June 13, 2024

Page 1

Thursday, June 13, 2024

Vol. 159, Issue 24

Decorah, Iowa 52101 www.decorahnewspapers.com

One Section email: news@decorahnewspapers.com

A vision becomes a reality

Sunflower Child Development has been serving Winneshiek County for more than four decades, and it now has a new home. Families were officially welcomed to the spacious, new multi-million-dollar center Monday morning, June 10.

ABOVE RIGHT- Doors are open at Sunflower Child Development and Discovery Center. Reaching out with a warm welcome Monday morning from left: Daiton Johnson, Director of Operations, and Holly Benda, Executive Director. ABOVE LEFT- Amanda Kupka dropped off her son, Wyatt, Monday morning at Sunflower’s new center. RIGHT- The area’s largest space for infants, toddlers, preschoolers and after-schoolers, Sunflower boasts modern classrooms, playgrounds and specialized facilities. (Driftless Multimedia photos by Roz Weis)

Supervisors consider re-appropriating public health funds By Zach Jensen In response to Winneshiek County Public Health’s decertification of its home health services, the Winneshiek County Board of Supervisors during its Monday meeting considered reappropriating some of Public Health’s funds. “Every year that I’ve been auditor, we’ve always just appropriated the full budget to every department, so they have the authority to spend their full budget,” said Winneshiek County Auditor Ben Steines.

“But, I know there’s some talk about changing that budget, both from the Board of Health and (the supervisors’) end. So, maybe you don’t want to appropriate the whole amount, if you know you’re going to lower it within a month or two. I just need to know how to prepare the resolution that gets passed at the end of the month.” After a brief discussion with Winneshiek County Public Health Administrator Krista Vanden Brink, the supervisors decided to table the discussion until the June 17 meeting, after

the Public Health Board’s meeting scheduled for June 12.

filling in for County Engineer Michael Kueny who was absent, reported that the department is busy with bridgework and getting ready to work on Bridge No. 5 on Centennial Road as well as lay pipe on the Frankville road. • It was reported that the Festina sewer project is scheduled to begin soon. The next meeting of the Winneshiek County Board of Supervisors will be held Monday, June 17, at 9:30 a.m., at the courthouse annex.

Decorah Community School District Board of Directors put a new policy in place following their monthly meeting Monday night. In an effort to increase efficiency and save on bus mileage, a few district bus drivers will be allowed to park their buses at home. Those eligible drivers also will be provided with a district vehicle (when available) to get them to-and-from their homes in between their morn-

phone: 563-382-4221

fax: 563-382-5949

Commemorating 175 years Decorah’s 175th anniversary festivities announced

On Saturday, June 15, the City of Decorah will celebrate its 175th Anniversary – the town’s Dodransbicentennial. The public is invited to join a variety of activities throughout the day reflecting Decorah’s on history. • 10 a.m. Welcome and remarks at Vesterheim Commons by Decorah Mayor Lorraine Borowski, Prosper Waukon (great-great-great grandson of Chief Waukon Decorah) and a special reading by Mette Hammer. • 10:45-11:15 a.m. Music on Vesterheim’s patio by Decorah Municipal Band. • 11:30 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. “What’s Still Here: Decorah’s Surviving Properties, 18491870” presentation at Vesterheim Commons by Mark Z. Muggli and Judy van der Linden of the Decorah Historical Preservation Commission.

• 12:30 p.m. Painter Bernatz Mill Tour at Vesterheim. • 1-4 p.m. Ice Cream Social at Winneshiek County Historical Society and free tours of the WCHS museum. • 1, 2 and 3 p.m. Tours offered at Porter House Museum. Entrance fee applies. • 2-4 p.m. Meet-and-greet with Prosper Waukon at Winneshiek County Historical Society. • 2-4 p.m. Vintage games at Phelps Park, Decorah’s oldest city park, led by Decorah Park and Recreation in partnership with the Locust School Committee of Winneshiek County Historical Society. Rain location: Decorah High School. • 6-7 p.m. “The Waukon Decorah Family Legacy” presentation by Prosper Waukon at Hotel Winneshiek with Q&A after.

Heavenly Made Gifts honors Decorah’s 175th by donating commemorative ornament to historical society

Pictured left to right are Winneshiek County Historical Society Treasurer Donna Rasmussen, President Stacey Gossling, Linda Wolfs and Chris Hick, owners of Heavenly Made Gifts & The Gnome Store in downtown Decorah, and Historical Society member Elizabeth Lorentzen. The group gathered Tuesday afternoon at Wolfs’ and Hick’s store in downtown Decorah, where the shop’s owners gifted an ornament (pictured larger above), specially made for Decorah’s 17th anniversary, to the historical society. “When we heard about the 175th anniversary, we decided that we needed to provide a treasure to the community,” Wolfs said. “And, the county seat is an important part of our history. This is something we can do for the town.” (Driftless Multimedia photo by Zach Jensen)

Visit us online - www.decorahnewspapers.com Other business • Maintenance Superintendent John Halverson reported he’d had one candidate interested in the advertised part-time position in his department until they learned that the position didn’t include health insurance. The supervisors decided to wait until this fall to see what the county’s needs are before advertising for the opening again. • Assistant County Engineers Mike Weis and Matt Mettille,

Visit us online - www.decorahnewspapers

School Board adopts bus-at-home policy

By Roz Weis

Price One Dollar

ing and afternoon routes. According to District Transportation Services Representative Chris Pronschinske, the new policy should show a major cost savings to the district. He shared with the board the use of a new software program utilized to achieve the highest efficiency in scheduling routes. The new policy provides procedures under which bus drivers can keep a school bus at their residence and determines the guidelines for route assignments, compensation and trans-

portation support. Pronschinske said one of the policy goals is to support/retain bus drivers by allowing eligible drivers to keep a bus at their residence under specified conditions. Under the proposed policy, bus drivers may qualify to keep a school bus at their home if the distance from their home to the starting point of their route is less than the distance from the bus garage to the starting point of their route. This eligibility is provided the driver resides

more than five miles from the bus barn. The district will allow a maximum of five drivers per year to participate in this program. It is anticipated that three drivers will qualify this year. The example presented during the board’s discussion Monday night was a driver residing in Highlandville could start their route from home, and after completing their route and

Buses

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A salute to spring sports athletes inside!

VFW Commander reports on disrepair of Veterans’ grave markers By Zach Jensen The 2,865 Veterans’ graves in Winneshiek County’s 47 cemeteries are being neglected. VFW Post #1977 Commander Ray Koshatka reported to the Winneshiek County Board of Supervisors on Monday that many passed Veterans’ brass flag holders and grave markers are brittle and falling apart and need to be replaced. “It’s supposed to be up to the family to get them, but some of these never had them, and some are from the Civil War,” Koshatka said. “A lot of the markers … are in bad, bad shape. You try to scrape them, and they break off. They’re old, they’re brittle.” VFW Treasurer Mark Stock-

dale reported that in the county, there are more than 100 Veterans’ graves that are unmarked or missing brass plaques. “We’ve been out here before and fought about this and tried to get flag markers for the graves, and we always get shot down,” Koshatka added. “They wanted to buy us plastic ones, and my answer to that was ‘If that’s what you think of your Veteran, to buy a plastic marker to put over his grave, you don’t think too much of your Veterans.’ I get upset about that.” Most flags and markers are set outside the gravestone area, where mowers hit them, which

Veteran graves

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