Hill City Prevailer

The history — and story — of Hill City and its library are interwoven.

Both, said Tammy Alexander, director of the Hill City library, had false starts and periods of non-existence.

“But now, both are surviving,” she said.

Hill City began when gold was discovered in the area in 1876 and became the second settlement in the Black Hills. When the word got out that there was more gold in the Northern Hills, the town was nearly deserted.

A proposed agreement with the Pennington County Highway Department and the Town of Keystone did not gain traction at the most recent town board meeting.

The agreement would have had the town perform snow removal on Old Hill City Road from Hwy. 16A west for .67 miles with the county providing 100 ton of a sand/salt mixture for spreading.

Concerns about the agreement were expressed by Jerry Przybylski of public works.

A “close contact” protocol for the district was approved by the Hill City School Board at its most recent meeting. There was no discussion on the matter.

The protocol allows for “students to return upon the completion of a 72 hour quarantine from their last contact with a COVID positive individual.” Additionally, “students must not have any symptoms.”

Superintendent Blake Gardner, who was not present at the meeting, provided the board with statistics, which show 38 percent of districts in South Dakota require three to five days of quarantine after exposure.