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by Lissa Blake

While the name Upper Explorerland frequently surfaces in regard to city and county meetings, few people understand the scope of what the organization does. Upper Explorerland Regional Planning Commission Executive Director Rachelle Howe and Economic Development Department Head Diana Johnson recently spent some time explaining the organization’s operations.

“Upper Explorerland is a council of governments (COG) that serves as an extension of city and county governments in order to assist them,” said Howe.

Several IowaWORKS office changes will be occurring in the coming weeks, including the closure of Expansion Offices in Clarion, Humboldt, Manchester, Mt. Pleasant, New Hampton, Oelwein, Pocahontas, Waukon and West Union; the relocation and adjustment of the hours of operation of the Satellite Offices in Fort Madison and Webster City; and new hours of operation at the Expansion Office in Keokuk.

“These shifts aim to better align our IowaWORKS resources with needs and office traffic patterns across the state,” said Beth Townsend, Director of Iowa Workforce Development. “They also expand on local partnerships allowing us to reduce costs and increase access to the resources job seekers and employers need in the areas where services are most in demand.”

by Lissa Blake

It’s a decision no family should ever have to make.

But looking back, the family of the late Erin Rud is glad they did. It’s been just over a year since Erin passed away as the result of a fall from a moving vehicle.

Her mother, Kathy Renk, of rural New Albin, said in the hours afterword, doctors did everything they could to save her. When it became evident that Erin would not survive, Kathy said they started having some hard conversations.

“I remember sitting in the room visiting with Erin’s sister, Emily, and talking about it. I asked Emily if she thought Erin would like to be an organ donor, and she agreed she would,” she said.

After the conversation, Kathy said she left the room to go find her husband, Tom Renk, and Erin’s dad, Jeff, and his wife, Kris, of Spring Grove, MN. What Kathy didn’t know is that the hospital’s organ donation representative had already been visiting with them regarding Erin’s wishes.

The annual Allamakee County Dairy Days Parade, typically held within the first week of June, is being held in Postville this year and will be combined with that community’s annual Hometown Celebration and Big Four Fair being held June 15-17. The Dairy Days Parade is scheduled to take place Friday, June 15, beginning at 7 p.m. as part of Postville’s Hometown Celebration Parade through downtown Postville. “Agriculture MOOving America” is the parade theme.

Line-up for the parade will begin  at 6:30 p.m. at Lull’s Park. Each entry will be assigned a number for the line-up. All entrants are asked to fill out an entry form and return it to the Postville City Hall by fax at 563-864-7407, email to postvillecityclerk@neitel.net or mail to Postville City Hall, P.O. Box 242, Postville, IA 52162.

by Joe Moses

A group of pork industry professionals from China visited the Waukon Feed Ranch Agronomy Center and the W&M Ag pork production facility managed by Waukon Feed Ranch Friday, June 8. The delegation of pork industry professionals was visiting businesses in conjunction with the World Pork Expo being held in Des Moines June 6-8 to learn more about the U.S. pork industry’s production methods and to make comparisons to methods currently being used in China.

The delegation included representatives of several Chinese companies including New Hope Liuhe Co., Twins Group, Huanshan Group, Sichuan Dekang Husbandry Company, Hunan Paper Mulberry Agri-Tech Development Company, Anhui Delin Farm Management Company, and Guangdong Nanmu Company (a Wens Group company).

The Upper Iowa River was on the rise over the weekend as heavy rains dumped reported totals of anywhere from two to five inches of rain throughout Allamakee County Saturday, June 9. Those rainfall amounts fell in less than a five-hour period in most cases and followed a slightly less significant rainfall of an inch or so that passed through Allamakee County Friday morning, June 8. The end result of those rain events raised the Upper Iowa River more than double its original depth at its measuring station on the Highway 76 bridge near Dorchester in less than 48 hours, including a spike from its usual depth of around eight feet Saturday afternoon, June 9 past its minor flood state of 14 feet to more than 15.5 feet less than 12 hours later as those heavy rains poured down.

Helping decide who will square off in the November General Election later this year, Allamakee County voters joined others statewide in casting their decisions in the Tuesday, June 5 Primary Election. Allamakee County Commissioner of Elections Denise Beyer reports that just under 10.5% of Allamakee County’s 9,892 registered voters took part in this year’s Primary Election.

“The turn-out for the 2018 Primary was pretty similar to recent Primary elections,” Beyer explained. “In 2012 there was a 17% turn-out, 2014 had 9% and 2016 had 17% turnout for the Primary election.”

In Waukon...
The annual Memorial Day Observance held May 28 at Oakland Cemetery in Waukon included delivery of the featured presentation by Sean Liddiard (pictured at far left), who was a national finalist in the VFW and Auxiliary Voice of Democracy student essay contest this year and shared his award-winning essay with those in attendance. There was no parade as part of this year’s Memorial Day events, but a variety of traditional honorings - both more recent and some long established - remained as part of this year’s observance. Quilts of Valor were bestowed on local veterans (pictured at immediate right) during Monday's observance program. Pictured at center, Lisa Hagen and her two daughters, Katherine and Hannah Hagen, were recognized with Mrs. Poppy and Miss Poppy honors this year. Photos by Robin Johnson.

Tuesday, June 5 will be the Primary Election to determine which candidates will be representing their respective political parties in the 2018 General Election in November of this year. A sample ballot of the respective races in each of the Republican, Democratic and Libertarian parties was published on Page 2B in the May 23 print edition and e-edition of The Standard, listing races at the federal, state and county levels for voters to make their selections in.

A listing of polling sites for all 11 of the County's precincts was also published in that May 23 issue on Page 2B. Election polls will open at 7 a.m. and close at 9 p.m.

The 2018 Memorial Day Observance Program being held at Oakland Cemetery in Waukon Monday, May 28 will begin at 10 a.m. this year. In the event of rain, the program will be held at the Waukon Banquet Center.

The program at the cemetery has typically followed the annual parade, but this year’s Memorial Day observance will not include a parade, according to local officials. A joint decision was made by the local American Legion and VFW organizations to not hold the parade this year, citing reasons of “lack of participation” and “too much commercialization taking away from the true meaning of what Memorial Day is supposed to be about.”

Volunteers will still be needed to help set up the Avenue of Flags Saturday, May 26, beginning at 7 a.m. Those efforts will begin at the Allamakee County Courthouse in Waukon.