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Thursday’s ceremony marking the dedication of the mural “Bienvenidos a Mower” (Welcome to Mower) by Flor Soto was a powerful statement that we hope people will appreciate over the years to come.

On the surface, the mural is a colorful representation of those things that we would recognize on a drive about our county. Its landscapes and textures should remind us of things we’ve seen plenty of times and take great pride in.

But it’s also a representation of the theme of welcoming our county and Austin has been striving for over the span of several years. At the start of the ceremony, several people repeated the phrase “Welcome to Austin” in different languages, emphasizing the unique and diverse landscape of people that call our county home.

It’s important that we continue this trend of welcoming in all that we do. These are people who call Mower home like so many others do, and as Mower County Board of Commissioners Chair John Mueller said, continues a trend that reaches back to the mid 1800s when Mower County was established.

All of Mower’s people have made the county what it is today and it’s something worth continuing with into the future.