News Center newsletter

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.

Bill Plein, a 1976 Waukon High School graduate and current head wrestling coach for the Columbus Community/Winfield-Mt. Union wrestling team, achieved a coaching milestone Thursday, January 18 when his Wildcat mat charges recorded a pair of dual meet victories at Mediapolis High School. In his 28th season as head coach of the Wildcat mat program, initially as Columbus Junction High School, the first of those two Thursday evening mat wins, a 56-22 triumph over Mediapolis, marked the 400th career coaching victory for Plein, making him just the 12th coach in Iowa high school wrestling history to ever achieve that standard. A 60-18 victory for the Wildcats over Wapello High School in their second dual of the evening pushed Plein’s career win mark to 401.

The Waukon bowling teams wrapped up the home portion of their schedules with a Friday, January 19 hosting of Oelwein. The end result of that final home match-up wasn’t much of a fond farewell to that home venue for the season, as the Indian girls fell by a score of 2204-1995 and the Waukon boys allowed just a four-pin opening round deficit to get away to a 2527-2464 defeat.

The Waukon girls fell victim to an Oelwein team that had all six of its players bowl well over a 200 series, while the Indians managed just half of that feat to trail by an early 1469-1226 margin. Each team had just one player roll a 300 series to lead their respective squads, Oelwein sophomore Brielle Belden rolling an event-high 321 series and junior Emma Roe leading the Indian effort with a 305 series comprised of consistent game totals of 152 and 153.

In its only competition slated for this past week, the Waukon girls basketball team had very little trouble with an Oelwein team sporting just a single win in Northeast Iowa Conference play. Having stifled the Huskies to a new school record defensive total of just 11 points the last time the two teams met, the Indians were a little more generous this time, but not nearly enough to prevent another dominating victory over Oelwein, 62-23, Friday, January 19 at home.

The Waukon boys basketball team split its pair of games this past week, falling to another non-conference opponent but continuing to hold its third-place position in the Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) standings with another victory in league play. The Indians opened the week having a strong comeback effort fall short, 66-62, at Prairie du Chien, WI Tuesday, January 16 before bouncing back with a 65-47 victory at Oelwein Friday, January 19.

The Waukon Fire Department was called out to Mulligan’s Grill Pub at 610 Rossville Road in Waukon around 9:40 p.m. Tuesday night, January 23 for a fire that appeared to have gotten its start in the ceiling of the structure shortly after the business closed for the evening. In addition to a full crew of Waukon volunteer firefighters, the Decorah Fire Department was also called in for use of its aerial ladder truck in order to effectively reach the fire area, cutting a hole in the roof of the building (as seen in one of the accompanying photos). Crews remained on the scene into the early morning and fire officials say the building suffered significant interior damage and is likely a total loss but that nobody was injured in the fire. The State Fire Marshal will be assessing the scene Wednesday morning to determine the cause of the fire.

Gertrude E. Tillman, age 89, of Waucoma died Monday, January 8, 2018 at the Evans Memorial Home in Cresco. A Mass of Christian Burial was held Saturday, January 13 at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Waucoma with Rev. Kyle Digmann officiating. Interment was held in St. Mary's Cemetery, Waucoma with Alfredo Garcia, Bruce Kleve, Vincent Tillman, Bob Kleve, Anthony Tillman and Charlie Stammeyer serving as pallbearers.

Gertrude “Gertie” Elizabeth (Fischbach) Tillman was born on a farm near Alta Vista December 3, 1928. Gertie’s parents were Nicholas and Pauline (Elenz) Fischbach. Gertie’s father died in 1938, so Gertie, along with her siblings and mother, moved to the farm of her grandparents, Matthias and Anna Elenz. Gertie attended country school near the Elenz farm and school in North Washington. Gertie quit school in ninth grade to help out on the family farm.

The Friday, January 12 home game for the Waukon boys basketball team against New Hampton featured some additional entertainment between that night's junior varsity and varsity contests, as nearly 40 area youngsters from Brenda's School of Dance in Waukon performed a variety of dance routines, some of which are pictured in the surrounding photos. View and find out how to purchase these photos and many more by clicking on the Photo Galleries link on this website.