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Waukon High School graduate Greg Dougherty honors “where it all began”

Before Greg Dougherty built an oil field services company or managed a workforce of 100 employees, he was a high school graduate in Waukon looking to build a reliable trade.

It was 1978, a year after graduating from Waukon High School, when Dougherty decided to pursue a long-term career. He visited Northeast Iowa Community College (NICC) - then known as Area One Vocational-Technical School - in Calmar. He weighed bricklaying against welding before making a practical decision.

“I figured the welding would be a lot less back-breaking work,” Dougherty recalled. “I went with that.”

He graduated from the College’s welding program in 1979 after mastering the rigorous, hands-on standard of his instructor: welding a beveled plate, stripping it down and bending it into a horseshoe. If a single flaw showed up in the bend, a student failed and started over.

Allamakee County Economic Development & Tourism (ACED) has announced the addition of Jenny Byrnes in a new role of Communications Coordinator for the organization. The new position focuses on building business relationships while marketing for ACED and its members, in addition to marketing tourism opportunities within Allamakee County.

“I am excited to welcome Jenny Byrnes to Allamakee County Economic Development & Tourism as Communications Coordinator,” shared Allamakee County Economic Development & Tourism Executive Director Val Reinke. “Jenny’s experience brings fresh insight into building and supporting membership, along with a creative edge to enhance ACED’s communication efforts.”

by Joe Moses

The Allamakee County Board of Supervisors met in regular session Monday, October 12 to address a full agenda of matters including the discussion and consideration of the appointment of County Auditor, the discussion and consideration of a Solid Waste Department personnel matter, and the approval of Secondary Roads transfers.

The meeting was called to order by Board of Supervisors Chairperson Tom Clark with Supervisors Dan Byrnes and Dennis Keatley present. During Public Comment, Clark made note of the ribbon cutting ceremony that took place over the weekend at the Learning Tree Childcare Center in Lansing. Clark and Byrnes made note of the work by Learning Tree Director Jenny Cole and her team with this facility being an asset to Lansing and Allamakee County.

by Brianne Grimstad

The month of August ended up being a very good financial month for Veterans Memorial Hospital (VMH) in Waukon. The hospital ended the month with a net income of $91,316, far above the budgeted net income of $1,951.

According to numbers shared at the September meeting of the VMH Board of Trustees, gross patient revenue came in at $5.5 million. For the month of August, VMH saw very strong patient volumes in many of its service lines. Inpatient and swing bed had an average daily census of 4.9 patients, compared to 2.7 at the end of June.

Outpatient volumes were also strong, particularly in the areas of lab, CT, pharmacy and the SLS (Senior Life Solutions) program. Cardiac Rehabilitation has also seen good patient volumes, and the surgery department also had a full schedule in August. Speech Therapy and Physical Therapy also had a good month in August.

by Joshua Sharpe

The Lansing City Council approved bids for two projects tied to remaining FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) funding during its Monday, October 5 meeting, moving forward with revetment work at the South Front Street bridge and resurfacing work on Shaw Street. City Clerk Teresa Severson told the council approximately $53,000 remained in the FEMA account.

At the same time, the two project bids total substantially more: $44,500 for the bridge revetment project and $69,075 from River City Paving for Shaw Street. Additional state funding is also expected, but the city will still be responsible for a significant portion of the combined cost.

Mayor Mike Verdon summarized the financial situation by saying, “The FEMA money plus a little bit of state money will not quite come to one-half of the total for these two projects, so a little more than a half will go out of the city’s coffers.”

To the Editor:

Have you ever received a nice-looking package that you hoped was holding what you anticipated was in it?  When you opened it, you found there were parts you never wanted.

That describes what’s in Amendment 1 on the Iowa ballot this fall. The package looks good but the contents spell trouble. Any proposed amendments to Iowa’s constitution need to be studied. Iowans need to understand its short- and long-term impacts. Guesses and assumptions won’t provide protection from the consequences.  Any amendment to the constitution is much more difficult to change than a law.

Amendment 1 would require a two-thirds majority vote to increase taxes rather than the current simple majority. That would apply to both personal and corporate taxes. If passed, corporate tax rates would be nearly impossible to raise. Big businesses and corporations don’t carry their own weight and pay their share of taxes and Amendment 1 would eliminate any chances to raise them.

To the Editor:

Everyone has an agenda. Agendas, or goals, are not always a bad thing. We can agree to disagree on certain views as they are laid out on the table. Hidden agendas, however, can present a real problem.

Organized religion, like politics, can have its agendas too. Sometimes these are hidden agendas.

As for myself, I am of the Christian religion, and I do admit I have my own agendas. But they are not hidden agendas. I have nothing to hide; I will lay them out right here. My life goal as a Christian is to evangelize the world. I eat, sleep, and breathe to see others converted to Christianity. I want to further this cause every chance I get.

Now, some may not appreciate my agenda and may be offended by it, but one thing is for sure: It is not hidden. All my cards are laid right out on the table.

Deadlines/Dates
September 16 – December 11: Fiscal-Year 2026 ARC/PLC Sign Up
October 1: Fiscal-Year 2027 Mid-Contract Management on CRP Opens
November 2, 2026 -  March 15, 2027: FY27 ARC/PLC Sign Up
December 7: COC Election Ballots Due 
December 31: Deadline to Apply for OCCSP

Bale Grazing: Turning Winter Feed into Soil Fertility

submitted by William Kopp, Yellow River Watershed Project Coordinator
Allamakee Soil and Water Conservation Director

The Midwest STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) Alliance has recruited 18 outstanding elementary science teachers across three states to participate in the Multi-State Midwest STEM Alliance Initiative, six each from Iowa, Kansas and Minnesota. Backed by a $5 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), this new project is led by Principal Investigator Dana Atwood-Blaine, PhD at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, and is aimed at celebrating, resourcing, and strengthening the work of rural elementary science educators who are making a lasting impact on their students and communities.

Lauren Drew, a second grade teacher at West Elementary School in Waukon, was selected to join this prestigious group as a Corps member.

The Allamakee County Conservation Board and the Mississippi Valley Sportsman Club in Lansing will host an Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Hunters Education Online Field Day. The field day will take place Saturday, October 24 at the Mississippi Valley Sportsman Club, located at 1797 Columbus Road, Lansing, from 8-11:30 a.m.  Students should go to the Iowa DNR website to register for the class, under the Hunting & Trapping link and then the Hunter Safety and Education link that can be found at https://www.iowadnr.gov/.

The Hunters Education Online Field Day is open to youth aged 11-17 who have successfully completed the online hunters education course through the Iowa DNR.