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The 2023 Allamakee County Dairy Banquet is scheduled to be held this Saturday, March 25 at the Allamakee County Fairgrounds Pavilion in Waukon. Food service will start at 7 p.m. and the program will begin at 8 p.m. Banquet tickets can be purchased at the door.

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
• Distinguished Dairy Family Award
• Service to Dairy Industry Award
• Golden Butter Knife Award.

The Allamakee County Community Foundation (ACCF) Board is celebrating a milestone in its campaign to raise $450,000 toward a permanent endowment that will help address local needs for years to come. Thanks to gifts from board members and community leaders, and the support of an anonymous donor, over $225,000 has been raised for the Allamakee Forever Endowment Fund.

The initiative will help the Foundation build its endowment and provide an annual payout that will help address emerging needs and opportunities in communities across Allamakee County.

“The Forever Fund presents an opportunity for each of us to invest in the Foundation and thus the success of our communities,” says Betty Steege, foundation coordinator. “As an endowment, it will continue growing forever, and the flexible dollars it will provide can help address critical and emerging needs.”

The Allamakee County Emergency Management Agency wants to take this opportunity to notify the public of the intent to conduct a county-wide Tornado Drill and test of all city emergency warning sirens next Wednesday, March 29 at 10 a.m. This will allow Allamakee County to participate in the State of Iowa Tornado Drill as part of Severe Weather Awareness Week, which is scheduled for March 27-31 this year. At approximately 10 a.m. Wednesday, March 29, warning sirens in all six cities in the county will be activated and National Weather Service NOAA Weather Radios will be sent the drill as a Required Weekly Test (RWT) with normal alert tones followed by drill verbiage.

The annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Waukon has been scheduled for this Sunday, March 19 and will begin at 1 p.m. with many festivities taking place as in years past throughout the community, including some new ones this year.

The parade route will be the same as in past years, beginning from the southeast edge of town and heading north up Rossville Road and Spring Avenue to the stoplight intersection with Main Street. Turning left on to West Main Street at the stoplights, 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.

After more than a year’s worth of investigation by local, State of Iowa and Federal authorities into the February 13, 2022 fire at 9 Allamakee Street in Waukon (pictured above) that destroyed two business buildings and damaged others located in adjacent structures, authorities arrested property owner Mindy Jo Jones, age 43, Monday afternoon, March 13 in Waterloo, her latest known residence location. According to a release from the Waukon Police Department, Jones is being charged with Arson-First Degree (a Class B felony) and is also being charged with Animal Abuse (an aggravated misdemeanor) for the death of a canine as a result of the fire.

by Joe Moses

Iowa Second District Congresswoman Ashley Hinson of the U.S. House of Representatives met with representatives of Postville’s Community Heart & Soul Program at the Postville Public Library Friday, March 3 as part of a series of visits in northeast Iowa. Brenda Hackman, Manager/Economic Development & Community Relations for Allamakee-Clayton Electric Cooperative, and Crystal Duffy, Community Developer/Library Director initially discussed Postville’s Heart & Soul Program with Hinson, and Postville Mayor Dennis Koenig later joined the meeting.

by Ellen Modersohn

Rural Lansing property owners near the site of a proposed large-scale extraction pit filled a meeting room at the Driftless Area Education and Visitors Center Thursday evening, March 2 for a public hearing about the site.

Ames Construction of Burnsville, MN has applied to the Allamakee County Planning and Zoning Office for a conditional use permit to operate a “borrow pit” at a farm at 2074 Lafayette Ridge Drive, south of Lansing. Ames would be removing 307,000 cubic yards of fill and trucking it seven miles to fill and cap the Alliant Energy ash ponds at Power Plant Road, south of Lansing. The project would last approximately from May through November this year. Randy and Kristy Gaunitz are the extraction pit site landowners.

Funding from an anonymous donor, skills learned and implemented by Waukon High School students, and a willingness to try and take care of those who need it most all came together with the creation and installation of The Goodwill Box in the lower parking lot of the Allamakee County Courthouse in Waukon Tuesday, February 28.

Editor’s Note: The following article was written and recently submitted for publication by northeast Iowa native Clyde Cremer. Cremer and his family moved to the New Albin area when he was in fourth grade, and he went on to graduate from New Albin High School in 1960, the last graduating class for that high school before it merged to form Kee High School in Lansing as part of the Eastern Allamakee Community School District. After his high school graduation, he enlisted in the U.S. Army before he completed a Bachelor of Science degree in Forestry from Stephen F. Austin State University and then a Master of Forestry degree from the Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, graduating from Yale with its Class of 1973 that also include Bill and Hillary Clinton and Dr. Ben Carson. He and his wife, Gail, first founded their American Log Homes business (now American Log Brokers) in 1977 in Missouri before moving its headquarters to Pueblo West, CO in 1984.

The Waukon Fire Department was called to a house fire at 2315 Lycurgus Road in rural Lansing Wednesday afternoon, February 22, around 1:45 p.m., battling not only the roaring blaze pictured above but also the ice, wind and snow (evident in the photo as well) of the winter storm that gripped the area that day, creating very slippery road conditions.

Homeowner Michelle Welsh was home at the time of the blaze and was able to get herself and her pets safely out of the burning structure.