Monett’s State of the City program proclaims progress

Monett leaders detail initiatives, aspirations
 
In a novel move, Monett city leaders introduced the State of the City program on Jan. 29, presenting presentations by City Administrator Mickey Ary and members of the city council to an audience at the City Park Casino, with a luncheon coordinated by the Monett Area Chamber of Commerce.
Ary began the talks with the theme of “looking at the past and how it impacts the future.” He cited the Arndt Municipal Support Group in 2023, which was contracted to lead a strategic planning workshop. This group drafted vision and mission statements for the city, emphasizing Monett as a safe and progressive community.
From there, Ary noted the selection of the Freedom Silo as a must-see stop identified by Harley-Davidson Magazine and the publication of an article by Show Me Magazine in November 2025 that printed the city’s mission statement, calling upon the city to “professionally provide superior city services and economic development while enhancing the quality of life.”
Ary displayed three key elements of Monett’s logo: one with a cog, emphasizing working together; the Pride and Progress logo, and the new Star M design stressing excellence. To stress professionalism, Ary turned to the recent renovation of the former Monett Community Center on Marshall Hill as the new Monett Annex, the home for city meetings.
He also talked about how the Building Code Office has now become the community development department. Enhancing that effort, the city hired Doug Potts as a city planner with experience in economic development.
The city also pushed for internal growth by hiring Jessica Stamps as the city’s human resources generalist.
For the Monett Regional Airport, Ary pointed to Steve Burnett, the new airport manager, noting Burnett, in addition to significant experience as a pilot, is also “a social media guru.” In a few months, Burnett boosted the airport’s social media following from 18 persons to more than 13,000. “Folks fly here from all over,” Ary said. “A welcoming airport is what we want to be. Now we have that.”
In addition, Ary said the city council in February will officially name an airport commission to replace the advisory airport board. This seven-person commission will include delegates representing both Barry and Lawrence counties in an effort to broaden the regional interest and commitment to the airport and what it brings to the community.
For monthly meetings, Ary reported the city council packet, posted on the city’s website, now includes written reports from all the department heads for general viewing. He saw showing the public what the city does as building transparency and enhancing communities. “We are the Star M,” he continued. We do everything with excellence. We’re always trying to build better communications.” As a reflection of that, he noted several staff serve on a number of community organizations.
 
City crime falls
Ary asserted that Monett’s crime rate has fallen 5 percent over the past year. Police interacting with the school district used grants to build the number of school resource officers from one to four over time, and provides training for officers from other towns. Likewise, the fire department, now answering record numbers of calls, also offers regional training to firefighters at the airport. Ary praised reciprocity to Monett’s outreach as seen by the 16 agencies that helped respond to Monett’s tornadic storm on April 29, 2025.
 
Other growth
In other examples of the city’s growth, Ary mentioned plans to upgrade the wastewater treatment plant, securing grants to help upgrade Lowe’s Lane, plans to expand Monett’s new tax increment financing district, improvements in airport facilities, the pending bridge construction on Chapell Drive, introducing Chapter 353 as a new tool to revitalize downtown, starting the Barry-Lawrence Economic Development Council, upgrading the tennis courts, preparing to build a new playground at South Park, and supporting cultural outreaches like Drury University’s multicultural faire.
Mayor Randy Burke took his turn talking about efforts downtown, with new businesses like Great Dave’s coffee café. Burke said the city would no longer pursue a stormwater reservoir east of town, but instead would concentrate on a parallel channel for Kelly Creek. To help the industrial sector, Burke emphasized housing efforts, particularly smaller units like duplexes, in all price ranges, to support the 16,000 people who work in town, some 6,000 more than who live in Monett.
As for strategies, Burke mentioned the comprehensive plan under development with the Southwest Missouri Council of Governments, which he said should be finished by this summer. He wanted to see an increase in capacity for daycare. He talked about meeting the Greg Adelson, president of the Jack Henry company, to partner with the city to create more technology-based jobs here. With Amazon choosing to open a warehouse here “because we are a transportation hub,” Burke said he would push to make Monett an intermodal hub, combining roads and air traffic with again adding railroad links for local products.
Commissioner Ken Gaspar opened the day with an official welcome. Commissioner Darren Indovina closed it by noting, “I feel there is no task we can’t do. We’ve seen tremendous change in the past two years,” since the present city council was elected. Indovina praised city department heads for showing newly elected leaders how the city works.
“We have a group of people who work with us,” Indovina said. “A lot of what we had was not ideal. I’m excited for the future of Monett. We want to work with you and for you. Please share the vision that Monett has wheels under it now. We’re going back to work.”