News Center newsletter

The Waukon High School Class of 1961 will meet Friday, January 26 at 11:30 a.m. for lunch at Gus & Tony’s in Waukon. All classmates are invited.

Dr. Chris and Heidi Goetzinger of Waverly announce the birth of their son, Archer John Goetzinger, born January 16, 2018 in Waverly. He weighed 7 lbs. 9 ozs. and measured 20 inches in length at the time of his birth. He joins big brothers, Grady (4) and Sawyer (1).

Grandparents are Randy and Lori Hesse of Waukon and Dave and Molly Goetzinger of Mason City. Great-grandparents are Robert John and Agnes Anderson of Waukon, LaVonne Hesse of Waukon and Jim and Peggy Goetzinger of Boone.

Morgan and Kyle Olson announce the birth of their daughter, Lily Katherine Olson, born November 15, 2017 at Iowa Specialty Hospital in Clarion. She weighed 7 lbs. 13 ozs. and measured 20.5 inches in length at the time of her birth. She joins a brother, Leo (2).

Grandparents are Sandy and Dave Lyons of Waukon and Pam and Don Olson of Humboldt. Great-grandparents are Grace Murphy and Theresa Lyons of Waukon and Bertha Wagner and Dagny Isberg of Humboldt.
 

Dillon and Nicole Dietrich of Waukon announce the birth of their son, Dexter Douglas Dietrich, born January 12, 2018 at Veterans Memorial Hospital in Waukon. He weighed 7 lbs. 7 ozs. and measured 21 inches in length at the time of his birth. He joins a brother, Dayton (3).

Grandparents are Joan and Todd Dietrich of Waukon, Doug O’Connell of Eastman, WI and Tami O’Connell of Waukon. Great-grandparents are Ed and Barb O’Connell of Eastman, WI, Aldean Dietrich of Frankville, Wanda Barker of Waukon and Sharon Brown of Waukon.
 

by Dick Schilling, "Editor Emeritus"

... that this is being written on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, and I don’t know where he is buried, but watch for some grave spinning.

Because his dream has not been realized. In fact, in some respects, it seems things have gotten worse in the racial relations arena.

Just the week before the MLK anniversary, the president was accused of using intemperate language in reference to some African and Hispanic nations from which individuals are migrating to the United States.

And about that same time, Nancy Peiosi of the U.S. House of Representatives displayed racial bias in referring to the makeup of a group of elected officials, calling them “white” almost a pejorative.

For your meditation: Jonah 3:1-5, 10 – 1 Corinthians 7:29-31 – Mark 1: 14-20

In the first reading, Jonah the Prophet goes to the basically pagan city. He tells them they’d better shape up, and soon, or else terrible things will occur. And you heard what happened. Miracle of miracles, they all shaped up, right now.

n the second reading Paul gives us a kind of sober, somber warning. He says, “The time is short – those who are making use of this world should conduct themselves as if they were not using it because the world as we know it is passing away.”

In the gospel, Jesus is hard at work. After John’s arrest, and John is his cousin, mentor, precursor and forerunner, Jesus runs right out to preach God’s news. He says, “This is the time! The reign of God is at hand. Reform your lives and believe in the good news.”

There seems to be this rush on. We’ve got to get going, now!

To the Editor:

Zip-a-de-do-da, what a wonderful 2017!

My granddaughter was singing this the other day and I thought to myself, “what a fitting way to describe our year with Holiday Lights.” This is a year that will be hard to beat.

We had 450-plus volunteers helping with the lights, from setting up displays to happily greeting visitors. The popular Walk-Through Night attracted 700 people - the donated soup, cookies and hot chocolate were once again a big hit.

We broke the all-time record by 1,070 cars, and our first year ever to break 300 cars in a night (not only once, but twice)! Free-will donations were up by 34%.

We credit good weather and the public’s enthusiasm for such a remarkable season. Much appreciation goes out to all who helped make this event possible; thank you for helping us help others.

Dennis (Oz) Osmundson
Development Coordinator
Helping Services for Youth & Families
 

by Jeremy Leitz, Allamakee County Executive Director (563) 568-2148

Upcoming Deadlines and Important Dates
• February 19: Office closed in observance ofGeorge Washington’s Birthday

USDA Looking to Lease Office Space
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Farm Service Agency in Waukon, Iowa, is interested in leasing approximately 5315 rentable square feet of office and related space together with approximately 40 onsite, paved parking spaces.  The rentable space shall yield a minimum of 4621 to a maximum of 4855 contiguous ANSI/BOMA office area square feet of first class, high quality office space.  The space must be ready for occupancy within nine months after the lease award.

Researchers who participated in the Sustainable Corn Coordinated Agricultural Project (CAP), which was led by Iowa State University, are providing access to five years of data from the multi-university, corn-based cropping systems study at https://datateam.agron.iastate.edu/cscap/.

The research was funded from 2011-17 with a $20 million USDA-National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) grant. The research included nine states, 11 institutions and a 140-member team, which was led by Lois Wright Morton, project director and Iowa State University professor of sociology emeritus, and Lori Abendroth, project manager.

Iowa Alliance for Responsible Agriculture (IARA), a coalition of 27 state, community, and national organizations, called on Iowa state legislators to support 15 bills introduced by Senator David Johnson (I-Ocheyeden) that would strengthen how animal feeding operations are regulated in Iowa at a January 16, 2018 press conference held at the Iowa State Capitol.

The bills include a moratorium on new or expanding concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) until there are fewer than 100 water impairments in Iowa and the Master Matrix is addressed.

There are 750 water impairments in the state with over 1000 impairments, and over 20 counties have called for changes to the Master Matrix this past year.

Senator Johnson was one of 12 legislators and stakeholders that developed the Master Matrix in 2002. Over the last two years he logged thousands of miles traveling throughout the state listening to citizens share stories of how CAFOs impacted their lives.