Mayor’s Column August 5th, 2023
Rohn Bishop, Mayor of Waupun
Hello Waupun,
This week, I want to talk about the beautification of Waupun.
The vast majority of Waupunites take pride in Waupun, in their property, and work hard to keep everything looking nice, however, we do have a small handful of blighted properties scattered throughout our beautiful city.
Ugly, rundown properties that are violating city codes are the top complaints I get. Two weekends ago, I couldn’t go to breakfast, the dentist, or even dinner at Tony’s without someone coming up to me to complain about a handful of blighted properties scattered throughout Waupun. This is personally frustrating to me; as the owners of these properties get to enjoy their weekends, while I’m getting an earful at every stop. There is a part of me that would just like to name the property owners and give out their phone numbers, so people can complain directly to them. I won’t do that, but let me begin by acknowledging some of the problem locations, and what we’re doing about it.
Most of our problem properties are owned by landlords, usually—but not always—living out of Waupun. Most of you reading this know what locations I’m talking about and I can assure you that we are getting aggressive at enforcing code ordinances. From Fond du Lac Street, to Fox Lake Road, we have issued citations and some progress is being made.
I am asked all the time about two properties, a building downtown, and a building on Fox Lake Road. First, the downtown building. You may have seen it was even the topic of discussion on What’s Up or What’s Really Up Waupun; you know, the eyesore with all the flies. The police have followed up, and we have a long list of issues with that building. Again, it’s a building owner who doesn’t live in Waupun and obviously doesn’t care about the building or how it negatively affects Waupun. I am working with the Police Department and city staff to more aggressively get that cleaned up. Next, the building on Fox Lake Road. It looks terrible, and we had people illegally living in a camper. The police are visiting that location multiple times a week. Tickets are written and social services were brought in to deal with the deplorable living conditions of the camper. I’m running into roadblocks cleaning that up because of the building’s original zoning, but I can assure you that I’m trying to clean it up.
Waupun also has a sign ordinance that doesn’t allow a business to move and leave the old sign behind up on the building. This ordinance wasn’t being enforced strongly at all, but that’s changed. Warning tickets were issued to buildings with old, outdated signs on them.
Finally, we have to be more aggressive in inspecting some of these commercial and rental locations, for the sake of the people who live there. In some cases, the living conditions are unacceptable. A person shouldn’t need an umbrella to live or work on the first floor of a building because the second-floor resident is showering. We as a city need to do better, and we’re going to!
At the same time, we’re taking steps to beautify Waupun. The council recently approved an ordinance to combat cars from being beached in front laws for long periods of time. I’m working with Jeni Maly to bring a Waupun themed mural or two to help beautify Waupun. These efforts, along with new “Welcome to Waupun” signs and improvements to the empty city owned lot with a food truck location, should help Waupun look even better!
Finally, as we head into August…August!? Wow, summer flies by, anyway, as we head into August, what a fun time of year to live here. We have the world-famous Alto Fair on Wednesday and Thursday followed by the Truck-N-Show on Friday and Saturday. On Saturday at about Noon are the ceremonies for the Truck-N-Show. It’s a great chance to learn about the Make-a-Wish families the Truck-N-Show helps, the positive impact the show has for REACH Waupun, and you can see the “Mayor’s Choice” award winner! I look forward to seeing you around over this next week.
Thank you and God Bless,
Mayor Rohn
