Greater Iowa City Area HBA Bestows Distinguished Leadership Award to John Balmer

The Greater Iowa City Area HBA has recognized John Balmer, CEO of PSC Distribution & Studio H2O, as its 2018 Distinguished Leadership Award winner.

Balmer has a degree in business administration from the University of Iowa and been involved in the wholesale plumbing distribution business for 47 years. He joined the family business, started in 1951 as Plumbers Supply Company, alongside his brother and following in the footsteps of his parents and grandparents. Now called PSC Distribution & Studio H2O, it caters to most of Eastern Iowa.

Balmer has been a long-time member of the HBA, serving as president in 1989. He’s also been active in local politics for more than 40 years, serving several Iowa City-council terms and as mayor from 1980-81. Balmer is always trying to improve the quality of life in Iowa City through common-sense development. Recently, he has been more involved with recruiting and promoting local city-council candidates whom he thinks are fiscally responsible and understand the role of a city councilperson. Balmer continually stays involved with ongoing attempts to place regulations on the homebuilding industry and regularly advises HBA members about how candidates vying for an elected position may or may not be friendly to construction, housing or land-development businesses.

Beyond politics, Balmer finds other ways to give back to his community. This has included sharing his experiences with work; customer and family relationships; and the keys to running a successful business with entrepreneurship classes at Iowa City High School.

Voting for the award technically occurred last November, however Balmer was unable to attend an HBA-membership function until recently.

John Balmer (right) of PSC Distribution/StudioH2O receives The Greater Iowa City Area HBA 2018 Distinguished Leadership Award. He is pictured with 2017 recipient Glenn Siders (left) from Siders Development and 2019 Greater Iowa City Area HBA President Mike Bails with Urban Acres Real Estate.