Our big graduation issue! Thank you to our wonderful community sponsors, who have ensured this issue is possible! Also in this issue: Palisades Township road (486th Ave) construction will be starting next week; the Garretson pool is opening June 1; and a deadlock has delayed a final vote on pipeline ordinance amendments by the Minnehaha County Commissioners. Plus, spring sports wrap up with several athletes heading to state tournaments!
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Our big graduation issue! Thank you to our wonderful community sponsors, who have ensured this issue is possible! Also in this issue: Palisades Township road (486th Ave) construction will be starting next week; the Garretson pool is opening June 1; and a deadlock has delayed a final vote on pipeline ordinance amendments by the Minnehaha County Commissioners. Plus, spring sports wrap up with several athletes heading to state tournaments!
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The Garretson Gazette sends a weekly email letting you know when this week's issue is available, along with a run-down of each week's articles. Please ensure you enter our email address () into your "safe emails" list and subscribe to our email newsletter using the form below. Thanks!
The May 4, 2023 meeting of the Henry G Fix Unit 23 American Legion Auxiliary was called to order by President Cheryl Lyngen. Prayer was read by Chaplain Sue followed by the Pledge of Allegiance and Preamble. Roll Call of officers reflect two absent.
Minutes of the last meeting were read and approved. The treasurer’s report was given and will be placed on file for audit. It was reported that we had 190 members out of our goal of 188. Six cards were mailed out to members for March and April. Bingo at the nursing home was held in April with 25 residents in attendance. Correspondence from District 7 President Noelle Bonjour was read. No bills were presented. Officer and Chairman rosters for the upcoming year were completed and will be sent to state headquarters.
Special thank you was given to DaNann Williamson Tirrel for the decorative cupcakes she made for the legion’s birthday.
Denise Schmidt reported that the Girls State Tea in Montrose was attended by Addy Fink along with her mother Heidi Fink and Denise Schmidt. Informative information was given to the girl staters. Auxiliary Day for the members will be Thursday, June 1 at Slagle Hall in Vermillion. All are welcome.
President Cheryl Lyngen attended awards night and recognized our two scholarship winners Anna Jones and Morgan Damman. Girls Staters were also recognized.
May 10 will be bingo at Palisade Healthcare in Garretson. Volunteers are needed to help the residents play. Delegates for the State Convention in Oacoma in June were named. Flag bearers and readers are needed for the upcoming Memorial Service on May 29th. Please contact Cheryl if you can help. Poppy cans and poppies will be placed in the various businesses in Garretson.
The meeting was adjourned with prayer by Chaplain Sue.
Next meeting is June 1. Door prize was won by Cheryl Lyngen
On Saturday, May 20, the Class of 2023 will graduate from Garretson High School. The thirty-two students will hear from retiring Chemistry and Math teacher Mrs. Bev Howe as the keynote speaker. Commencement will begin at 1:00 p.m. in the gym, with speeches from Valedictorian Preston Bohl and Salutatorian Grace Hove.
Class motto: “I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days before you’ve actually left them.” Class colors: Royal Blue and White. Class flower: Bat flower.
Ordinarily the Gazette publishes the class photos of our graduating seniors in a special section before Graduation but the photo collection was unavailable by press time this week, so expect a large graduation celebration section in next week’s issue!
The Garretson School Board met in regular session on May 8th. The District was moving into end of the year round-up activities, and talked about the future, with Chat GPT, new electric busses and E-sports on the horizon.
The board approved the payment of current bills and approved the current list of certified staff contracts.
Superintendent Guy Johnson and Business Manager Jacob Schweitzer discussed the preliminary budget for Fiscal Year 2024 and the board voted to schedule the budget hearing for 6 p.m. during the July meeting of the board.
The board then had to fill out their South Dakota High School Activities Association ballot. Supt. Johnson recommended that the board vote yes on all the items up for debate as they were good changes to policy. He then recommended that the board cast their ballot for the Dell Rapids Supt. for the open seat on the board of directors, as that candidate had the closest ties to our district. The board voted as such.
