Hill City Prevailer

New public works director starts in Hill City

Published by admin on Thu, 03/05/2020 - 10:41am

Travis Kettner started as public works director in Hill City in January.

Kettner comes to Hill City after spending six years in the military, managing his family’s lumber company for 15 years and then doing electrical work.

“We love the Hills — me and my wife,” Kettner said. “We have been coming out here about once a month the last few years on vacation, and I’ve been coming out here to hunt since I was about 18. We just love the area.”

No Keystone election this year

Published by admin on Thu, 03/05/2020 - 10:41am

Elections for Keystone trustees will not take place this year.

Rick Greene and Casey McNulty will be the new town trustees. While last year five candidates ran for two open seats, this year only two people (McNulty and Greene) submitted paperwork for the two open positions.

Learn to paint in Keystone

Published by admin on Thu, 03/05/2020 - 10:40am

The Keystone Library will host a watercolor class March 12 from 6-8 p.m.

Local artist Jeff Gray will teach the class.

“I do watercolors anyway, so I thought I’d share the interest,” Gray said.

Gray, a lifelong artist, wants to show people how easy a process art can be.

Looking at transient vendor regulations

Published by admin on Thu, 03/05/2020 - 10:40am

The Hill City Planning and Zoning Commission has been tackling the issue of transient merchants at its recent meetings. On Monday it was no different as the commission spent some time discussing the matter.

Election law discussed at length

Published by admin on Thu, 02/27/2020 - 10:23am

Discussion over who is legally allowed to run for a seat on the Keystone Town Board took place at the most recent town board meeting Feb. 19.

The discussion was brought up by trustee Kwinn Neff and was on the agenda as “reminder of election law.” Trustee Neff brought up the discussion.

“I have on the agenda a complaint from a citizen on election laws,” Neff said. 

Council wants to get city project priorities straight

Published by admin on Thu, 02/27/2020 - 10:23am

At Monday’s Hill City Common Council meeting, the council discussed project priorities moving forward.

Priorities were discussed in the past; however, the council had not looked at its priority list for several months.

Of chief concern for both the council and the public was water and sewer. There is a water infiltration that is costing the city tens of thousands of dollars a year, it was reported.

Attainable housing plot, PUD approved

Published by admin on Thu, 02/27/2020 - 10:22am

The attainable housing development in Hill City took another step forward recently as the Hill City Planning and Zoning Commission and the Hill City Common Council both approved plat designs and planned use development (PUD) applications at both of their latest meetings.

The plat for the attainable housing development (to be called Bull Run Subdivision) was to create lots one through 20 of block one, lots one through 20 of block two and a dedicated public right of way.

Keystone to split bridge project bids

Published by admin on Thu, 02/27/2020 - 10:22am

Keystone will split the Roy Street bridge project into two separate bids, according to the most recent town board meeting.

The request is due to the design change to the bridge behind the c-store from a box culvert to a double “t.”

Town engineer Alan Drews said, “We’ve got the design of the bridges done on Roy Street. We ran into a snag, The state is requesting additional scour stuff.” 

Film Festival draws film fans to Hill City

Published by admin on Thu, 02/27/2020 - 10:22am

The 11th annual Black Hills Film Festival was in Hill City last weekend.

The two-day stop in the Heart of the Hills featured five sessions and over 15 films.

The closing session, held Sunday afternoon had short films about two local artists. Director Riley Thelen, from Pierre, debuted his first film entitled, “When Life Gives You Lemmon.” The nine-minute piece focuses on the small town of Lemmon and its most famous resident, sculptor and welder John Lopez.

Transparency takes center stage at council meeting

Published by admin on Thu, 02/27/2020 - 10:22am

Transparency was a big theme at Monday night’s Hill City Common Council meeting.

The council discussed whether or not other bodies should be video recording their meetings and what to do to make the video process easier.