Category Archives: State

Early voting for the November general election started on Friday, Sept. 20.

To cast an early ballot voters should first make sure they are registered.

To vote early in person voters can go to the county auditor’s office with acceptable photo identification.

Persons can vote at the auditor’s office in the Tripp County courthouse from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

To vote early by mail voters may request an absentee ballot application from the county auditor. The auditor will provide a paper absentee ballot to the voter. The voter then completes the ballot and mails it to the auditor.

FEMA announced that federal disaster assistance is available to the state of South Dakota to supplement recovery efforts in the areas affected by severe storms, straight-line winds and flooding from June 16 to July 8, 2024.

The President’s action makes federal funding available to affected individuals in Davison, Lincoln, Turner and Union counties. Assistance can include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses and other programs to help individuals and business owners recover from the effects of the disaster.

Federal funding is also available to state, tribal and eligible local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations on a cost-sharing basis for emergency work and the repair or replacement of facilities damaged by the severe storms, straight-line winds and flooding in Aurora, Bennett, Bon Homme, Brule, Buffalo, Charles Mix, Clay, Davison, Douglas, Gregory, Hand, Hanson, Hutchinson, Jackson, Lake, Lincoln, McCook, Miner, Minnehaha, Moody, Sanborn, Tripp, Turner, Union and Yankton counties.

Federal funding is also available on a cost-sharing basis for hazard mitigation measures statewide.

Edwin J. Martin has been named Federal Coordinating Officer for federal recovery operations in the affected areas. Additional designations may be made at a later date if warranted by the results of damage assessments.

Individuals and business owners who sustained losses in the designated areas can begin applying for assistance by registering online at www.DisasterAssistance.gov, by calling 1-800-621- 3362 or by using the FEMA App. If you use a relay service, such as video relay service (VRS), captioned telephone service or others, give FEMA the number for that service.

Bill Sniffin, former owner of the Winner Advocate, will  receive the General James O. Amos award at the National Newspaper Association Foundation’s138th annual convention and trade show in Omaha, Neb., Sept. 27.

Sniffin of Lander, Wyo., owned the Winner Advocate for 23 years. He bought the newspaper from Don Johannsen.

The Amos award has been presented annually for the past 86 years to a single publisher. It is presented to a newspaperman who has provided distinguished service and leadership to community press and his community.

 Sniffin was nominated by former U. S. Sen. Al Simpson’s press secretary Stan Cannon and retired publisher Dave Simpson of Cheyenne, Wyo., plus others.

At 78, Sniffin has has a long career in journalism that started when he was 17 writing a weekly column for the local Elgin, Iowa, newspaper—The Echo and was editor of his high school paper.

Sixty-one years in, he is still writing a weekly column for the 73,000 circulation Cowboy State Daily, the dominant media in Wyoming. He was publisher of this daily digital medium from 2020 to 2022.

Sniffin was born in Wadena, Iowa, in 1946. After high school, he attended a journalism short course at Iowa State University. He then became the sports editor in Harlan, Iowa and later sports editor at Denison, Iowa where he attended Midwestern College.

In 1966, he became editor of the Harlan newspapers, winning several national awards.

In 1970, he and his wife, Nancy, moved to Lander, Wyo., where he took over the Lander Wyoming State Journal as editor-publisher.

Over the next 29 years the couple operated the Lander newspaper, founded three other newspapers and purchased a number of other newspapers, plus he had a weekly paper in Maui.

Retired publisher and 2021 Amos award winner Larry Atkinson of Mobridge wrote, “You’d be hard pressed to to find anyone within the National Newspaper Association who has done more to promote community journalism while working tirelessly to contribute to his community, his state and even his nation. His efforts have extended beyond his home state of Wyoming as he has also owned community newspapers and other media related ventures in Montana and South Dakota and Hawaii.”

In his nomination letter, community newspaper advisor  and columnist Ken Blum wrote that Sniffin “has been and still at age 78 an affable, extroverted doer of the first magnitude—a newspaperman and Wyoming lover through and through whose boundless energy, work ethic, high character and considerable talent make for an ideal candidate for the Amos award.”

