Waukon RAGBRAI hosting Town Meeting June 28; All are encouraged to attend
The Waukon RAGBRAI Committees will be hosting a Town Meeting Wednesday, June 28 from 6-7 p.m. at Iron Ridge Church, located at 512 Ninth Street SW in Waukon. Residents and others interested from all communities in the Allamakee County area, including the pass-through and final destination towns, are invited to attend the meeting.
More specific details will be presented about RAGBRAI's overnight stay in Waukon, including information about road closures and layout of the entertainment and other venues in downtown Waukon. Additional information will address volunteer and rider hosting opportunities, as well as funding and other logistical information. Those in attendance will also have the opportunity to ask questions in regard to RAGBRAI and its July 28-29 visit to Allamakee County.
Lori Egan, a nurse from Waukon, has announced her candidacy to represent the Iowa House of Representatives 56th District, which includes all of Allamakee County and parts of Clayton County.
“I’m running for the Iowa House because Clayton and Allamakee counties are being forgotten by the politicians in Des Moines,” Egan said. “As a 30-year resident of Waukon and a nurse, I'm concerned about the future of working families and our community. I’m running because economic opportunity should not be limited to those in Des Moines. We need living wage jobs with benefits right here in Clayton and Allamakee counties. We need health care that is affordable and accessible and we need an education system that provides our kids with the skills they’ll need to land a good job."
Egan is currently the Health Programs Director at the Northeast Iowa Community Action Corporation (NEICAC). Previously she served as a nurse with the Mayo Clinic Health System in La Crosse, WI.
Allamakee County Farm Bureau (ACFB) recently held a food drive to help stock the Allamakee County Food Shelf. Collection bins were placed at Quillin’s and Fareway grocery stores in Waukon. At the end of the drive, 80 pounds of food was collected. ACFB also donated one dollar for every pound of food collected. Pictured above, ACFB Vice President Lars Palmer (left) delivered the food to the Allamakee County Food Shelf, where Food Shelf Co-Director Wayne Burk (right) was on hand to accept the donation. Submitted photo.
The Waukon City Council met in regular session Monday, June 19 to address a variety of matters, including the Spring Avenue spring leak, Aveka noise and smell concerns and Hairball’s pyrotechnics display during the Des Moines Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI®).
During Public Comments, Jesse Delaney of 403 Seventh Avenue SE in Waukon addressed the Council regarding the paving of his street. Delaney commented that his home is one of the few, if not only, homes on a gravel road within city limits. Delaney expressed interest in improving and paving his driveway and connecting it to a paved street in front of his property. The Council agreed to research and consider the matter.
Having some fun with the next generation ... Longtime KNEI radio personality Chuck Allen (center in above photo) has some fun with more recent additions to the KNEI radio staff, Josh Blake (left) and Erik Kelly (right). Submitted photo.
Started it all... Pictured above are Ralph and Ileen Sweeney. Ralph was instrumental in starting KNEI radio in Waukon in 1967. Submitted photo.
by Lissa Blake
Local radio station KNEI will celebrate 50 years of entertaining local residents next week with an open house Tuesday, June 27 at the current KNEI location on Main Street in downtown Waukon.
The station was started by the late Ralph Sweeney and Dave Hogendorn in 1967. “I remember it took Dad three to four years to get licensing, he had to put up bonding and have the financial backing,” said Ralph’s son, Jack Sweeney. “I remember it (the license) was really hard to get and you had to have a licensed engineer on staff."
When asked what he thinks motivated his dad to start the station, Sweeney said, “Dad was an entrepreneur. He just thought Waukon needed a radio station.”
Sweeney started working as a DJ at the station when he was just 16 years old. His girlfriend, Bonnie Blake, who later became is his wife, worked there as well.
