STEVENS POINT, WI (WSAU) — One year after he made national headlines with an effort to bring a RoboCop statue commissioned for the city of Detroit to Stevens Point, Mayor Mike Wiza says he’s putting plans for the city’s own statue on the back burner.
“I think the one in Detroit [cost] somewhere around $36,000 to $40,000; we are probably about $35,400 away from that minimum threshold,” said Wiza.
That’s not stopping some in the city from organizing another RoboCup fundraiser for the statue. Wiza says the event, which features a RoboCop video game tournament, will be held Saturday at District 1 Brewing on Division Street. Whoever gets the high score will take home the RoboCup trophy.
This year’s version of the tournament will utilize the Sega Genesis version of the game. Wiza says the Wisconsin Computer Club will also have other “retro” technologies on display during the event, or just “technologies” for people of a certain age.
Wiza and others were looking to build a statue that was “bigger and better” than Detroit’s version to honor Peter Weller, the actor who played RoboCop. Weller was born in Stevens Point and grew up in a military family, spending time in Germany before graduating from high school in Texas.
He also voice-acted the role in several mediums including a Mortal Kombat video game and TV commercials.
Wiza notes that while the project has been put on the back burner for now, he’s not forgetting about it. “It seems unlikely that in my lifetime we are going to raise enough money to make this happen, but I swear if I ever win the lottery I am building the biggest RoboCop statue the world has seen.”
Other topics Wiza discussed with WSAU’s Mike Leischner include:
Start of video- outdoor events for the summer
9:00- RoboCop statue
11:30- Pride Festival next weekend
14:00- Preview of Riverfront Rendezvous fireworks
