Community News

Donna Harvey, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Northeast Iowa Area Agency on Aging (NEI3A), has been named the winner of the 2020 Betty Grandquist Lifetime Achievement Award by the Iowa Department on Aging and Iowa Commission on Aging.

The award, named for former Department Director and Commissioner Betty Grandquist, identifies and recognizes an Iowan who has dedicated a portion of their personal or professional life to achieving excellence in the fields of aging or disability or has made significant contributions to promoting independence and enhancing the quality of life among older Iowans and Iowans with disabilities.

Harvey has served as the CEO of NEI3A since October 2016 and is retiring from that role a the end of this year. She previously served as the director of the Iowa Department on Aging from January 2011 until joining NEI3A.

The Eitzen Lions Club is grateful for the support from citizens of Allamakee County and is happy to present the Allamakee County Food Shelf in Waukon with a donation of $1,000. Pictured above at the presentation of the donation check are, left to right, Lion Richard Amundson, Allamakee County Food Shelf Co-Director Ann Roed and Lion Lawrence Fruechte. Submitted photo.
 

Throughout the month of November, R.W. Pladsen, Inc. in Waukon hosted its Fill-A-Truck Holiday Drive, collecting gifts and necessities to give to area nursing home residents in Allamakee County in an effort to make their holiday season a little more special since many won’t be able to spend the holidays with family due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For each item donated to the drive, the donor’s name was put into a weekly drawing for a variety of gift certificates, t-shirts and other prizes from Allamakee County businesses. As evident in the photo above, a variety of items such as books, blankets, toiletry items, games, movies, stationery, calendars and other personal care items were donated, with those items being delivered to area nursing homes this past week. Pictured above with the truck full of donated items are, left to right, R.W. Pladsen, Inc. staff members Greg Halverson, Karina Opperman, Bob Kubitz, Carli Quandahl and Steve Pladsen.
 

Allamakee County experienced another series of record high case counts for COVID-19 this past week, reporting a new record high total for both single-day cases, as well as for the entire past week. The State of Iowa reports that 111 new cases were confirmed in the county in the past week’s timeframe dating from Tuesday, December 1 through Monday, December 7, eclipsing the previous weekly high of 108 cases from three weeks earlier and marking the third 100-plus weekly case total for Allamakee County since the pandemic began.

All three of those century-mark case totals have happened within the past four weeks, with the fourth of those weeks totaling just under 100 - 95 cases. Those past four weeks have represented the four highest weekly case totals so far for Allamakee County since case counts began in Iowa for the pandemic in March of this year.

by Joe Moses

The Waukon City Council met in regular session Monday, December 7 via Zoom web-conferencing to address a full agenda of items including the hiring of a consultant to assist in drafting a new industrial contract for sanitary sewage  treatment, discussion relating to enforcement of ordinances and contract provisions with Aveka Nutra Processing and the purchase of a tractor and mower for City Park maintenance.

There was no Public Comment and the council moved into Department Reports with Library Director Cate St. Clair providing a brief update relating to Robey Memorial Library.

Adults who are missing the library’s Pinterest Projects Class can stop into the library and pick up a Pinterest To Go Bag featuring the project Napkin Transfer Paper, beginning December 10 until gone. Create this fabric-like paper and use it to make a small gift bag.

Pinterest To Go is being offered bimonthly until the in-house program Pinterest Projects resumes. Pinterest Projects is a free class that features a craft found on Pinterest, a visual bookmarking tool that helps people discover and save creative ideas. Contact the library at www.waukon.lib.ia.us or 563-568-4424.
 

by Joe Moses

The Allamakee County Board of Supervisors met in regular session Monday, November 30 to address a full agenda of items including consideration of the 2020 Allamakee County Comprehensive Plan, the appointment of an interim Planning and Zoning Administrator and discussion of the cropland portion of the County Farm lease for years 2021 to 2023.

A project involving the installation of a new main waterline (as depicted in the two surrounding photos) began just prior to the Thanksgiving holiday and, depending upon the weather, is expected to be completed by the end of this current first week of December, according to Waukon City Manager Gary Boden. The project is taking place between Second Avenue NW and First Avenue NW and will service the newly renovated Waukon Police Station (the front of which is pictured at far left in the photo below) as well as a future building project that will take place in the now vacant lot owned by the City of Waukon at 105 First Street NW (just to the south of the shed pictured at far right in the photo below). The project is being funded by the City of Waukon through tax increment financing (TIF). Standard photos by Joe Moses.
 

Editor’s Note: Surrounding photos were also taken the night of the October 25 Awards Program but a technical matter prevented them from being fully uploaded and included with other Award Program photos submitted and previously published in the November 11 edition of The Standard.
 

Although the new confirmed COVID-19 case weekly count for the past week decreased for the first time in a month, that new case count for the past week’s timeframe of Tuesday, November 17 through Monday, November 23 still remained at 95 cases, by far the second highest weekly total and ranking only below last week’s total of 108 cases. Similar to last week’s highest-ever single-week case count, six of the past seven days reported were in the double-digit area for number of new cases.