Monthly Archives: June 2015

Area students has been named to the spring semester dean’s list at South Dakota State University.

Named to the list are: Tasha Hauf, Colome; Emilee Graesser, Dallas, 4.0 grade point average; Chance Littau, Carter;  Carson Covey, Hamill; Trevor Larson, Hamill, 4.0 grade point average; Sarah Calhoon, Justin Vanneman, both of Ideal; Jack Kerner, 4.0; Kip Littau, Katie Mathis, Trace Meyer, 4.0; Rebecca Moorhead, 4.0 Samantha Stickland and Corey Wackel, 4.0, all from Winner; Allie Kingsbury, Wood.

By Dan Bechtold

Editor

Winner School Board approved two quotes for soil and survey work on the proposed auxiliary gym at Monday’s meeting.

The board accepted the quote of FMG, Rapid City,  for $5,790 for geotechnical work on the project. The other bidder was American Engineering Testing Inc., Rapid City,  $5,850.

The quote of Brosz Engineering was approved to do a survey of the land at a price of $4,900. Chairman Mike Calhoon abstained from voting since his brother works for Brosz.

The other company supplying a quote was FMG at $7,500.

Supt. Bruce Carrier presented an update on the May 26 meeting that members of the auxiliary gym committee held with the architect. He presented the board notes that were provided by Upper Deck Architects of  Rapid City.

The board gave approval to sending out letters of engagement to financial firms who want to present information to the school district on financing of the auxiliary gym project.

In other business, the school board hired Roxann Heinzman as an elementary special education aide and Sam Novotny as an assistant competitive cheer coach.

Carrier was named as representative for all federal programs for the 2015-2016 school year.

Business manager Laura Root was authorized to publish the 2015-2016 school district budget and a public hearing on the budget was set for July 13.

An addendum was approved for the lease agreement with the city of Winner. The city plans to rent an additional room in the former middle school building. The city will pay an additional $495.60 per month on the lease.

The lease agreement also says the city will provide exterior landscaping maintenance and mowing for the entire facility.

The board approved the bid for Frontier Motors of Winner for $19, 956 for a new seven passenger mini van. This price included trade-in of a vehicle.

The vote on the bid was split 4-2 with board members Dr. Tom Covey and Rusty Blare voting no. Board member Joe Hockett was not at the meeting.

Also submitting a bid was Harry K Ford at $21,312 without trade in and $18,250 with trade in for a used Dodge Grand Caravan.

Harry K Ford also submitted a bid on a Ford Transit Connect at $25,989 and $20,000 with trade-in.

Kim DeMers, curriculum coordinator, presented changes made to the wellness/nutrition policy.

The Winner School District has a wellness committee that meets yearly to review progress and update the wellness policy as needed.

One of the changes in the policy was that recess will be included for fifth graders. At the present time, fifth graders do not have recess.

Added to the policy was that elementary students receive fresh fruit and vegetables three times a week through the fresh fruit and vegetable grant. The board approved the policy.

Several items were declared as surplus and a school sale will be held at  10 a.m. July 2 at the middle school auditorium.

The board voted on run off ballot for persons to serve on the South Dakota High School Activities Association board of control. Upon the recommendation of activities director Dan Aaker, the board voted for Moe Ruesink of Sioux Valley High School as the East River at-large member and Bryan Skinner of West Central School District for the small school group board of education.

A special school board meeting will be held on June 30 at 7 p.m. in the former middle school library.

Visitors to the school board presented information for the board to consider.
Chuck Noble told the board taxpayers  expect the school board to be open, competent, transparent, good stewardship and due process to uphold South Dakota laws.

He told the board that material and information provided to the board must be available to the public in compliance with open meeting laws.

He added school records must be open to the public.

He said  any school building purchase or contract must be in accordance with state law.

Noble explained there are state laws that deal with vocational and technical education.

Noble sees the proposed $2 auxiliary gym as a luxury.

Doug Wiken also talked about the importance of technical education. He said both Gov. Dennis Daugaard and President Obama are pushing for technical education.

Wiken present the board with several handouts including a graph showing the trend of Winner High School graduation from 1913 to 2015. He also presented the board with a story that said stadiums have no positive economic impact.

