November 24th marks the fiftieth anniversary of the City of Lake Lotawana.  We will commemorate the anniversary by lighting the City’s Christmas Tree entirely in gold lights.  The annual City Christmas Tree lighting will be held on Saturday, December 6 at 5:15 pm.  The Community Club has graciously volunteered to sponsor this event, which will include warm drinks and a special visitor from the North.  I hope to see you all there.

A few days ago I received a stark reminder of the changes the City has seen in the last fifty years.  A developer brought in a concept drawing of a development in the area south of Highway 50 that would include several hundred residences.  Of course, in the current economic climate it will be years before those residences are actually built and occupied.  But it reconfirmed a fact that sooner or later, the voters in the City who live on the lake will be outnumbered by the voters who live in other parts of the City.

Fifty years ago, the City’s boundaries were co-extensive with the boundaries of the Lotawana Development Company, (which has since been taken over by the Association.)  That meant that all of the voters had something in common, the lake that we share.  A few years ago a number of visionary citizens determined that protecting lake residents’ quality of life could be done best by expanding the City to include several thousand acres of farmland and a quarry.  The decision to go forward with that plan was approved by a majority of the residents acting through their elected aldermen.  I do not fault the decision; in fact I fully support it.

The downside has been all of the expense that was not fully planned for.  First, the legal work for the original annexation and the litigation that ensued cost over one million dollars.  The litigation over the voluntary annexation of Mr. Barber’s property south of Highway 50 cost another two hundred thousand.  In order to pay these expenses, the City used money that would otherwise have been available for preventive maintenance on the sewer system which has resulted in some of our current sewer problems.   Additionally, the city does not have the financial resources to use its power to do what was originally intended, protect the value of the lake asset.

Was the expense worth it?  I believe it was.  The problem has not been that the vision was wrong.  It was the idea that we could have the vision without paying for it. 

In talking to several residents who opposed the tax increase they made it clear that they felt they were lied to.  They believed that the City promised they could get the benefit of controlling the area around the lake without any increase in taxes.  Nothing will alienate voters more thoroughly than a lie. 

So on this 50th anniversary of our City let me suggest that we think about where the City should go in the next fifty years.   I think we are well positioned to control our future, and protect the quality of life on the lake.  But in a few years the electorate will change and the quality of life on the lake will be of no concern to much of the City.  If we are to realize the vision, we must act soon to put the mechanisms in place to do so. 


Ed Stratemeier
Mayor of Lake Lotawana