SIOUX CITY — Carbon dioxide pipeline developers will have an opportunity next week to argue for a court order barring two Woodbury County landowners from interfering with attempts to enter their land to survey the planned pipeline route.
District Judge Roger Sailer Wednesday scheduled a hearing for Sept. 30 to hear Navigator Heartland Greenway’s request for an injunction against property owners William and Vicki Hulse of Moville, Iowa, which twice denied the company’s agents access to have refused their country, which is in the pipeline, the proposed route.
Navigator sued the Hulses last month and is seeking a ruling that prevents them from being denied access to their land.
The Hulses have filed a countersuit challenging the constitutionality of a state law granting pipeline companies the right to access private land for surveying and surveying. They asked for an injunction barring Navigator’s agents from entering their property until the constitutionality issue is resolved.
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Ahead of Wednesday’s hearing, conducted via videoconference in Woodbury County District Court, attorney for navigator Brian Rickert filed a motion asking the judge to expedite the company’s request for a restraining order so agents can prepare the polls complete the winter and avoid possible delays in the project.
“Navigator needs to do these surveys and surveys in a very short time because the results can determine, for example, where the pipeline route is,” Rickert said in his application.
Sailer said in his appointment that a hearing should be scheduled promptly. Additional hearings will be scheduled after he rules on the restraining order.
Navigator has filed similar lawsuits in Clay and Butler counties against landowners who denied company officials access to their property. A hearing on Navigator’s request for a temporary restraining order in Clay County is scheduled for Thursday. The Clay County landowner and one of the two from Butler County have also filed constitutional complaints similar to the Hulses.
Navigator has proposed a $3 billion, 1,300-mile pipeline that will collect carbon dioxide from ethanol plants and fertilizer processors in Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, Minnesota and Illinois, convert it into liquid form and transport it under high pressure to a site in Illinois would where it would be pumped thousands of feet below the surface.
The pipeline would run approximately 900 miles through 36 counties in Iowa, including Woodbury, Clay, and Butler counties. Other Siouxland counties include Plymouth, Lyon, Osceola, O’Brien, Cherokee, Dickinson, and Buena Vista in Iowa, and Dakota, Dixon, and Wayne counties in Nebraska.
It is one of two coal pipelines planned to run through the area.
Photos: Iowa barn converted into comfortable living
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This light figure takes up two elements from the barn story. The bracket is hung from the barn door with the original rope. The framework of the lamp is made of pitchforks, on which Diane placed some lighting fixtures.
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Pictured is the view from the deck on the east side of the barn.
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The original support posts and beams were retained during the renovations. At one point when a small room was taken out, two 2x12s were added to add strength to the ceiling.
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The deck on the west side of the barn overlooks the Finerans’ cornfield, which this year has an open rectangle where no corn was planted this year. The reason is that Kevin and Diane’s youngest child, Kate, is marrying DeAnthony Zanders this October and was planning to get married in the corn. Kevin skipped planting this rectangular lot that he planted with grass. Because of this, he could not apply herbicide to the 12 rows bordering the property. He had to grow that corn by hand and pull the weeds by hand. The wedding celebration takes place in the barn with dancing in the hayloft. Her other children, Grant, Haley and Kerry also had part of their wedding receptions in the barn.
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This picture of Kevin’s great-grandparents, Patrick and Bridget Fineran, hangs on the wall in the barn’s hayloft. They immigrated from Ireland and were among the pioneers of Crawford County.
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Among the decorations on the cabinet is a four-generation photo of Diane as a baby, her mother Delories Scherner, grandmother Edna Gries, and great-grandmother Mary Reimers.
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The Finerans found this rustic door with original hinges in the dirt. It is well over 100 years old. The sliding door bearings were frozen. Kevin soaked the bearings in some diesel fuel for about a month and loosened them up. “I don’t know why it hasn’t rotted,” Kevin said of the door lying in the dirt. “We just cleaned it and Diane sealed it.”
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Shown is a sales invoice from the time when Leonard Spahn had his farm sale.
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Two large sliding doors, through which the cattle entered the stall, were located in the room where this window was installed. The Finerans found the window in an Omaha junkyard. “It’s shaped like a barn,” Kevin said. “We thought it would be perfect for here.”
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Elliot Fineran looks at a quilt book while sitting at one of Grandma Diane’s tables to quilt.
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Another of Diane’s hobbies is putting together jigsaw puzzles, backing them with masonite and putting barnwood frames around them. She has been particularly productive with this hobby during the pandemic. One of the puzzles is in the foreground, quilts serve as wall decorations in the background.
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The door of this cupboard comes from a pantry in Diane’s childhood home in Holstein. She brought the door to Devon Evers with Crossgrain Woodworking and he made a cabinet to match the door. The door originally had wooden panels. “I wanted to put chicken wire behind it to give it a more antique look,” Diane said. The chicken wire provides a relatively unobstructed view of her quilts stored in the closet.
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One of the furnishings in the quilted half of the barn is the Hoosier closet that belonged to Diane’s mother.
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The floor covering in the hayloft consists of Douglas fir boards. It’s the original floor.
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Pictured is the view from the deck on the west side of the barn.
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Pictured is the original ladder leading to the barn door. The bottom has been cut off to prevent children from testing their spirit of adventure. Kevin and Diane’s children gave them the windmill decoration as a gift. They like windmills so much that they had a windmill disassembled and reassembled between their house and the barn.
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Some interior panels were from another barn. “All we did when we set it up was brush it down with a broom to remove dirt and debris and then seal it,” Kevin said.
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Kevin always likes to point visitors to this red door. His carpenter salvaged the door from an old house in Manila that his mother owned. Diane painted it red and added black accents to give it an antique look. The red door matches a couch the Finerans already had and paneling that Diane had painted red. The color isn’t a true red, but more of a barn red, she said.
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Diane and Kevin Fineran stand in front of their converted barn with their son Grant and his children Callum (held by Diane) and Elliot (held by their father). The Fineran’s farmstead and barn will be the setting for the Market on the Farm on Saturday 27th August. Photo by Gordon Wolf
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Elliot Fineran reads comfortably on the floor of her grandparents’ converted barn. The rug came from the Finerans’ home and went well with the decor of the living room area.
