Mayor’s Column November 9, 2024
Rohn Bishop, Mayor of Waupun
Hello Waupun!
I am pleased to present the City of Waupun’s proposed 2025 budget, which outlines a roadmap for the delivery of essential services and quality of life investments to benefit every Waupun resident. Once adopted by the City Council, the budget establishes the direction for all City government programs and services for the coming year. The budget as presented is built on our 2024 accomplishments and lays a foundation for advancement of our 2025 goals to keep Waupun as a city that has it going on!
Throughout this document, you will find a number of key themes:
1. We are moving Waupun forward with public safety as a top priority.
Early in 2024, the city successfully hired Jeremy Rasch as Police Chief, and Ted Sullivan, as Deputy Police Chief. Under their leadership, the department is rebuilding critical talent and adding tools to maintain officer safety, while addressing modern day policing challenges to keep Waupun as one of the top 20 safest cities in the state of Wisconsin. The 2025 budget invests in drug detection software and reallocates head count to an investigator position to address growing complexity within our law enforcement needs.
In 2024, the fire department celebrated 150 years of service, and I had the opportunity to thank our volunteers who respond regularly, often sacrificing personal and professional time, to ensure our safety. As the world changes, it is becoming more difficult to fill vacant positions within the volunteer fire service. In 2024, a fire and emergency response staffing study was completed that lays a roadmap to help us navigate staffing challenges to ensure sustainability of this critical service in 2025 and beyond.
2. Waupun is a great place to live, work and play because we invest in assets that promote a strong quality of life.
Construction completed and our recreation department moved into our new $5.8M Senior/Community Center. This project was supported in part by a $4.9M grant from American Rescue Plan Act funds awarded to the City of Waupun via the Wisconsin Department of Administration by the U.S. Department of the Treasury and $1M in private donations. This facility will be a game changer for what we’re able to provide to the community to promote wellbeing for people of all ages. The 2025 budget brings additional resources to support living well in Waupun.
The city worked in partnership with a local non-profit called Create Waupun, which brought Ice Fest, a new winter festival, that attracted nearly eight thousand visitors to Waupun this past February. Most recently, our partnership with this group brought to life the Waupun Sculpture Tour with new sculpture exhibits added to our downtown. Businesses and nonprofits in the area stepped up and invested sponsorship dollars to support these programs. We will continue to foster partnerships like these as part of a strategy to strengthen the creative economy in Waupun, building on the legacy Clarence Shaler gifted us more than 100 years ago.
The city invested $125,000 of Childcare Stabilization Grant funds to increase the number of licensed childcare spaces available to working families in the community, with the first round of funding adding more 4K and younger spots at Wee Care. Expanding childcare options in Waupun will continue to be a priority for 2025.
The City committed $275,000 of funds to support Youth Sports Grants of various forms, recognizing that non-profit parent-led organizations contribute to a culture a volunteerism that give Waupun a great quality of life. Notable projects address the turf replacement at the baseball complex and a new floor at the Waupun ice arena in 2025.
A Vibrant Spaces Grant was awarded from WI Economic Development Corporation and resulted in a new food truck alley in our downtown, which opened in the fall of 2024, with more extensive programming planned in 2025.
Design WI completed a workshop with community stakeholders and presented ideas to advance Capital Improvement Planning in the Central Business District using Tax Increment financing.
3. Waupun promotes a business-friendly culture that is attracting investment to expand our tax base and bring family-supporting jobs to the community.
A Waupun Industrial Park expansion completed in 2024, marking the first major expansion of the park in decades. The project resulted in 5.3% growth in net new construction for the city (historically around 1.5%). The third and final phase of the project is underway and anticipated to complete in fall of 2025. Additional land acquisition is needed to support future growth and planning is underway to consider where our next industrial park expansion will be.
Investment in our downtown continues. The City attracted a new brewery project with the help of a $199K Community Development Investment (CDI) Grant from WEDC. Construction is underway and Hoya Hop House is expected to open for business in late 2024.
Development continues in the Heritage Ridge Business Park, with projects for Eric Mulder Construction and 18-Wheeler Truck Wash underway and completing in early 2025.
4. Investment in public infrastructure is ongoing and necessary to ensure our ability to deliver essential services to our community.
Public facilities received attention in 2024, with roof replacements to city hall and the public safety building and tuckpointing to the museum. In addition, flood and hail damage forced improvements that are currently underway on many of the remaining facility roofs, replacement of the gate dam valve and modernization of the elevator at city hall.
As a result of our fire and emergency response staffing study, work is underway on intergovernmental agreements to examine consolidation of fire service with the surrounding townships to gain efficiencies and reduce overall cost. And, we are beginning a planning process to examine how we increase safety and support recruitment of volunteer firefighters through facility design.
As weather patterns change, we are experiencing more flooding across the city. Engineering studies are being commissioned to examine areas impacted by significant sustained flooding on the edges of the city.
We have prioritized the purchase of long-deferred equipment purchases to ensure our staff have the tools necessary to do their jobs, including the purchase of a new aerial ladder truck.
5. We will deliver service with a commitment to operating in a transparent, efficient and fiscally sound manner to meet the needs of our community.
A debt forecasting and funding strategy was completed in 2024 that lays the groundwork for investment in top priorities across the community, while addressing long-deferred operational needs both for capital equipment and improvements.
Investment in technology is being made to improve service delivery and increase transparency for residents.
In 2024, we close roughly $5.5M of grant funding that supports several 2024 accomplishments. As a team, we routinely evaluate grant funding opportunities and work on alternative funding strategies to support community needs to minimize impact on the community’s tax levy.
I think we can be proud of the 2025 budget. We are making investments to move Waupun forward while remaining true to our heritage and values. If you have questions on the 2025 budget, feel free to ask me, or Kathy Schlieve, City Administrator
Thank you Waupun for the privilege of serving as your Mayor and have a wonderful day.
Mayor Rohn
