Local News

The ninth annual Bald Eagle Watching Day in Ferryville is Saturday, March 4, at the Village Community Center on Highway 35. This program is sponsored by the Ferryville Tourism Council, co-sponsored by Friends of Pool 9 and free to the public. Complimentary refreshments and children’s craft activities will be available throughout the event.

Event activities are from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Located right on the Mississippi River, Ferryville is an ideal place to host Bald Eagle Watching Day. There are many eagle nests in the area, including a new one just south of Ferryville. The Pool 9 section has more nests than in any other part of the Mississippi River.

At 10 a.m., bald eagle nest building will start off the day. Dr. Michael White, with the help of children from the audience, will build an eagle’s nest. Learn how “really big” these nests are, how heavy they are and how they are constructed.

The Fort Crawford Museum will be open Saturday, Feb. 25, as part of Bald Eagle Appreciation Days in the Prairie du Chien area. There will a special program on Old Abe, American War Eagle, at 2:30 p.m., at the museum
Andrea Hoffman, collections manager, and Russell Horton, reference and outreach archivist from the Wisconsin Veterans Museum in Madison, will give a talk with images on Old Abe.

Old Abe was an American Bald Eagle. The eagle was the mascot of the 8th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment in the American Civil War. Later, his image was adopted as the eagle appearing on a globe in Case Corporation’s logo and as the screaming eagle on the insignia of the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division.

By Correne Martin

The contract packaging and assembly service company, Prairie Industries, Inc., is expanding and researching the possibility of opening a third manufacturing plant in Lansing, Iowa. This would be in addition to the two plants presently located on the north and south ends of Prairie du Chien.

A post to Prairie Industries’ Facebook page last Wednesday, Feb. 15, notified the public of a job fair the company has scheduled on Monday, Feb. 27, from 4 to 7 p.m., and on Tuesday, Feb. 28, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., at the former Blumenthal Lansing Company button factory, 1929 Main St., Lansing. Full-time positions available include general labor, machine operators, shipping/receiving clerks, quality technicians and a supervisor.

Positions for a maintenance technician, lead workers and general laborers were published in the Courier Press as recently as last week.

The exact number of positions available has not provided by the company.

All companies need a robust pipeline

By Correne Martin

Employers across the region face a skills gap as they struggle to find qualified workers, while high school students—tomorrow’s workforce—have little interaction with the businesses that may best fit their career interests and capabilities. But, a new software program, Inspire, and its facilitator, Inspire Madison Region, are geared to do something about that.

Crawford County companies had the opportunity, last week, to learn more about how the Inspire initiative is designed to better connect them with local schools by enabling students to explore career options with local employers through experiential learning activities, such as mentor/student communication, job shadowing, internships, apprenticeships, plant tours, career fairs and school guest speakers.