Ballot City
Johnson County
Campaign Phone
8165168271
Personal Biography
Lived in Johnson County most of my life, graduated from SM North High School, Was a Peace Corps Volunteer in rural Liberia, West Africa, Worked as a nurse at Bethany and Truman Medical Centers, the Wyandotte County Health Department and was a school nurse in the Shawnee Mission School District until retiring in 2018. My husband Bill Roush and I have 2 sons and 1 granddaughter.
Education
BA Yale University, BSN University of Kansas School of Nursing, MA University of Kansas
Community/Public Service
WaterOne Board, 2018- present, League of Women Voters 2015-present, Lifetime PTA member, Lifetime NEA member, Assisted Heart to Heart International with COVID vaccine clinics
When I was first elected to the WaterOne Board in 2017, I was the first health care professional to serve on the Board. I bring with me my Peace Corps experience in a village maternal-child clinic sadly seeing children die from diarrhea and dehydration from unclean water. but also seeing the positive impact of vaccinations, breastfeeding versus formula feeding and people boiling water at preventing preventable deaths. Because our Board provides oversight for over $2 billion in infrastructure, I have quickly become an infrastructure nerd and ask questions. I bring my passion for water quality and public health, for learning new things, my commitment to sustainability and my belief that we must engage the public in protecting our precious water.
1.Local elections are important! We are fortunate to have a well-run science-based water utility. As long as our Board remains science-based, I'm confident our utility will continue to provide safe, affordable and reliable drinking water, even if there are fewer federal regulations.
2. Water reuse - I would like to see us explore more opportunities to balance water reuse and reduced water usage with WaterOne's strong fiscal status. I urge local electeds to require data centers to include water reuse infrastructure to use less water.
3. Public engagement - we need more public engagement in proper medication disposal (pharmacy or police station), fewer lawn chemicals, less lawn irrigation, more native plants, etc. to protect our water.
WaterOne currently has a two-block increasing rate structure meaning the more water you use, the more you pay. I am advocating for a 3rd or 4th block rate to further differentiate customers who use less water from those who choose to use more. Customers can sign up for a My Account (waterone.org) and are able to see and set alerts for their daily water usage. This helps alert them to possible leaks and unknown increased water usage well before their two-month bill arrives.
There are extra challenges for customers renting or living in multi-family dwellings who may not pay their own water bill and are not in control of leaky plumbing. WaterOne does work closely with JoCo Utility Assistance for customers struggling to pay their bills.
