Thursday, January 25, 2024
Vol. 159, Issue 4
Decorah, Iowa 52101 www.decorahnewspapers.com
One Section email: news@decorahnewspapers.com
Price One Dollar phone: 563-382-4221
fax: 563-382-5949
Phillips explains ‘floodway fringe’ building ordinance for Freeport property sale
Ice weather
Van Der Maten reports no burial site at location By Zach Jensen Enjoying a break from the arctic blast that rolled into the area over the past two weeks are (l-r) Eloise, Elena and Ingrid Pohl putting their ice skates to good use, and loving every twirl and turn. While the below zero temperatures were great for setting up the Decorah ice rink, which opened Jan. 17, the 25 degree temperatures Monday were a welcome reprieve. (Driftless Multimedia photo by Kate Klimesh)
Fair Board requests $25,000, reports fair week lineup is looking ‘pretty good’ By Zach Jensen The Winneshiek County Fair is getting bigger and better. Arlin Franzen of the Winneshiek County Fair Board presented the fair’s FY25 funding request, in the amount of $25,000, to the county’s Board of Supervisors Jan. 22 during their regular meeting. “One of the reasons we’re asking for a little more than what we’ve been getting is, if you look at county averages, we’re still asking for less than what the county averages are,” Franzen said. “We’re at 32,000 attendance, and we’re only asking for $25,000, which is under the average, and it’s actually less than a buck a person. And, this is just for the one week of the fair, too. We have other events going on there throughout the year.” According to information from the Association of Iowa Fairs, which Franzen shared during the meeting, the average Iowa county fair receives $30,000 in funding each year for an average attendance of just over 21,000 per county. Franzen said this year’s fair week lineup is looking “pretty good” again, with a dog show starting off the week
Celebrating Catholic Schools Week 2024 Area Catholic Schools will celebrate National Catholic Schools Week Jan. 28-Feb. 3. The 2024 theme of the annual celebration of Catholic education in the United States is “Catholic Schools: United in Faith and Community.” Pictured at right are Decorah’s St. Benedict Catholic School students. (submitted photo) A salute Catholic Schools Week can be found inside this edition.
and a new free event in the grandstands Monday night. Like last year, the races will be held Tuesday night, and the rodeo will be held Wednesday. The Thursday night grandstand entertainment will be the tractor pull, and Joe Nichols will perform Friday night. Franzen said the fair board believes Saturday’s entertainment is “locked in”, but it cannot be announced until a specific date due to the terms of the contract. Also returning this year are Fair Buttons, Franzen said during the meeting, which cost $25 in advance for Tuesday-Thursday and $50 for the full week. For the 2023 Winneshiek County Fair, up to 3,800 50-dollar buttons were sold, and about 1,000 of the three-day buttons were sold, Franzen reported, adding that the fairgrounds aren’t only used for the fair, and it’s the board’s goal to help all the county’s residents. “Every day of the year, we got something going on,” Franzen said. “It’s just unbelievable — the amount of stuff that goes on there. And, this money isn’t just benefiting us. Everything we do is passed on to everyone else in the county.”
Winneshiek County Planning, Zoning and Floodplain Administrator Tony Phillips educated the County Board of Supervisors Jan. 22 on how the new floodplain ordinance applies to the property the county lopes to sell in Freeport. “That is ‘approximate floodplain.’ That’s what they call it,” Phillips said. “It can be divided into two things — floodway or floodway fringe. Moving water is floodway. Predominantly-stagnant water is floodway fringe. This is floodway fringe. The question I was told you want answered is ‘What can be built there?’ … you basically have to build it floodproof.” “All new or substantially improved residential structures shall have the lowest floor, including basement, elevated a minimum of one (1) foot above the base flood elevation,” reads Section 107 of the Department of Natural Resources’ (DNR) Approved Floodplain Ordinance, which Phillips shared with the supervisors. According to the DNR’s ordinance, if solar panels are installed on the Freeport property, all utilities, junction boxes and any other part of the structure needs to be one foot above the floodplain, and the so-
lar panels’ posts must be engineered so they stay in the ground and won’t float away. Supervisor Steve Kelsay asked Phillips what a property owner would need to do in order to follow all relevant ordinances. “The first thing we’re going to do is the floodplain permit,” Phillips said. “When they apply for the permit, they would have to declare what it is they’re building — whether it’s a residential structure, solar panels or whatnot – and from there, the criteria is added on.” Phillips said the buyer of the land will need to visit his office and apply for both county and state floodplain permits. “When they apply for the state permit through the DNR, the DNR will do their individual flood study, and they will make their determination on floodway or floodway fringe,” Phillips said. “They will then give me that information, so I can issue our permit with the study information on it.” Supervisor Mark Faldet asked if any structure built on the land could have a basement. Reading from the DNR’s floodplain ordinance information, Phillips said that a basement would need to have openings on two opposite ends to allow floodwater to flow through it.
