Despite rain and weather threats, Jesse James Days was a hit, and we have photos galore. More photos will be available on our website, as we couldn't fit them all into the printed pages! Plus, the Garretson School District had a net positive in the fuel budget over the past school year; we meet another Palisades Healthcare employee you should know; Auditor Leah Anderson is asked to explain the audit further, and much more.
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By Carrie Moritz,
Garretson Gazette
Young entrepreneur Grace Feauto has found her niche, and the dog owners of Garretson have been behind her one hundred percent.
"The response after I launched the Facebook Page was amazing," she said.
Until May, local dog owners had to travel to a surrounding town such as Dell Rapids, Brandon, or Luverne to get their dog groomed, which could be a hassle. On May 7, that changed as Feauto (pronounced "fau-toe") opened Grace's Grooming, a grooming salon for the canines in the area.
The salon was first broached as an idea in late 2023 by Feauto's father, Bob, to the community via Garretson Living on Facebook, and the response was immediately positive. Over 60 commenters responded "Yes!" to Bob's question whether a local groomer would be a welcome addition to Garretson, and folks continued to inquire for several months after on when the business would open. Needless to say, residents were excited for the prospect.
It took a bit, as the Feautos renovated a portion of their garage to fashion the salon. Feauto said she learned a lot from her father during that project. While they subcontracted a few parts of the construction, such as drywall and electric, Feauto and her father undertook much of the work on their own.
Feauto, 20, knew she wanted to have her own business from an early age, and she has loved dogs her whole life. She has a quiet and calm demeanor, and describes herself as a creative person who loves reading, cooking, and hanging out with friends. She currently has one dog and one cat, whom she adores.
She decided to enter dog grooming during her final year of high school, and for a bit, it may have felt like a fever dream as she encountered obstacles to her training. Her initial apprenticeship fell through, and the program she was enrolled in at Iowa Lakes Community College discontinued it only weeks before she started. However, a bit of persistence paid off when she cold-called K9 Designs in Spencer, Iowa.
Beth Johnson, owner of K9 Designs, was more than happy to take on not only Feauto, but another aspiring groomer as well, Jenna Mantel of Doon, Iowa, last summer. Mantel launched her business mid-April, and was a great person to have as a classmate, according to Feauto. They were able to bounce ideas off each other, or ask questions or bring up experiences the other didn't think of.
Johnson's employee, Hope, had gone through the Iowa Lakes curriculum in 2021, and between the two of them, they designed an 8-week training program that included not only proper breed cutting styles and bathing options but areas of study such as the life cycles of fleas, biohazards, shop cleaning methods, and more.
"They were able to come up with not only a hands-on curriculum, but also a paper curriculum for me," Feauto said. She pointed out that Johnson's prior experience of working at a veterinary clinic helped increase Johnson's standards for cleanliness, which is important to ensure nothing is shared between canine clients, and she passed that on to Feauto.
K9 Designs also helped to teach different cut styles, such as how to shape the fur for different breeds. While Feauto said she is still gaining some experience in that area, Johnson said she does a fabulous job.
Garretson residents must agree, as Feauto is booked out until the end of the month, and she has been quite happy with how well the business is doing so far.
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This weekend is Jesse James Days, and there’s a lot to look for!
On Friday, there will be a ton of activities to choose from.
The Garretson Scholarship Foundation kicks off its annual golf tournament right away, at 10:00 a.m. Registration begins at 9:00 a.m. More details can be found at: https://visitgarretsonsd.com/13th-annual-garretson-community-scholarship-foundation-golf-tournament/
Starting around 10:00 a.m., The Treasure Chest will be open with specials to shop, the Visitor’s Center at Split Rock Park will be open, and Palisades Art Gallery will be open with a local artists showcase. At noon, head to Humble Hill Winery just north on Hwy 11 for some wine tasting, or at 1:00 p.m. head to the Garretson Community Swimming Pool.
