Easter Egg hunt this Saturday
The 14th Annual Community Wide Easter Egg Hunt will be held on Saturday, March 30 at 11 a.m. The egg hunt for children under the age of three will be at the Prairie du Chien High School baseball field. Children ages four to six should go to the football field. Seven to 10 years olds will be having their hunt on the area north of the football field. There will be more than $1,000 in prizes in the 6,000 eggs (up from 5,400 last year). The hunt is sponsored by area businesses and organizations and coordinated by WalMart .

Council writes letter opposing Haydn railroad crossing closure
At their March 5 meeting, the Prairie du Chien Common Council
unanimously overturned their previous stance of neutrality on the Haydn Street railroad crossing closure, and they ordered City Attorney Tom Peterson to write a letter of opposition to the Office of the Commissioner of Railroad (OCR) and to the commissioner's boss, Governor Scott McCallum, on the recommendation to close the crossing.
The council told Peterson to cite the fact that the hearing process was not fair and impartial as it should have been, and reflecting public sentiment, they now feel that keeping the crossing open has a higher priority than upgrading the other crossings in the city.
The unapproved minutes from the March 5 meeting state "Motion by L. Neumann and second by T. Sheckler directing the City Attorney to draft a letter of opposition to the proposed decision to close the Haydn Street crossing, with the points made that the process was flawed and that the letter be sent to the governor with the signing of all council members."
The city had until March 19 to submit comments on the recommended closure.
Peterson wrote the following letter to Douglas S. Wood, the hearing examiner for the Office of the Commissioner of Railroads, on March 18.
"In reference to your Proposed Decision in the above - entitled matter, on behalf of the City of Prairie du Chien, please note the following comments:
"1. Granted public convenience may well be a subjective term,
nonetheless and other than the two individuals, both of whom were from the railroad, all parties who spoke at the public hearing and copies of the 40 plus correspondences that I have received either originals or copies, all of which I enclose herewith, indicate that the public in general and those who wrote personally will be inconvenienced by the closure of the Haydn Street railroad crossing. Further, it is
inconceivable to this writer that you can take the 1,100 cars that use the Haydn Street crossing and not somehow inconvenience the public.
"2. The Proposed Decision in this matter tends to paint the Haydn Street crossing as a danger and a fatality waiting to happen. Wherein fact the 50 plus years that I have been in Prairie du Chien and at least 40 plus of those that I have some recollection of the crossing at Haydn Street has never had an accident whereas Washington to the immediate North and Blackhawk Avenue to the immediate South, both have had train car accidents, with the most recent at Blackhawk being a fatality . . .
"3. The city strongly feels that the public's input was totally ignored in this matter. Commissioner Kreunen publicly stated on at least one occasion when I was present that the Haydn Street crossing would be closed. I have trouble from a lawyer's perspective having heard that comment and then believing that any sort of hearing that be afforded to the public by your department is going to be anything other than a rubber stamp of what Kreunen wants.
"4. As to the timing of the closure of the Haydn Street crossing,
assuming your Proposed Decision is allowed, the City has trouble
accepting the fact that closure has to take place at the onset of the
project in light of the fact that there has never been an accident nor
incident of any kind at Haydn Street and though the signals at that
location may be outdated in light of modern technology, they still work and we are confident can continue to provide adequate warning for the period of the project and be retired at the conclusion rather than at the start. You state that the existing signals will be adequate until the crossing is closed and I would submit that those signals coupled with the safety record of the crossing will be adequate for the duration of the project.
"5. As to the railroad's second thoughts as to a pedestrian crossing at Haydn Street, you may want to give some thought of crossing children at Marquette and Park Streets, one intersection south of Washington St. due to the fact that Washington Street is at best an extremely congested intersection and adding a crossing guard and pedestrian movement into the mix will only add to the confusion and potential for accident . . ."6. Finally, your proposed Decision makes no reference to the monetary award to the city for its neutral stance on closure."
The letter was signed by Peterson.
On March 21, the council wrote the following letter to Commissioner of Railroad Rodney Kreunen, following their apparent dissatisfaction with the city attorney's letter:
"In our opinion the Public Hearing process was not "fair or impartial,'' as we were informed it would be. All Council Members agree that it was not a neutral forum.
