News Center newsletter

by Julie Berg-Raymond

Ian Zahren was appointed to the Lansing City Council during the council’s regular meeting Monday, November 21. Zahren takes the seat vacated by Bruce ReVoir upon his resignation, effective October 17 of this year. In his letter of resignation, ReVoir referred to “a few unforeseen health events that need my full attention.”

Zahren, a vocal music teacher at Kee High School in Lansing, has taught theatre and dance and started a non-profit in the Cedar Rapids area to support the arts. He served as executive director of Lansing RAGBRAI 2022 and led a large team of volunteers to realizing the biggest profit from the event of any participating city this year. In a text request for comment following the meeting, Zahren said, “I want to say thank you to the council for appointing me to the remainder of Bruce’s term; I look forward to serving the city of Lansing.”

The Ferryville Holiday Market and Craft Event is scheduled to be held Saturday, December 3 at the Ferryville Community Center, 170 Pine Street in Ferryville, WI. The event will take place from 9 a.m.-3 p.m.

Farmers Market vendors are selling their bakery items, crafts, canned pickles, salsas, home made soaps and other items. There will also be jewelry, wood products, holiday home decor and other gift ideas. There will be complimentary coffee plus bags of coffee for sale. Lunch sandwiches and chips will also be available to purchase. Many new vendors for the market will be at this year’s event.
 

The 2022 Waukon football season rode a bit of a rollercoaster during this most recent fall campaign that ended up at a 6-4 season record, and just like any such ride that ultimately comes to an end too soon, there were plenty of thrills provided along the way. That end came short of a sixth consecutive trip to every team’s ultimate destination of playing in the UNI-Dome at season’s end, but before that conclusion the grid Tribe played its way to a fifth consecutive undefeated Class 2A District Championship and extended a qualifying streak for the Class 2A State Play-Offs to a sixth consecutive season as well.

The 2022-2023 Kee boys basketball season will see a number of new faces taking to the court, as the bucket Hawks will look to replace a large group of seven graduated seniors who accounted for a vast majority of the production in last winter’s 12-12 season effort. Three players do return from that squad with varsity letterwinning experience, all of those coming from this season’s largest class of six sophomores that make up a majority of this season’s nine varsity team members.

Those returning letterwinners include the sophomore trio of Jordan Cota, Dalton Mudderman and Karsen Strong. Those three equal the same number of total upperclassmen for this winter’s campaign, as Jacob Rolfs is this season’s lone senior and there are only two juniors, Kaleb Drape and Andrew Kolsrud. Another three sophomores, Brayden Darling, Parker Leppert and Jarod Reams, round out this season’s varsity squad.

Even though the sport of girls wrestling has been growing by historic measures in recent years, the 2022-2023 Iowa high school wrestling campaign will be even more historic as the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union has officially sanctioned the sport of girls wrestling this season. Much like the overall sport itself, girls wrestling has continued to grow at Waukon as well, and the Lady Indians will also be part of this season’s history as a group of 12 young ladies will make up their own team this winter, competing with a full schedule of dual meet and tournament competition.

“The excitement is high this season due to sanctioning,” Waukon girls wrestling head coach Dani Bucknell shared. “Over 2,000 girls are entered into Track Wrestling for this season in the state of Iowa, that’s double last year’s numbers.”

The Waukon girls and boys bowling teams got their 2022-2023 seasons off to a successful start, as both Indian squads recorded victories over Tripoli at home Tuesday, November 22, and did so in a big way by margins of at least 700 pins. The Lady Indians posted a 2030-1313 triumph and the Waukon boys rolled to a 2894-2042 win.

The bowling Indians are next scheduled to hit the road for back-to-back Friday matches, competing at Decorah December 2 and then at North Iowa December 9. Waukon’s bowlers will then have one final match before the holiday break, returning home for a Friday, December 16 contest with Waverly-Shell Rock.

For more complete coverage, pick up this week's print edition or subscribe to our e-edition by clicking here.

Arden C. Dickson, 75, of Postville died Sunday, November 27, 2022 at his home in rural Postville. Funeral services will be held Thursday, December 1 at 11 a.m. at St. Bridget’s Catholic Church in Postville with Fr. Martin Coolidge officiating. Inurnment will be held at Oakland Cemetery in Waukon at a later date. Friends may greet the family from 9 a.m. until time of services Thursday at the church. Martin - Grau Funeral Home in Waukon is handling the arrangements.

Arden Carl Dickson was born March 27, 1947 in Waukon, the son of Howard Carl and Melva Elaine (Henderson) Dickson. He was baptized and confirmed at First Presbyterian Church in Waukon. Arden graduated from Waukon High School in 1965, and he served in the United States Navy from 1966-1970 as a medic doing rescue missions during the Vietnam War.

James Zeimet of Hastings, MN died November 24, 2022. Visitation will be from 4-7 p.m. Thursday, December 1 at Starkson Family Life Celebration Chapel in Hastings, MN. Funeral Service will be at 11:30 a.m. Friday, December 2 at St. Philip’s Lutheran Church in Hastings, MN with visitation one hour prior at the church. Interment will be at 1 p.m. Saturday, December 3 at the Evergreen Cemetery in Caledonia, MN.

James was born August 24, 1929 to John and Leonette (Althoff) Zeimet in Waukon. He was raised in the Lansing and New Albin areas. His mother passed away in 1934 at the age of 36.

Shortly after her death, December 7, 1938, he made his home with foster parents Edward and Josephine Kenny of New Albin. He attended elementary school at the Jefferson Co. District No. 95. After finishing school, he farmed in what was known as the Winnebago Valley for many years.

A tall tower serving the Lansing Power Plant has been a part of the southern Lansing skyscape for 74 years. Within the next two years it will be gone, only to be remembered by those who lived here during the years of its operation. Although many have benefited from the energy the plant created, some area residents have special memories of the plant because of personal connections. Currently of Cincinnati, OH, Shirley Boardman shared pictures of the early power plant and a story about her father, who was the first manager of the plant in 1948: “My father was Orville Hoksch. He began working in power plants in Bismarck, ND, and then in Harvey, ND. Our next move was to Albert Lea, MN where he was the chief engineer/manager of the plant there. From there we moved to Lansing in 1948 where he was to be the chief engineer/manager of the plant that was being built there.

Allamakee County officially will reopen Iowa River Drive (County Road A26) at 4 p.m. Wednesday, November 23. Allamakee County Engineer Brian Ridenour said there is some finishing work to be completed yet next spring, with flaggers and pilot cars being used at that time for traffic control in order to avoid any further detours. The project began in mid-April of this year, resulting in a detour that took traffic through Lansing before heading north to New Albin. The six-mile stretch of roadway that was worked upon between just west of Wheatland Drive and the Iowa River Drive intersection with Great River Road (State Highway 26) involved grading, culvert replacements, small bridge replacement, areas of full pavement removal, areas of milling of the asphalt surface, and a new hot mix asphalt pavement being laid down the entire six-mile length of the project.