Supervisors told to find solution to steel wheel controversy
By Jean Caspers-Simmet
simmet@agrinews.com
Date Modified: 03/01/2010 2:14 PM
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OSAGE, Iowa —Neil Wubben, retired Mitchell County Extension director, told supervisors at last week's meeting that he supports the proposal for mediation.
"I think any time that someone can look for a way to resolve an issue in a more responsible manner, in my opinion, than court, I think it ought to be pursued," Wubben said. "If mediation doesn't work you always have other avenues to be pursued."
Joel Yorgey of Riceville owns a business in Osage and he also urged the supervisors to resolve the issue.
Yorgey grew up around Mennonites in eastern Pennsylvania, lives near them and does business with them.
"I really feel it would in everyone's best interest to step back, accept this offer and try to find a resolution for allowing these people to be here," Yorgey said. "I look at this ordinance as a form of religious persecution. It's not as simple as taking the steel off and putting the rubber back on. The Old Order religion requires that they have steel wheels on their tractors. This dates back to the 1920s."
Board chairman Stan Walk said Mitchell County bonded $8.692 million to improve county roads, and now they have to prevent damage.
"We feel we have to protect the integrity of our roads," Walk said.
Kuhn said the Mennonites have lived in Mitchell County peacefully for two decades and there was never a problem until the county bonded and built the white concrete roads.
"Perhaps you could build a different type of road in the future," Kuhn said.
Supervisor Joel Voaklander said the proposed $25,000 won't cover much road damage.
"Howard County maintains a minimum of $25,000, and it's uncapped, so your argument is invalid," Kuhn said.
David Oberholtzer, a minister and farmer in the Mennonite community, said that about 100 years ago, Mennonites saw the need to take a stand on things like technology and automobiles.
"They were concerned about losing their sense of community," Oberholtzer said. "We feel if we lose our traditions, it could drive us apart."
He said that he raises 10 acres of vegetables.
"I would be much easier to sit in a tractor cab and farm the way other native people do it, but steel wheels keep me from getting bigger and keep me from using my tractor for transportation on the road," Oberholtzer said.
He said Mennonite farmers need to be able to use their steel-wheel tractors to transport products to the Cedar Valley Produce Auction, and dairy farmers who share equipment have to drive back and forth between farms.
"We don't want to be law-breakers, but it puts us in a hard spot," he said.
Oberholtzer hopes for a solution.
"It will take time and cooperation from both sides," he said.
Peter Nolt, a Mennonite farmer from Osage, said he attended the first supervisors meeting last year on the steel-wheel ordinance and at the time told the supervisors that steel wheels were a tradition.
"It's more than a tradition, it's an ordinance in the church and part of our religion," Nolt said.