Waldschmidt Looking Forward to Future

Captain Ryan Waldschmidt is preparing for the future of the Fond du Lac County Sheriff’s Office – as he is set to take over the reigns in January. He’s running unopposed in the November midterm elections after winning the primary earlier this month. 

Waldschmidt is looking forward to the responsibility, but tells us there are a few huge pairs of shoes to fill “with Mick and Mark retiring, that’s 75 years just between the two of them walking out the door. 75 years of experience – that’s crazy to think about that – between two people, that much experience lost. But again, that’s part of why I worked as hard as I did to learn as much as I could, gain as much experience. Then you’ve got others that are going to be around for a while yet like myself that are younger yet and going to have time to grow into their roles and continue to learn.”

Waldschmidt will take over for Chief Deputy Mark Strand when he retires at the end of this month. He says he will serve in that capacity “for those interim months between August 31^st
and the ceremony in January where I’m sworn in – assuming I win in November
again.”

Waldschmidt is looking forward to his future role, but tells us he will not be moving the Sheriff’s Office ahead by himself. He points out that “it’s a collective effort, it’s not rule with an iron fist and say ‘my
way is the only way and we’re going to do this’ – it’s going to be with the
input of the people I’m surrounded by, because you certainly have to have
buy-in from your leadership that you’re surrounded with before you can push
something out and make change that’s effective.”