Small Towns, Wisconsin Southwest Region Winter 2014 | Page 7

When I first moved to Wisconsin in January 2011, I set off on an
adventure for the perfect home so my wife and I could start a family. I
assumed we would end up close to my work (in Verona), someplace
that was convenient to wherever we wanted to go.
Instead, my wife fell in love with a place that was quite a bit farther
away than I expected, in a little village called Brooklyn… Imagine
coming from a city of 339,000 and moving to a village of 1,400 people
and no supermarket!
When we first announced we were moving to Brooklyn, we, of course,
prepared for the typical reaction, “Brooklyn, New York?” (“No, not
Brooklyn, New York, Brooklyn WISCONSIN! You know, between Evansville
and Oregon, I mean Evansville, WISCONSIN and Oregon, WISCONSIN.”)
But we were not prepared for answering the question, “The Town of
Brooklyn or the Village of Brooklyn?” Google to the rescue!
Apparently, the difference between “towns” and “villages” is that
villages are incorporated and have greater taxing and home rule
powers, while towns are unincorporated areas. Towns still provide
some services, but are more limited than villages. Just to make it even
more confusing, Wisconsin contains two towns named Brooklyn, in
Green County and Green Lake County! The Village of Brooklyn lies in
the northeast corner of the Town of Brooklyn in Green County (a few
minutes from Oregon), and also lies partially in Dane Country. Thus ends
the geography lesson!
So technically, we’re talking about a small village rather than a small
town, but “Small Villages Wisconsin” just doesn’t roll off the tongue in
quite the same way. Now that I have grown to love living in such a
small village, I love hearing the words, “It’s in Brooklyn.” Why? Because
if it’s in Brooklyn, it can’t really be more than about a mile away! We
can walk to our church, the parks, the elementary school, or even the
bank.
Now if someone would just open that supermarket…
Also at: www.Facebook.com/SmallTownsWI | www.Twitter.com/SmallTownsWI | www.Instagram.com/SmallTownsWI

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