Insurance issues over mounted shooting association event in Wapello resolved
WAPELLO — An insurance controversy that threatened to impact a popular event at Wapello’s North Park appeared to be resolved Thursday during the Wapello City Council meeting.
The issue was raised at the city council’s Oct. 20 meeting when city insurance agent Steve Earnest reported the city’s insurance carrier, EMC Insurance, would not cover future Cowboy Mounted Shooting Association events.
According to city officials and local CMSA organizer Ed Vineyard, who spoke during that earlier meeting, the North Park has been the site of several of the events over the past three years.
Vineyard explained to the council the events feature mounted horseback riders shooting at balloons with firearms using blank cartridges. The riders generally had to be within a few feet of the balloons before they could be broken by the gunpowder in the cartridges.
During the Oct. 20 meeting, Earnest said he only recently had learned about the event and had notified EMC as he was required. The company then issued an opinion it would not cover the event; and also indicated it would drop the city’s insurance if it allowed the event.
City officials and Vineyard pointed out similar events were held throughout the country, including the Iowa State Fair, and this had been the first time insurance problems had occurred.
Vineyard also had reminded the city council the CSMA has its own insurance policy, although that policy includes a provision that appears to indicate the city’s policy remains as the primary insurance.
Earnest had agreed to continue discussions with EMC and to return by Dec. 1 with a report.
In his report to the council on Thursday, Earnest said the company had reviewed the city’s policy again and now considered the activity to be an excluded event.
As an excluded event, the company will not have any coverage, Earnest explained. This will mean the CMSA would need to insure the event; and Earnest said the city should be identified as an additional insured.
He said EMC also recommended the city require liability waivers be signed by participants and spectators of the event.
Vineyard said the participants already are signing waivers, but he questioned the need or the feasibility of requiring spectators to sign waiver documents. He said Iowa law already provides equine owners with lawsuit protection.
City officials also questioned how the insurance company’s opinion will affect the FFA Rodeo, which is also held at the North Park. Earnest said that is a school event which also had its own insurance, but said the city should ensure it was also identified as an additional insured on that policy.
Mayor Shawn Maine said the report appeared to provide a way for the CMSA event to continue without the city losing its insurance coverage.
“It’s doable,” he told the group.
In other action, the city council approved the third and final readings of several ordinance amendments that will incorporate recent state law changes into several city ordinances.
The council also accepted $22,460 bid from Iowa River Tree Service, Columbus Junction, to cut down more than 20 dead or dying trees on city property throughout the city.
The bid will need to be adjusted after the council agreed to cut down one large cottonwood in the North Park and only trim six others that had also been proposed for removal.
This article originally appeared on The Hawk Eye: Cowboy Mounted Shooting Association must get insurance Wapello event
