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by Lissa Blake

After 122 years in business, Calhoun Creamery in Churchtown is closing its doors.

January 1 of this year, Calhoun Creamery member farmers joined the Foremost Farms cooperative. “The transition gives Calhoun Creamery members the assurance of a long-term, steady market for their milk,” said a press release issued by Foremost Farms in regard to that transition.

Foremost Farms and Calhoun Creamery have a long-standing history, as Foremost Farms has purchased milk from Calhoun since the late 1990s.

“Combining our milk supplies benefits Calhoun and Foremost Farms members,” said Michael Doyle, President & CEO of Foremost Farms. “Calhoun needs a market for its milk, and Foremost is addressing the need for a stronger presence in that area.”

HISTORY
Calhoun Creamery Manager Michelle Donahue explained Calhoun Creamery was started in the spring of 1896 by 20 local farmers who owned 210 cows.

Mississippi River guide Ted Peck of New Albin snapped and shared this photo Monday, February 4 around 2 p.m. of an ice jam on the Upper Iowa River near the intersection of State Highway 26 and Black Hawk Road about two miles south of New Albin in Allamakee County. Peck had been observing the ice jam, explaining that it began at the railroad bridge located just to the east of the State Highway 26 bridge pictured in the photo above and estimating that it had raised the river level in that area at a rate of nearly one foot per hour. Crews from Canadian Pacific Railroad were on scene to clear some of the ice away from that railroad bridge, which sits lower than the Hwy. 26 bridge pictured above and caused the flowing ice chunks from the previous weekend’s thaw to back up well past that highway bridge, as evident in the above photo.

A legislative forum open to the public has been scheduled for this Saturday, February 16 at the Allamakee County Farm Bureau building located at 14 First Avenue NE in Waukon, beginning at 11:15 a.m. Iowa House of Representatives District 56 Republican Anne Osmundson and Iowa Senate District 28 Republican Michael Breitbach have each been invited to field questions and discuss issues with the general public at Saturday’s forum.
 

by Joe Moses

The Allamakee County Board of Supervisors met in regular session Monday, February 11. During Public Comment, Chairperson Gloria Payne of the Allamakee County Historical Preservation Commission provided an overview of the organization’s activities, indicating that it was a good year. Payne discussed the organization’s Annual Report, which is being added to the February 18 Board of Supervisors meeting agenda. She also indicated that there is a vacancy on the seven-person commission.

Award nominations due by February 8; Princess applications due by March 1

The 2019 Allamakee County Dairy Banquet will be held Saturday, March 16 at the Allamakee County Fairgrounds Pavilion in Waukon. The meal will be served from 7-8:30 p.m., with the program starting at 8 p.m. The annual celebration recognizes the importance of the dairy industry in Allamakee County and the contributions dairy families make to the industry.

Every year, top producers from the county are recognized at the banquet. In addition, several other awards are presented that evening. The Allamakee Dairy Promotion Board and the Allamakee County Extension Office are accepting nominations through February 8 for the following awards:

The temperature reading of -26º pictured above on the clock thermometer at Waukon State Bank on Main Street in Waukon gives some indication of just how cold it was Wednesday morning, January 30 during the Polar Vortex cold snap that gripped the Midwest and beyond with historically cold temperatures in some areas. The -26º reading, however, was only about half as cold as it actually felt at times during the frigid stretch, as sustained winds hovering around 10 mph with gusts approaching 30 miles an hour plummeted wind chill factors to nearly double that temperature reading, those -40º to -50º wind chills creating dangerous situations that kept many area businesses from operating Wednesday, January 30 and even into Thursday, January 31, as depicted by the nearly empty Main Street scene above. Among those halted business operations was the U.S. Postal Service, which did not deliver mail in parts of as many as 10 states during Wednesday’s worst day of the cold snap.

by David M. Johnson

In society there are rules, statutes and regulations that ensure an orderly and well governed direction for day-to-day experiences. To enforce and interpret the law, society has police officials, judges and inspectors who are just some of those employed to make sure those guiding principles are being enforced.

In sports, whether it is little league, middle school, high school, college or the professional ranks, there are those men and women in “stripes” or “blue” - as they are often referred to - who stand behind the plate calling balls and strikes, who whistle fouls on a player defending under the basket, or who watch that football offensive lineman to ensure he is using a legal blocking technique. Umpires and referees are indispensable, otherwise there would be mayhem on the courts and fields they preside over.

OFFICIAL NOTICE is given that the date of the upcoming February 5 Special election for Postville School District will be changed to Tuesday, April 2, with polling hours being from Noon-8pm on election day. Absentee voting will begin in the Auditor’s office on Monday, March 4.
The reason for the change of dates is due to an omission in the required publication. The County Auditor sends the Notice of Election and Sample Ballot to the newspaper for publication. The Notice of Election was sent and published, but a Sample Ballot inadvertently did not get sent for publication. Due to this omission, the Special Postville School election scheduled for Tuesday, February 5, 2019 must be rescheduled.
Absentee voting for the rescheduled April 2 Special Election for Postville Community School District will begin in the Allamakee County Auditor’s office Monday, March 4. Absentee voting will be open until 11 a.m. election day, Tuesday, April 2, 2019.

Award nominations due by February 8; Princess applications due by March 1

The 2019 Allamakee County Dairy Banquet will be held Saturday, March 16 at the Allamakee County Fairgrounds Pavilion in Waukon. The meal will be served from 7-8:30 p.m., with the program starting at 8 p.m. The annual celebration recognizes the importance of the dairy industry in Allamakee County and the contributions dairy families make to the industry.

Every year, top producers from the county are recognized at the banquet. In addition, several other awards are presented that evening. The Allamakee Dairy Promotion Board and the Allamakee County Extension Office are accepting nominations through February 8 for the following awards:

Wednesday, January 23 at approximately 1:39 p.m. the Waukon Police Department received a report of an active burglary at 303 Fourth Avenue SW in Waukon. According to court documents, the female reporting the incident indicated that someone was in her garage, and upon arrival, officers did find 47-year-old Ricky Lynn Arentz of De Soto, WI inside the garage at the residence.

Arentz explained to the officers that he had knocked on the house door, with footprints in the snow indicating that someone had indeed approached the house door. After no one answered the door, Arentz said he entered the garage to look at an air compressor he was considering in lieu of money he claimed the male resident of the home owed him.