Linsley making first run at city council

Ken Linsley is hoping to turn his voice from business to city politics by announcing his candidacy for Swift Current City Council.

Linsley is taking leave of absence from his duties as Chairman of the Board of the Swift Current and District Chamber of Commerce to run in the election. He feels he can bring an effective voice to council after a 25 year career in the agricultural retail sector and a recent move into a training and development role.

“The biggest reason is that I’m tired of hearing political answers. I just want honesty and transparency for people when they ask a question that we just answer it,” Linsley said when announcing his candidacy.

“For all the things that are going on in the city, I think we’ve got lots of good momentum going, but there are some items that are of special interest to me.”

“Some of the top ones for me are the large inventory of residential lots that are currently sitting empty, specifically around the hospital and the new subdivision. The old school sites and what we’re going to do around developing those. I think that’s logically going to be housing, but what that looks like I guess I’m interested to be a part of. Also the commercial lot development that we developed that we haven’t actually sold a lot in yet. So where are we at with that? Another big one is wait times and access to healthcare in Swift Current. I have personal experience with long wait times, and trying to get a doctor here right now is quite challenging. As we look to grow Swift, we need to look at making sure those things grow with us.”

He also feels the City needs a stronger and more visible growth agenda.

“We hear lots of talk about Grow Swift, but I think we need to have more than the words. We need that plan, so what is it? How do we fill all these residential lots? We’ve record house sales right now, but that’s not record house builds. That’s people moving from house to house not building new, so we have a lot of inventory sitting on the books and that’s taxpayers dollars sitting there. I would like to be part of a plan and see it through.”

He will also be taking aim at city taxes during his discussion of the issues this campaign.

“We’ve got to take that list and make it ‘wants and needs’ especially when we’re spending the taxpayers dollars. We have to be responsible and do an economical job of spending the taxpayers dollars.”