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Highway 115 Project Making Progress

September 21, 2017 by Matt Larson, Big Sioux Media

The South Dakota Department of Transportation’s Highway 115 project continues to make good progress. That was the report given to the Dell Rapids City Council during their regular meeting on Monday, September 18th. The DOT told city officials that the interstate interchange is on schedule.

Steel for the interchange is scheduled to be delivered to the site around September 30th. Once the steel is delivered, the plan is for the girders to being to be installed. The DOT said that contractors plan to work diligently to complete and open the bridge by the estimated completion date of the end of October.

In the meantime, shoulder grading for the Highway 115 project has begun in city limits. That work began this past week. The shoulder work is currently being done on the north side of the highway from around the 4-way stop out to the interstate interchange. This work is actually outside of the scope of the initial project plan for this time of year, but the DOT is working to get a head of schedule for when work resumes next spring.

The final piece of the report shared is the DOT currently has plans for the contractor to possibly take down the north bridge on Highway 115 leading south of town. The bridge could potentially be removed before Christmas this year. This again is to get ahead of plans for next spring.

Water Main Break in Dell Rapids

September 20, 2017 by Matt Larson, Big Sioux Media

A water main broke over the weekend of September 16th and 17th near the downtown area in Dell Rapids. The exact location of the break was around 3rd St and Orleans Ave. During the cleanup and investigation of the break, bad conditions to the service line seem to be the reason for the break.

City crews worked throughout the days on Sunday and Monday to repair the break in the water line.

City Administrator Justin Weiland said during the Dell Rapids City Council regular meeting on Monday, September 18th that the break was unfortunate, and it was bad timing for everybody.

During the council meeting, it was reported that an estimated 200,000 gallons of water was lost in the break.

“I want to thank the guys for working on a beautiful Sunday day to get that break done,” said Councilman James Borchert.

Dell Rapids Mayor Tom Earley said, “We appreciate the work that they’ve done.”

Because of the break, the Dells Theater was left without water. It was also reported during the council meeting that there could have been troubles trying to replace the line and tie it back into what was still existing. Arrangements were made between GoldenWest and the Dells Theater to be able to have the Dells Theater be able to tie into the new service lines that were stubbed during the 4th Street project which is now in the empty lot between GoldenWest and the theater that GoldenWest owns.

Garbage Frustration Leads to River Clean-up Day

September 19, 2017 by Matt Larson, Big Sioux Media

Frustrations over garbage and trash at the dam area have lead a Dell Rapids resident to schedule the first River Clean-up Day. Kiley Stone, owner of Stone Photography, couldn’t stop thinking about how sad it was that an area so beautiful is being damaged with garbage and litter.

“Growing up I never really knew the area by the dam existed. When I started getting into photography, I started exploring all the areas of town I was unfamiliar with. The area by the dam is my favorite. It is a beautiful area and there is a lot of ground to walk around and explore. I have continued, year after year, to watch this area get trashed and damaged. When I take customers there, I am always having to tell them to watch out for all the glass or we cannot use this spot because it’s littered with trash,” Stone said.

Rather than complaining about the situation, Stone has organized a “River Clean-up Day” for Saturday, October 14th, starting at 8:00 a.m. A Facebook event posted by Stone as already gotten great response from many in the community that want to help. The event has also received support from the City of Dell Rapids.

“The City of Dell Rapids said they would provide the trash bags and bring a couple of dumpsters down to throw all the bags into,” Stone said. “Since this is the first time, I am not sure how much ground we will cover, but I hope to cleanup all along the river from Highway 115 west to the trestle. If it works out great and I get a good response, I hope to keep this as an annual event and circle around to different areas of town each year.”

More information about the event can be found on the Facebook event page at https://www.facebook.com/events/116784005657149/. Stone can also be contacted at 605-254-6913 or at kiley1979@hotmail.com.

Dell Rapids School District Student Numbers Increase

September 14, 2017 by Matt Larson, Big Sioux Media

Preliminary numbers for the 2017-2018 school year shows an increase in students from last year at the Dell Rapids School District. Superintendent Dr. Summer Schultz reported the preliminary numbers to the Dell Rapids School Board during their regular meeting on Monday, September 11th.

“We have preliminary enrollment numbers, which until that last Friday in September I don’t ever like to put anything on paper just because it’s not official yet. But between crossover on lunch and what we’ve ran on Infinite Campus, it looks like we’re up approximately 19 students from what we’ve budgeted. That’s a great thing,” said Schultz. She noted that during the October meeting the board will receive the final official numbers.

Dr. Schultz also reported to the board that both the elementary and middle school staff are now starting to get into the Positive Action curriculum.

