Mayor’s Column January 3, 2025
Rohn Bishop, Mayor of Waupun
Happy New Year Waupun!
On New Year’s Day, I had the privilege of riding along in a city Public Works truck while they were salting the streets. The technology in the trucks is pretty cool, and I’m thankful for the opportunity to keep learning the behind the scenes work it takes to keep Waupun open for business. Over the years I’ve done ride-alongs in a squad car, drove a fire truck, hung a Christmas Angel, smelled sewer water, took down pickleball nets, and even helped open absentee ballots for the Presidential Election. Waupun is fortunate to have a dedicated team who serve our city well, and I enjoy learning first hand how they do it!
This first full week of 2026 will get me off to a busy start. I appeared on WFDL Radio’s “Between the Lines Program” on January 2 to talk about 2025 accomplishments and goals for 2026. On Tuesday at 8:10 I’ll be on WRPN (1600 AM and 93.1 FM) out of Ripon and at 10:00 I’ll do a full hour on “Community Comment” on 95.3, WBEV Beaver Dam. Then at 11:30 I have a several hours long meeting about the Main Street Program and what Waupun can do to become a Main Street city.
I know it’s the dead of winter, but come May at Shaler Park, the military service flags will go back up, and I learned that our Legion/VFW reuse the flags, often sewing the old tattered worn-out flags. Which is nice, but they’re still sun faded and don’t look the nicest. I asked Frank Mesa what the cost of a new set of flags would be, and it comes out to about $300. If anyone reading this wishes to make a donation to Frank for a new set of flags, let him or I know and we’ll get new flags!
With this cold weather, the Rock River is frozen over. I remember as a kid, kids skating the river all the way from Brandon St. to the Mill Pond. There was even a hockey rink between the Buchholz and Dr. Timmerman’s places. This year we have kids skating on the river again, and I think that’s a good thing, however I do want to caution parents that while the river is frozen and fairly shallow, it is a river and never completely freezes over, especially near storm water inlets. So, If your kids are skating the river, please remind them to be careful, avoid the inlets, and to be aware of the ice conditions.
Thank you and God Bless,
Mayor Rohn
