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Naturally, the New Year is a time for New Year's Resolutions. Each year I make several - some are for me personally, some are for me professionally. Some are just plain unattainable, others are easily within reach if I put my mind to it.
This year, one of my biggest resolutions involves change. Being more open to it. More willing to try something new. To try something different or even difficult.
Change. Not sitting back and doing the same thing - or doing nothing.
Each day, I come into Dodgeville off of Exit 47. And each day I see an incredible eyesore.
I see the shell of a building that once housed a restaurant and a convenience store. A place where people could gather and travellers could stop for a moment. A building that once provided jobs to a dozen or so people in the county.
I also see opportunity in a great location right off the highway and access directly off the roundabout. Proximity to Harris Park and Hidden Valley Community Church. Something visitors could see immediately upon entering town.
I challenge the City of Dodgeville to make their own New Year's Resolution this year - one the relates to my own resolution of change.
The Dodgeville Truck Stop has sat vacant for all the years I have worked in Dodgeville. No changes have been made, except that the building was stripped and made to look even uglier to the average passer-by.
I believe it is time that the City embrace change and do something about what I'd frankly call an embarrassment. They just received a gift of 10 acres in the business park; why wouldn't the City want to look as marketable as possible by taking steps to remove and reinvent the first thing people see when they come into Dodgeville?