The policy committee was drafting new language to include for a job description for an American Sign Language interpreter/tutor, as the board had agreed to hire someone for that task and it was new territory for district personnel. Then both MS/HS and Elementary principals proposed changes to their student handbooks for next year.
MS/HS Principal Chris McGregor had an interesting bit to add to the "fair academic standards and cheating" section of his handbook.
Chat GPT is a predictive language tool and computer algorithm that can create blocks of text using data that’s publicly available on the internet and based on whatever source materials the user feeds into it. It’s not true Artificial Intelligence, but it can write a pretty passible document with only a few clicks of the button. Photo by Andrew Neel on Pexels.com
“With Chat GPT and other AI learning software, I wanted it codified that using such tools to complete writing or math assignments counts as a bad faith practice just like plagiarism,” he said.
Board member Tana Clark had no idea what Chat GPT was, and like her, for our readers who haven’t heard what it is, a brief explanation is warranted. Chat GPT is a predictive language tool and computer algorithm that can create blocks of text using data that’s publicly available on the internet and based on whatever source materials the user feeds into it. It’s not true Artificial Intelligence, but it can write a pretty passible document with only a few clicks of the button. Depending on the source materials, it often gets details wrong or has inaccuracies that no human would make, but the technology is getting more accurate by the minute. Students, being digital-world savvy as they are, could feed these tools data and get a pre-written paper courtesy of a digital robot to turn in as homework. Obviously, Mr. McGregor wanted school rules in place to equivocate using Cchat GPT for school work with the same regard as if they’d copied a friend’s paper or had someone else write it for them. The board agreed that this was a good call.
During his report Mr. McGregor also commended FFA instructor Alysha Kientopf for receiving the 2023 SDAAE Outstanding Early Teacher award, for which she was honored at the FFA banquet.
Elementary Principal Katie Hoekman spoke about the unpaid meal policies, and during her report, gave the board a comprehensive review of the curriculum updates in math and English for the elementary.
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On Monday, May 8, the Garretson City Council met in regular meeting. Despite much of the meeting being routine, the items on the agenda covered several important areas, including updating the fireworks ordinance, the potential of a lift station that would be installed to the east of the industrial development, and an update on the ownership of the baseball field.
Council President Greg Franka stood in for Mayor Greg Beaner, who was not in attendance at the meeting. The first action taken was for Bill Hoskins, Bruce Brown, and Tom Godbey to take the oath of office for their respective seats. Brown and Godbey had re-filed for two-year terms without any opposition in February, and Hoskins was re-appointed to his seat for a year.
With the 2023-24 council installed, there was a bit of good news from city billing clerk Sonya Swanson. She noted this month's price for natural gas is $0.87. While the significant price drop isn't as impactful as it would have been in February, it does raise some hope that natural gas prices are going back towards their historic averages.
Swanson, who is also in charge of parks maintenance and is on the Parks Board, then reported that four new trees had been planted at Split Rock Park. The city planted two lilacs, a maple, and a weeping willow. A "sculpture tree" had been installed as well, thanks to community member Kris Frerk. Frerk had obtained this sculpture thanks to third-penny appropriations from the city for the Art Trail that will be starting this summer. Another sculpture will be placed at Devil's Gulch within the week.
The council then moved on to approving a joint purchase agreement with Humboldt for a vacuum trailer, which is used to clean pipes and remove debris for pothole repair. Maintenance Supervisors Jordan Doane and Ryan Nussbaum estimate the truck will be used extensively, and will save the city money in the long term. Until now, they have been contracting those services.
Fireworks ordinance may be updated
Building Code Officer JR Hofer, who has been working with the city to update several ordinances, was in attendance to speak on an update to the fireworks ordinance for Garretson.
