February 2016

Iowa LICA 1310 8th Ave. N.E.

Independence, Iowa 50644

319-334-9884 Cell: 319-240-2420

ialica@indytel.com

www.ialica.com

Contents:

Page 2 Presidents Message

Page 3 John Peterson, LICA

Page 5 LICA Associate Members

Page 6 Savings Tip

Capitol Visit

Page 7 Down on the Farm

Page 8 Leichty is a Winner

Page 9 Barnhart Report

Page 10 Day on the Hill

Page 11 Upcoming Meetings

Page 12 Scholarship Applications

Page 15 57th Annual Convention

Page 17 From the Executive Director

Page 18 Safety Meeting Schedule

Page 19 Editorial Response

2016 officers elected for Iowa LICA

Scott Bohle of

Kingsley,

President.

Larry Vais of

Anita, State

Vice-president.

Dave Flewelling of

Moville, Chairman

of the Board

District Presidents received plaques for their service in 2015. Dis-

trict Presidents were: Kevin Hemesath of Northeast, Brian Pickhinke of

Northwest, Victor Gingerich from Southeast, and Larry Vais of South-

west.

For the past few years, Iowa LICA, has been awarding the “Shiny

Shovel” award to a member who has gone above and beyond. The award

started in Illinois a few years ago.

This year’s winner took over the management of getting the dam and

overflow pipes installed at the farm. He worked with the engineers, sup-

pliers, and contractors to coordinate the project under very difficult con-

ditions.

Mark Erpelding of Erpelding Excavating Enterprises was the

recipient of this years “Shiny Shovel Award”.

Award Night

2015 Shiny Shovel Award

2

From your State President

Hello, my name is Scott Bohle and I will be serving as your State President

this year.

Well, the 2016 Convention is in the books and I feel it was a great one.

Thanks to all the members who planned and made this convention possible.

Thank you to all the Associate members who set up in the vending area with

your booths, taught sessions, helped and donated toward the auction, and hos-

pitality rooms. Everyone coming together makes for a great convention. For those of you who didn't

stay for the President’s Banquet, Dan announced that we did reach our goal of 500 members, 504 to be

exact. Thank you to those members who worked hard to reach that goal. This is awesome! Did you

know that nation-wide LICA has around 2200 members? Iowa represents over 500 of that membership,

and Iowa is the largest chapter in the nation. But there are also concerns that come with this. Our South-

west district is in need of a President and Vice President for the district, so please think about this and

step up to the plate; you will not regret it. By becoming officers, you will make great contacts with peo-

ple and create lifelong friendships, and just by visiting with any of them you will learn something that

will benefit you and your business. Iowa LICA is composed of membership and is “run” by member-

ship, so please if you have been thinking about it or have been asked if interested, this is a great time to

step forward and help to keep this organization moving forward.

One of the great things coming up is Conservation Day at the Capitol Building January 19th and March

11th we will also be holding a Statewide District meeting, location to be determined and verified. Our group is striving hard all the time to stay ahead on legislative issues and this year will be no differ-

ent with Governor Branstad’s proposal to take a portion of the $.01 cent tax that is for school infrastruc-

ture and put towards water quality. Our group has not taken a position on this topic yet because we are

waiting to get more info and feedback for state legislators. This is a very touchy topic because it deals

with two important issues within our State.

In closing Iowa LICA is a great organization and I would love to see more involvement in committee

meetings and district meetings. Committee meetings are a way to get your voice heard on concerns you

come about through the year and realize that contractors across the state run into the same issues.

Working together as a group can get changes made. My challenge to each one of you this year is to do

your best to make at least one of your district meetings if not all of them and get involved. Our Associ-

ates are asked to sponsor these meetings and we need take time to go to the meetings and support our

Associates because they do a great job of supporting us.

Thanks to our outgoing President Dave Flewelling! He has done a great job and congratulations to Lar-

ry Vais for being voted in as our new State VP.

