Category Archives: State

By Hot Springs Star staff  

HOT SPRINGS – At the command, “Sergeant Jerke, Front and Center!” Army Korean War veteran Clarence Jerke, formerly of Winner,  jumped to his feet and walked to the front of the auditorium during the Resident’s Council meeting at the State Veterans Home in Hot Springs.  Unbeknownst to Jerke, he was about to receive a long-overdue medal for his service.

As State Home Director of Operations Randy Meyers read from a letter signed by Kim Dae-jung, the President of the Republic of Korea and dated June 25, 2000, State Home Superintendent Brad Richardson pinned the Korean Service Medal to Jerke’s shirt front.

The Korean Service Medal was awarded by the Republic of Korea in 2000, 50 years after the start of the conflict, as a way to thank the American Servicemen and women for their efforts in safeguarding the country.

By Dana Hess for S.D. Newspaper Association

PIERRE, S.D. – Policies dealing with student-athlete safety will be studied during the next year for possible implementation, the South Dakota High School Activities Association Board of Directors was told by staff April 21.

The study will be led by SDHSAA Assistant Executive Director John Krogstrand who attended a meeting about athlete safety.

“I came back scared,” Krogstrand said of the meeting the National Athletic Trainers’ Association and the National American Society for Sports Management that dealt with high school athletic injuries.

Key areas covered at the meeting included emergency action plans, sudden cardiac arrest, contact and concussions and heat exposure.

“These are real things that happen,” Krogstrand said of the incidence of heart attacks in young athletes.

He said many schools have automated external defibrillators but the speakers at the meeting pointed out that the machines may not be charged or properly maintained.

Krogstrand said he learned that heat exposure isn’t necessarily just an occurrence in Southern states.

“It can take place anytime, anywhere,” Krogstrand said.

The states that had rules in place to guard against these injuries had one grim similarity.

“It seemed like every state, before they’d address these issues, kids would die,” Krogstrand said.

During the next year, SDHSAA staff and sports medicine experts will work on policy recommendations to bring to the board.

“We really need to do a better job of this within the next 12 months,” Krogstrand said.

PIERRE, S.D. – The South Dakota Department of Transportation says it is against the law to plant crops within the right of way of a public road and it also can be a safety hazard for motorists.

According to director of operations Greg Fuller,  the purpose of the highway right of way is to create an obstruction free area for the safety of the traveling public. Farmers who unlawfully plant crops in the right of way can create a visual obstruction and possibly limit sight distances for motorists, especially near intersections.

Tall crops also can cover important signage and create cover for deer and other wildlife. That gives motorists less of a chance to see wildlife in time to avoid a serious accident. Highway right of way also is used by utility companies to install gas lines, power lines, telephone lines and fiber optic cable. Plowing and tilling can damage these lines and create a potentially dangerous situation for farmers, utility workers and area residents. It also can cause possible service interruptions.

Along with safety concerns, farming activity in the right of way can create erosion and landscape changes that can affect proper drainage, clog culverts and jeopardize the stability of the shoulders and the roadbed itself. Right of way widths can vary depending on location. Landowners should verify where the right of way line is prior to farming. If there are any questions on where the right of way line is, they should contact their local region or area DOT office.

Contact information can be found on the SDDOT website: HYPERLINK “http://www.sddot.com/contact/”http://www.sddot.com/contact/.

USDA Rural Development Acting State Director Bruce Jones announced  that $463.8 million was invested in rural South Dakota communities from October 1, 2013 through September 30, 2014.  As outlined in HYPERLINK “http://www.rd.usda.gov/files/SD2014ProgressReportUpdated.pdf”South Dakota’s 2014 Progress Report, the program funds assist housing, business and community development, water and waste water, energy, distance learning and telemedicine, electric companies and telecommunications. Water and waste water funds are limited to communities of less than 10,000 population. Community facility funding is available to towns of 20,000 population or less. Businesses and industries in communities with up to 50,000 residents can obtain funding through the business programs.

