Mayor Todd Krause’s Hillmoor Commission declares 21 acres of the nature preserve as Surplus.

Mayor Todd Krause’s hand-picked Hillmoor Commission gathered on September 11, 2025, under the polite fiction of civic duty, and calmly declared 21 acres of the Hillmoor Nature Reserve to be “surplus property.” A word that sounds like an overstocked warehouse but behaves more like a crowbar.

Mark Davids made the motion. Lowell Thompson seconded it. The minutes, those bland little accomplices, recorded the bloodless language of the deed:

“The Commission recommended that the City designate Zone 5 the Potential Building Area of the Hillmoor property as surplus land so that it could be sold to a qualified non-profit, charitable organization that meets the property’s quality standards, and the Commission also requested that the City determine the price per acre of the land that the property could be sold for.”

Five commissioners voted yes. Mark Davids, Kenneth Etten, Dan Getzen, Peggy Schneider, and Lowell Thompson all raised their hands in unison like synchronized swimmers in a municipal pool. Larry Happ voted no, apparently suffering from a dangerous allergy to undefined words like “surplus.” Paula Porbucan was absent, spared the choice. Somewhere along the way, the commission had quietly carved the Preserve into five “zones,” as if nature were a spreadsheet begging to be optimized.

Zone Five is the prize cut. Prime meat. It sits snug against Highway 50, blessed with cooperative topography and the kind of utility access developers dream about. Sewer. Water. Plug and play. This is not some backwoods mud lot. The YMCA already learned that lesson the hard way when it bought land without utilities, then discovered it would cost $7 million to civilize it. They sold that land. Tuition paid.

Enter Michael Krajovic, paid consultant, full-time whisperer, moving quietly between the commission and the YMCA like a man carrying messages through a smoke-filled casino. He has been meeting with the Y. Working with them. Coordinating. Planning. Drafting “building standards” with the same people who want the building.

“We were ready to move to work with the Y in parallel while we’re doing an analysis on where it would go on the property, how big if would be that we would be developing those standards.”

The commission set aside $5,000 for “architectural standards,” though the tone suggests those standards may require YMCA approval before being deemed fit for public consumption. Standards, after all, are only standards if the right people nod.

Krajovic then reframed the whole affair as an act of municipal charity, pitching the idea that handing Hillmoor to the Y would “save the city millions,” since the YMCA would build everything itself. This referred to the grand fantasy menu floated in earlier Ad Hoc Committee meetings. Pools. Splash pads. Childcare. Golf. Amphitheater. Golf again. Community center. Vast parking lots. A theme park of good intentions.

The Lake Geneva Family YMCA, that unique hybrid creature, is not merely for Lake Geneva residents. It serves “31 surrounding communities,” tourists included, provided they bring cash. This is not a backyard clubhouse. This is a regional enterprise with turnstiles.

Every summer weekend, the Y effectively occupies Veterans Park, running baseball tournaments it charges for, while receiving roughly $50,000 a year from taxpayers. The Tourist Commission has shoveled about $300,000 at it twice in three years for field improvements and maintenance. The fields, meanwhile, help keep hotel rooms full. A neat little ecosystem.

Then Alderperson Cindy Yager, a non-voting member of the Hillmoor Commission, lobbed a live grenade into the room. The elephant nobody wanted to feed or acknowledge.

“The membership issue with the YMCA and it being a property for the people of Lake Geneva is going to be a question that needs to be answered at some point along the way, because I personally don’t believe in being a member of organizations that make me pay for something that should be available to me as just a pay per play.”

She said it again, slower, sharper, harder to ignore:

“The membership issue with the YMCA and it being a property for the people of Lake Geneva… because I personally don’t believe in being a member of organizations that make me pay for something that should be available to me as just a pay per play.”

Yager also committed the heresy of wanting the whole picture before selling off the furniture.

“I’ve had the philosophy that we don’t move forward on anything until we have an entire picture of what’s going on that property. Entire zones one through five, that we have recommended drawings, possible projects laid out as possibilities to show to the public before we make any final decisions. And I guess, to me, this recommendation to consider this as surplus property now kind of goes in the face of that. We’ve only done zone one so far.”

Mayor Todd Krause, undeterred, kept pushing to put a price tag on land he clearly wanted sold to the Y. The YMCA, for its part, has been vocal about believing it deserves a “deal.” Entitlement is always loud when it smells leverage.

City resident John Nelson took the microphone during public comment and spelled out the trick in plain English:

“it has to be rezoned commercial. The YMCA cannot build without being commercial. And when it gets rezoned as commercial, the value is going to go up fourfold.”

Then he did the math out loud:

“if you’re going to sell it to the YMCA, you ask $10 million, but that was one of its 40 acres. I’m just going off what the property value of my property without the house is $50,000 for a regular property in town.”

This is how the Good Ol’ Boys game the system. Declare public land “surplus” while it’s cheap, then rezone it after the handshake. Rural holding becomes commercial gold. Sweet deal indeed.

Alderman Joel Hoiland, co-author of the city’s policy on selling public land, explained the actual test that was supposed to matter:

“Zone 5 may not meet the surplus test if it has foreseeable public, if it has foreseeable public value, such as recreational, environmental, or operational, even if it’s not heavily used right now. Plus, the policy requires evaluating strategic fit, community need, environmental impact, and of course, financial considerations.”

And the kicker:

“If the property has value in any of these areas, it should not be declared surplus.”

Nevertheless, after the Hillmoor Commission stamped all of Zone Five as “surplus,” the matter drifted to the City Council on November 10, 2025. Even city staff had to sign off. Administrator David DeAngelis hit the brakes, at least briefly:

“After careful review of the property as well as all of the various things that could or could not happen on that property from a municipal standpoint, there are several things that I believe the city should take a pause on this process until such time as we have some additional information. However, with the finalization of the fire and EMS study, which calls for a new building, and that building and this property does fit within that general area of what they’re looking for.”

The City Council took no action.

For full disclosure, your correspondent is a member of the Y. So is Joel Hoiland.

Two unrelated reports have surfaced that the YMCA may instead build on 10 acres near Walmart in Delavan, Wisconsin, land owned by Kunes. This information has not been verified.

Stay tuned. The roulette wheel is still spinning.