Clinton, Iowa: Final piece of building code in place

By Dave Vickers | Thursday, August 30, 2007

CLINTON, Iowa — Supporters of the Uniform Plumbing Code made one last effort this week to get the Clinton City Council to adopt that code instead of the International Plumbing Code as the last piece of the city’s building code.

Instead, the council gave the final reading of the ordinance to adopt the international version.

That was the final part of the process to adopt an overall building code the Iowa Legislature mandated for Clinton by July 1, 2008.

Supporters of both codes made appeals during several meetings on the benefits of each code. In a last-ditch appeal this week, Clinton resident Highland Nichols said a number of citizens had presented a “preponderance of evidence” on the superiority of the UPC. He also pointed out the city adopted an interim code to be used for the new casino under construction that calls for the UPC to be followed and questioned why the casino should be safer than people’s homes.

The two codes both cover basic plumbing requirements, although the uniform code is more geared to professional plumbers, council member Mark Vulich said during earlier discussions.

 Council member Bob Soesbe offered an amendment to adopt the UPC, but it failed for a lack of second. The council then voted 6-1 on the third and final reading of the ordinance with Soesbe voting “no.”

Later in the meeting, Soesbe raised the question of amendments needed to the IPC code to meet state standards. City Administrator Gary Boden said those amendments would be determined in conjunction with officials at the state level who oversee the plumbing code.

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