Now that we have your attention, we want to remind you that there's still time to register for the IAMU Grants Workshop that will be held Monday, August 3rd at IAMU.  IAMU is offering this workshop to provide members with information about grant opportunities available in Iowa.  If you’ve never applied for a grant before, this workshop will help you get started.  If you have ideas for a grant, representatives from various state agencies will be available to talk about various opportunities and answer your questions. CLICK HERE to register.

If you need more convincing, talk to Sara Kaplan, Energy Services Engineer, by phone at 515-289-1999 or email at skaplan@iamu.org.  

Mark your calendars for this year’s IAMU Natural Gas Operator Qualification Workshop taking place August 26 – 27, 2015 at the IAMU Training and Office Complex.  This year’s workshop will cover a multitude of topics and offer many qualification opportunities.

by Jim Wolfe, IAMU Electric Services Coordinator

The word documentation echoes through the buildings, streets, and jobsites of our utilities and city departments. Job duties have shifted from grabbing the stuff you need for the day and heading out to filing reports, working with metering and billing software, inventory management, budgets, and safety compliance. People that previously spent most of their time in the field have a lot more administrative duties now and this creates paperwork. Some of this trickles down to the people out in the field and isn’t always accepted as a positive thing. Why is this my problem? We only have a couple employees, so is this really necessary? Don’t we do enough paperwork?

submitted by Iowa One Call

As part of an ongoing effort to promote excavation safety and underground damage prevention, Iowa One Call would like to invite your organization to take part in an 811 day damage prevention partnership promotion on August 11th (“8-11”), and/or during the week of August 11th. 

IAMU will be holding the 3rd Annual Energy Conference November 4-5, 2015. The event logistics will be very similar to last year’s with a vendor reception the evening of November 4 and opportunities to visit with participants during breaks and lunch. During lunch on Wednesday, we will offer a “Tech Teaser” session. This will give vendors the opportunity to pitch their services, new products, etc. during a fast 2 minute time-slot.  New this year, we are looking for two associate members to be our “Gold” level sponsors.  These companies will be the exclusive sponsors of the Executive Director Reception to be held on Tuesday, November 3 and will receive a higher level of benefits.

To view the brochure and register please click here.

If you have any questions please contact Jill Soenen at events@iamu.org.

Thank you for your continued support!

IAMU will again be holding the hands-on Water Distribution & Leak Detection/Line Locating Workshop on September 9-10, 2015.  Sessions each day include: hydrant maintenance, water main tapping, pipe installation, fittings, confined space, leak detection & line locating.

CEUs: 6 hours for water distribution each day

View the full agenda and register here.

After receiving positive feedback from the first session, IAMU has scheduled a second session of the Social Media Workshop on Wednesday, August 19. 2015.  The workshop will be held at the IAMU Office and Training Complex in Ankeny.

What do Algona, Ogden, Independence, Milford, McGregor, Brooklyn, Bloomfield, Denver, Lenox have in common?  They are but a few of the communities that have received grants from the organizations presenting at IAMU’s Grants Workshop on August 3.

July 7, 2015 was a big day in the history of Waverly Utilities, and for the community in general as work began on the new fiber-to-the-home network.  Crews from TD& I Cable Maintenance of Lakeland, Minnesota (an IAMU Associate Member) began work in several areas of Waverly.  Construction will continue the rest of this year with completion anticipated in 2016.

The new utility will be capable of offering Gigabit internet speeds along with cable television and telephone service.  Waverly becomes the first new broadband utility to begin construction in Iowa in over 10 years, but the project actually had it's origins 15 years ago when voters approved a referendum to establish a communications utility.