Community News

The Friday, January 12 home game for the Waukon boys basketball team against New Hampton featured some additional entertainment between that night's junior varsity and varsity contests, as nearly 40 area youngsters from Brenda's School of Dance in Waukon performed a variety of dance routines, some of which are pictured in the surrounding photos. View and find out how to purchase these photos and many more by clicking on the Photo Galleries link on this website.
 

The Step Up and Reach Out Committee and Northeast Iowa Behavioral Health have started to distribute books purchased with the donations from its Step Up and Reach Out Walk held in October. The committee was able to purchase a large quantity of books for all ages dealing with the death of someone as a result of self harm. The organizations are delivering more than 40 knapsacks of books in Allamakee, Winneshiek, Clayton, Fayette and Howard counties to schools, churches, libraries, funeral homes and other organizations. Books include ones designed for young children, faith-based and teenagers.

Pictured above, left to right, are Joelle Nielsen, Jan Jauert and Rebecca Loven from Northeast Iowa Behavioral Health as they help to prepare books for delivery.

by Joe Moses

The Waukon City Council met in regular session Monday, January 15 to address a full agenda of items including the catalyst grant application for the former Tierney Building on Main Street, an additional officer for the Police Department and the ongoing Aveka noise and odor concerns.

Mayor Pat Stone called the meeting to order with approval of the current agenda and meeting minutes of January 2. The council agreed to move the City Budget agenda item to being the last item for discussion under Regular Business and opened Public Comment. During Public Comment, City Attorney Jim Garrett used the opportunity to introduce the newly appointed Assistant City Attorney, Nicole Winke Gentes, who was in attendance.

The Waukon Chamber of Commerce is seeking nominations from community residents for awards to be distributed at the Chamber's annual meeting scheduled for Friday, February 23. Those awards include Years of Service, Business of the Year and Person of the Year honors within the Waukon community. The Chamber will bestow those honors upon the best nominated candidate fitting the following award criteria:

The Tuesday, January 2 home game for the Waukon girls basketball team allowed the crowd to witness more than just basketball at the Waukon High School gymnasium, as youth ranging from Pre-Kindergarten on up through seventh grade performed as part of the Little Indian Cheerleading Camp that took place during the previous day, Monday, January 1. A total of 93 youngsters in Pre-Kindergarten through second grade participated in the Monday camp and then performed during halftime of Tuesday's junior varsity game, with 38 more third through seventh graders taking part in the Monday camp and then performing at halftime of Tuesday's varsity game. As pictured in the surrounding photos, a variety of cheers, jumps and simple stunts were performed to entertain the large crowd in attendance, with the young cheerleaders also getting a chance to share their spirit with players and coaches as they returned to the court from the halftime locker room.

Saturday, January 6 the Waukon Police Department conducted a traffic stop on Rossville Road in Waukon. As a result of the traffic stop, 30-year-old Caley Edwards of Platteville, WI was arrested and charged with Interference with Official Acts, Providing False Information, Dominion or Control of an Offensive Weapon as a Felon (a class D felony), Possession of a Controlled Substance (third offense), Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, Unlawful Possession of Prescription Drug, and Second Degree Theft (a class D felony). The theft charge was a result of a theft from a store in Waukon involving over $1,000 worth of merchandise. Further details were not made available due to investigative purposes.

Robey Memorial Library in Waukon will host a talk and discussion on Robert Wolf’s new book, "Building the Agricultural City: A Handbook for Rural Renewal," Thursday, January 18 at 6 p.m. "Building the Agricultural City" is a call for collaborative rural economic development, addressed primarily to residents of the Driftless region.

Wolf’s proposal calls for cooperation between cities and across county lines. If, instead of seeing themselves as separate entities, the towns and cities of northeast Iowa saw themselves as neighborhoods within a larger unit, they would form what Wolf calls an “agricultural city.”

“We will continue to be hammered by the global economy,” Wolf said, “if we can’t put aside rivalries and work to build a cooperative, more self-sufficient economy. We can no longer rely on state and federal grants. We have to think like the people who first settled here. They built these towns and they did it without grants. We have to relearn self-reliance.”

by Joe Moses

The Waukon City Council met in regular session Tuesday, January 2 due to the New Year's holiday falling on the council's usual meeting day of Monday. The meeting's full agenda of items including the appointment of City employees and Council Committees, a Water and Sewer Department vacancy and the WW Homestead Dairy forgivable loan.

Prior to Tuesday's meeting, newly-elected Waukon Mayor Pat Stone and Waukon City Council members Gayle Decker and Arvid Hatlan were all sworn in for their first terms in office after being elected in the November City Election. Councilman Ben Rausch was absent from the meeting.

Following the veto issued by newly-elected Waukon Mayor Pat Stone of an ordinance changing the meeting time of the Waukon City Council that was passed during the Tuesday, January 2 regular council session, research by Waukon City Clerk Allen Lyon reveals that a Waukon mayor has only used veto power on three other occasions throughout the recorded history of Waukon city government proceedings. According to Lyon's findings, those three instances involved the following:

November 21, 1927 - Mayor P.M. LeTourneau, MD vetoed a resolution repealing an ordinance prohibiting the Sunday showing of any theatrical shows and exhibitions, vaudeville shows and performances, and motion picture shows and exhibitions.

Hello, I hope everyone is enjoying the New Year. What a cold end to 2017 and start to 2018! But, hopefully by the time this article is printed, we enjoyed a warm Sunday and a warmer current week than the previous ones.

With my upcoming articles, I wanted to shift away from weather readiness and take some time to talk about emergency management itself and answer the question that I am often asked: what does Emergency Management do?