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Allamakee County residents are being reminded that each community’s Severe Weather Warning Sirens will normally be tested the first Thursday of every month in the morning around 10 a.m. The next scheduled test is for this Thursday, July 2.

Allamakee County Emergency Management Coordinator Corey Snitker says the purpose is to test the County’s remote siren activation system operated from the Allamakee County E911 Dispatch Center located at the Sheriff’s Office north of Waukon. This system allows the dispatcher on duty to remotely activate any community warning siren in the event of threatening weather from their location, thereby expediting siren activation in an emergency.
 

Due to restrictions in place regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, the Iowa State Extension and Outreach - Allamakee County 4-H Program has created an alternative fair experience for youth exhibitors to be implemented this year.

Local 4-H and FFA youth will have the opportunity to show their livestock in a private fair experience during the week of July 7-12, according to the schedule printed on Page 24 in this week’s edition of The Standard. With this unique fair experience, youth will not be selling their live animals as in years past, prior arrangements for market animals have already been made.

In place of the traditional Livestock Auction, youth will participate in a Premium Auction. Local supporters can still bid and pay a premium on a youth to reward them for their hard work and help them offset expenses incurred. This premium will then help fund next year’s projects, as plans are to return to the more traditional Livestock Auction for next year’s fair.

Having had just one confirmed positive case of COVID-19 reported for the entire first three weeks of June, Allamakee County has now been reported as having two additional confirmed cases in just this past week, the last full week of the month. Those two new cases this past week bump the Allamakee County total to 123 total cases, with a total of 155 tests reported as being conducted within the county during this same past week’s timeframe.

by Lissa Blake

The Coronavirus is real and it affects real people. That’s something the children of Gary and Carol Bahr of Waukon have learned first-hand in heartbreaking fashion over the past two months, when COVID-19 took the lives of both of their parents.

Gary and Carol Bahr, both 74 years old, passed away within days of each other in mid-April and early May of this year. Although Gary was the first one to be hospitalized, his wife of 54 years preceded him in death by three weeks.

Their children, Jeff Bahr of Onalaska, WI and Jason Bahr and Jenny (Bahr) Kugel, both of Waukon, recently shared their family’s story with The Standard in an effort make people realize how real this virus is and how much of an impact it can have.

Variety of free entertainment and events; Tickets for grandstand admission go on sale this Friday

The Allamakee County Fair Board continues to make plans for the 2020 Allamakee County Fair, an event that will be modified this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and mitigation guidelines put in place as a result of that virus. Despite the modifications, all involved with the planning process have been working hard to provide the best variety of events and entertainment possible under the unprecedented situation presented by the pandemic virus.

The 2020 Allamakee County Dairy Days Parade was able to take place Monday, June 15 in Waukon, being postponed from its original date of June 1 due to concerns and mitigation guidelines in regard to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the postponement and virus concerns, approximately 35 entries traveled the parade route with a good number of parade viewers lining the route as well. The annual celebration brings together those representing the future of the industry, such as the Allamakee County Dairy Ambassadors and Allamakee County Dairy Royalty (all pictured above), as well as those who have represented or supported the industry in a variety of ways currently and throughout its storied past in Allamakee County, all in an effort to recognize the importance of the dairy industry to all who live, work and play in Allamakee County.

For the second time in three weeks, and just the second time since case statistics began to be reported in March of this year, Allamakee County recorded another full Monday-to-Monday week of no new confirmed cases of COVID-19. This past week of no new cases follows a previous week of just one new case reported, which actually followed the first week of no new cases for the county.

The 2020 U.S. Census has been underway since early spring this year, basically limited to self-reporting mode thus far due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With U.S. residents being invited via mail to complete the Census online, over the telephone or through the mail itself, Allamakee County ranks as one of the lowest counties in the state of Iowa in regard to self-response rate to that counting measure.

As of Monday, June 15, the state of Iowa average for self-response was listed at 67.5% overall, with Allamakee County’s response rate being listed at just 54.0%, which ranks 97th out of all of Iowa’s 99 counties. Only Ringgold County (53.3%) in southwest Iowa and Dickinson County (43.0%) in northwest Iowa have lower response rates from their residents. The last time the U.S. Census was conducted, in 2010, the state of Iowa response rate was 73%.

by Lissa Blake

What started out as a way to help a family member, turned into a way to help hundreds of others.

“It’s been an interesting journey,” said Tina Lyon, Waukon, of the 400 masks she and her sister, Michele Stahl, have sewn for people since the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March of this year.

Lyon said the idea for sewing masks got started as an effort to help her step-daughter have some clean N-95 mask covers. As a retired nurse with 30 years experience, Lyon said she understood the importance of trying to slow the spread of COVID-19 through the wearing of masks.

“Al’s daughter, Amanda Horne, works in Cedar Rapids in a dialysis unit. At the time, she was expecting, and masks were in short supply, so she was having to use the same one each day. I thought it would be nice to try and sew some mask covers for her, so she had several,” recalled Lyon.

Once she made the mask covers, she thought, “I can do better than this.”

The closure of Wisconsin Highway 82 (WIS 82) across the Mississippi River between Wisconsin Highway 35 (WIS 35) and the Black Hawk Bridge at Lansing has now been extended to July 2, according to Wisconsin Department of Transportation (DOT) officials. The closure, originally scheduled for June 6-14, has been extended to accommodate additional construction activities along 1.4 miles of WIS 82 between the intersection of WIS 82/WIS 35 and the Black Hawk Bridge over the Mississippi River.

Project Manager Travis Buros of the Wisconsin DOT explained that when crews opened one of the smaller slough bridges they were working on as part of the planned improvement project they discovered some necessary repair work that they had not anticipated. He said that the worst case scenario is that the highway will now be closed through July 2. However, he said if weather cooperates and work is relatively straightforward, the closure could end as early as June 24.