Mostly, Hofer said, an updated ordinance would outline areas that had been following South Dakota Codified Law, and presented it to the council for a first reading.
"It's basically putting in writing what we've been letting the public do for the past ten years," he said, noting that the current city ordinance had not been officially updated since 1985.
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This May, Garretson youth were busy spring cleaning. On Wednesday, May 10 the Garretson Cub Scouts and Girl Scouts gathered at the Jaycee's Softball Complex to pick up trash left over from the melted snowpack, and on Friday May 12 Garretson Middle School students traveled down Main Street to find trash on the sidewalks and streets.
"They had a blast. I saw smiles the whole time," said Cub Scout leader Ben Zimmerman of his crew. He stated their goal was to "help bring different parts of our community together to help even more of the community while also letting everyone know we are here."
Both Cub Scouts and Girl Scout groups have been busy this year.
Said Zimmerman, "They participated in the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby back in March. The Cub Scouts have been working on good sportsmanship and team building. We will also be doing a camping trip in June. The Girl Scouts have worked on how to work together and some craft projects."
Cub/Girl Scouts clean up day (photo submitted)Middle School Main Street Clean Up
It’s a well-worn adage that politics are about timing, and that’s especially true when it comes to citizen-led ballot measures in South Dakota.
Back in 2016, New York-based nonprofit Open Primaries helped fund a petition effort to change South Dakota’s electoral system with Amendment V, teaming with local Democratic Party stalwarts Rick Weiland and Drey Samuelson to build support.
Tom Dempster, a former state senator and Minnehaha County Commissioner, speaks at a press conference to announce the signature drive to put a constitutional amendment that would allow for open primaries on the 2024 general election ballot in Sioux Falls on April 19, 2022. (Photo: Annie Todd / Argus Leader)
The constitutional amendment aimed to circumvent party primaries with nonpartisan races, in which voters would consider candidates on an open ballot with no party designations and send the top two vote-getters to the general election.
In a state dominated by the Republican Party, where Donald Trump captured nearly two-thirds of the vote in that 2016 election, the concept was received coolly, especially after GOP heavyweights such as Sen. John Thune and then-Gov. Dennis Daugaard opposed it with money and political muscle.
Amendment V was rejected. But the fact that it received 44.5% of the vote confirmed Joe Kirby’s suspicions that the open primary concept could be retooled and resurrected to face fresh judgment from South Dakota voters when the time was right.
“That amendment was a hard product to sell,” said Kirby, a Sioux Falls businessman and government reform advocate who is spearheading a 2024 campaign for open primaries with party labels intact.
“There was a lot of criticism from people who want to know what party the candidates are in. We think voters – Republican, Democratic and Independent – are going to be more favorably inclined this time around.”
Kirby’s group, South Dakota Open Primaries, has submitted a petition for a constitutional amendment to establish top-two primaries – sometimes called “jungle primaries” – for governor, Congress, state legislative and county races. All registered voters would be eligible to weigh in on which candidates advance to the general election.
Currently, Independent voters in South Dakota can vote in Democratic primaries but not Republican contests, which Kirby calls unfair.
It’s also a potential selling point in a state where the breakdown of registered voters (301,589 Republicans, 151,092 Democrats, 148,497 Independents) makes Independents a formidable voting bloc (25%) to be excluded from a process where most races are decided in GOP primaries due to Democratic Party shortcomings.
Republicans outnumber Democrats 94-11 in the state Legislature, and GOP candidates ran unopposed in 21 of the 35 state Senate races in 2022. The last time a Democratic candidate won a statewide election was 2008.
“A lot of voters are struggling to find a meaningful vote,” said De Knudson, a former Sioux Falls city councilor and self-described moderate Republican who serves as treasurer for South Dakota Open Primaries.
“Reform has to start with the voters. People who are in office are glad to be there and not very interested in changing the system that elected them, right?”
