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AC Skyways, a division of Allamakee-Clayton Electric Cooperative, has announced it is the recipient of an Empower Rural Iowa Emergency Broadband Expansion grant to expand on an already planned fiber-to-the-home project on the west side of Waukon, with the construction of the first phase of the project to start later this month. The routes of the two planned phases for the project are outlined by orange and black lines in the two map images to the left of this article.

Madison Snitker, Callie Ferring working as contract tracers for Johnson County Public Health
 

A pair of Waukon High School graduates are among more than 45 current students at the University of Iowa’s College of Public Health in Iowa City who are working part-time as contact tracers at Johnson County Public Health in Iowa City. Madison Snitker and Callie Ferring, who graduated from Waukon High School in 2016 and 2017, respectively, are among those U of I students involved in the unique experience of helping the local public health department and greater community handle the coronavirus pandemic while gaining valuable skills.

Jim Magner of Waukon shares his experience serving in the “Brown Water Navy” during the Vietnam War

Jungles and rice paddies are some of the many images Americans have of Vietnam thanks to the media coverage during the Vietnam conflict over 50 years ago. Movies and television, plus documentaries and newscasts assist in continuing to reintroduce and reinforce memories of this nation’s involvement in, at the time, the United States’ longest war.

The bombings and air support of that conflict are reminders of the Air Force’s contribution to the war effort. The monuments erected often depict the soldiers on the front line, both the Army and the Marines. But perhaps not as much attention is given to the Navy and its presence in this war.

Members of the Allamakee County Veterans Memorial Committee placed a memorial wreath (pictured at right in a photo taken by Standard Assistant Editor Joe Moses) at the base of the memorial located on the front lawn of the Allamakee County Courthouse Friday, November 6 to honor Maury Gallagher, a fellow committee member who passed away October 29 and who was so instrumental in the thorough completion of the memorial and the information the overall memorial contains honoring Veterans from Allamakee County. Allamakee County Veterans Memorial Committee Chairperson Dr. David Hahn, DVM says the wreath will likely remain in place for the remainder of this year, unless it becomes worn or weather-impacted.

Thursday morning, October 29, Alliant Energy released its Clean Energy Blueprint for Iowa, a path for accelerating the company’s transition to cleaner energy for customers. As part of that plan, it was also announced that Alliant’s Generating Station in Lansing will be retired from operation by the end of the year 2022 as part of changes to two of Alliant’s current coal-burning facilities, among other changes throughout the company.

As the nation and parts of the world are seeing considerable increase - sometimes at a record pace - in the number of newly confirmed cases of COVID-19, Allamakee County was no exception to that trend this past week, experiencing a new case count nearly double what it previously had seen in any previous week’s timeframe. Already following a new high of 39 cases the previous week, this past week’s timeframe of Tuesday, October 27 through Monday, November 2 saw 67 new cases reported for that timeframe, with a weekend spike featuring new single-day highs fueling that overall surge.

Wrapped in that new weekly high total for the final week of October are the first positive cases reported by both Thornton Manor and the Eastern Allamakee Community School District in the Lansing community. Both reported their first cases in both staff members and individuals they serve at those respective facilities.

Kee girls cross country junior Haley Meyer crosses the finish line as the Class 1A State Champion at the 2020 Iowa High School State Cross Country Championships held at Lakeside Golf Course near Fort Dodge Saturday, October 31. Ranked number one among Class 1A runners the latter half of this season, Meyer ran in the lead pack throughout the race, pulling away down the final stretch to outpace a pair of fellow Upper Iowa Conference runners and last year’s defending State Champion to reign supreme over this year’s Class 1A elite in a time of 19:11.3. See Pages 16, 17 and 20 for additional coverage of Meyer’s State Championship effort and further State Cross Country Meet coverage for both Kee and Waukon High Schools.
 

by Julie Berg-Raymond

The late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, noting the climate of political divisiveness and partisanship currently seeming to tear at the fabric of American democracy, was quoted shortly before her death September 18 as saying, “I think it will take people, true patriots, on both sides of the aisle to say, ‘enough of this nonsense, we should work together for the good of the people of the United States’.”

Doug Walters, of Waterloo, is a good example of the “true patriot” to whom Ginsburg was referring. He recently walked 300 miles across the state of Iowa, carrying that message, along with an American flag, and asking people to pray for the United States. He completed his walk at the Mississippi River in Lansing Sunday, October 17.

Tuesday, November 3 is scheduled as the General Election to determine which candidates will be elected by voters to leadership positions at the national, state and local levels of government. A Sample Ballot and Notice of Election featuring a listing of candidates, polling sites and other pertinent local election information are printed on Page 18 of the October 28, 2020 print edition and e-edition of The Standard. A candidate question and answer series was already published in the October 7 edition of The Standard.

Fields all across the state of Iowa have provided a view similar to the one above as the fall harvest season is well underway, including in Allamakee County. Despite this year’s unique weather impacts of the August 10 derecho that flattened corn fields in central and east central Iowa, along with varying degrees of drought across the state, Iowa agriculture officials and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) say this year’s harvest is well ahead of where it was last year at this time. They noted the corn harvest is over half completed (65%) in comparison to just 13% last year at this time, and also well above the five-year average of 29% completion at this point, according to information updated by the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service Monday, October 19.