Marshall officials brag there is a lot on the ‘horizon’
MARSHALL — The city of Marshall saw some key developments over the past year. But there’s also a lot of work ahead in a variety of areas, Mayor Bob Byrnes and City Administrator Sharon Hanson said.
During Wednesday’s State of the City Address, Byrnes and Hanson talked about topics including workforce concerns, the future of the Marshall Aquatic Center, and the city’s dispute of its 2020 census figures.
“We did appeal that. It was a long process, and recently within the last month, we were notified by the census that they did approve our appeal,” Byrnes said. “That’s the good news. The downside is, they also told us they couldn’t share our new numbers with us because of data privacy. So we’re working with our congressional offices to change that.”
Data from the April 2020 U.S. census said Marshall’s population had decreased by 52 since 2010. However, Byrnes maintained that residents in Ward 1 of the city were undercounted, due to the COVID pandemic closing the campus of Southwest Minnesota State University. Census results showed population growth in Marshall’s other two voting wards, but a decrease in Ward 1.
“We know that number is wrong. We know that the Census Bureau agrees with that. Now the next step is, we’re going to figure out what that actual number is,” Byrnes said.
A year of development
The past year saw a lot of notable developments in Marshall, including commercial projects downtown well as along East College Drive, Byrnes and Hanson said.
“Of course, one of those is the development of the former Mercantile building that was done by the Knochenmus family,” Byrnes said.