Photo: Columbus Mayor Joe Hammer, center, receives the Community Service Award
from WPPI Energy President and CEO Mike Peters, left, and WPPI Board Chair Jim Stawicki
during the 2026 WPPI Energy Annual Meeting held Sept. 17 in Sheboygan.
SHEBOYGAN, Wis. — WPPI Energy, the city utility’s wholesale power provider and joint action agency, presented Columbus Mayor Joe Hammer with its Community Service Award. WPPI granted the award during WPPI’s annual gathering Sept. 17 in recognition of Hammer’s dedication to both Columbus and its municipal utility.
"This award honors people in our membership who make exceptional contributions to both their utilities and their communities,” said Mike Peters, president and CEO of WPPI Energy. “The mayor’s work in Columbus shows what that looks like."
WPPI grants the award in memory of former utility leader Richard “Dixie” Kirchoff to member utility staff with at least five years of service to both their utility and community. It recognizes active participation in community organizations, events and projects.
Hammer brings more than four decades of experience at Columbus Utilities to his role as mayor, including 27 years as a lineworker and 14 years as foreman. He retired in 2022 and won the city’s mayoral election just months later.
Columbus Assistant Utility Director Dalton Hiley said the mayor’s leadership is measured not only by his accomplishments, but by the people he has influenced.
“The mayor has mentored generations of utility professionals,” Hiley said. “He has demonstrated through his time spent giving back to the community that effective leadership extends beyond the utility and city hall.”
Columbus Utilities is a member-owner of WPPI Energy, its wholesale power provider and joint action agency headquartered in Sun Prairie, Wis. WPPI is made up of 51 locally owned utilities throughout Wisconsin, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and eastern Iowa.