River Valley

The first annual Driftless Area Biggest Pumpkin Contest was held in Lansing Saturday, September 24. The contest is a continuation of the initial contest first started in Waukon several years ago and most recently continued at TASC, Inc. in Waukon before being assumed this year by Main Street Lansing as part of Lansing's new Harvest Fest celebration. Twelve pumpkins were entered, and the top three placewinning pumpkins are pictured in the center of the top photo above and include, left to right beginning with the third pumpkin from left: Third place - Duane Estebo, 420 pounds and winner of $50; Second place - Becki Estebo, 560 pounds and winner of $100; and First place - Marshall Kruse, 758 pounds and winner of $500. Kruse said he will donate his prizewinnings to the Allamakee County Food Shelf and Northeast Iowa Food Bank.

“The Fall Bird Migration," a program by Ross Geerdes, naturalist with Allamakee County Conservation, will be presented Thursday, September 29 at 6:30 p.m. at Meehan Memorial Lansing Public Library.

Geerdes says “The Driftless Area” (Pool 9 of the Mississippi River specifically) is a stopover for migrating waterfowl, including canvasbacks and redheaded ducks.  It is a key stopover for Tundra Swans migrating to the east coast as well as the many other waterfowl that are in this area. He will also expand into songbirds like warblers, robins and woodpeckers, and butterflies as well.

Contact the Meehan Memorial Lansing Public Library or the Allamakee County Conservation Board for more information.
 

The Driftless  Area Biggest Pumpkin Contest is scheduled to be held this Saturday, September 24 in Lansing. Part of Lansing’s Harvest Fest, the Biggest Pumpkin Contest will begin weighing pumpkins at 9 a.m. and will weigh all pumpkins that arrive up until 12 noon. The Big Pumpkin Contest had been hosted by TASC, Inc. in Waukon for the past several years, but is now under the direction of Main Street Lansing.

The biggest pumpkin by weight will win $500, second place wins $100 and third place wins $50. The weigh-in area is at the corner of Main and Front Streets in Lansing with the pumpkins being displayed there after the contest. There is no pre-registration necessary - just show up with a big pumpkin. Pumpkins must be intact without holes or cracks, and there is a suggested $10 weighing fee donation.

by Susan Cantine-Maxson

For one local congregation, the lyrics of a hymn have a literal meaning, “Shall we gather at the river? …Yes, we’ll gather at the river,  the beautiful, the beautiful river.”

For nine years, congregation members of Our Savior Lutheran in Lansing have participated in an annual summer church service held on a 90-passenger tour boat of the Mississippi Explorer Cruise Company. The first service in 2008 began because someone interested in becoming a member of the congregation wanted to be baptized by full immersion in the Mississippi River because the river was an important symbol in her life. Living in the area was part of her spiritual journey. Therefore, it seemed logical to fulfill that journey by being baptized in the river.

by B.J. Tomlinson

The Lansing City Council met in its regular session Monday night, September 19 and set the Citywide Fall Clean-Up Day for Tuesday, October 11. Refuse will be picked up at the curb, except appliances, which can be dropped off at the City Shed for a $5 fee.

A Public Hearing was opened by Mayor Mike Brennan to hear a report from Upper Explorerland Regional Planning Commission (UERPC) regarding the status of the Lansing Owner- Occupied Status of Funds. Michaela Collins from UERPC said four homes have been completed, one is ready for final inspection and one more will be completed by October 1. There were no comments or questions from the public and the hearing was closed.

The Council set a public hearing date of October 3, 2016 to report on the status of funding for the Lansing Water and Sewer Improvement Projects.

by B.J. Tomlinson

Because of Labor Day Monday, September 5, the Lansing City Council met in its regular session Tuesday, September 6.

The Council continued its discussion from past meetings related to the police contract with New Albin. Present at the meeting was Josh Dreps, New Albin City Council and Safety Committee member. Dreps said the New Albin City Council and Safety Committee members were all in favor of the terms in the new contract.

Lansing Council member Don Peters recommended a change in one paragraph of the agreement (Item 2.1, regarding Disputes). He suggested that instead of “disputes being resolved by the Mayors of both towns”, that they should, instead, be resolved by the Safety Committees and Mayors of both towns. The Lansing City Council agreed to the change and will revise the contract verbiage.

Lansing Emergency Medical Services (EMS) has been awarded a $25,000 grant from the American Heart Association as part of Mission: Lifeline, an American Heart Association community-based initiative aimed at improving the system of care for heart attack patients throughout rural Iowa. The Lansing EMS organization says the grant has specifically funded the purchase of a monitor which will perform all the vitals signs such as pulse, blood pressure, respiration and SPO2, as well as record and transmit a patient’s heart tracing directly to the emergency providers at the hospital, before the crew leaves the patient’s location.

Each year, hundreds of thousands of Americans have the most serious type of heart attack known as an ST-elevated myocardial infarction, or STEMI, in which blood flow is completely blocked to a portion of the heart. Unless the blockage is eliminated quickly, the patient’s life is at serious risk.

At a recent meeting of the Allamakee County Conservation Board and Foundation, a plan was suggested to include the Lansing area business community in raising money to support the Driftless Area Education and Visitor Center.

Under the plan, area businesses will be contacted and asked to donate toward three exhibits that are being reserved for the group. These three exhibits will carry the designation of being sponsored by the Lansing Area Business Community.  The three exhibits include:

by Susan Cantine-Maxson

“It’s like losing your family,” Dawn Schobert, long-time employee of the Blumenthal Lansing plant, expressed in regard to the plant's closing as the long-time Lansing facility has now ceased operations. “Many of us have worked together for as long as we can remember. I’ve worked there 42 years. We’ve seen each other get married, have kids, see those kids graduate, lose family members. Now we won’t see those people every day. It’s going to be hard.”

For the past seven years, Denise Becker of Lansing and her daughters, Jessica Verdon and Jennifer Becker, have run in the annual Chicago Rock and Roll Half-Marathon, which took place Sunday, July 17 this year. In addition to Sunday’s half-marathon, they also ran a 5K race the previous day, Saturday July, 16.

Every year Becker and her daughters run in the event to raise awareness of how Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) affect returning service members, helping to spread the message of “if we send them, we must mend them." Becker cites that, on average, 22 veterans take their own lives on a daily basis due to PTSD/TBI.