“So, the lowest living floor, or useful floor, has to be one foot above the base flood elevation,” Phillips said. “Anything below that would have to allow water to pass through it.” Other business • Winneshiek County Attorney Andy Van Der Maten reported to the supervisors that the county no longer needs to be concerned about the possibility of an ancient burial site being located in the Freeport property it wants to sell. The county attorney said an ancient burial site does exist north of the lot that’s for sale but not in the parcel itself. • Riverview Center Therapist Mindy Myers presented a funding request in the amount of $7,500 for Riverview Center’s Decorah location. • Josh Dansdill of Northeast Iowa Resource Conservation & Development requested funding in the amount of $12,000 for the Upper Iowa Watershed Alliance. • Steve Vanden Brink of the EMS Association presented his board’s request for $5,000 for FY25. The next meeting of the Winneshiek County Board of Supervisors will be held Monday, Jan. 29, at 9:30 a.m., at the Courthouse Annex.
Supervisors opt to pay $900,000 911 tower bill through Emergency Management By Zach Jensen The Winneshiek County Board of Supervisors is considering making one of its final $900,000 payments on the county’s new Emergency 911 tower system through the Emergency Management Commission (EMC). Such an expense will cause property taxes to increase slightly, but everyone involved in the discussion, during the Jan. 22 meeting of the Winneshiek County Board of Supervisors, agreed the way Winneshiek County is achieving the upgrade is the best deal for its taxpayers. Upon completion, Winneshiek County Emergency Management Director Sean Snyder said that for a total
of seven towers, the county will have paid approximately $5.2 million since 2017, when the project began — at least half of what most other counties are spending for the same or similar projects. For example, in August 2023, Allamakee County Sheriff Clark Mellick estimated the upgrade could cost taxpayers in that county $12 million. The discussion during the supervisors meeting was to decide how this July’s $900,000 payment would be made. County Auditor Ben Steines said the supervisors could ask the EMC to pay the full amount. “You could do that,” Steines told the supervisors. “That would relieve the stress on the General Fund, but it would also require a tax levy increase. I don’t believe it is a good idea to lower your General Fund levy, because of the restrictions, because that will then set you at a lower starting point next year at this time. You’re going to end
up with a supplemental levy increase anyway, without doing any of this because of the new IT position that we’re funding through Emergency Management, and the property insurance costs are going up.” In an interview following the meeting, Steines explained the Board already made a $500,000 payment when it signed the contract and a $900,000 payment in July 2023. He said the payment issue stems from the fact that the Board didn’t have enough funds to make the payment in July 2024 due to the new restrictions on property taxes passed in the state’s last legislative session. “$900,000 represents a levy rate of about 63 cents per $1,000 of taxable valuation,” Steines said during the interview. “So, Emergency Management
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Decorah preschools host February open houses
The Decorah Collaborative Preschool Partners will be holding their open houses during the first few weeks of February. Parents, guardians and prospective students are invited to visit and explore Decorah’s preschool offerings on the designated date and time. All Decorah Collaborative Preschool Partners are part of the Statewide Voluntary Preschool Program and provide a minimum of 10 hours per week of high-quality preschool programming for four-year-old children. Children must turn four by Sept. 15, 2024, to attend. Many programs also offer optional “wrap-around” care for a fee.
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Open houses • St. Benedict Preschool: Feb. 1, 5:30-6:30 p.m., st-ben.pvt.k12.ia.us • West Side Early Childhood Center: Feb. 1, 5-6 p.m., decorah.k12.ia.us/ school/west-side-early-childhood-center • Kinderhaus: Feb. 3, 10 a.m.-12 p.m., kinderhausdecorah.com • Northeast Iowa Montessori School: Feb. 3, 10 a.m.-12 p.m., www.neim.us • Sunflower: Feb. 6, 4-7 p.m. (held at the new center), www.sunflowerchildcare.org • Nisse Preschool: Feb. 7, 5:30-6:30 p.m., www.nissepreschool.org