opportunity to respond to that to give you feedback. So that was concerning and I just wanted to mention that.” See that’s Minnesota nice. The way a person from Chicago would put such legislative behavior___ WTF!
The city council approved the new amended application for a grant of $485K to the state of Wisconsin with city taxpayers picking up half the cost. The Geneva Lake Conservancy was to be the original cosigner for the application for trails on the 189 acres and was going to help raise the city’s portion were cut out of the application process.
The rush is on to commercially develop Hillmoor Nature Park despite residents’ objections.
On 4.4.25 Mayor Todd Krause’s handpicked Hillmoor Commission held a special listening session to get input for ideas for what was to be done with the other 189 acres the city recently purchased in 2022. It should be noted the city was being sued by the then owner White River Holdings LLC for $55M because a previous city council allowed the adjacent shopping center to put their water retention pond on the land he recently purchased. The city council led by then Mayor Charline Kline settled the suit by purchasing the 189 acres White River Holdings LLC owned for $6M. The land is known as Hillmoor after the bust golf course which was the use of the land prior to the Great Financial Crisis.
At the special listening session before the newly established Hillmoore Commission on what should be done with Hillmoor. The people who got up to speak could be broken down into three groups.
The first group who wants the YMCA’ commercial development of a reginal sports complex on the 189 acres where either on the Y’s board or employed by the Y. Several of that group admitted to not being Lake Geneva residents or refused to say where they lived.
The pro Y group talked of the tournaments with 150 spectators they planned to have along with daycare facilities and camping in the wooded areas of Hillmoor. They also stated that they would gladly take over the rest of the park to “manage” it.
Jim Gaugert who is the Y’s board said there is a “urgency“ they act on giving the Y the property. “Delavan has rolled out the red carpet and offered all sorts of wonderful things for us.” Really?
Former Alderman Sarah Hill stated that Delavan “Got an unlimited checkbook to get a Y.”
Yes the “bums rush” is on.
The second pro-Y group were Luke Pfeifer, from the Lake Geneva chamber of commerce d.b.a Visit Lake Geneva and ex alderperson Sarah Hill who wants the Y to make it into a Regional Sports Complex and help add more parking for the tourists. At prior presentations Y stated their plans for Hillmoor involved marketing to 30 surrounding communities. As resident Fred Gahl who was on the previous Hillmoor Ad Hoc Committee pointed out “We had one entity came in with an interesting proposal to put up a 200,000 square foot building with parking for 800 cars to be open 24/7, 365 to serve 30 adjoining communities and have 10,000 members.”
The third group to speak where composed of Lake Geneva residents, they primarily wanted it to stay natural with no buildings and walking and bike trails only. Former alderman Pete Peterson has been speaking at several Hillmoor meetings, and his thoughts were similar to almost all the Lake Geneva residents.” I am totally opposed to the YMCA being out there… Come on, folks. That’s absolutely ridiculous. Look at our bike trails that we’ve spent thousands and thousands of dollars on. They might be 5 feet at the most, a 12-foot path. What are you looking at 100,000 people being out there or something.”
Mike James who lives right next to Hillmoor on the West side and downhill from where the Y wants their development “We are very interested in the natural preservation of the property and if there is going to be minimal development, walking trails, whatever the case may be, that sounds great.”
Terry Carroll.
“But let’s keep it natural. We don’t need any kinds of buildings other than maybe a potty house. That’s my opinion. NO YMCA.”
Rick Steinberg
“I wanted to be on the record of saying we just don’t want any building and then we don’t have to worry about how intrusive the buildings will be.”
Nick O’Connor
”And there’s really no place for us to go. It’s the only open area where we, as residents can go and not be impacted by the huge numbers of tourists.” He said he is a Y member and” I go there every almost every day about five times a week and there’s just not a ton of people there”.
Alice Ogden
“The majority of people in this town wanted to be something for us to enjoy, and not everybody goes to the Y.”
Carol Pearson
“I’m not in a big hurry. We waited. We’ve waited a long time to get this property. It took us a long time to buy it. I appreciate the decision. The courage to buy it, but now I don’t see that there’s a big rush.”
The residents who live in Lake Geneva want it to stay natural for their use, not as another tourist attraction that they will have to pay to use. The tourist business in Lake Geneva has in essence monetarized most of the downtown parks all summer for one event or another thanks to the secretive Lake Geneva Tourist Commission, who funds them with your tax dollars.
A real HOG Fest of the city parks! Owned by the people for the mighty tourist dollar.
“It is the popular delusion that the government wastes vast amounts of money through inefficiency and sloth. Enormous effort and elaborate planning are required to waste this much money. “PJ O’rourke
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