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Thursday morning, October 29, Alliant Energy released its Clean Energy Blueprint for Iowa, a path for accelerating the company’s transition to cleaner energy for customers. As part of that plan, it was also announced that Alliant’s Generating Station in Lansing will be retired from operation by the end of the year 2022 as part of changes to two of Alliant’s current coal-burning facilities, among other changes throughout the company.

As the nation and parts of the world are seeing considerable increase - sometimes at a record pace - in the number of newly confirmed cases of COVID-19, Allamakee County was no exception to that trend this past week, experiencing a new case count nearly double what it previously had seen in any previous week’s timeframe. Already following a new high of 39 cases the previous week, this past week’s timeframe of Tuesday, October 27 through Monday, November 2 saw 67 new cases reported for that timeframe, with a weekend spike featuring new single-day highs fueling that overall surge.

Wrapped in that new weekly high total for the final week of October are the first positive cases reported by both Thornton Manor and the Eastern Allamakee Community School District in the Lansing community. Both reported their first cases in both staff members and individuals they serve at those respective facilities.

Kee girls cross country junior Haley Meyer crosses the finish line as the Class 1A State Champion at the 2020 Iowa High School State Cross Country Championships held at Lakeside Golf Course near Fort Dodge Saturday, October 31. Ranked number one among Class 1A runners the latter half of this season, Meyer ran in the lead pack throughout the race, pulling away down the final stretch to outpace a pair of fellow Upper Iowa Conference runners and last year’s defending State Champion to reign supreme over this year’s Class 1A elite in a time of 19:11.3. See Pages 16, 17 and 20 for additional coverage of Meyer’s State Championship effort and further State Cross Country Meet coverage for both Kee and Waukon High Schools.
 

by Julie Berg-Raymond

The late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, noting the climate of political divisiveness and partisanship currently seeming to tear at the fabric of American democracy, was quoted shortly before her death September 18 as saying, “I think it will take people, true patriots, on both sides of the aisle to say, ‘enough of this nonsense, we should work together for the good of the people of the United States’.”

Doug Walters, of Waterloo, is a good example of the “true patriot” to whom Ginsburg was referring. He recently walked 300 miles across the state of Iowa, carrying that message, along with an American flag, and asking people to pray for the United States. He completed his walk at the Mississippi River in Lansing Sunday, October 17.

Tuesday, November 3 is scheduled as the General Election to determine which candidates will be elected by voters to leadership positions at the national, state and local levels of government. A Sample Ballot and Notice of Election featuring a listing of candidates, polling sites and other pertinent local election information are printed on Page 18 of the October 28, 2020 print edition and e-edition of The Standard. A candidate question and answer series was already published in the October 7 edition of The Standard.

Fields all across the state of Iowa have provided a view similar to the one above as the fall harvest season is well underway, including in Allamakee County. Despite this year’s unique weather impacts of the August 10 derecho that flattened corn fields in central and east central Iowa, along with varying degrees of drought across the state, Iowa agriculture officials and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) say this year’s harvest is well ahead of where it was last year at this time. They noted the corn harvest is over half completed (65%) in comparison to just 13% last year at this time, and also well above the five-year average of 29% completion at this point, according to information updated by the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service Monday, October 19.

​Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Canadian Pacific (CP) will donate to food banks in communities along its network and host a virtual concert in lieu of its regular Holiday Train program. The modified program will draw attention to food security issues, while ensuring donations go to all food banks that would ordinarily receive them, including those that typically host a Holiday Train event in alternating years.

The Holiday Train has been a holiday season favorite for area residents in its northeast Iowa stops in Marquette, Lansing and New Albin. Those events have resulted in generous monetary and food donations from both Canadian Pacific and the general public that have benefited the Allamakee County Food Shelf, Lansing Iowa Food Trust (LIFT) and the Way Station in New Albin.

The past week saw the recent rise in new confirmed COVID-19 cases for Allamakee County continue to climb toward the all-time local high for a single week’s timeframe since the pandemic began. The Tuesday to Monday timeframe utilized by The Standard in an effort to provide the latest possible update in case numbers prior to printing each week saw 31 new cases reported by the State of Iowa for Allamakee County during this most recent week, Tuesday through Monday, October 13-19.

Allamakee County Economic Development (ACED) named Shep’s Riverside Bar & Grill in Lansing the winner of the 2020 Cloy Kuhse Positive Impact Award at its annual meeting held virtually via Zoom software Thursday, October 8. This award was created to highlight and recognize a business that is making a positive impact in Allamakee County, as well as to honor the memory of the late Cloy Kuhse, who was a member of the ACED Board of Directors.

Recipients of this award have shown an exceptional devotion to their community and served as excellent role models that anyone can look up to. Past winners of the award have included WW Homestead Dairy, Growing Bear Daycare and Preschool, New Albin Savings Bank, Waukon Dental, Mike Ferring Construction, TASC, the New Albin Meat Market, and Norplex-Micarta.

A new drop box has been installed outside the Allamakee County Courthouse in Waukon at the south entrance to the courthouse along the initial block of First Avenue NW. Completed absentee ballots can be dropped off in the black box to the right of the south entrance door, pictured below, and in a closer view in the photo above. Standard photos by Joe Moses.