Columbia city manager De’Carlon Seewood didn’t mince words during his recent state of the city address: he looked directly at city officials, city employees, residents and reporters at city hall and told them that Columbia is grappling with a housing crisis. The Columbia Board of Realtors says the average price of a home sold in April increased to $396,000, while the median home price sold increased in April to $360,000. Host Fred Parry tackled housing and numerous other issues Saturday morning on 939 the Eagle’s “CEO Roundtable” program, where he was joined in-studio by Reinhardt Construction vice president Susan Hart. Ms. Hart is a past chair of the Columbia Chamber of Commerce and past chair of the board at Columbia Regional Economic Development Incorporated (REDI). Ms. Hart tells listeners that the business climate in Columbia is strong, but emphasizes that child care and housing are critical. She tells listeners that if we don’t address housing and child care, “we’re not going to have those individuals that are going into the beginning, mid-part of their career staying in our community.” Susan Hart grew up in east-central Missouri’s Jonesburg, a town of about 750 residents. It is between Columbia and St. Louis. Her father had a 10th grade education and was a Teamster and had a trucking company. Ms. Hart tells listeners she learned the importance of hard work from her father, saying that blue-collar background helped her. She was the first in her family to attend college, graduating from Central Methodist in Fayette. She’s an accountant who minored in Calculus in college. Many of you see the Reinhardt Construction trailers throughout the area. Reinhardt built the $100-million Boone Hospital patient tower, along with Mizzou football’s south end zone facility and numerous projects at Columbia College. Reinhardt Construction was founded in 1957 by William Reinhardt in Centralia. Ms. Hart tells listeners that every project is important to Reinhardt. They’re currently building the $13-million Boone County regional law enforcement training center, which is visible from busy Highway 63. The new facility will include a 160-seat training room, a driving simulator, an indoor tactical gun range and an area for traffic stop training:
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