Mayor’s Column June 27, 2026
Rohn Bishop, Mayor of Waupun
Hello Waupun,
Coming up Tuesday the council will be discussing a few topics that many of you may find interesting.
Camper and RV Parking restrictions. The City of Waupun’s municipal code currently restricts the street parking of recreational vehicles, campers, and trailers to a maximum of 48 consecutive hours at any one location. This provision was established to balance the interests of residents who use recreational vehicles recreationally and seasonally with the City’s broader goals of maintaining aesthetics, traffic flow, and equitable use of public right-of-way. The ordinance has been the subject of significant Council deliberation over the past year, having been discussed at six separate Common Council or committee meetings. The most recent amendment, adopted in November 2025, addressed trailer length restrictions. The 48-hour parking limitation itself was not changed at that time and remains in its current form. The council will be looking at possibly changing the 48-hour restrictions to 96 hours, allowing people time to load and unload their campers.
Waupun’s Municipal Court. The City contracts with Beaver Dam Municipal Court for municipal court services. The Municipal Court Judge is Judge Todd Snow. Judge Snow has requested that I have the council review our fine and penalty’s structure to bring us in line more with nearby communities. We would hopefully be giving the court more discretion when dealing with fees, more authority to punish truant students, and bring more revenues into the city. Prosecuting Attorney Mike Devitt views a uniform bond schedule as providing broader tools to resolve outstanding citation matters while reducing overall costs to the City. City Attorney Dan VandeZande is requesting discussion to ensure that any ordinance revision works to resolve problems we may be experiencing with existing ordinance and that we look at this through the lens of Waupun’s needs vs. just adopting a surrounding community’s ordinance.
Electric Sooters. As you know, it appears every kid received an electric scooter for Christmas, and this Spring they appeared everywhere. This has caused lots of concerns and I’m asked about them daily. They travel pretty fast, some getting to 30mph. Kids zoom on and off the sidewalk, in and out of traffic, don’t obey traffic laws, and aren’t wearing safety gear. I’ve heard from several people who’ve experienced close calls with a kid on an electric scooter, and from business owners who see them zooming on the sidewalk at near 30mph worrying that a pedestrian is going to be seriously hurt. Furthermore, having talked with a state legislator, it’s unclear if these scooters are even street legal. On Tuesday we will discuss the concerns, see how other communities are dealing with them, and what if anything Waupun should do moving forward.
All of these are discussion only as of now, meaning no action will be taken. This meeting is to be informative for the council so we can possibly take action in the future. If you have a strong feeling on anyone of these issues, please contact your alderperson.
For more information or to talk to me directly, my monthly listening session will be Tuesday afternoon at 1pm at the Community Center. I hope to see you there.
Thank you,
Mayor Rohn
