Ask Mr. Answer Person: What's new with Menard's coming to Decorah?

Alan e-mails: "A few days ago I was driving by the large fields north of Wal-Mart, and there was a truck with a large drill on the back that was drilling holes (two that I saw) in the field.  The bit was probably 5 feet long and wide enough to hold a telephone pole.  I keep thinking about building on the flood plan.  Do you have any idea what they were doing?"

Mr. Answer Person says: "We heard from several people about the drilling in the floodplain behind Walmart in Freeport.  Unfortunately, the crew had left by the time Mr. Answer Person woke up and drove to Freeport.

So, instead, we contacted the Iowa DNR's flood plain management section.  They basically said they haven't gotten an application from Menard's.  They did provide some base flood elevation numbers in November and answered additional questions in December, but they haven't heard from Menard's since then and have NOT received an official Joint Application or any draft or final design plans from Menard's.

Stay tuned!  This probably will be a long process--and you can be assured decorahnews.com will cover it every step of the way."