Community Survey Says Road Maintenance is the Top Concern for St. Cloud Residents

(KNSI) — St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis shared the results of this summer’s community survey Monday night, and residents have a new top concern.

Around 4,800 people responded to the survey sent out in June. That’s about 15% of the city’s population.

For the first time, the top priority the people wanted the city to address was road maintenance, followed by public safety, traffic and downtown. In every prior survey, public safety was the top concern.

St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis spoke with KNSI right after Monday night’s presentation and said he understands why the change. “We have never had this many road projects in one year. Ever. And that’s not only the city. It’s the city, the county and the state, all in one year, because we’ve had some really challenging roads. And, talk about the amount of asphalt we have put in. [We’ve laid] more asphalt in the last four years than we’ve done in the previous ten years combined — by far.”

Even with new concerns popping up, Kleis says it’s crucial to take the public’s temperature. “We need to go out and actually engage people and that’s what we do. We’re asking your opinion. No different than a business would do. No different than anybody would do when it comes to how to gauge that. We do it through a survey. We have to ask you the questions because if you just wait around for folks to come to a meeting, you’re not going to get a real good indication of what people want us to do.”

About 90% of people said their neighborhood is a good place to live. The results also showed that 93% of people feel safe walking in their neighborhood during the day, 62% feel safe at night, and 57% feel safe walking alone downtown.

The city also conducted surveys in 2012, 2017 and 2019.

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