News Center newsletter

The Veterans Memorial Hospital Diabetes Support Group will hold its next meeting Thursday, March 21 at 10 a.m. The meeting will be held at Veterans Memorial Hospital in the Large Conference Room, located on the lower level of the hospital.

This diabetes class is open to everyone who has diabetes or has a friend or loved one with diabetes. For more information on the Diabetes Support Group, call  Angie Mettille, RN at Veterans Memorial Hospital at 563-568-3411.
 

Veterans Memorial Hospital will sponsor a Babysitting Seminar Saturday, April 13 from 8:30 a.m. - Noon. The class will be held in the Large Conference Room located on the lower level of Veterans Memorial Hospital in Waukon.

Intended participants are individuals 10 years of age and older who are responsible for their own care after school until their parents come home from work, and individuals who care for other children in or outside of their own home. Girls are not the sole baby-sitters in this society. Boys are also welcome and encouraged to attend.

Topics to be covered include fire and personal safety, accident prevention and emergency actions, nutritious snacks and basic care of children.

Veterans Memorial Hospital in cooperation with the American Heart Association is offering a course in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) for lay people (those not working in healthcare), which includes child care providers, Wednesday, March 20 from 5-8 p.m.

The CPR class, which will cover adult, child and infant CPR, will be held in the Large Conference Room located on the lower level of the hospital. The cost of the class, for certification or recertification, is the same. The card received with the course does certify attendants in CPR for two years.

CPR is administered when someone’s breathing, pulse, or both, stop. When both of them stop, the victim has suffered sudden death, which can be caused by poisoning, drowning, choking, suffocation, electrocution, smoke inhalation, or the most common cause, heart attack.

The Auxiliary of Veterans Memorial Hospital will be holding its monthly Euchre Marathon for all individuals of the community interested  Thursday, March 21. Men and women are welcome to attend, even if they are not an Auxiliary member. The Euchre marathons are held the third Thursday of each month at the Senior Citizens Room at the Waukon Wellness Center.

The Auxiliary’s Euchre Marathons begin at 11:30 a.m. with dinner, if chosen.  Call Northland Agency on Aging at 877-838-8077 if choosing to eat dinner. Card playing will follow at 12:30 p.m. until approximately 2:30 p.m. Anyone wishing to stay and play cards following the Senior Citizens meal is more than welcome to do so. All proceeds go toward the Auxiliary of Veterans Memorial Hospital.  Prizes will be awarded.

Anyone interested in attending, but preferring to play Bridge is also welcome to join in. It is asked that they come with their own table of four players, however.

Arleen Ferguson of Monona will be celebrating her 90th birthday March 24. In honor of the occasion, cards and well wishes may be sent to 404 First Street, Apt. 105, Monona, IA 52159.
 

Abbi Hendrix and Cody Brainard of Farmersburg announce the birth of their daughter, Brynlee Ann Brainard, born March 8, 2019 at Veterans Memorial Hospital in Waukon. She weighed 6 lbs. 3 ozs. and measured 19-1/2 inches in length at the time of her birth. She joins a sister, Veda (7).

Grandparents are Patricia and Marvin Brainard of Monona. Betty Freilinger of Marquette is a great-grandparent.

Wow! We’ve had quite a winter roller coaster - cold then near record high temps in January then back to bone-chillin’ cold then snow, snow and more snow, yet spring is trying to break through! I believe, eventually, spring will prevail!

The denomination I am a member of has also had a bit of a roller coaster ride over the past year. For months there have been informational meetings, workshops, and prayer vigils concerning our special General Conference that was held in February. As a “mainline” church body, United Methodists have been fighting over the inclusion vs exclusion of the LGBTQ community for a very long time. There has been immense hurt and harm done to people and congregations “on both sides of the aisle.”

To the Editor:

There has been a great deal of back and forth in the last year-and-a-half regarding construction of communication towers in Allamakee County, with one proposed tower near New Albin being the center of some debate.

We’d like to set the record straight and make sure that residents in Allamakee County fully understand what’s at stake. The cell site near New Albin is part of a nationwide federal initiative called FirstNet. FirstNet is a mobile communications network being built specifically to prioritize Emergency Services/First Responders communications in emergency situations. My company, NEIT (Northeast Iowa Telephone Company) is a rural network partner for AT&T, and thereby FirstNet, and is responsible for managing construction.

To the Editor:

This week Senator Michael Breitbach has surpassed his House constituents in trying to take power away from local people and agencies by championing SF548. March 4, hundreds of citizens traveled to Des Moines to speak against a similar house bill, HF542. The size of the crowd made the front page news in The Gazette. The proposal was for the State to take all control over land for public land development… parks, trails, recreation areas, basically taking power away from local people and giving it to the State, only to the State.

Senator Breitbach thinks regular people do not know what is best for them. I work at an area campground and hear every day about what is best. The bike trails, the trout fishing, the parks, the river. Kids and campers at the campground help pick up sticks when we get a big wind. People donate trees and plants and benches so others can enjoy the green and being out in beautiful northeast Iowa.

by Jeremy Leitz, Allamakee County Executive Director (563) 568-2148

Mid-Contract Management (MCM) on CRP Acres
As we start to see warmer temps and melting snow, please start thinking about your MCM, if you are scheduled for this year. Those that are scheduled for this year would have received a packet from our office this past fall detailing what needs to be done. You do have until May 14, 2019 to complete the work, but now is a good time to start lining up contractors if you haven’t already done so, buy seed if needed, and get equipment ready. If you have technical questions, need a seeding plan, or contractor list contact the NRCS office. Any other questions can be directed to FSA.

Once you complete your MCM, notify the FSA office, sign the FSA-848B form, and provide acceptable evidence of practice completion to determine proper cost share payment.