Disaster Mitigation
 Planning Meeting Set for June 3

The second meeting for the Tripp County Disaster Mitigation plan will be held at noon June 3 at the meeting room in the Tripp County Courthouse.

Tripp County is in the process of updating its disaster mitigation plan. A series of meeting is being held to gather information for the plan. The first meeting was held a month ago.

The meeting on June 3 will focus on developing a mitigation strategy to address the hazards that were identified at the first meeting.

Baseball Team Downs Platte-Geddes

basecball bicek

Winner/Colome club baseball team closed out the regular season with a 2-1 victory over Platte-Geddes Friday afternoon at Leahy

Bowl in Winner.

The Royals ended the regular season with a 10-2 record. They started playoff action on May 26 when they hosted Todd County.

Levi McClanahan’s two run triple in the fifth inning was responsible for the Royal’s two runs.

Platte-Geddes opened the scoring with a run earlier in the game.

Reed Harter added a double. Kelly O’Bryan, Holden Thieman and Ty Bolton all had hits for Winner/Colome.

“We were fortunate to win this game as we did not hit the ball very well,” said coach Drew Weber.
“We had a few miscues in the field that we have not had much this year. Levi came through with a big hit and our pitching staff did a great job of getting out of some big jams,” added the coach.

Kelly O’Bryan started on the mound for the Royals and pitched two innings. Carter Brickman threw two innings in relief. Reed Harter got the win with three innings in relief.

The victory allowed Winner/Colome to earn the No. 1 seed for the divisional playoffs. “Now is the time that we will need to play our best,” said Weber.baseball levi mcclanahan

Winner Golfers Placed 11th at State

ronae klein state golf

Winner Area golf team placed 11th at the state golf tournament last Monday and Tuesday in Madison.

Ronae Klein led the Lady Warriors as she placed 28th with a two day score of 202. Liz Jankauskas tied for 41st with a 213. Addy Root placed 77th with a 241 and Sam Marts placed 82nd with a 254.

Coach Randy Kludt said Klein had a nice finish moving up 15 places from last year. “The other girls had nice finishes on day two,” said the coach.

The first day was bitter cold with the girls playing in 39 degree weather with a steady wind of 30 miles per hour. “It really wasn’t a fair day to score very well for anyone,” said Kludt.

“There were 24 teams represented at the state tournament and finishing 11th with this young of a team was a good ending,” said the coach.

liz jankaisas  state golf

Laprath Advances to State

The Colome boys and girls track team both took 7th place at the Region 6B meet on Thursday.

Results of the Colome girls include:

200—Callie Heath, 4th, :28.48

400—Heath, 4th, 1:05.22

1600 run—Jaclyn Laprath, 2nd, 5:53.55

3200—Laprath, 1st,  13:02.34

100 hurdles—Kaydee Heath, 5th, :18.66

300 hurdles—Heath, 5th, :54.69; Morgan Hofeldt, 7th, :55.11

4×200—8th, 2:10.64, Haylie Krumpus, Kaydee Heath, Taylor Hrabanek, Callie Heath
4×800—3rd, 11:07.79, Callie Heath, Jaclyn Laprath, Morgan Hofeldt and Taylor Hrabanek

Long jump—Taylor Hrabanek, 4th, 14-11.75

Triple jump—Krumpus, 7th, 28-11

Shot put—Colby Taggart, 4th, 32-3.75

Results of the Colome boys include:

100—Cole McCarty, 3rd, :11.46

200—Chase Hrabanek, 4th, :24.63; Reed Harter, 5th, :25.33
800—Cody Heath, 7th, 2:20.42

300 hurdles—Andrew Laprath, 7th, :53.99

4×100 relay—3rd, :48.14, Chase Hrabanek, Jackson Kinzer, Reed Harter and Cole McCarty

Medley Relay—3rd, 4:02.79, Reed Harter, Cole McCarthy, Chase Hrabanek, and Jackson Kinzer

Long jump—Hrabanek, 6th, 18-00.75

Triple jump—Jackson Kinzer, 5th, 38-9

Jaclyn Laprath will advance to the state meet and she will run the both the 1600 and the 3200.

The state meet is May 29 and May 30 in Rapid City.

Amateurs Open Season with Victory

The Winner/Colome amateur baseball team opened the season Thursday night at Leahy Bowl as they defeated Chamberlain 6-3.

The game was tied 3-3 going into the 8th inning. The Pheasants scored three runs in the 8th inning.

Leading hitters were Shane Pajl and Derek Graesser, each with a triple.

Pitching in this game were J. J. Farner, Tyrell Bauld, Derek Graesser, Drew Weber and Will Burke.

Coach Kevin Graesser says there will be 17 to 18 players on the Winner/Colome team this season.

Baseball Team Improved to 9-2

Winner/Colome club baseball team improved its record to 9-2 with a 12-2 victory over Todd County on May 18.

Reed Harter had a triple, single, 3 RBIs, 3 runs scored and 3 steals. Kelly O’Bryan had 2 singles, 2 runs scored and 2 RBIs. Ty Bolton added 2 singles and Riley Calhoon had a single, 2 runs scored and 4 steals.

