Magistrate hears testimony on steel wheel ordinance
By Jean Caspers-Simmet
simmet@agrinews.com
Date Modified: 05/19/2010 3:39 PM
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OSAGE, Iowa —The Mitchell County Road Protection Ordinance, which bans steel wheel vehicles on hard surface roads, violates the right to exercise religion and should be ruled unconstitutional, said Colin Murphy, the Mason City attorney representing a 13-year-old Orchard boy.
Friday during a hearing, Murphy asked Magistrate DeDra Schroeder to dismiss the charge against his client for violating the ordinance. Back in March, Schroeder found the boy guilty of violating the ordinance for driving a steel wheel tractor on a hard-surface road. Murphy has appealed the decision.
Mitchell County Attorney Mark Walk said the ordinance is constitutional because it affects everyone equally. He said it doesn't single out Mennonites.
"Its purpose is not animated by an animus against a group of people, but rather is designed to protect the roadway and the resulting costs of repairs," Walk said. "The issue is whether taxpayers of Mitchell County should be forced to build and rebuild roadway."
Murphy said that Ordinance No. 41 violates both the Constitution of the United States and the Iowa Constitution unless it is narrowly tailored to serve a compelling governmental interest.
"There is no sufficient governmental interest," Murphy said.
The boy and his family are Old Order Groffdale Mennonites, and church rules prohibit them from using rubber tires on motorized farm machinery, Murphy said.
A distant relative of the defendant testified that no member of the Old Order Groffdale Mennonite Conference is allowed to operate a vehicle with rubber tires. Violating the rule could result in excommunication from the church. There are 300 Old Order Groffdale members in Howard, Mitchell, Floyd and Chickasaw counties.
Walk asked an Old Order Groffdale member why there are steel wheels on tractors, The witness said that's how it's been since the beginning and it's a rule of the church. He said the county ordinance makes it impossible to get to farmland separated by a paved highway because they are prohibited from crossing or going down the road.
"You can comply," Walk countered. "You can hire someone. It may be harder, but it's not impossible. You can still practice your religion."
Walk asked him if it's a sin for people who don't belong to the Groffdale Conference to own a tractor or vehicle with rubber tires.
"We don't think its a sin," the man replied. "But we don't condemn or judge people."