News for 1-11-24

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January 10, 2024

Members of the Lions Club in Brandon are exploring whether a branch could be started in Garretson; parks were at the top of the agenda at Monday's city council meeting as the council decided whether to decrease the length of stays at Split Rock Park; and we look back at the top stories of 2023. Plus, the Jesse James Wrestling Invitational was a success, and basketball is back in full swing after the holiday break, plus more!

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Obituary: Nelda Grace Hove, age, 91

Obituaries

Carrie Moritz

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January 10, 2024

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Nelda Grace Hove, age, 91, passed away on January 7, 2024, at the Dells Nursing and Rehab Center in Dell Rapids, SD.

Funeral services were held at 2:00 pm Wednesday, January 10, 2024, at Zion Lutheran Church in Garretson, SD with Pastor Corey Scott officiating. The burial followed at Zion Lutheran Cemetery in Garretson.

In lieu of flowers, family wish memorials, which will be directed to the Zion Lutheran Church.

Nelda Grace Gortmaker, the youngest of 5 children, was born to Edward and Nellie Viet Gortmaker on November 14, 1932, in Monroe, SD. She was named after her mother, which she was very proud of. She grew up in the Monroe and Parker area, graduating from Monroe High School. While in high school, she was active in Volleyball, Basketball, Mixed Chorus, Girls Glee Chorus, and the Senior Class 3-act Play.

After graduation, which was May 17, 1951, she moved to Sioux Falls and got her first job at Manchester Biscuit Company. A couple of years later she met and married the love of her life, Dennis G. Hove on September 28, 1953, in Garretson. After living in Sioux Falls for a year, Nelda and Dennis moved to Garretson to raise their four children.

Over the years, Nelda was involved at Zion Lutheran Church, American Legion Auxiliary, Tops and Kops Club, and a volunteer at the Garretson Museum which she loved. She cleaned for the First National Bank and was a dietary aide at Palisade Manor until her retirement in 2012 after working for 26 years.

Nelda loved traveling! Nelda and Dennis traveled to many destinations making lots of wonderful memories. After Dennis’ death, Nelda continued traveling with her son, Kevin. They went to such places as Alaska, New England, Washington DC, New York City, San Francisco, Bransen, MO, LA and many other places on the East Coast. Her favorite destination was Alaska. Nelda was a diehard fan of the Minnesota Twins. You could always find her in front of the TV cheering them on even at family gatherings.

Nelda left a wonderful, delicious legacy to her family. For many occasions, she made homemade cinnamon bread and strawberry rhubarb jam. She taught her granddaughter, Heidi to make bread and her son Kevin to make the jam. So, the tradition will go on. Every Christmas she would always make these as gifts for her children.

Nelda moved to Edgewood Vista Assisted Living in Sioux Falls in May of 2018. She was then diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease. In February of 2023, she moved to Dells Nursing and Rehab Center in Dell Rapids, SD where she passed away at the age of 91 on January 7, 2024. She will be greatly missed.

Nelda is lovingly remembered by her daughter, Donna Aanenson of Garretson; sons, Kevin Hove of Sioux Falls, and Kory (Lisa) Hove of Valley Springs; six grandchildren, Scott (Danielle) Shelby, (Kacey), Heidi (Tony), Roos, Lindsey (Garrett) Bratland, Kelsey (Sidney) McKinney, and Kaden; 14 great-grandchildren, Megan, Autumn, Collin, Austin, Haylee, Paxtin, Emersyn, Genesis, Addilyn, Braxtyn, Hayedyn, Henrik, Kaiyah, and Wyhatt; her sister, Lila Kostboth of Freemont, NE; sister-in-law, Janet (Tom) Vandersnick of Ft. Pierre; brother-in-law, Bruce Greiner; and many nieces and nephews and other family members.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Dennis; her son, Kent; son-in-law, Randy; brother, Bud; two sisters, Kathleen and Betty; brothers-in-law, Wayne, Cal, Eddie, Myrl; sisters-in-law, Mary and Audrey.

News for 1-11-2024 (e-edition)

Carrie Moritz

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January 10, 2024

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Members of the Lions Club in Brandon are exploring whether a branch could be started in Garretson; parks were at the top of the agenda at Monday's city council meeting as the council decided whether to decrease the length of stays at Split Rock Park; and we look back at the top stories of 2023. Plus, the Jesse James Wrestling Invitational was a success, and basketball is back in full swing after the holiday break, plus more!

