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The Allamakee County Sheriff’s Office is reporting the arrest of Jonathon Stuart Hilleshiem, 54, of Waterville on multiple sex-related charges involving a minor child over a number of years. The report also states that a criminal charge is merely an accusation, and defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty in a court of law.

July 20 of this year, Hilleshiem was arrested on four counts of Sexual Abuse in the 2nd Degree - Child Under 12, a Class B Felony; one count of Lascivious Acts with a Child, a Class C Felony; and one count of Incest, a Class D Felony. After the execution of search warrants following his arrest, Hilleshiem was additionally charged August 20 of this year with one count of Sexual Exploitation of A Minor - Possess Depiction of Minor in Sex Act, a Class D Felony, after it was discovered that he was in possession of photographs of the minor child.

The Allamakee County Sheriff’s Office reports that Gary Lee Kolsrud, age 22, of Harpers Ferry, was arrested Friday, August 15 on charges of Sexual Abuse in the 3rd Degree (sex act against will or by force), 2nd or Subsequent Offense, a Class A Felony. Kolsrud is currently being held in the Allamakee County Jail on $250,000 cash only bond.

Documents filed in Allamakee County District Court indicate that the alleged abuse took place during the summer of 2020 in a rural Allamakee County Park and was reported July 8 of this year. Court documents further indicate that Kolsrud had previously pleaded guilty to a charge of Sexual Abuse in the 3rd Degree, a Class A Felony, in June of 2021 stemming from an August 2020 incident in Lansing for which he received a deferred judgment and was placed on supervised probation and ordered to complete entry into the Iowa Sex Offender Registry.

by Lissa Blake

It’s going to take communication and collaboration for the small town of Lansing to navigate the pending closure of the Black Hawk Bridge. That was the message at last week’s “Bridge the Gap” Business Strategies meeting, which was attended by about 20 Lansing area business owners, workers and residents Wednesday, September 3 at The Works in Lansing.

Jay Schlinsog, representing the Downtown Professionals Network, presented at the meeting, initiated by Main Street Lansing. It was the second in a series of meetings scheduled to share information and strategies for the upcoming closure of the Black Hawk Bridge, which will come down this fall in order to facilitate completion of the new bridge. The completion of the new bridge is expected to take between 18 months and two years.

The City of New Albin was named a 2025 All-Star Community by the Iowa League of Cities for its Algaewheel® project. The city will be recognized at an Awards Banquet at the League’s Annual Conference & Exhibit, held in Des Moines from September 17-19.

The All-Star Community Award is the most prestigious honor given by the League to cities. Entries are judged by a panel of former city officials and others familiar with municipal government. Judges determine winners based on innovative efforts in areas such as urban renewal, development, preservation, collaborative efforts or quality of life improvements. New Albin was among three of Iowa’s 940 cities to garner such recognition for the year 2025. This year’s other All-Star Community Award winners include the cities of Jefferson and Cedar Falls.

The filing deadline of August 28 has passed for candidates seeking the seats of Waukon Mayor or on city councils in both Waukon and Lansing. Filing results following that deadline indicate that races for those respective seats in the upcoming City/School Election will not require a Primary Election and have just one contested race out of the seven possible seats up for election this year.

Both the Waukon and Lansing communities have a primary form of election for city government seats which required an earlier filing deadline for candidates, but neither community will require a Primary Election prior to this year’s November 4 election because the number of candidates who filed nomination papers is not more than twice the number of seats to be filled for any office.

The “Deuce-and-a-Half” truck pictured above, a vehicle more formally known as the GMC CCKW and used by the U.S. military as early as World War II, is on loan from Darren Burroughs of Rossville and currently displayed by the front entrance of the Allamakee County Veterans Museum on Allamakee Street in Waukon. The rugged, versatile truck was nicknamed the “Deuce-and-a-Half” because of its 2-1/2- ton capacity. The truck had originally been acquired by Darren’s father, Garland Gale “Bugsy” Burroughs of Waukon, who used it in his towing and car sales business called Bugsy’s Budget Cars, where it became locally known as the “Yank Tank”.

Rainfall totals nearing double digits from the very early morning hours of Sunday, August 17 through early evening Monday, August 18 helped push the Upper Iowa River out of its banks a bit to the brink of Moderate Flood Stage in northern Allamakee County, as evident in the photos accompanying this article below taken Monday evening, August 18. The first round of storms that moved their way through the tri-state area as Saturday, August 16 transitioned into Sunday, August 17 resulted in an initial Flood Advisory being issued by the National Weather Service for the northern portion of Allamakee County from 11 p.m. Saturday to 2 a.m. Sunday, with local reports ranging from four to six inches of rain falling in that timeframe within that portion of the county and west through the Upper Iowa River corridor.

Entrepreneurship Week 2025 is happening September 15-19 at The Works Coworking & Coaching in Lansing. Every workshop event during the week is free and designed to educate, connect, and empower local entrepreneurs and current and future small business owners at every stage of the journey, chock full of “Big Ideas” for all.

Hosted by The Works, in partnership with Allamakee County Economic Development (ACED), this fifth annual week-long event will feature dynamic speakers, practical workshops, and 1:1 coaching to help area entrepreneurs grow their businesses with purpose, strategy, and support. Workshops and coaching also include light meals and snacks from area restaurants and food entrepreneurs.

The monthly Bridge Talk presentations that have been offered in Lansing by the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) since the beginning of the bridge replacement project over the Mississippi River at Lansing took on some added interest for the August meeting.

With that Thursday, August 14 meeting being the first such public meeting since the July 14 announcement by the DOT that the Black Hawk Bridge will be closed and demolished at some point this fall in order to safely complete the new bridge construction, and also following the not fully official reporting of more specific closing and opening dates associated with the project from earlier in the week, Thursday’s meeting was moved from its typical Meehan Memorial Lansing Public Library location to the Kerndt Brothers Community Center in anticipation of a larger attendance, which ended up at approximately 50 individuals from Lansing and the surrounding area.

Trudy Baxter, daughter of Kevin and Bobbi Baxter of Waukon who will be entering her senior year at Waukon High School this fall, showed the Supreme Champion FFA Breeding Gilt in the FFA Breeding Swine Show held at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines Thursday, August 7. According to the Iowa State Fair media department, Baxter’s “Cindy” was among the 253 Commercial Gilts exhibited by 198 individuals from 107 FFA chapters at the show, and she not only topped that large Commercial Gilt field but also bested an additional 235 Registered Gilts shown by 154 exhibitors from 91 FFA chapters to win Supreme Champion FFA Breeding Gilt honors.