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IAMU Announces Plans for "Safe City"October 2006The Iowa Association of Municipal Utilities has announced ambitious plans for a significant new addition to the association’s Safety & Training Field in Ankeny. Plans have been drawn for "Safe City," a miniature city that will simulate"real life" situations involving construction activities, emergency response, and more. Original plans for IAMU’s Training Field included the possibility of building a model city block with all types of infrastructure encountered in actual municipalities. Safe City would fulfill this goal, and would be a major addition to the many hands-on training activities currently offered by IAMU. Only a few such facilities can currently be found in the United States – and unlike most of those, which cater only to the gas utility industry, IAMU’s Safe City would be designed to benefit electric, water and gas utility members, and possibly other utility types in the future. This would offer a truly "world class" training experience for IAMU members. Safe City would take the form of a cluster of six to eight small buildings, representing a mixed residential and commercial neighborhood. It would provide a realistic setting, with operative electric, gas, and water infrastructure throughout the area. Two of the structures would be built to replicate commercial buildings. Some of the training activities planned for Safe City include: • Service connections and metering for all buildings (all departments).• Electric short locating and installation and maintenance of overhead and underground distribution lines with applications for apprenticeship training programs.• Water leak locating, line locating, pit training, and training related to the operation of sprinklers and hydrants.• Gas leak investigation, gas migration through trenches and conduits of other utilities and OQ Training.• Safe working procedures for appliances that would be located in the structures.One of the most anticipated features of Safe City is a plan to build a confined space and vault entry training area. To be located in a separate area of the field, the confined space training vault would be above ground, making entries safe, but still realistic. Attached to the confined space/vault area would be stalls facilitating above ground training on pipe repairs, allowing training in gas pipe squeeze-off and making repairs, fire control at meter sets, or pulling electric cable into a vault. This would help eliminate the need to dig and expose current infrastructure, especially when the Training Field is wet from rain. Confined space and vault entry can be very dangerous due to hazardous atmosphere and the configuration of the space. Everyone who works in confined spaces and hazardous atmospheres would benefit from this hands-on training covering entry, rescue techniques and all the other associated requirements. In addition to the structures, two access roads for Safe City are also planned. Members of IAMU’s electric, gas, and water safety
and training committees are constantly looking for ways to further
enhance hands-on training at the association’s Training Field – and to
continually fulfill an obligation to keep IAMU member employees safe and
well-informed as they perform their duties. Safe City would be a major
step in enhancing this effort. Assistance in the form of monetary gifts
will be necessary to see that these plans are realized (see separate
story, Page 1). For more information about how your city, utility, or
business can help, including plans for recognizing gifts, or to request
sample drawings of the project, contact Dave Hraha, IAMU Program
Manager, at 800/810-4268 or
dhraha@iamu.org. Everly Donation Kicks Off Fund Raising A campaign to raise money for the construction of IAMU’s proposed Safe City project got off to a big start September 13 with a contribution from the City of Everly. Bruce Harden, Everly Gas/Water Superintendent, presented a $1,000 check to IAMU for the Safe City project. Everly, a northwest Iowa town of 647 residents, took over operation of the gas utility a few years ago and has enjoyed great success with its operation. Harden stated, "If the little city of Everly can contribute to the development of Safe City, we hope that other cities and utilities will also be inspired to contribute." IAMU extends its sincere thanks to the City of Everly for this generous contribution to an exciting project that will greatly enhance safety training for numerous city and utility employees from different areas of utility work. Support for Safe City is also expected to come from IAMU associate member businesses. Contributions from these businesses are generally treated as tax-deductible business expenses. To ensure that individual gifts to the association’s educational programs are also tax deductible, IAMU has established a 501(c)(3) subsidiary. The IAMU Education and Research Fund, Inc. will support education and research-related functions of the association’s mission. The 501(c)(3) entity will also create eligibility for the many grants that are restricted to charitable organizations. A contribution of money, materials, or in-kind support to the Safe City project is an investment in the safety of municipal utility employees. To learn more about Safe City, including plans for recognizing gifts, or to request sample drawings of the project, contact Dave Hraha, IAMU Program Manager, at 800/810-4268 or dhraha@iamu.org. |
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To support and strengthen Iowa's municipal utilities |