Intrusive government and thank goodness for Farm Bureau

[dagwud]

I am not a big fan of Farm Bureau as I think they do a far better job representing the concerns of the large mega farmers and the corporate livestock industry then they do worrying about the concerns of smaller family farmers. However I will give the Farm Bureau kudos for helping to stop Johnson County supervisors from implementing a new ordinance that was both idiotic and yet another attempt to get government more involved in regulating people's lives. Johnson County which is know as Iowa's most liberal county and includes Iowa City area recently had their county supervisors push a new ordinance that would have put strict regulations on how farmers and rural residents maintain their homes, barns and outbuildings. The overly broad and vague ordinance would have added a new layer of government regulations and inspections that would have carried stiff fines of up to $1000 per day and given the county the right to fix any perceived "problems" and then bill the property owner or put a lien on the property.

The new ordinance would have required farmers to keep their residences, barns, sheds and other out buildings "clean, safe and sanitary" although there was no real definition of what constitued "clean, safe and sanitary" or exactly how it would be interpreted there by leaving it up to individual inspectors to determine. The ordinance would have also required farmers to provide a bathroom withing 500 feet of any location where hired hands are working, required that windows of a certain size be installed in all buildings and that doors to all buildings be water tight. The ordinance would have also required that all farm equipment be "safe." Once again there was no definition of what was "safe."

Looks like I could not have a hired man take my 35 year old skid loader with no roll cage out of the 40 year old machine shed that has a leaky tin roof, a homemade wooden door that leaks,no windows and occasionly you can find cat droppings in the corner of the dirt floor out to clear overgrown brush along of of the fence lines as they would be much farther then 500 feet away from any bathroom.

Farm Bureau helped lead strong opposition to the proposed ordinance which led the supervisors to decide to rethink their proposal after 200 citizens showed up for a hearing on the matter. F.B. wants any such ordinance to exempt farms and believes the proposal could possibly violate state law which makes farm houses and buildings exempt from county building codes.

[r3020]

The scary thing is that such an ordinance was ever proposed.

[kraft-t]

Do you suppose Johnson county has some reason for this effort or do you think they are merely trying to make life miserable for farmers. I know that here in the city, we have ordinances and covenences for the community good. Other wise there are those that are real pigs that wilol make the place a mess for every body. Why do you suppose they have antilitter laws. They probably help some on the roadways but off the roadways is private property. I know this that I could keep pretty busy just picking up trash along a few miles of road as there are so many that ignore the law.

If you drive through the differnt developments in the city you will see theones with strong covenences and those that relax the rules. I wouldn't buy in those areas because I don't want to view other people's junk cars, boats or campers or toys and stuff strewn about their yards. That is why location location location is so important. You don't have to be rich to be tidy.

When my neighbor dumped his dead hogs on my property, I should have dumped them on his front porch. That is how stupid some folks are.

[dagwud]

Don't even get me started on problems with littering. I have had numerous cases of illegal dumping over the years as much of my farm ground is on gravel roads and with some located on dead end roads that are seldom traveled. Three time I have dug through the garbage and been able to indentify the culprit only to report it to law enforcement officials and then have them tell me they first give the litterers a chance to come pick it up and receive no penalty or face charges. Bull hockey!

I agree Don about the need and desire to try and keep neighborhoods clean and safe but please don't tell me you would have welcomed such a vaguely worded ordinance to have been imposed on you and your farming operation and buildings while you were actively farming. One can simply not expect the same cleanliness standards for urban residentual areas to work well for active farming areas. This is as silly as the EPA wanting to impose strict dust control limits on farming.

[hardnox604008]

Hi Dagwud,

Yep, been there and done that. When I served on a plan commission a number of years back there were people who were suggesting the same.

I'm not against zoning at all, but that is a discussion for another day.

Anyway, my take was that it was primarily people who moved to the country who thought they could enforce their standards on others. My opinion was that if you want order, then move back to town. That is what town is for.

fwiw, h

[kraft-t]

What isreally scarey is that you have been able to come to that conclusion without knowing why they felt it necessary to propose it.

[kraft-t]

In other words you don't know why they are doing it but are certain you are against it. Why don't you go to the hearings and then you can make an educated decision.Most of these regulation have a purpose. I haven't had anyone trouble me with dust blowing. Have you. I know the counbties do not like ditches filled with top soil but as yet I don't believe they have passed a law against dust nor have they enforced osuch a law.

Another one of those dream it up issues like obama owning oil companies or taking your guns away etc etc.. Ah! but the government is out to get you so you better be prepared.  Chronic paranoia seems to have afflicted so many. And i'm glad Farm bureau will save you.

[kraft-t]

I can understand your point of view, but if a person has development property and can sell it for residentual property why should the existing neighbors be able to diminish the value of the property?  Does the first guy there have a right to make the area unlivable or should he have to get permission from adjoining land owners before he puts in a feedlot or a hog confinement? Or a salvage yard  or a land fill.

[dagwud]

"What isreally scarey is that you have been able to come to that conclusion without knowing why they felt it necessary to propose it."

Not following you on that one Don. It does not take much thinking to know that trying to enact such vague unrealistic rules on others is not smart and will eventually lead to lawyers spending our hard earned tax payer dollars trying to defend such poorly thought out rules and regulations. Even if there are some folks that don't keep their places as neat as some wish does not mean you can enforce unrealistic standards on the rest of us as a way to get others to fall in line with your way of thinking. Still doubting you have welcomed such an ordinance while you were farming and especially if you were raising livestock and had a hired hand.

[kraft-t]

Aren't you the least bit curious what they are doing and the reason that motivates them. Why do you automatically conclude that they are just a bunch of treehuggers trying to make unnecessary restrictions on you.

With your kind of thinking there would be no polution laws. No environmental laws. Nbo protection for air and water. For certain, I might opbject but first it wouldn't hurt to inform yourself. Believe it or not the city fathers are not sitting around in their cozy chairs trying to figure out how to "eff" things up just to make farmers miserable.

But then I do believe you are perfectly willing to convict without hear all of the evidence.