FOND DU LAC (NBC 26 — This fall, the former UWO-Fond du Lac campus won’t be welcoming college students, but it will be used by the Fond du Lac County community.
- The former campus will be used for an event venue, government space, law enforcement training facility and more.
- Fond du Lac County Executive Sam Kaufman said the campus will be able to sustain itself financially without tax money.
- Video shows county executive and neighbors talking about the plans.
"I’m a former UWO-Fond du Lac student, and I know myself and my fellow students really enjoyed our classes there," Fond du Lac resident Andy Victor said. "I'm sad to see it close."
Neighbors Victor may have been disappointed to see UWO-FDL close its doors to students.
But, for Fond du Lac County Executive Sam Kaufman, it presented an opportunity.
The county owns the campus, and now, Kaufman said they plan to renovate it for new uses.
"We're trying to create this new county complex that combines entertainment, government use in law enforcement," Kaufman said.
The new complex, called the Fond du Lac County Complex (FCC) would turn the former library into an event venue that can host up to 400 people, allow the gymnasium to be rented out for local sporting events, and create space for government offices. In addition, multiple facilities would be used for law enforcement training.
"It's not only limited to Fond du Lac County law enforcement, but we want to open it up for usage to other counties," Kaufman said.
The campus’s three ponds will be used for dive training, and currently empty rooms will be used for K9 or tactical training.
Kaufman said the project will not raise taxes, and the campus will be able to financially sustain itself for 10 years.
"I'm not even preparing to include it in my '25 budget to the county board," Kaufman said.
Instead, money from renovations will come from ARPA funds, state grants, selling other county property, renting out the space and selling naming rights to the event space and gymnasium.
"That's what I set out to do: my goal was to do this without raising taxes," Kaufman said.
Neighbors I spoke with said they’re glad the property will continue to be used by the county, even if the school is gone.
"I guess is a good use for it, for training," Victor said.
Many neighbors told me they’re looking forward to the new campus.
"The fact that the county actually using the space for something that will benefit the community, I feel will be great for the community," said Fond du Lac resident Derek De Baere.
Kaufman said law enforcement is already using the facilities for training, and everything else will be up and running by the end of the year.
