Top Stories

The Canadian Pacific Holiday Train will be making a stop in Lansing this Saturday, December 6 at 5:30 p.m. The lighted holiday train will be stopping across from the Sports Complex located on South Front Street in Lansing, one of eight stops the train will be making in Iowa this holiday season. The Canadian Pacific train is adorned with hundreds of thousands of lights and serves as a stage for live musical performances. This year’s performer will be Kira Isabella. As always, Santa Claus will also be making his way around the Holiday Train location at each stop.

The Allamakee County Community Foundation (ACCF) has begun accepting 2015 grant applications. The application is completely online and will be available at the Foundation’s website, www.allamakeefoundation.org. Applications are due by midnight January 31.

Non-profit organizations can apply for grants from the ACCF for projects or programs that address significant community issues and benefit a broad spectrum of the community. Projects must be in Allamakee County.

The holiday season was brightly and briskly kicked off in downtown Waukon Monday evening, December 1 with the annual Lighted Holiday Parade that traversed the city streets. The parade actually took place a week later than originally scheduled, as blowing snow and slippery conditions forced postponement of the parade from its originally planned date of Monday, November 24. Single-digit temperatures (note the 8° lit up on the Waukon State Bank sign at the left of the above photo) and wind chills nearing zero didn't seem to do much to dampen the holiday hopefulness of parade viewers lining Main Street and beyond as nearly two dozen parade entries and other festive activities in downtown Waukon that same evening brightened and warmed the holiday spirit for those attending.

The Allamakee County Board of Supervisors met in regular session Tuesday, November 25, continuing to deal with the crop land lease for the County Farm. Lynn Stock, one of the bidders on the crop land, spoke to the Board during the Public Comment portion of the meeting, stating that he hoped the Board would "determine a fair price to rent that farm" and be fair in communicating with everyone in the county interested in that farm land.

by Lissa Blake

Practice makes perfect.

That’s the mantra that helps emergency response organizations prepare themselves for the unexpected.

The annual Lighted Holiday Parade held each year to help kick off the holiday season in downtown Waukon was postponed from its originally scheduled date of Monday, November 24 due to blowing snow and slippery conditions that took hold of the area throughout the day Monday. The annual event is now slated to be held Monday, December 1, with the parade beginning at 6 p.m.

The Allamakee County Board of Supervisors met in regular session Tuesday, November 18, discussing a relatively short agenda of just four items, but some of those taking some considerable time. Among the longest discussions was a proposed change in the County's employee health insurance plan that ultimately received Board approval later in the meeting.

A number of Veterans Day programs took place throughout Allamakee County Tuesday, November 11 in observance of Veterans Day and in honor of those who served their country in the military. But several of those Veterans Day programs hosted on the local level in Waukon truly had their veteran honorings "wrapped up" and/or "covered," literally, with presentations of Quilts of Valor.

by Bob Beach

A slight change in local leadership but no change - or at least not the proposed change - in local facilities is the message Allamakee County voters sent when they went to the polls for the Tuesday, November 4 General Election. With just under 53% of eligible voters in the county casting a ballot, area voters newly elected Dan Byrnes to the Allamakee County Board of Supervisors Tuesday and re-elected Larry Schellhammer to the Board, but came up just shy of approving the proposed bond referendum for a new jail and public safety center.