Bryanna Johnson is hoping to use her unique perspective as a stay-at-home mom to offer insight and passion to the Rexburg City Council.
Johnson is 37 years old and spent time at BYU-Idaho before receiving a Bachelor’s degree in Education from BYU in 2004.
She has lived with her family in Rexburg for 10 years and is currently the parent teacher organization president at Kennedy Elementary School. Johnson has also been serving on the city’s Parks and Recreation Committee for the past 18 months.
Johnson said in an interview that she knew Rexburg was a good place to live because of her brief time attending school at BYU-Idaho. She moved here with her family and about a year and a half ago became more interested in local issues and started attending city council meetings.
“I heard about the city’s plans to make a trail system and that got me interested,” she said. “Once I got there I became interested in other things, as well.”
Addressing recreation opportunities and challenges is something important to Johnson, although she said she wants to address the wide variety of challenges that Rexburg residents face.
As a part of her campaign, the first-time candidate has been knocking doors in Rexburg to talk with residents and find out what’s important to them.
“I have loved getting to hear their perspectives and seeing how much community members love their community,” Johnson explained about her experience. Through that, she said, she’s seen the large array of challenges facing Madison County’s largest city.
Some of those concerns include building more crosswalks and creating indoor recreation opportunities for winter months.
Johnson cited growth as the most important issue facing Rexburg right now. Related to that is the parking issue in the downtown area and effective planning for the placement of new apartment buildings.
She said her goal in that regard is to help ensure “everyone can come to an agreement and be happy with where the growth goes.”
Continuing that theme, Johnson said in addressing concerns like road maintenance and providing recreation opportunities she would like to listen to the voice of the people. She said before raising costs on residents to improve roads, she would first look at reallocating funds that the city already has.
In regards to attracting businesses to Rexburg, Johnson said she’s enjoyed learning about what a city council can do to help support local economic growth.
“I think that we would need to continually be looking at our ordinances and regulations and make sure that they’re not too strict so that they are discouraging businesses from coming,” she said.
Johnson said she agrees with the concern that there is, at times, a disconnect socially between the student body at BYU-Idaho and the rest of the Rexburg community. She also said she feels the school and the city currently do a good job of accentuating the strengths of the other.
After referencing the upcoming retirement of city councilwoman Sally Smith, Johnson said she wants to help continue to offer the perspective of women to the city.
She believes her perspective both as a woman and as a full-time mother can offer views on issues that are shared by many people in the community.
“I have a desire to better this community because I’m very invested in my children’s future,” she said. Johnson said family concerns are her concerns, “Those are things I care about because that’s the time of life I’m in.”