by Kevin Zimmermann
(Incumbent Mayor Mike Vandersteen will face Ryan Sorenson in Tuesday’s April 6th election.)
For Sheboygan Mayor Mike Vandersteen, who’s seeking his 3rd four-year term as Mayor of Sheboygan, the future will be built upon continuing the leadership that has, and must continue, to meet challenges past, present and future.
In announcing his reelection campaign on November 27th last year, the Mayor said that in the almost eight years in his office, “great strides moving Sheboygan forward have been achieved by working together with the City Council and City Administrator and I am really looking forward to continuing this work.”
City infrastructure was cited by the Mayor as an example of progress made on lingering issues.
In an interview with WHBL, Vandersteen said:
“Prior to my election for the previous six years was we averaged 1.4 miles of streets that were resurfaced each year. And since my election and the work that we’ve done, together with the City Council, we’ve achieved a 4.1 average for the years since, so that’s the following 7 years, and that’s almost a three-fold increase in, in the miles of streets that were resurfaced. In addition, we were able to replace the eleven sub-standard railroad crossings in our city and really make the travel much better for our citizens. We, in 2015, we adopted a long-term program which was over a decade to completely address our streets, so we’re well on the way to doing that, and during the next four years I want to keep that plan on track.”
Vandersteen also pointed to the renovation of the over century-old City Hall as a showpiece of his administration.
His campaign announcement in November also pointed to his formation of the Mayor’s Neighborhood Leadership Cabinet, in support of the Sheboygan Police Department’s Community Policing Program, having led to a 23% reduction in “Part 1 Crimes” over the last 5 years.
What neither Vandersteen, nor any other candidate, could have seen coming was the pandemic and its effect on Sheboygan.
“Well, I think this year in the City Budget we put a few more dollars into contingency accounts so that we have some financial resources to help us through. You know the federal government came through with the CARES act and we’ve been able to use some of those funds to help us with some of the extra costs we have and some of the shortfalls in revenue that we’ve experienced to get us through this tough period. But the thing that really scares me is the precarious position that many of our small business people are in.”
To protect those businesses and the community, and continue the gains seen prior to 2020, Vandersteen said, “We need to continue to focus on inclusion and diversity within the community.” That, he said, will be done by focusing on “the issues our citizens care about most: strong financial stewardship, expanding our local economy, and prioritizing community-based public safety and infrastructure.”
He concluded his announcement by saying, “I believe that continuity in city leadership is critical for Sheboygan to come out of this pandemic stronger than ever.”
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