In support of April as National Safe Digging Month, the Iowa Association of Municipal Utilities joins the Iowa Utilities Board, Common Ground Iowa, and Iowa One Call, in reminding Iowa communities to be safe, help protect underground utility lines, and always call 811 before any digging projects.
 
Gov. Kim Reynolds has also signed a proclamation inn support of safe digging practices in Iowa and proclaiming April as National Safe Digging Month.
 
Calling 811 is toll-free. Locating lines can save lives, prevent accidents to underground utility infrastructure, and avoid injuries, costly repairs, and fines.
 
Iowa law, Iowa Code chapter 480, Underground Facilities Information, requires that a resident or professional excavator contact Iowa One Call at 811 or 1-800-292-8989 at least two days before digging begins to mark the location of all utility lines. Iowa’s One Call center is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
 
The following will occur once Iowa One Call is contacted:

• Operators with underground utility facilities in the area where the excavation is planned are notified. This includes natural gas and electric power utilities, communications companies, water lines, and cities and towns.
• Within 48 hours after being contacted, utilities either mark their underground facilities with color-coded paint marks or flags, or tell the excavator they have no lines in the area.

 
If a contractor is performing the excavation work, a person should make sure the contractor calls Iowa One Call two days before excavating starts.

IAMU has created three new Job Description Templates for members to use when creating job descriptions for position postings and for general use.
 
The new job description templates include ones for:

• Customer Service Clerk / Billing Specialist / Payroll Clerk / Accounts Payable Clerk / Accounts Receivable Clerk and other typical business office functions
• Maintenance Worker including Heavy Equipment Operation
• Solid Waste Collection
  

This brings the number of available templates to nine. The other templates include ones for:

• Electric Lineworker
• Water Plant Operator/Technician
• Power Plant Operator
• Telecom/ Broadband Technician
• Gas/Water/Wastewater Superintendent or Technician
• Public Works/Streets/Maintenance Worker

 
The intent of providing Job Description Templates is to allow IAMU members to develop, enhance, or replace existing job descriptions. The detailed job descriptions allow for:

• Better recruitment – enables you to identify the right person for each job. Detailed job descriptions clarify employer expectations for job candidates and identify essential job functions and physical requirements.
• Better compensation systems – allows for accurate job and skill comparisons so you can create fair and logical pay and grading systems. Detailed job descripitons can also serve as a reference tool in employee/employer disputes.
• Better performance evaluation – enables you to make evaluations based on objective versus subjective criteria.
• Better people planning – allows you to make skill-based hiring and succession planning decisions.
• Better legal compliance – helps your utility to stay in compliance with many laws and help defend lawsuits related to hiring or termination.
• Objective criteria for managing return-to-work situations – following both workplace and non-work injuries and illnesses

 
The templates are available to all IAMU members for free. Safety Group Insurance Program participants can also receive complimentary consulting assistance in using the templates from Dave Eaton, IAMU Risk Improvement Representative. If you are not an insurance program participant, there is a nominal fee for the added consulting services.
 
To access the templates, go to www.iamu.org, sign in as a member*, go to the “Resources” section, and then to “Job Description Templates.” There you will find instructions on how to use the templates as well as the editable templates.
 
*If you need your member sign-in information, contact Josh Trout at [email protected].

Driving at night can be challenging, and many drivers don’t realize they must adjust their daytime driving styles. To learn more about some common roadway risks and how to mitigate them, check out this article in EMC Insurance’s Loss Control Insights.

The financial markets are closed each year on Good Friday while the banks remain open. IPAIT is closed to transactions due to the financial markets being closed. This year Good Friday falls on what would be the last business day of the quarter in addition to being the county property tax payment due date.  We wanted to give you a heads up to initiate your transactions for settlements no later than Thursday, March 29th.  ACH transactions must be in the system by 3 p.m. Wednesday, March 28 and wire transactions must be in the system by 10 a.m. Thursday, March 29 for settlement prior to the quarter end and the long weekend.
 
