Sauk Rapids Mayor Gives Annual 'State of the City'

SAUK RAPIDS -- The Sauk Rapids Municipal Liquor Store had a good year in 2020. Mayor Kurt Hunstiger gave a recap Thursday during his annual State of the City address.

He says overall liquor sales last year were over $3.6 million, which were up about 18.4 percent over 2019. Overall profit was up $120,000 compared to 2019. He says that money is used to help support city services.

Remember I said we paid cash for that fire truck we just ordered a couple of years ago, it was $1.2 million, a lot of that money came out of the liquor store. We move about $100,000 a year from the liquor operations into that equipment fund for the police department, fire department, and city equipment.

City officials also used the time to give an update on the progress being made in the Southside/Lions Park project. City Administrator Ross Olson says it will be pretty much completed by early June, however, the city doesn't plan to rent out either of the two new buildings to the general public this summer. But, they do have a 10-week outdoor music series scheduled to begin in July on the performance stage.

Also mentioned during the annual address, 214 new apartment units opened in Sauk Rapids in the last year, all of which filled up within 30 days of becoming available. The Sauk Rapids police department is also planning to develop a summer youth outreach program one evening a week in a city park.