Category Archives: Local

Agent Wendy Mortenson of Winner was the American Family Insurance 2016 Agent of the Month for the month of April.
Mortenson has been an agent with American Family since September of 2011.

Winner youths competed in the USA state freestyle and Greco wrestling meet Sunday in Harrisburg.

In the 9-10 division, Karson Keiser got first in freestyle and first in Greco at 70 pounds.

In the 11-12, Riley Shippy got first in freestyle and first in Greco at 105 pounds.

In 13-14, Kaden Keiser got first in freestyle and first in Greco at 91 pounds.

In 15-16, Wyatt Turnquist placed first in freestyle and first in Grego in 113 pounds.

The Colome City Council honored Glenn Sealey for his 34 years of service to the city of Colome at their recent meeting.

Sealey began his public service in 1982 and was instrumental in many city improvements over the years.

He spent most of those years as a councilman with a stint as mayor and retired from his position as Ward 2 councilman effective May 2.

Area students were honored at Dakota Wesleyan University during the school’s honors night on April 29.

Michael Rohde, Colome, received an alumni medal for scholarship in biology.

Sara Husher of Winner received the St. Joseph Hospital endowed scholarship. Husher also received the Sigma Zeta award in science and mathematics.

Tyler Vavra of Winner received the F. Dwain Randall scholarship.

Honors in scholarship winners were Austin Calhoon of Winner; Anthony Husher of Winner; Michael Rohde of Colome; Tyler Vavra, Winner; Sara Husher, Winner.

Scholar-athlete awards were presented to Anthony Husher, Austin Calhoon, Sara Husher.

Skylar Forgey of Dallas, earned all-American status is track and field. She received the podium at the national meet for the first time in her career taking fifth in the 1,000 meter run.

In men’s golf, Anthony Husher is a NAIA/Daktronics All-America scholar athlete.

Dan Bechtold, editor of the Winner Advocate, has been named the recipient of the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America national outstanding media award.

Bechtold’s name was submitted by the Winner FCCLA chapter. Kris Brockhoft is the Winner High School FCCLA advisor.

The newspaper editor will receive the award at the FCCLA national leadership conference in San Diego, Calif., on July 6.

By Dan Bechtold, Editor

Frank Finney was sworn in as the new mayor of Winner at Monday’s meeting of the Winner City Council.  Finney takes over from Jess Keesis who served as mayor for six years.

The new terms of council members also started on Monday. Val Sherman rejoins the city council in Ward Two, Dave Baker in Ward One and Brad Schramm in Ward Three.  Appointed to serve the one-year term in Ward One vacated by mayor Frank Finney was Isaiah Curtis.

The city presented plaques to out going mayor Keesis and to Jena Littau who served one term in Ward Two. Littau and Keesis did not run for re-election this year.

Jody Brozik was elected the president of the council and Dave Baker was named the vice president.

City council committees include:
Police commission—Frank Finney, Val Sherman and Jody Brozik
Cemetery/parks and recreation—Val Sherman, Brad Schramm and Isaiah Curtis
Utilities/street/drainage—Brad Schramm, Jody Brozik, Isaiah Curtis
Finance and ordinance—John Meyer, Sherman and Dave Baker
Insurance/Administration building and Fire Hall—Brozik, Schramm and Curtis
Union committee—Finney, Baker, Augspurger and Paul Jensen
Administrative policy/Personnel—Baker, Sherman and Meyer
Emergency Management/Airport—Brozik, Schramm and Baker
Third District Planning/Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development—Finney and Meyer
Housing/County Relations—Finney
Senior Citizens—Finney

An 18-year-old has been arrested following an armed robbery at Casey’s General Store in Winner on April 10 at 9:29 p.m.

The gunman brandished a gun at the clerk and demanded money. An undisclosed about of cash was taken from the store.
Cody DuBray, 18, Pierre, was arrested at 11 p.m. that night. DuBray turned himself into police chief Paul Schueth.

DuBray was charged with several offenses including first degree robbery, aggravated assault, commission of a felony with a firearm.
DuBray is being held in the Winner jail. He appeared in court and pled guilty but has not been sentenced.

Schueth says the gun has not been recovered. Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 842-3939.  Schueth says the police department appreciates the help in quickly capturing the suspect.

The South Dakota Transportation Commission awarded 19 Bridge Improvement Grants (BIG) for a total of more than $8 million at their monthly meeting April 28 in Pierre.

The grant funding includes 14 bridge preservation projects totaling $4.079 million and five bridge replacement projects totaling $4.012 million. This is in addition to the $0.908 million for 40 preliminary engineering grants awarded by the Commission in February.

Preservation grant recipients are: Beadle County, Brookings County, Davison County, Fall River County, Hughes County, Meade County, Rapid City and Tripp County.
Tripp County’s grant will be $225,600 capped for design and construction. In addition to the capped grant, the county will also receive 80 percent reimbursement for all construction engineering costs for the project.

Bridge Replacement grant recipients are: Aberdeen, Marshall County, Moody County, Roberts County and the City of Yankton.

Grant funds are limited to a maximum of $4 million per entity over a three year period to ensure the funds are shared among as many local governments as possible. The local governments are required to pay a minimum of 20 percent matching funds and have three years to expend the grant.

One hundred applications totaling $14.4 million were received by the South Dakota Department of Transportation (SDDOT). Seven cities submitted 10 applications and 30 counties submitted a total of 90 applications.

The BIG program was created last year in Senate Bill 1. SB 1 set aside $7 million per year from funds generated by license plate fees to be used to repair and replace the aging local government bridges. The SDDOT added an additional $2 million this year, making $9 million available.

These grants are in addition to the $6 million in federal highway funding that SDDOT provides for local bridge projects for each of the years 2016-2018.

The grants are divided into three categories: preliminary engineering, preservation and replacement.

· Preservation work is done to help extend the life of the structure. Project types include bridge deck overlays, railing repairs, adding riprap for scour protection, repairing backwalls, etc.

· Bridge replacement projects are more expensive and these projects are ranked using a point system. Structure condition, detour route length, traffic counts, economic development factors, amount of wheel tax and additional financial commitment are aspects used to rank the projects.

· The preliminary engineering grants included funding for survey, hydraulic analysis and structure sizing. This project work will ensure the grant requests for replacement funds will be more accurate. After this phase is completed, some counties and cities may choose to construct the bridges on their own, without grant funding.

Guy Collins, formerly of the Winner area, ran in the Boston Marathon on April 18.

He is the son of Vern and Paulena Collins of Witten.

It was the 120th running of the most historic and prestigious marathon in the United States.

Collins ran the 26 miles in 3 hours and 39 minutes.

Collins has run 88 half marathons including one in each state, Washington, D.C., Canada and Mexico. This was only his third full marathon.
In order to qualify for Boston, Collins ran the Whistlestop marathon in Ashland, Wis., in 3:05 well below the qualifying benchmark for his age range.

He was joined and supported in Boston by his wife, Anita Collins; his sister, Leslie Bowar and his three children: Sean, Erin and Brendan Collins.

Guy is a member of the Winner High School graduating class of 1985. He now lives in Plymouth, Minn., with his wife, children and dog Winston.

Senior outfielder Austin Calhoon of Winner hit three home runs in two games on senior day at Dakota Wesleyan University. The Tigers split with Morningside.

Calhoon had one of his best hitting performances of his career, going 2-3 with 5 RBIs, a walk and three runs while crushing three homes runs in two games.