New St. Cloud City Hall Opens for Business

(KNSI) — After supply chain and other issues forced the City of St. Cloud’s grand opening of the new city hall to be delayed twice, St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis, flanked by former mayor Chuck Winkleman, the St. Cloud City Council, and incoming St. Cloud Area School District 742 Superintendent Dr. Laurie Putnam, the ribbon was officially cut on Saturday.

St. Cloud planned to hold a community open house and its first meeting at the new site on January 24th. That was moved to February 28th. Mayor Dave Kleis says some of the delay was to make sure the building was ready for the staff and public. Other delays were due to the city being unable to get pieces and parts to allow all of the technology in the building to work together, so it needed to be delayed again. Even though most of the city hall had been moved, mayor Kleis explained, “Everything is in. We just need to make sure everything works with technology, because, of course, we’re moving a lot of our staff, and we’re putting in an elevator and doing some other things. We want to make sure it’s extremely open and accessible.”

At the ribbon-cutting on Saturday, Mayor Kleis called the new city hall the people’s house because the building is for the residents. The historical part of the building was preserved, and there are nods to it throughout, and he’s excited for people to come and see it and use it. He also thanked the school board, the architects, and the designers. He also expressed deep gratitude to the neighbors and the neighborhood for putting up with construction noise and extra traffic.

The first council meeting in the new city hall chamber will be on March 14th.

St. Cloud moved city hall to the vacant Tech High School building after voters approved building a new Tech High School that opened in the fall of 2019. A redevelopment company has purchased the old city hall site that plans to level the old building and construct a new commercial building.