Have a safe and prosperous 2016!

Scott Bohle

State President of Iowa LICA

3

2015 saw a record number of Federal rules.

By

John Peterson, LICA Director of Government Relations. 02 JAN 2016

In 2015, the administration added 81,600 pages of new rules to the Federal

register according to the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s count of the of-

ficial record-keeping digest of federal agency rule-making. It’s the highest

total on record, and the third time this administration has crossed the 80,000

page level during its time in office. CEI’s Clyde Wayne Crews said “this is

the pen and phone era, and the president has made it clear he’s going

around Congress when he gets the chance. We expected Congress to do

something about it, but it didn’t.”

Instead it was the federal court system that challenged the executive branch

in 2015. The president was dealt several significant defeats in front of

judges who shut down two of his biggest initiatives - to rewrite immigration

law and to extend the hand of the federal government in permitting decisions throughout the coun-

try - WOTUS.

All told, the administration proposed 2,334 rules and finalized 3,378 rules and regulations during

2015. With the exception of President Reagan, who managed to limit the Federal Register to un-

der 50,000 pages of new rules and regulations per year, the recent level has been around 70,000.

But under Obama it has been hovering around 80,000. Crews said the size and scope of the regu-

lations are beyond anything seen before. And academics and legal scholars are debating the role of

federal agencies, and asking if the executive branch should have such a concentration of power. I

know what I would say.

Lawmakers have not had much luck in overturning rules Obama has already initiated. Congress

passed resolutions disapproving of two EPA rules designed to force states and power plants to re-

duce their greenhouse gas emissions, but Obama vetoed both, and Congress is unlikely to succeed

in overriding him. Earlier in 2015 Congress passed a measure to overturn rules from the National

Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that allowed labor unions to force “ambush” elections on employ-

ers. Obama vetoed that bill, and Congress failed to override the veto.

In November the Senate passed a measure to overturn the EPA redefinition of Waters of the Unit-

ed States (WOTUS). The House has yet to take up that measure, but the courts have stepped in.

The 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay. That was one of several losses for the admin-

istrations regulatory agenda last year. The biggest was on immigration, where Obama’s deporta-

tion amnesty, announced through “guidance” memos issued by Homeland Security in Nov. 2014,

was struck down in Feb. The judge said Obama broke the law by short-circuiting the public notice

and comment required when the administration changes major policies. A Federal Appeals Court

went even further saying that granting work permits and future stays of deportation to millions of

illegal trespassers violates the Immigration and Nationality Act itself. It broke the law!

4

5

A & E Construction Supply

Advanced Drainage Systems

Agri-Drain Corporation

Alliance Pipeline

Altorfor, Inc.

Brown Bear Corporation

Brown’s Heavy Equipment, Inc.

Brown Supply Company

Bryan’s Heavy Equipment

Contact Engineered Solutions

Des Moines Winsupply

Ecosystem Services Exchange

Federated Insurance

FRATCO

Gierke Robinson Company

GK Technology Inc.

H & S Company, Inc.

HD Supply Waterworks, LTD

Heartland Construction Equipment

Hickenbottom, Inc.

Hilpipre Auction Company

Hotsy Equipment Company

IDALS

Iowa Pipeline Association

Iron Planet

Kahn Tile Supply, LLC

Land & Water

Martin Equipment

McCormick Equipment

Metal Culverts, Inc.

Mid America Trenchers

Mid Country Machinery, Inc.

Mid-Tech Services, Inc.

Midwest Plastic Products

Midwest Trailers Plus, Inc.

Mitko, LLC

Mobile Track Solutions, LLC

Moyson Materials

Murphy Tractor and Equipment Co.

N.W. Iowa Community College

Northern Iowa Const. Products

Northern Border Pipeline

Northern Natural Gas

Northland Trenching, Inc.

Port Industries, Inc.

Precision Intakes, Inc.