The school board met in executive session to discuss a contract. After the executive session, the school board voted to reject all concrete bids and authorized the business manager to re-advertise for bids.

The Winner Youth Outdoor Day will be held June 13 at the Winner bass pond.

Open fishing will start at 10 a.m. Lunch for the kids will start at noon.

Starting at 1 p.m. and going until 3:30 p.m. there will be several fun activities for the kids. There will be archery, bow fishing, bb gun shooting, water safety and a few other fun activities.

From 3:30-4:30 p.m. trap shooting will be offered at the Rosebud Arrow, Rod and Gun Club. This event is free and open to all youth.

Persons who have questions can contact wildlife conservation officer Chris Dekker at 842-0894 or e mail   christopher.dekker@state.sd.us

Area students have been named to the honor roll at Dakota State University.

Winner students named to the honor roll are Sharee Galbraith and Kortni Moser.

Brock Dufek of Colome was also named to the honor roll.

By Dan Bechtold

Editor

Plans are in the works for the new Tripp County disaster mitigation plan.

The second meeting to work on the plan was held June 3 at the Tripp County Courthouse with John Clem of District III Planning of Yankton moderating the meeting.

The   focus of the meeting was to decide what should be included in the new plan.

The current plan expires in June. The new plan will be effective for five years.

Plans for Tripp County, Colome, Winner and Witten were discussed.

The suggestions for Tripp County are to contact the state floodplain coordinator for more National Flood Insurance Program information.

It was suggested the county continue proactive policies regarding wildfire prevention including enforcing burn bans as conditions warrant and become registered  and participate in the storm ready community program. This is a program that will send a message to a person’s computer or smartphone as a text or e-mail.  The city of Winner plans to use the system to alert people of snow alerts, water shutoff, power outage and severe weather. Persons need to come to the city office to sign up for this service.

For Winner, proposed actions to be written into the plan are contact the state floodplain coordinator for NFIP training, install two miles of new electrical feeder line, make improvements along Dog Ear Creek, clean out sewage lagoon ditch, continued enforcement of National Building Code standards.

The suggestions for Colome in the mitigation plan include contact the state floodplain coordinator for NFIP training and look into the StormReady program.

Actions in Witten include looking into providing storm shelters in the town.

Clem explained he will write a first draft of the plan prior to the next meeting.

The next disaster mitigation planning meeting will be held at noon July 8 at the courthouse meeting room.

Mitchell—The recipients of the Build Dakota Scholarships for the 2015-16 school year have been announced.  Cody Heath, a 2015 graduate of Colome High School, will receive a full-ride scholarship to study Wind Turbine Technology at Mitchell Technical Institute.  The scholarship will cover all tuition, fees, books and tools needed to complete the two year program.

Build Dakota Scholarships are available at all four South Dakota technical institutes and are funded by a donation by T. Denny Sanford and South Dakota Future Funds.  The scholarships are available to students who meet the program requirements, enroll in an eligible program and commit to working in South Dakota for three years after graduation.

Rehearsals have started for the summer children’s production at the Winner Community Playhouse.

“Snow White and the 7 Kachus” will be the play presented June 25 and 26 at the playhouse. Curtain time will be at 7:30 p.m.

The cast includes: Shannon Calhoon, Delanie Nelson, Taylor Headrick, Karlee Brozik, Maggie DeMers, Jenna Connot, Justin Hausmann, Nathaniel Hansen and Spencer Calhoon.

The play is being directed by Molly English and Michele Novak. Helpers are Emily Moser and Brielle Bachmann.

Practice started May 26 and the first week the students took part in a drama camp.

The students rehearse from 9:30 a.m. to noon Monday through Friday.

The age range of the cast includes 4^th to 7^th graders.

The play is sponsored by the Winner Community Playhouse.

Sean Bice of Winner and Reagan Jorgensen of Ideal have been name to the spring semester dean’s list at Augustana College, Sioux Falls.

Alex Hofeldt of Colome is the recipient of a WolfPACT scholarship from Northern State University. The scholarship is in the amount of $7,000.

Hofeldt is the son of John and Donna Hofeldt and plans to major in psychology and French with minors in photography art.

Hofeldt is a graduate of Colome High School.