Politics & Government

Lampe's Service to Oak Creek Spanned Decades

Street Superintendent Mike Lampe worked for Oak Creek for 40-plus years before retiring Friday.

As a child, Mike Lampe often watched in amazement as Oak Creek garbage trucks picked up trash.

Garbage as an object of fascination may seem odd to some. But for Lampe, his curiosity lied with the equipment, the mechanics behind the truck.

"I always told the garbage men—and the guys were still working here when I started here full time—'one of these years when I get older, I'm going to be just like you guys,'" Lampe said. "Little did I know that was going to happen."

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Happen it did—for the last 36 years.

Lampe went to work for the Oak Creek Street Department shortly after high school and watched the city change from a rural community of 15,000 residents to a still-growing city of 35,000.

Find out what's happening in Oak Creekwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

For the last six years, he has served as street superintendent, overseeing garbage and recycling collection and snow plowing efforts. He has also helped coordinate community events, including the July 4 parade and Christmas tree lighting.

And while his time as a full-time city employee is 36 years, he's actually worked for Oak Creek even longer than that. At age 12, he started working for the recreation department as a scorekeeper, and he continued part-time work for the department through high school.

"I've been around for quite awhile," Lampe said with a laugh.

But on Friday, his career with the city officially came to an end, retiring after at least 40 years working for the city in some capacity.

Service to Oak Creek is nothing foreign to Lampe, who comes from a long line of community-oriented people.

His father was an Oak Creek firefighter. One of his uncles was an Oak Creek police officer; another worked for the street department. His aunt worked at Oak Creek City Hall. His grandfather served on the city's Police and Fire Commission.

His brother, Greg, is the athletic director at Oak Creek High School, which is also where his mother worked.

So it seems only fitting Mike would spend his career serving the community.

In his three-plus decades of full-time service to Oak Creek, there's not much Lampe didn't see, from cleaning up after a tornado in 2000 to dealing with major flooding in 2008 and 2009. The street department was also called in to help shut down streets following the Sikh temple shooting.

For better or worse, it's the snowstorms which seem to draw the most attention to Lampe's department. Twenty-two drivers work an often thankless job, and during the time in which most residents are asleep.

Oak Creek is home to just more than 143 miles of roads. But that number more than doubles for street department workers, considering they have to plow all lanes on each street. It takes about four hours for each driver to do his or her route.

Tuesday's winter storm was Lampe's last, and he apparently went out on a high note. The snowplowing effort got high praise from Oak Creek Patch Facebook fans and Twitter followers. 

Melissa:

had errands this morning, drove neighborhoods and main streets - roads are great - GOOD JOB and THANK YOU Oak Creek City Street Department workers! Better here than my drive into Milwaukee.

Aileen:

I think OC does a GREAT JOB clearing our roads.... kudos!!!

Audrey:

they do a fantastic jobs on our roads here !!!

Mayor Steve Scaffidi, who has known Lampe since their Oak Creek High School days, said he's a great leader who will be missed.

"You talk about someone who meets the needs of the public—he does it," Scaffidi said. "His commitment to the city is unrivaled."


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