“USDA Rural Development is pleased to assist rural communities with their infrastructure needs and support efforts to improve the quality of life for rural residents living in South Dakota’s rural communities,” said Jones.  “We look forward to continuing to meet the needs of rural residents in Fiscal Year 2015.”

Rural Development’s investment include $7 million in South Dakota rural businesses, supporting 37 projects; $196.8 million in loans and grants to build, repair, rehabilitate, and purchase homes – the agency obligated 71 direct loans and 1,465 guaranteed loans; $6.9 million in community facilities loans and grants – the 26 projects included funding for schools, fire and safety equipment to benefit 6,378 rural South Dakota residents; and $238 million through 32 infrastructure projects to provide reliable and clean drinking water, waste treatment systems, electric power, and telecommunications services in about 40 rural communities in South Dakota.

For example the Deuel Area Development, Inc. (DADI) received a USDA Rural Development Rural Business Enterprise Grant (RBEG), now known as HYPERLINK “http://www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/rural-business-development-grants/sd”Rural Business Development Grants,  and leveraged it with other funding to provide technical assistance to small businesses in eastern South Dakota; the Mni Waste’ Water Company will soon have a new water treatment plant connected to an abundant water supply – the Missouri River – thanks to USDA Rural Development HYPERLINK “http://www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/water-waste-disposal-loan-grant-program/

Vegetation is extraordinarily dry this spring season and fire danger is very high in the Black Hills and surrounding areas.

Fire restrictions are in place on state, federal and county lands within the Black Hills Forest Fire Protection District.

South Dakota Wildland Fire division director, Jay Esperance, is asking everyone to be cautious during this current dry spell to help prevent wildfires.

“It’s essential local area residents and visitors comply with the fire restrictions,” Esperance said. “One carelessly tossed cigarette could have tragic consequences for our state’s communities.”

State officials would like to remind area residents the increased potential for wildfires necessitates fire prevention precautions for all.

Ways to aid in prevention efforts include never driving or parking a vehicle in dry grass, making sure cigarette butts are properly extinguished and ensuring your outdoor equipment is maintained and equipped with proper spark arrestors.

“We are in a time of year where vegetation has yet to green-up, further increasing the fire risk,” says the Halley Legge, fire prevention technician. “Please be vigilant and abide by current fire restrictions for your area.”

Current restrictions can be found at www.blackhillsfirerestrictions.com for the Black Hills area.  For statewide fire danger, visit https://gacc.nifc.gov/rmcc/dispatch_centers/r2gpc/fuels.htm.

South Dakota Wildland Fire can be found on Twitter @SDWildlandFire and on Facebook by searching SD Wildland Fire.

By David Graper – South Dakota Master Gardener Program Interim Coordinator

Do you like to garden?  Do you like fresh, home-grown, nutritious vegetables and fruits?  Do you want to learn more about how to take better care of your lawn, trees or shrubs?  Are you curious about how plants grow and what they need to grow and be healthier?  Do you want to make new friends that are also interested in these things?  Do you like to teach and help people?  If you answered “yes” to any or all of these questions, then perhaps becoming a South Dakota Master Gardener is the right thing for you to do to satisfy those desires.

Master Gardener training classes are now being formed for 2015.  The registration deadline has been extended to April 24.  Classes will be offered in the Watertown, Mitchell and Hot Springs/Custer areas this year.  You do not have to live right in those cities to participate however, since the majority of the training is offered online so you can get the training in the comfort of your own home in a very open schedule with the first sections available online starting May 4, 2015.  But there are four days of required, hands-on training, to finish out the complete training course.  The four, day-long, hands-on sessions give trainees the opportunity to learn skills such as planting, pruning, plant propagation, along with plant and pest identification by seeing and doing. These will be held in each of the training sites.  Participants will be able to choose from the three locations for their hands-on training.

