Sartell Pedestrian Bridge a Big Hit

Earlier this month Sartell opened their pedestrian bridge across the Mississippi River.  Sartell Mayor Ryan Fitzthum joined me on WJON.  He says he's received great feedback from residents and many have incorporated it on their daily walk or run.  Fitzthum indicates he is seeing lots of pictures on social media of people crossing the bridge.  Fitzthum says:

It's a really cool view that our community since the early 1980s hasn't been able to enjoy.

Fitzthum tells people the experience will continue to get better as they open up more development on the east side.  He says now that the city owns the old paper mill site they are doing some environmental studios on the property to determine what is below the top soil.

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Fitzthum says they've done a broad large scale community business engagement survey to understand what people desire on that site.  They are looking for input from both community members and the business community.  He says those results will be presented to the Sartell City Council in a workshop in July.

Now that the city owns the former paper mill site Fitzthum indicates their goal is to make the property available for sale to the private sector as soon as possible.  A portion of the property will become walkable along the river and will include some park land.  The rest of the land Fitzthum would like to see developed into retail, restaurants, a hotel, brewery or housing.

If you'd like to listen to my conversation with Ryan Fitzthum it is available below.