Prins Insurance, Inc.

Prinsco, Inc.

Purple Wave Auction

Quinn Equipment, Inc.

Riverland Expressions

River Valley Pipe, LLC

Road Machinery & Supplies Co

RTL Equipment, Inc.

RWF Bron

Scott Van Keppel

Springfield Plastics, Inc.

Star Equipment, Ltd.

SunSource

Timewell Drainage Products

Titan Machinery

United Fire Group

Vander Haag's, Inc.

Vermeer Sales & Service

Wiskus Group

XL Specialized Trailers

Ziegler Cat

In the coming year, if you need supplies, machinery, or information on how to

complete a project, make sure you give the LICA members below the opportunity

to help you.

They support us and we need to support them.

6

BottomLine Personal

Well, the tip on the right might

not work out the way they say in

this day with low returns, but the

savings will be very sizable by

the time they retire.

At the Capitol

LICA Chairman of the

Board, Dave Flewelling

and State President,

Scott Bohle, and others

represented Iowa LICA

at the Capitol. They

spent the day talking

about issues that

concern Iowa LICA

members and dis-

cussed the continued

need to protect Iowa’s

land and water re-

sources.

7

Down on the Farm

Well, there is not much happening down on the farm. The

Board did tell me to get the air conditioning working on

the John Deere 4230 this year. It hasn’t worked since the

first year we got it so I suppose I should get it fixed.

The Board also wants to finish putting the wall and insu-

lation on the west side. I admit it does make the building

look a lot better on the inside. If anyone would like to

help with that project, give me a call. We won’t do it until

summer.

8

504 Contractor Members

Thanks to the work of several mem-

bers, we have reached a milestone in

membership. Iowa has never had

500 members.

As many of you know there was a

membership contest. The winner of

the contest will

have his dues

paid for the

next 4 years.

The winner of

the contest was

Irv Leichty of

Leichty & Son

Construction of Mt.Pleasant.

9

Barnhart Report

I attended the State Technical Committee Meeting on December 3rd. For once I got

there early. I had a chance to meet Kurt Simon, who is our new state conservation-

ist. As I introduced myself and told him I represented the Land Improvement Con-

tractors he said, “Oh, LICA, I know who you guys are.” It is good to know that as

these people get moved around the country, most of them spend some time in a state

with a LICA chapter at some point during their career and they realize who we are

and what we represent.

There were presentations on funding of various programs, seems like a mixed bag, in some areas fund-

ing was up, other funding stable, others funding down. Looks like on an average it is not too bad. There

was much discussion on the development of a new erosion model tool. I think people are realizing that

even if our average soil loss is in the 3-5 ton an acre range, which is considered acceptable, the erosion

models do not do a good job in factoring gully erosion into that model, so when conservation planning is

being done, the tool is predicting lower soil loss than maybe actually realized. This led into a discussion

that with strip till and no till we are doing a better job on soil loss, but the problem is when gullies do get

started they don’t get filled in by annual tillage and get worse and worse every year and it needs to be

recognized that conservation repair work needs to be done in these instances.

The NRCS is working on creating several new things, the first being two new CRP programs that allow

grazing and haying on CRP acres with certain restrictions. NCRS has created a new division focused

solely on soil health. A position has been created where Iowa and Missouri share a specialist devoted to

soil health. The NCRS is trying to develop a new tool to more accurately evaluate a producers conserva-

tion activities and results. It is called Resource Stewardship.

To editorialize a little bit, I realize it is necessary to develop all of these programs and computer models

to plan and evaluate conservation activities, but as you know in the real world what Mother Nature does

and the results from that do not necessary follow the models, although I do think we are somewhat head-

ing in the right direction realizing we cannot take whole field averages in the planning process since

25% of the acres of a field may cause 75% of the erosion problems so we need to focus more on the

steeper, more susceptible areas of the field.

