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The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) reports that a pipe coupler on manure application equipment broke Monday, October 12, allowing manure to reach Clark Creek in northeast Allamakee County about a mile and a half above where the creek flows into the Upper Iowa River southwest of New Albin.
Krauskopf Pumping Service of Decorah was pumping liquid manure from Cyclone 1 hog confinement owned by David Weymiller of rural New Albin for land application on crop fields when the coupler break released an estimated 1,000 gallons of the manure, causing a fish kill in the creek.
“In less than an hour the landowner did a great job of damming the creek, preventing further damage downstream. We checked every place between the spill site and the Upper Iowa River for dead fish,” said Theresa Shay, technician at the DNR’s Decorah fish hatchery. “We only found two dead fish in the entire stretch - two white suckers, but we did see live sticklebacks and white suckers.”

by Bob Beach

The Waukon Water and Sewer Department worked with employees of Fehr Graham Engineering to conduct “smoke testing” throughout Waukon’s southwest quadrant Thursday, October 15 in an effort to detect areas where storm water may be infiltrating the City’s sanitary sewer system. Water and Sewer Department Superintendent Bob Campbell said the smoke testing did detect a potential problem area along Fifth Avenue SW which will require further inspection, possibly with cameras or by manually crawling through the sewer system in that area. As part of the testing process, manhole covers to the sanitary sewer are temporarily removed and replaced with a fan assembly (such as the one pictured at right) that forces air into the sanitary sewer, and then a smoke bomb (harmless stage smoke) is placed by the fan’s intake in an effort to blow smoke throughout the sewer system.

The Allamakee County Sheriff’s Office would like to remind current Iowa Permit to Carry Weapon holders that there have been changes to the renewal procedure for their Nonprofessional Permit to Carry.
Qualification and application for renewal of an Iowa Nonprofessional Permit to Carry Weapons now involves the following:
• To renew a Nonprofessional Permit to Carry Weapons, a person must complete any of the acceptable forms of training, or, at the discretion of the applicant, may instead choose to qualify on a range under the supervision of a certified instructor. The instructor will determine what constitutes qualification.

by Bob Beach

by Bob Beach

The Waukon High School and Middle School building participated in a lockdown drill Wednesday, October 7 in an effort to prepare for immediate threats that may occur on campus by a student or an intruder. In addition to fire drills and severe weather drills, the Allamakee Community School District routinely conducts lockdown drills to ensure that all faculty, staff and students are aware of the correct procedures in the event of such emergency situations.
In addition to the lockdown drill, the K-9 unit from the Allamakee County Sheriff’s Department, along with the Waukon Police Department, conducted a walk-through of the schools' campus area. "The purpose of their visit was to ensure that we are maintaining a drug-free environment and to communicate that we have a zero-tolerance for students who wish to disrupt our school’s environment by bringing illegal substances to our campus," stated Allamakee Community School District Superintendent of Schools Dave Herold.

Local law enforcement officials report that they continue to receive reports of residents receiving telephone calls from persons alleging to be from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Local officials want to remind everyone:
• The IRS will make first contact by mail if taxes are owed, no initial contact is made by phone.
• The IRS never asks for credit, debit or prepaid card information over the phone.
• The IRS never insists that a specific payment method be used to pay any tax owed.
• The IRS never requests immediate payment over the telephone.
• The IRS will not threaten law enforcement action.
• The IRS will not prevent victims from disconnecting from the call to verify the situation.

Alliant Energy customers in Waukon were without power for approximately an hour and a half Monday morning, October 12 from around 9:40 to 11:20 a.m. Alliant Energy representative Justin Foss reported that an Alliant crew was performing work at an electrical substation near Dee Implement on the northwest edge of Waukon when a piece of Alliant equipment accidentally snagged the power lines, causing the outage. Initial reports indicated that the outage was expected to be extensive because a part was needed to complete the repairs but was not available locally, which led to Allamakee Community schools being dismissed three and a half hours early and some businesses sending employees home for the day. However, Foss said that power was rerouted to restore power sooner, adding that no additional outages are expected as repairs are completed. Photo by Sara Aleckson-Melcher.
 

The Allamakee County Sheriff's Office received a report of a fire at the Waterville Store Bar & Grill in Waterville at approximately 4:42 a.m. Saturday, October 10. The building is believed to be a total loss, but no injuries were reported in the fire. The cause of the fire has not been declared at this time and remains under investigation, according to Waterville Assistant Fire Chief Loren Mitchell. The Waterville Fire Department remained on scene most all of Saturday morning and received assistance from the Waukon and Harpers Ferry Fire Departments and the Waterville Ambulance Service.