A new business is opening its doors on Main as Kim Anderson starts up "Hair-We-Go," a salon in the space once occupied by Downtown Style while the library and The Exercise Place both celebrate updates to their businesses; speed limits will be changing on Dows Street; and the Jesse James Wrestling Invitational was a successful event. Plus, we continue our look back on 2024, and much more!
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Brad Johnson, South Dakota Searchlight
It seems absurd that Gov. Kristi Noem would harm the U.S. Department of Homeland Security just before she is expected to be confirmed as its leader.
But that is what she is doing with her ill-advised plan to destroy South Dakota Public Broadcasting.
Noem launched her surprise attack on SDPB in her Dec. 3 budget address, proposing to cut slightly more than $3.6 million of its $5.6 million in state funding.
“If it goes though as proposed,” said SeVern Ashes, SDPB’s director of engineering and operations, “there is not enough funding left to support the infrastructure, engineering salaries, buildings, power or service contracts for the equipment.”
It costs $4.8 million annually to “cover engineering expenses for the networks, studio engineering, and 24-7 coverage,” he said.
SDPB’s system is on 45 towers, and 17 of those co-host public safety communication equipment. The network is critical “to all emergency communication from the SD Division of Criminal Investigation on down to county-level emergency management systems such as ambulance, fire and local police departments such as Sioux Falls and Rapid City,” Ashes said.
Additionally, Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T wireless systems lease space on SDPB towers.
One federal Homeland Security agency using the tower network for communications is U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Ashes said. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S Forest Service and Federal Aviation Administration also use the system, as does the Civil Air Patrol.
Fighting fires in the Black Hills will be difficult without radio communication. County sheriffs, the state Highway Patrol, city and tribal police departments and ambulance systems will all be seeking alternatives.
The potential loss of that emergency communication system is unacceptable to South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley.
“Law enforcement relies heavily on public broadcasting,” he said in a Monday interview. “We rely on it to a great degree for public safety from weather conditions to missing children and endangered individuals. I mean, that is who we go to for our Amber Alert.”
The public best understands the tower system as the way SDPB transmits its programming, which is the real target of Noem’s ire. Conservatives tend to dislike National Public Radio, which is only one part of SDPB’s programming and is funded by private donations and the federally funded Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
The state’s money primarily is used to maintain SDPB’s transmission system.
Ashes oversees seven SDPB-employed engineers, three in Rapid City, three in Sioux Falls and one in Pierre.
They maintain about 30% of South Dakota’s communication network, with the State Radio System under the Bureau of Information and Technology maintaining the rest.
Ashes said in addition to the towers, SDPB buildings house the state’s radio equipment as well as backup generators. Federal law requires 72 hours of backup power, but SDPB’s sites have seven days of capability.
The sharing of tower space with the State Radio System allows the two organizations to ensure coverage to about 98% of the state.
SDPB is the state’s connection to the federal Emergency Alert System, Ashes said. “We cover every county in the state. Any statewide alert system — Amber Alert, Blue Alert, endangered persons — those are activated out of our facilities in Vermillion.’’
If there is a national emergency, something involving the Homeland Security Department soon to be led by Noem, “Our infrastructure is taken over by the federal government for those alerts.”
If $3.6 million is cut and SDPB is unable to maintain the system, the state radio communications system likely would have to find money to maintain it, or SDPB’s portion goes dark.
At risk would be the state’s television and radio broadcast licenses. Incoming Gov. Larry Rhoden would have to be involved in relinquishing those vital assets.
Noem’s actions basically are those of a person showing malice against NPR, which explores ideas that differ with her worldview.
She never asked anyone at SDPB what might happen if they lost funding, and it’s clear Noem had no understanding of what would happen.
“The first thing we heard was when the governor made the speech,” said Ryan Howlett, CEO of Friends of South Dakota Public Broadcasting. “We weren’t asked about the implication of a cut.”
The bottom line, Howlett said, is that Noem’s proposed cut will “compromise the safety of about 1 million people.”
That’s something Jackley said is unacceptable. “That infrastructure is very significant and important.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: Author Brad Johnson is married to a retired former employee of the nonprofit Friends of South Dakota Public Broadcasting. He is a Watertown businessman and longtime journalist. He is past president of South Dakota Lakes and Streams Association, president of the South Dakota Wildlife Federation and served 16 years on the South Dakota Board of Water and Natural Resources.
South Dakota Searchlight is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. South Dakota Searchlight maintains editorial independence.
