Mayor’s Column July 25, 2026
Rohn Bishop, Mayor of Waupun
Hello Waupun,
This upcoming Tuesday at 1 PM at the new Community Center will be my monthly listening session. I’ll give an update on city happenings and this month my special guest will be Tyler Vorpagel from Municipal Electrical Utilities of Wisconsin (MEUW). Tyler will discuss the benefits of Waupun being a public power community, current issues in the energy sector like power production, electric demand, and what MEUW does for Waupun as far as safety training and government relations. Then, as always, we’ll answer questions. If you’re wondering about something or have a concern, my listening sessions are a great place to come and ask about it. I hope to see you there.
A couple weeks ago I had the opportunity to take a very in-depth tour of the Dodge Correctional Institution. Built in 1912 and expanded around 1990, I learned all about the intake process of incoming prisoners, saw firsthand what it takes to feed close to a thousand people three times a day, walked through the infirmary, and even saw an inmate who’s restoring an old piece of furniture that was originally made by Ed Gein. My thanks to Cindy Zietlow for setting up the tour.
As you know, we as a city made a significant investment in fixing up the old Carnegie Library building that houses our historical society, and now we are slowly but surely working our way to restoring our historic city hall. When I first was elected mayor there was a push to leave city hall for a new municipal building. I strongly disagreed with doing that for several reasons. One, our city hall is an historic building, and what would happen with it if we left it? Second, we have a historic downtown with several owners investing in the old buildings, and I thought it would be a bad look for the city to not invest in our own historic buildings. So far, we have replaced the elevator (it was damaged when the building was struck by lightning). We put on a new roof (that was damaged from hail) and we installed blinds in the auditorium to help keep it cooler. Next, we need to likely replace the boiler with forced air heat, and it needs new carpeting in the office area. We’ve gotten quotes on the cost of air conditioning the auditorium, and the council chambers are in need of some technological improvements. The building also needs to be brought up to current Americans with Disabilities standards, the steps to be overhauled and then it’ll need some landscaping work. This isn’t going to be a cheap endeavor, so we’re budgeting and planning on doing this over several years. As you know I try hard to support local and I’m happy that Werner-Harmsen and Rens Nursery have already been involved, as have other local businesses.
We’ve dealt a lot with the explosion of these E-scooters zooming all over Waupun. Later this summer expect to see an ordinance to deal with them. Many local cities have been dealing with this too, and staff has been working with surrounding communities as we’re all looking for a way to navigate this new technology. There have even been seminars we’ve checked out solely on E-bikes and E-scooters, explaining what’s legal and what’s not. What makes something a motorized vehicle or not. It’s all been very interesting, and I’ll keep you posted.
Finally, last week I wrote about the pilot program we launched to enforce city codes, and we’re seeing good results. We’re cleaning up slummy properties, and you can read about some of those locations in last week’s column. The council will be discussing expanding this effort Tuesday. There will be cost, but the benefits have been good. We want a Waupun we can be proud of, a clean safe community.
Thank you,
Mayor Rohn
