Ken McClure has been the Mayor of Springfield, Missouri since 2017. McClure has had an impressive professional career working in Jefferson City, Mo as a part of both the state and local government for many years. He’s also served as the Vice President of Administrative and Information Services at Missouri State University.
The Scoop sat down with Mayor McClure to discuss the future of Springfield, Covid- 19, and his views on the importance of local government.
1: “Emerging strongly from the pandemic”
“Every day our case counts are declining, our hospitalizations are declining, vaccinations are increasing, although we are limited by the vaccination supply like others are, so our initial goal this year is emerging strongly from the pandemic and I have no doubt we will do that.”
“We have a good public-private partnership between public sector entities and private sector, the educational institutions, and all of higher ed., and that collaboration has never been more important than it is right now. I think what we have learned too is that we can adapt as a community and we can do what we need to do and that will continue to be the case, it is strong going into [the pandemic] and it will be strong as we emerge from it.”
2: Boost Economic growth and vitality through jobs
“We did very well in 2020 despite covid, Amazon and Cosco [are expanding in Springfield], American Airlines has announced a new maintenance facility, Kraft Heins has announced a major expansion and we have been able to attract Red Monkey foods, Veterans Home Loans United is coming, and Convoy of Hope is expanding. So, if you look at that we added 1000 new jobs in 2020, and that is a good number any year. That equates to 25 Million dollars in additional payroll, 325 Million dollars in added investment, [but] we have got to deal with what I call the skills gap. There are a lot of jobs available, but not really enough people with the qualifying skills to fill those jobs so how do we address that? At the Ozark Technical Community College, OTC, last fall they just broke ground on a center for advanced manufacturing and that will have a direct impact on the skills that our workers have, the pay that our workers have and that will help in so many areas.”
3: Continue to increase the success of individuals and families
“We have got good avenues available for young professionals. The chamber of Commerce has got a group called The Network, and it is designed to do a couple of things. One, going to college students just getting out of school to keep them here, saying you have got good job opportunities here, and this is a good place for you to raise a family, this is a good place for you to develop professionally and then that ties in to hopefully training the next generation of leaders.”
“We try to deal with homelessness as effectively as we can, we have a great partnership called the Ozarks Alliance to End Homelessness and that is made up of various groups coordinated by the Community Partnership of the Ozarks. I want it so that everyone who wants a job will be able to have one and hopefully one that will pay well enough to allow a good standard of living.”
4: Build on, and develop transportation and infrastructure
“We got a grant in November of 2019 of 21 Million dollars from the Federal Government called a BUILD grant (Better Utilizing Investment to Leverage Development) and five million dollars that will be matched by the city, and that will completely redo Grand Avenue Parkway from Bass Pro on the south at Sunshine clear to the square at College Street and it will become what we are going to call an economic vitality corridor.”
“Another key area is transportation. Springfield is a transportation hub, we have seen that in so many different ways with highway 44 coming down here and then highway 65 on the east of the James River Expressway. One of our goals is to make that a part of the interstate system, the infrastructure there we would have to modify, we would be involving the Federal Government as well. Our airport is second to none for our city our size and we experienced a decline in passengers this year but not as much as some of our other cities close by in the region.”
5: Continued collaboration with Springfield colleges and universities
“We are a strong college community. In normal times we will have on average 40-45,000 college students in town on any one day between Drury, Evangel, OTC, and MSU, and that is a significant student population. We are defined hopefully as a strong higher education community, but we have what I call an excellent town-down relationship between the public sector the community, and the higher education institutions we collaborate well.”
6: Get people involved
“The first thing, of course, is to register to vote, if you are here and are qualified to vote you should register. We are a community of volunteers, which is what makes Springfield strong. So when people say what can I do to get involved- look at a board or a commission in the city of which you have an interest, look at a non-for-profit of which you have an interest, and you will find all kinds of opportunities and you never know where that goes.”