Cousins Ethan Halverson (left) and Zach Halverson (right) display the Benefit Gun that has now seemingly come "full circle" in helping raise funds to defray medical expenses incurred with the treatment of cancer for both young men. The gun, a Remington 721 rifle, was originally gifted by the pair's grandfather, Harvey Halverson, to a benefit event for Zach in 2005. Now, after circulating through a number of other benefit events, the Benefit Gun will return to Lansing at the June 24 benefit event for Ethan, who has also been diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Submitted photo.
by B.J. Tomlinson
Last August, in the fall of 2016, while in Iowa City attending the University of Iowa, Ethan Halverson didn’t feel well. Ethan is a 2012 graduate of Kee High School in Lansing and the son of Marty and Faye Halverson of Lansing.
"Not really sick, just not like himself,” said his mother, Faye. Ethan then noticed swollen lymph glands that became lumps in his neck and upper chest.
On first examination, the doctors adopted a wait-and-see treatment plan, thinking perhaps the symptoms indicated a virus. But when the condition did not improve they ratcheted up their diagnostic options to include CT scans, ultrasounds and lab work. As a result of that further testing, in November of last year Ethan was diagnosed with stage three Hodgkin's Lymphoma, a malignant cancerous growth of cells in the body's lymphatic system.
The regular meeting of the Lansing City Council was held Monday, June 19. Discussion circled around MSA representatives addressing the City's radium issue in its water supply, Main Street well inspection, a new hiring for a city lawn mower position, fencing put up in front of the train tracks for RAGBRAI®, an ATV ordinance update, and a public hearing scheduled for the July 3 meeting.
MSA Professional Service representatives attended the meeting to meet all of the council members and let them know that they are interested in preparing the city's radium preliminary engineering report. The town of Farley in Iowa is one of MSA's clients which is having a similar situation that Lansing is having with radium. The project that MSA is proposing to take on would be about a three-year process with three parts, including design, bidding and construction.
The Ferryville Tourism Council is sponsoring the first of three summer bonfire programs Wednesday, June 28 at 8 p.m. at the south end of Sugar Creek Park in Ferryville, WI. Ric Zarwell will be the speaker for a program entitled, “Birdwatching in the U.S., from an Expert like John James Audubon to an Active, Maybe Obsessed Local Man.”
Zarwell was born and raised in New Albin. He has been a lifelong birder and has created, along with his wife, Betty, the River and Bluffs Birding Festival in the Lansing area. They have traveled to 44 nations and all seven continents to view birds native to those areas. Zarwell has a Bachelor of Science degree in Wildlife Biology and a Master of Science degree in Natural Resources, both from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. He leads birding trips and conducts monitoring of bird species in various habitats.
Waukon High School/East Elementary Writing Conference … Submitted photo.
by Brianne Eilers
In April of this year, the Waukon Middle School of the Allamakee Community School District (ACSD), along with the Cora B. Darling Elementary School of the Postville Community School District, received $990,000 for the 21st Century Community Learning Center. The Community Learning Center program was one of eight Iowa school programs to receive a grant for the 21st Century program.
The grants are funded on a three-year grant cycle, with an optional two-year extension after a site visit. During the 2015-2016 school year, approximately 1,000 students were served in the local 21st Century programming.
Barb Winters-Kelly is the 21st Century grant director for the elementary schools, middle school and high school in the ACSD. She has been with the ACSD since 1998, when the program was funded by a two-year grant.
"People wanted after school programming (for the students)," Winters-Kelly noted.
Pictured left to right, Landon Berns, Jared Campbell, Adam Gruman.
Two Waukon High School juniors from the Harpers Ferry area, Landon Berns and Jared Campbell, were selected to attend Boys State, which was held June 11-16 at Fort Dodge in Johnston. Berns is the son of Charles and Peggy Berns, and Campbell is the son of Dan and Carolyn Campbell, all of Harpers Ferry.
Both young men were sponsored by Scenic Post 722 American Legion of Harpers Ferry. Iowa conducted its first "Hawkeye Boys State" in 1938 and has held one every year since, with the exception of 1945, when World War II gasoline rationing made it impossible. Hawkeye Boys State is a six-day course in self-government. Participants learned more about the functioning of city, county and state government in the state of Iowa than 75% of the population of Iowa.
