opinion

St. Cloud area needs to tackle these issues in 2015

Good morning and Happy New Year, St. Cloud area.

What does this executive editor see as the most pressing community issues for 2015? This is my list:

• The future of regular air service: Make no mistake, this loss is a serious setback for our area. Mayor Dave Kleis' effort to push St. Cloud Regional Airport as a regional facility is the best hope to keep our St. Cloud to Chicago service. It's time for Big Brother at Twin Cities International to step up and encourage people in the north metro to look at St. Cloud as an alternative to MSP. The Twin Cities area needs a secondary airport. But to make this plan work, SkyWest has to add more daily flights to make STC service more reliable. The Greater St. Cloud Development Corporation needs to pressure state officials (including our local legislative delegation) to get serious about supporting St. Cloud's airport as a state resource.

• Voter consideration of the proposal for new Technical High School and improvements to Apollo High School: At least the St. Cloud school board has decided to support a new Tech building and improvements to Apollo. Now comes the hard part. Supporters will have to convince voters the increase in their property tax bills will be worth the investment. The bond referendum will be a stern test. Still unresolved will be the future of the current Tech site, Clark Field and the impact on the surrounding neighborhoods. During the holidays, I wondered if St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud Technical & Community College and private businesses looking for a new location might be interested in the site.

• Job growth in the St. Cloud area: With the St. Cloud area jobless rate at a low 3.3 percent in November, what is the worry? It is the quality and pay rate for jobs. The area needs to continue to retain and attract more high-paying jobs. Part of that effort may help to keep the talent graduating from our six local colleges and universities in our area. Millennials are a large segment of our population. We must make living in St. Cloud attractive to these young adults.

• Student achievement and narrowing the achievement gap. St. Cloud school board members said they have brought in a team of school administrators who know how to turn around the situation. I wish them the best. From my reading on the subject, boosting teacher training and keeping the focus on the basic and individual learning plans is a key element. How well we serve these children will determine our future.

• Making St. Cloud area a welcoming place for all races and cultures. The controversies surrounding the deaths of young black men in Missouri and New York have again brought the issue of race relations to the forefront of the national conversation. Locally, the spree of vandalism at the Islamic Center of St. Cloud has shown that religious intolerance is also a local concern. Let's find ways this year to learn more about each other, and look for what we have in common, rather than what divides us. We can start here: We all want a good education for our children. We all want a low crime rate and a safe community. We all want to find good-paying jobs.

• Road improvements and upkeep. Have you driven on our roads lately? It will take loads of funding to simply patch all the holes and damaged pavement plaguing our main roads. While the effort to push for three lanes on Interstate Highway 94 in each direction from the Twin Cities to St. Cloud is noble and needed, let's fix what we have.

• What is St. Cloud's identity? I asked this question in a column earlier this year. While Duluth has Lake Superior, Rochester has Mayo, Twin Cities have the Vikings and the Guthrie, what sets St. Cloud apart? I feel the St. Cloud area gets little or no respect at the Legislature when it comes to funding projects. The state is happy to take our money, but what do we get in return? Here is a question for our area's legislative delegation and our area mayors: What does the St. Cloud area need? What will you push for in the upcoming session?

Do you have a question about the Times? You can ask St. Cloud Times Executive Editor John Bodette, P.O. Box 768, St. Cloud, MN 56302-0768; or call him at 255-8760; or email him at jbodette@stcloudtimes.com. Follow him on Google Plus under jlbodette; on Twitter @jlbodette and on Facebook, John Bodette — St. Cloud Times