East Elementary Kids Club has had many great volunteers thus far this year. The Kids Club staff and students appreciate the efforts of Waukon High School Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) Advisor Joan Schwartz and her FBLA students, the Waukon High School Orange Cord Program, Keystone AEA and Kathy Hay, ISU Extension with Becky Rea, Northeast Iowa Food & Fitness Initiative with Andrew Blair, Robey Memorial Library, Ross Geerdes with Allamakee County Conservation, Ann Hart and Al Hanson with RSVP, TASC, Jim and Sue Bieber, Lynn Groe, Joanne Sherman and her Band Buddies, Allamakee Community School District (ACSD) Tech Team and the STEAM Night for all volunteering time to the Kids Club program. Pictured above are Waukon High School students Michaela Dehli and Megan O’Neill, who started a Videography Club with Kids Club students while volunteering with FBLA.
Members of the Allamakee Community School District (ACSD) Board of Education gathered for their regular monthly meeting Monday, February 20. Board Secretary Jaime Curtin noted that work is being done on the budget, and contracts are being prepared for the coming year. Superintendent Dave Herold noted that after a few months of declining funds, the school lunch fund had a gain in January.
Herold continued by reporting that insurance premiums had no increase again, making for at least three years of steady costs. “This is great news again. Our rates are down because we have been keeping our claims down,” Herold remarked.
The Waukon High School Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) chapter is hosting its annual Carnival this Friday, February 24 at the Waukon High school gym and cafeteria from 4-7 p.m. Carnival games along with a small concession stand and cotton candy will be available. All games/activities can be participated in for just a quarter each. Proceeds from the carnival will be returned to the elementary schools in the Allamakee Community School District. Submitted photo.
... that I read with great interest Orlan Love’s article in Sunday’s Gazette regarding the vagaries of water quality in northeast Iowa, and in the “driftless” area with its karst topography.
Those of us who have lived here for a number of years are perhaps more familiar with the latter than the former, because while we know this hilly area is such because it was missed by the glacial drift of the age of ice, before climate change(!), the term “driftless area” seems to have lately become adopted as something to attract tourists. As stated in the article, there is northeast Iowa, and then there’s the rest of the state. Those from the loess hills near the Missouri River might quarrel with that.
It’s getting close to s-p-r-i-n-g! Which means it’s also getting close to L-E-N-T. “So?” you may ask, “what difference does that make?”
Well, if you choose to make a difference, Lent can come to be a very significant thing. It is a time to do some self-evaluation. Specifically it has to do with your assessment of your relationship with God - The Almighty, The Creator, The Supreme Being, The Father in Heaven, The Son & The Holy Spirit, etc.
Iowa has one of the highest quality, lowest cost health care systems in the United States. And at the heart of that system are 118 community hospitals that stand ready, day and night, to serve everyone, regardless of their ability to pay. A significant reason for health care excellence in Iowa has been state oversight of institutional health care services through the Certificate of Need law.
Iowa’s Certificate of Need regulations were first enacted in 1977 for the express purpose of providing for the orderly and economical development of health care services, thereby avoiding unnecessary duplication of services, controlling the growth of overall health care costs and ensuring the stability of community hospitals. Since that time, these regulations have been re-examined multiple times and each time the same conclusion was reached: Iowa needs Certificate of Need.
I take exception to Dick Schilling’s ‘And Then I Wrote’ column February 15, 2017. First, Mr. Schilling stated, “The old Ku Klux Klan pretty much disappeared nearly 100 years ago…”. More than being inaccurate, this statement falsely minimizes the threat presented to targets of the KKK’s hatred and bigotry through the present day.
On a different topic, Mr. Schilling discussed membership of the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, taking an unveiled and offensive slap at anyone who is not heterosexual. In a bigger sense, I am troubled by a continuing theme of viewpoints in The Standard which appear to endorse a reactionary and Christian-based lifestyle at the expense of all others. I invite The Standard to rather put forth an image of inclusion and tolerance, one that I think is more representative of the people of Allamakee County.
I stood opposed to the collective bargaining reform rushed through the statehouse. As part of my opposition, I contacted each legislator currently representing the state. Senator Breitbach responded to my message. He seemed to take offense when I suggested that the collective bargaining reform was the result of lawmakers beholden to out-of-state interest groups. He said he saw no problem with lawmakers using model legislation from out-of-state groups instead of drafting it from scratch.
The Waukon bowling team had its inaugural season brought to a close, missing out on the championship finish or at-large bid necessary in either team or individual scoring to advance on to the State Tournament from their Tuesday, February 14 Class 1A District Tournament at Cascade. The Waukon girls bowled to a fifth-place team finish in their district competition, while the Indian boys ended up sixth.
“Overall, I was happy with how we performed,” Waukon bowling coach Jerry Keenan said. “The boys were within 12 of their high score for the season. (Senior) Austin Day and (freshman) Zech Brink had their high scores of the season. The girls were extremely consistent on the day in their individual games.”
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Kee boys basketball senior Danny Brennan takes the ball to the basket in the Hawks’ 49-42 loss to Turkey Valley in the opening round of Class 1A District Tournament play at Postville Thursday, February 16. Brennan led all scorers in the contest with 18 points, pushing him into the number-four spot on the Kee boys basketball career scoring list with 1,031 points, just two points ahead of 2006 Kee graduate Gabe Schultz. Photo courtesy of the Kee High School Yearbook. View and find out how to purchase this photo and many more by clicking on the Photo Galleries link on this website.
The third time was not charmed when the Kee boys basketball team faced off against fellow Upper Iowa Conference squad Turkey Valley in the opening round of Class 1A District Tournament play Thursday, February 16 at Postville High School. But it certainly looked like it could have been and, at the very least, was improved from the previous two match-ups. Having fallen to the Trojans by margins of 13 points after suffering at least one double-digit outscoring quarter in each of their two regular season match-ups, the Hawks never trailed at the end of any of the game’s first three quarters and remained tied with just over two minutes left, only to suffer a 9-2 final outscoring in those final two minutes to have their season ended by a 49-42 defeat.