The daily interest rate on IPAIT’s liquid fund has continued to increase throughout the year.  The rate on January 1 was 1.10% and as of this writing is 1.32%. We encourage you to regularly monitor the rate on the home page of IPAIT.org and compare that to what your funds are earning.

Over the last decade or so, utilities have been aware that they will need to attract the next generation of workers to replace an aging workforce. Here is a link to an interesting article on the topic from the American Public Power Association. IAMU will be covering this issue in the next IAMU Connection magazine, due out in June. If your utility has any programs in place to attract the next generation of utilities workers and you would like to be included in the upcoming IAMU article, email Jen Cronin at [email protected].

Do you need help completing the Consumer Confidence Report? If so, this workshop is for you! The goal of the workshop is for each participant to leave with an understanding, or refresher, of what the CCR is and why it needs to be completed.

The CCR workshops will be held on the dates/locations below:

• April 17: Alta
  Community Building, 27 N. Lake St. (N. of Hwy. 7, W. of Buena Vista Raceway)
  
  
• April 18: Mason City
  Lime Creek Nature Center, 3501 Lime Creek Rd. (N. edge of Mason City off Hwy. 65)
  
  
• April 19: Independence
  Falcon Civic Center, 1305 5th Avenue NE
  
  
• April 20: North Liberty
  North Liberty Community Center, 520 W. Cherry St. (Exit 4 from I-380, right onto  250th St./W. Penn St., right onto IA-965, left onto W. Cherry)
  
  
• April 24: Ankeny
  IAMU Training & Office Complex, 1735 NE 70th Ave
  
  
• April 26: Atlantic
  Elks Lodge, 501 Poplar, 3rd Floor

Important! Please bring the following items to the workshop:

• IDNR Draft CCR mailed in March 2018
• If you operate a surface water system: You must bring your turbidity
  information. Highest single measurement and the lowest monthly
  percentage of samples meeting turbidity limits from 2017 calendar year
• If you add Fluoride, bring the highest and lowest lab results from 2017
• Jump (flash) drive for ease of saving

Hope to see you there!

There are no new PHMSA or IUB rule makings to address; however, substantial changes were made. 
 
The biggest change: Division 3, the Emergency Plan, is now separate from the O&M and is its own document. Not many changes are made to the Emergency Plan from year to year. Having it as a separate document will allow you to finalize the Emergency Plan and not have to transfer it over from year to year when O&M changes are made. This change will also make it easier to distribute the Emergency Plan in the appropriate places, such as utility vehicles, utility offices, etc. Note: All Gas Employees must be familiar with and understand the Emergency Plan requirements.
 
Additional changes to the O&M include (just to name a few):

• A meter installation diagram showing installation 3 foot from any ignition sources.
• PHMSA code requirements that were omitted in previous years.
• EFV-installation requirements.
• Many new recordkeeping forms to allow for easier documentation.

 
Reminder: Your Board or Council must adopt both the O&M and Emergency Plan revisions. Also, be sure to review the O&M and Emergency Plan changes with your employees so everyone is aware of the changes. As always, document the O&M and Emergency Plan review and training. 
 
Numerous changes made to the O&M in the last few years, but IAMU is working hard to keep the manuals current and address everything that Code requires so our members have all of the resources available to stay compliant with regulations. IAMU will host a webinar on Thursday, March 29 at 9:30 a.m. to review/discuss O&M and Emergency Plan changes. IAMU will send information this week about the webinar to all gas members.
 
If you have any comments, concerns, or suggestions about the O&M or Emergency Plan, contact Nick Vandegriff, IAMU Gas Services & Compliance Specialist, at 641.919.8411 or by email at [email protected].
 
Note: Check your email. All gas members should have received an email from Nick that included a Word and PDF version of the 2018 O&M and 2018 Emergency Plan to download and print. He also attached a “changes tracker” – an Excel spreadsheet of the changes. There are two tabs at the bottom – one tab is for the O&M changes and the other for the Emergency Plan changes.