Mayor's Community Update - 05/07/2018

Greetings! Congratulations to Waupun Area School District on being selected as one of WEDC’s Fab Lab grant recipients. The district is one of 22 selected from the more than 60 school districts around the state that applied for the program. The groundbreaking for the new Warrior Innovation Center, as the new technical education building will be known, was held this week and will be home to the Fab Lab. During the ceremony, Dr. Olson noted that the equipment that we have been operating in the high school is the same equipment that we acquired when our previous high school (now Rock River Intermediate School) was built in 1963. That is more than fifty years ago and employers who have visited our schools and supported this effort noted that current equipment is no longer relevant to today’s workforce needs. The grant will expose our students to higher levels of automation with the addition of plasma cutters, CNC routers, and laser engravers, all technologies utilized by local business with the goal of preparing students for the workplace of the 21st century. Workforce development is one of the primary goals of our economic development plan. Businesses simply can’t expand without a qualified workforce and this is an important milestone to help address this need. The facility will further benefit the community and our economic development goals as WASD works over the long-term to make the Fab Lab available to businesses for training purposes, and to local entrepreneurs who are seeking to utilize equipment to build prototypes and eventually commercialize new business startups.

Around town, the Spring Yard Waste pickup runs from Monday, April 30, until Friday, May 18. All Waupun area children between kindergarten and 12th grade are encouraged to audition for the spring Missoula Children’s Theatre production of “The Little Mermaid” that begins on Monday, May 7, at 4 p.m. at the City Hall Auditorium. Full details for this and more can be found on the community calendar on the city’s website. 

See you around town!! ~ Mayor Julie Nickel