Thursday, June 22, 2023
Vol. 158, Issue 25
Decorah, Iowa 52101
One Section
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June 19-25 is Pollinator Week
‘Hunchback of Notre Dame’ opens today
Visit Decorah City Prairie and Butterfly Garden to celebrate all things pollinator Visitors can stroll the Butterfly Garden and learn the growth habits of flowers and grasses they may be interested in trying in their own landscape. Pictured here among the many specimen plots is Golden Alexander. (Driftless Multimedia photo by Samantha Ludeking) Summer has officially begun and the City Prairie and Butterfly Garden are both starting to show off their colors. A prairie is a wonderful place to visit multiple times each season, as something different comes into bloom every week. If folks get to the butterfly garden quickly, they may still have a chance to see the Prairie Smoke “smoking” as it has already gone to seed. Another early bloomer is Golden Alexander which holds its yellow color after it fades. The Blue-eyed Grass was early and is now done blooming, while the Spiderwort, Foxglove Beardtongue, Blue Flag Iris and Canada Anemone are in full force. Just starting this week, one can find Pale Purple Coneflower, White Indigo and Wild Quinine.
Quasimodo, in center played by Gabe Twedt, is pictured with his parents Florika, played by Jenny White and Jehan, played by Carston Krieg. (Driftless Multimedia photos by Roz Weis)
New Minowa Players performances of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” begin today Thursday, June 22, at the Decorah High School Auditorium. Show dates are Thursday-Saturday, June 22, 23 and 24 at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, June 25, at 2 p.m. Tickets are available in advance online at newminowaplayers.ludus.com; or June 19-24, from 4 to 6 p.m., at the at Decorah High School ticket office. TOP LEFT- Gabe Twedt has been cast in the role of Quasimodo. TOP RIGHT- Claude Frollo, played by Matt Spencer, is pictured with priests Libby Phillips, Rick Scheffert, Erik Johnson, Alex Rosenow, Carston Krieg and David Mendez. ABOVE- Esmeralda and parishioners: Mikayla Hiner, Alison Blake, Emily Schmidt, Elise Bennett, Karen Esterl, Rachel Breitenbach-Dirks, Camille Dahlquist, Erin Schrader, Julia Schwarz, David Mendez, June Breitenbach-Dirks, Rick Scheffert, Carston Krieg, Libby Phillips, Kristina Burroughs.
Prairie plants have tremendous root systems and are adapted to survive low rainfall, drying winds and fire. Many home gardeners have begun to use prairie flowers in their landscaping because once established, they require little care. Despite the dry spring and early summer in Decorah, the prairie and butterfly garden plants look great! The Butterfly Garden is a place where visitors can come to see individual specimen plots and learn the growth habits of flowers and grasses they may be interested in trying in their own landscape. This year there will be highlights as
Prairie/Butterfly Garden
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Decorah Schools renew agreement for Canvas Learning Management System By Roz Weis Decorah Community School District (DCSD) Board of Directors approved renewal of the Canvas Learning Management System cloud subscription for $47,246.40 during a special meeting Monday night. A portion of the expenditure ($29,616.40) is covered by the eLearning grant funds made available from the state. The eLearning grant in the final year of a five-year commitment. The district’s final cost for the one-year Canvas LMS subscription renewal is $17,630.40. District Technology and Information Services Director Shawn Gordon informed the board about the Canvas platform, which is designed for
students in grades K-12 for information sharing, instruction support, online learning and more. The Canvas cloud system is used by many school districts throughout Iowa, at community colleges and at Iowa State University and the University of Iowa. “Since it’s the last year of the grant,” Gordon said, “we are lobbying for the state to cover more than they covered in previous years.” After discussion, board members voted unanimously to approve the expenditure. The meeting concluded with several hours of board self-evaluation discussion led by Tammi Drawbaugh, Board Development Director from the Iowa Association of School Boards.
