WAUPUN — Members of the Waupun City Council and City Department leadership attended the second Community Listening Session Tuesday afternoon at the Waupun Senior Center and Recreation Department.
The Community Listening Sessions were created as a part of an effort to involve the community in the process to decide priorities for the $1.17 million ARPA fund the City received last year. While that may sound like a lot, the City has identified nearly $20 million worth of community needs, including for city departments, parks, schools, and local organizations. So the city did not want to take the process lightly on where to make the final decisions for allocating the ARPA funding.
The meeting began with a discussion on the plans for the new Senior Center Facility project, where Mayor Bishop and City Administrator Kathy Schlieve addressed some concerns that members of the Senior Center had about facility use policies.
After the discussion on the Senior Center, the department heads gave updates on what each of their branches have been doing. This included City Administrator Schlieve, Police Chief Scott Louden, Fire Chief BJ DeMaa, DPW Director Jeff Daane, and Jeff Stanek from Waupun Utilities.
For the Police Department, the ARPA funds could be used to maintain the Waupun Safety Building, which has had recent leaking issues and requires general updating to improve department efficiency. WPD has also been struggling with hiring new staff with lower application rates over the last several years.
Fire Chief BJ DeMaa also discussed similar issues with the Fire Department on staffing, as the WFD is made up of mostly volunteers and does not have a full-time fire staff. The WFD also does not exclusively cover fires as it also manages the Emergency Management System (EMS) program.
The Fire Department is also looking to purchase a new ladder truck ($2 million), which will require the addition of a new large garage to house the firetruck. However, this need isn’t necessary for ARPA funding as the funds for the new firetruck can also be acquired from the state through Mutual Service Payments the State owes Waupun for serving the State Prisons.
Jeff Stanek is the Finance Director for Waupun Utilities and was standing in for Steve Brooks at the meeting. Stanek discussed how energy infrastructure costs are rising through inflation and difficulty getting the raw materials to construct the infrastructure and could use ARPA funding to help offset costs for upcoming repairs.
The City Council has yet to decide how to allocate the ARPA funds.
