The Iowa Association of Municipal Utilities (IAMU) has always been about supporting and strengthening Iowa’s municipal utilities. That mission includes helping IAMU members provide employees with access to the benefits that they need and deserve at affordable prices for both the employees and the member utilities or municipalities.

There is no shortage of benefit brokers out there that would welcome the opportunity to work with utilities and municipalities. Trying to determine which benefit professional is the best to meet your needs can be daunting. That’s why IAMU has done that work for you. IAMU endorses Mark J. Becker & Associates. IAMU trusts that Mark and his team can provide our members with comprehensive, flexible and affordable coverage with expert consultation and exceptional service.
As you consider future benefits for your organization’s employees, please take a look at what Mark J. Becker & Associates can do for you through its IAMU Benefit Program.

IAMU will hold its 24th Annual Water and Wastewater Operator’s Training Workshop on November 13-15, 2018. As we prepare for this yearly training that brings together municipal water and wastewater operators from around Iowa, we are asking for presentation proposals. The presentations must provide educational content and must not be sales pitches for specific products or services because members will be receiving continuing education credit for their time at the workshop.
 
If you are interested in presenting, download, complete, and return the Call for Presentations Form to [email protected]
 
If you have any questions about the Call for Presentations Form or the workshop, please contact Steve Marsh at 515.289.1999 or by email at [email protected]
 
Once completed, the Call for Presentations Form may be emailed to Steve. 

Ticks find their hosts by detecting animals’ breath and body odors, or by sensing body heat, moisture, and vibrations. Some species can even recognize a shadow. In addition, ticks pick a place to wait by identifying well-used paths. Then they wait for a host, resting on the tips of grasses and shrubs. Ticks can’t fly or jump, but many tick species wait in a position known as “questing.”

While questing, ticks hold onto leaves and grass by their third and fourth pair of legs. They hold the first pair of legs outstretched, waiting to climb on to the host. When a host brushes the spot where a tick is waiting, it quickly climbs aboard. Some ticks will attach quickly and others will wander, looking for places like the ear, or other areas where the skin is thinner.

Depending on the tick species and its stage of life, preparing to feed can take from 10 minutes to two hours. When the tick finds a feeding spot, it grasps the skin and cuts into the surface. The tick then inserts its feeding tube. Many species also secrete a cement-like substance that keeps them firmly attached during the meal. The feeding tube can have barbs that help keep the tick in place. Ticks also can secrete small amounts of saliva with anesthetic properties so that the animal or person can’t feel that the tick has attached itself. If the tick is in a sheltered spot, it can go unnoticed.

If you develop a rash, body aches and pains or fever within several weeks of removing a tick, see your doctor. Be sure to tell the doctor about your recent tick bite, when the bite occurred, and where you most likely acquired the tick.

Tickborne diseases can result in mild symptoms treatable at home to severe infections requiring hospitalization. Although easily treated with antibiotics, these diseases can be difficult for physicians to diagnose. Early recognition and treatment of the infection decreases the risk of serious complications.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is providing the following information to urge the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) and Honeywell to take action on safety recommendations intended to prevent the incorrect installation of PermaLock mechanical tapping tee assemblies in gas distribution systems. These recommendations are derived from an ongoing investigation of a fatal accident involving a natural gas explosion and fire in Millersville, Pennsylvania. The NTSB is issuing two recommendations to PHMSA and two recommendations to Honeywell.
 
On July 2, 2017, at 12:32 p.m. eastern standard time, a natural gas explosion and fire destroyed a single-family residence at 206 Springdale Lane, in Millersville, Pennsylvania. One person died, and three people were injured. Two nearby residences were severely damaged and condemned for demolition.
 
UGI Utilities, Inc. (UGI) supplied natural gas to the Millersville residences through a plastic natural gas pipeline (main) and service lines, which UGI operated at a pressure of 54 pounds per square inch, gauge. The main was 2 inches in diameter and made of Aldyl polyethylene; the 0.50-inch diameter service lines were made of polyethylene. Post-accident, the main and service lines at the accident site were pressure tested, which indicated that a PermaLock mechanical tapping tee assembly was leaking gas at the connection of the tee assembly to the main in front of the destroyed residence. UGI installed the tee assembly in June 1998; it had been in service for 19 years when the accident occurred.
 
The NTSB examination of the PermaLock tee assembly involved in the accident has revealed that the tee assembly was incorrectly installed. Although the cutter tool pierced a hole in the main, the locking sleeve did not progress down far enough into the tower to form threads in that hole. As a result, the locking sleeve was not attached to the main. The NTSB also found that two of the four Nylon bolts on the tee assembly were fractured in a manner consistent with slow crack growth. These findings indicate the likelihood of varying tee assembly installation techniques.
 
On June 25, the NTSB issued the following recommendations:
 
To the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration:
Work with state pipeline regulators to incorporate into their inspection programs, a review to ensure that gas distribution pipeline operators are using best practices recommended by the manufacturer in their distribution integrity management programs, including using the specified tools and methods, to correctly install PermaLock mechanical tapping tee assemblies. (P-18-1)
 
Reference the use of external sources of information for threat identification in your frequently asked questions for preparation of distribution integrity management programs. (P-18-2)
 
To Honeywell: 
Update your PermaLock mechanical tapping tee assembly installation instructions to specify the exact tools that should be used during installation and explain what an installer should sense while using those tools throughout the installation process. (P-18-3)
 
Specify in your PermaLock mechanical tapping tee assembly installation instructions a not-to-exceed torque limit for Nylon bolts and have that value checked and adjusted with a torque wrench immediately after installation. (P-18-4)
 
If you have any questions about the NTSB’s safety recommendations for Installation of Permalock Mechanical Tapping Tee Assemblies, contact Nick Vandegriff, IAMU Gas Services & Compliance Specialist at [email protected] or by phone at 515.289.1999 (office), 641.919.8411 (cell).