Typically, the GOP stranglehold on state politics would be enough to mount a formidable “establishment” response against a ballot measure buoyed by out-of-state interests that threatens the electoral status quo.
But Kirby sees a couple of factors in his group’s favor, most notably a schism in state Republican ranks between moderates and an emergent far-right caucus. That group found its footing with “election security” as a rallying cry following Trump’s loss to President Joe Biden in 2020.
The 2022 state GOP convention in Watertown offered stark examples of this shift.
Monae Johnson, who has refused to publicly acknowledge Biden’s win as legitimate, ousted incumbent Secretary of State Steve Barnett. And Lt. Gov. Larry Rhoden faced a surprisingly stiff challenge from former Speaker of the House Steve Haugaard, who ran to the right of Gov. Kristi Noem in the gubernatorial primary.
“I believe that many Republicans opened their eyes a little wider after the circus in Watertown,” said Knudson, whose husband, Dave, a Sioux Falls lawyer and former GOP state senator, is also involved in the ballot initiative.
The theory is that open primaries, rather than incentivizing candidates from taking extreme positions to win a partisan primary, will help “lower the volume” on state politics, in Kirby’s words, to produce officeholders more reflective of the general electorate.
Recent polls commissioned by South Dakota News Watch have shown state voters to be closer to the middle than most Republican lawmakers on issues such as abortion access and gun legislation.
Still, any shakeup in traditional election structures is likely to ruffle feathers among those who currently hold power as well as what Knudson calls the “unimaginative traditionalists” who oppose change in general.
But a coalition of frustrated moderates and eager-to-pounce Independents could prove to be a powerful partnership as the group seeks to collect 35,017 valid signatures by the May 7, 2024, deadline to qualify for the ballot.
“The stars seem aligned for us because the Republican Party has been experiencing turmoil,” said Kirby, who helped lead an effort to change Sioux Falls’ city government structure from a commission model to mayor-council in the 1990s.
“There’s less resistance from Republicans to the idea of changing something to broaden the base of voters.”
Kirby said that “key Republicans have told us they support our effort but that they won’t be able to go on the record as being supportive,” to which Knudson added that “private support isn’t terribly helpful,” though it’s clearly better than public opposition.
U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds told News Watch that he opposes the open primaries proposal. He noted a push to move away from convention nominee selections for statewide executive offices such as lieutenant governor and attorney general, a movement that fell short during the 2023 legislative session.
“Our current primary system has served us well, and I am supportive of it remaining in place,” Rounds wrote in an emailed statement.
“I also believe that in the future there is a strong possibility that statewide office nominees currently selected by the party at a convention will be selected in the primary as well.”
U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson told News Watch that he is not taking a position on the ballot proposal, while Noem and Sen. John Thune declined interview requests.
It’s still an open question whether top-tier state Republicans – the ones with enough cachet and campaign cash to make a difference – will actively work against the measure, assuming it reaches the ballot next year.
Open Primaries, the national nonprofit initially funded by Texas billionaire John Arnold and run by electoral reform advocate John Opdyke, donated nearly $1 million in cash to the Amendment V campaign in 2016. Knudson said the group is supportive this time around, but it’s not clear what financial support is forthcoming.
The opposition group in 2016, No on V, raised $260,000 in cash, including $140,000 from the South Dakota Republican Party, $55,000 from Daugaard for South Dakota, $5,000 from Friends of John Thune and $5,000 from Rounds for Senate.
“Our focus for 2023 is entirely on getting the word out and getting enough signatures,” said Kirby, adding that his group will use paid and volunteer petition circulators. “And then 2024 will be about the political-type campaign.”
Though nearly half of states have some form of open primary system, only three currently use a top-two primary such as the one proposed for South Dakota.
California and Washington use top-two primaries (with party labels included) in races other than presidential contests, while Nebraska uses a nonpartisan primary for state legislative races as part of its unicameral system.
