Constitutionality of Road Protection Ordinance will be heard in court May 7
By Jean Caspers-Simmet
simmet@agrinews.com
Date Modified: 03/18/2010 10:40 AM
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OSAGE, Iowa —The constitutionality of the Mitchell County Road Protection Ordinance will be challenged in a hearing May 7.
The Mitchell County Supervisors say that the Groffdale Mennonite community's use of steel wheel tractors is a tradition that needs to come to an end because it damages roads. They said they want to prevent damage to the 45 miles of roads they paved in 2009 with $8.69 million in bonding.
The money will repaid with Tax Increment Financing from an urban renewal district created as a result of a wind farm built in the county. The Mennonites say that placing steel cleats on tractor wheels is a church regulation.
A 13-year-old boy was found guilty last week of violating the county ordinance, and his attorney, Colin Murphy of Mason City, has filed a motion asking that the ordinance be ruled unconstitutional.
County Attorney Mark Walk said that from the beginning he knew there was a 50/50 chance that Ordinance No. 41 would end up at the U.S. Supreme Court.
"I prepared the ordinance as if that's where it was going to end up," Walk said. "I think it's a perfectly valid ordinance. It may limit religious freedom, but the U.S. Supreme Court says that if a county has a compelling interest, that's fine. Mitchell County never said that no one can have steel wheels. Farmers can drive their steel wheels on their farm and on gravel roads, they just can't drive on hard surface roads. We're not saying you can never use steel wheels, we're saying you can't drive on hard surface roads."
Murphy said Friday the Zimmerman family is eager to have the constitutionality of the ordinance examined.
"Obviously the (Groffdale Mennonite) community is concerned because any time now they use the roads in Mitchell County, they face the prospect of a citation that could involve up to $500 in fines, 30 days in jail as well as an additional penalty for damage," Murphy said.
He sees Mitchell County supervisors pitting economic development against the practice of someone's sincerely held religious beliefs.
"If you can't leave your house and travel a half mile down the road to tend your crop or transport your fruits and vegetables to market so that you can feed your family that is a significant hardship," Murphy said.
Murphy said when Mennonites used the word "tradition" at public meetings to describe why they use steel wheels it was a way to explain their practices without interjecting religion into it.
"There is no mistake that this is a sincerely held religious belief not simply a tradition," Murphy said. "For public officials to equate steel wheels with a tradition that can just be abandoned is not giving this topic the serious consideration it deserves."
Replacing steel wheels with rubber tires results in serious consequences in the Groffdale Mennonite Church which could involve excommunication, Murphy said.
Mitchell County supervisor Bob Marreel said he doesn't understand claims that the ordinance is unconstitutional.
"They keep wanting to challenge the constitutionality," Marreel said. "To my knowledge, I don't know that the First Amendment allows people to destroy other people's property. It's not about religion, it's about damage to the roads. It's time to get rid of the tradition of steel wheels. I want that tradition to end, and I want them to convert to rubber tires."