Bresnan hopes to involve Simpson in community

Bresnan hopes to involve Simpson in community

by Hannah PickettStaff Writer

The New Year is right around the corner, and with the change in calendar year, Indianola residents will also see a change. Long-time resident Kenan Bresnan will take the city under his wing as the town’s new mayor.

Bresnan’s involvement with the city of Indianola is nothing new. For 18 years he was involved with the Indianola school district on three bond issues, two of which didn’t pass and one that did. He also served eight years on the school board, finishing his last term in 2007.

After leaving the school board two years ago when he no longer had children in the district and felt he was out of touch, Bresnan said his family was happy to get him back involved with community organizations and prodded him to run for mayor.

“People had been saying in town, ‘You know, we don’t feel like we’ve moved at all. We don’t feel like we’ve made any progress and we feel like nothing’s going on,'” Bresnan said. “It was time for a fresh face. So I just thought, you know, I’ve done this stuff before, I’d enjoy it. I just think I’ll run.”

Bresnan won the election by 36 votes.

Once Bresnan takes his office in January, he has community goals and hopes to extend them to Simpson College and its students.

“I want to find a mechanism to ask the students,” Bresnan said. “They have a better answer to how to get involved than I do. That block between Simpson and Indianola seems to be a big block. I’d like to break that barrier and try to get the senior executives at Simpson involved or increase that involvement.”

President John Byrd said he looks forward to working with the new mayor in getting Simpson more involved in the Indianola community.

“This should be and has been over the history of both organizations, a mutually beneficial relationship,” Byrd said. “In other words, Indianola will do better if Simpson does better, and Simpson will do better if Indianola is a very vibrant, alive kind of community.”

Jim Thorius, vice president for Student Development and dean of students, has known Bresnan personally for a number of years and thinks he will provide quality leadership for both the community and students wishing to be involved with the community.

“I think our students will enjoy the opportunity to interact with him,” Thorius said. “I certainly hope and anticipate that the college and city will continue to work cooperatively on projects that strengthen Indianola under Mr. Bresnan’s tenure as mayor.”

Bresnan will take office in January and continue to work in sales out of Indianola while serving the community as mayor.