Master Gardeners work in their community to promote and teach gardening. Opportunities include writing articles, giving talks, working at fair booths, helping in community and school gardens, teaching and answering garden questions.  The training gives a well-rounded education preparing them to help their communities.  Currently there are about 850 active Master Gardeners across the state, many of which are also active in one or more of the 19 area groups of Master Gardeners.  In 2014 Master Gardeners contributed more than 12,700 hours of volunteer service, worth over $240,000 to South Dakota individuals, families and communities.

The South Dakota Master Gardener program began back in 1985 when Dean Martin organized the first classes.  When Dean retired in 1988, training was put on hold until 1993 when training resumed.  Each year training is scheduled to occur in different locations across the state so that individuals from all over the state will have an opportunity to take the training at a site relatively close to home.  The majority of the training is offered online, making it convenient for more people to participate in the training and only have to make arrangements to be away from home or work for four days to participate in the hands-on training sessions.

Gov. Dennis Daugaard announced members of the Native American Student Achievement Advisory Council.

The Governor issued an executive order establishing the council in February. The council will work to identify strategies for improving achievement and graduation rates among South Dakota’s Native American students and report its findings to the Legislature and the Governor by Dec. 1, 2015.

The appointees to the council from Mission are: Dr. Roger Bordeaux, Rep. Shawn Bordeaux, Sen. Troy Heinert; Richard “Tuffy” Lunderman,

“Native American students in South Dakota attend public, non-public, tribally operated and Bureau of Indian Education schools,” said Gov. Daugaard. “Thus, the responsibility for providing them educational opportunities is shared among individuals and local, state, tribal and federal governments. I am confident this group will help us move forward with a common vision for ensuring their success.”

The Bush Foundation will be funding the council’s work. The Bush Foundation is based in St. Paul, Minnesota, and serves the 23 Native nations and the states of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.

“Improving educational achievement among Native American youth will drive growth and prosperity in both South Dakota and the Native nations that share the same geography. We are proud to support this important collaboration between state and tribal leaders. Together, they can lay the foundation for innovative and exciting efforts to increase educational opportunities for Native youth,” said Bush Foundation President Jen Ford Reedy.

The council’s first meeting is slated for April 28-29 at the Capitol Lake Visitor Center in Pierre.

By Dan Merritt, Advocate reporter

Driving 80-mph, South Dakota Highway Patrol captain Alan Welsh of the Sioux Falls area was glad he could be moving a bit faster toward the city where his office is located.

In mainly rural South Dakota with its wide open country, it’s a speed limit that makes sense, he said. For him, anyway, because he’s comfortable moving at that speed.

But some people aren’t, he acknowledged. In fact, it seems many aren’t.

“A lot of people are just driving 75-mph,” he stated while he was traveling I-90 on April 10 headed to Sioux Falls.

“Most of the traffic I clock (check) is between 75- and 80-mph. I’m out here on the interstate running radar right now.”

He continued: “I encourage (people) to stay in their comfort area (speed wise). I don’t want anybody to go faster than what they’re comfortable with.”

He disputed claims that if the state officially moved up to 80 mph on the interstate highways (which took effect April 1), motorists would be going 85- to 90-mph.

“When it was 75-mph, we’d get a few going 85 or 90. And we still get a few going 85, 90. But I don’t see more.

I’m not seeing more that think they can push it.

“In fact, I’ve seen a lot of people that are compliant with the speed limit. And that’s because I think they think it’s fast enough.”

It is plenty fast agreed local law enforcement at Winner.

Police chief Paul Schueth cautioned that drivers moving along at 80 mph need to be aware of the big rigs on the road around them, especially in front of them.

Most semis won’t be going any faster than 65- to 75-mph, like they have been. Drivers in other vehicles going faster now than they have been, need to take that into account, he advised.

“The closing rate is going to be a lot faster now at 80-mph coming up behind a semi on the interstate than what it was before.

“Hopefully nobody runs into them.”

