Sustainability to receive larger focus from Johnson County governments

CORALVILLE - Local officials plan to dedicate staff time to begin addressing sustainability across Johnson County.

Elected officials from around the county met Monday at Coralville City Hall for a quarterly countywide joint meeting.

One of the topics of discussion involved plans - headed by staff with Johnson County and Iowa City - to identify and begin to address issues including climate change, air and water quality and local sustainability.

'It's an idea right now and I think something we should pursue,” said Johnson County Supervisor Mike Carberry.

Carberry said the main goal is to move beyond simply creating another master plan on sustainability, but rather identify challenges that can be addressed and begin taking action.

Some local efforts focused on sustainability taken by in recent years include energy efficient building designs, a growing focus on renewable energy and electronic records programs that reduce paper usage.

Carberry said Brenda Nations, Iowa City Sustainability Coordinator and Johnson County Sustainability Specialist Becky Soglin, as well as county assistant planner Josh Busard, likely would head up the effort.

Tuyet Baruah, member of the Iowa City Community School District school board, said while similar efforts have been made in the past at the school board level, having staff time to dedicate to the matter has come up as an issue.

'If the county would be willing to spearhead that economically, I'm sure the school district would be interested,” she said.

In time, officials say local interest groups and members of the public will be able to get involved as well.

'I think you've got to get governments working together on these issues and then draw on the residents for participation with time,” Iowa City Mayor Matt Hayek said.

'We feel like there is some internal work to do first and we would like to get that done before we do that,” Nations said.