Keenan Cortez is about halfway through his term as Joplin’s Mayor since being elected in 2024. He’s made history as the city’s first male Black mayor. According to Cortez, he and the city council have new and old goals to address this year.
Key issues include addressing ‘blighted neighborhoods,’ road improvement and expansions, the homelessness crisis and the efficiency of the city council. He said low-income areas in the central part of Joplin must be addressed.
Last year, the city launched the Joplin Housing Assistance Program (JHAP) and the Joplin Repairs Assistance and Rehabilitation Program (JHARP) to help with this issue.
The JHAP program helped residents get up to 20% of their down payment on their new home.
"We were able to help a lot of people that otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford to get into homeownership, into homeownership,” said Mayor Cortez.
The JHARP program provides financial assistance for home improvements to residents living in low-income areas.
Using JHARP dollars, residents may get improvements like a new roof, air conditioning and siding.
On January 13, the Joplin City Council held ‘Council in the Park’ at the History and Mineral Museum. Citizens could attend and voice their concerns to the council. The four attending council members said homelessness was this year’s top priority.
The issue of homelessness is not new to the city, ever since the 2011 Tornado destroyed a considerable amount of affordable housing. However, the absence of affordable housing and rising housing costs have exacerbated the crisis.
This year, the city received a five-year grant to establish a Regional Commission on Homelessness. The commission combines a network of well-resourced, effective homeless service providers to create a sustainable solution.
The commission's idea came from Sharity’s report, ‘Community Plan to Address Homelessness,’ which detailed what is causing homelessness in the region.
Mayor Cortez said he’s incredibly proud of the current efforts to address the issue.
“We have decided as a community and as a council that we’re not going to stick our head in the sand when it comes to this issue. We fully acknowledge it and are fully willing to tackle it head-on,” Mayor Cortez said.
According to Cortez, the city has aggressively pursued grant dollars to accomplish some infrastructure goals. Construction goals involve improving stormwater work, expanding roadways and improving sidewalks.
He jokingly said the theme for this year is ‘orange,’ meaning the city has robust construction plans.
There are two major construction plans for this year.
The first one involves Zora Street to Rangeline Road out to Route 249. Plans for this project include a new roundabout and road widening.
The second is widening 20th Street from Schifferdecker Road to Central City Road. The city’s growth is expected to go west, so the plan involved boosting one of the major thoroughfares in that direction.
Cortez said there will be a lot of construction cones in the community this year because of the large transportation projects.
“What I’ve asked people to do is be very patient this year with our ability to get things done,” he said. “It’s going to be a little disruptive to some people’s commute and maybe even access to their own neighborhoods.”
He calls this process growing pains.
“In order for us to grow and get a little better and a little bigger, we got to go through some pain,” he said.
Construction is expected to take about two years. But Cortez hopes residents will appreciate what it has done for the community in the future.
One of the peripheral issues facing the city is the reconstruction of Memorial Hall. Originally built in 1925 as a gathering place for veteran’s activities, the building has since been home to concerts, plays, and sporting events. It holds many memories for the community, including Mayor Cortez. Despite its role in the Joplin community, it has significant structural issues needing to be addressed.
“I get that as an elected official, we can’t just let the building sit there and deteriorate year after year. And as an elected official, I can’t just sit there and kick the can down the roads to the next group,” Cortez said.
While he doesn’t know the specific plan, he understands the importance of addressing it sooner rather than later. One of Mayor Cortez’s personal goals for the nine city council members is for them to be as productive and effective as possible by the end of his term.
“I want us to be able to look back from the beginning of my term to the end of my term and say ‘man that guy got a lot done,' ” he said. ' “He didn’t just talk about it, he got the needle moving,' ” Cortez said about himself.
He and the city council value the opinion of the citizens of Joplin.
“We’re working to make your life better. We get it, we live here too. We are people too, and we’re working on trying to make this the best place on the planet to live and raise a family,” he said.
Mayor Cortez is very proud of the city of Joplin. He says the city offers many opportunities to succeed, from the amount of schooling to workforce opportunities and the family-friendly city.
“I am so proud to live where I live,” he said.
Outside of his mayoral duties, he works at Freeman Hospital, is a pastor at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church and takes any chance to go fishing.
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