Library

I went over to the library this afternoon to pick up three books I had requested through the interlibrary loan system. The library here is great, much better than one would expect from such a small town. This is largely due to the fact that the population swells so much in the summer, producing greater income from taxes and greater demand for public services. After all, the town is only a couple of thousand people, but hundreds of thousands come through here during the season.

The library is a fairly new building, light and airy with comfortable easy chairs. The only thing it lacks -- which the library in neighboring Reedsburg provides free -- is coffee!

The library is full of the college-age European workers, too. They can get a library card for the summer that allows them to use the computers, and thus the internet, and the library has shelves and shelves of books in Polish and Russian. They also give free English lessons and have a do-it-yourself language lab set-up in English for the visiting workers. The kids are all either extroverts to begin with -- after all, they came halfway around the world to work in the hospitality business -- or they learn on their jobs to smile and say hello to everyone. As a result, it is a very friendly atmosphere.

So they hang out there a lot. The library is not too strict about silence, low-voiced conversations are possible, there are chairs and it is air conditioned. It is obviously a place to go to make new friends, and it looks like some serious initial flirting goes on. Nothing out of place, so far as I have ever seen. And, after all, the place closes at 8:00 while it is still full daylight outside.

So that is the other place you see the Ukrainian girls and the Russian guys -- at church, at work, at Wal-Mart and at the library.

Speaking of foreign workers, a local motel got busted for hiring illegals. According to the local papers:

Motel operators in Wisconsin Dells and the Kenosha area were charged with smuggling illegal aliens into the U.S. from Guatemala to work at the motels in a federal indictment unsealed Tuesday.

Siddhartha "Sam" Shah, 51, of Pleasant Prairie, and Jignesh "Mark" Jagaria, 36, of Wisconsin Dells, were arrested on Monday and appeared in U.S. District Court in Madison on Tuesday, where they were released pending trial.

According to state records, Shah is the registered agent for Singapori Hospitality, which owns the Super 8 motel in Wisconsin Dells, and for Best American Hospitality Inc., which owns the Super 8 motel in Pleasant Prairie.

Shah is charged with conspiracy to smuggle illegal aliens into the U.S. and harbor them at his motels from July 2005 to May 2007. According to the indictment, Shah paid and conspired with others to smuggle the illegal workers from Guatemala to Wisconsin, where they worked at Shah's motels.

The guy they hired to clean rooms in the Dells had to live in a store room.