Mayor touts community investments, support in State of the City address
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) -- As he stood at the podium to deliver his closing remarks, Mayor John Josendale ended his address with a call to action, challenging those in the audience to continue rallying for St. Joseph.
In his eyes, success ... and challenges, will be accomplished and overcome with the help of community partners, from each resident and employee to the abundance of businesses and organizations that support it.
"It makes me proud to see individuals, groups and organizations stepping up to lead the charge," Josendale said. "If you want to make St. Joseph great, each of us has to be a part of that ... working together, we'll continue to accomplish great things."
Over the course of Wednesday's State of the City address at the InspireU Children's Discovery Museum -- a cornerstone of years of Downtown re-development -- Josendale highlighted a variety of community gains and progress achieved over the past year, while also laying out new objectives for growth and improvement moving forward.
Strengthening the city's core services and building stronger connections with the community are two of the top priorities within its strategic vision. This past year saw the continuation of needed upgrades to both police and fire department equipment to enhance operations and improve the community's access to public safety, including the new southside Fire Station 10.
A recently-launched community survey of St. Joseph residents on those core city services will play a vital role in the direction the city takes moving forward.
"St. Joseph is a great place. How do we make it better?" he said. "The survey is very important to this. We want that input. We want to have a roadmap on what to look at and how to move forward with it."
Josendale said a continued focus on sustainability and long-term planning is key to ensure positive development continues, highlighting the creation of hundreds of jobs, development of new facilities like the now-open Missouri Western CTAC building or a planned UMKC School of Medicine on Riverside Road this year, as well as significant investments to key assets like the park system, new-and-improved Civic Arena and Rosecrans Memorial Airport, among others.
A new animal shelter, hotels and conference center, aquatic facilities at Hyde Park and Northside Complex (formerly Krug Pool) and renovations to Krug Park are next in line.
"Many elements are coming together to enhance our reputation as a destination for history, arts, entertainment, sports, recreation, business and technology," Josendale said during his address.
Josendale applauded the work of volunteers, organizations and neighborhood groups in growing efforts to beautify and clean up St. Joseph, including groups like Beautify St. Joseph, Friends of Krug Park and Missouri Western’s Center for Service.
Housing gap improvements and reducing blight have and will remain one of the top priorities for the city as it works to boost population and meet the needs of residents and a growing workforce. Close to $95 million in capital investments were secured in the last year, including the recently-announced expansion at Daily's Premium Meats and a Nortian Foodtech protein manufacturing facility on Alabama Street.
"In the last month alone, we've announced about 250 new jobs coming this way. We need to have housing for that. And we need all levels of housing," Josendale said. "If you look at the new UMKC building, we're looking at putting apartments around that location. We're also looking at putting some new condos and homes out north."
Josendale touted the addition of the St. Joseph Goats arena football team and accomplishments by the St. Joseph Sports Commission and Convention and Visitors Bureau to secure a wide variety of premiere athletic, entertainment and trade show events at the Civic Arena.
