Laura Keegan: Edgewater Mayor Candidate Questionnaire

Laura Keegan, candidate for Edgewater Mayor

We asked each candidate for Edgewater Mayor five questions to help community members get to know the candidates and their views.

Here are the answers sent by Laura Keegan:

Your Occupation:

Mayor, Author, Editor, Past: Office Manager

What do you love about Edgewater?

I love Edgewater’s strong sense of community and dedication to maintaining our small town identity. I am acutely aware of how both newer and seasoned citizens want to preserve our history and character as we grow, to honor our present and past.

I love the blending of our new and older cultures with all of the families moving here and choosing to make Edgewater their home.

Being under a square mile in size, it’s notable that we’re small enough to have a collective voice that is heard and is implemental in making our choices.

Edgewater is a wonderful mix of old and new housing; of recreation, safety and city facilities; parks; and a mix of unique businesses.

What do you view as the role of the Edgewater Mayor?

The Edgewater Mayor needs to be a strong and skillful leader; to put our needs first; to speak for the City of Edgewater with intelligence; to represent the people; to give voice to community concerns and facilitate solutions between our elected officials and city staff; to appoint strong board and commission members who put service to the community first; to understand and know the need to preserve our history and character as we grow and change; to represent Edgewater at the city, county and state levels, finding solutions to our common issues; to strengthen and build ties between community, city staff, council, boards and commissions, and businesses so we work as a team; and to make council chambers welcoming to all who come to participate in council meetings.

What are the opportunities facing Edgewater in the next two years?

With many families moving here with young children or planning to have children, they have a unique opportunity to become involved in our local schools, even before their children are of school age. By choosing to participate and become involved in education, alongside council and city staff, they can become a dedicated movement of parents who can encourage educational change. Rather than taking their children out-of-area, they can proactively engage with the schools and choose to enroll and educate their children here.

We have the perfect opportunity to embrace and build on our unique character and sense of community and be collaborative voices moving change and growth in a forward, community-focused direction.

With our many boards and commissions, all of our citizens have the opportunity to participate in our government process and give Edgewater a broader representation, incorporating a combination of both newer and older ideas.

What are the challenges facing Edgewater in the next two years?

We need to carefully balance responsible building/zoning standards for both commercial and residential properties through joint interactions with our boards, commissions, council, department heads and community.

We have to face the challenge of making a concerted effort to develop and strengthen the ties with local businesses to continue to enhance our community’s needs and those of our businesses. We must have dialogs that include city, staff and council in thoughtful communications with our business owners. We must listen to what businesses and citizens are experiencing now and will experience in the future.

We must continue partnering with local youth organizations and schools so that our growing numbers of families are well served. We can do this by continuing city programs, working with our Gold Crown facility, our schools and achieving a more solid and continuous dialog with our school board to hear their and our concerns.

Why should Edgewater residents vote for you?

I know Edgewater. I was raised here; my parents built their home here in 1956. I chose to make Edgewater my home, too. I’ve seen the changes that have occurred over the decades, not always positive or inclusive. As I raised my family, I knew I wanted to, and did, step up and work within our community to encourage families and businesses to locate and stay here and to engage and make improvements in the community as they did so. I worked and will continue to work to make changes that improve our health, safety and welfare, undaunted by those who fight change. I have and will always put the needs of our Edgewater community first.

I’ll continue focusing on being a strong, proactive leader. I’ll continue to be open and encouraging to our citizens so they know they are absolutely valued as we work through our changing demographics, developments and land use; work through the implementation of our Mobility Plan, Sustainability Plan and updates to our Comprehensive and Park and Recreation Plans for the changing needs of our city.

I’ll work diligently to be a model leader for our council as we deal with the many difficult issues we are tasked with. I will continue to work at teambuilding and collaboration in our city between council, staff, citizens and businesses.

As mayor, I will continue to make certain that during our council meetings I invite and publically recognize citizens, staff and outside agencies that help our community thrive and help foster community involvement.

I will continue attending and participating in numerous organizations and non-profits that focus on helping communities. I’ll continue to meet with mayors and municipality leaders on a regular basis to bring Edgewater to the table as we discuss issues that affect our Front Range cities.

Joel Newton

Joel has been a resident of Edgewater, Colorado with his family since 2012. He is the Executive Director of local education nonprofit Edgewater Collective and Editor of the Edgewater Echo.