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Award nominations due by February 14; Princess applications due by March 1

The 2020 Allamakee County Dairy Banquet will be held Saturday, March 21 at the Allamakee County Fairgrounds Pavilion in Waukon. The meal will be served from 7-8:30 p.m. with the program starting at 8 p.m. The annual celebration recognizes the importance of the dairy industry in Allamakee County and the contributions dairy families make to the industry.

Every year, top producers from the county are recognized at the banquet. In addition, several other awards are presented that evening. The Allamakee Dairy Promotion Board and the Allamakee County Extension Office are accepting nominations through February 14 for the following awards:

The Regional Welding Academy newly renovated at the Waukon High School/Middle School complex has been featured in the newest issue of Trade & Industry Development magazine, a global publication of Due North Media designed to help industrial executives define corporate strategies for growth, specifically focusing on the many aspects of site selection and facility planning.

The new educational welding facility was featured in the Industrial & Advanced Manufacturing 2020 edition of the magazine as part of an article entitled “Workforce Training Programs are Transforming Businesses” that appears on pages 22-28 of that edition. The Regional Welding Academy was one of seven such facilities featured in that article, getting its specific mention on page 26 for its impact of “listening and responding to employers’ needs.”

The Oneota Film Festival board announces the 10th Annual Oneota Film Festival, “Beyond the Crater,” scheduled for February 13-16 at Luther College, downtown Decorah, and for the first time in festival history, at the Town Theater in Waukon.

The weekend will provide many opportunities to watch films, make connections with filmmakers and friends, and meet other members of the broader northeast Iowa community and beyond at the many special events, filmmaker Q&A discussions, and film screenings. The first Oneota Film Festival (OFF) was held in 2010 on the Luther College campus. The theme was Sustainability. Four-hundred people from the Midwest and around the United States attended.

Three years later, newspapers and television news reported: “An asteroid as big as a city block smashed into what is now northern Iowa about 470 million years ago...

Main Street Lansing recently presented a plaque to Lansing Iowa Food Trust (LIFT) in recognition of its designation as the Nicest Place in Iowa by Reader’s Digest magazine in a recent nationwide contest. Receiving a brief mention in the November 2019 issue of Reader’s Digest (page 72) along with the other 50 state winners in the contest, LIFT was honored for providing a place for those in need to acquire basic necessities without judgment. The LIFT board members, some of whom accepted the plaque in the photo above, are dedicated people who devote their time and energy into making LIFT the safe, accessible and welcoming place it is. The nomination from earlier in the year that eventually resulted in LIFT being designated the Nicest Place in Iowa finalist read, in part, “A small group of community members volunteered their time to help form LIFT from the ground up.

Veterans Memorial Hospital physicians and staff have announced that the First Baby of the Year Contest was won by Sophia Mae Hernandez, daughter of Veronica Santoyo and Mario Hernandez of Postville. Sophia was born Monday, January 6 at 6:17 p.m., weighing 8 pounds, 4 ounces and measuring 19-3/4 inches long. Dr. Dave Schwartz assisted with the delivery.

Sophia’s grandparents are Amber Santoyo of Postville and Laurie and Brian Dahl of Ossian. Her great-grandparents are Bonnie Stifel of Postville and Clifford Harnak of Ossian.

An open house reception was held Monday, December 30 at the Allamakee County Courthouse in Waukon in honor of the retirement of Iowa Judicial District 1A District Court Judge John Bauercamper, effective at the end of 2019. In honor of his retirement, staff members of the Allamakee County Courthouse presented Judge Bauercamper with a plaque of appreciation and also raised among themselves $300 as a retirement gift that Judge Bauercamper, in turn, then donated to the Allamakee County Historical Society. Pictured above at the presentation of the plaque and the $300 further donated to the Allamakee County Historical Society are, left to right, Allamakee County Historical Society President Jim Garrett, The Honorable John Bauercamper, and Allamakee County Attorney Anthony Gericke. Judge Bauercamper was first appointed to the bench in 1986. He had also practiced private law, in addition to serving as the Allamakee County Attorney and Juvenile Court Referee.

by Joe Moses

The Allamakee County Board of Supervisors met in a pair of meetings this past week. Coverage of both a January 9 special session and the board’s regular meeting from Monday, January 13 appears below

JANUARY 9
The Allamakee County Board of Supervisors met Thursday, January 9 in special session to discuss options relating to the Vet’s Club building located on Allamakee Street in Waukon and the lease involved with the building. Board Chairperson Larry Schellhammer and Supervisors Dan Byrnes and Dennis Koenig listened to comments and suggestions from various stakeholders.

Schellhammer opened the discussion by outlining options available including keeping the Vet’s Club’s operation the same, County ownership of the building, City ownership of the building, developing a joint venture between the City and County, or negotiating a new contract with a private entity.

The month of November ended with a loss of $31,534 for Veterans Memorial Hospital (VMH) in Waukon, according to information presented at the hospital’s board of trustees meeting held December 18. Year-to-date, the hospital is showing a loss of $433,216.

VMH Administrator Mike Myers noted that hospital officials are “accruing everything right now so there will be no surprises at the end of the (fiscal) year.” He was cautiously optimistic that December may bring some better news. “We are slowly getting things turned around and it shows, but it takes time,” Myers said.

To read the the full article, 2019 Year in Review: A Look Back at July through December, pick up this week's print edition or subscribe to our e-edition by clicking here.

Below is a portion of that article, July through August, summarizing the top news stories that appeared in The Standard.

JULY
Recently, Jack Meggers, an Iowa Arts Council Fellow, debuted his independent short film “The Burial” in Lansing and Des Moines. The film, shot entirely in northeast Iowa in and around the Lansing area, is a psychological, supernatural thriller. Meggers hopes to show this 20-minute film to film production companies on the East and West coasts and in Canada in the hope that one of them will agree to finance a feature length film of the entire story.

by Lissa Blake

December 30 Meeting
They’re open to suggestions. That’s what a number of Waukon Veterans told the Allamakee County Board of Supervisors Monday morning during its regular meeting.

Nine area veterans addressed the Supervisors regarding the future of the Vets Club building. Although Vets Club Incorporated has owned the building since 1950, it leases the land on which it is located from Allamakee County.

The veterans lamented to the Board about difficulties they have had keeping a tenant in the building.

“For the past  8 - 10 years, seems like it’s been hard to try to get a manager in there. The last two have left us where we’ve  had to pay their bills,” said John Regan Jr.

Regan cited low participation in the organization leading to a grim financial outlook.