"This letter is in response to a conversation on March 20, 2002, for a request for an extension by Sharon Frazier. We are asking for an extension until April 1, 2002.
"On behalf of the City of Prairie du Chien, our City Attorney, Tom
Peterson did not follow the orders for a unanimous City Council, so this Council is forced to act on the city's behalf. The council was not aware of Mr. Peterson's letter, in time to draft a letter within the time limits to appeal, thus an extension is requested.
"The city of Prairie du Chien formally unanimously rescinds it's neutral stance and opposes the recommendation in the closing of the Haydn Street crossing.
"The city went into those hearings as a neutral party, however it was a split decision by the council and we have since that time received so much community support to keep it open that we were unanimous in our decision to formally oppose this injustice. As a council, we feel we were misinformed and feel keeping our crossing open is a higher priority than the upgrades.
"Facts that need to be brought to your attention:
. Haydn Street has been declared an emergency route by Crawford County.
. Haydn Street was always considered an emergency route; but never labeled as such, because the City didn't formally have an emergency route system. We, the city are in the process of laying out an emergency route system throughout Prairie du Chien; Haydn Street being a part of that.
.The Police and Sheriff Headquarters are on this street and this is the only direct route to Marquette Road and Highway 35, which is our primary north/south arterial.
.There are not alternative routes available to redirect traffic of
1,100. Blackhawk and Washington Streets are admittedly already congested with no real remedy at this time.
.Washington Street is a truck route; you would be putting children into real danger if they were forced to take this direction.
.Emergency personnel in the city feel it's extremely important to keep Haydn Street open. Their response time would be adversely affected.
.Tourism brings twice to triple the amount of traffic into this area. We need this route for our emergency personnel to respond when the traffic on other roadways are so abundant.
"Please allow us this extension, our city needs to regroup."
The letter was signed by the mayor and all council members except one who was not able to be reached.

Staying stylish in Prairie du Chien
Hair Unlimited owner/stylist Geri Dearborn styles the hair of
manager/stylist Rilla Koresh.
'Hair today, gone tomorrow' is an old saying but it certainly does not apply to the next featured business in our continuing series on
long-standing Prairie du Chien businesses.
'Hair today and hair to stay' is a much more fitting phrase to describe Hair Unlimited, 621 E. Blackhawk Ave., which has been styling hair for Prairie du Chien area clients for 37 years.
Owner-stylist Geri Dear-born and her husband Ken set up shop in 1965 as the House of Beauty, located at 524 E. Blackhawk Ave.
In 1967, they purchased and expanded a beauty shop at 621 E. Blackhawk Ave. and have been keeping Prairie du Chien area men and women in style and looking good ever since.
The beauty shop that Geri and Ken bought was previously owned by Mayne Doser, who had operated the shop for more than 40 years prior.
The House of Beauty changed its name to Hair Unlimited in the 1980s after men began to frequent the business, Geri said.
Along with running the business, Geri taught a barber-cosmetology course at Southwest Technical College from 1976 to 1996, when she became full owner. She also served on the State Barber-Cosmetology Examining Board for five years.
Hair Unlimited offers full service for the needs of men and women and has kept abreast of popular trends through the years. For instance, Geri says that wigs were very popular in the '60s and her business sold and serviced numerous wigs in the Prairie du Chien area.
"Almost every woman seemed to have a wig back then," she said, "no matter how long her hair was."
Hair Unlimited offers pedicures, manicures, wig service, haircuts, beard trimming, hair treatments, shampoos, hair styling, perms, coloring, highlighting, kid's cuts, paraffin wax treatments, ear piercing, waxing and tanning.
A variety of hair and skin care products are available, including
products from Redken, Nexxus, Wella Life Tex, NoCrack, Nioxin, Axios Man and OPI Nail Care.
Helping Geri to serve Hair Unlimited's clientele is manager-stylist
Rilla Koresh.
Over the years, three apprentices have been trained at Hair Unlimited. Geri got her start at a beauty school in Madison and worked in Madison for three years before moving to Prairie du Chien to open her own shop.
Hair Unlimited is open Friday and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays until 7 p.m.
Their phone number is (608)326-2400 or (888)406-1266.