River Valley

by Macie Hill

The Lansing City Council met Monday, May 20. A motion was made and seconded for Resolution #920 amending the FY2019 Budget. A motion was made and seconded to consider looking at bids to either repair or replace the wall located on Highway 9 near 1417 Main Street.

There will be a public hearing June 3 regarding Clear Creek Crossing. Items such as project specifications and price will be discussed. The current cost estimate for this project is around $300,000. For this project the council approved the Clear Creek Crossing Iowa DNR wastewater section construction permit application, a joint permit application that deals with both the DNR and Corps of Engineers, and a Lansing floodplain development permit.

The Driftless Area Education and Visitors Center in Lansing will be hosting Gary Eldred of The Prairie Enthusiasts for an interactive flint knapping demonstration Sunday, June 9 from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Along with Eldred will be other Driftless Area residents who share a passion for flint knapping and bow making in traditional Native American styles.

Flint knapping is the art of making arrowheads, knives and other tools using chipped rock and stones in the same manner Native Americans have done for thousands of years. The demonstration will be free of charge and will be ongoing throughout the day. Visitors to the Driftless Center are encouraged to ask questions and interact with the demonstrators while they are working.

Families and friends have honored more than 391 veterans in the All-Veterans Memorial Brick Plaza at Mt. Hosmer Veterans  Memorial Park in Lansing. New bricks can be inscribed with a veteran’s name, rank, branch of service, years of service and possibly more information depending on brick size chosen. Additional bricks are placed in the plaza twice a year, before Memorial Day and Veterans Day.

Mt. Hosmer was established as a veterans memorial park in the early 1920s when Lansing’s American Legion Post 50 donated this hill to the City of Lansing  for a Veterans Memorial Park. In 2001, the Lansing American Legion and VFW built a WWI memorial in the park, which offers panoramic views of the Mississippi River.

An additional All-Veterans Memorial was created in 2004-2005. It features a marble stone for each branch of the U.S. military behind an apron of memorial bricks.

Nell Hogan, daughter of Mary Hogan of Lansing, has been selected as the 2019 Girls State Citizen by American Legion Auxiliary Unit #722 of Harpers Ferry. Hogan is currently a junior at Kee High School in Lansing. She will attend Girls State 2019 at Drake University in Des Moines June 16-21.

Iowa Girls State is one of the premier programs sponsored by the American Legion Auxiliary and was all started by a dream of four women over 70 years ago in hopes of teaching young women about the political process. Girls State is a “learning by doing” program, which takes the girls through the entire political process.

“Rummage Along the River” is a 70-mile garage sale event that winds along Hwy. 35, Wisconsin’s Great River Road, and includes the communities of Stoddard, Genoa, the Bad Axe, Victory, De Soto, Ferryville and Lynxville, as well as Seneca and Mt. Sterling along Hwy. 27. The annual event is taking place this Friday and Saturday, May 17-18 from 8 a.m.-4 p.m. each day. More information about the event can be found online at www.rummagealongtheriver.com or other social media venues. Submitted photo.
 

During worship services Sunday, May 5 there were two baptisms at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Lansing. Jack Ryun Schwarz, son of Lee Langager and Daniel Schwarz, had Jennifer Moen and Corey St. Mary as his baptismal sponsors, and Asher Lee St. Mary, son of Corey St. Mary and Lee Langager, had Jennifer Durfee and Abigail Heiller as his baptismal sponsors. Pictured above, left to right, at the baptism celebration are: Front row - Abigail Heiller, Jack Ryun Schwarz, Lee Langager, Asher Lee St. Mary, Corey St. Mary; Back row - Jennifer Moen, Jennifer Durfee, Pastor Laura Gentry. Submitted photo.
 

Peoples State Bank will open its new Harpers Ferry branch for business Wednesday, May 8. Final preparations are being completed in preparation to open the doors and start serving the community. The Harpers Ferry location will be a full service bank with two customer service representatives and a loan officer able to serve both personal and business banking customers, and the newly-constructed facility will also feature drive-thru and ATM services. The bank lobby will be open Monday-Thursday, 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. and Friday. 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Drive-Thru services will be available Monday-Thursday, 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Friday, 8:30 a.m.-6 p.m. and Saturday, 8 a.m.-12 noon.

The Lansing Fire Department was called to Milty’s, located at 200 Main Street in Lansing, for a small fire of a somewhat unusual nature Thursday afternoon, April 17. The fire began in the laundry area near the kitchen in the back of the large Milty’s building, and a quick response by employees and the Lansing Fire Department volunteers prevented the incident from being much worse than it was.

Milty’s owner Mike Conway said that employees reported smelling “something burning,” but an initial search could not turn up the source. Eventually, a haze was noticed coming from the laundry room, and the employees quickly called the fire department. “I am very grateful they called the fire department when they did,” Conway said. “By the time the fire department arrived, we did have a fire.”

by Macie Hill

The Lansing City Council held its regular meeting Monday, May 6. Discussion centered around the adoption of the consent agenda, holding a public hearing, a Black Hawk Bridge update, a People Service report, a Parks Board Report and setting another public hearing.

A public hearing was held for Resolution #918 which allows vacation and easements of Otis and Chestnut Street. A motion was made and approved to allow that action.

The Allamakee County Conservation Board and the Driftless Area Education and Visitors Center have received funding from Humanities Iowa, a private, non-profit state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, to host “Iowa’s Hidden Treasures” by Dan Kaercher Thursday, May 16 at 6:30 p.m. at the Driftless Center.  A cultural resource for Iowans since 1971, Humanities Iowa offers many cultural and historical programs and grants to Iowa’s communities. This will be a free program for all ages.

Kaercher is the retired founding editor-in-chief of Midwest Living Magazine and host of “Iowa’s Simple Pleasures” and other travel-related programs aired on Iowa Public Television and other public television stations nationally. A native of Council Bluffs, he graduated from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, majoring in journalism.