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Allamakee County Treasurer Jennifer O’Neill would like to remind property owners the second installment of property taxes is due by March 31. Those tax payments can be made at the Allamakee County Treasurer’s office in the Allamakee County Courthouse at 110 Allamakee Street in Waukon between the hours of 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Property owners are reminded to bring their tax stubs with their payment to ensure proper credit. To avoid penalty on the second installment, payment must be received in the Treasurer’s Office by Monday, April 1. Penalty will begin to apply April 2.

E-check and credit card payments are also accepted online at www.iowatreasurers.org. Property owners will need their receipt number to pay by E-check, and this can be found on their tax statement.

Snow flurries at times drifted through the air and wind chills dipped into the 20-degree range, but the streets of Waukon were still filled with the warmth of the Irish spirit that was on full display during the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade held Sunday, March 17 in Waukon. The nearly 150 parade entries that made their way along this year’s parade route took approximately 45 minutes to complete their circuit of Irish celebration. Additional photos taken by Standard Assistant Editor Joe Moses from this year’s parade can be found on Page 16 inside this same edition of The Standard. All of the parade photos found in this issue, along with many more from Sunday’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade, are available for viewing/purchase by clicking on the Photo Galleries link on The Standard’s website at www.waukonstandard.com. A video of this year’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade can also be found on The Standard Newspaper’s Facebook page.

The photo above shows the gap created in the Black Hawk Bridge following the removal of several spans of the bridge while repair work continues to replace the cement piers that had recently shifted, causing a portion of the bridge deck and railing on the east end of the bridge to do the same. The bridge was closed February 25 due to that shift, with those concrete piers currently being replaced by steel support structures that will allow for the displaced bridge spans (sitting at right in the photo) to be put back into place and the bridge to open again to traffic, with the repair project anticipated to continue at least through the end of April.
 

The 2024 Allamakee County Dairy Banquet is scheduled to be held this Saturday, March 23 at the Allamakee County Fairgrounds Pavilion in Waukon. Food service will start at 7 p.m. and the program will begin at 8 p.m. Banquet tickets can be purchased at the door.

The annual celebration recognizes the importance of the dairy industry in Allamakee County and the contributions dairy families make to this important industry. Every year, top producers from the county are recognized at the banquet. In addition, several other awards are presented that evening, some of which include the following:
• Outstanding Young Dairy Family Award
• Pioneer Dairyman
• Distinguished Dairy Family Award
• Service to Dairy Industry Award
• Golden Butter Knife Award.

A recent State of Iowa law change requires county auditors to mail a statement to their county taxpayers by March 20 with state-specified information related to proposed local government budgets and proposed property tax rates, according to Iowa Code 24.2A.

The information on the statements is for taxes payable in September 2024 and March 2025. Property owners should receive a statement if they expect to receive a property tax bill in September. Taxpayers owning more than one property may receive multiple letters if those properties are in different tax districts.

“I believe the HF718 legislation was passed to help improve transparency of the budget process for cities, schools and the county,” stated Allamakee County Auditor Denise Beyer.

by Julie Berg-Raymond

The March session of “bridge talks” at Meehan Memorial Lansing Public Library, held Thursday, March 14 was devoted to answering questions raised by the February 25 closure of the Black Hawk Bridge.

Held the second Thursday of every month from 5 to 6 p.m. at the library, the bridge talks feature opportunities for the community to engage in activities and dialogue with engineers working on the new bridge project. The monthly talks generally draw around 30 attendees; more than 50 people attended the March 14 session. Community members interested in developments with the bridge construction project are encouraged to attend the bridge talks.

The 2024 St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Waukon will be held the actual day of the celebrated holiday, this Sunday, March 17, beginning at 1 p.m. All are invited to participate in this year’s parade with an Irish-themed entry at no cost.

Any businesses, organizations, families or individuals wishing to have an entry are asked to be lined up by 12 noon Sunday, with float entries lining up in the parking lot of WW Homestead Dairy and the former Northern Engraving plant, tractors unloading and lining up at the Sweeney Auction Service parking lot and horse units gathering at the Croell Redi-Mix plant on the southeast edge of Waukon.

Repair work is underway on the existing Black Hawk Bridge at Lansing, according to the Iowa Department of Transportation’s (DOT) District 2 Office. The bridge was closed February 25 after it was discovered that two of the east-end bridge piers shifted, along with a portion of the bridge deck, making the bridge unsafe for traffic.

During the repair process, portions of the bridge deck will be removed while the repair work is being done, leaving large gaps in the bridge surface that will render the bridge impassable for any type of traffic until repair work is completed. DOT officials warn that the bridge is not safe even for pedestrian use and will be closed to all traffic during repairs. An announcement made by City of Lansing officials last week warns that anyone caught walking or riding any type of vehicle over the bridge while it is closed will be issued a citation for trespassing by law enforcement.

The Iowa Democratic Party has released its results from its 2024 Democratic Caucus held January 15 and utilizing a month-long Presidential Preference Cards process as a candidate selection tool this year. Those overall results for the state of Iowa were closely mirrored by Allamakee County selection for Democratic front-runner Joe Biden, both of those results hovering around 90% of selections made.

In the state of Iowa, Biden received 11,083 of the 12,207 preference card choices, a 90.79% selection out of state of Iowa Democrats casting a preference card. Among the 55 preference cards cast in Allamakee County, Biden was selected on 49 of them for an 89.09% selection result.

Voters in Allamakee County overwhelmingly approved the extension of the Local Option Sales and Service Tax (LOSST) in a Tuesday, March 5 special election. The one-percent LOSST had first been established in Allamakee County communities in the mid- to late 1990s and has been renewed on several occasions by voters throughout the county, with the last widespread extension vote coming in 2014 and that latest renewal having been scheduled to expire in several areas of the county at the end of this current year prior to the March 5 extension by voter approval.

Last fiscal year, cities and unincorporated areas in the state of Iowa received more than $600 million in proceeds collected through the one-percent sales tax measure. These funds are typically used to help relieve the burden on county and city general funds and are used for items such as roads, streets, water and sewer systems and public safety vehicle and equipment acquisitions.