This Saturday will mark a unique 10 year anniversary for Custer. Starting a decade ago, the Bark Beetle Blues steering committee, in cooperation with the Custer Area Arts Council, began holding annual observances to mark the devastation brought about by the Rocky Mountain pine beetle infestation which was raging at the time.
The Custer Community Center hasn’t yet been razed, but its resurrection is already in the works.
At the Jan. 3 meeting of the Custer City Council the council unanimously approved authorizing city staff to prepare a request for proposals to solicit design for the master plan for the community center campus on the location the current center will be torn down in the near future.
As both patients and businesses apply to do business in the medical cannabis world in South Dakota, Custer County is set to tweak ordinances it already has in place to deal with the industry—albeit with only small changes to be made.
Although the meeting room of the Hermosa Town Board wasn’t quite as packed as it was for the Dec. 21 meeting, it was mostly full last Tuesday for the first meeting of 2022. Items that had previously been points of controversy, including law enforcement issues, were on the agenda again as well as a promised response by board president Dan Holsworth to allegations made at the last meeting.
Auralee Jobjen and Connie Leimer, who had both spoken up at the December meeting, were in the audience, but campground owner Jerry Styles was absent.
Superintendents and school board members in District 30 are ecstatic Gov. Kristi Noem has proposed a 6 percent increase for education funding when the state’s legislature convenes this week. They are concerned, however, that they will be instructed where to spend the extra funds rather than having their local boards decide where the additional money would best be used.
While new COVID-19 cases have reached record levels since the pandemic began nearly two years ago, deaths have declined as the omicron variant, while extremely contagious, produces much milder symptoms than previous iterations of the virus.
The World Health Organization said last week that a record 9.5 million COVID-19 cases were tallied as the omicron variant of the coronavirus swept the planet, a 71 percent increase from the previous 7-day period, according to a report by the Associated Press. However, the number of weekly recorded deaths declined.
The National Park Service will have five entrance fee-free days in 2022. The free admission days are designed to encourage discovery and visitation of the country’s variety of national parks.
The free entrance dates for 2022 are:
Monday, Jan. 17 – Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
Saturday, April 16 – First Day of National Park Week
Thursday, Aug. 4 – Anniversary of the Great American Outdoors Act
Saturday, Sept. 24 – National Public Lands Day
Friday, Nov. 11 – Veterans Day
The Holy Terror Days Association (HTDA) honored some locals as “angels” over the Christmas holiday. The group wanted to acknowledge some people in the community who have stepped up to volunteer or who have worked tirelessly to help their neighbors.
One family of angels was the Halleys.Judy Dalton (Halley) recounts the event.
It’s been warm and dry in the Black Hills for an extended time and some businesses in the region are worried.
“This is the second year where we’ve had a really rough snowmobile season,” said Kevin Mcnitt, who owns the Mt. Meadow Store and Campground in Deerfield Lake.
McNitt said on a good year his store and restaurant would be packed most days with snowmobilers looking to get warm or get a hot meal. But with the lack of snow “it’s a big impact. Last year we had a similar year. We didn’t get much snow until February.”
