Viewpoints

To the Editor:

The Allamakee County Food Shelf is a non-profit 501[c]3 organization. We are located at the west edge of Waukon for our community residents. Volunteers man the food shelf to stock shelves and help clients select food items.

Anyone who needs help, and everyone needs help sometime, can get help from us. We are open Thursdays 9 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. Volunteer opportunities are always available. We have a wealth of community support both in donations and volunteers. We appreciate this year’s garden produce and all that you do.

Julie Rotach and Ann Roed  Co-coordinators
 

To the Editor:

I would like to bring your attention to one of the public measures coming up on the November 5, 2019 election ballot.

This item is a proposed tax of 7% to overnight visitors who pay for lodging outside of the city limits but within Allamakee County. If this public measures passes, it will be effective July 1, 2020.

Just so you know, an overnight visitor who pays for lodging within the city limits of Waukon or Lansing currently pays a 7% hotel/motel sales tax. As of right now, if this overnight visitor paid for lodging outside of the Waukon or Lansing city limits, he/she would not pay a hotel/motel sales tax.

A locally imposed hotel/motel tax ranges from 1% to 7%. The majority are collecting the maximum of 7%. A hotel/motel excise tax of 5% is currently collected and paid to the State whether the property is within the city limits or outside of the city limits.

To the Editor:

I’ve been hearing reports from around town that people have been receiving calls from someone claiming to be Google, offering to verify their Google Business listings for a hefty fee. So, I thought I’d clear this up.

First off, claiming and managing Google My Business listings is completely free. Google crowdsources much of its data, and it wants to have the most up-to-date and current information around. They are never going to charge you for a listing, because you are the one providing a service to them.

Full honesty, I hadn’t gotten around to verifying our Main Street Lansing listing, but I just did that before crafting this text. It took less than a minute. The process for me was this:

To the Editor:

The gap between rural and urban Iowa continues to widen as population, earnings and net farm income are declining in several rural areas. Unfortunately, an unintended consequence of federal tax law changes now threatens to impose an additional financial burden on rural communities.

Under the new tax law, electric cooperatives that receive federal, state or local government grants are at risk of losing their tax-exempt status. This undermines a successful business model that has served America’s rural communities well for decades. It doesn’t matter what the grant is for - storm recovery, broadband deployment or economic development. If grant funding causes a co-op’s non-member income to exceed 15 percent, its tax-exempt status is gone.

To the Editor:

Where you live may determine IF you live... This scary thought, becoming a familiar concern proposed to many rural EMS coverage areas, could be the future. What if there was no one available to respond to that ambulance call?

In Allamakee County there are 82 residents who are Emergency Medical Service (EMS) providers registered as active with the Iowa Bureau of Emergency and Trauma Services. The population of Allamakee County, according to the 2010 census was 14,330 people. In Allamakee County, we are very proud to say we have six communities with ambulance services equipped to respond and transport; Harpers Ferry, Lansing, New Albin, Postville, Waterville and Waukon.

To the Editor:

How fortunate we are to have one of the largest city parks in Iowa - a well maintained park land for folks to camp, hike, picnic, swim, bird-and-butterfly watch, fish, walk dogs, sit to watch outdoor presentations or play frisbee in a variety of playgrounds. Something for everyone. The south section is especially appealing for hikers and bikers with its mix of prairie plantings, old trees, and stream crossings (dog walkers, please remove your canine’s droppings).

Our country has been a leader in preserving natural areas in counties, states, and throughout the nation. Many of our National Parks are being increasingly threatened with mining, logging and drilling. Do we want these places ruined for our children and grandchildren?

To the Editor:

To the person who threw that book in my van and didn’t have the guts to hand it to me personally or to sign your name, you made me laugh so hard I got the hiccups. That book, a book of fairy tales, was written years before your man jumped into the race and was written by a right wing nut case.

So, I can only presume that you are a person with questionable morals or courage that you would vote for a career sexual predator who brags about it on video. So, you are so proud of your party that you have to sneak around without showing your face, like the person with no courage who sends me nasty lies in the mail but never signs their name.

I fought in combat for this country so you could be and act the way you do, and I’m glad you weren’t in my platoon. Your book ended up in my burn barrel. If you fought for your life in combat, maybe you would have a different outlook on where you are in life and what people really think.

For your meditation: Exodus 32:7-11, 13-14; 1 Timothy 1:12-17; Luke 15:1-32

The theme of these readings from the word of God is forgiveness. Forgiveness from God to us. Forgiveness we extend to each other.

The Lord forgives the Israelites their terrible idolatry; and Jesus tells us that there is more joy in heaven over one repentant sinner than there is over 99 righteous people who have no need to repent.

Being in sin, being in need of forgiveness is compared to being lost. Think of the fear and tension that a man or woman experiences when they are lost in some large city, when they don’t speak the language of that country or in a wilderness where all you see are trees. That person is desperate to be found.

To the Editor:

Whether our neighbors are experiencing a temporary setback or face a continuous challenge to meet their basic needs - too many struggle to achieve a good quality of life. On a national level, nearly 40 million people are still living in poverty and even more are just one missed paycheck away from hardship.

We believe everyone should be able to take care of their families and have an equal opportunity at success. Community Action Agencies serve 99% of all American counties with life-changing services to help families achieve financial stability. All agencies are locally controlled and represented by the private, public and low-income sectors of the community.

To the Editor:

Mayor Monserud’s most recent column entitled “The Definition of a Small Community” left me both perplexed and disappointed.

I will agree that for the past year it has been an extraordinary privilege to serve on Waterville’s School House Development Board (SHDB) committee. For close to 30 years, as a paralegal, I have achieved a considerable amount of experience in commercial transactions and corporate governance areas of law. In addition, I am co-owner of a property management company that specializes in managing multi-family housing communities. Like myself, other members of the committee bring and offer a wealth of knowledge and expertise that informs our collective commitment to repositioning the former school. It is this experience that we each offer and contribute to the SHDB.