By Eileen Persike
Editor

The Rhinelander incumbent Mayor’s name will not be on the ballot next spring. Christopher Frederickson won the mayoral race after running a write-in campaign in 2018. He said there are two main reasons for his decision.

“Number one, I was oblivious to the fact of how much it affected my family,” Frederickson said. “Don’t get me wrong – I knew it, but just because I have the determination to push through some of this stuff, [I] assumed everyone else does. It was me convincing them.”

Secondly, Frederickson said he has done what he wanted to do as mayor and he is at peace with his decision.

“I accomplished everything I set out to accomplish,” he said. ” That being change of culture, change of direction and leading with respect and not fear. We’ve set up a council that won’t go backwards, I don’t believe. So we’ve done the foundations we wanted to do.”

Frederickson cited several projects that he is happy with, including growing the city parks, improving housing, and fixing the roads.

“After we do Timber, we will have hit every main artery in the city,” he noted, and added that he thinks transparency at city hall has also been improved.

“We’ve moved from having committees to a council that meets twice a month as a full board,” Frederickson said. “Everyone knows when those meetings are and they’re live streamed. There’s nothing that is not transparent in what we’re doing. We’re moving all the records and invoices to laser fiche. We’ve become very transparent.”

For a guy who said his favorite word is “be,” his next role may be as an engaged citizen.