Meet The Woman Now Leading The Charge For Downtown St. Cloud

ST. CLOUD (WJON News) -- The new Executive Director of the St. Cloud Downtown Alliance has been on the job for just over a week now.

Jaime Buley was hired for the position last month. She spent the past 10 years leading big retail teams.

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She says she was interested in the position because she's interested in helping the community grow.

Being able to make a meaningful impact on the community in which I live is what drove me to start looking at this position.  And even when I started interviewing for this position, when I was deciding the next steps, I wanted to make a difference where I live.

The position had been open for a while, with Visit Greater St. Cloud Executive Director Rachel Thompson filling both roles. Buley says that with her focusing solely on the one position, she is looking forward to growing awareness about the good things happening downtown.

We want to continue to expand our role as an advocate and catalyst for downtown initiatives, events, and partnerships.  That's what I took away from my interview process, and in my first week.  We really want to focus on economic vitality.

She says she has some big ideas to help grow the downtown vibrancy, but she also knows it will take time.

A year from now, all I can picture is a more thriving downtown than what it is today.  Which has been growing and thriving recently because of the great people doing work down there already.  That continued growth and me seeing people repeating their experiences is what I want.

The St. Cloud Downtown Alliance is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting and enhancing downtown St. Cloud.

The next big downtown event is the Summer Art Crawl on Friday, August 14th.

Also, the annual Common Roots Music Festival will be at multiple venues throughout the downtown Thursday, August 20th, through Saturday, August 22nd.