Roy Carney hopes to highlight local resources in his run for City Council

By Molly Roberts
Posted 10/14/21

Roy Carney believes in the power of local — that’s why he’s running for Kalona City Council on Nov. 2.

“I’m looking to the future of Kalona, and I’m also …

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Roy Carney hopes to highlight local resources in his run for City Council

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Roy Carney believes in the power of local — that’s why he’s running for Kalona City Council on Nov. 2.

“I’m looking to the future of Kalona, and I’m also concerned about honoring and preserving our past,” Carney said.

Carney said he is concerned with basic necessities, such as electricity, food and water.

“There are many things that can go wrong in today’s society that could affect our community and I think we need to give thought to it, at least contingency plans. Not to spend a lot of money on it, but to know what to do if something goes wrong, such as a fairly long-term loss of power,” Carney said. “My first concern was keeping the water running. A town without water becomes a ghost town pretty quickly and I want to be able to live here and stay here and not go somewhere else.”

“I want to see to our food security,” Carney continued. “There are supply chain issues going on right now. I’ve talked to a number of businesses around here and they’re all sensing disruptions in the supply chain and seeing things get to town.”

Carney said he is concerned with society’s trend toward centralization and believes the antidote is to strengthen local communities.

“We’re in a situation where the world trend is going toward centralization of control and that’s not a good thing because that’s basically what China is doing… where everything is monitored and controlled,” he said. “The counter move to this is decentralization and I believe we need to start here and expand beyond local communities all over the place… That’s why I’m stepping up to offer my services on the local level, to be part of this last line of defense.”

Carney said he wants to help local businesses in a variety of ways, whether it be helping increase profits, efficiency or even energy supply. He has a bachelor’s in business administration and a master’s divinity degree — which causes him to think in those two terms, what can be done in business and “the higher picture.”

“One thing I’d like to see in the small businesses is finding devices that generate power on a home basis. One thing I’m looking to do is start a research group that will study various homemade devices, things that can be manufactured out of scrap on hand and see what really works. When we find things that really work, we can build them and sell them locally and regionally. That’s my vision for business.”

Carney said he believes he would be a good city council member because he has a good attention to detail and common sense, which will help the city council maintain a good reputation with the community.

Carney isn’t necessarily looking to upset the status quo, but simply add his skills and talents to the city council.

“I don’t have any real issues with the city council, of the people running for the election there’s no one that I particularly want to replace, but I feel it’s my responsibility of the community to come out of my underground hiding place and let my voice be heard,” he said.