Take steps to increase dam safety in Iowa

Put up warning signs, build portage trails.

REGISTER EDITORIAL BOARD

Iowa should promote its abundant rivers as recreational water trails, but with that comes a responsibility to take reasonable measures to keep paddlers and tubers safe.

The $200,000 the 2007 Legislature pledged for dam safety related to recreation is a good step. It's believed to be the first money lawmakers have slated for this purpose. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources also has spent $50,000 in marine-fuel tax revenue over each of the past two years on water-trail improvements, including dam safety and amenities. It will spend $50,000 again in the next year.

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A new pitch for biking: It's fast varUsername = "[log in to unmask]";document.write("REGISTER EDITORIAL BOARD"); REGISTER EDITORIAL BOARD

It's Bike to Work Week.

As we've written in previous years, you should dust off the bike and strap on a helmet. Riding a bike is good exercise. You can save money on gas and parking. You're doing right by the environment and will help relieve traffic congestion.

In all our editorials, though, we haven't claimed riding is the fastest way to get where you're going. Honestly, we figured it was the slowest. (The editorial-staff bikers aren't necessarily the quickest in town.)

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070517/OPINION03/705170355/1035/archive

County OKs confinement planned southwest of Perry

varUsername = "[log in to unmask]";document.write("By JARED STRONG"); By JARED STRONG
REGISTER STAFF WRITER

Construction of a 2,500-hog confinement southwest of Perry could begin next month.

The project got a green light Tuesday from the Dallas County Board of Supervisors. State environmental regulators must give final approval, which a spokesman said is likely.

Ten residents protested the hog-lot plan at a public hearing last week.

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070516/NEWS/705160453/-1/archive

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LTE

Des Moines should better accommodate bike riders

Street, sidewalk, bike trail - it doesn't matter where you ride in this city. I have been nearly cut in two on all three. I was almost run over by a drunken motorcyclist on the Bill Riley Bike Trail.

You would think Des Moines, home to the Register, whose biggest promotion in its history is a bike ride, would have a more favorable attitude toward bike-riding.

You would think with the two or three "improvements" to Keo Way in the past decade, a bike trail would have been included. You'd think Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway south to Gray's Lake would have provisions for, at the very least, a sidewalk. But no.

Des Moines, this wannabe progressive city, is still mired in the past and addicted to fossil-fuel burners.

And Des Moines will remain a provincial place for bikers as long as there exists parallel sewer drains (like on the downtown bridges) that can swallow bike tires.

- Tom Sacco, Des Moines.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Grassley: Ethanol plants should use coal varUsername = "[log in to unmask]";document.write("PHILIP BRASHER"); PHILIP BRASHER
REGISTER WASHINGTON BUREAU

Washington, D.C. — Ethanol distilleries should consider running on coal to lessen demand for natural gas, says Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Ia.

Some analysts have expressed concern that the proliferation of ethanol plants around the country will drive up the cost of natural gas, the facilities’ chief source of heat.

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070515/BUSINESS01/70515034/1001