2018 City Budget Approved, But with Hesitations

September 7, 2017 by Matt Larson, Big Sioux Media

The Dell Rapids City Council approved the first reading of the 2018 City of Dell Rapids Budget (Ordinance 845 – 2018 Appropriations) at their regular meeting on Tuesday, September 5th. The approval, however, was not without some hesitations and push back.

“Personally when I have a big project coming up in a year or two, I cut my spending. I get prepared for that. I don’t want to have to borrow the whole thing,” Councilman Mark Crisp said during the meeting referring to the city’s plans to replace infrastructure (sewer and water lines) in Dell Rapids starting in 2019. Crisp mentioned issues with the sewer and water rates having to continue to rise to fund projects along with spending money to replace equipment he didn’t feel was needing to be replaced.

“We’re going to do the bath house, or whatever we’re calling that thing down there. That’s probably going to happen next year now at this point. People are going to see that. That’s a quality of life project. We’re going to be extending the trail. I understand that. That’s a quality of life,” Crisp said.

Councilman Barry Berg said, “I was going to say one of my downfalls on the budget is the (pool) slide. Frankly the pool is not supportive of a slide the way the pool is shaped.” Berg mentioned that he would rather see that money put towards something else right now and wait to do something more substantial at the pool to make it more worthwhile.

All the council members agreed that the dollars budgeted for a new slide and new office equipment could be removed from the budget.

The biggest contention was with the potential purchase of a new loader/grader for the city’s works department in 2018 even though the Equipment Replacement fund currently has money that can be used for the purchase. The discussions focused on whether or not the equipment really need to be replaced right now with larger projects coming in the near future. The city work’s department asked that the purchase of the new equipment be in the 2018 budget.

“I’d rather see that grader replaced and move the snow when we need it. We’re doing more streets,” said councilman Gary Haak.

The council needed two motions to pass the first reading of the budget. The original motion failed even though five of the seven council members voted in favor. The ordinance needed a 75% approval to pass. The second motion that passed by a 6-1 vote was to remove dollars in the budget to place a slide at the pool, remove the purchase of new office equipment at City Hall, and to remove taking money from the General Fund to place into the Equipment Replacement Fund. Crisp was the lone nay vote.

The new equipment purchase remained in the budget, however, the council would still need to have the actual purchase of the new equipment brought to the council. Then the council would still have to vote on actually spending those budgeted dollars on the new equipment.

2017 Homecoming Royalties Announced

September 6, 2017 by Matt Larson, Big Sioux Media

Homecoming Royalties for both Dell Rapids St Mary and Dell Rapids High Schools have been announced for this year. The Homecoming celebrations for both schools will be held Monday, September 11th through Friday, September 15th.

The 2017 Dell Rapids High School Royalty candidates are Shelby Apland, Tiffanie Dorale, Trinity Gordon, Sydney LaCoursiere, Matthew Gillogly, Carson Rentz, Mason Schmidt, and Jeffrey Schuch.

Photo courtesy of Stacey Gleason

The 2017 Dell Rapids St Mary High School Royalty candidates are Adyn Heinricy, Catherine Vogel, Sydney Cook, Drew Wood, Tate Hansen, and Logan Gaspar.

Photo courtesy of Joni Smith

Dell Rapids St Mary will have their Coronation on Monday, September 11th, at 6:30 p.m. The Dell Rapids Coronation will also be Monday, September 11th, at 8:00 p.m. The Homecoming parade will start at 1:0o p.m. on Friday, September 15th. This year’s Homecoming theme is “Movies”. Dell Rapids St Mary will host De Smet for their Homecoming game on Friday, while Dell Rapids will host West Central. Both games will start at 7:00 p.m. and both can be seen on Big Sioux Media.

Revive’s 3rd Annual Family Fun Event Another Big Success

August 28, 2017 by Matt Larson, Big Sioux Media

Revive Fitness held their 3rd Annual Revive & Connections Family Fun Event on Saturday, August 26th, at Dell Rapids City Park. It was another wonderful day full of great weather and lots of fun. The event consisted of a 5k, 10k, one mile fun run, kid’s relay, raffles, bounce houses, fire truck, ambulance, face painting, and a grilled meal. The Farmer’s Market was once again set up in the park during the event.

Revive Fitness owner Brittani Bollock said, “It wouldn’t be possible without all the participants and support!! Thank you to all the churches, emergency service groups, Ace, The Farmers Market and other local business vendors! I also want to give a big thank you to Ross Huska, Mike Hendrickson, and the Auxiliary ladies for grilling and serving lunch!”

Bollock, her staff, and all the volunteers put on another great event for the community of Dell Rapids!!

