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Fair Board, ISU Extension finalizing plans with mitigation guidelines in mind for early July event

Following a lengthy meeting Wednesday, June 3, the Allamakee County Fair Board has made the decision to continue plans to host the 2020 Allamakee County Fair, but in a modified format due to the COVID-19 pandemic and mitigation guidelines put in place as a result of that virus. The board sought input from the Allamakee County Public Health Department, Allamakee County Emergency Management and a variety of City and County officials in making the decision, working in conjunction with the Iowa State University (ISU) Extension Allamakee County office to help make the decision on whether to proceed with the annual event and now working on details of just what a modified version of the Allamakee County Fair will entail.

by Lissa Blake

After six years of planning, New Albin’s new splashpad site is starting to take shape.

According to Splashpad Project Coordinator Betsy Whitlatch, the idea to create a family-friendly place for people of all ages started about six years ago. Alexie Grotegut and Hope Lemke founded New Albin Improvement League (NAIL) in 2014, along with several other New Albin residents, with the goal of building a splashpad in the community. Six years later, NAIL organizers and many other volunteers are still working toward fully accomplishing this goal, but are beginning to see the end in sight.

The Allamakee County Dairy Promotion Board has rescheduled its Annual Dairy Days Parade to Monday, June 15, postponed from its original June 1 date due to COVID-19 restrictions. The parade will be held in Waukon, beginning at 7:30 p.m. The route will begin at the Allamakee County Fairgrounds in Waukon, traveling south down Allamakee Street to the stoplight intersection and then west on Main Street to the Post Office, where it will then turn north on Second Street NW and travel to Eighth Avenue NW, turning east to return back to its original fairgrounds location.

No candy or other treats or items are allowed to be thrown or shared by parade participants. All parade entrants and parade viewers are reminded to conduct themselves according to the proper social distancing guidelines. The Allamakee Dairy Wagon and Allamakee County Cattlemen will be at the Waukon City Park serving their respective specialties, beginning at 4 p.m.

Kelleher and Reiser win party nominations for Board of Supervisors, other races mirror broader results

The Tuesday, June 2 Primary Election yielded one of the best voter turn-outs for Allamakee County in recent history, actually about double the percentage of registered voters as in more recent best turn-outs with 35.41% of the county’s registered voters casting a ballot this year. Of those 2,377 votes cast in this year’s Primary Election, a vast majority of those - 2,063 votes - came in the form of absentee ballots, a process encouraged by Allamakee County Commissioner of Elections Denise Beyer and Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate for this election due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

For the first time since COVID-19 cases began to be officially reported for Allamakee County in mid-March, there were no new cases for an entire Monday-to-Monday week’s timeframe this past week for the county, according to public health reports. In fact, the absence of any new confirmed cases actually stretches beyond this past full week’s timeframe to Thursday, May 28, an 11-day stretch of no new cases being confirmed in Allamakee County by public health officials.

A new case had been initially reported Sunday, May 31 for the county, but was removed from the Allamakee County total the next day following further investigation into the actual county of residence for that individual. The past week’s timeframe of no new cases comes during a week where 111 tests were reported as being conducted, with 144 tests reported dating back to that May 28 date when the last positive case had been reported for Allamakee County.

by Lissa Blake

There’s a new officer reporting for duty at the Allamakee County Sheriff’s Office.

K9 Deputy Tyr (as in “tear” drop) and his handler, Deputy Ross Kolsrud, recently graduated from training. Kolsrud, who has been with the Allamakee County Sheriff’s Department for 10 months now, said he and Tyr graduated from the K9 training program at Blue Line K9 of Minnesota, LLC, located in Rushford, MN.

Kolsrud had previously worked in law enforcement as an officer with the Lansing/New Albin Police Department. When he joined the Sheriff’s Department, Allamakee County Sheriff Clark Mellick asked if he would be interested in the K9 program.

“I had always thought that would be interesting and fun to do. I didn’t ever think I would get that position being a new deputy,” said Kolsrud.

Repair projects on both the Black Hawk Bridge at Lansing and three other Wisconsin Highway 82 (WIS 82, the dike road) bridges connecting Iowa and Wisconsin will close that route to traffic Friday, June 5 through Monday, June 15, according to Department of Transportation (DOT) officials. An ongoing road project on WIS 82 has been slowing traffic with single-lane closures during the past several weeks, but will require shutting down that roadway entirely for a 10-day period, allowing the Iowa DOT to also conduct some repair work on the Black Hawk Bridge.

In conjunction with the Wisconsin DOT project repairing bridges on WIS 82 on the Wisconsin side of the Mississippi River, the Iowa DOT will replace two deck panels on the Black Hawk Bridge during that closure. Electronic message signs are already in place along state highway routes in both Iowa and Wisconsin prior to and during the road and bridge closures to alert motorists.

Iowa’s longtime United States Senator Charles Grassley visited Allamakee County Tuesday, May 26 when he stopped at Allamakee-Clayton Rural Electric Cooperative (REC) as part of his annual meetings in all 99 Iowa counties. As threats associated with COVID-19 continue, those in attendance were seated socially distant from each other and handshaking was avoided. Among those in attendance were members of REC’s board of directors and general manager Hollee McCormick.

The Allamakee County Dairy Promotion Board has rescheduled its Annual Dairy Days Parade to Monday, June 15, postponed from its original June 1 date due to COVID-19 restrictions. The parade will be held in Waukon, beginning at 7:30 p.m. The route will begin at the Allamakee County Fairgrounds in Waukon, traveling south down Allamakee Street to the stoplight intersection and then west on Main Street to the Post Office, where it will then turn north on Second Street NW and travel to Eighth Avenue NW, turning east to return back to its original fairgrounds location.

No candy or other treats or items are allowed to be thrown or shared by parade participants. All parade entrants and parade viewers are reminded to conduct themselves according to the proper social distancing guidelines. Those wishing to have an entry in this year’s parade should line up at the Allamakee County Fairgrounds by 7 p.m. For more information, call Jeremy Peake at 563-568-4120.

Although readers may notice the size of The Standard newspaper has changed a bit this week, they should also notice the quality, quantity and consistency of the news they have come to expect from their local newspaper still remains and will continue to strive to be the best it can be. A change in printing location and print size has been made in an effort to continue to provide The Standard community with the most consistent, thorough and dependable coverage of local news - much of which will not be found anywhere else - in an efficient and effective manner for its loyal readers. The Standard welcomes questions, comments or suggestions by calling 563-568-3431 or emailing news@waukonstandard.com.