News Center newsletter

Dan Mathis and Alicia Fink of Waukon announce the birth of their son, Miles Eric Mathis, born November 22, 2021 at Veterans Memorial Hospital in Waukon. He weighed 10 lbs. 10 ozs. and measured 20 inches in length at the time of his birth.

Grandparents are Shawn (Sherie) Mathis of Harpers Ferry and the late Ellen Mathis of Waukon and Greg and Lori Fink of Harpers Ferry.

Upcoming Deadlines/Dates
Dec. 6: Deadline to Return COC Ballots
Dec. 15: Fall Seeded Crop Certification Deadline
March 15: ARCPLC Program Deadline

Growing Cover Crops After Small Grains
by LuAnn Rolling, NRCS District Conservationist
As we look at the coming crop year and the increased cost of inputs, it is a perfect time to consider adding a small grain to your rotation and following it with a summer cover crop.  The small grain is a relatively inexpensive crop and the cover crops enhance soil health properties and can provide supplemental forages, especially fall grazing.  In addition, due to diverse growing habits between the major crop and selected cover crop species, it helps to break disease and weed pressure in the field.

Podcast ranked No. 1 among top 20 sustainable ag podcasts

A podcast designed and produced by the Farm, Food and Enterprise Development program with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach has been recognized for its outreach.

The Small Farm Sustainability Podcast, which airs each week, was ranked No. 1 in a listing of the “Best 20 Sustainable Agriculture Podcasts” by Feedspot Blog, an online content creator and social media curator.

Produced by Christa Hartsook and Olivia Hanlon, small farms program coordinators with FFED, the podcast features a wide range of topics that address the opportunities and challenges associated with rural life. Recent topics have included biosecurity publications, Iowa organics, hunting perspectives, fall produce storage and the fall armyworm outbreak.

Manure applicators can attend educational workshops

Confinement site manure applicators and anyone interested in learning about manure issues should plan to attend a two-hour workshop offered by Iowa State University Extension and Outreach in January or February 2022. These workshops are offered in cooperation with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. Registration is required. No walk-ins allowed. There is no fee to attend the workshops, but applicators will need to pay certification fees and send the forms in to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to complete certification requirements.

Thankfulness

Last week we had the privilege of celebrating Thanksgiving.  For many people the Thanksgiving holiday is a time to get together and eat way too much while watching football. Quite often we forget that the original purpose of the day was to give thanks to God!

by Brianne Eilers

Recent visitors to Oakland Cemetery in Waukon may have noticed a change in the way the cemetery looks thanks to the dedication and hard work of Waukon residents Larry and Shirley Sharp. This year alone, the Sharps have cleaned and given new life to 731 headstones at the cemetery.

Shirley estimated they cleaned around 82 stones last year, and the couple didn’t know how many they have done altogether since they began doing this. The Sharps began dabbling in cleaning up old headstones about five years ago, starting with family grave markers.

“We noticed my dad’s stone was turning black,” Shirley said, and they wanted to know what they could do to fix that. Larry and Shirley contacted Stacey Gossling of Decorah, and learned how to properly clean headstones from her. The Sharps took their newfound knowledge and cleaned up the headstones of both Shirley’s and Larry’s relatives in cemeteries located in Iowa and Minnesota.

The Allamakee County Veterans Museum will observe Pearl Harbor Day Tuesday, December 7 by offering a program to the public in the Program Room of its new museum in the former Vet’s Club building in Waukon.

Tuesday, December 7 at 6:30 p.m. a video documentary will be presented about the Japanese air raid on the U.S. Naval and Air Bases at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Islands, which marked the entry of the United States into the Second World War.

The Pearl Harbor documentary will be preceded by a video that museum staff are calling “The last summer of peace in Waukon before the War.” It includes movie footage filmed in downtown Waukon in the summers of 1940-1941 by the Cote family for entertainment viewing in their newly opened Town Theatre on Main Street in Waukon.

The Waukon High School Choir will travel around the area on its 26th Annual Christmas Church Tour this Sunday, December 5.

The choir sings at seven churches each year. Those churches are selected based on a number of factors, including church proximity to the high school, accessibility for school buses, the physical size of the church, the membership size of the congregation, and whether the worship service is broadcast.

Under the direction of Sarah Bieber, the choir will be singing during the worship services at these Waukon area churches according to the following time schedule:

St John’s Lutheran
8:30-8:45 a.m.

Old West Lutheran
9-9:15 a.m.

First Presbyterian
9:30-9:45 a.m.

St Patrick Catholic
10-10:15 a.m.

First Baptist
10:30-10:45 a.m.

Zalmona Presbyterian
11-11:15 a.m.

Plans are being made for the Annual Lighted Holiday Parade to be held in downtown Waukon and scheduled for Monday, December 6, beginning at 6 p.m. The event coincides with extended Monday night business hours of some Waukon retailers, along with other events being planned that same evening.

The parade will begin with entries lining up around the East Elementary School playground before they travel Fifth Street NW south to West Main Street. Turning left onto West Main Street, the parade entries will venture to the stoplight intersection downtown, where they will then turn south on to Spring Avenue for one block before turning right on to First Avenue SW and heading west up to Sixth Street SW. The entries will then turn right and head north back to the East Elementary playground.

The Waukon Chamber of Commerce will be hosting its “Ringing in the Holidays” promotional event November 1 through December 12 of this year in an effort to keep business local for the holiday season. A drawing for prizes will be held Monday, December 13 for three winners of prizes of $25, $50 and $100 in Waukon Dollars.

Those shopping in local participating businesses during that promotional timeframe are invited to fill up as many $100 Punch Cards as they can with purchases from one or more Waukon Chamber of Commerce merchants found on the back of the punch cards. Participating merchants will punch or initial above the punch image to confirm the punch card’s $5 incremental value of purchase total.