Mayor’s Column August 15, 2025
Rohn Bishop, Mayor of Waupun
Hello Waupun!
As many of you saw watching the ball game last Sunday, the Mayor almost caught the Brewers’ walk off home run ball. While I didn’t end up with the ball, I was able to take a picture with it and was amused with all the calls and texts I was getting as the play was shown on FanDual Sports Network. It was a great game to attend and sitting in the Aurora Bullpen is a pretty cool experience. Jenny and I had a great time and thank you to the Our Bar for the opportunity, and the coach bus transportation.
This Wednesday is the Waupun Plan Commission meeting, and one item for discussion will be whether to relax our ordinance when it comes to parking campers, boats, and RV’s in driveways for longer than 48 hours. As the use of recreational vehicles continues to expand, and the fact we’re looking at approving smaller lot sizes, this does seem like a good opportunity to review the ordinance. I can’t speak for the council, but I get the sense that if the RV’s are parked on the driveway, that this may be the time relaxe the rules for the summer months. That said, this could mean it’s harder to enforce the ordinance, and could it cause unforeseen issues. For example, does it push too many cars being parked in the street? I get requests from citizens to make many of our streets no parking on one side, because when cars are parked on both sides, it’s so narrow. If you have an opinion about this, contact your alderperson and attend a meeting.
As you all know, work continues on Rock and Newton streets. Work is also continuing on the Harris Creek, both by Stobb Plumbing and north, from the Newton Street bridge, behind those homes, and towards the Rock River. Our hope is that when the creek project is completed, those houses will be taken out of the floodplain. While the creek looks much different than it did years ago, I have heard that even with last year’s flooding, basements stayed dry. This project, along with the flood studies of Edgewood Drive and Hazel Lane, along with more stormwater ponds, are all proactive efforts by the city to help mitigate flooding issues. By the way, there are more storm water ponds than you realize. Did you know that at places like the hospital, or Kwik Trip, or even the DG Market, the ponds are underground? Waupun is sincerely trying to get ahead of the changing rain patterns, and to do what we can to help keep homes dry.
On Saturday at 9, I’ll be co-hosting the Shopping Spree Show on WFDL here in Waupun. AM1170 FM 103.3. It’s another Mayoral Special Super Shopping Spree, so do tune in.
On Wednesday, August 27, from 1:00 to 4:00, the Waupun Utilities Wastewater Treatment Facility will be having an Open House to show off the new ABNR system upgrade. Currently, Waupun has the cleanest wastewater discharge in the entire country. While the ABNR upgrade was expensive, we should take pride in the fact that we have such good wastewater discharge, we meet our DNR permits, and that we did it when we did. I recently saw that Mayville is looking to double their sewer rates as the DNR permits are catching up to them. Once again, Waupun was ahead of the curve. And just like with our Reverse Osmosis water plant, our wastewater plant is state of the art. Waupun really is a great little city to live in, and I’m thankful to be here.
Finally, congratulations to Reeve Nelson on winning this year’s Waupun Parks Program Scavenger Hunt. Reeve wins a year pass to the aquatic center. On a side note, she’s super smart. She explained to me that the Rock River flows into the Mississippi River, and that the Mississippi River flows into the Gulf of America! I chuckled and said, “Yes, it does!” My favorite part of this job has been interacting with the kids.
Thank you all and God Bless,
Mayor Rohn
