Mike Conway One of Six Candidates for St. Cloud Mayor

ST. CLOUD (WJON News) -- For the first time in decades there is an open race for mayor in St. Cloud.

Council member Mike Conway is one of six people vying for the job. He has lived in St. Cloud since 1991 and he has worked for Wolters Kluwer for the past 23 years. He says his job has allowed him to travel to 49 of the 50 states so he's seen firsthand what other cities are doing well, and what we could be doing.

He's in the middle of his second term on the council.

Conway says one of his key focus areas is growing the city.

Where is the next new core neighborhood going to be?  We need that intermediate housing.  We have a lot of starter living areas as far as apartments, and we have what many people would call second-level homes, but we really need that first-generation home buyer home.

Conway says the recently approved ordinance change allowing Accessory Dwelling Units will help create more affordable housing. He says he'd also like to reduce lot size requirements.

He says his vision for the downtown is to continue to support growing it.

Another big challenge that we are going to have is that the county has decided that it is going to move the current jail and courthouse facility.  That gives the city another opportunity to say okay what is the downtown area going to start looking like?  That's a big chunk of land for development.

Conway describes himself as a fiscal conservative and wants to continue to focus on how taxes are being spent in the city.

The position of St. Cloud mayor is a part-time job and Conway says, if he's elected, he plans to maintain both his full-time job as well as be an active mayor.  He says whoever is elected will have to do things differently than the way Mayor Dave Kleis has done the job for the past 20 years.

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The other five candidates are Carol Lewis, Anne Buckvold, James Trantina, Steven Schiller, and Jake Anderson. WJON News will be featuring each of the candidates throughout the week.

Early voting is underway right now for the August 13th Primary Election. The two people with the most votes will advance to the general election.

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