The Redmond City Council will present the winners of the ‘If I were Mayor…’ Competition at Tuesday night’s meeting.
The Redmond School District had grades 4-12 submit posters, essays and presentations on what changes they would make if they were mayor.
This years winners are:
- Winning Poster by Ellie DeRoux (4th-5th Grade)
- Winning Essay by Madison Seeger (5th Grade)
- Winning Essay by Jackson Meyer (6th – 8th Grade)
- Presentation Winner Evonna West (9th-12th Grade)
We spoke with DeRoux and Meyer, about their ideas.
DeRoux starts off with a new business idea.
“I really like Japan and a lot of other people do too. So I think it would be nice to have a Japanese market in Redmond,” DeRoux said.
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She has some more serious items on the poster as well.
“I wanted to ban smoking, vaping and drugs because it will make a difference in Redmond,” she said. “It will also make the air quality better and people healthier.”
That is not the only thing she thinks should be banned. Guns are also on the chopping block.
“There’s been a lot of school shootings lately and so it would be safer, but hunters would be allowed to use them so I was thinking like a hunters pass,” DeRoux said.
Another issue on her mind is shelter availability.
“I think we should make a homeless shelter or make more of them so then homeless people can have housing,” she said.
While DeRoux discusses guns, housing affordability and drugs, another student’s main focus is on family-friendly businesses in Redmond.
Jackson Meyer told us his plan would bring in jobs.
“I would bring in family-fun businesses, and if they brought in a certain number of jobs they could qualify for discounted taxes because bringing in jobs to Redmond is important,” said Meyer.
Why ‘family-fun businesses’ specifically?
“There’s not a lot here in Redmond,” Meyer said. “There’s a couple, but normally we have to drive over to Bend and that can be a pain sometimes.”
Along with taxes and jobs, safety is also on Jackson’s mind.
“We would have crosswalks by a block near the family-fun businesses because it’s safe and we don’t want anyone crossing the road unsafely,” he said.
Mayor DeRoux and Mayor Meyer, both have a pretty good ring to them, but they’ll have to wait a quarter of a century to run for mayor of Redmond.
