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Registration for Live Healthy Iowa's 10-Week Wellness Challenge is entering its final week, as the competition runs from January 26 through April 3 this year. Iowans have the opportunity to join the challenge and commit to a healthier lifestyle in 2015, and local participants have an opportunity to maintain the leading role that Allamakee County has taken in its participation in the Community Cup Wellness Challenge since its inception four years ago.
For each of the past three years since the Community Cup Wellness Challenge became part of the Live Healthy Iowa program, Allamakee County has topped the field of entrants in percentage of population participating and completing the Wellness Challenge. The code for participants in Allamakee County to register under to become part of that Allamakee County effort once again this year is LHIALLCO.

by Brianne Eilers

by B.J. Tomlinson

by Bob Beach

Firefighters from the Waukon Area Fire Protection District were called to battle a house fire Thursday, January 15 at 370 Countryside Drive, rural Waukon, the home of the John Opfer family. The call was received at 11:05 a.m., with reports of the house being fully engulfed from basement to roof a short time later. Tanker support from the Postville Fire Department was also called upon to ensure a consistent water supply to battle the blaze. Firefighters were on scene for approximately three hours. No injuries were reported, but the contents of the home were badly damaged and the home suffered considerable smoke and fire damage. The cause of the blaze remains under investigation, although early indications point to the origin of the fire being electrical in nature.

The Waukon High School cheerleading squad hosted a Youth Cheerleading Day Friday, January 2. Area elementary students took part in a day-long cheerleading camp and then performed that same evening during halftime of the Waukon girls and boys basketball games against Clayton Ridge, performing group cheers, stunts and some dynamic flips, some of which are pictured above. View and find out how to purchase these photos and many more by clicking on the Photo Galleries link.

by Bob Beach

The Allamakee County Conservation Board (ACCB) will host an informational meeting about the Driftless Area Education and Visitor Center planned for the Columbus Bridge property Thursday, January 15 from 5:30-7:30  p.m. at the Kerndt Brothers Savings Bank Community Center in Lansing, located at 391 Main Street.
Staff from Fehr Graham Engineering will be present to discuss site planning, Martin Gardner Architecture will present on the building design, and Split Rock Studios will discuss interpretive displays proposals. The public is encouraged to attend.

by Kelli Boylen
freelance writer

This uniformly-round ice formation was found floating in Bear Creek in Allamakee County Monday, January 5 by Kenneth Larson of Dorchester. The floating ice mass was estimated at approximately 20 feet in diameter and was rotating slowly in place as the current of the creek flowed by. Online research indicates that ice circles, such as the one pictured above, are formed when surface ice gathers in the center of a body of water rather than the edges. A slow moving stream current can create a slow turning eddy, or swirling current, which rotates the ice mass and grinds down its edges against the surrounding ice to form the uniformly-round ice circle. Photo courtesy of Kenneth Larson.