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The Allamakee County Fair Board has announced this year’s grandstand musical entertainment for the 2025 Allamakee County Fair scheduled for July 16-20. A pair of up-and-coming young country music artists will be taking to the stage Friday, July 18, as Tennessee “blue collar” story-teller Shane Profitt will headline the night’s musical entertainment following the opening act of three-time Arkansas Country Music Association (CMA) Female Vocalist of the Year Mae Estes.

by Joshua Sharpe

Human trafficking awareness has become an urgent concern in states such as Iowa, which ranks third nationally for trafficking cases per capita. An educational event led by anti-trafficking advocate Stacy Besch, a key member of Team Iowa, a priority initiative on combating human trafficking, was held Thursday, March 6 at Northeast Iowa Community College (NICC) Waukon Center  and featured expert presentations, survivor testimonies, and legislative updates aimed at dispelling misconceptions about human trafficking and providing tangible strategies for community intervention and prevention.

The 2025 St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Waukon will be held this Sunday, March 16, beginning at 1 p.m. All are invited to participate in this year’s parade with an Irish-themed entry at no cost.

Any businesses, organizations, families or individuals wishing to have an entry are asked to be lined up by 12 noon Sunday, with float entries lining up in the parking lot of WW Homestead Dairy and the former Northern Engraving plant, tractors unloading and lining up at the Sweeney Auction Service parking lot and horse units gathering at the Croell Redi-Mix plant on the southeast edge of Waukon.

Interstate Power and Light Company, Alliant Energy’s Iowa energy company, is proposing to construct a battery energy storage system at the site of the company’s decommissioned Lansing Generating Station in Lansing. The project will be built on land that continues to be owned by Alliant Energy; therefore, no eminent domain will be used for this project.

A public informational meeting regarding the project will be held with the Iowa Utilities Commission Wednesday, March 19 at 12:30 p.m. at the Driftless Area Education and Visitors Center, located at 1944 Columbus Road, Lansing. At the meeting, Interstate Power and Light Company will provide project details, and time will be allotted for answering questions from those attending.

More than 100 people gathered at Effigy Mounds National Monument the morning of Saturday, March 1 to speak out in favor of federal employees and the lands they protect as part of a planned nationwide show of support for all 433 National Park sites across the United States. Due to recent actions through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), about five percent of National Park Service staff has been terminated nationwide, totaling approximately 1,000 employees thus far. In addition to mass firings at federal agencies across the country, the National Park Service is also facing budget cuts based on DOGE actions.

“Without adequate resources for protection, parks face impacts that can never be reversed. We need to preserve our national treasures for all generations to come,” said Pam Havlicek, whose daughter lost her seasonal ranger job at Yellowstone National Park.

Andrew Karvel will continue serving his 50-year prison sentence for May 2022 strangulation of Daniel Lundy

The August 2023 conviction of a Lansing man found guilty of second-degree murder in the May 2022 death of his roommate has been affirmed by the Iowa Court of Appeals, according to documents filed within the State of Iowa Judicial Branch. An appeal was filed on behalf of Andrew Raymond Karvel, now age 68, two months after an Allamakee County jury found him guilty of strangling 83-year-old Daniel William Lundy in the home they shared at 650 South 2nd Street in Lansing.

Everyone is invited to attend a presentation on human trafficking in the state of Iowa this Thursday, March 6 in Room 113 of the Northeast Iowa Community College (NICC) Waukon Center, located at 1220 3rd Avenue NW in Waukon. The presentation is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m., and those attending can watch the film “Gridshock” and hear a presentation on human trafficking in Iowa from Stacy Besch of Team Iowa, a priority initiative on combating human trafficking.

An Iowa survivor of human trafficking will talk about her experience and her book, “She Survived,” that was recently published. She will also talk about what she is doing to educate students across the state of Iowa through her organization, The Lighthouse Foundation.
 

Allamakee County Treasurer Nicki Smedsrud would like to remind property owners the second installment of property taxes is due by March 31, 2025. Those tax payments can be made at the Allamakee County Treasurer’s office in the Allamakee County Courthouse at 110 Allamakee Street in Waukon between the hours of 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Property owners are reminded to bring their tax stubs with their payment to ensure proper credit. To avoid penalty on the second installment, payment must be received in the Treasurer’s Office by Monday, March 31. Penalty will begin to apply April 1.

E-check and credit card payments are also accepted online at www.iowatreasurers.org. Property owners will need their receipt number to pay by E-check, and this can be found on their tax statement.

submitted by the Allamakee Energy District

In 2024, the Allamakee Energy District (AED) started offering free energy assessments to non-profit organizations in Allamakee County with funding from the Just Transition Fund, a project of the Rockefeller Philanthropies.

To date, AED has contacted 35 non-profit organizations in Allamakee County. It has provided detailed on-site energy assessments to 20 entities and other forms of assistance to six others.  Five nonprofits in the county recently completed major energy projects.

Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Lansing recently installed a 42 kW solar photovoltaic (PV) array on a non-utilized south-facing slope behind the church’s parking lot. The system is sized to generate approximately 90% of the electricity the church and the rectory consume over a typical year.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, is seeking public comments on a draft Environmental Assessment, or EA, for its proposed Blackhawk Park bank stabilization and erosion protection project. The proposed project is upstream of Lock 9 on the Upper Mississippi River on the Wisconsin side, adjacent to Vernon County, WI.

The purpose of the project is to stabilize the bank and shoreline at five sites with seven work areas around Blackhawk Park that were affected by the flooding events in spring 2023. Construction would occur in summer 2025. There will be temporary effects to recreational activities in the immediate area during construction, which will last several weeks.