Keep Glenwood Glenwood endorses...
JON BANKS
for Glenwood Springs City Coucil, Ward 5
 

Get to know Jon 

Jon is a thirty year resident of Glenwood Springs and raised his daughter Diana here. He worked to protect the airport for firefighting and medical flights, and to keep our promise to George Sumers, who donated the land to the city for an airport. He is a leader of the Keep Glenwood Glenwood campaign, which changed the city charter and gave citizens a vote on important growth decisions. And now he is an advocate for accountability, transparency, and honesty in city government - no more ‘Council has its own agenda’ and ‘Council doesn’t listen’.

Jon will work to protect and preserve our quality of life, our resources, and our environment.
 

In Jon's own words... 

“When I read the city’s draft comprehensive plan in late 2022, I was alarmed. It was a guideline for the city for the next ten years, focused on development. In fact, the words ‘growth’ and ‘develop(ment)’ appeared 515 times. But the words ‘quality of life’ only appeared 25 times. There’s something wrong with our priorities. 

Glenwood Springs is a wonderful place; we all live here because of the quality of life it offers. That’s why people visit; that’s what Glenwood Springs is about. But when the plan talked about the character of our community, all the consultants could find was the architecture of some neighborhoods in the city. They just didn’t understand Glenwood Springs. 

An important issue was completely missing... Are we growing Glenwood Springs for the people who are here, or the people who want to be here? Do the citizens want to continue the scale and pace of recent growth?

Growth isn’t good or bad; it’s both. Growth brings us new faces, a larger tax base, more retail choices, and more economic vitality (although not enough to keep two supermarkets, apparently). But growth has downsides, too. The plan seems to assume that we can manage the growth and deal with the downside. But can we?

Recent votes on the airport and 480 Donegan show that our Council was out of touch with the citizens on growth and development issues. And I heard it when I carried the Keep Glenwood Glenwood petition door to door. Over and over, people told me ‘Council doesn’t listen’ and ‘Council has their own agenda'.” It’s no good that people feel that way, and I’ve experienced it myself."

“If something makes life better for the people who live in Glenwood Springs, let’s do it. And if it doesn’t, we need to think long and hard about it."