10

Day on the Hill with LICA 1/19/2016

LICA was invited by the Conservation Districts of Iowa to display at Iowa Capital.

Members in attendance were Ryan Rasmussen, Bruce Barnhart, Aaron Lyle, Russ Pe-

ters, Scott Bohle, Dave Flewelling, Paul Keppler and myself. We set up the display

table and handed out squeeze dozers to legislators. Members spend time talking with

Jim Gillespie from Division of Soil Conservation, Governor Branstad and Lieutenant

Governor Kim Reynolds. Three items were the main focus of the day: increased

funding for water quality, a new approach with one percent local option sales tax, and

changes in the 179 depreciation.

We also spoke with several House and Senate members about the 179 depreciation and encouraged them

to couple with the federal depreciation. We also suggested that a bill needs to be passed before the

March 1st deadline for taxes. The group went into House Chambers with Representative Lee Hein for a

picture.

Bruce Barnhart and I met with Rep. Bobby Kauffman to discuss travel on interstate highways with over-

size loads. Present at the meeting was Matt Sexton (Senator Ernst office), Alec Kennedy (Senator

Grassley office), Mike from Iowa DOT, and Monica Young (Iowa House staffer). We explained Iowa

does not have an annual oversize over weight permit for contractors that travel daily on the interstate

system. (Illinois has such a permit) This would take federal law change to grant Iowa such a measure.

All in meeting were positive this could be done. The day ended with talking with Branstad on the local

option sales tax idea and a conference was set up with LICA and the governor for January 27.

Tim Recker

Chairman of LICA Legislative Committee

11

January 8, 9, and 10, 2017.

Iowa LICA Annual Meeting and Convention

Airport Holiday Inn, in Des Moines, Iowa

Upcoming Meetings

Northwest District Southwest District Northeast District Southeast District

March 11th Statewide meeting at Ziegler (More info to come)

June 4th June 11th

September 10 September 11 September 18 September 17

December 3 December 4 December 11 December 10

Summer Board/Scholarship Golf - Tuesday, July 28 (Tentative)

12

Apply for 2016 Iowa LICA Scholarship Now

Scholarship applications are

due by March 1, 2016. Go to:

www.ialica.com for more

information on scholarship or

contact Lori Keppler at:

lori@kepplercustomhire.com

13

14

15

Dave and Linda Flewelling and other LICA mem-

bers participate in a great hypnosis act. Everyone

had a good time.

Merv and Craig

teamed up to have

another very suc-

cessful auction.

We have one more

auction before the

2017 Midwest Con-

struction Expo and

Field Day. We are

on track to have

the funds needed

to complete the

pond.

The LICA ladies had a

great time at Cookies

and Canvas painting

an excavator.

Representative

Lee Hein

Representative

Bobby Kauffman

Representative

Dave Maxwell

Representative

Ross Paustian Representative

Norlin Mommsen

Senator

David Johnson

The 57th Annual Meeting and Convention was a great success.

Secretary of Agriculture addressed

LICA contractors at the 57th

Annual Meeting and Convention.

Several Iowa State Legislators attended the Annual Awards Banquet to thank

Iowa LICA for their commitment to preserving our soil and protection our water.

16

17

From the Desk of the Executive Director

As members of Iowa LICA, you are very lucky to

have leaders who step up and support the associa-

tion. Whether they are meeting with legislators at

the Capitol or just supporting the work you do at

home these men and women of the association are

helping you.

As their Executive Director, I can’t be more proud

of what they have accomplished. They sacrifice

time and money to support this association. I would

hope that more of you would become involved. It

does make a difference!

This year make it a point to attend your local district

meetings. Take pride in an association that has in-

creased membership from 200+ just a few years ago

to over 500 today. There is a reason for that

increase. Supporting Iowa LICA does pay!

