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The sun was shining almost as brightly as the Irish pride at the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade held Sunday, March 19 in Waukon, the event taking approximately an hour to display the wide variety of well over 100 entries. As depicted in the three photos below, there was certainly an abundance of ways entries displayed their Irish pride and made their way along the parade route. While one such entry appears to have been carried along the route with a little luck from a leprechaun, it also appears that Msgr. Ed Lechtenberg (photo at right) was carrying along his own bit of leprechaun luck as he made his way along the parade route on the way to seeking re-election in the annual race for the office of Mayor of Hanover. Photos by Lissa Blake. Additional photos from this year's event can be found on Page 14A of this week's print edition of The Standard. All of the parade photos found in this issue, along with many more from Sunday's St.

The 2017 Allamakee County Dairy Banquet will be held this Saturday, March 25 at the Allamakee County Fairgrounds Pavilion in Waukon. The meal will be served from 7-8:30 p.m. with the program starting at 8 p.m.

The annual celebration recognizes the importance of the dairy industry in Allamakee County and the contributions dairy families make to this important industry. Every year, top producers from the county are recognized at the banquet. In addition, several other awards are presented that evening, some of which include the following:

• Outstanding Young Dairy Family Award
• Pioneer Dairyman Award
• Distinguished Dairy Family Award
• Service to Dairy Industry Award
• Golden Butter Knife Award.

by Joe Moses

Iowa House District 56 Representative Kristi Hager and Iowa District 28 Senator Michael Breitbach held a public legislative forum in Waukon Saturday, March 18. Iowa House District 55 Representative Michael Bergan joined Hager and Breitbach shortly after the meeting began in answering questions from the capacity crowd in the Allamakee County Farm Bureau building.

Several hot-button issues were raised by those in attendance at the public forum. Steve Peterson, a Decorah Middle School teacher, addressed the legislators with his concerns relating to the $118 million cut from Iowa's budget. Peterson advised, "We are in a period of expansion and we are having to make all these cuts to things that are really important to people in the area: higher education, access to affordable women's healthcare, youth social services, the arts, environment, under-funding K-12 education at 1.1%, which is an increase but it is not sufficient."

by Joe Moses

The Allamakee County Board of Supervisors met in regular session Monday, March 20. There were no comments during the Public Comments portion of the meeting.

Allamakee County E911 Director Chris Fee discussed the distribution of local option sales tax and changes that have been suggested by the E911 Board concerning the responsibility of 911 and street signage and the possible involvement of the Secondary Roads Department. Allamakee County Engineer Brian Ridenour further discussed the history and funding of the project dating back to the late 1990s with an estimated 4,900 signs for intersections and house numbers installed and maintained throughout the County.

The annual St. Patrick's Day Parade in Waukon has been scheduled for Sunday, March 19 and will begin at 1 p.m. with many of the same festivities taking place as in years past throughout the community.

The parade route will be the same as in past years, beginning from the southeast edge of town and heading up Rossville Road and Spring Avenue to the stoplight intersection with Main Street. Turning left on to West Main Street, the parade will venture up to Second Street SW, where the entries will turn left at the Post Office intersection, travel one block south to First Avenue SW, and then east back to Spring Avenue, turning right at Kwik Star to head back south to its point of origin.

Iowa House District 56 Representative Kristi Hager and Iowa District 28 Senator Michael Breitbach will be holding a public legislative forum in Waukon this Saturday, March 18. Representative Hager and Senator Breitbach will be at the Allamakee County Farm Bureau building, located at 14 First Avenue NE in Waukon, beginning at 11:15 a.m., and will discuss legislative issues and field questions from members of the public who are in attendance.
 

by Joe Moses

The Allamakee County Board of Supervisors met in regular session Monday, March 13 to address a full agenda of items, including the Public Hearing for the proposed Fiscal Year 2018 Allamakee County budget, the approval of compensation increases for elected officials and approval of County support for libraries.

There were no comments heard or read during the Public Comments portion of the meeting. The Public Hearing for the proposed Fiscal Year 2018 Allamakee County Budget was opened. There were no written or verbal comments from the public. Allamakee County Auditor Denise Beyer provided an overview of the budget before the hearing was closed.

A two percent compensation increase for elected officials, a zero percent compensation increase for the Board of Supervisors and a two percent salary/wage increase for other department heads and non-union employees were all approved by the Board.

submitted by Steph Dugan, Executive Director
Waukon Chamber of Commerce

We have been hearing a lot of rumors flying around regarding RAGBRAI®. We have tried to keep up on top of squashing these rumors as they come up, but there are only a handful of us and we only can imagine the number of individuals starting and passing rumors on.

We thought the best way to handle this situation  and get the word out to as many people as possible would to be to start a column titled “Squashing the Rumors.” This is where we will address any rumors that we have heard and let you all know what we know. If you hear a rumor, please let us know so we can squash it.

by Joe Moses

Iowa House of Representatives Democratic Leader Mark Smith, who is the District 71 Representative from Marshalltown, conducted a listening post event at Robey Memorial Library in Waukon Saturday, March 11. During the hour and a half meeting, Smith listened to and addressed various concerns from the public in attendance, a crowd numbering around 40 individuals.

Smith began the meeting by discussing the de-appropriation bill passed and signed early in this year's new legislative session that has cut $118 million from the State of Iowa's budget and has resulted in the closure of the Luster Heights facility in Allamakee County, in addition to resulting in cuts that will affect community colleges and public education, which Smith indicates will all have a detrimental effect on Allamakee County’s economy.

Here is the final daily RAGBRAI route for Saturday, July 29 from Waukon to Lansing. The entire route will be new RAGBRAI territory as it travels 44.8 miles with some nice climbs totaling 3,200 feet throughout Allamakee County. You will not think you are in Iowa as scenic landscape and winding scenic byways show off the splendor of the Driftless Area. RAGBRAIers will visit the town of Waterville for the very first time and then ride through the Yellow River State Forest. Riders will then pull into Harpers Ferry, another first time RAGBRAI community. Riders can dip their tires, if they wish, in the Mississippi River at one of Harpers Ferry’s many boat ramps. The last 13-mile leg of RAGBRAI XLV will travel north along the Great River Road as we travel to Lansing to end in the river town of Lansing. If you didn’t get enough fun on the bike, you can climb the ultra-steep Mt. Hosmer just blocks from downtown and the river.