Community News

Two barns located in Allamakee County will be included in this year’s All-State Iowa Barn Foundation Tour, to be held October 16-17. The tour is self-guided and open to the public. Featured are barns renovated or restored by matching grants from the Iowa Barn Foundation or by owners who have refurbished their barns without grant assistance, but who support the mission of the Iowa Barn Foundation. Allamakee County locations included in the tour are the Chimney Rock Ranch and the Marlow-Saak Barn.

Rehearsals are underway for the Allamakee Community Players production of the “Bride of Frankenstein Goes Malibu”, a comedy by Tim Kelly. Dr. Frankenstein has moved his household to sunny California, where he hopes to live undetected while searching for the perfect surfer. His seclusion isn’t easy, though, because it is complicated by detectives and visitors from Transylvania filled with all sorts of interesting characters that “funny” describes perfectly. And future generations are not always an improvement.

The Allamakee Ecumenical Choir will begin weekly rehearsals Wednesday, October 20, at 9 p.m. in the balcony of St. John’s Lutheran Church in Waukon. Now in its 34th season, the Choir will prepare for a Christmas Festival Service scheduled for Sunday, December 12, at 7:30 p.m. at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Waukon. Anyone in the community who would like to sing and participate is welcome to attend rehearsals and join in the festivities.

by Dwight Jones

by Brianne Eilers

Changes by Kelly was opened for business in Waukon July 14 by owner Kelly Mahr, a 2003 graduate of Waukon Senior High and a 2007 graduate of Total Look School of Cosmetology and Massage Therapy in Cresco.
Mahr says she decided to open her own business after talking with Janine Wirth, owner of Wall to Wall in downtown Waukon, about a rental space. “Everything just fell into place at the right time and I couldn’t turn the opportunity down,” Mahr said. “I’m very happy with the decision.”

Allamakee County library patrons now have anytime, anywhere access to a dynamic collection of digital audio books through the new library service NEIBORS, the North Eastern Iowa Bridge to Online Resource Sharing, http://neibors.lib.overdrive.com/.

Families from the Allamakee Community School District joined together Monday, September 27 to celebrate the County’s third annual celebration of Family Day - A Day to Eat Dinner with Your ChildrenTM. Family Day is a national movement launched by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University in 2001. The local event was hosted by Community Connections, Allamakee Substance Abuse Prevention (ASAP), Helping Services for Northeast Iowa, and the Northeast Iowa Food & Fitness Initiative.

In conjunction with National Fire Prevention Week, October 3-10, the Waukon Area Fire Protection District encourages Waukon residents to take part in Operation EDITH (Exit Drills in the Home) Wednesday, October 6 as a way of reinforcing some of the safety measures taught by local fire volunteers in the elementary schools that same week throughout the local school district.

Hannah Garbes, the 13-year-old daughter of Brent and Marty Garbes of Waukon and an eighth grade student at the junior high school in Waukon, was diagnosed with Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia June 18 of this year. She is currently undergoing chemotherapy treatment at St. Mary's Hospital in Rochester, MN.