Some might say the wonderful, city-maintained Lakefront Park with its modern marina, white sandy beach, two-and-a-half-mile, paved jogging and bicycle path, fishing piers, and lakeside seafood restaurant. The bow on this municipal package is the beautiful sunsets and sunrises that cause you to pause and be grateful you live in St. Cloud.  

Some might say the wonderful, city-maintained Lakefront Park with its modern marina, white sandy beach, two-and-a-half-mile, paved jogging and bicycle path, fishing piers, and lakeside seafood restaurant. The bow on this municipal package is the beautiful sunsets and sunrises that cause you to pause and be grateful you live in St. Cloud.  

Some might say the wonderful, city-maintained Lakefront Park with its modern marina, white sandy beach, two-and-a-half-mile, paved jogging and bicycle path, fishing piers, and lakeside seafood restaurant. The bow on this municipal package is the beautiful sunsets and sunrises that cause you to pause and be grateful you live in St. Cloud.  

Some might say the wonderful, city-maintained Lakefront Park with its modern marina, white sandy beach, two-and-a-half-mile, paved jogging and bicycle path, fishing piers, and lakeside seafood restaurant. The bow on this municipal package is the beautiful sunsets and sunrises that cause you to pause and be grateful you live in St. Cloud.  

Others will tell you it’s the homey, small-town character of our city of nearly 38,000 residents where people know one another and greet each other. Certainly the quality of education, with most schools being A-rated and the investment of $55 million to renovate and expand St. Cloud High School, is worthy of mention. The expanding St. Cloud Regional Medical Center and the number of new doctors with new specialties, while not unique, add to the total St. Cloud composite as a special place.  

 

Unique among many cities in today’s economic climate is the strong financial state of the city. Without sacrificing essential services, the City has advanced several growth projects, such as a state-of-the-art and award-winning water treatment plant, a new business incubator (opening April 2010) to develop new technology and medical services companies, and new road projects to ensure a transportation network to accommodate growth, all the while remaining fiscally conservative. All of the aforementioned make St. Cloud special.  

What I think makes St. Cloud so unique, however, is its people. People like Ron Riley, Parks Recreation Supervisor and PAC-10 Hall of Famer for his years on the basketball court at the University of Southern California. (He holds the all time rebounding record at USC set 35 years ago.) Ron went on to play professional basketball for four years, the last three with the Houston Rockets. Sixteen years ago, Ron began a youth basketball league which has grown to capacity under his leadership, teaching skills and values to hundreds of kids along the way.  

People such as the many, many adults who invest endless hours in the  St. Cloud Little League Program, the largest such program in the State of Florida, and all the coaches and parents who have developed the enormously successful Pop Warner Football and Cheerleader program. It is these and many other programs by churches, scouting, and the schools that call for thousands of invested hours by volunteers that make St. Cloud unique.  

This is a city where giving by participation is very high. It is truly a family-oriented community. If you are new to St. Cloud …Welcome. If you are considering St. Cloud as a place to live, you will find it to be unique. If you live in St. Cloud, you know how lucky you are.

President & CEO