Biography
Let me introduce myself to those town residents who have arrived in Virgin since the last election in 2017. I was born in Texas and raised around Lake Charles, Louisiana. At the age of 15 my family moved back to Texas where I spent the next 15 years of my life, continuing to help run our family-owned restaurants as I had since the age of 12. After earning a bachelor’s degree in American History, I worked for a computer research firm in Austin, Texas for several years and then moved to Southern California. I lived in California for 20 years, and during that time I went to law school, practiced law for 15 years thereafter, and later obtained a Master’s Degree in American History. My husband and I married in 2002, moved to Utah in 2009, and we have lived in Virgin for 11 years.
I served on the Virgin Town Council for 5 years (2012-2017). At the same time I attended SUU in Cedar City and obtained a Master’s in Public Administration, which is the business of running a government.
Rebuilding Our Community
I am saddened to see that the sense of community that once existed in this town is now deeply wounded and nearly gone. We all used to run in to each other at the post office every few days and stop and chat. We would read the community bulletin board to see what was going on in Virgin and the surrounding area. We could read the posted agendas for the Town Council and P&Z meetings and know what the town officials and our neighbors were up to. With the closure of Virgin’s post office in December 2018, the center of our community and our daily connections with each other were destroyed. The closure of the local LDS church around the same time did not help matters either. Virgin has yet to recover from these tragedies. But I believe there is hope.
Let’s rebuild our community. A few people cannot do it alone. So what will it take? I have some ideas and you probably do too. Here are a few of mine.
Town Government
- Rebuild Trust. We should all demand complete transparency in the conduct of the public’s business.
- Restore faith. Constituents should believe that the town’s mayor will fulfill their duty to the town, as well as be sincere or honest with their intentions. This is not too much to ask of our leaders.
- Play Fair – All citizens should be treated equally. Ethical behavior is paramount.
Community Connection
- Get our post office back! I know we pleaded with the postal service not to close our post office, but they were adamant. Our town population has grown by quite a bit since then, so we should try again. If a new post office is impossible, then we need to find or build something to be the new commons or gathering place for our residents.
- Connect our neighborhoods. Our neighborhoods are all isolated enclaves separated by washes. Walking bridges would allow us visit each other without having to drive our car on the highway over to the next neighborhood. Such bridges would encourage deeper connections among us and a feeling of belonging.
- Publish a local newsletter similar to a newspaper in concept, with feature articles, interviews, reports, etc. I already have a name in mind for it too. This is in no way, shape, or form like the town newsletter that the town hall sends out once a month.
What suggestions do you have on the issues in our town?
Let me know at jean.krause1@gmail.com. Maybe I will post your suggestion on this website.