In Democratic-controlled California, where voters approved a top-two primary in 2012, presenting candidates to all voters in primaries has led to more moderates getting elected, forcing far-left legislators to work toward the middle to pass laws.
A 2017 study by the Public Policy Institute of California concluded that open primaries, combined with other shifts such as redistricting reform, can help “draw American parties back toward the center of the ideological spectrum.”
For the minority party – Republicans in California and Democrats in South Dakota – the concern is that candidates will get shut out of the general election in the top-two system, making even more dire the party’s lack of representation.
Kirby’s response is basically that South Dakota Democrats can’t get elected anyway, given the current political climate.
“You could get Kristi Noem and John Thune and Mike Rounds together and they couldn’t mount a decent campaign as Democrats in South Dakota,” Kirby said.
“Democrats are associated with national Democratic leaders, and that’s just not a marketable product in South Dakota. I don’t necessarily blame the Democrats. I think they’ve got an impossible task, given the national leadership of the party. It’s all a symptom of the extremism that’s gotten into politics.”
State Rep. Linda Duba, a Democrat from Sioux Falls, who attended an April 19 press conference with South Dakota Open Primaries supporters, joked in an interview with News Watch about being a “token Democrat” for this latest ballot effort, as opposed to the more progressive-themed campaign for Amendment V in 2016.
She disagreed with Kirby’s assessment about the election chances of Democrats in South Dakota being hindered by positions taken by the Biden administration or other national party figures.
“I’m tired of people saying (the Democrats) are extreme,” said Duba.
“When you talk to the people in South Dakota, they want common-sense reforms. They’re fed up with silly cultural issues that we spend all our time on in the Legislature and we don’t get the real work of the state done. Those things are being driven from the national level, and if we want to talk about which party is doing this, it’s the far right.”
Duba, who represents District 15 and was first elected in 2018, said she supports open primaries because she believes Independents are getting shut out of the process and a more open system will lead to better candidates and, theoretically, better policy.
“At the end of the day, if you’re worried about being re-elected, you’re worried about the wrong thing,” she said. “Our job is to understand the needs and wants of the state and to try to support the good of all the people, whether you’re a Democrat or you’re a Republican.”
— This article was produced by South Dakota News Watch, a non-profit journalism organization located online at sdnewswatch.org.
I just wanted to touch base with the newspaper and the public regarding the article that discussed the city purchasing the swimming pool.
As a long time pool board member (I believe I can speak for prior members here) I want to make sure that the public knows that the city is inheriting far more responsibilities than what the article alluded to. There was a lot more going on behind the scenes that the pool board members did than simply “hiring guards”.
Yes, the city has done more in past few years with pump maintenance for sure, and the payroll for the pool was run through the city for complicated reasons that I don’t need to bore people with here. The city also donated water and made up for the difference at the end of the year when we ran in the red, but the pool board did so much more than hiring guards.
The pool board members put in countless hours of unpaid time making sure the guards kept paperwork and certifications current, filing paperwork with the state to keep in compliance, keeping up on the rules for guards and when and where training sessions were for WSI, fundraising for projects like the new liner that was installed a few years ago and the fence and new concrete we had poured last year, setting up and organizing the annual pool auction, including hauling load after load of stuff from people’s houses to the auction, writing grants for projects including the gazebo in the baby pool area, painting in the bathhouse, sending out mailers at the beginning of the year so parents knew when swimming lessons were, brainstorming on what to do to make the pool better and more fun, etc.
Doug Grimsrud alone put in at least 10-15 hours every spring pumping out the bottom of the deep end and shoveling leaves and debris that had collected there into 5 gallon buckets and hoisting them out to be dumped.
There are too many other things to mention that we collectively did as a board to even list, (I’ll kick myself later) and too many people to thank for all the time, effort and money they have put toward the pool over the years, and we were all happy and proud to do it. Pools are not a money-making business and we worked together with the city to make a great swimming pool for the people and at the same time help alleviate some of the burden on taxpayers. I know that the article was not intended to trivialize what the boards have done over the years but I would hope that the public realizes that we did far more than “hire guards” and let the city do the rest.
