Mayor's Community Update - 2/29/20

Greetings! Public facilities were on the agenda of our most recent common council meeting. In 2019, we appointed a Facilities Advisory Committee and commissioned a study to examine needs in all city facilities. Engineers and planning staff from Cedar Corporation were hired to work with the advisory committee to evaluate the general use, function and flow of each building; ADA accessibility of each facility; condition of each building; and site conditions and needs of each building. The committee toured and discussed needs in each building. Once needs were identified, the advisory committee hosted a community open house and invited the public to comment on and help prioritize needs. An online and paper survey was also distributed to capture citizen feedback on the issue. The data gathered during those interactions pinpointed the City Hall, Public Safety Facility, and Senior Center as the most important public facilities in need of improvement. When respondents were asked to rank the facilities based on the need to invest limited funds, the Senior Center and City Hall/Auditorium ranked the highest, followed by the Public Safety Building and Public Works Facility. In each of those facilities, needs were then ranked as either short term, needing to be addressed within 1 to 2 years; mid-term, needing to be addressed in 2 to 5 years; or, long-term, needing to be addressed in 5 to 10 years. Staff will now review this information and use it to strengthen our capital improvement plan. The committee also worked to prioritize facility projects and determined that our greatest need calls for expansion and accessibility of our senior center.

As our Aging in Place work continues, we have been expanding programming for seniors. Attendance at the senior center is at an all-time high and the current space is no longer adequate. As the committee discussed input for a potential project, it became apparent that there is also a need for a multi-generational community space to meet the needs of residents of all ages. The study goes on to identify potential funding sources for this type of a project and examined various sites. In that process, the committee looked at space requirements against available sites in the community. Available sites were identified as sites either owned by the city or available for sale at the time of the study. Overall, the study provides a strong roadmap for staff to begin planning for and working on future needs. In 2020, staff will work to finalize a project scope and complete a feasibility study of a proposed project. If the feasibility study proves viable, we intend to write a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) for Public Facilities in 2021, which could partially fund a project of this type and advance the work of this committee. The full report can be found online on the city’s website.

Around town, Waupun Fine Arts is hosting an Irish Fling, featuring music, dancers and refreshments, on Saturday, March 7, 7 p.m. at Waupun City Hall. I hope to see you around town!