Ascending to be mayor of Cape Girardeau began a long time ago for Stacy Kinder.

Kinder was sworn in Monday after winning the city's mayoral election April 4 over incumbent Bob Fox by 23 votes.

Her public service started in 2018.

Kinder was elected as Ward 6 representative of Cape Girardeau in 2018. Before moving to Cape Girardeau, she taught physics and geometry at St. Mary's School in Memphis, Tennessee. Kinder's interest in city government was sparked once she retired from teaching.

"I started having children 25 years ago. So I retired from my teaching career at that point," Kinder said. "I picked up what I call my professional volunteering career after trading in some jobs here and there, but that's what led me to get ultimately involved in various ministry work, volunteer spots and public service."

Kinder met her husband, John, while they attended Vanderbilt University in Tennessee together. Both have been members of La Croix United Methodist Church in Cape Girardeau since 2000 and have four children together, three biological and one adopted.

"My husband and I became convinced that [adoption] was something we were called to do. We felt very led to ultimately finding our child, who was in Ethiopia at the time. At the time we adopted him he was 7, he's now 16," she explained.

First 100 days

Kinder's focus for the first 100 days as mayor will be to continue discussions with representatives at the local and state level, along with business owners and representatives of not-for-profit organizations. She said she believes there needs to be some assessments of common goals and partnerships among the groups.

As the annual city budgeting process approaches, Kinder said she would be working with City Council members to solidify budget priorities.

"Our budget prioritizes our spending in our department needs, salaries and the support we give to other organizations in the city," she said. "One other big goal is to really dig into assessing areas of safety concern in the city and to begin to develop strategies, see improvement or to determine where we need stronger support. There are issues involving crime and better public safety that we really need to drill into and how the city plays a part."

Another plan Kinder would like to implement for the city is an orderly town hall event in each of Cape Girardeau's six wards, and she said she hopes those meetings could happen as often as quarterly. Engagement and conversation from the community, including the younger population, have a strong impact on the decisions the city makes, according to Kinder.

"A burning question we need to answer is, 'What do our young people want and need in a city like Cape Girardeau in order to put roots down here at an early age?' There are trends here we know the Gen Z group is looking for in work and life, and those are important to consider as the city and other groups look into economic, workforce development as well as education and training opportunities for this area."

The new mayor also would like to implement a potential youth council of Cape Girardeau to attract young people.

Kinder's staff is working on grant requests for infrastructure improvements for Cape Girardeau for street maintenance. In an interview with Fox, he said street maintenance was one area the council lacked. Kinder said a large amount of the COVID relief fund the city received is going to sewer line and maintenance/repair. She said she has spoken to Missouri U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley about receiving more funding to speed up the process.

Kinder said she is excited to take on the role of mayor.

"This is something I've been thinking about for many months. In a political campaign there is a lot of talking, and I'm ready to start seeing some of the doing."