A page from utopia
Mukwonago's new library has come a long way since the Utopia Club envisioned it first in 1917.
Our guess is that if that band of community do-gooders were to see how their library has grown up with the new $5.1 million addition that opened last week, there would be no question that their vision was fulfilled. It is utopian.
It's a library that captures the spirit of Mukwonago.
There are few things a community can do that says more about what it values than build a library. It speaks to the value of learning, the importance of knowledge and to the embrace of the ideal of opportunity for all who seek it. A library says you can do anything, go anywhere, understand anything if you put your mind to it. When you invest in a new library, particularly in the Internet age, you do so for the benefit of your community and the entire world.
What's so great about the new library? Well, for starters, when was the last time you can remember a civic project coming in $300,000 under budget? But this place speaks not of a bargain but of value. Pick an adjective that best describes it: quieter, lighter, kid-friendly, adult friendly, bigger, beautiful, more spacious. We urge you all to pay a visit and coin your favorite description. (Go on, check out a thesaurus there and look one up.)
This 18,000-square-foot facility has come a long way from some spare room in the old McNulty house or from being, as one reader called it, "the tiny little house behind Burger King."
In our post-ironic society it is no longer fashionable to dream of a utopian world, "an ideal and perfect place or state where everyone lives in harmony and everything is for the best," according to the dictionary.
Perhaps no manmade place will ever achieve utopian standards, but it's fair to say that in the last year Mukwonago made a giant stride in that direction with the construction of this new edifice. What a great time to start dreaming great dreams again, and let them start with the Mukwonago Community Library.
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Photo of the Week by Todd Ponath: ROCKIN' IT - Fred Eide, left, and his daughter Ashley, of Eide Painting and Sandblasting, use spray guns to paint the individual rock shapes on the underside of the I-94 overpass at Highway P in Oconomowoc Wednesday, May 16. Each "rock" is painted individually and then speckled with black paint to make it look like granite.
News or Feature Story of the Week by Andrea Budde: Bigfoot sighting in Eagle turns out to be less than meets the eye
Sports Story of the Week by JR Radcliffe: Netters win 'unofficial' titles conference
Page or layout design of the week by Lisa Leonard: Drop a line and relax
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