Introduction

My name is Jonn Olson and I'm running for Seat D in the upcoming Linwood Township supervisor election on November 8th. I will bring an extensive host of knowledge and experience to the township that I'm confident will make a positive difference to the board, township, and most importantly, to the Linwood citizens. I'd sincerely appreciate your vote on November 8th so that I can prove that I'm the right person for this honor and to work hard and transparently on your behalf.

About Me

My family first moved to Linwood Township in 1972 and my wife and I currently reside on that same farm my parents purchased more than 50 years ago. I attended Linwood Elementary back then and graduated from Forest Lake Senior High in 1984. And yes, I remember Linwood when the roads were located in different places and it was hard to find a blacktop road. The progress and evolution over the past 50 years has been amazing and inspiring to witness.

Why Am I Running

Simply put, I’m confident that I can bring significant benefit to Linwood Township and I will make a difference!  Some candidates say “I have no agenda”, which every voter knows is simply not the truth.  My "agenda" is solely based on what I think is best for Linwood and its citizens.  As an example, I see resident concerns posted on social media sites, such as road plowing, that ultimately get censored and nobody is allowed to speak of it publically as well as other matters of citizen’s issues.  This is very aggravating to me and I’m determined to figure out a way to fix this, and I will.  Censorship and non-transparency is a frustration of mine and I promise that ANY and ALL concerns that citizens have, as your township supervisor, I want to know about them all so I can take action to address them.

What Do I Stand For

I have several goals I’ll work hard to accomplish during my time as Township Supervisor and some of my more important objectives are budget (taxes), road conditions and plowing, community services, communications, and transparency.  I look forward to accessing ways that we can utilize grants and create cost avoidance and efficiencies to control the budget rather than defaulting to raising taxes first. Snow plowing is also a personal concern of mine and I've already identified issues that can be mitigated to increase plowing services to all the township roads for all citizens. I also aim to provide our tax payers with more options to convey concerns and information to the township and its board.

Township Involvement

Early summer I joined the Road & Bridge committee with the intent to contribute to better contracts, roads and plowing services.  I’m a volunteer for the Linwood Family Fun Days where you might have saw me at the ticket sales table, putting kids on pony's backs or doing cleanup.  I also volunteer in the recycle center and have assisted the maintenance department in specific work such as pouring cement slabs and repairing sprinkler systems.  I’ve also made item donations to the township such as the whiteboards used in the offices.

Professional Education and Experience

My post-secondary education is in the civil engineering field where I worked for TKDA Engineering in St. Paul for a few years before being recruited to a new opportunity in the gas engineering department for NSP (now Xcel Energy). My first project ironically happened to be what brought natural gas to the northeast metro area including Linwood Township. During this timeframe computers started making their way into corporate America so I transitioned into NSP's Information Technology (IT) area where I managed several technology projects including the first version of the Xcel Energy customer service system that most of you use today. In the last eight years that I worked at Xcel Energy I was privileged to hold the position of Senior Systems Architect overseeing all computer designs, implementations and projects. This included being the main manager that directed the IT integration of two energy companies that formed Xcel Energy. After sixteen years with Xcel Energy I started my own business in 2004 that's related to manufacturing and retail.

What I Have to Offer Linwood Township

I’ve had the unique privilege of being exposed to several industries in which all bring something beneficial to what I can offer to Linwood Township.  In summary these include:

Civil Engineering – Land use and infrastructure planning, design, and construction including areas of roads, buildings, bridges, pipelines and water systems. Since township roads are a major factor in our critical infrastructure my knowledge and experience in this field will prove invaluable.

Project Management – I’m certified as a Project Manager Professional (PMP) and managed countless projects in different areas including civil engineering, gas utility, electric utility, information technology (IT), sports management & events, and many more. Since every initiative has certain elements of project management, I'm confident that I will be a great source for consistency and structure in countless township endeavors. My ability to control budget, schedule and resources will help maintain cost control.

Information Technology (IT) – I’ve worked in all areas of IT from servers to workstations, from applications to networks, and from security to internet.  I managed teams to plan, design, build, and execute the implementation of all these technologies and also managed departments that were responsible for ongoing maintenance.  I was also the primary IT person that was involved in all the above tasks for the corporate merger that created Xcel Energy in 2000. I also served on the Governor's Counsel for the first Geographical Information Systems (GIS) implemented in Minnesota.

Nonprofit / Charity – For many years I’ve volunteered and served on several nonprofit corporations.  Since 2014 I’ve served as president and CEO of a MN based nonprofit and clearly understand balancing budgets and managing costs.  Since accepting this position we’ve increased revenue by 688% by simply creating more efficient processes and working hard on cost avoidance.  We’ve also restructured the organization to create opportunities for fundraising and grants above the mentioned revenue increase.  Another nonprofit I serve on has donated nearly $500,000 to St. Jude Children’s Hospital through proceeds from an annual international sporting event held here in Minnesota.

Have Questions or Would Like to Talk?

For any questions you may have, please contact me by email at olsonforlinwood@yahoo.com or if you'd prefer to talk by phone or in person you can either call/text me at 651-485-3771 or email me and return your call.

Campaign Signs

By nature I don't like to be intrusive so I'm uncomfortable asking residents to put a campaign sign in their yard. Having said that, if you wouldn't mind me placing a sign at your property I'd be very grateful and promise it will be removed the morning after the election. You can text, email or call me with your address and I'll be there personally to install one. Thanks so much in advance!