Jester Insurance Services has announced the dates for this fall’s IAMU Safety Group Insurance Seminars.
 
Tuesday, Oct. 9
Buena Vista University
610 W. Fourth St.
Storm Lake, IA 50588
9 a.m. – 12 p.m.
 
Wednesday, Oct. 24
Prairie Meadows
1 Prairie Meadows Drive
Altoona, IA 50009
8:30 – 11:30 a.m.
 
Wednesday, Oct. 31
Hilton Garden Inn
7213 Nordic Drive
Cedar Falls, IA 50613
9 a.m. – 12 p.m.
 
Please notify the appropriate personnel in your office and share these dates/times/locations with them.
 
A formal registration form will be sent in mid-August.

IAMU is once again offering the Electric Utility System Operation Short Course (EUSO) presented by Skip Collier of Professional Training Systems, Inc.
 
Skip is highly regarded and has an extensive background in electric utility design, construction, maintenance and operation.
 
EUSO Short Course:  July 31 – August 2
The EUSO Short Course is designed for any employee whose job performance will benefit from a basic understanding of the operations side of the business.  This includes those from legal, rates, engineering, purchasing, computer application, marketing, customer service, inventory control, finance, accounting, safety, risk analysis as well as those from generating plants.  One goal for this class is to have students leave with the ability to easily identify all of the electrical equipment they see in a substation as they walk by, along with all the equipment found on the poles in a residential area.  Non-electrical engineers are often at a disadvantage in the electric utility environment due to a lack of familiarity with technical issues.  The better you understand the utility’s product – electrical energy – and how it is created and distributed, the better you can serve the utility and your customers.  This course assumes no electrical background, and builds on the basics to provide a comprehensive understanding of the equipment and operations.
 
*Line Maintainer apprentices will receive 21 Basic OJT hours for taking the EUSO Course.*
 
Registration is open.
Registration fees for the course are below.
 
(*If you are planning on sending more than one participant from your organization, please make sure to share this with multiple departments so that you qualify for the reduced cost with the initial registration.)

• EUSO Course - $950 for a single registrant OR $850 each for two or more participants from the same utility/organization

For additional information, brochure, and registration, please click HERE.  The registration deadline for the workshop is Tuesday, July 24, 2018.

Mark your calendars for the IAMU Wastewater Collection System Workshop.  Sponsored by Central Iowa Televising, this new IAMU workshop will take place on Tuesday, July 17 at the IAMU Training and Office Complex.

Training topics will include:

• Putting Together Written Maintenance & Asset Management Programs
• Identifying & Eliminating I&I
• Mainline & Lateral Sewer Rehabilitation Methods
  
  

Live demos will include:

• Jet/Vac – O&M – Nozzle Selection by Mid-Iowa Equipment
• TV Truck – O&M – Mainline/Lateral Launch by Mid-Iowa Equipment
• CIPP Point Repair / Connection Liner by Central Iowa Televising
• Trench / Shoring / Confined Space Safety by Contractor Solutions

0.5 CEUs for Wastewater only.

Cost:
IAMU Members - $45.00
Non-Members - $65.00
(Includes CEUs, lunch, and breaks)

Registration is open.  For more information about the workshops, brochure, and online registration, click HERE.

You are receiving this message as part of the Iowa Department of Revenue’s ongoing effort to educate businesses and organizations about the state’s new Water Service Excise Tax (WET). 
 
Water utilities must separate WET from sales tax for collection and remittance to the Department beginning July 1, 2018.  However, in order to provide water utilities with time to make necessary programming changes, water utilities do not have to itemize WET on bills and receipts to customers prior to January 1, 2019. Beginning on January 1, 2019, WET must be separately itemized and stated on all bills and receipts, and must be identified separately from any other taxes collected, if any. The Department will not monitor how water utilities decide to separately collect and remit WET prior to January 1, 2019. 
 
Additional information about the Water Service Excise Tax is available on our website. 

You are receiving this message as part of the Iowa Department of Revenue’s ongoing effort to educate businesses and organizations about the state’s new Water Service Excise Tax (WET). The Department has received many questions from taxpayers about who is subject to WET. Detailed information, including a webinar, about WET can be found on our website at https://tax.iowa.gov/WET.
 
Only “water utilities” are required to collect WET. For purposes of WET, a “water utility” is anyone providing water to the public through a piped distribution system for compensation. Simply owning a well or other water supply does not necessarily mean you are subject to WET. In addition, taxpayers who only sell water through interior plumbing, as opposed to also owning a well or water supply, are not required to collect WET.
 
For example, a restaurant may have an on-site well that pipes water into the restaurant. If the owner of the well is not charging the owner of the restaurant for the water service, then there is no sale of water service and the well owner does not have to collect WET. If the well owner charges the restaurant for the water service, then the sale is subject to WET and the well owner would collect WET from the restaurant owner.
 
We realize that changes in how taxes are structured and collected can be confusing. More information about WET can be found at https://tax.iowa.gov/WET. You can also email your question or call us at 515-281-3114 or 800-367-3388.