Supervisors cover a wide swath of topics Monday Winneshiek P&Z resource survey Visit us online - www.decorahnewspapers.com By Kate Klimesh
The Winneshiek County Supervisors discussed a variety of topics at their Monday, June 19, regular meeting. A public hearing was set for July 10, at 9:30 a.m., regarding the vacation of the portion of road leading to the previous Ridgeway Lutheran Church Parsonage, now being sold to a private seller. The portion of the road was kept as county property while the parsonage was in use by the church. The road can now be vacated and turned over to the adjacent private property owners and put back on the tax rolls. Road project updates Interim County Engineer Isaac Wiltgen reported that the 175th Street repaving project near Calmar was nearing its end, with painting of the road planned for this week and the road reopened to through traffic. He noted they would continue to work on a bit of seeding yet to be done, but that the 175th Street project had gone quickly and smoothly. The Bridge 237 on 210th Street still needs a guard rail installed before being opened to public traffic. Bridge 317 on Wren Valley Road had the railcars set last week, with
final project tasks to be completed in a couple of weeks in the bridge replacement project. Once landowners sign off on the right of way and retracement, the county will move on initiating vacation of the road. Wiltgen noted once the road crews finish the shouldering on W14 following a box culvert installation, they would be moving to the Frankville Road to replace some concrete pipe there this summer.
Townline Road discussion In other business, resident Rhonda Olsgard brought a petition to the board with 60 signatures of landowners and residents who travel Townline Road. The petition was requesting the supervisors reinstate Townline Road into the five-year plan for hard surfacing, as it was included for completion 20 years ago. Olsgard reported that dust control efforts have been fruitless this year, and submitted an email from Zach Wegmann of NEIA Dust Control detailing the condition of the road which, “makes it very difficult to establish an effective dust control treatment without the use of extreme quantities of product. The high level of fine dust in combination with a large amount of traffic
makes it very difficult to establish effective Dust Control.” Wegmann added later that with the amount of money and resources it would take to establish dust control, “it would make more sense to have the road paved.” Olsgard noted any rock applied to Townline Road is short-lived due to the large vehicles, trucks and farm equipment that travel the road and use it as a shortcut between Highway 52 and Middle Calmar Road – traffic she reported “on some days it can be non-stop.” Olsgard also reported the dust control reapplied last week was already faltering within a few days, with the fine dust from the road’s surface once again creating safety concerns for vehicles on the road. Wiltgen agreed with Olsgard’s assessment. “All the statements and concerns stated are legit. It’s just a matter of money.” Wiltgen also noted it would take complex regrading of the road, with one to two years of work before the road was ready to pave, if the project moved forward. Previous estimates of simply grading Townline Road, just west of Middle Calmar Road, were upwards of $800,000 due to the road’s steep hills and valleys. This led to concerns with existing landowners’
driveways meeting up with the new road and grade. Supervisor Shirley Vermace noted, “We can discuss it, but not without a new engineer in place. And we’d have to kick another project off the approved five-year plan for 2024.” Supervisor Dan Langreck added, “All the Farm to Market funds were spent in the current plan, so there’s no new funding for another project that won’t mean removing another project.” Supervisor Mark Vick added, “Gravel roads are cheaper to maintain, and it’s usually been the cost of the repaving project has put the dollars we have focused on maintaining the roads that are already paved, which we can’t even do that as well as we’d like.” Winneshiek County has not paved a gravel road to hard surface in 20 years, according to Auditor Ben Steines. More discussion on the matter will be held at future meetings.
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Engineer position advertising The board will start advertising the lead position in the Winneshiek County Engineer’s office, as Engineer Lee Bjerke’s last day is
Supervisors
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Winneshiek County residents should watch their mailboxes over the next week for a survey coming from the Winneshiek County Planning & Zoning Commission. The commission is seeking public perspectives on natural and historic resources in the county, and a random sample of 2,200 registered voters will be receiving an envelope addressed from Winneshiek County Zoning which contains a questionnaire to fill out and return. The survey is a continuation of a project which began with a series of five open community meetings throughout the county in the fall of 2022. Meetings were focused on asking residents to identify the natural and historic resources they most value and want to protect. The coming survey builds on those meetings to ask a broader group of people to evaluate their priorities for key resources emerging from those meetings, including water, farmland and historic sites. The results of the project will be shared with the public and with the county and may inform future land-use decisions in the county. Any Winneshiek County resident that would like to complete the survey but does not receive a paper copy in the mail in the next week can choose to participate through an online survey which will be made available after the initial mailings go out. Those with questions about the survey can contact project coordinator Rachel Brummel at winneshiekresources@gmail.com or 563-387-1778.