Waite Park Mayor Rick Miller Wrapping Up 23 Year Career

WAITE PARK (WJON News) -- Waite Park Mayor Rick Miller is calling it a career after decades as an elected official. Miller has spent 23 years as the town's mayor, and before that 10 years on the city council.

He says he decided to run for office because of his commitment to the Waite Park area, and he was already very involved in the community even before joining the council.

He says the biggest change during that time is the city's growth including expanding its boundaries and also going over 5,000 in population.

Miller says the evolution of River's Edge Park is one of the things he's most proud of.

The railroad decided to move out of Waite Park, the ground was polluted, so we got that cleaned up. On the east side of 10th Avenue, we ketp it more of an industrial area, and on the west side, we said let's make a park.

Today the 42.1-acre park has amenities that includes eight little league fields, pickleball courts, a splash pad, and a bike trail. Miller says the city plans to have some meetings in the near future to discuss what if any, other amenities that want to add to the park.

Miller says the addition of The Ledge Amphitheater was another major accomplishment during his time as mayor.

Martin Marietta gave us the property. We actually had some rough designs for a baseball field, but we already had the little league fields, and then somebody came up with the idea of how about an amphitheater.

Miller says he wants Waite Park to be known as a place to go for entertainment.

He says he thought about retiring six years ago but decided to stay to see the public works building project finished, then he stayed until the amphitheater was completed. He says he's retiring with no regrets, and he doesn't there has been any downside to being the mayor.

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Miller will remain as Waite Park's mayor through the end of this year. He says he plans to travel and spend time at his lake home next year.

Two men are running to be the next mayor of Waite Park they are Mike Linquist and Kenneth Schmitt.

WJON news is doing feature interviews with each of the longtime outgoing mayors in the St. Cloud metro area from Waite Park, Sauk Rapids, St. Joseph and St. Cloud.