Semis generally are restricted by their owner companies as to how fast they can rumble down a roadway, Schueth pointed-out. That’s between 65 and 70 for the most part.

And semi truck tires in general aren’t rated to go beyond 75-mph, he noted.

Both city police chief Schueth and Tripp County sheriff Shawn Pettit didn’t think local drivers on county or city roads were going to take license to driver faster just because the state has upped the legal speed on the interstates.

Pettit said he’ll be looking at reports about interstate accidents about six months down the line. ‘I’m waiting to see how that comes out,” he stated.

Particularly, he’s wondering if there may possibly be more mishaps or more severe ones.

That’s because vehicles will be traveling farther at such a high rate of speed in the time it takes for drivers to react to road/traffic circumstances around them.

That is, motorists will need more length of roadway in which to react and that length may not be enough to avoid a crash going 80 as opposed to 75 or 70, he indicated.

But patrolman captain Welsh said he doesn’t expect to see crash data jump with the new legal 80-mph speed limit.

“When we went from 65 to 75, everybody thought there was going to be a lot of crashes. But it hasn’t.

“Technology with vehicles being safer, handling better, airbags. We haven’t had issues, we haven’t had more crashes, we haven’t had more injuries.

“So, raising the speed limit did not result in more crashes. Certainly that’s our hope and expectation for this increase.”

Welsh said 80-mph is plenty fast enough to be motoring along and that those who plan to go faster had better be prepared to get pulled-over by SD highway patrolmen.

“We are enforcing it strictly. The speed limit’s 80 and we enforce the speed limit.”

Sure there will be discretion used by individual troopers. “Are we going to pull over every single person going 82 or 83, probably not. There’s enough to keep us busy stopping people at higher speeds.

“But could you get pulled-over at 83 and get a citation? Absolutely.”

by Katie Hunhoff

Every South Dakota town we visit is looking for ways to attract new families. Well, there was that one mayor in the town of Cottonwood (pop. 12) on Highway 14 that didn’t necessarily want people poking around, thinking it was a ghost town. But generally every other town is trying something — from painting storefronts to offering free lots or building event centers — to rejuvenate their communities.

My hometown of Yankton is trying something different. We are holding a 100-day search for a big idea that has the potential to change Yankton for generations. The person with the winning idea will receive $10,000. But the hope is that everyone in Yankton will be a winner if we can have a conversation about Yankton’s future, and also find a project the whole community can rally behind. The search is dubbed Onward Yankton and you can follow along or submit ideas on their website, www.OnwardYankton.com. The Onward Yankton group hopes they get submissions from not just Yankton but also across the state and country.

Larry Ness, a local banker and a founder of Onward Yankton, says the old river city is just one of many places struggling in today’s fast-changing world. “We think a community-wide exercise to decide Yankton’s next step will have a lot of value in itself. But once we select an idea, a bunch of us are committed to seeing if we can’t make it happen.”

Carmen Schramm, the executive director of the Yankton Chamber, says Yankton has always been a town of big ideas — starting with its designation as the territorial capitol in 1861. “As a city, we’ve started colleges, built one of the first bridges across the Missouri and our residents even built a dam and a lake in the 1950s — not to mention schools, hospitals and serving as an agricultural center.”

“We’re proud of all we’ve accomplished,” she said. “But cities our size can’t rest on their laurels. We have to keep adapting and looking for the next challenge that will keep us as an exciting place where young people want to live and work.”

The May/June issue of South Dakota Magazine includes a feature article that talks directly to young South Dakotans, specifically to May graduates. Yes, they already receive advice from parents, teachers and mentors. But we found 18 interesting (and wise) South Dakotans to provide a unique and heartfelt perspective. One of my favorite submissions came from our poet laureate, retired SDSU Professor David Allan Evans. He begins with an anecdote from about 20 years ago when he was very earnestly and carefully teaching a writing class at SDSU. He finished the class feeling pleased with himself. But then a student came up to him and told him he had a leaf on his head. The young professor became embarrassed and agitated, and he felt it had ruined his entire lecture. Now, the story has become a lesson for him on humility and how not to take himself too seriously — “Something that all of us need to learn as we mature with time,” he writes.

