By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
St. Joseph Mayor John Josendale says the key for the city to progress is to talk over issues thoroughly, but then act.
Josendale gave a bullish assessment of St. Joseph during this State of the City address on the Missouri Western State University campus while acknowledging nagging problems, such as homelessness and panhandling.
Josendale says the theme he wants to strike is progress.
“Part of the discussion that we all try to have is making sure you get everybody’s opinion, but then you move on it,” Josendale tells reporters after his presentation. “You can’t always procrastinate and the city has some really positive things going. We need to talk about those. We need to work with those and progress.
Josendale says the city council is working to resolve the future of I-229, to see the Children’s Discovery Center become a reality, and continue improvements to the downtown.
The mayor credits the city staff under the leadership of City Manager Bryan Carter for helping the council move forward.
Josendale points out many of the projects moving forward in St. Joseph are at least partially funded through grants or money provided by Congress through COVID relief and stimulus funding.
“As you look at some of the items that we’re working on, a lot of them are being done with ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds. ARPA funds have certain requirements. They have to designated by the end of ’24 and they have to be spent by ’26,” Josendale says. “So, keeping track of those and what we’re doing with those will be extremely important.”
The mayor says state officials in Jefferson City have been impressed with how St. Joseph area officials work together.
Josendale tells of meeting with the Speaker of the Missouri House, who complemented the work of the Community Alliance which brings the city, Buchanan County, the Chamber of Commerce, the St. Joseph School District, Mosaic Life Care, Missouri Western State University, and the Air National Guard 139th Airlift Wing together to speak with one voice.
“One of the Speaker’s comments was, there are like 80 some municipalities in the St. Louis area, each of them is on their own. They never work together. Yet, they may be butted up (to each other) and some of them are like 3-or-400 people, yet they’re talking for themselves and not as a group,” Josendale says. “And we want to present ourselves as a group working together.”
Josendale says the united front presented by St. Joseph area officials benefits the region.
Josendale says Missouri state government under Governor Mike Parson wants a local jurisdiction to match state funds with local money.