Looking Back and Ahead: St. Joe Mayor Gives ‘State of City’

ST. JOSEPH -- St. Joseph's mayor looked back on the good and bad things that happened in 2018. Rick Schultz gave his "State of the City" address during Monday night's city council meeting.

He says several things went well for St. Joseph last year including the completion of the Lake Wobegon Trail into Waite Park, several new businesses opening, and the city selling the old city hall to Bad Habit Brewing.

Schultz also talked about some things that didn't go so well in 2018, including litigation by the College of St. Benedict against the city.

Back in October or November of last year, CSB sued us on eight different counts stemming from some of the charges and some of the fees that they are assessed through normal state statute.  It's gone forward to the point where we are now in judge administered mediation.  It starts in April.

Schultz says other things that didn't go so well last year were the police chief issues and the eventual resignation of the former chief, and also some businesses moving out of St. Joseph.

Schultz says in the immediate future the city is focused on the community center and safety.

The community really wants the community center to go forward.  So partnering and starting a park and rec that we can offer activities to youth as well as activities for seniors is probably number one, number two would be a better security system, we've talked about that for quite some time.

Schultz says he's still hopeful the city will get some state bonding money next year for the creation of a new city park, and establishing a safe way for pedestrians to get across County Road 75.

He says he's also focused on improving efficiencies for the city like getting all of the public safety equipment in one building.