Fire guts home in West McGregor

A fire occurred at the Dale Reinhart residence at 30827 Klein Brewery Rd. in McGregor on
Saturday morning. The fire was reported by a passerby. McGregor Fire department responded with
 all units. There was extensive damage to the home, the living room and kitchen were gutted, with
heat and smoke damage in the rest of the house. No one was injured. Firefighters remained on the
scene for about two hours. Reinhart, who was not home at the time, is also a member of the
McGregor Fire Department.

Effigy Mounds to celebrate
60th anniversary

Effigy Mounds will celebrate its 60th Anniversary with special weekend events including a a Moonlight Hike on
Sat., Oct. 24; and special hikes and talks on the actual anniversary Sun., Oct. 25. Everyone is invited to attend, and all
events are free to the public. Formal ceremonies are not the focus as they invite the public to visit the monument and
experience firsthand the remarkable resources preserved in Iowa’s first national park site.

The Saturday night walk is scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m. and reservations will be taken beginning on Monday,
October 19 until Friday, October 23.

This candle lantern walk will feature a historical character presentation of Increase Lapham, a mound surveyor
famous for mapping effigy mounds in the mid 19th century. The walk will take place near the visitor center and on
the Yellow River Bridge trail, which is ADA accessible. Participants are advised to dress for the weather.
Complimentary hot fancy apple cider and cookies will be served in the visitor center afterwards. Weather permitting,
the walk will feature a mound mapping activity highlighting the rediscovery and surveying of a “lost” bear effigy
mound near the visitor center.

On October 25, “Sunday in the Park,” complimentary hot fancy apple cider and cookies will be served in the visitor
center. There will be a two-mile hike up to Fire Point Loop in the North Unit from 9:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. led by park
ranger / archeologist Bob Palmer. This moderately strenuous walk includes 25 mounds along the way, including an
effigy mound.

Accessibility accommodations will be made to allow mobility impaired persons to participate. From 1 p.m. to 2:30
p.m. in the visitor center auditorium will be a formal illustrated talk by ranger Palmer on “Ellison Orr, Effigy Mounds
and the National Park Idea in Iowa and the United States.”

A car caravan led by Ranger Palmer will leave at 3 p.m. to the Sny Magill Unit of over 100 mounds and last until
5 p.m. This activity will include a short walk of no more than one-half mile round trip on mostly level surfaces into
one of the largest preserved American Indian mound groups in the United States.

In conjunction with the anniversary celebration, the monument’s bookstore, Eastern National, will be officially
releasing “Reminiscences of a Pioneer Boy:  The Boyhood Experiences of Ellison Orr (1857 - 1951).”  The
manuscript of this book, which was written by Ellison Orr in the 1930’s and 1940’s , describes what it was like
growing up in southwestern Allamakee county during the early days of the state of Iowa.  The release of this new
publication represents the first time that this work has been available to the general public in one volume.

Sunday will also feature a special U.S. Postal Service 60th Anniversary Pictorial Postmark cancellation station
operating in the visitor center from noon to 4 p.m.

Throughout the weekend there will be special museum exhibits from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. documenting the
history of the upper Mississippi River Valley and the national park movement in Iowa – including items rarely on
public display from the monument’s Ellison Orr collection.

For more information, visit us online at www.nps.gov/efmo or call the visitor center at (563)873-3491.
Effigy Mounds National Monument visitor center is located three miles north of Marquette, Iowa, and 22 miles south
of Waukon, Iowa, on HWY 76.

Fire destroys Postville downtown building

Postville has taken another blow.About a dozen Northeast Iowa fire departments helped battle the blaze that destroyed the Postville Bakery and Restaurant on Saturday, Oct. 17. A fire that may have started in a second story apartment destroyed a historic downtown building that formerly housed the
Postville Bakery and Restaurant, which had gone out of business. The fire reportedly left 13 people homeless, but uninjured. There were four apartments in the 1880s era building. Traffic was routed around downtown while firefighter battled the blaze. Thick smoke enveloped the downtown, making it difficult to
even see the street. Neighboring businesses, including John’s Appliance, received smoke and water damage. The building was a total loss, and has already been partially razed for safety.

