WAUPUN — The Waupun City Council and department heads met at the Waupun Safety Building Tuesday night to discuss priorities for how to best allocate the ARPA grant Waupun received.
The City of Waupun received $1.17 million in ARPA funding with the stipulation that it be used to benefit industries impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. But with more than $20 million identified in community needs across all sectors, the City Council wants to make sure that it is spent in a way that most positively impacts the community. Not only that, the City has been given a deadline of 2025 to spend all of the ARPA funds or the City risks losing out.
The Council determined that their primary priority was public safety, which encompassed the Police Department, Fire Department, and EMS services. This was followed by Public Works, Utilities, area childcare, and lastly parks and sports.
The primary purchase being considered under public safety was patching or replacing the Fire Department’s ladder truck, which is aging to the point of retirement. Purchasing a new ladder truck however would require the addition of a new large garage to house the ladder truck, which is another large expense on top of the approximately $2 million fire truck they were looking at. Alternatively, the current ladder truck could be patched up, but concerns were brought up about whether that would be cost effective in the long run as that would only expand the truck’s lifespan by a few more years.
Another public safety priority was to upgrade and repair the Waupun Safety Building. One long-term issue with the Safety Building is that it has suffered from a series of leaks and will need a complete repair in the near future. Also previously suggested were the installation of new Fire Department showers for firefighters to use after responding to calls which would go a long way to keeping them healthy, preventing them from developing cancers as a result of coming into contact with burning materials. The cost of these showers were estimated to be about $400,000.
There were also considerations to purchase a new city ambulance and develop a new facility for emergency services due to the trend of increased call volume over the last few years. If this trend continues, current emergency services may become stretched too thin to adequately serve the community. The Council also expressed their desire for EMS to be centrally located in the city.
When it comes to Public Works and Waupun Utilities, both are struggling with increased costs and decreased service due to the state of the economy post-pandemic. Waupun Utilities specifically is having issues with procuring parts and replacement transformers due to the supply-chain disruptions of the last three years. On top of that, inflation has increased costs for raw materials and energy. Funds put towards Public Works and Utilities may prevent or reduce increased fees to service customers until the economy stabilizes.
Childcare was also briefly discussed, but little detail was discussed on how exactly the funds could be spent. The Council did reiterate that supporting Waupun’s sole childcare provider Wee-Care is important, and that the community needs to either expand Wee-Care or establish a second childcare provider.
The final priority of the five discussed Tuesday night were parks and sports. The primary reason that parks and sports were marked as the lowest priority is that sports and parks are able to successfully fundraise and better cover the costs than anything to do with city management.
On why parks and sports were so low on the list, City Attorney Dan VandeZande stated, “It’s pretty easy to fundraise for things people like, such as sports and parks. But it’s nearly impossible to fundraise for things such as Public Works and Utilities as people are already paying for them.”
It was also noted that two of the biggest sports organizations requesting a portion of the ARPA funds—those being Waupun Baseball with a total need of $600,000 and the Waupun Hockey Association with a total need of $800,000—may not be able to make up the difference in time to use any money they receive from the ARPA fund before the 2025 deadline.
Mayor Bishop however wishes the city could prioritize sports more, stating, “I push for youth sports so much because it’s a quality of life issue. It keeps kids out of trouble and in-shape, and it gives them a way to be a part of the community. It’s also important for tax revenue through the hotel room-tax, and with how tournaments bring in so many families to spend money in town.”
No action was taken at the workshop meeting regarding the ARPA funds. The City Council will be meeting again for more workshop sessions with final decisions currently planned to be made in March.