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Deb Matthiesen retires as Garretson Postmaster

Carrie Moritz

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January 4, 2024

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Deb Matthiesen retires as Garretson Postmaster

woman with longer blond-brown hair standing in front of post office boxes — Deb Nelson //Garrick A Moritz, Gazette

As of December 31, Deb Matthiesen has retired after 35 years with the United States Postal Service.

Matthiesen told the Gazette that she started at the distribution plant in Sioux Falls in 1988, doing various tasks, working with sorting machines, mail deliveries and routes. In 1992, when the USPS did its major reorganization, she got her first promotion shortly thereafter.

“I’d done various different jobs at the plant,” Matthiesen said. “But that’s when I got my first managerial position. In 1995, my husband and I moved to an acreage outside of Garretson. I continued to work at the post office in Sioux Falls, but in 2001 the Garretson postmaster retired and I was selected to become the new postmaster here.”

“I was pretty excited about it, both for the job itself and for the first time I would have weekends off. My shift in Sioux Falls, I had Mondays and Tuesdays off. Now the full weekends didn’t last as I did start driving some of our Saturday routes however, but that was all right. I also really enjoyed the change of pace.”

“At the plant in Sioux Falls, the work never stops, you just do your work and continue until your shift ends and the next one takes over and continues where you left off. In Garretson and post offices like it, you run the show; you do everything, you sort, you deliver, you open the store, you help the customer and do every little thing the post office does, but you and your team handle it all yourselves, until you close at the end of the day and the last driver goes home. That provides a kind of satisfaction, knowing you got the job done for that day, and you’re ready to start the next one.”

Matthiesen has also been a very active member of the Garretson Volunteer Ambulance Service.

“It’s something I’m extremely proud of, that I enjoy doing and that I will continue to do,” she said. “I will probably be doing it more often now.”

“I do want to talk especially about that for a minute. In my role as Postmaster, I get to know a lot of people face to face, and the number of people who’ve gotten to know me is amazing to me sometimes. Working with the Ambulance, I can’t convey to you the number of times that it’s helped me in my work. When you get to a scene, people are scared and greatly concerned. When they see somebody they know, when they see a friendly face, it helps in ways you can’t imagine. We have an excellent squad of Firefighters, Fire/Rescue team and the very best ambulance crew you can imagine, and we all work very well together. I’m proud to serve with them. It’s one of the many reasons I enjoy living in this community.”

Since the 1980s, how the post office operates and delivers the mail has changed drastically. Nelson said that she recalls a time where there were no computers on the sorting floor and only a few in the offices. Now, they’re everywhere and everything throughout the mailing system is managed by computers, from forms and package tracking to regular meetings.

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“By far though, the biggest change is volume,” she said. “Volume has steadily decreased while costs have continuously increased. These things are related. We still must make our deliveries to every customer, wherever they are, and if we have less volume overall, then it’s less resources we can draw from to make those deliveries. You started seeing it more in the 1990s as email, the internet and other electronic communications became mainstream. Even with the spikes of the advent of online shopping and COVID, volume is still down and in decline.”

Garretson though, as in many things, bucks this trend a bit.

“We have a strong local business community that uses our Postal Service for large parts of their business needs. Alliance Communications, Nordstrom’s Auto, and Garbage N More with their regular postcards, all of these businesses have helped keep our local post office strong for our area.”

As she worked her final days at USPS as 2023 likewise ended, Matthiesen said that she was feeling a bit nostalgic.

“What I will miss, is seeing the people,” she told us. “That personal contact is wonderful. Helping a customer find a lost package. As I’ve got thirty-five years of experience in the postal service, I know how things work and how the system works and I’m usually able to figure out what went wrong and where, and I can locate the missing letter or package. It hasn’t really hit me yet, in a lot of ways I can’t believe I’m done. I just want to say thank you to everyone for your patronage and friendship.”

Matthiesen said that she’s looking forward to being a farm wife and a grandma, and aside from continuing to work with the ambulance, she might do a bit of traveling and vacationing too.

Mike VanWhe is taking over as the new postmaster for the Garretson post office and was installed in the job as of Dec. 28th, 2023. Look for an introductory profile article with him in an upcoming issue of this newspaper.

UPDATE 1/8/24: A prior known last name of Nelson was used in the printed edition of the article. This has been corrected in the online version.

SD DOT grants $600k to Garretson for 4th Street

Carrie Moritz

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January 4, 2024

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SD DOT grants $600k to Garretson for 4th Street

The City of Garretson was awarded $600,000 in the form of a grant to re-build 4th Street by the South Dakota Department of Transportation (SDDOT), it was announced on December 22.