Rubashkin trial underway

The trial of Sholom Rubashkin on 91 charges relating to alleged financial wrong doing including bank fraud
began Tuesday, Oct. 13.

The trial is being conducted in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, after a judge agreed with defense attorneys that
Rubashkin could not get a fair trial in Iowa due to pre-trial publicity.

U.S. attorneys must prove that Rubashkin, the former CEO of Agriprocessors Inc., in Postville, intentionally
defrauded First Bank of St. Louis, Mo., by diverting payments away from a $35 million revolving loan account he had
with the bank.

Allegedly, funds were instead laundered through a kosher grocer and a Torah education center and placed in a
separate business account according to a report in the Des Moines Register, (10-15). Prosecutors also accuse
Rubashkin of paying former employees to falsify sales records to defraud lenders.

Rubashkin has pleaded not guilty on all charges.

Defense attorneys claim that Rubashkin, who was trained as a rabbi, was simply a poor and sloppy
businessman who did not fully understand his own company’s financial dealings.

As many as 80 witnesses may be called before a jury of 10 women and six men (including alternates).
Witnesses may include several former employees, such as Elizabeth Billmeyer, former human resources manager,
who have already pleaded guilty to lesser charges.

The trail is expected to last four to six weeks.

Rubashkin also faces a trial on 72 immigration charges.

Agriprocessors was was raided by federal agents in May, 2008, and 389 people were arrested on immigration
violations.

That trial is currently scheduled to begin one week after the current trial is completed. Rubashkin has also
pleaded not guilty to the immigration violations.

About 40 Rubashkin supporters have flooded the courtroom and occupy an overflow room where they can watch
the trial proceedings on closed circuit T.V. Many of them are young Chabad-Lubavitch Jewish men who are praying
hat Rubashkin will be found innocent. Many have traveled from Brooklyn, New York, other from as far away as Israel,
(10-14 Des Moines Register).

Motel demolition completed safely

By Trudy Balcom

The building that was so much a part of Marquette’s identity is now nothing more than a pile of rubble.

The former Pink Elephant motel was demolished on Oct. 13-14.

The demolition project  went smoothly, there were no injuries of accidents, and no unexpected problems,
according to project manager Rick Tucker of Ryan Co. of Davenport.

“Everything went very well, the building itself came down well,” Tucker said.

Treiber Construction of Davenport is acting as subcontractor on the project, handling the waste disposal. About
five staffers from Treiber and four from Ryan Co. were on-site during the demolition. Their primary job, Tucker said,
was to act as “eyes,” to keep watch for potential safety problems.

Two excavator operators did most of the work.

Tucker characterized the motel building as “stout.”

“It was very well put together,” he said.

Traffic was rerouted through the casino parking lot while the demolition was underway. Anti-Monopoly St. was
closed due to its location directly below the demolition area on the bluff above it.  Mar-Mac Police chief Randy Grady
said that the police department brought in two extra officers to deal with potential traffic problems, but none developed.

“It actually went really smooth,” he said.

The pay for the extra police staff was charged to the demolition contractor, not taxpayers, Grady said.

A few people visited the casino just to see the demolition. They went up the the skywalk at the Lady Luck, and
simply watched from the downstairs lobby. A few watched from vehicles parked in the marina lot.

The crowds of onlookers that demolition planners feared did not develop.

One elderly gentleman, leaning on his walker, watched from the casino lobby on Tuesday morning. He spoke to
a member of the demolition team, identifiable by his hard hat.

“That’s our history there,” the man said.”

“You’re right, it’s history,” said the man with the hard hat with an ironic tone.

Hauling of the debris from the site began Oct. 20. The plan originally called for 40 truck to haul the rubble to
Decorah, but Treiber now plans to use only four trucks to haul the debris to the Waste Management transfer site
near Prairie du Chien. hauling is still expected to take more than a week.

The final portion of the job will be the removal of the structural steel support beams that held the cantilevered
portion of the building.