2024 was quite a busy year, with so much going on it could be difficult to keep up with it all! The Gazette brought you plenty of headlines, covering local community members, local and area issues or concerns, and statewide news. Here, we present the first half of 2024 in news snippets and the biggest headlines of the year. Did you miss a story or two? Check them out on our website at garretsongazette.com, where all subscribers can access our archives at no extra cost (registration and log in may be required).
After 35 years at the helm of the Garretson Post Office, Deb Matthiesen retired as Postmaster. (1-4-24)
Youth wrestling had 38 entrants to Blue Dragon Tournament, which hosted 40 clubs. First place medals went to Lincoln Westover, Landon Bekaert, Miles Christensen, Jacob Miller, Dalton Story, and Caleb Miller. (1-4-24)
The Gazette played a guessing game to name former Garretson Elementary students from the mid-1900's thanks to the archives of a former teacher. (Dec '23-Jan '24)
In the spirit of giving, three GHS students, Brecken Weir, Levi Top, and Jakob Gnadt, gifted their friend and classmate Sebastian Deyoung a bike for Christmas. (1-18-24)
Rod Wolforth retired as First Bank & Trust Garretson Branch President after 49 years in the banking business (1-8-24). New bank president Jason Long assumed the role, and the Gazette ran a profile to allow local community members to get to know him. (1-25-24)
The council and the community got a first look at finalized 4th St plans and costs, outlining how the infrastructure (sewer and water) and street would be replaced. (1-25-24)
The 2024 South Dakota State Legislative Season took off like a shot with nearly 400 bills introduced between the House and the Senate. (1-25-24)
One of the largest ever Dean’s List and Honor Roll lists for college, high school, and middle school students from Garretson or enrolled in GMS/GHS was published. (2-1-24)
City utilities customers found out how the new surcharges would affect their bills, and it wasn't pretty. However, the surcharges were required by the state, and the infrastructure it is paying for was necessary. (2-8-24)
Local garbage hauler Garbage N More worked to increase recycling locally, starting with educating its customers on how recycling puts more money into customers' pockets. (2-8-24)
Winter sports started heading into their final matches, and the school wrestling program installed a new Wall of Fame in its practice room to be used to motivate wrestlers. However, the decision to place it in the wrestling room was controversial as some would have like to see the board installed in a public-facing space instead. (2-15-24)
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By Dave Baumeister
County correspondent
SIOUX FALLS – This week’s 2025 organizational meeting of the Minnehaha County Commission on Tuesday, Jan. 7, saw new Commissioner Cole Heisey take his place on the county board.
At the opening, presiding judge for the Second Judicial Circuit, Robin Houwman administered the oath of office to both Heisey and Commissioner Dean Karsky.
In November, Karsky won re-election to the commission and Heisey garnered election to his first term.
And Heisey got involved right away when he asked that the week’s bills to be paid be pulled from the consent agenda, allowing for a better discussion later in the meeting.
Frequent public commenter Gary Meyer of Hartford asked about annual dues paid for county organizations, thinking that some of those bills might be repetitive.
When this was discussed at the end of the meeting, county administrator Tom Greco explained those items more, and Karsky answered Meyer’s questions about what those dues were for.
Specifically, the organizations in question were for elected county officials (treasurers, auditors, registers of deeds), as well as a separate group for county commissioners – the South Dakota (and national) Association of County Commissioners.
As Karsky explained, the state group is comprised of every county commission in the South Dakota, and they meet to discuss issues, like state legislation, which pertain to all counties.
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By Dave Baumeister
County Correspondent
SIOUX FALLS – In a lengthy three-hour meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 31, the Minnehaha County Commission mainly heard a report on the November election from county auditor Leah Anderson.
And while she did give a very thorough report on several aspects of the General Election process, several commissioners wanted more information, especially on election day, itself.
Chief among Anderson’s questioners was Commissioner Joe Kippley, who brought up accounts of people counting ballots in a locked room from which the media and other observers were barred.
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Last week Tuesday, the Garretson Boys' Varsity team hosted Deubrook Area in a doubleheader. There, they came tantalizingly close to snatching the win, but missed by a mere two points as the final score came to 61-63.
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By Assistant Coach Oran Sorenson
After an early morning rise, common for all wrestling families, followed by 5:00 am weigh-ins at school, our local team boarded a Garretson bus for the long trip to Webster for the seventeen team Bearcat Invitational. Using three mats for the first time, wrestling started at 9:30 am and wrapped up just after 4:00. During those six- and one-half hours our twelve Blue Dragons wrestled forty-two times with ten grapplers earning team points placing four with three more losing heartbreakers in what is commonly known as the “blood round.” During the day we eventually rose to sixth place but were passed by Britton-Hecla late in the day causing us to finish seventh by a single point. The top four places went to highly ranked teams from Clark/Willow Lake, Groton Area, Miller, and Sisseton in that order. Deuel County finished fifth just ahead of Britton/Hecla and the Blue Dragons.
