City of Mankato | Mankato
what we have, not only of our financial dollars but also the river water quality we have here. Never in the beginning of my career would I think water quality or quality water sustainability would be the issue that it is. The reality is we all have a responsibility. I think one thing Mankato recognizes is that regardless of our prosperity here locally, it’s underpin from the rural economy around us, like the farm economy and the smaller communities, that come here to shop, do business, buy pickup trucks, buy farm implements, go to the River Hills Mall or Walmart to buy groceries. Maybe we have a bigger role in it in terms of leadership in the city but we all have a responsibility to really have good water quality for a lot of reasons than a supplemental piece. What’s the third priority? The final piece really is community building and the livability of the city. That means focusing on recreation, music, the arts. You have to look at all of that, and
what are the projects that will best make those things accessible. We’ve got some very specific strategies centered around those themes. They’re under development right now, so we’re going to come and unveil in the next six months strategy for housing, what we can do in transportation, some things also in sustainability and water quality, they’re all already underway. Some community improvements that I think address some of the recreation concerns, some of the accessibility to the river, kind of good balance and mix continuing some of the great efforts that our community has done with the arts and culture. The plan is designed to evolve through continuous community engagement. It’s been 22 years. What’s been the best thing that you think you’ve done? What’s your most proud accomplishment? I think the quality of the city organization we’ve built here. We’ve developed good lead-
ers and that’s what I am most proud of. It doesn’t happen overnight. You’re not going to come in and say, “Okay, I’m going to just change everything and change the culture.” It took time. But we’ve got a good culture, we’ve got leaders at every level. I have confidence that I could be gone tomorrow and I don’t think this city, in terms it’s responsiveness and it’s efficiency with our lean kind of operation, is going to change a bit. I’m relatively a hard driver. I think initially I was holding on tight to the reins of a team of horses and now I think I’m softly guiding it. We have 300 Spartans here. These 300 Spartans have a pretty good pace as to how we operate here and I think it’s a difference maker for our community. I’m proud in that of those 300 Spartans, every one of them is critical to our success as a community. It’s not the city manager, it’s all of us. And that’s hard. People don’t realize, it’s hard on families more so than anything else. Routinely we hear appreciation for how
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