By Dave Baumeister, County Correspondent
SIOUX FALLS – At this Tuesday’s Minnehaha County Commission meeting, Emergency Management Director Jason Gearman talked about much of what his office did over the past year, but he focused on current volunteers and the need for more.
When he spoke to commissioners, he mainly looked at on three areas that use volunteers, although he listed several other areas, as well.
In the Police Reserve, Gearman said, members put in 9,000 volunteer hours last year.
In the county’s rescue squad, which mainly focuses on water rescues, they have 15 members that work on an “on-call” basis to assist local fire departments.
He also cited the 13 members of the county’s Dive Team, which volunteered 55 hours in 2020. Their main work is in body and evidence recoveries, and those sometime involve “ice dives.”
According to Gearman, volunteer hours were down in 2020 due, most likely, to COVID-related issues keeping people home.
Also, he pointed out that 2020 was the first year since he has been the EM Director that there were no natural disasters in the area. Recent years had seen late-spring ice storms, massive floods, and tornadoes in the county.
Commissioner Jeff Barth referred to Gearman’s “superpower” of being able to take charge in emergency situations, but to do that effectively, Gearman said he needs more volunteers for the variety of duties his office oversees.
Anyone wishing to be a part of Minnehaha County’s emergency response team can contact Gearman at (605) 367-4290 for more information.
It was mentioned that many expenses incurred by volunteers (like testing and licensing fees, when applicable) can usually be reimbursed by the county.
In other business, County Highway Engineering Supervisor Jason Maras brought up information about new speed limits in the first reading of a proposal on setting a county speed limit in two different areas.
On Highway 136 near Veterans Parkway, the Highway Dept. is calling for a 45-m.p.h. speed limit, and south of Highway 42, east of Rowena, they are looking to drop the existing speed limit from 45 m.p.h. down to 30, to better deal with limited visibility.
The second reading and final vote on this change will be at the April 27th meeting.
The Minnehaha County Commission meets on the first, third and fourth Tuesday each month on the second floor of the Administration Building at 6th and Minnesota in Sioux Falls.
All meetings are open to the public, and time is always allotted for their input.
