Top Stories

Waukon Economic Development has announced that Senator Chuck Grassley will be visiting Waukon Tuesday, July 3 from 1-2 p.m. Senator Grassley will first take a 20-minute tour of the WW Homestead Dairy processing plant and ice cream parlor before being available to the public at that same facility for a 40-minute question and answer session.

For additional information about Senator Grassley’s visit, contact Ardie Kuhse, Director of Waukon Economic Development at 563-568-2624.
 

Allamakee County Economic Development & Tourism is partnering with Iowa Workforce Development and Iowa Economic Development Authority to complete a Laborshed employment study for the Waukon area. This study will geographically define which communities contribute to Waukon’s workforce, regardless of political boundaries. This defined area is called a Laborshed area and is based upon commuting patterns.

For the success of this study, letters will be sent to employers in Waukon asking that they provide aggregate counts of their employees’ residential ZIP codes. This will allow determination of the scope and scale of Waukon’s Laborshed area and better understanding of where Waukon’s workforce resides.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District has closed Blackhawk Park near De Soto, WI temporarily due to rising river levels. The Corps has also closed three other Mississippi River landings due to the high river stages from recent heavy rains, including Bad Axe and Jay’s landings in Wisconsin and Millstone Landing in Minnesota.

Those who have upcoming reservations at Blackhawk Park may contact park staff at 608-648-3314, or they may be contacted by park staff as those reservation dates approach. The Corps will re-open the park and landings as conditions allow.

In the coming weeks, Luther College in Decorah, in partnership with the Upper Iowa Watershed Management Authority, will be releasing a short questionnaire about the 2016 flooding events in the local area. This survey will be sent to a random sample of 2,250 addresses within the Upper Iowa River Watershed, which includes portions of Howard, Winneshiek and Allamakee counties in Iowa.

Whether or not an individual or household was directly impacted by these flooding events, resident and business owner responses are important to the work being conducted by Luther College and the Upper Iowa Watershed Management Authority as they strive to understand the multiple ways flooding impacts communities. Ultimately, the hope is to evaluate how to make local communities more resilient to flooding.

The replacement of the Green Valley Bridge just north of Waukon is fully underway, with the photos above and at right showing the removal of the previous bridge structure nearly complete as of Monday, June 18. Completion of the project is expected to take about two months, depending upon the weather, and the project is a joint venture between Allamakee County and the City of Waukon, with the State of Iowa providing a majority of the funding for the project.

Despite Green Valley Road being closed near its intersection with State Highway 9 north of Waukon, temporary access to Green Valley Getaway is still available via the graveled area to the very left of the top photo. However, as the sign at left also says, that graveled access is not for traffic seeking further access through to Green Valley Road. Standard photos by Joe Moses.
 

Michael Osterholm, Ph.D., MPH, University of Minnesota Regents Professor, McKnight Presidential Endowed Chair in Public Health, and director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), has been selected by the U.S. Department of State as one of five 2018 U.S. Science Envoys.

Other 2018 U.S. Science Envoys include Charles Frank Bolden Jr., (USMC-Ret.), the former Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and Robert S. Langer, Sci.D., FREng, one of 13 Institute Professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and recipient of the U.S. National Medal of Science (2006) and the U.S. National Medal of Technology and Innovation (2011).

An internationally recognized expert in infectious disease epidemiology, Osterholm is a leader in the research, prevention and control of infectious diseases throughout the world. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and the Council on Foreign Relations.

The annual Allamakee County Dairy Days Parade was held in Postville this year in conjunction with the Postville community’s Hometown Celebration Parade Friday, June 15 and the Big Four Fair. Such as this parade entry by Farmers & Merchants Savings Bank exclaims, the annual event celebrates June as Dairy Month and the efforts of producers and others involved in the dairy industry in Allamakee County. Photo courtesy of The Postville Herald.
 

by Lissa Blake

While the name Upper Explorerland frequently surfaces in regard to city and county meetings, few people understand the scope of what the organization does. Upper Explorerland Regional Planning Commission Executive Director Rachelle Howe and Economic Development Department Head Diana Johnson recently spent some time explaining the organization’s operations.

“Upper Explorerland is a council of governments (COG) that serves as an extension of city and county governments in order to assist them,” said Howe.

Several IowaWORKS office changes will be occurring in the coming weeks, including the closure of Expansion Offices in Clarion, Humboldt, Manchester, Mt. Pleasant, New Hampton, Oelwein, Pocahontas, Waukon and West Union; the relocation and adjustment of the hours of operation of the Satellite Offices in Fort Madison and Webster City; and new hours of operation at the Expansion Office in Keokuk.

“These shifts aim to better align our IowaWORKS resources with needs and office traffic patterns across the state,” said Beth Townsend, Director of Iowa Workforce Development. “They also expand on local partnerships allowing us to reduce costs and increase access to the resources job seekers and employers need in the areas where services are most in demand.”

by Lissa Blake

It’s a decision no family should ever have to make.

But looking back, the family of the late Erin Rud is glad they did. It’s been just over a year since Erin passed away as the result of a fall from a moving vehicle.

Her mother, Kathy Renk, of rural New Albin, said in the hours afterword, doctors did everything they could to save her. When it became evident that Erin would not survive, Kathy said they started having some hard conversations.

“I remember sitting in the room visiting with Erin’s sister, Emily, and talking about it. I asked Emily if she thought Erin would like to be an organ donor, and she agreed she would,” she said.

After the conversation, Kathy said she left the room to go find her husband, Tom Renk, and Erin’s dad, Jeff, and his wife, Kris, of Spring Grove, MN. What Kathy didn’t know is that the hospital’s organ donation representative had already been visiting with them regarding Erin’s wishes.