• Business >
• Facilities >
• Facilities >
• Media Coverage >
• Wilton breaks ground for new library/community center

Wilton breaks ground for new library/community center

By Cynthia Beaudette | Friday, June 12, 2009

Reprinted from the Muscatine Journal

WILTON, Iowa — The libraries Herb Townsend went to as a child bear some similarities to the new one being built in his hometown.

“We used to think a library was a place to check out a book and be quiet,” said Townsend, a retired Wilton farmer, Friday afternoon during a groundbreaking ceremony for Wilton’s new library and community center complex. “My, how times have changed

The 23,000 square-foot complex will feature DVD and CD rentals as well as computers with internet service and classes on how to use them. The community center will host activities such as civic gatherings, receptions and fitness activities.

“These dreams are happening and it’s great,” said Wilton Mayor Carol Wade.

Fundraising for the $3.25 million project is nearly complete, with $3.1 million in funds.

“We have accomplished something the size of what a big town can do,” said Wilton resident and state Rep. Jeff Kaufmann. “And we still maintain the heart of our town.”

The current Wilton library has been housed in a 1938 building for 26 years. Area residents say the small building is hot and humid in the summer and too cold in the winter.

Jeff Grings, chairman of the library and community center campaign, said the library board of trustees began talking about the complex in the mid-1990s.

In 1998, an analysis and site selection report was conducted for the library, the same year the Wilton Community Development Association was discussing building a community center.

The Wilton Library Foundation and the Development Association decided to build one facility, which would save approximately 25 percent of the cost it would take to build

two.

In 2002, the city of Wilton, Eastern Iowa Light and Power Cooperative, Wilton Industrial Development Corp. and the Wilton Retirement Community made four acres of ground available for the project at the intersection of Wiltons’ Cypress and Division streets.

Thelma Nopoulos, who with her husband, George, own and operate the Wilton Candy Kitchen, said she and George donated to the project because they believe in education and the services the new library will provide are vital to Wilton’s future.

The couple, who donated $137,893 for the complex, were impressed with the fact that Muscatine Community College will have an MCC Wilton Center at the new complex.

Vic McAvoy, outgoing president of MCC, said the college had been looking for an opportunity to have a presence in Wilton and when college officials learned about the new complex, they saw it as an opportunity for collaboration.

The , of which MCC is part, allocated $450,000 to the project.

The HNI Charitable Foundation provided a $500,000 for the project.

“We love to see leverage, and we love to see it in the field of education,” said Gary Carlson, vice president of member and community relations for HNI Corp.

Other speakers included Chris Ervin of Gerdau Ameristeel and community representative Marcus Hora.

“We wouldn’t be here today without tremendous support from our community,” said Betty Cram, president of the library board of trustees.