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City elections were held statewide Tuesday, November 3, including in six local communities. Allamakee County Auditor and Commissioner of Elections Denise Beyer reported that voter turn-out rates for the election varied widely throughout the County, with the lowest turn-out of just seven percent in the City of Postville where there were no contested races on the ballot.
In Waukon, there were two contested races on the ballot - Mayor and At-Large City Council - but only 17% of registered voters turned out to vote in that election. In Lansing, Public Measure A to increase the hotel/motel tax and write-in campaigns for the City Council attracted 21% of registered voters to the polls.

The Veterans Memorial Health Care Foundation’s Christmas Fantasy 2015 will be held Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, November 13-16 at the Allamakee County Fairgrounds Pavilion in Waukon. This year's theme will be “Ring In the Holidays.” In addition to the numerous number of decorated Christmas trees, this year's event will again offer many shopping opportunities on the silent auction.
The silent auction items will be available for purchase through a silent bid that will continue over the course of the four-day event. These door and wall decorations, centerpieces, gift baskets, chairs, toys, crafts and mini-trees will be silent auctioned, with the highest bidder winning the purchase at 7 p.m. Monday, November 16. Until that closing time, bidders can return, free of charge, to the Fantasy and raise their bid.

by Jason Meyer

City elections were held statewide Tuesday, November 3. The unofficial results are printed below.

Harpers Ferry
Incumbent Mayor Jerry Valley won re-election in an uncontested race with 59 votes. Richard Smrcina won one of three open seats on the City Council with 63 votes, along with Betty Palmer (50) and Nancy Walleser (48).

Lansing
Incumbent Mayor Mike Brennan won re-election in an uncontested race with 117 votes. John Rethwisch received 92 write-in votes and Don Peters received 90 write-in votes to unseat incumbent Councilwoman Deb Volker, the only declared candidate, who received 60 votes. Public Measure A to increase the hotel/motel tax to seven percent passed with 95 votes in favor and 59 against.

by Bob Beach

by Brianne Eilers

Allamakee County Emergency Management Coordinator Chris Dahlstrom organized and led a “tabletop” railroad incident exercise at Veterans Memorial Hospital in Waukon Tuesday night, October 27. Representatives from the Iowa Department of Transportation; the Harpers Ferry, Waterville, Lansing, New Albin and Waukon Fire Departments; Veterans Memorial Hospital; the Allamakee County Sheriff’s Department; the Lansing Police Department; Canadian Pacific Railroad; and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources participated in the exercise. All of the participants were asked to provide input on how their organization would respond to an incident involving a train hauling petroleum colliding with a passenger vehicle, resulting in several fatalities and multiple injuries.

Voters in six cities within Allamakee County will be going to the polls Tuesday, November 3 to elect local government and other officials. Polls will be open in Harpers Ferry, Lansing, New Albin, Postville, Waterville and Waukon from 12 noon to 8 p.m. that Tuesday, with absentee voting also able to be done in person at the Allamakee County Auditor's Office in the Allamakee County Courthouse in Waukon now through 11 a.m. Tuesday, November 3.
While all six communities have governmental seats up for election, just three of those communities have races for those seats that are actually being contested by more declared candidates than there are seats available. The community of Harpers Ferry has four declared candidates vying for three City Council seats; New Albin has three declared candidates running to fill a vacancy in two City Council seats; and Waukon has a two-person declared race for Mayor and a three-person declared race for one At-Large City Council vacancy.

by Bob Beach

by Kelli Boylen