Project one of two in the works for veteran housing in South Dakota
BY: JOHN HULT, South Dakota Searchlight
SIOUX FALLS – Project managers and advocates threw open the doors of the first five tiny homes for veterans in Sioux Falls on Tuesday morning.
The homes are the first in a planned village of transitional housing for homeless veterans in southeast South Dakota.
The village is about a mile from downtown Sioux Falls, tucked between an apartment complex and a middle school practice field on ground where homeless veterans and others recently camped beneath a patch of thick trees. The encampment had been there for years, according to Eric Gage, executive director of the Veterans Community Project in Sioux Falls.
Eric Gage, the executive director of the Veterans Community Project in Sioux Falls, hangs a flag on one of the five tiny homes that will soon house homeless veterans. The project held a ribbon cutting on May 9, 2023. (John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight)
“It was convenient for services, and it was out of sight,” Gage told a crowd of assembled supporters, city officials and volunteers. “I don’t want our veterans out of sight anymore.”
The goal is to offer a home and a case manager to homeless vets, in the hope of getting tenants the personalized help they need to fold themselves back into the fabric of the community at large and find permanent housing. The average stay in a tiny home in Kansas City is between 14 and 15 months, according to CEO Bryan Meyer, though there’s no official timeline.
The first Sioux Falls vets are scheduled to move in about two months from now, as crews continue to build out another 20 homes on the 2-acre plot.
Meyer said the ribbon-cutting ceremony marked a major milestone for both South Dakota and his organization, which has plans in the works for villages in Colorado, Missouri, Oklahoma and Wisconsin.
Sioux Falls, he said, has been a model partner for the group’s first attempt to expand the concept beyond its home city.
“It’s not very often that we as an organization get to do firsts anymore,” Meyer said. “This is the first ribbon cutting of a site outside of Kansas City. It wasn’t the first one we broke ground on. It wasn’t even the second. But the way the community came together to wrap their arms around it put it on a trajectory that I don’t think we were even prepared for sometimes.”
The homes come furnished with new furniture, appliances, housewares, bedding, personal items, all free of charge. Utilities are covered, as well.
The reality for veterans, who experience homelessness at higher rates than the general population, is that those living on the streets or couch surfing with friends have too much on their plate to worry about changing their lives long-term, Meyer said.
“It’s really hard to worry about your mental health, substance abuse, employment and all that when you’re worried about ‘Where am I going to sleep? What am I going to eat?’” Meyer said.
The organization will work with community partners to find tenants, then case managers will work with community service providers to connect those tenants to the resources they need. Which means the community has a lot of work ahead of it, Mayor Paul TenHaken said.
“We need to continue to wrap our arms around VCP and the work they’re doing in this community,” he said. “Honestly, building the homes is the easy part.”
It’s not always especially easy, though. The $1.7 million raised in the initial round of support for the Sioux Falls village is more than a project on the other side of the state has been able to pull together thus far.
The Veterans Helping Hands Project in Hot Springs secured $700,000 from the Housing Development Authority to build six duplexes for vets in that city, which is home to the Hot Springs VA Medical Center.
The idea there, according to President Dave Gates, is to couple the homes with job training. The vets will help build the homes once the group raises another half million dollars for construction.
“Right now, we’re still looking for support to get the rest of the project done,” Gates said.
In the meantime, he said, the group will start work on remodeling both an existing home and a restaurant once called the Dew Drop Inn to help prepare vets for the work. The restaurant’s owners will benefit from the work, Gates said, and the vets will have a head start in learning construction trades.
“It’s a two-year project that we’re going to be using to train veterans who are in the alcohol and drug rehab programs,” Gates said. “It’s that job training that will help to break the cycle.”
Gates hopes to firm up his fundraising and break ground by July 1.
