Retired Ogden Municipal Utilities Superintendent and long-time RPGI Board Member Dan Wilson passed away suddenly on Sunday, May 29, 2016, at the Boone County Hospital.

You can view Dan's obituary here.

Provided by Ahlers & Cooney, P.C.
 
An ever-increasing amount of our daily life is being conducted online. Does this provide a disservice to those individuals who cannot, for example, hear online videos or read webpage content? It might, and the ability of disabled individuals to access web-based services and information is receiving increased attention under the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA") and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act ("Section 504"), as well as state law equivalents.

Provided by Ahlers & Cooney, P.C.

On May 18, 2016, the Department of Labor (DOL) published its long-awaited final regulations updating the Fair Labor Standards Act's (FLSA) overtime requirements. The new rules become effective December 1, 2016.

The major changes, discussed in more detail below, include:

• An increase in the salary threshold for "white collar" administrative, executive, or professional exemption to $913 per week, or $47,476 annually
  
• An increase in the salary threshold for the "highly compensated" employee exemption to $134,004 annually
  
• A self-adjusting increase to both of these thresholds every three years.

However, the rule will not, as discussed in more detail below:

• Affect exemptions from overtime for teaching employees or academic administrative professionals employed at educational institutions.
  

Provided by The University of Iowa Public Policy Center

This symposium will explore the current state of Iowa’s drinking water and the future challenges confronting water providers in the state to reliably deliver safe drinking water to Iowans. 

Co-organized by the University of Iowa Public Policy Center and the Center for Health Effects of Environmental Contamination (CHEEC), this all day event will include panels of water experts from academia, industry, and the public sector including the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR).  In light of recent, high profile incidents of public health crises arising from drinking water contamination around the United States, a special focus will be placed on whether drinking water supplies in Iowa are susceptible to similar vulnerabilities experienced elsewhere.  This includes a presentation by members of the Flint Water Study, who will share first-hand experiences and lessons learned from the public health crisis in Flint, Michigan. Beyond Flint, panel topics will address other potential threats to the sustainability of Iowa’s drinking water supplies.

The Symposium has been accredited for 0.6 CEUs for the renewal of Iowa water treatment and distribution operator licenses.

For more information, click here.

Statistics show that nearly two-thirds of all PRCS fatalities are would-be rescuers. In almost all of these cases, the rescuers are neither trained, equipped or even fully aware of the hazards that they will encounter while trying to save another person’s life during an emergency.

Whether a rescue service meets your workplace needs depends on all of the following; the confined spaces from which a rescue may be necessary, the hazards likely to be encountered in those spaces and the number of entrants needing rescue.

Provided by the APPA

On Monday, May 16, the D.C. Circuit issued an order on its own motion, rescheduling the oral argument in the Section 111(d) case from June 2 and 3, 2016, to Tuesday, September 27, 2016, before all of the judges on the D.C. Circuit, not just a three-judge panel.  The granting of en banc review by the D.C. Circuit is very rare, and the fact that the court did this on its own accord shows the significance of the case. Overall, we believe this is a positive development.

APPA’s Reliable Public Power Provider (RP3) application for 2016 is now available. The RP3 program recognizes electric utilities that demonstrate high proficiency in reliability, safety, work force development and system improvement.  The application will be open through September 30, 2016. To learn more about the RP3 program, please visit APPA’s website: www.PublicPower.org/RP3

On March 18, 2016, the Iowa Supreme Court majority opinion in Hutchison et. al v. Warren County adopted a new standard for determining when a “meeting” occurs under Iowa’s Open Meetings law. Prior to this ruling, a bright line rule existed for determining when a “meeting” was subject to the Open Meetings law: for a meeting to occur, there had to be a gathering (in person or by electronic means) of a majority of the members of the public body and deliberation or action had to occur on a matter within the scope of the body’s policy-making duties. Now, the Supreme Court has determined that a meeting of a public body can occur even if a majority of the board or council members are not physically or electronically present at the gathering.

The Harlan Municipal Utilities is celebrating 125 years of service to Harlan.

The municipal electric and water services were established January of 1891. Natural gas was established in December 1952 and Telecom serviced established in May 1995.

HMU would like to invite fellow municipal utility members to join us in celebrating this historic milestone during our annual customer appreciation celebration on June 14th from 5-7 PM at Veteran’s Memorial Auditorium, 1104 Morningview Drive, in Harlan.

We’ll be serving chicken, hot dogs and other picnic fare.

Please RSVP to Doug Hammer [email protected] by June 6th.

APGA members met in Washington, D.C. on May 3 and 4 to take part in the 2016 Government Relations Conference and to meet with lawmakers on Capitol Hill. In addition to receiving updates on key natural gas issues, another critical component of this event is APGA members meeting with their congressional delegations. Having congressional representatives hear directly from their constituents on key issues of interest to public natural gas systems has greatly helped APGA’s advocacy efforts. As has occurred in previous years, many members of the APGA Public Gas Policy Council attended this year’s event to participate in meetings on the Hill. The Public Gas Policy Council is made up of elected and appointed officials from public natural gas communities.

Equipment Technology Inc would like to extend an invitation to the 2016 Iowa ETI Roadshow. This will be a great opportunity to learn more about who ETI is, their line of trucks and what separates ETI from the competition.  We have a fun day planned at the home of the Hawkeye football team, Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City.  We will have several key people from our company to answer any questions you might have, from technical to customer support to future product introductions.  Limited space available.

Please RSVP to Matt Elmborg by email at [email protected] or 405-753-4732.

For more information, please click here.