Tim Ryan, tryan@wolfrivermedia.com
Leader Photo by Tim Ryan Mayor Lorna Marquardt, right, speaks with community members at a retirement open house at City Hall on Friday.
Shawano Mayor Lorna Marquardt will officially end 22 years of government service in the city on Tuesday when mayor-elect Jeanne Cronce is sworn in.
Eight of those years were as alderperson before she ran for mayor. This year, however, she decided the time was right to retire and decided not to seek another two-year term.
Marquardt was working for Citizen’s Bank in the early 1990s when the bank asked her to do something that might involve her in the community.
“They wanted me to join a service club or something,” she said.
Instead, she decided to run for the Common Council; which the bank approved as long as it didn’t interfere with her job, she said.
Among the first things she became involved in, along with fellow council member Nancy Syndergaard, was the hiring of a city administrator; something new to the city of Shawano, which relied back then solely on its part-time mayor.
“We really knew the importance of getting a full-time person educated in municipal government on board,” Marquardt said. “We knew we needed an administrator.”
Marquardt said it wasn’t an easy sell, but the rest of the council eventually came around.
“That was something, as an alderman, I felt proud about,” she said.
Marquardt represented the city’s District 2, and when she later became mayor, one of the first projects tackled by City Administrator Jim Stadler was the remediation of an old concrete mixing plant that Marquardt had been fielding complaints about for years.
“It was quite an eyesore on south side of Shawano,” she said.
Through brownfield grants and other efforts, that area — along with an old trailer park — was finally cleaned up, opening the way for an expansion of Kuckuk Park and the purchase of residential lots the city put up for sale.
“I’m really proud of that cleanup,” Marquardt said.
Marquardt was still an alderperson on Sept. 11, 2001, when the World Trade Center was brought down.
A year later, as mayor, she organized a remembrance at the Shawano County Fairgrounds.
“The streets were lined with ambulances and fire trucks and police and the entire grandstand was full,” she said. “It was such a tribute. That event and the planning of that was special to me.”
Tributes to law enforcement and veterans have become a staple of Marquardt’s tenure.
“The veterans have a special place in my heart,” she said. “Each Memorial Day the last 14 years I’ve spoken there.”
A few years after Sept. 11, the city became involved in the aftermath of another national tragedy, when Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in 2005.
The city of Shawano responded by adopting Summit, Mississippi, as a sister city, sending truckloads of water and supplies to the devastated community.
“They were so appreciative,” said Marquardt, who traveled to Summit to see the devastation.
“That was quite an honor to represent Shawano and we were happy we could give some help,” she said.
Marquardt said she is pleased to have seen business growth and development in Shawano during her tenure, most recently with the addition of Tax Incremental Finance District 6, which paved the way for the Tower Clock Eye Center, the expansion of United Cooperative and Dunham’s Sports moving into the vacant Kmart space.
“I think that is the start of other businesses that will come there,” she said.
Marquardt said she was also happy to see the city purchase the former Franklin School property; now Franklin Park.
“Some day it will be a central place for many gatherings, with a gazebo, numerous events and band concerts,” she said. “It’s important we got that piece of property.”
Marquardt also listed among the highlights of her tenure as mayor the creation of two new committees; People With a Disability and the Youth Advisory Committee.
“I thought there were two sectors of the community that weren’t as well-represented as I thought they should be,” she said.
Marquardt’s tenure has also seen a lot of change in city staff, including retirements of the city’s administrator, clerk-treasurer, chief of police, and directors of public works and parks and recreation.
“They served the community well and finding their replacements was critical,” she said.
Marquardt said she is pleased with the department heads the city now has in place.
“We have an absolutely awesome team,” she said. “It makes my leaving much easier knowing that Shawano’s future is in such competent hands.”