I’d like to think the citizens of Yankton are following his advice by with our Big Idea contest. We’re not saying we know all the answers — that’s why we are asking for your ideas. And we’re not taking ourselves too seriously. We look forward to a lot of silly and fun discussion over which idea to pick. But we are serious about the future of our town and the futures of our youth. I encourage you visit the Onward Yankton website to learn more, and also to read our letters to youth in the May/June issue. Who knows, the letters might spark an idea worth $10,000. Even better, the project might provide Yankton and other rural communities some ideas on how to grow and prosper.

Katie Hunhoff is the editor of South Dakota Magazine, a bi-monthly print publication that discusses the people and places of our great state. Visit www.SouthDakotaMagazine.com for more information.

A column by First Lady Linda Daugaard: 

Much has changed for Dennis and me in the last five years. Moving from Dell Rapids to Pierre to serve as governor and first lady has been quite the adventure. But there are other titles we’ve recently acquired that we value even more: grandpa and grandma.

Becoming a grandma has reminded me how much new parents have to decide in nine short months. What color to paint baby’s bedroom, which stroller to buy, whether to know the gender ahead of time – the list of questions can be endless for first-time parents.

Though it can all be overwhelming, the decisions that really matter are those that affect a baby’s health. When Dennis was first elected, he was shocked to learn how many infants were not reaching their first birthday, and that South Dakota’s infant mortality rate was higher than the rates in surrounding states of North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Montana and Nebraska.

This unsettling truth led him to ask me to lead a task force on infant mortality in South Dakota. I worked with a group of doctors, nurses, tribal health care workers, midwives, social workers and Department of Health officials to understand the causes of the problem. In our research, we found that deciding against early elective deliveries (EEDs), abstaining from tobacco, learning safe sleep practices and receiving prenatal care are critical to an infant’s wellbeing.

Inducing early for non-medical reasons can be dangerous. There are no known health benefits for EEDs, and there are significant health risks for baby – low birthweight, respiratory syndrome, pneumonia and even death. I’m very pleased that 20 of South Dakota’s birthing hospitals have signed pledges to work with us to reduce EEDs.

The infant mortality rate for infants of mothers who smoke is almost twice as high as it is for infants born of non-smokers. Last year, about 15 percent of pregnant women smoked. Though that is an improvement from 2011 when the task force began its work, South Dakota still has one of the highest rates of mothers smoking during pregnancy.

Along with abstaining from tobacco products, it’s critically important for expectant mothers to seek the care they need during the first trimester. In South Dakota, 72 percent of women received prenatal care in the first trimester last year. I’ve heard stories from women who have been told to wait until they are 12 weeks along to schedule prenatal care visits. That’s not good advice. Those who seek that care early on are less likely to lose their child within the first year.

Also before baby is born, expectant parents should learn about safe sleep practices. Infants need to sleep on a firm surface covered by a fitted sheet. Pillows, blankets, toys and crib bumpers should not be in the crib. Babies need to be placed on their back and it’s best for them to sleep in light clothing. Family members and other caregivers also need to know about these important practices.

The good news is that the infant mortality rate is declining in South Dakota. According to the Department of Health, the number of infant deaths per 1,000 live births is down from 2013’s rate of 6.5 to 5.9 in 2014. Last year’s rate is also below 2011’s 20-year low of 6.3. It’s important we keep working to increase prenatal care, promote safe sleep practices, and decrease tobacco use and EEDs to make sure that decline continues.

I know from experience there’s no way to fully prepare yourself for parenthood. Don’t sweat the small stuff. No parent is perfect. Know that by concerning yourself primarily with your baby’s health and safety, you’ll be just what your little one needs.