Top Stories

by Brianne Grimstad

Tuesday, September 13, Veterans Memorial Hospital (VMH) in Waukon held the first of several scheduled public forums regarding the conversion from being a city-owned hospital to county-owned. The issue will be on the upcoming November 8 general election ballot for Allamakee County residents to vote on.

VMH Administrator Michael Coyle began the meeting with a presentation answering some of the most commonly asked questions regarding the conversion. Basically, the hospital is asking voters to approve a transfer of ownership of VMH from the City of Waukon to Allamakee County. If approved, being a county-owned hospital would allow for additional resources to help ensure the sustainability of the hospital.

Everyone is invited to join area youth on athletic fields across the nation Wednesday, October 5 in sharing their Christian faith with fellow students and the general public for this year’s Fields of Faith event. The local event is now in its 11th year and will start at 6:30 p.m. at the Waukon High School football field Wednesday, October 5, or in the Waukon High School gym in the event of bad weather.

Featured speaker for this year’s Fields of Faith event in Waukon will be Danielle Freitag, who is a Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselor (LADC) from Minnesota who has overcome severe addiction and is a survivor of the commercial sex industry. Freitag is the co-founding executive director of Action169, an organization built on a foundation of prayer and committed to addressing commercial sexual exploitation and problematic substance use through Christ-centered prevention, intervention and holistic restoration care.

Students at Waukon High School have selected their Homecoming Court representatives for the 2022 celebration, with the coronation of this year's Homecoming Queen and King scheduled to take place at the "Burning of the W" pep rally scheduled for this Thursday evening, September 22, beginning at 7 p.m. in the Waukon High School gym. Pictured in the photo at right are this year's Waukon High School Homecoming Queen and King candidates from the 2022-2023 Senior class, including: Left to right - Front row: Queen candidates Grace Stegen, Berlin Troendle, Maggie Criswell, Jayden Knox; Back row: King candidates Cade Kelly, Milan Byrnes, Isaac Cooper, Noah Hatlan.

by Joe Moses

State of Iowa Auditor Rob Sand met with Allamakee County residents during a Thursday, September 15 town hall meeting held near the Allamakee County Freedom Rock in the Waukon City Park as part of his 100 Town Hall Tour. A small group of residents were in attendance for this morning meeting, the first of six such meetings scheduled for Sand that day with remaining stops in Clayton, Dubuque, Delaware, Buchanan and Fayette Counties.

Sand opened the meeting with discussion of the State of Iowa Auditor’s role and the importance of transparency. He discussed holding public institutions and various levels of government accountable. When questioned about what tools are available in holding government accountable, Sand responded that investigation and reporting to the public are the two most important tools used by his office in creating transparency and accountability.

Residents of the community of Harpers Ferry overwhelmingly passed a Public Measure imposing a 7% Hotel/Motel Tax in the community, effective January 1, 2023. Nearly 88% of the 66 voters who cast a ballot in the Tuesday, September 13 special election voted “Yes” - compiling a 58-8 margin in favor of the measure. Just under 27% of the 247 registered voters in the community cast a ballot in the special election.

Another big step forward in bringing fiber optic internet to downtown Waukon is expected to begin early next week, according to officials from AC Skyways, a division of Allamakee-Clayton Electric Cooperative (ACEC) in charge of the project.

Although planning and other foundational work has been taking place for months since the awarding of the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO)-7 grant funding in January of this year that made the project possible, Allamakee-Clayton Electric Cooperative General Manager Hollee McCormick says as early as Monday, September 19 residents can expect to see trenching crews begin the physical work of boring the main fiber optics lines along the mapped route (pictured above) that will bring fiber optic internet to the Waukon business district by next summer. McCormick said the original start date had been planned for July of this year but circumstances beyond most anyone’s control have pushed the start of the project back a bit.

Tom and Bev Heim of Allamakee County were inducted into the 2022 Iowa 4-H Hall of Fame during a ceremony at the 4-H Exhibits Building at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines Sunday, August 21. Ninety-eight Iowa counties participated this year and selected 133 inductees for their outstanding service and dedication to 4-H. Inductees or their surviving family members were presented a certificate by Iowa 4‑H Foundation President Julie McGonegle and State 4-H Program Leader Debbie Nistler as they were introduced on stage.

State of Iowa Auditor Rob Sand will be making stops in northeast Iowa this week as part of his 100 Town Hall Tour. Auditor Sand invites members of the community to attend these meetings and learn more about the State Auditor’s role, the Public Innovations and Efficiencies (PIE) program created by Auditor Sand in 2019, and the most recent investigations completed by his office.

Auditor Sand will be hosting an Allamakee County Townhall Meeting as part of that 100 Town tour this Thursday, September 15. The meeting will take place from 8:30-9:30 a.m. at the Allamakee County Freedom Rock location in the Waukon City Park, located at 1240 Rossville Road in Waukon.

Meetings to begin September 13 in Waukon

This past March, Veterans Memorial Hospital shared its intent to file a petition to invoke a public vote for a City to County conversion and received the Waukon City Council’s support. In July, the hospital turned in a petition with more than enough signatures to earn inclusion on the ballot for the November 8 General Election for voters to vote on this conversion. Veterans Memorial Hospital staff and board members will now visit each Allamakee County community in the next two months to hold meetings to present and discuss the needs and impacts of this City to County conversion.

by Julie Berg-Raymond

RAGBRAI 2022 is in the books - and Lansing, hosting the end-of-the-line “dip-site” for the third time (1977, 2017 and 2022), made the biggest profit from the event of any participating city this year.

Ian Zahren, Lansing RAGBRAI executive chair, recently announced that the organization generated $208,000 in total revenue (Main Street restaurants and bars made an additional $50,000) and recorded an after-expenses profit of $115,400. By way of context, the 2017 event in Lansing generated $102,855 in total revenue, and recorded a profit of $33,017, after expenses. These numbers, Zahren noted, reflect a doubled revenue, and a quadrupled profit from that 2017 venture.