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Last week Tuesday on New Year’s Eve, the Garretson Blue Dragons Varsity basketball teams hosted Deubrook Area in the Dragon's Lair, where the embattled Girls' Varsity team again saw their opponents take home the win.
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The Blue Dragon junior high boys’ basketball team has kicked off their season with 3 games in December.
“We have a total of 15 players over three grades (6th, 7th, and 8th grades) this year,” stated Coach Cory Buchholz, who is in his second year at the helm of the middle school basketballers. “We continue to work on the little things early this year to continue to improve each day that we step on the floor for either practice or a game. All our kids have taken every challenge that is given to them and most importantly, they want to continue to get better which will eventually lead to wins.”
For our first contest of the season on December 3rd, the boys hosted Hill-Beaver Creek, MN to take on an always talented group of boys from Hills-Beaver-Creek. In the seventh-grade game, the boys came out with their feet still stuck in the sand and were outscored, 15-45.
Gabe Coburn and 6th grader Canyon White topped the scoring column with 4 points apiece. They were followed by 6th grader Caylix Buchholz with 3 points. Mayson Snyders and Reilly McKinney rounded out the Blue Dragon scoring with a 2-point bucket apiece.
In the 8th grade contest, our opponents were just the aggressors all evening long outscoring the Blue Dragons by the score of 22-36.
“The whole H-B-C group of kids are a very talented group of young men, and they exploited our weaknesses. It appears we were just trying to go through the motions, and they just wanted it a little more,” stated Coach Buchholz.
Cameron Roberts had the hot hand in the opening contest of the year for the 8th grade, scoring 14 points. Gavin Coburn contributed 4 points, while Dylan Artz and Reilly McKinney rounded out the scoring with 2 points apiece.
On December 12th, the boys hosted a new team on our schedule, Estelline-Hendricks. The young 6th and 7th graders achieved their first win of the season taking down the Redhawks with a score of 35-28. Leading the way for the 7th grade was Gabe Coburn with 16 points, followed closely by Reilly McKinney with 13 points. To round out the scoring, Caylix Buchholz, Greyson Petrik, and Mason Snyders each collected a 2-point bucket.
The 8th grade game had a different outcome with the hometown team taking the loss against a very physical and talented Redhawks team, 21-52.
“If we continue to grow as a team, we will start to see success on the court,” said Coach Buchholz. “This was a game where we came out a bit intimidated right away and things got out of hand quickly.”
Gavin Coburn found a groove while topping the scoring column with 15 points. Markus Yellow, Reilly McKinney, and Cameron Roberts rounded out the losing team’s scoring each with 2 points apiece.
On the 14th of December, the young Blue Dragons hosted the Flyers from Chester. While we overmatched the Flyers from the opening tip of the 7th grade game, the 8th grade game was a back-and-forth battle with the visiting team taking the win in the closing seconds of the game.
“For the 6th and 7th graders, this was a day that I have been trying to teach the boys from day one. Come out of the locker room just knowing that you are the better team from the start. The boys really responded, running through offensive sets and really finding themselves in the correct positions on defense all day long. I was proud of how we didn’t back down, especially in that 7th grade game,” stated Coach Buchholz.
In the 7th grade game, the scoring output was led by 3 of our 7th graders. Reilly McKinney paced the young Blue Dragons with 12 points to lead all scorers. Gabe Coburn followed with 8 points and Mason Snyders cashed in 4 points of his own to round out the scoring for the Blue Dragons. In the 8th grade contest. While losing by only 3, the scoring column was topped by Gavin Coburn with 10 points followed by Cameron Roberts with 6 points of his own. Gabe Coburn and Miles Sievers each had 4 points apiece and Markus Yellow rounded out the scoring attack with 2 points of his own.
The young Blue Dragons will now have a break until January 7th when we hit the hardwood again, traveling to Baltic to take on the Bulldogs (results not available at press time), and then again traveling to Elkton on the 9th of January to take on the Elks. Come out and support the young Blue Dragons!!
The Garretson Branch of the Siouxland Library is holding an open house this Saturday, Jan 11 from 9 a.m. to noon at their location on 601 N. Main Ave. The open house is to celebrate the library’s new renovation and as a thank you to the patrons and the City of Garretson as a whole. Refreshments will be served!
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