Top Stories

Waukon Economic Development and the Waukon Chamber of Commerce have announced that the Red Rock Threshers Tractor Club has chosen Waukon as the home to base its annual tractor ride for 2018, scheduled for July 20-21. The hospitality displayed in the past to other tractor rides and the scenic area of Allamakee County all played a part in being chosen for their ride this year, according to event organizers.

The Red Rock Threshers Tractor Club is a club made up of members from several towns in central Iowa around the Lake Red Rock area, and the group is based out of Pella. They are an active club that was started back in the 1970s by hosting a local antique tractor pull in Pella, for which they built their very own tractor pulling sled that is still being used today.

by Joe Moses

The Allamakee County Board of Supervisors met in regular session Monday, June 25 to address a full agenda of items including the consideration of an IT equipment purchase for the Allamakee County Public Safety Center, consideration of a 28E agreement for emergency law enforcement services with Effigy Mounds  National Monument and consideration of joining the Opioid Litigation Group. There were no members of the public present and no Public Comment.

Waukon Economic Development has announced that Senator Chuck Grassley will be visiting Waukon Tuesday, July 3 from 1-2 p.m. Senator Grassley will first take a 20-minute tour of the WW Homestead Dairy processing plant and ice cream parlor before being available to the public at that same facility for a 40-minute question and answer session.

For additional information about Senator Grassley’s visit, contact Ardie Kuhse, Director of Waukon Economic Development at 563-568-2624.
 

Allamakee County Economic Development & Tourism is partnering with Iowa Workforce Development and Iowa Economic Development Authority to complete a Laborshed employment study for the Waukon area. This study will geographically define which communities contribute to Waukon’s workforce, regardless of political boundaries. This defined area is called a Laborshed area and is based upon commuting patterns.

For the success of this study, letters will be sent to employers in Waukon asking that they provide aggregate counts of their employees’ residential ZIP codes. This will allow determination of the scope and scale of Waukon’s Laborshed area and better understanding of where Waukon’s workforce resides.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District has closed Blackhawk Park near De Soto, WI temporarily due to rising river levels. The Corps has also closed three other Mississippi River landings due to the high river stages from recent heavy rains, including Bad Axe and Jay’s landings in Wisconsin and Millstone Landing in Minnesota.

Those who have upcoming reservations at Blackhawk Park may contact park staff at 608-648-3314, or they may be contacted by park staff as those reservation dates approach. The Corps will re-open the park and landings as conditions allow.

In the coming weeks, Luther College in Decorah, in partnership with the Upper Iowa Watershed Management Authority, will be releasing a short questionnaire about the 2016 flooding events in the local area. This survey will be sent to a random sample of 2,250 addresses within the Upper Iowa River Watershed, which includes portions of Howard, Winneshiek and Allamakee counties in Iowa.

Whether or not an individual or household was directly impacted by these flooding events, resident and business owner responses are important to the work being conducted by Luther College and the Upper Iowa Watershed Management Authority as they strive to understand the multiple ways flooding impacts communities. Ultimately, the hope is to evaluate how to make local communities more resilient to flooding.

The replacement of the Green Valley Bridge just north of Waukon is fully underway, with the photos above and at right showing the removal of the previous bridge structure nearly complete as of Monday, June 18. Completion of the project is expected to take about two months, depending upon the weather, and the project is a joint venture between Allamakee County and the City of Waukon, with the State of Iowa providing a majority of the funding for the project.

Despite Green Valley Road being closed near its intersection with State Highway 9 north of Waukon, temporary access to Green Valley Getaway is still available via the graveled area to the very left of the top photo. However, as the sign at left also says, that graveled access is not for traffic seeking further access through to Green Valley Road. Standard photos by Joe Moses.
 

Michael Osterholm, Ph.D., MPH, University of Minnesota Regents Professor, McKnight Presidential Endowed Chair in Public Health, and director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), has been selected by the U.S. Department of State as one of five 2018 U.S. Science Envoys.

Other 2018 U.S. Science Envoys include Charles Frank Bolden Jr., (USMC-Ret.), the former Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and Robert S. Langer, Sci.D., FREng, one of 13 Institute Professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and recipient of the U.S. National Medal of Science (2006) and the U.S. National Medal of Technology and Innovation (2011).

An internationally recognized expert in infectious disease epidemiology, Osterholm is a leader in the research, prevention and control of infectious diseases throughout the world. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and the Council on Foreign Relations.

The annual Allamakee County Dairy Days Parade was held in Postville this year in conjunction with the Postville community’s Hometown Celebration Parade Friday, June 15 and the Big Four Fair. Such as this parade entry by Farmers & Merchants Savings Bank exclaims, the annual event celebrates June as Dairy Month and the efforts of producers and others involved in the dairy industry in Allamakee County. Photo courtesy of The Postville Herald.
 

by Lissa Blake

While the name Upper Explorerland frequently surfaces in regard to city and county meetings, few people understand the scope of what the organization does. Upper Explorerland Regional Planning Commission Executive Director Rachelle Howe and Economic Development Department Head Diana Johnson recently spent some time explaining the organization’s operations.

“Upper Explorerland is a council of governments (COG) that serves as an extension of city and county governments in order to assist them,” said Howe.