The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
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Mayor takes lessons from father
Avon Mayor Bryan Jensen leads one of Ohio’s fastest growing cities with a top-ranked school system and retail development moving at a fast pace with new businesses popping up from all corners.
Born in Avon and schooled in Avon Lake, Jensen returned to the city to raise his family and continue in the family’s greenhouse business. After serving four terms on Avon City Council, he was elected mayor in 2013 on a platform of smart growth aiming to continue commercial development and striking a balance with controlling traffic flow and working with develop and maintain parks and public services.
In the past three years the city has seen continued commercial development on Chester Road with Cabela’s along with future additions along the 35000 block such as Duluth Trading Co., Ashley Furniture and Main Event Entertainment to come in 2018.
Seeking to balance growth with allowing the city to develop in a sustainable way, Jensen brought his small business backgrounds to politics following the path of his late father, Niels Jensen. With 28 years of experience under his belt, Jensen can relate to the trials and tribulations of running a business and dealing with the public.
“I enjoyed the part of when I first got elected of being able to help people but even more so was knowing what was going on,” Jensen said. “You go those meetings and you get firsthand experience of what’s coming and what people are looking at.”
The elder Jensen was born in Denmark in Naur in 1928 and immigrated to United States in 1954, settling in Avon where he worked at B.F. Goodrich and was the founder of Pinehaven Greenhouse in 1966 where the Avon mayor
spent 28 years of his career as a partner in the family business prior to making the transition to politics.
Pinehaven was a dream of his father’s after having a small greenhouse as a hobby in Avon Lake, he wanted something bigger. Eventually the opportunity came around to purchase a greenhouse in Avon and after beginning as a retail wholesale grower, the business expanded over the years and now sells to Cedar Point as well as Westlake’s Crocker Park Shopping Center.
He described his father
as someone who worked hard, loved people and appreciated everything America had given him.
“He would take anyone who came to the greenhouse and give them a tour of the whole place. He still had a Danish accent until the day he passed away but it was just one of those things where he loved what he did and he loved people and he passed that on to me,” Jensen said.
Niels Jensen served as a member of Avon City Council for about a decade during the 1990s and upon his retirement, he tried to recruit
his son to take his place. Jensen recalled hesitating at the proposition.
“He was retiring and I just said no way. People would come to see my dad and they would visit with him they would say, ‘you can’t let this go in, you’ve got to stop this’ so I had no interest,” Jensen said.
However, after two years Jensen had a change of heart and decided to jump in following a lawsuit involving a bus garage between the city and the school system.
“Two entities funded by taxpayer money were fighting
each other. I wanted to be part of the solution and I asked why are we doing this. I think Mayor Smith told me, either put up or shut up. And so that time I said, you know what, I will make a run at this,” Jensen recalled.
After being elected mayor in 2014 Jensen has spent his first term tackling traffic flow and managing growth and emphasized his roots in the community and having a managerial style which stresses decision-making by necessity and draws on doing what’s best for community from his father and
knowing if he makes a mistake, he will several family members to answer to.
“He always taught me that even if you don’t like the decision the decision to do what’s best for the community always outweighs the feelings surrounding it,” Jensen said. “I saw him many times struggle with people angry at him and making decisions that weren’t in the best interests of that individual even if the decision was in the best interest of the community. So I’ve always tried to keep that same kind of philosophy.”