Joplin City Council takes two-day retreat

JOPLIN, Mo. — The Joplin City Council is taking a two-day retreat, but it's not a time of rest and relaxation.

On Thursday (12/12), the council, along with city administration met at Robert Plaster Sports Complex on the campus of Missouri Southern State University.

The two-day retreat will be spent looking back at the past year, and what council members can anticipate in the new year ahead.

Council and city staff will also participate in team building exercises and take a class about different types and styles of communication.

Joplin City Manager, Nick Edwards, kicked off day one of the retreat by talking about some of the recent accomplishments made by the city.

"You can equivocate it to maybe football. The Chiefs have got to practice, they've got to all come together, they've got to all know the playbook, everybody has to be on the same page. This is an opportunity for us to pull everybody together and get everybody on the same page, if we aren't already, so I'm really looking forward to what we're going to go through over the next couple of days,” said Joplin Mayor, Keenan Cortez.

Mayor Cortez says the next few years will be a progressive time for Joplin, with several major projects taking place. Those include a rebuild of the 7th Street corridor and the installation of a city-wide, fiber-optic network by Allo Fiber.

The two-day retreat continues Friday morning (12/13) at the KCU Medical and Biosciences Center.