Much of Iowa is frozen and snow-covered, but soon enough, spring will be here and homeowners will leap into landscaping and farmers will dig into the soil. Ben Booth, at Iowa One Call, says if you plan to do any digging, it’s the law to call 8-1-1 at least 48 hours before digging and have all potential obstacles underground marked off. Booth says they’re holding special damage prevention seminars this month for contractors and excavators.

Booth says, “This program focuses on the farming community, specifically farmers and tiling excavators and land improvement contractors, people who will be doing the terracing and installation of drainage tile.”

If a pipeline, communications line or other vital service is ruptured by your negligence, you may be found financially liable for repairs and any repercussions. There have been several incidents in recent years in rural Iowa involving ag contractors digging where they shouldn’t be digging. Booth says, “We have a lot of problems throughout the year with these types of farming and agricultural operations impacting the pipelines as well as fiber infrastructure, fiber optic cables.”

Anyone who fails to call Iowa One Call and ruptures an underground line could face fines ranging from $1,000 to $10,000 per day. There were pipeline explosions in Jackson and Plymouth counties in the past few years. Booth says both incidents happened because the contractors failed to call Iowa One Call. “There can be some really serious ramifications of hitting an underground high-pressure natural gas pipeline or a hazardous liquids pipeline,” Booth says.

The next seminar on damage prevention is planned for next week. It will be held at 6:30 P-M Tuesday at the Senior Center in Glenwood. Learn more at: www.iowaonecall.com

(Radio Iowa)

The Iowa House has passed a bill that would allow all-terrain vehicles on all rural roads and county highways in Iowa. Four-wheel A-T-V’s currently can be driven on those roads if they’re being used for farming and some cities and counties have ordinances allowing A-T-V’s on local roads. Representative Kurt Hansen, a Democrat from Fairfield, says he’s heard from rural Iowans who aren’t thrilled with the idea of letting anyone drive an A-T-V on a rural road.

“Their concern is that they have a lot of remote properties — their properties are vulnerable to theft and vandalism — and they’re worried about a new group of people coming into the county, operating these vehicles and harming their property,” Hansen says. “The concern also centered around people going down a narrow gravel road with a hill and finding one of these vehicles driven down the highway. Now we have just a few. Could this open it up to just a whole bunch of vehicles?”

Representative Sally Stutsman, a Democrat from Riverside, says the bill should have required safety equipment on A-T-Vs — like seat belts and roll-bars — if these vehicles are going to be driven on roads. “I continue to have grave concerns about allowing the use of vehicles that the manufacturers specifically say are not to be used on roads,” Stutsman says. “…What makes these such good vehicles for off-roads are the very things that makes them dangerous for on-roads.”

Representative Mary Mascher, a Democrat from Iowa City, says she’s talked to her brother about A-T-Vs — because he sells them. “And he has said these were never, ever, ever meant to be ridden on the road,” Mascher says. “They were not constructed for that.” The House passed the bill by a wide margin — a vote of 70 to 28. Representative Brian Moore, a Republican from Bellevue, was the only House member to speak in favor of the bill.

“I do know where these particular vehicles are riding now where they’re forced to ride out in pastures or timber ground or even parks where they don’t know the layout and you can’t see the layout of the ground,” Moore says. “I think the gravel road system we have and the secondary system I think is going to be a much safer place than what they have offered to them now.”

A similar bill recently passed a Senate committee. A bill to allow ATVs on rural roads passed the Republican-led House during the 2013 legislative session, but stalled in the Democratically-controlled Senate. A legislative committee then studied the issue last fall, hearing from both sides in the debate.

(Radio Iowa)