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Councillor Kelly Jensen plans to expand greenspace, hospitality, and light industry

Posted on November 11, 2021 by admin

By Laura Balanko-Dickson
Westwind Weekly News
Councillor Kelly Jensen just started her first term with the Town of Raymond, but she’s eager to make three key objectives from her campaign into reality. This includes expanding the walking trails, bringing in more diverse businesses into the town, and a “civilian space” where people might have a place to casually create a social connection in the great outdoors.
“If we could continue that walking trail, that would be great!,” exclaims Jensen, “There’s, you know, four other corners of town that need to be connected and I get the underlying feeling from the community that the Southside gets a lot of things, where maybe the Northside is a little neglected.”
“I think a walking trail that encircles the town so that no matter what part of town you live in, you can hop on that walking trail and this connection, like, the amount of people you see on the walking trail, just this morning I stopped on the trail and spoke to this lady for like an hour. I want to bring community and connection and I think a walking trail would be an integral part of that.”
“We need more green spaces. There are lots of playgrounds around in town but no green space,” says Jensen, “Where this walking trail goes, that’s a green space. It’s not super wide but we can put park benches along it and trees along it and just make a place for people to connect.”
Besides connecting people in Raymond, Jensen wants to bring more hospitality and light industry to Raymond.
“I think some restaurants and a hotel or motel would be awesome,” says Jensen, “A motel would be great because it employs cleaning and motel staff, we could give our citizens a chance to be employed in town,” adding, “There could be 20 or 30 people employed there and that’s a huge opportunity there.”
Aside from hospitality, Jensen thinks there are good opportunities for light industries like greenhouses.
“I think there’s a huge market for greenhouses and I think we would be a perfect location to get a greenhouse,” says Jensen, “Food security is going to be another big issue coming in the future, and now, why not have some greenhouses here?”
“Maybe there is one area with a community garden, that’s a possibility. Maybe a solar farm, I think we would be a great location for a solar farm, there’s just so many possibilities.”
Jensen’s third big objective is to bring “park space for everyone.”
“I’m thinking picnic areas and a nice dock, like beach access where people can paddle-board or canoe. It just needs to be a nice civilian kind of space. There’s a lot of options and I want to bring people together to have those discussions gathering ideas and making that a reality. One of my highest priorities is to see to it that happens.”
“I think dream big and then put the plan into motion one step at a time,” says Jensen, “From what I know of council so far, they all seem like a great crew.”

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