A candidate running for supervisor in Allamakee County is campaigning on fiscal responsibility, but has demonstrated over the past two years that she doesn’t hold that quality. As a representative to the Iowa House, she voted to cut corporate taxes, no doubt thinking that having the state’s largest companies pay less would end up putting money into state coffers. When has the trickle-down theory ever worked?
Those cuts caused a huge budget imbalance, which our representative then tried to “correct” by voting to take $131 million from state savings and cutting funding to crucial services across the state, to universities, the Iowa Flood Center, health care clinics, corrections, local schools, and much more. As a result of her vote for only a 1.1 percent increase in school spending, the third lowest in Iowa history, schools in Allamakee County saw a substantial budget shortfall.
by Jeremy Leitz, Allamakee County Executive Director (563) 568-2148
Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybee, and Farm-Raised Fish Program (ELAP)
The Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees and Farm-Raised Fish Program (ELAP) provides emergency assistance to eligible livestock, honeybee, and farm-raised fish producers who have losses due to disease, adverse weather or other conditions, such as blizzards and wildfires, not covered by other agricultural disaster assistance programs.
Eligible livestock losses include grazing losses not covered under the Livestock Forage Disaster Program (LFP), loss of purchased feed and/or mechanically harvested feed due to an eligible adverse weather event, additional cost of transporting water because of an eligible drought and additional cost associated with gathering livestock to treat for cattle tick fever.
Instead of sitting high and dry for harvest and fall manure application, virtually every county in the state now has saturated soils, ponded fields and high running streams. Manure applicators are waiting for that one dry week, and producers are worrying about emptying pits and compacting soils.
“Don’t panic. While there are no good options when storage is full and the ground is wet, there are still some things confinement site owners and commercial manure applicators can do,” says Ken Hessenius, supervisor of the DNR’s Spencer field office. (Find a list of commercial applicators on the Iowa Manure Management Action Group’s website.)
“With saturated soils, the main thing is to keep manure from reaching a creek via surface runoff or through a tile line or the ground water,” he says. Save those valuable nutrients by reducing runoff. Here are some tips:
Call the DNR field office. We will discuss site-specific options and how to minimize problems.
In just a few days it will be Halloween, October 31 will again be celebrated starting at sundown and carrying over to and including November 1, known as All Saints Day which replaced Samhain in the year 835 by Pope Gregory the Fourth. It took a while with Christianity leaving Samhain from about the fifth to the fifteenth centuries. The Roman Catholic Church liked to incorporate versions of the older religious traditions in an effort to convert those into All Souls Day, which is today’s Halloween.
The Allamakee County Economic Development (ACED) Board of Directors announced Growing Bear Daycare and Preschool, Inc as the 2018 Cloy Kuhse Positive Impact Award winner at the ACED Annual Meeting hosted in Waukon Thursday, October 18. This annual 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 Cloy Kuhse and his vision. Growing Bear now joins the list of annual award recipients including New Albin Savings Bank, Waukon Dental, Mike Ferring Construction of Waukon, TASC of Waukon, Wuennecke’s Meat Market of New Albin, and Norplex-Micarta of Postville. Allamakee County Economic Development Executive Director Val Reinke shared with the audience in attendance, “Quality of Place is the drawing card to recruiting talent and attracting companies. Quality of Place includes housing, childcare and transportation. Quality childcare means happy kids, parents and employers.
Learning from the world ... Brian Dougherty of Waukon stands in a hillside pasture area near Keash, Ireland during the travel portion of his Nuffield Farming Scholar designation. Dougherty has traveled throughout the world this year learning and conducting research in regard to soil health, nutrient management and water quality. Submitted photo.
by David M. Johnson
There are individuals who choose career paths, some not so well traveled and some paths that involve multiple journeys. Then there are individuals who venture down the road that is above and beyond what was imagined when the journey began.
Brian Dougherty was a local farm kid, raised by John and Rita Dougherty of rural Waukon, who wanted to be a farmer when he grew up. Graduating from Waukon High School in 1991, Dougherty pursued an Associate’s Degree in Farm Management from Ellsworth Community College before joining his brother, Scott, to farm the family farm.
The Village Creek public boat ramp, located just south of Lansing, has recently re-opened with new improvements. The ramp was closed for construction July 5 through the first week of October. Improvements (some of which are pictured in the surrounding photos) include grading and paving the roadway and boat ramp parking, installing a vault restroom, building sidewalks and adding ramp extensions to improve ramp access during low water conditions. The improvements were a joint project between Iowa Department of Natural Resources Fisheries and State Parks Bureaus and the Marine Fuel Tax program. The area is managed through an agreement with Allamakee County Conservation. Jim Janett, Allamakee County Conservation Director, said, “New docks will be arriving in Spring 2019, other possible improvements may include a kayak launching dock and handicapped boat access improvements.
Receives special recognition at Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Gala ... Waukon High School sophomore Denzel Decker, son of Brad and Becky Decker of rural Luana, was invited to attend the Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Gala at North Iowa Area Community College (NIACC) in Mason City September 26, where he was given special recognition for his entrepreneurial efforts in starting his own cupcake business, Decker Delish. In addition to the special recognition award he is pictured above with, Decker also received a $1,000 award and was also able to meet and visit with John Pappajohn (pictured in the photo below), which he considered quite an honor. Submitted photos.
Waukon High School sophomore Denzel Decker, son of Brad and Becky Decker of rural Luana, received special recognition at the 2018 Pappapjohn Entrepreneur Gala held September 26 at North Iowa Area Community College (NIACC) in Mason City. The event celebrates north Iowa’s entrepreneurs in four award categories: Young Entrepreneur of the Year, Entrepreneur of the Year, the Innovation Award, and Business of the Year. Twelve finalists were named in each category, and the winners were announced at the gala.
The Allamakee County Board of Supervisors met in regular session Monday, October 22 to address a full agenda of items including the Red Ribbon Week Proclamation, signing of the Fiscal-Year 2019 Iowa Partnerships for Success contract and discussion of hiring a Dispatcher/Corrections Officer. There were no members of the public in attendance during the Public Comment portion of the meeting and Allamakee County Auditor Denise Beyer provided an update on the November 6 general election during that time, indicating that approximately 1400 absentee ballot requests have been made so far with just over 10,000 voters registered in Allamakee County.
Fareway Meat & Grocery of Waukon held a ribbon cutting ceremony Wednesday, October 17 to celebrate its Grand Re-Opening after an extensive remodeling project of the store’s interior was recently completed. Pictured above at the ribbon cutting are representatives of the Waukon store, along with some of their family members, as well as representatives of the Fareway Meat & Grocery management and corporate structure. The Waukon Fareway location opened June 14, 2006 and the store remained opened throughout the entire remodeling process.