The winners of the 10k and 5k divisions were:

10k

OVERALL: Nicole Amundson

0-19: Grant Pederson
20-29: Kirsten Church (F); Jake Steffen (M)

30-39: Nicole Amundson (F) Matt Toennis (M)

40+: Lisa Schroeder (F); Marty Parsley (M)

OVERALL: Joshua Fletcher

0-19: Joshua Fletcher

20-29: Lindsey Kite (F); Dylan Dybedahl (M)

30-39: Rebecca Herman (F); Lee Kaffer (M)

40+: Shauna Hoglund (F); Keith Delange (M)

Dell Rapids Chamber Has Big Plans for Rest of 2017

August 25, 2017 by Matt Larson, Big Sioux Media

The Dell Rapids Chamber of Commerce has big plans for rest of the 2017 calendar year. Chamber President Dan Ahlers highlighted some of the items the chamber has planned during the Dell Rapids City Council regular meeting on Monday, August 21^st.

The first event that will be happening is the “Rhythm at the Rapids” music festival on Saturday, September 16^th. This is the second year for the event at Dell Rapids City Park.

“We created this event hoping it will be eventually a mini Jazz Fest for our community. We did fairly well last year for our first year. There were somewhere between 400 and 600 people total that attended that,” said Ahlers.

The event had five bands last year, and this year’s event will also feature five bands. The chamber plans to have other family friendly events at the park during the day such has bounce houses, face painting, and canvas painting. The city council also approved a 1-day alcoholic beverage license for the music festival to allow the chamber to sell alcoholic beverages throughout the day. The first act of the day will start at 11:00 a.m. with the last act scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m.

A new Dell Rapids Chamber of Commerce Administrator has also been hired. Calvin Bloemendaal, a recent graduate from South Dakota State University, was hired for the open position. Bloemendaal has degrees in Consumer Services Management and Family Financial Services. Bloemendaal will start in a couple of weeks and will also be giving chamber updates to the city council soon.

“He’s excited to get started. I think he’s going to be a great addition to our team and certainly is going to help move the chamber organization forward and help us continue to grow,” Ahlers said.

Ahlers also mentioned other projects that are in progress for the chamber. The chamber billboards will soon be updated with a new look. Ahlers reported that designs are in the final stages of being complete with a target of getting them in place yet this fall. A new Dell Rapids visitors and community guide is also in the works by the chamber. The guide will include a history of Dell Rapids section, culture section, business section, and possibly a couple of pages dedicated to surrounding communities. The chamber is working with Anderson Publications to print the guide, and they hope to have them complete by the Christmas at the Dells celebration.

Dell Rapids Baseball Association Makes Donation

August 21, 2017 by Matt Larson, Big Sioux Media

The Dell Rapids Baseball Association was able to make a donation of older, used baseball equipment to an organization that gives the equipment to kids in Nicaragua. The organization is called “Helping Kids Round First” and was founded by Craig Severtson of Flandreau. Jay Bentz, Dell Rapids PBR manager/player, is a board member of the organization. Other board members include Bill Nibbelink, Sam Gotham, Tim Huber, Brian Relf, and Gretta Melsted.

Every year the organization brings baseball and softball equipment and provides instruction to the youth in rural Nicaraguan communities.

The Dell Rapids Baseball Association was able to provide a small donation of used helmets, bats, equipment bags, hats, uniforms, and other items that will be given to the youth.

More information about “Helping Kids Round First” can be found by visiting their website at http://www.helpingkidsroundfirst.org/.

Dell Rapids Middle School Band Numbers Increase

August 17, 2017 by Matt Larson, Big Sioux Media

The Dell Rapids middle school band numbers will see a significant increase this coming school year. Dell Rapids Middle School Principal Fran Ruesink reported that 52 fifth graders were going out for band this year during the Dell Rapids School Board regular meeting on Monday, August 14th.

Ruesink said, “Bryan Timperley has been pretty busy this summer. He’s been giving free lessons to a lot of kids. Last spring he worked pretty hard at opening the door and getting kids acclimated and getting them introduced to instruments.”

The 5th and 6th grade band will have a total of 82 students this year with 30 sixth grade students joining the 52 fifth grade students. That number is up 20 students from the previous year. Last year there were 40 fifth grade students and 22 sixth grade students.

“It’s a testament to his character,” said Dell Rapids School Board President Matt Weiland.

Ruesink also mentioned that due the large number of students that will be participating in band this year, there is still more work to be done to get lessons scheduled.

“We’re trying to get the lessons and everything in the morning. It might bump up a little bit into the afternoon. There’s just a lot of kids, and he’s got to see them. It’s a good problem,” said Ruesink.

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