St. Marys: A top place to live

ST MARYS - St. Marys ranked 27th in a list of the 50 best cities in which to live in the U.S. recently published by USA Today, due to the city's low cost of living and safe conditions.

The list was compiled from data gathered by 24/7 Wall Street, a partner of USA Today. The rankings depended on several weighted factors that measured the affordability, economy, quality of life and community of individual cities.

One factor was whether citizens had easy access to places such as restaurants, museums, theaters, libraries and parks. The list noted St. Marys citizens were a short drive from many such facilities and also mentioned the walkways along the canal.

The low unemployment rate, low cost of living and community safety also were big factors for St. Marys. The article reported goods and services were about 8% less expensive than the nationwide average, and only 37 violent crimes for every 100,000 people in the city were reported in 2017, far below the national violent crime rate of 383 per 100,000 people.

Mike Burkholder, the city's manager of industrial and community development, said the article was a pleasant surprise, which he found out about only when someone posted it on Facebook.

"I think the article and the ranking shows what we've known for a while. St. Marys is an excellent place to live, work and play," he said.

The article stated cities could benefit from proximity to larger metropolitan areas that could offer more job opportunities, and St. Marys has proximity to several larger cities while also having an industrial sector of its own. The article did, however, note that St. Marys's population is projected to decrease slightly over the next five years by 1.2%.

Burkholder said that housing issues have been discussed by city officials before, and a study was recently done to identify the type of housing most needed in the city.

"We definitely feel that there's opportunity for housing here in St. Marys. There are jobs available here, so we definitely think we're sitting pretty good from those two standpoints."

Burkholder continued by saying the ranking was a good reminder of what St. Marys has to offer.

"It's nice to see people outside the community and outside the state even, other parts of the country, see what we see on a daily basis. I think sometimes we take for granted what we see every day."

Best places to live:
1.   West University Place, Texas
2.   Mandan, North Dakota
3.   Perryton, Texas
4.   Dumas, Texas
5.   Winnetka, Illinois
6.   Ladue, Missouri
7.   LeMars, Iowa
8.   New Albany, Ohio
9.   Chatham, Illinois
10.   New Ulm, Minnesota
27.   St. Marys, Ohio