Mitchell mayor Jordan Hanson addressed many topics in his State of the City Address. But one theme stuck out — a focus on growth.
The leaders of Mitchell met together this week to discuss what’s happening currently and what the future of the city looks like.
When running for, Jordan Hanson campaigned heavily on the platform that Mitchell’s growth was stagnant, and the population needed to grow. He said the economic and private growth “looks good” and positive.
Some worry about all the changes happening as the transition to focusing on population growth begins.
Hanson said he understands not everyone wants that, but he plans to be transparent every step of the way.
“I can understand the hesitation, because there’s always a fear of the unknown. I think to give people the biggest sense of comfort knowing what’s going on going forward is obviously communication and to let them know and communicate effectively that the most important thing is going to be responsible growth, not wild out of control growth," Hanson said. "But growth for the good of the community and the good of everyone — because we want to spread out all of our taxes and waters rates and any increase we may see as a city, as far as what inflation might bring, we want to spread that out as much as possible."
In the 2020 census, Mitchell had a population of about 15,600. Hanson set a population goal of 20,000 residents by 2035. He said it’s a lofty goal, yet there are steps Mitchell can take to make that future a reality.
“High-paying jobs is obviously the number one thing we could do to attract and retain people. So I think our first goal is to try to attract businesses that have high pay. Because most people either leave town or move away from their own town for high-paying jobs," Hanson said. "So whatever we can to do to incentivize good, high-paying jobs to either move here, grow here or spend here, that’s going to be my number one target. On a very close second is giving a lot of activities and recreation for families because that’s another very important thing. You gotta take care of your kids. And then also, we’re going to be working on day care and child- care programs."
As the plan moves ahead, Hanson said the city is in a good spot overall. He adds the city’s infrastructure and water are “ahead of the game” compared to other South Dakotan cities.
