Mount Pleasant native, devoted Red Wings fan and father of three, Jon Joslin, is running for city commissioner.
His purpose for running is simple.
“Basically just to get involved with the way the City is run,” he said.
Joslin has served on the Mount Pleasant Planning Commission for a year and a half, and the zoning board of appeals for two years.
As the first person to serve on both committees concurrently, the experience has enabled him to be more involved, he said.
If elected, Joslin said he wants to rectify housing issues in Mount Pleasant, particularly in the rental market. Rentals can create problems when they are occupied by more people than they were designed to hold.
“We gave a lot of unlicensed rentals,” he said.
In family neighborhoods, Joslin said, rentals are usually designed to be rented to families with no more than two unrelated people. Parking and overcrowding become problems when more people move into a housing unit than it was intended to hold.
“We have a lot of neighborhoods that are upset about it,” Joslin said.
Student housing is also a concern as an increase in enrollment at CMU pushes many students into the community in search of housing.
“Where do you put the students?” Joslin said. “The City and a lot of the people in the city talk about the students as if they’re some kind of disease.”
People want to preserve their neighborhoods, but “you can’t preserve your neighborhood and ignore the students,” Joslin said.
“We depend on them just as much as they depend on us.”
But a new housing development, located behind Kmart, 2125 S. Mission St., may help alleviate some housing problems. The new apartment complex was approved by the planning and city commission fall of 1999 and can house 852 people, Joslin said.
Another one of Joslin’s goals is to create ways to bring revenue into the expanding community. Joslin said as Mount Pleasant expands, more services, such as police and fire personnel and equipment, are needed.
But funds for those services are not available.
“I’m all for growth, just controlled,” he said.
Joslin said the City should not depend on the 2-percent allocation funding that comes from the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe’s slot revenues.
“I hate to see us become so dependent on that money,” he said.
The city commission is currently looking at a possible city income tax. But Joslin said until further research is completed on the concept, he cannot decide if he would support or oppose the tax.
He also would like to see more communication and cooperation between Union Township and Mount Pleasant.
“We’re right on top of each other,” he said. “What they do and what we do affect each other so we have to work together.”
But Joslin said he enjoys the community and thinks the city is a good place to raise children.
“Everybody here pretty much gets along,” he said. “It’s still a very safe city.”
Joslin attended Mount Pleasant elementary and middle schools and Mount Pleasant High School. He graduated from CMU in 1994 and works as a bookkeeper for a family business.
His wife, Janelle, also a Mount Pleasant native, and their three children, Stephenie, 7, Neal, 5, and Savannah, 4, live in downtown Mount Pleasant.
“Our whole family’s big Red Wings fans,” Joslin said.
Even at an early age Neal Joslin would rather watch a Red Wings game than cartoons, Joslin said.
Joslin, who is currently trying to remodel his house, also describes himself as a fix-it kind of guy.

E-mail the author: Dorothy BourdetLIFE Staff Writer