Biz Buzz shares business tidbits from across the tri-state area. This edition highlights developments in Dubuque and Maquoketa, Iowa, as well as Shullsburg, Wis.

A Dubuque wellness studio is marking five years in the community this week.

Float and Fly Wellness Studio, 1344 Locust St., opened on Small Business Saturday in 2017.

“I really got to see the need in the community over the last five years for us,” said owner Tanya Billmeyer. “It’s pretty cool to see.”

She said she started the studio as a way to provide services to the community that have helped her through her own chronic pain from fibromyalgia.

“I knew there were many others suffering from chronic pain, and some of these services (that Float and Fly Wellness Studio offers) the community didn’t have five years ago — the float therapy being the main one,” she said.

In float therapy, an individual floats in a “float spa” filled with about 10 inches of dense, salt-filled water. Billmeyer said clinical studies have proven float therapy restores individuals both physically and mentally, with one hour of floating equaling five hours of sleep.

“If you feel like you’re burning the candle at both ends, float therapy is really pushing reset,” she said. “I don’t think humans are made to be constantly taking input all day long. It’s an hour to truly unplug.”

The business also offers both traditional yoga and aerial yoga, the latter of which involves doing poses on aerial silks suspended from the ceiling.

Other services added over the past five years include halo therapy, during which a mist of salty air gets into the respiratory system to help with asthma and seasonal allergies.

“Float and Fly Wellness Studio is bigger than I could have imagined,” Billmeyer said. “I’m just one aspect of it. Those that are on a wellness journey for whatever reason it is, I’m humbled to be part of that journey with them.”

Float and Fly Wellness is open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, as well as 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. The business can be reached at 563-585-1227 and found online at floatandflywellnessstudio.com.

Historic Maquoketa hotel on the market

A historic Maquoketa hotel is on the market.

Decker House Hotel, 128 N. Main St., is for sale, according to co-owner Josh Woodward, who runs the hotel with his brother, Nathan. The property also includes a restaurant and bar.

“Obviously, there’s something we’re doing wrong, and because of that, the hotel isn’t thriving as well as we anticipated,” Woodward said. “It’s a historic building. The property has been here so long, we want to turn over ownership to someone who could do a better job.”

Decker House Hotel has operated since the 1870s. Woodward said he and his brother, who are both from California, took over ownership in December 2020.

“When you bring an outside mindset to the local community, a lot of times you mess it up,” he said. “I don’t think we did our research enough. I don’t think we did enough neighborhood outreach to figure out what the neighborhood wanted, and that was on us.”

Woodward stressed that the hotel, restaurant and bar will continue to operate as usual during the search for a new owner, and there is no rush to find someone to take over the hotel.

“We don’t want to find someone just looking to purchase the land itself and do something different,” he said. “We want to find somebody to come into this place and make it work.”

Decker House Hotel can be reached at 563-652-1875 and found online at deckerhousehotel.com.

Permanent location opens in Shullsburg for cheerleading, fitness classes

After four years in business, a Shullsburg woman has opened a permanent home for her cheerleading, tumbling and fitness classes.

Katie Daentl opened Badger Elite Athletics at 201 Wisconsin 11, next to Shullsburg Community Bank, at the beginning of the month. She runs the business with her husband, Loren, and is one of the cheerleading coaches.

“I am just so happy to have a home,” she said. “To have a home that we know is steady and know there will be no last-minute changes is huge for us.”

Daentl, who has been cheerleading her whole life, started Badger Elite Athletics as a cheerleading program four years ago when she didn’t see any local school districts offering programs for kids.

But classes moved to different locations multiple times over the years. The business mostly moved around Shullsburg, but classes did take place for a time in Platteville.

“We started by renting any sort of gym space we could get our hands on, which in a rural area is very hard because of all the basketball programs, volleyball programs,” she said. “We made it work for four years, and somehow, we were still competing and the girls were still winning things.”

She said the permanent location previously was used as a shop and storage space for Shullsburg Auto.

Badger Elite Athletics currently has 65 cheerleaders in three teams, with ages ranging from 5 to 17.

With the permanent space, Daentl also expanded to offer fitness classes for adults, a toddler music class and tumbling classes for kids and teens.

“I’m just excited to keep expanding and offering more extracurriculars for kids,” she said. “I think that’s really needed now. Kids today are often lost in the world of electronics, with phones and laptops and iPads. I think it’s really important to get little ones away from that and more into something that is really helping their all-around self. I’m excited to see where it takes us.”

Badger Elite Athletics can be found online at badgereliteathletics.com and facebook.com/badgerelitecheer. The business also can be reached via email at badgerelitecheer@gmail.com.