That evening, activities will include a Cornhole Tournament at the corner of Main and 4th, a Car, Motorcycle & Tractor Show in the Garretson School NE parking lot, Model Train display in the Garretson School Gym (entrance northwest parking lot), Food Stands by the Garretson Historical Society and the Garretson FFA, dinner specials at The Gulch and Sports Cabin, and live entertainment at Main & 3rd Street. More activities will include Goat Yoga at the Main Ave green space next to Rainbow Delight from 7:00-8:00 p.m., an Art Show Opening Party, and Glow Kayaks starting at dusk.
Saturday will be packed, with the Jesse James Days Road Race 5k/10k/1mi (register here), Pancake Feed from the Garretson Fire Department, and Parade to kick off the morning. Plus, the Garretson Library will be hosting storytime with a camping theme at 10:00 to 10:30 a.m.
Beginning at 9:00 a.m., the Arts & Crafts Vendor Fair will kick off with items such as Sweet Treats and cotton candy, Lee’s Woodwork, hand painted door decor, Mary Kay, Tastefully Simple, crocheting and knitting, baby blankets and baby items, jewelry, books, Scentsy, hair extensions, Norwex, Crochet blankets/shawls /hats paracord items, HydroJug, and The Sassy Tees (shirts, pot holders, towels, and zipper pouches).
The Parade will feature floats and tractors, fire trucks and horses, and so much more! But beware, we’ve heard rumors that the infamous Jesse James gang may be aiming to rob the bank, so keep an eye out!
Inflatables, toddler train rides, swimming, and ice cream treats will appeal to all ages that afternoon, and the Silver Creek Mavericks will entertain with their Old West demonstrations. Plus, the Splitrock Hustlers 4-H will have a petting zoo, the Lions will be giving out free eye exams to those age 18 and under, Kringen Horse & Wagon Rides, and Zion Lutheran Church Youth Group will have their infamous burger booth. These activities will all be at the Jaycees Sports Complex off Center and Essex St from noon until 3. If you wish to ride a fire truck or travel between the ball fields and downtown, hitch a ride with the Garretson Fire Department Shuttle.
That evening, head downtown for great food at the Sports Cabin or The Gulch and stick around for the street dance, starting at 8:00 p.m. with 10 Miles from Nowhere. Wristbands will be $15 each for entry.
On Sunday, the fun continues with fishing as Father’s Day Fishing happens at Palisades State Park and the FFA Fishing Derby is held at Split Rock Park, and gather as a community to worship at the Community Church Service hosted by the folks from United Church of Garretson and Zion Lutheran Church. Get your noon meal and activities with the residents of Palisade Healthcare as they host a hot dog grill out on the Palisade Healthcare lawn starting at 11:00 a.m. Cap off the Jesse James Days activities with the Blue Jays baseball game at 2:00 p.m. and Arts and Crafts at Split Rock Park at 3:00 p.m.
The full schedule can be found at VisitGarretsonSD.com/jessejamesdays. Join us for a great time, we look forward to seeing you around town this weekend!
The Milk Fund has run dry!,” said Food Pantry Coordinator Kris Frerk to the Gazette this week.
“The Milk fund was started September 2018 by Brian and Heather Howe and since then we have given away 6,062 gallons of milk! It’s impressive, just think the business that has given the store, city and state tax paid on that, not to mention the nourishment for many families. People can purchase 1+ gallons at the register and it goes into the milk fund. The Garretson food pantry also pays for milk money for children that don't have funds for milk break at the school. That is some real money. At $4 per gallon, times 6,062 that equals $24,258. Bravo and hurray! Garretson is Good and so is God! We hand out these coupons out at pantry visits and in the weekly backpacks that get sent out with kids at school. Please support this important program!”