Dues are PAST DUE

For the few of you who have put off

paying your dues—this will be the last

newsletter you will receive. If you par-

ticipate in the LICA endorsed insur-

ance program, your name will be for-

warded to the insurance company and

your LICA insurance will not be re-

newed. Call Dan Rasmussen if you

have any questions at: 319-240-2420

18

Linda Moyna of Moyson Resources

LICA 2016

Safety Meetings

Date District Location

February 17 SE LICA West Branch

Methodist Church

203 N Downey Street

*March 2 Blazek Corp. Lawler or TBA

March 3 Eastern Iowa Co. Cascade

*March 9 NW LICA Location to be announced HELP!

*March 11 Miene Septic Robins (319) 393 4142

All meetings will be held from 8:00 a.m .- 4:00 p.m.

Must be a minimum of 20 people registered for the class by January 15, 2015)

Cost is $50/person / day – payable at the meeting to Moyson Resources unless the class is a private class.

Private classes are indicated with an asterisk

Payment is due the day of the course. If payment is not received the day of the course the cost is $75/person.

*Does not include lunch unless the program is sponsored.

Itinerary

CSA Review / DOT Update

MSHA – Changes in the Mine (will receive 8 hour refresher course certificate).

Flagger Training

OSHA Review

Drug and Alcohol Training

Blood Borne Pathogen

Hazard Communication

Review of Excavation & Trenching

Workplace Violence

To register for the class please contact:

Linda Moyna / Moyson Resources E-mail: moyson@jtt.net

1474 Benson Avenue / Fairbank, IA 50629 Call: 563 920-3251

19

Doug Egeland responds to the Letter to the Edi-

tor about sinkholes and tiling printed in the

Decorah Journal on December 10th, 2015.

Tiling of farmland is beneficial for everyone.

Tiling of farm ground does not let water run off the land quickly, but rather it causes the ground to act like a

sponge and slows the flow down as much as possible. Tile is installed about four feet deep, lowering the water

table as opposed to the surface water table. By lowering the water table, the soil is becomes more mellow thus

absorbing more rain, rather than it becoming runoff. Weeds thrive on excess moisture, which takes more chemi-

cals to control, and even more than one trip to spray the wet areas. Even organic crops need the moisture con-

trolled so cultivation can be completed before the weeds and grasses take over. Tiling enables farmers to start ear-

lier in the spring to extend their growing season which produces larger and better crops that do not require as much

drying down. This helps by the farmers not needing to use as much LP gas, leaving more for home and business

heating at less cost to the consumer.

I have tiled for over 40 years and as time goes on, the land value has risen ten-fold. Tiling is a way for farmers to

produce more crops for less input cost, helping them stay in business as a family farm. For our company, the tiling

business from the manufacturing of the tile to the completed tiling project creates at least 12 jobs. All of our em-

ployees live in this area all of their lives and shop here as well. We take great pride in helping all farmers produce

more crops, lessening erosion, lessening compaction, and lessening runoff.

Farmers and landowners all want to produce more per acre to help stay in business and to create more, better, and

cheaper food for everyone. Can you imagine what your meals would cost with no tile, no soil conservation, and no

removal of junk trees and weeds? Perhaps you can afford it, but what about the people struggling with today’s

food prices.

The trees that are being grubbed out are mostly box elders, which grow in fence lines, ditches, etc. No one plants

them; they grow like weeds; and they are not even good fire wood. They do have branches that scratch and dam-

age the farmer’s equipment. Also, the farmers own the land, so shouldn’t they have the right to decide what they

want to grow on it --- good, productive crops or scraggly trees and weeds. If you think that our grubbing of scrub

trees is wrong, we do plant over 400 quality trees per year for landowners, parks, and cities.

Instead of complaining about the farmer and their ways to produce more and better food, we all should be thanking

them as we all need their product.

Doug Egeland

Owner of Doug Egeland Tiling

20

Iowa Land Improvement Contractors’ Association

1310 8th Ave. NE

Independence, Iowa 50644 Return Services Requested