Ballots in the senate and house race from Dist. 21 in Tripp County were counted Friday morning.

The count showed no change from the primary election and the 100 percent post election audit hand count.

Friday the count stopped after the third precinct since Tripp County did a 100 percent hand count for the post election audit.

Gregory County recounted the Dist. 21 ballots on Thursday afternoon.

In the Dist. 21 primary election, Mykala Voita defeated incumbent senator Erin Tobin. However, when counting just Tripp County votes, Tobin was the winner.

For Dist. 21 state representative, Marty Overweg and Jim Halverson were the winners with Lee Qualm as the third candidate.

Several teams from Winner High School have made the academic achievement team for achieving or exceeding a grade point average of 3.0.

The following programs on the team are: boys basketball, boys basketball cheerleaders, boys cross country, boys golf, boys track and field, wrestling, competitive cheer, competitive dance, football, football cheerleaders, girls basketball, girls basketball cheerleaders, girls golf, girls track and field, one act play, oral interp, softball, student council, volleyball and yearbook.

The South Dakota High School Activities Association academic achievement team award began during the 1996-1997 school year and is designed to recognize varsity athletic teams and fine arts groups for their academic excellence.

The SDHSAA believes that high school students learn in two distinct ways: inside the classroom and outside the classroom on the stage and athletic field.

The SDHSAA award program is designed to create a positive environment as well as an incentive to encourage school “teams” to have their members excel both in the classroom and the activity.

FORT PIERRE — In the world of trap shooting Winner’s Jude Sargent pitched a perfect game Thursday breaking 100-of-100 targets to win the state trap shooting contest in Fort Pierre.

Sargent advances to the national tournament that will be held during the National High School Finals Rodeo in Rock Springs, Wyoming, on July 14-20.

Tripp County will be well represented at that national tournament as Colome’s Jack Anderson (94) and Winner’s Oren Sargent (94) finished third and fourth in the competition. Aberdeen’s Addison Ward finished second in the competition with a 96.

The top-four finishers advance to the National High School Finals Rodeo.

Jude Sargent is a two-time state champion and a two-time national qualifier. Anderson and Addison Ward are both three-time national qualifiers.

A small group of the 147th South Dakota Army National Guard band stationed out of Mitchell will perform in Winner on Feb. 8. They will perform in the Armory from 2:45 p.m. to 3:25 p.m. 

Winner is one of their stops on a tour of schools.

Mission Essential Brass is a nine member ensemble. The band plays a variety of music and has a high energy show.

The band is based in Mitchell and has seen overseas deployment to Guatemala in 1991, Panama in 1996 Nicaeragua in 2002 and Suriname in 2018.

The band performs for military and civilian functions throughout the region and is made up of musicians aged 17 to 60.

In addition to the concert and ceremonial bands, the 147th Band is comprised of four unique music performance teams: Sgt. Rock, FTX, Drive On and Mission Essential Brass.

Winner Regional Hospital has been recognized by the Chartis Center for Rural Health as a 2023 Quality 2023 performance leadership award for being in the 75th percentile or above among rural hospitals of America in quality.

The performance leadership awards are based on the results of the Chartis Rural Hospital Performance Index, the industry’s most comprehensive and objective assessments of rural hospital performance.

INDEX data is relied upon by rural hospitals, health systems with rural footprints, hospital associations and state offices of rural health around the country to measure and monitor performance across areas impacting hospital operations and finance.

Brian Williams, CEO of Winner Regional, says this has been awarded to Winner Regional Hospital is a recognition to all members of the Winner Regional team in every department. 

“WRH has some of the best people in healthcare working here in our community and this award recognizes the hard work and dedication of WRH staff have for our community,” said Williams.

“I want to thank each one of them for everything they do every day and for the support we receive from our community to allow us to provide healthcare services to them. As WRH would have never been recognized for this award without such a supporting community, “ said Williams.