If you watched Dakota News Now or KSFY recently, you might have seen a new, but familiar face behind the anchors’ desk. Gracie Fiegen of Garretson, with co-anchor Ellie Holdhusen of Vermillion were the hosts of the show (pictured here). Fiegen was part of the 2024 Media Camp, which is a joint venture between the Washington Pavilion and Dakota News Now to provide local students an opportunity to experience what it is like to work on a real working TV newsroom and that culminates in a real news broadcast. Her broadcast aired during the 5 p.m. broadcast on DNN and the 6 p.m. broadcast on KSFY, on Friday, June 7th.
If you’ve seen Fiegen on stage locally at all, you know she has a commanding stage presence, so she took to the air waves like a duck to water. Another local student, Sarah Prohl, from the Hills/Beaver Creek area, was the weatherman for the segment and also did a great job.
President and General Manager of Dakota News Now, Jim Berman had this to say about the camp and the campers. He specifically shared this viewer comment:
We wanted to make sure KSFY knew how much we enjoyed the young people’s News Cast!
They all did a fantastic job and we can see some future news/weather personalities!
“These students have been terrific to work with,” Berman said. “All in all, it was a fantastic experience for the kids.”
The staff roster for the broadcast was as follows:
Anchor Team (5:25pm and 6:25pm): Ellie Holdhusen (Vermillion) 9th Grade & Gracie Fiegen (Garretson) 11th Grade.
Weather: Alena Sweets (Sioux Falls—Home Schooled) 10th Grade 5:25pm & Sarah Prohl (Hills-Beaver Creek) 11th Grade 6:25pm
Reporters: Emily Perez (Roosevelt-CTE) 10th Grade 5:25pm, Jaxon Scheff (Montrose) 9th Grade 6:25pm, Jasmin Albeno (Roosevelt-CTE) 10th Grade 6:25pm.
Director 5:25pm and 6:25pm: Alex Antrobus (Jefferson-CTE) 12th Grade.
If you missed this newscast, you can watch it online by following these links below: https://www.dakotanewsnow.com/2024/06/07/media-camp-2024-wraps-up-watch-campers-friday-newscasts/
By Dave Baumeister
County correspondent
SIOUX FALLS – On Monday, June 10, Minnehaha County Auditor Leah Anderson told the county canvassing board that, while the election day process was conducted by the usual tabulating machines, in a state ordered audit, her office will hand count 100% of the county ballots from the June 4 primary.
The canvassing board, which would usually just be the Minnehaha County Commission was slightly different this time.
Only two commissioners could take part in the canvass, as Joe Kippley and Dean Karsky each had conflicts of interest, and Gerald Beninga was not available.
In their places were former commissioners Jeff Barth and Cindy Heiberger, as well as sitting Sioux Falls City Councilman Alex Jensen.
This election was also the first time that there would be an election hand-count audit, as per state legislative action earlier this year.
The legislature is requiring an audit of votes by hand for at least 5% of a county’s vote totals.
And part of that requirement is that the precincts audited must have a minimum of 100 ballots cast.
Anderson said that although the election went very well, the voter turn-out was extremely low, at around 9% of eligible voters.
And because of that, many precincts had fewer than the required 100 votes. So to meet the state requirements there would have to be an audit of around 25% of the vote.
She added that over the previous weekend, she thought about it, and figured if they were going to put things in place to hand count 25% of the vote, they might as well count 100% of the county’s votes.
Anderson explained that as long as this was under-budget for her office, it was within her discretion to do so.
And to help with the financial end of things, she referred to some savings in the auditor’s office, some reimbursement from the state for part of the count, and that she has a number of volunteers to help with the counting process.
Even though the canvassing board had several questions about the process, none of the members objected, but again, Anderson was not looking for approval. She just wanted to explain the process that she felt was a logical step to the already state-mandated audit.
Other than that, the canvassing itself was done in a normal manner, adding in just a few votes for people who had voted on provisional ballots.
Board members also had questions about 132 absentee ballots that were disqualified by one precinct.
