Johnson County’s supervisors to hold meeting at fair, talk rural issues

IOWA CITY – This week's Johnson County Fair will feature talent contests, livestock judging and exhibition booths, as always, as well as something new: a county supervisors meeting.

“I keep telling everybody here that they needed a sideshow, so we agreed to do it,” Pat Harney, chairman of the Board of Supervisors, said with a laugh Monday.

The supervisors typically put in a lot of time at the fair, but this year the board is holding its regular Thursday meetings at the fairgrounds. County officials believe this will be a first for the fair, which started in 1853 and moved in 1950 to its current location at 4265 Oak Crest Hill Rd. south of the Iowa City Municipal Airport.

The board's formal meeting starts at 10 a.m., with an informal meeting to follow, in the Variety Tent.

The fair runs from Monday through Thursday and typically attracts tens of the thousands of people. The average Board of Supervisors meeting, on the other hand, has just a handful of observers.

A primary goal of taking the meetings on the road is to expose more people to the board's work. Also, a lot of attention is paid to issues involving cities, which are home to most of the county's 131,000 residents, and the county wants to spotlight rural topics as well, Supervisor Terrence Neuzil said.

“I think that we want to share with people that we represent over 25,000 rural residents in Johnson County too,” he said.

To that end, agricultural issues will be the focus of the board's informal meeting. One item to be discussed is the possible creation of a food policy council, which would be an organization that promotes local foods and farmers. Eventually, a year-round farmers market and a community kitchen where people could can food may be established, Neuzil said.

The board also will get an update on the proposed Johnson County Agricultural and Rural Health Service and Training Center, which would promote farm safety. Neuzil said the county's interest stems in part from the death of Supervisor Sally Stutsman's son Michael Stutsman in a 2008 farming accident.

The center would be a collaboration between the county's Board of Health, Iowa State University Extension and Iowa's Center for Agricultural Safety and Health, which is housed at the University of Iowa. The county has already budgeted $17,000 for the effort.

The board on Thursday also will hear an update on the county's rural roads.

The full agenda for the formal and informal meetings should be available Wednesday morning.