The "4th Street Project" has been in development for several years now and follows a re-build of infrastructure and streets on 3rd Street, Main Avenue, and the streets along the truck route that included Railroad Avenue, Essex Street, and Depot Avenue.

A water study conducted in late 2022 showed that the water main under the street was in dire need of replacement. In that study, the cast-iron pipes severely underperformed expected water flow rates at the three hydrants located along that route.

water system analysis graphic — [FILE PHOTO] A Power Point presentation accompanied the water study results given by Infrastructure Design. Here, the engineers outlined the first set of recommended improvements in order of priority, with the first a replacement of the main line on 4th Street from Main Avenue to Rose Avenue.

The full construction project will include a replacement of the water main, sewer line, curb and gutter, sidewalks, and street, and an early 2023 estimate placed the project at $3 million for 4th Street alone. The expected five-and-a-half-month project will be split into two parts, with the first constructed in 2024 that will include all of the infrastructure from Main Avenue to Sherman Avenue. The second part is expected to be completed in 2025 and will span Sherman Avenue to Oak Drive.

A third part, which would include the side streets and 5th Street from Center to Manor Circle, is planned for 2026 but has not yet received an estimate of cost.

The $600,000 grant was awarded by the South Dakota Department of Transportation and was part of a $4.4 million economic development grant fund geared towards infrastructure improvements to counties and smaller communities across South Dakota. Communities must have a population of less than 5,000 residents to qualify, and do not include the costs for utility work. Only those streets that are slated for construction or reconstruction and considered major streets in town are eligible. A major street in the SDDOT definition included those that service business areas/Main Street, elevators, schools, and hospitals.

Fourth Street is not only a major thoroughfare to Main Avenue and the business district, but also serves Palisade Healthcare, Avera Clinic, and the Garretson Ambulance Services.

“The economic development grant program is a key way for the South Dakota Department of Transportation (SDDOT) to assist local governments with infrastructure improvements,” said Transportation Secretary Joel Jundt. “Without the grant funds, many rural communities would not have the financial ability to improve access and foster quality of life opportunities for residents today and into the future.”

The grants provided funding for 80 percent of the project up to $600,000. Other grants were awarded to Colton for their 4th and 6th Street project, Mount Vernon, Oglala Sioux Tribe, Tyndall, Tripp County, and Wagner. Union County received an agri-business grant to service a road leading to Farmers Coop Grain Elevator.

With more Anderson supporters on hand, commissioners vote for a 7.5% raise for all five department heads

Carrie Moritz

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January 4, 2024

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With more Anderson supporters on hand, commissioners vote for a 7.5% raise for all five department heads

By Dave Baumeister

County Correspondent

SIOUX FALLS – The Minnehaha County Commission meeting room was again filled with people last week, and most of them were there to talk about an agenda item on raises for elected department heads.

Former Minnehaha County Commissioners Jeff Barth (left) and Cindy Heiberger (at podium) were at this week's commission meeting to support the current commissioners as they discussed salary increases for elected department heads. While the majority of the people in the room supported the work done by county auditor Leah Anderson, and a few of them were hostile toward the commissioners, all of the elected officials in question received a 7.5% pay increase. (Photo by Dave Baumeister)

Those office holders are the State’s Attorney, Sheriff, Treasurer, Register of Deeds and the Auditor.

As requested at the previous meeting, three resolutions were prepared and presented by Human Resources Director Carey Deavers.

The first resolution called for a 7.5% raise for all five elected department heads.

The second called for a 7.5% raise for four of the department heads, but no raise for the county auditor.

Both of those resolutions were asked for by Commissioner Joe Kippley.

Commissioner Jen Bleyenberg asked for a resolution offering a 5% raise for all of the elected department heads, as that was what commissioners raised other county salaries for 2024.

People supporting Minnehaha County Leah Anderson, who made up most of the gallery, were very much against other department heads receiving a raise that Anderson would not.

Most commentors jumped on that saying that “option two should be scratched and should never have been presented.”

And when public comment had finished and the issue went back to commissioners for discussion, a motion and a vote, that second option was never discussed.

The week before when Kippley did ask for a resolution on not giving the auditor a raise, he also asked that one be prepared to give her, and other elected department heads, a 7.5% raise – 2.5% more than what was originally budgeted for.

While this was not the 19.5% increase that Anderson, herself, asked for, it was 2.5% more than was planned for in September.

And probably 2.5% more than the elected officials would have gotten if the matter preceded naturally.

At the meeting, Kippley thought the 7.5% raise was fair, since along with the 5% increase, other county employees also get raises for “steps,” which are based on their years of service.