Where to live(St Cloud area)? (Minneapolis, St. Paul: house, neighborhood, construction)

[tammie2]

Hi!
I am new to this forum, however my husband is interviewing with a company in Sauk Rapids, so we may be moving!

We have 5 kiddos, 16, 14, 5, 4, & 3(only boy is 14, rest are girls). I grew up in a Chicago burb & my husband is from Cheyenne WY.

My 16yr old will be going to SD mines(in rapid) in 18mos for paleontology & geology, we love being outdoors, we are always doing something as a family, we will also be looking for a gymnastics center(my 5yr old is an amazing gymnast, her current coach was an ex-TOPs committee guy & is in the gymnastics hall of fame), my 4yr old is a dancer & my 3yr old daughter plays hockey(we also need a hockey club that will allow girls to play)

I currently homeschool my kiddos, however my oldest 2 attended a Charlotte Mason charter school in TX that we LOVED! So we would be more than willing to consider something like that if it was within ~30min(we drove 40-50min for our charter school in texas)

I see this often, so we are conservative politically...although what others do is their own business & I'm not sure why it's posted in people looking for homes, but if someone really needs to know, there it is :-)

Thank you for any & all help!!

[Citykid3785]

The irony of seeing the post right above the post about the woman who just moved there and can't stand it because it's too conservative and has nothing to do, lol. I have no advice, just needed to point that out.

I will say that St. Cloud is a blue collar college town, it carries with it none of the Twin Cities more cosmopolitan attitude.

[tammie2]

Things to do are all in the eye of the beholder/doer!

Having been lurking a bit on the forum, I have checked out both Sartell & Becker(online), both seem like decent places to live. However making this type of decision from many miles away is difficult, so I was seeking a bit of guidance from people who know.

We bought our current house after seeing 5-6homes, all in the same neighborhood & made an offer via fax ;-) it's definitely a leap of faith! However it has worked out well!!

Whether it is this job or another, we will likely be invading the twin Cities within the next year. I have MS(primary progressive, spinal MS, it's LOTS of fun)& while visiting SD this summer I noticed a drastic improvement, plus with my daughter going to SD soon, that settled that, we were moving north! My husband is a materials engineer(with his PE-he is currently the Apache helicopter materials & environmental subject matter expert, prior he was the managing engineer for the replacement parts compliance division for all army helicopters) and with the twin cities being home to many engineering firms, this seems to be the most logical destination where I can get medical treatment(in our current location(Huntsville, AL) I have to drive 1-3hrs for most of my Dr's, one is even in Shreveport la, 8hrs away. I would like to avoid this in our next location!!), the kids can be involved in all of their activities, & life will be good :-)

[unnativeelpasoan]

Originally Posted by tammie2

Whether it is this job or another, we will likely be invading the twin Cities within the next year.

I am confused, thought you said you were looking to move to St. Cloud area? If so, this thread really should be in the Minnesota forum, not the Mpls-St Paul forum. St. Cloud is outside of the Twin Cities area.

[unnativeelpasoan]

Originally Posted by Citykid3785

The irony of seeing the post right above the post about the woman who just moved there and can't stand it because it's too conservative and has nothing to do, lol. I have no advice, just needed to point that out.

I will say that St. Cloud is a blue collar college town, it carries with it none of the Twin Cities more cosmopolitan attitude.

But the OP says they are conservative, so St Cloud might be a good fit for their family.

[mn55110]

Good luck to you and your husband, as I hope he gets the job in Sauk Rapids. The St. Cloud Area is a suburb/exurb of the Twin Cities, it's my opinion that St. Cloud related threads do belong on the Minneapolis/St. Paul page. Some may disagree, which is alright, however, Interstate 94 and US Highway 10 from the Twin Cities to St. Cloud are suburban now.


A lot of the growth in the St. Cloud are has been in Sartell and Sauk Rapids (which are divided from each other by the Mississippi River). Sartell is the wealthiest community in the immediate area, and invests a lot of money into their schools, earning the nickname of "The Edina of Central Minnesota". Voters in Sauk Rapids voted down a bond referendum for their schools which would have increased school funding and would have increased school construction.


Becker, which is 16-miles from St. Cloud along US Highway 10, has great school facilities and an award winning community center due to the town receiving a lot of property tax dollars from the Sherco Coal Burning Power Plant which Xcel Energy owns and operates.


The St. Cloud School District ISD #742 includes: St. Cloud, Waite Park, St. Joseph, Clearwater, Clear Lake, St. Augusta etc. They are building a new high school on the cities south side to replace the existing St. Cloud Tech High School and remodeling/ expanding St. Cloud Apollo High School on the cities north side.


Most of your services like; shopping, restaurants, banking, etc will be along Division Street running east/west through St. Cloud, Waite Park, St. Joseph etc.


Since you are battling Multiple Sclerosis (MS), you will need to research the care at the only hospital in the city which is "Centra Care-St. Cloud Hospital". With the large number of Scandanavians in Minnesota and the lack of daylight/sunlight in this region, Minnesota has more diagnosed cases of MS than any other state in the US. Not that long ago, Minnesota had more than double the number of MS sufferers as the number #2 state. Bottom line is that MS is extremely common in Minnesota, so you will be able to receive the medical care you need and deserve whether that is in St. Cloud or an hour away in Minneapolis/St. Paul.


Central Minnesota is more conservative than most of Minnesota; there is a lot of German-Catholic heritage in Stearns County and surroundings. Some of the locally based conservative talk shows are: the "Steel Toe Morning Show" on "Rockin' 101.7" WHMH-FM Sauk Rapids/ St. Cloud and "OX in the Afternoon" on KNSI news radio 103.3 FM and 1450 AM.


With you being from suburban Chicagoland and your husband being from Cheyenne, I think you will be fine in St. Cloud, Sartell, Sauk Rapids etc. It will also be close to where you adult children will be attending school too. Best of luck.