Local law enforcement agencies say President Obama's visit to Decorah went well

The Obama motorcade travels through Calmar (Photo courtesy of Kris Kulish)

Winneshiek County Sheriff Lee Bohr can relax now.  The visit by President Barack Obama is over and everything went extremely well.

Bohr says that's a testament to all of the volunteers who helped provide security for the President's visit.  He says Decorah Police, Allamakee County Sheriff's Deputies, Postville Police, Calmar/Ossian Police, Winneshiek County Emergency Government, local fire departments and County Highway Department workers all pitched in to help make the event a success.

"It's an amazing system," said Bohr of the Secret Service operations.  He said despite the complexity of the tasks, the system went very smoothly.

Decorah Police Chief Bill Nixon agrees.  He says the Secret Service's plans "changed hourly," but the cooperation between all agencies made the event a success.  He especially credits the work of Assistant Police Chief Dave Smutzler.  "It went off flawlessly," says Nixon of all the security precautions.

Nixon says Secret Service agents were very complimentary about the local operations.  He received many compliments from individual Secret Service agents and says the agents "had very nice things to say about Decorah."