By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
St. Joseph has received a big boost from the state budget to keep momentum going toward economic development projects.
Rosecrans Memorial Airport benefits the most, with the state budget allocating $19 million, enough to complete the financing of a new airport terminal and air traffic control tower.
Mayor John Josendale points out Rosecrans wasn’t the only beneficiary. Hillyard Tech got $6 million and the new Convergent Technology Alliance Center, breaking ground on the Missouri Western campus Tuesday, received $2.5 million.
“Workforce development is a huge thing and you’ll see that in a lot of the efforts that went to get funding for different things, whether it be at Hillyard, whether it be at Missouri Western,” Josendale tells host Barry Birr on the KFEQ Hotline. “But, again, workforce development and developing from within our own.”
Josendale says the state allocation of $19 million to Rosecrans Memorial Airport is vital to keep the Air National Guard’s 139th Airlift Wing base.
Josendale says the city is pleased with the huge influx of state funding for various projects, adding it’s not just money that will attract people and new businesses to choose the city.
“How we work with the community on improving the looks of the city, but then opening up new housing or good housing, making it a place that people want to be,” Josendale says.
Josendale notes the Chamber of Commerce’s new Adopt-A-Block program is taking off.
“And they’ve gone in and they’re fixing up neighborhoods. You’ve got the cleaning up of the parks,” Josendale says. “We’ve got meetings that are now taking place on the revitalization of Krug Park and other activities that are going on. We’ve got a feasibility study being done right now on whether or not a new sports complex would be good for the community and the area.”
Josendale says supporters of the Children’s Discovery Center will look to other means of raising $1 million in wake of the governor’s veto of the appropriation that legislators placed in the $50 billion state budget.