The ballots in question all fell into the category of coming from local campgrounds or post box businesses where no records could be found that the voter had lived that address more than the 30 days annually that is required by the state, if at all.
That precinct committee agreed that since the addresses could not be connected to any regular residential voter, they would be disallowed.
All in all, there were 11,062 votes cast on election day, and another 2,006 absentee ballots.
After 10 a.m. on Friday, June 7th, after their cross-state sojourn, the RASDAK riders came back to Garretson and were greeted with cheers and high fives as students from the Blue Dragon Academy turned out with other well wishers to welcome them back and congratulate them on their trek.
By: Chloe Hermanson, GHS FFA Chapter Co-Reporter
Released June 6 th, 2024
Garretson, SD— The Garretson FFA held a Bike Safety Course for children in Pre-K through 5th grade on Thursday, June 6th, 2024, where participants were able to learn about the safety rules and cautions while riding a bike.
There were forty-five participants, ranging from the ages three to nine years old. Participants were split into two groups, one started out in the classroom learning all the rules of the road while the other group got their bikes inspected to ensure they were safe and rode through the course practicing the knowledge they already knew and learned.
Members also went to Blue Dragon Academy to go through the bike safety lesson with the three and four year olds. The presentation consisted of the kids learning about the different safety precautions that they needed to be aware of before riding their bike on a road.
During the presentation the kids followed along with an activity packet they were each given at the beginning. Outside, each participant’s bike was inspected to ensure it was safe to ride. The last part of the event, FFA members set up six different courses outside in the school parking lot for the kids to complete while riding their bike. The courses consisted of the kids riding around cones, stopping and checking their surroundings, and giving hand signals when turning right or left and stopping.
Each participant received their very own “Official Bicycle License” showcasing that they each learned and promised to follow traffic laws and wear a helmet to demonstrate safe bike practices through the Garretson FFA Bike Safety Program.
With a donation from Top Gear Inc, which school nurse, Betsy Howe obtained for us, thirteen kids received new bicycle helmets from the training course to take home. The Garretson FFA takes pride in taking the opportunity to help kids learn about the safety of riding their bikes and pushing towards a safer riding environment within our community.
by Coach Aaron Christensen
On a beautiful Saturday morning the DR Mudcats came to town to show us Garretson boys how to play this “travel” baseball. Dells jumped out to a 7-0 lead after 2innings. The Boys in Blue realized baseball is baseball, got their competitive juices flowing, but ultimately lost 13- 7. Collecting two hits each were Grady, Miles, Mitchell, and Vince. Tate, Ethan, Chase, and Logan each had one hit. Scoring runs were Mitchell (2), Miles, Chase, Logan, Tate, and Vince. RBIs were earned by Ethan (2), Miles (2), Grady, Mitchell, and Vince.
The DR Mudcats scored two runs in the bottom of the 5th inning to walk off a victory over the young Garretson Squad. Vince and Miles led the Garretson bats with two RBIs each. Logan, Chase, Lincoln, Ethan, and Miles each collected 2 hits a piece while Mitchell, Elih, Vince, Grady, and Tate each had 1 hit. Crossing the plate was done by Mitchell, Chase, Elih, Ethan (2), and Miles (2). Also collecting RBIs were Chase, Lincoln, and Grady.
At 9:15 am, the first pitch was made on Flandreau’s far west field for the 8U Garretson boys first ever tournament game. Leading the Boys in Blue was Chase, as he went 3 for 3, with a double, 3 RBIs, and 2 runs scored. Mitchell and Coyer also had a 3 for 3 game. Tate (2), Ethan, Miles, Vince, Logan, Grady (2), Lane, and Lincoln all smashed hits. Scoring was done by Tate, Mitchell (3), Miles, Vince, Logan, and Grady. RBIs were accomplished by Ethan and Coyer with 2 each, followed by Miles, Vince, Logan and Lincoln one each.
