Community News

Robey Memorial Library will be sponsoring Main Street Story Walk in Waukon during the month of June, with this month’s walk featuring the children’s story, “Farmer Duck” by Martin Waddell. During the month, families are encouraged to read this story as they stroll the downtown area. Seven selected businesses have a portion of the story posted in the front window of their establishment for viewing from the sidewalk in numerical order. Each stop along the story walk will direct readers to the next location. Selected businesses for the month of June are located on the north side of West Main Street at the following locations pictured and labeled accordingly above in the submitted image: 1. Blake Electric; 2. Hello Sunshine; 3. Aztec Parlor; 4. Rockweiler’s Appliance; 5. Hartig Drug; 6. Uptown Grill; 7. Cunningham Hardware. Submitted image.
 

by Dwight Jones

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Discussing mental health and/or acknowledging you or someone you know may have a problem can be a difficult subject to talk about and even harder to understand. In order to try to better recognize mental health issues, The Standard is printing this five-part series throughout the month to look at how mental illness affects the local community and the resources available should you or someone you love be looking for help or information.

Part One of this five-part series told the story of a 19-year-old local college student who suffers from severe anxiety and depression, and who has used medication and therapy to get well. Part Two told the story of a lifelong Waukon resident who battled mental illness much of his life and unfortunately succumbed to it by taking his own life. Part Three described what the life of a child can be like growing up in a home with a mentally ill parent.

submitted by Marcia Rush, Allamakee County Historical Society

Early Iowans believed that everyone needed some education. Children needed to, jokingly, learn the “Three R’s” - reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic. Early schools taught reading, writing and arithmetic, those basic skills, to both boys and girls.

Iowa’s first teachers were men. During the Civil War men were needed for the war and women began replacing them in the classroom.

One-room schools sprang up in rural areas all over the state. Parents wanted schoolhouses close to their homes so students could get to school and back easily. Students often walked or sometimes rode a horse. Teachers lived with a nearby farm family and sometimes moved from house to house through the year.

by Joe Moses

The Allamakee County Board of Supervisors met in regular session Monday, May 22 to address a full agenda of matters including the consideration of the Resolution in support of naming the bridge that crosses Yellow River on Highway 51 at Mile Marker 4 “Trooper Ted Benda Memorial Bridge”, consideration of appointing members of the Pioneer Cemetery Commission and a Building Committee bid update relating to County Courthouse improvements. The meeting was called to order by Board of Supervisors Chairperson Dan Byrnes with Supervisors Mark Reiser and Dennis Keatley present.

During Public Comment, Colleen Gragg discussed the maintenance of pioneer cemeteries and made note of some items including a truck bedliner and tailgate that will need to be removed from a pioneer cemetery on Green Valley Road prior to Memorial Day. Keatley and Allamakee County Sheriff Clark Mellick discussed handling the removal of these items prior to the holiday weekend.

The Waukon Chamber of Commerce has announced Mandy Halverson as the organization’s new executive director. She is a Waukon native and a longtime partner with the Chamber of Commerce.

As co-owner of Epic Wear in Waukon and Monona, Halverson has been heavily involved in Chamber activities for the last 12 years and on the Monona Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors for two years. In that time, Halverson also took the lead roles to develop and run several events including Waukon Corn Days, Waukon Family Fun Fests and the Waukon Easter Egg Hunt, the Waukon Style Show, Wine with the Witches, and Crazy Days.

“Mandy’s institutional knowledge and hardworking spirit will be wonderful assets to her role as the new director,” shared Waukon Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors President Sarah Bieber. “Her familiarity with this community organization makes it an easy transition for us and allows us to pick up right where we left off.”

The Memorial Day Weekend program for 2023 at the Allamakee County Veterans Museum on Allamakee Street in Waukon will feature a tribute to Korean War soldiers from Allamakee County who were held as prisoners of war (POWs) and/or killed in action. A special display will include accounts of the service of area soldiers Donald Baxter, Roy Vickery, John Ryan and Dale Reeder.

Historical videos of the Korean War and treatment of American POWs will be shown periodically in the program room of the museum.

The tribute will take place throughout the open hours of the Veterans Museum throughout that weekend. The museum will be open Friday, May 26 and Saturday, May 27 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Sunday, May 28 and Monday, May 29 from 12 noon to 4 p.m.

There is no admission charge for any of the programs. The museum is wheelchair accessible.
 

The Allamakee County Historical Society is hosting its second Allamakee County Rural School Reunion during a three-day event scheduled to be held during the Memorial Day weekend next week. The reunion will be held in an open house format, including Friday and Saturday, May 26 and 27 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. both days, and Sunday, May 28 from 12 noon to 4 p.m. at the newly remodeled Genealogy Research Center located in the lower level of the new Allamakee County Veterans Museum at 105 Allamakee Street in Waukon. Those attending the reunion are asked to use the back parking lot entrance to the former Vet’s Club building which accesses the building’s lower level. Signs will be posted, and that back entrance provides handicap accessibility to the reunion location.

The Allamakee County Veterans Museum will be offering its next public program at its museum located at 105 Allamakee Street, Waukon this Thursday, May 18, beginning at 1 p.m. There is no charge for admission and no membership requirements to attend the program presentation.

The late Dr. Frank Norden left his optometrist practice in Waukon in 1942 to join the U.S. Navy. Initially, he was assigned to medical duty, but he volunteered to go to sea and was assigned to a tugboat, the USS Sakaweston YTB-289, and he was later appointed its captain. He returned to Waukon in 1946 after discharge from naval service and resumed his optometrist practice.

His daughters, Kristen and Margaret, will share their recollections of his naval service. The program will also include a video tour of a typical WWII era military tugboat.

by Joe Moses

The Waukon City Council met in regular session Monday, May 15 to address a full agenda of matters including a Public Hearing Amending the Current City Budget, discussion of the process to fill the mayor vacancy, and discussion of changing the July 2023 City Council meeting dates.

Mayor Pro Tem Kevin Johnson called the meeting to order with approval of the meeting agenda to include the removal of one item relating to the Partial Pay Request of Retainage for the Wastewater Treatment Plant Project. Johnson noted this matter would be addressed at a later date.

This Friday, May 12, the original members of four local bands will be reuniting as “Bandmates, Brothers and Friends” from 6-10 p.m. at Goodfella’s in downtown Waukon. This benefit event features a reunion of 11 musicians from the local bands Rising Sun, Horizon, Jackson Junction and Deep River, sharing songs from the 1950s through the 1990s, both country and rock.

These four bands played all across the Midwest, but most often locally at the Waukon Opera House and the Drawing Board, Old Rossville Store, Dreamland Ballroom in Postville, Decorah’s Knob Hill and Matter’s Ballroom, and the Burr Oak Dance Hall.