Holden Thieman was the winning pitcher as he gave up no runs on no hits, 4 walks and 4 strikeouts. Riley Calhoon came on in relief and pitched 2 innings, giving up no runs, no hits, 2 walks and one strikeout. Ty Bolton pitched the final two innings  giving up 2 runs on two hits, no walks and 4 strikeouts.

“We had 15 days off due to the weather so it was nice to get back out and play,” said coach Drew Weber. “I thought we played pretty well but you could tell the lay off between games affected our hitting early on. Once we got comfortable again at the plate we had some success. I thought our pitchers threw really well and our defense was fairly solid behind them like they have been all year,” said Weber.

The playoffs started on May 26.

Jim Bolton, 91

bolton obit

James Eugene Bolton was born March 31, 1924, at his grandmother’s

house on a farm near Hamill, SD to Clover (Milton) and Louis Bolton. Jim was the oldest son in the family and his brother, Donald, is the

youngest. They had older twin sisters who died shortly after birth.

Jim attended Winner High School where he graduated on May 20, 1943. On June 2 of that year, he entered active service in the United States Army. He served as a gunner at Fort Bliss, TX, and a finance clerk at Camp Bowie, TX, earned his liaison pilot wings at Camp Hood, TX, and finished out his service in Special Troops at Fort Sam Houston, TX.

During his three years in the service, Jim earned the rank of staff sergeant.

After returning from the service, Jim married Della Ann Frantz of Ideal,SD, in June of 1948. Together they have seven children: Scott, Barbara,

Bradley, Garnet, Guyla, Tammy, and Tony. In the early years of this marriage, Jim and Della lived in Winner where they owned and ran the Sweet Shop soda fountain. They then moved and farmed and ranched near

Ideal, Murdo, and Presho until moving to Colome in the early 60’s.

While living in Colome Jim owned and operated, with the help of his sons, Bolton Ditching and Trenching. The family also ran a bluegrass lawn sod business, bottle fed hundreds of Holstein calves, and ran a dairy farm. Later in Jim’s life he worked for the city of Colome as Utilities Manager.

Jim married Jan Petersen in 1985 and they have two children: Clayton and Lacey.

The happiest times for Jim were when he was hunting and fishing with his sons, taking road trips reminiscing about camping at Ghost Hawk Park along with other family outings, and spending so many meaningful times with his family and good friends.

Jim passed away on May 22, 2015 at Avera Rosebud Country Care Center at the age of 91.

Virgil E. Hill, Jr., 89

hill obit

Virgil E. Hill, Jr. was born in Kansas City, Kansas on Feb 26, 1926 to Virgil E. Hill and Gertrude Constella. He passed away May 17, 2015 at Avera Rosebud Country Care Center in Gregory, South Dakota at the age of 89 years.

Virgil’s mother passed away when he was just a few weeks old and was raised by his grandparents, George and Elizabeth Hill. He graduated high school in 1944. Virgil started driving for Standard Rending Co. in Kansas City from 1944 to 1950 until he enlisted into the army on Sept. 20, 1950. He received the Korean Service Medal, 3 bronze stars, and United Nations Service Medal.

Virgil was honorably discharged in Sept. 1952. He went to work for MeadWestVaco in Kansas City, making boxes, then working in the boiler room working 12 hour days. He met Mary Katherine McCarthy while working there. They dated for 4 years and were engaged for 2 years. They were married June 4, 1960. He continued to work there until he retired in 1989.

They sold their house in Kansas City and moved to Burke, SD in 1990. They built a new house just like the one in Kansas in 1991.

Virgil loved to drive. He would always be taking his friends somewhere. Going to Winner for rolls, taking them to Dr. appointments, road trips to Yankton or Platte.

The Destructive Power of Prairie Fires

s. d. prairie fire

Fire!

On the prairie, it was a monster of destruction without pity, consuming everything before it.

“Every spear of hay which the farmers had gathered for winter feed is gone, the corn fields are all practically ruined and it is probable that the cattle which were saved will now have to be sold, as it will be impossible for the farmers to buy all their feed,” stated an article in the Aberdeen Weekly about a prairie fire that swept through western Brown County on Nov. 15, 1905, laying ruin to an area about 20 miles long and five miles wide.

Front End of School Year Brings Discussion of Start Time in Fall

By Dan Merritt, Advocate reporter

The end of the school year doesn’t necessarily bring about thoughts of the beginning of the next. In fact, kids would shun that topic.

But adults in Sioux Falls this spring were certainly considering the start of school next fall. They voted to push it back after Labor Day.

The tourism industry in South Dakota generally applauded this step by the biggest school district in the state.

Perhaps other districts would follow suit, it was thought. Assuring the availability of young adults of high school age, at least, as workers on the job through the traditional end of tourism season.

But support for tourism, or the appearance of it, won’t last for long, predicts Alan Armstrong, superintendent of the Colome Consolidated  School District.

“I’ll bet you in two years they’re going to be changing it (in Sioux Falls).” he says, “Because it just doesn’t work in South Dakota to try to start school after Labor Day.”