Community News

The Waukon Chamber of Commerce is seeking nominations from community residents for awards to be distributed later this year in a manner to be determined by COVID-19 pandemic guidelines. Those awards include Business of the Year and Person of the Year honors within the Waukon community, and award nominations are due to the Waukon Chamber of Commerce by June 1 of this year.

The Chamber will bestow those honors upon the best nominated candidate fitting the following award criteria:

Business of the Year
The Business of the Year Award, presented by the Waukon Chamber of Commerce, is given each year to a business that offers high-quality products or services, demonstrates strong ethical standards, exhibits leadership with its employees and clients and within its industry, and is active in the community. The award winner must be in business for at least five years, locally owned or a locally-owned franchise, and an active member of the community.

Madelyn Helgerson, daughter of Eric and Janelle Helgerson of Lansing, has been selected as the Iowa Girls State Citizen for the June 21-24 event. Helgerson is a junior at Waukon High School and was selected by Unit #722, American Legion Ladies Auxiliary, Harpers Ferry.

The 2021 Iowa Girls State Session will be held virtually this year June 21-24. America Legion Auxiliary (ALA) Iowa Girls State is one of the premier programs sponsored by the American Legion Auxiliary and was started by a dream of four women over 75 years ago in hopes of teaching young women about the political process. Girls State is a “learning by doing” program, which takes the girls through the entire political process.

The Waukon Chamber of Commerce and business owners in Waukon want to make the local shopping experience and gift giving a little bit easier, creating a new Waukon Dollars program.

Waukon Dollars are gift certificates available in $5, $10 and $20 increments (as shown in the accompanying photos) and are accepted at multiple merchants in Waukon, including restaurants and shopping locations. The purpose of Waukon Dollars is to continue to support and grow the local economy in Waukon. Each Waukon Dollar certificate features an aerial photo of the downtown Waukon area, along with its monetary denomination.

Waukon Dollars may be exchanged for goods and/or services (just like cash) at participating businesses in Waukon. Waukon Dollars are not redeemable for cash, and if lost or stolen, Waukon Dollars cannot be replaced. Waukon Dollars expire one year after their issue date.

Tuesday, May 4, the Waukon Police Department and Allamakee County Sheriff’s Office located a juvenile in Waukon who had been reported as missing since April 21. As a result of the juvenile being located, 30-year-old Samantha Jo Hampton of Waukon was arrested and charged with harboring a runaway against the wishes of a parent, which is an aggravated misdemeanor. The juvenile had been found safe with Hampton in a vehicle at her residence.

In January of this year, that same juvenile was also reported missing and after being found safe, two other Waukon adults and one juvenile were also arrested and charged with the same crime. They are still awaiting an August trial on those charges after pleading not guilty, according to court documents.

Hampton was scheduled for a preliminary hearing Monday, May 10 at the Allamakee County Courthouse. A criminal charge is merely an accusation and defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
 

Sunflower Child Development Center with assistance from Winneshiek County Development and Tourism (WCDT) will be constructing a new Child Development and Discovery Center in Decorah in 2022. In March, the project was awarded a $760,000 Child Care Challenge-Investing in Iowa’s Childcare grant from the Iowa Department of Human Services, one of the largest such awards in the state.

WCDT Executive Director Stephanie Fromm recently announced a capital campaign to raise $4 million dollars in private contributions to help fund the project. According to Fromm, the Sunflower Board and staff have been working with WCDT for over two years to plan the new facility.

At the Iowa Tourism Conference held April 28 in Des Moines, the Byways of Iowa Foundation was honored with the Iowa Tourism Award for Outstanding Marketing Collaboration in a Rural Setting for their “Byways of Iowa Public Art Initiative”.

“These awards are a great opportunity to recognize our industry partners for their perseverance in the face of a pandemic,” said State Tourism Manager Amy Zeigler. “We celebrate their innovations in safely delivering memorable experiences to Iowa travelers.” Awards, divided into metro and rural distinctions, were made in 13 categories.

The weather and water level cooperated Saturday, April 24 as a hundred volunteers cleaned Pool 9 of the Mississippi River. Those volunteers came from all parts of Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota to participate in the annual event.

“In reality, it’s an outgrowth of the Earth Day goal ‘To Restore Our Earth’ celebrated April 22 every year,” event organizers shared. “Their efforts were rewarded with the thousands of pounds of debris pulled from the Mississippi River, and it made the river and everyone else feel a whole lot better.”

The 90 square miles of Pool 9 (31 miles in length) had not been cleaned for the past two years. The event had been first canceled by high water in 2019 and then by the pandemic in 2020.

by Joe Moses

The Waukon City Council met in regular session Monday, May 3 to address a full agenda of items including a presentation from a real estate agent relating to the sale of City properties, discussion of a Police Department squad car purchase and discussion of City Hall operations in relation to the COVID-19 safety response.

Summer is just around the corner and that means the Allamakee County Fair is coming. Clover Kids got ready by completing a project at their April meeting, bleeding tissue paper art. Using cut-up tissue paper, water and a canvas, each member made their own unique project. Clover Kids started by laying the tissue paper down on the canvas and using water to “glue” it together (such as in the photo above at right). The water helped hold the tissue paper in place and also made the colors bleed together, creating a fun tie-dye effect (such as in the photo above at left). They can take their canvases as-is to this year’s fair or they could add a drawing or stickers to complete a scene on them. Other activities open to enrolled Clover Kids at the fair are a dog project, pet show, Expressions Day and conference judging. The Allamakee County Fair is scheduled for July 21-25 this year.

Alaina Gebel, a senior Allamakee County 4-H’er and a sophomore at Waukon High School, was recognized for her accomplishments during the State 4-H Recognition Day, March 29 on the Iowa State University campus in Ames. All events this year were held virtually due to the ongoing pandemic. This statewide event, held each spring, is the culmination of the year’s recognition process.

The Iowa 4-H State Recognition process invites 4-H’ers from across the state to pursue state and national leadership opportunities and awards. Iowa 4-H members selected to be State 4-H Council members, National 4-H Conference delegates, National 4-H Congress delegates, Shooting Sports Ambassadors, Iowa 4-H Reporters and project area award recipients are selected and honored.