Elih Petersen smacked a ball into the green grass scoring Coyer with the walk off win and sending the Garretson side of the field into a frenzy. After giving up an 11-10 lead, in the top of the 5th inning, the bats had to start strong, and boy did they ever. Vince, Logan, Coyer, and Grady all roped hits tying the game before Elih’s clincher. The M & M boys also wanted to be twins in the stat sheet as they both went 3 for 3 with a single, double, and triple each. Ethan also smacked 2 doubles to the fence. Rounding off the hitting was Chase (3), Tate, and Lincoln. Scoring was led by Mitchell with 3, Chase and Ethan with 2 each, and the rest were by Tate, Miles, Vince, Logan, Coyer, Grady, and Lincoln. RBIs by Ethan and Miles 3 each, Chase and Elih 2 each, and 1 by Mitchell, Vince, Coyer, and Grady.
Lane Schrank smacked a 2 RBI hit over the infield and into the grass giving the Boys in Blue a spark they needed. Overcoming a slow start, the Garretson squad used a big 4th inning to take control of this game. The defense settled in after a rough first inning and held Aurora scoreless the rest of the game! Going 2 for 2 were Tate, Mitchell, Chase, Ethan, and Grady while other hits were also collected by Miles, Vince, Logan, Coyer, Lincoln, and Elih. Mitchell led the team with 3 RBIs, followed by Ethan (2), Miles and Lincoln. Tate, Mitchell, Chase (2), Coyer, Grady, Lincoln, Elih, and Lane all crossed the plate.
Wow! The bats were warmed up for this one as the Boys in Blue pounded out 19 hits, with 7 going for extra bases and many of those only being stopped by the fence! Mitchell, Chase, and Ethan all smashed triples, while Tate, Ethan, and Miles (2) all roped doubles. The terrific trio of Chase, Ethan, and Miles all had 3 RBIs each. Mitchell and Chase led the team in scoring with 3 runs each, while Ethan (2), Tate, Miles, Lincoln, and Elih all stepped on home plate once. Other singles were collected by Mitchell, Chase, Vince, Elih, who all had 2, while Ethan, Coyer, Grady, and Lincoln contributed 1 each. Earning the rest of the RBIs were Tate, Mitchell, and Coyer. The defense also achieved two double plays in this game, highlighted by Chase’s impressive heads up play and a cannon of a throw to Miles at first for a 5-5-3 momentum killing DP! While Mitchell had a nice catch at SS and doubling the runner off at first to end the game.
We would like to thank the Sports Cabin, Cresten Properties, and the Garretson Legion Post 23 for sponsoring our team this year. Your generous support has made it possible to get this group of kids into a few tournaments while looking sharp in their new uniforms.
Next action for this group is June 29, in Bruce SD, but we will keep searching for games. Stay tuned!
Photos and story submitted by Jill Fedders-Ellefson
Lane Ellefson, a Junior and Serie Risty, a Sophomore just completed their 2nd year in High School Rodeo. The athletes, with their families, horses and report cards hit the highways for two big weekends of Regional Rodeos. SDHSRA consists of a series of practice rodeos earlier in the month of May. Ellefson made the haul to Burke and Geddes for his events Calf Roping or Tie Down Roping and Team Roping. The season continues with 4 Regional Rodeos. The East River Region hosts rodeos in the city of Huron and Watertown, two rodeos in each location. Risty competes in the Barrel Racing and Pole Bending with 70 other tough competitors.
Top ten placings in each event earn points. Contestants must earn a minimum of 3 points to be qualified for the State Finals in Fort Pierre, SD. Lane Ellefson missed out on qualification for State this year in either of his events. Serie Risty punched her ticket for State at the last Rodeo in Watertown running a 22 second pole pattern fast enough for 6thplace. Risty will travel to Fort Pierre on June 12 – 15 for the State Finals Rodeo.
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