West Burlington program lends a helping hand
The Hawk Eye
WEST BURLINGTON The City of West Burlington is offering a program intended to assist seniors and people with disabilities with chores such as shoveling snow and cutting grass.
West Burlington City Councilor Kathy Christy started the volunteer effort in the fall of 2020, based on a program in a neighborhood where she and her husband lived in Southern California, where she was active in politics and the community.
So far, the program has two volunteers, Mike Davis, and his son, Evan, who have been raking leaves and removing snow for seniors.
The Hawk Eye
HAMILTON, Ill. The Illinois Department of Transportation announced the 2021/26 Highway Improvement Program will fund improvements to the Keokuk/Hamilton bridge over the Mississippi River that connects the two towns in Iowa and Illinois.
The project is expected to raise the expanse leading up the the bridge on the Hamilton side, which has flooded for decades due to poor drainage, said Belynda Allen, Hancock County Economy Development executive director, who believes the improvements will help the area s growing economy including what she says are big things happening in Hamilton.
She worked more than a year with IDOT staff to obtain the funding. She had seen an inconvenient Keokuk/Hamilton bridge closure after starting her new job.
The Hawk Eye
WEST BURLINGTON Southeastern Community College opened 100 years ago as Burlington Junior College in the Apollo High School building. Forty-four students enrolled with 12 graduating in 1922.
They include Edith Hamm, a librarian at Horace Mann Middle School, who after retiring at age 65, became a peace activist who found time to protest the Vietnam War.
Helen Fehse competed in a beauty pageant sponsored by the Chicago Tribune, and taught English and mathematics.
Carl Siegel, the class president, found his way to the executive suite at Atlantic Refining Co. in Philadelphia, better known as Arco.
An in-person anniversary event had to be canceled due to COVID, but that is not stopping the school s 100-year momentum.
Churches plan safe Christmas Eve services
The Hawk Eye
St. Luke United Church of Christ, 1403 South St., for the first time in many years will not be singing a hymn in German at the 5 p.m. Christmas Eve service.
It joins other area churches innovating to celebrate Christmas safely during the pandemic.
The 80-member church founded in 1877 has responded to area COVID-19 rates by closing off and on since Palm Sunday, but is planning a Christmas Eve in-person service with precautions, and minus some traditions. We will have social distancing and masks. We will have only organ music playing carols with no singing, said Deloris Blaufuss, the church s secretary.
Crimestoppers raising money for Lee County rescue boat
The Hawk Eye
Lee County Sheriff Stacy Weber has wanted a rescue boat for his office since Jan. 3, 2017, the day he was sworn in as sheriff and immediately got a call about two fishermen on the Mississippi River whose boat had capsized just south of Montrose.
The men were missing. We wanted to go help, but when we got there, it was a gut-wrenching feeling that we were stranded on the shore just like everybody else, said Weber.
Iowa and Illinois DNR and other agencies responded, but it took some time, he said.