At large: Ann Poe

My family has owned property on the banks of the Red Cedar River for more than 70 years. The flood of 2008 changed our lives forever. Our family home, like so many others, is gone and life there will never be the same.

That said, I love our community and I am proud of the progress we have made over the last three years. Now, the time has come to move beyond the flood.

I am running for City Council because there are policy decisions facing us that require courage, experience and sound, reasonable judgment. We need positive leaders who connect with people and believe that our hometown can be better than ever.

As a servant leader, I will always be available to listen to you. I am also an independent thinker.

As community liaison for the Rebuild Iowa Office over the last three years, I was tenacious in securing money for flood programs. I've attended hundreds of meetings for housing and business recovery. I worked hard on policies, procedures and removing road blocks in order to move federal and state funding to our town as quickly as their regulations allowed.

I have attended more than 95 percent of the City Council meetings since the flood, including City Council's budget, flood, economic development and finance committees and strategic planning meetings as the liaison between the City Council and state and federal agencies. I've learned much about how our community works and how it could work better.

I will be a good steward of taxpayer dollars and work to hold the line on the property tax levy rate.

I would focus on prioritization of street repairs on main arteries first, keep it simple. I will advocate at the state level to shift the State Road Use Tax formula to provide more of that funding into urban areas.

We need some form of flood protection on both sides of the river, so home and business owners will have the confidence to reinvest and rebuild.

Much has been said about the redevelopment of our downtown. My response: The money is going to where the damage occurred, as it should, to that area of our community that was devastated. Downtown means more than just the big buildings on the southeast side. I think of downtown as 110 blocks - east and west, residential and commercial.

Economic development throughout our city is a key so we can retain and create good jobs.

Ann Poe worked as the post-flood community liaison in Cedar Rapids for the state's Rebuild Iowa Office and is director of business development at M. Hanson & Co. Comments:

annjodypoe@gmail.com