Community News

Following a consensus reached by all community fire chiefs in Allamakee County just prior to the press deadline for this edition of The Standard, paperwork is being submitted to the State of Iowa Fire Marshal’s office to institute an open burning ban in Allamakee County, effective immediately and in place until further notice. Allamakee County will join 14 other northeast Iowa counties in instituting a burn ban during the current Extreme Drought conditions in the area. Specifics on burn ban limitations and allowances can be found on the Iowa Fire Marshal’s website at https://dps.iowa.gov/divisions/state-fire-marshal/burn-bans.

Allamakee County 4-H members exhibits were on display this past month in the Bruce L. Rastetter 4-H Exhibits Building at the Iowa State Fair, held August 10-20 in Des Moines. There were about 3,200 static exhibits and over 1,000 communication event performances. The exhibits displayed this year were showcasing excellence in project area learning by 4-H members across the state of Iowa.

Divisions young people may exhibit in include agriculture and natural resources, creative arts, family and consumer sciences, personal development, and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

The exhibits display at the Iowa State Fair is a celebration of the educational and personal accomplishments of Iowa 4-H members. It is a way for 4-H members to share what they’ve learned with the public.

by Joe Moses

Waukon City Manager Gary Boden provided an update to The Standard relating to the storm sewer replacement project taking place on 1st Street NW and 1st Avenue NW. This ongoing work is visible to the public just a block north of Main Street in downtown Waukon near McMillan Muffler, The Standard Newspaper, The Copy Shoppe, Side Street Cycles and Kurth Plumbing and Heating, among other area businesses.

Boden shared with The Standard that the storm sewer project is progressing, with some slow-down resulting as necessary excavation and planning adjustments are taking place. Boden noted some challenges relating to this project including some difficulty in locating a water main among other variables as 100-plus-year-old infrastructure is being replaced.

The Waukon City Council will be holding a special meeting Monday, September 11 at Waukon City Hall, beginning at 6 p.m. The meeting will focus on the City’s Nuisance Abatement Ordinance and will involve discussion of such matters as lawn mowing, weeds, sidewalk snow removal, junk cars and other issues.

Public feedback is welcome and encouraged in a civil manner involving open conversation with members of the Waukon City Council. Discussion will center around what the City ordinances state, how the City plans to address them moving forward, what the public can expect and/or if there are any changes that need to be implemented and what those changes may be.

The four Allamakee County 4-H’ers pictured in the surrounding photos with their swine entries represented themselves and their home county well with some Purple ribbon success experienced at the Iowa State Fair 4-H Swine Show held the mornings of Monday, August 14 and Tuesday, August 15 on the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines. Pictured in the surrounding submitted photos, are Wyatt Baxter, Alaina Gebel, Trudy Baxter and Marcus Gebel. All four Allamakee County youth had their entries earn at least one Purple ribbon in either the Monday, August 14 Breeding Swine Show or the Tuesday, August 15 Market Swine Show, with that Purple ribbon designation meaning the entry is eligible for show championship consideration, according to Iowa State Fair rules and regulations.

The area group known as the Wednesday Night Riders offered residents of Good Samaritan Society-Waukon rides on their three-wheeled motorcycles Wednesday, August 16. As pictured in the surrounding photos, residents were able to enjoy rides around the community and also had opportunities to sit in the driver’s seat of some of the vehicles. The Wednesday Night Riders consisting of nearly three dozen motorized vehicle enthusiasts often take organized rides throughout the tri-state area. In addition to their rides, the Wednesday Night Riders also try and support as many charitable events and organizations as possible. Submitted photos.
 

Those who are looking for a great multi-generation family adventure this fall should mark September 16-17 on their calendar. That is the weekend that the Iowa Barn Foundation (IBF) will hold its annual All-State Barn Tour with 72 historic barns across the state open for touring inside and out.

Many of the owners and family members will be on hand to share the stories behind their barns, which served as the central hub of activity on the farm. The Iowa countryside will be one expansive museum with barns located across the state. The self-guided tour is free and open to the public.

New to the Tour this year is a barn called Toad Hall in Allamakee County, located at 919 East Main Street, Waukon, the property of James Garrett and Kathy Hannum. This gambrel roof bank barn was built in 1912. The owners have taken steps to preserve the barn including foundation repair in 2014, window/door replacement in 2012, and a fresh coat of paint in 2020.

Allamakee County and its jurisdictions have worked over the last year to complete an update to a countywide Hazard Mitigation Plan. The planning process was led by the Allamakee County Emergency Management Agency with assistance from Upper Explorerland Regional Planning Commission and a countywide Hazard Mitigation Planning Committee.

The plan identifies the characteristics and consequences of hazards and assesses vulnerabilities within communities to those hazards. The plan also looks at possible ways to avoid or minimize the undesired effects of hazard risks, culminating in a list of mitigation actions local stakeholders can work on.

Final presentation of hazard mitigation plan outcomes will continue to occur at public meetings in each jurisdiction and school district in Allamakee County over the course of the next few months, and the public is encouraged to attend. Meeting times and dates in September are listed below:

“Sasquatch,” a Red Wattle boar co-owned by Kehrli Farms of Winthrop and the Charlie Bieber family of Waukon, won first place in the Big Boar competition Thursday, August 10 at the 2023 Iowa State Fair in Des Moines. The winning entrant (pictured above at right) tipped the scales at 1,012 pounds, more than 100 pounds heavier than the second-place finisher, “Big Joe,” a four-and-a-half-year-old boar shown by Jack Theobald of Muscatine that weighed in at 894 pounds, with those two animals being the only entries in this year’s Big Boar Contest and this being the second consecutive year that only two boars have been entered into the competition.

This is the second time in the last seven years the Biebers have partnered with Kehrli Farms to show a Big Boar Contest entry at the Iowa State Fair. In 2017, the partners entered “Big Chief,” a hog that weighed in at 1,162 pounds but finished second by about 30 pounds to “Big Buck,” a boar owned by McDonald Acres of Ryan.

by Joe Moses

U.S. Representative Ashley Hinson of Iowa’s Second Congressional District held a Town Hall meeting and Question & Answer (Q&A) session Wednesday, August 16 at the Allamakee County Veterans Museum in Waukon.

The Town Hall meeting in Waukon began with an introduction by Allamakee County Sheriff Clark Mellick with Hinson touching on several topics prior to responding to questions from the near-capacity crowd of approximately 20 area residents present in the program room at the Allamakee County Veterans Museum. Hinson noted her tour of the County Veterans Museum prior to the Town Hall/Q&A meeting and discussed the importance of recognizing the sacrifices made by military veterans in protecting this nation’s freedoms.