Chamber’sAmerican presidentrelishing challengesahead
THE new president of New Ross & District Chamber of Commerce, American native Jonathan Keenan is planning on revitalising the role through a mixture of increased visibility and greater efficiencies.
Jonathan Keenan, 39, has lived in New Ross since 2006 and has seen first-hand the town grow into a tourism centre within the region.
The manager of Creacon Lodge Wellness Centre and vice CEO of two international companies, SQ Worldwide and Erema Agni, Jonathan said the chamber has to play a greater role in supporting businesses.
He said he can bring process improvements to the chamber.
Having been offered the role following the departure of former AIB branch manager John McSweeney, Jonathan said it was a challenge he couldn’t turn down.
A Buffalo, New York native, Jonathan, pictured right, said Creacon Lodge was a member of the chamber for a few years but stopped its membership because its management didn’t feel the body was doing enough for it.
With a Masters in Business and a background in chemical engineering, Jonathan said he will be president at an interesting time for the chamber and for all chambers of commerce within the county at a time when there are plans to amalgamate all four urban chambers into one, based in Wexford, Jonathan said it is vital for the town and area’s future to have a strong chamber representative and presence in New Ross.
‘I intend to help with communication and with the functions of what the chamber does. I wasn’t a member for a couple of years because there was no benefit to being in the chamber, which should be focussed on business. This involves supporting businesses.’
As a way to get business owners to participate more in the chamber, he plans to have an open door day where every businessperson can speak with him for ten minutes to brainstorm about what needs to happen in the town and what targets need to be set.
Describing New Ross as ‘fantastic’, Jonathan said: ‘There is a nice injection of revitalisation from the quay to the new paths and park. We have a beautiful town with a great history. Hopefully that can translate into people having a positive sentiment about it.’
He said one of the challenges he will face is bureaucracy. Another is improving the relationship between business owners and the chamber.
‘I don’t know how long things take to happpen. If the system is broken it’s going to be very hard to fix it because if it is how do you implement change.’
He is confident the new ring road will benefit local businesses, based on research which shows that towns over 3,000 inhabitants tend to benefit from ring roads.
Over the coming months Jonatahan sees himeself increasing the chamber’s visibility in New Ross and across the district, adding that he will do his best for the town and district’s businesses. RESIDENTS IN the parishes of Clongeen and Ballymitty are urging people concerned about proposals to develop a large scale solar farm in their areas to sign a letter petitioning against the proposal and to submit their own letters of objection to the planning authority before the deadline of July 24.
Objection letter clinics will be held in Sinnott’s Shop, Clongeen, on Wednesday, July 4 and 11, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Members of the local committee objecting to the development will be on-hand to give assistance in relation to submitting a letter of objection to the local authority.
The committee is grateful to everyone in the community who has already given their support to the campaign since the first public meeting on the matter took place in Clongeen Hall in April.
At that meeting Kieran Hartley, who has a Masters in Environmental Studies, gave an informative presentation to people from within the local community in relation to concerns they had about the impact the development could have on their area.
Mr Hartley said the proposed development could generate 95MW of electricity which works out at 1MW per five acres.
‘An industrial plant is being proposed for this area,’ he said.
Two further meetings have taken place in the interim, following which a committee was formed under the banner, ‘Community First Action Group’.
Residents are also concerned that homes within the vicinity of the development could be reduced in value by 50 to 70 per cent.
According to Mr Hartley the development, if it goes ahead, would be the biggest solar farm in the country in one of the smallest parishes in county Wexford.
Committee member, Caroline Carroll, spoke of the visual impact of the development: ‘ This is an undulating site in a river valley and the proposed development would therefore have an adverse effect on the visual amenity of the area.’
‘ There is no overriding need for a development of this kind in such a beautiful location,’ she added.
The Community First Action Group is composed of: Bernie McGee; Marion Brady; Caroline Carroll; Juliette Carroll; Eileen Redmond; Tony Redmond; Sharon Hudner; Ciara O’Grady; Darragh Earle and Chris Kerrigan.