News Center newsletter

Tree planting ceremony in Waukon City Park to honor local emergency responders through Team BackStoppers

For many riders, RAGBRAI® is exactly what its name says it should be - a great bike ride across Iowa. But for 1974 Waukon High School graduate Tim Dougherty, the annual event has become so much more, and he has something extra planned when the ride comes through his native Waukon later this month. Dougherty, who currently lives in Eureka, MO, has only become an avid road bicyclist within the past half dozen years or so, but the most recent half of those years has developed much more meaning. This will be the fourth consecutive year that Dougherty has ridden RAGBRAI as part of a group called Team BackStoppers.

The Waukon RAGBRAI Youth Art Contest was held for local kindergarten through sixth grade students in conjunction with RAGBRAI's July 28 overnight visit to Waukon. The contest offered area youth the opportunity to use their creativity to make original artwork that reflects their impressions of RAGBRAI®. Winners in each of three different grade categories, along with an overall winner, were announced at the June 28 town meeting held at Iron Ridge Church in Waukon. Photos of those winning entries are pictured surrounding this article. One entry was chosen as the overall local winner and will now compete for a $350 prize in the Statewide RAGBRAI Art Contest. Willa Troendle, age nine, was selected as that overall local winner and will now compete against overall winners from each of the other overnight stop communities along this year's RAGBRAI route.

Waukon RAGBRAI seeking volunteers to host riders

The Waukon RAGBRAI Housing Committee is seeking area individuals who are willing to open up their homes, yards or driveways to riders or support crews for RAGBRAI's overnight visit to Waukon July 28 of this year. Local RAGBRAI leaders say the RAGBRAI ride is "very much a camping event," where those seeking a host site are merely looking for a place to pitch a tent on someone's property. "They are looking for a place to sleep and a place to fill their water bottles, and that's about it," shared members of the Waukon RAGBRAI Housing Committee. "It's up to each host whether they want to open up their homes for anything more, like a bathroom, a shower or a bed or floor to sleep on. And there will be plenty of food downtown for them to enjoy, so feeding them is certainly not necessary."

Allamakee-Clayton Electric Cooperative (ACEC) employees and board of directors members held a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate completion of the Cooperative's Community Solar project, known as ACEC SunSource. The 100-kilowatt array is located at the Cooperative’s headquarters facility near Postville. It contains 360 panels; each panel is comprised of a primary, south-facing panel and a secondary, north-facing panel. Effective July 1, ACEC member-owners participating in the Community Solar project will begin earning energy credits. The solar project offers Cooperative members the opportunity to power their homes with solar without a signifi cant fi nancial investment or installing and maintaining their own solar array. By grouping solar panels together, costs can be shared and power output can be maximized. Visit acrec.com to view today’s solar production. Subscriptions are offered on a per-panel basis for varying lengths of time.

Wednesday, July 12, the Ferryville Tourism Council is sponsoring the second of this summer’s evening bonfire programs in Ferryville’s Sugar Creek Park at 8 p.m. The event will be held under the pavilion at the south end of the park just off of Wisconsin Highway 35, the Great River Road.

The program is “From Weeds to Wild Flowers on Gobbler Ridge” and will be given by Tim Eisele, a writer from Madison, WI. He and his wife, Linda, have restored a large section of their land in Crawford County, WI from regular land to native prairie. The resulting prairie is an attraction for birds, insects and animals that are native to the area. Eisele will use multi-media to show the process he and his wife went through during this years long process.

Attendees are asked to bring lawn chairs and bug spray.

Eight youth who attended the June 20 Bike Camp hosted by Iowa State University Extension and Outreach now know how to change a flat bike tire and also know proper bike riding etiquette. Iowa State University Extension and Outreach partnered with Troy Carter, Safe Routes to School Director, and Ashley Christensen, Regional Safe Routes to School Coordinator, to host Bike Camp for youth in third through fifth grade. They spent the morning learning about riding etiquette, rules of the road, hand signals and the ABCs of riding. While getting their bikes ready to ride, youth had to check the air in their tires to make sure they were at the appropriate pressure, checked the brakes to see if they were hooked up and working, and looked at the chain to make sure it was in place and oiled. Once the youth had their bikes fitted correctly, they were ready to hit the trail.

Northeast Iowa Community Action Corporation’s (NEICAC) Board of Directors, at its regularly scheduled board meeting June 26, regretfully accepted the letter of pending retirement from the agency’s Executive Director, Mary Ann Humpal. Humpal has been with NEICAC since August of 1972 and has been the Executive Director since June of 1989. She has set December 21, 2017 as her last working day.

By that time she will have served the residents of northeast Iowa for 45 years and four months. NEICAC Board Chairman Les Askelson credits Humpal's dedication and leadership for establishing NEICAC as one of the top Community Action Agencies not only in Iowa but also nationally recognized. Askelson, says that the board of directors will be working with the Iowa Community Action Association (ICAA) in the search for a new Executive Director.

The Waukon baseball team was dealt some early week losses before recovering to win two of three final games during this past week. One of those early losses had already played out to Waukon’s first Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) victory and win streak of the season in the previous week, but a 7-4 home victory over Charles City from Friday, June 23, instead, was ruled a forfeit loss after this season’s new pitch count rule revealed a miscalculation in the Indian pitching rotation that did not allow enough rest time, wiping that lone NEIC win for the Indians away on a technicality.

The Waukon softball team wrapped up its regular season schedule this past week, getting the week off to a strong start with a doubleheader sweep before having that favor returned two-fold, all six of its games this past week coming in Northeast Iowa Conference play. The Indians began the week with home mercy-rule victories of 14-3 in six innings and 12-2 in five innings over Oelwein Monday, June 26 in a twinbill rescheduled from June 22. The softball Tribe had that fortune reversed in its final two regular season dates, being swept in a doubleheader at New Hampton by scores of 8-7 and 10-0 in five innings Tuesday, June 27 and suffering a similar fate at home against Crestwood by final results of 11-1 and 8-0 Thursday, June 29.

It was a fateful final week of Upper Iowa Conference (UIC) play for the Kee baseball team, as the Hawks were dealt an early blow to their hopes of a repeat as UIC season champions but could not get the help to recover from that blow later in the week. That UIC damage was done by a rare home doubleheader loss to North Fayette Valley Monday, June 26 by scores of 6-0 and 8-0 that dropped the Hawks to three UIC losses on the season, just one loss behind Clayton Ridge/Central’s two conference losses on the season that, ironically, were handed to them by Kee.