Winter Weather Dominates News

2022 was even more of a return to normalcy after two years of pandemic-induced life changes. Though COVID was still a concern, Marshall County residents often had bigger fish to fry. Chief among the concerns that affected day to day life in northeastern South Dakota was the wily weather.

To say that the weather in South Dakota is the biggest story of the year perhaps seems too obvious, but 2022 has been a doozy, especially when it came to winter weather. The year was bookended by extreme weather that was in many cases destructive.

January started with feet of snow. Precipitation continued into calving and planting season, causing problems all around. April brought the second highest amount of precipitation ever recorded in that month in Marshall County. According to Darah Melroe, Marshall County Farm Service Agency, that month of bad weather entailing excessive moisture, cool temperatures, and abnormal wind gusts over 35 mph all attributed to large numbers of calving deaths reported in the area. The Marshall County FSA office received dozens of calls from cattle operators with calving losses ranging from three or four to 80-plus. Cows were no exception with approximately 30 deaths reported related to extreme weather conditions.

In many conversations about the weather events this spring, producers consistently mention they’ve never seen it like this before, noted Melroe, which was verified by weather documentation. Consequently, many farmers got into the field significantly later than normal or didn’t get in the field at all, leaving many prevent plant acres.

Jump forward a half year and the winter onslaught started again, quickly and fiercely. An ice storm in mid-November caused a myriad of problems. Broken branches and trees littered the ground. Electric companies dealt with thousands of power outages. That was followed by snow in December. Another smaller ice storm hit the area followed immediately by a multi-day blizzard that brought travel to a standstill across much of the upper Midwest. In the last week, as 2022 limps to a close, the weather struck again with multiple inches of snow on Christmas. Will 2023 give us a snow break? It remains to be seen.

Number Two B-H Oral Interp Continues Winning Ways

The Britton-Hecla Oral Interpretation team put in another successful season in 2022. Their impressive run started when Britton-Hecla High School won the District 7 Oral Interpretation Contest for the second year in a row. The team qualified all seven entries into the Region Contest, Ashlyn Casey earned a berth in three events: serious reading, duet, and reader’s theatre. Oliver Moeckly was her duo partner, and Will Schuller, Cassidy Biel, Regan Ringkob, and Katee Freeman rounded out the reader’s theatre. Schuller moved on with his humorous selection, Biel with her poetry, and Ringkob with her non-original oratory. Brynlee Patterson qualified in storytelling.

At the Region competition, Britton-Hecla advanced five different selections to the state festival. These selections included Biel, Patterson, Schuller, Ringkob and the Readers Theater group.

The team ultimately walked away from the 113th Annual South Dakota Oral Interpretation Festival in Mitchell with some impressive accolades. Four selections came home with Superiors, two of which were Superiors with Distinction. A Superior with Distinction means that the three person panel of judges all gave the highest possible ratings in all five rubric categories. The seniors earned a Superior with their Reader’s Theatre.

Schuller went on to earn a Superior with Distinction in the humorous category, the first Britton-Hecla student to ever earn three of these coveted awards over his interp career. Ringkob nailed her oratory performance to earn the second Superior with Distinction for the team. Biel earned her Superior medal in the poetry division.

Number Three Buckhorn Turns 50

The Buckhorn Rodeo celebrated its 50th anniversary this year. About 1,600 people attended the two-day event in June at the beautiful natural amphitheater located about eight miles east of Britton.

Fifty years ago, Kay Friebel’s dad, Ed Friebel, had a friend that was a calf roper, and when he saw the natural bowl located about eight miles east of Britton he thought it would be a perfect place for a rodeo arena. Ed agreed, and in Kay’s words, “away it went.”

“The 50th year was very special,” said Kay. “We had about 50 family members here, including 92-year-old Moritz Friebel all the way from Texas.” Kay, along with Susan Smith and Carolyn Smith, are the only three surviving members of the original Buckhorn organization.

The Buckhorn Rodeo Association was formed in 1972 with 10 founding members that included Jerry Biegler, Ed Friebel, Kennth Beck, Pat Cleberg, Clark Lamport, Bill Spiry, Les Patterson, Maris Williams, Bob Andrews, and Buss Tisher. Today Friebel estimated there are about 80 Buckhorn members from “babies all the way up.”

Rodeos have been held every year with the exception of two years ago due to COVID19.

Number Four Local Lt. Governor Candidate/Midterm Election

The midterm election in Marshall County was a busy one. Several challengers on the ballot tried to unseat incumbents and a couple of huge ballot issues interested voters. A local name in a big race also made headlines.

In the middle of the summer, Jennifer Keintz of Eden of was announced as the running mate for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jamie Smith. Keintz was currently serving a term as a District 1 House representative.

When asked why she was willing to throw her hat into this very big ring, Keintz said, “I think it’s important to give people choices. Jamie has ideas I’m comfortable aligning myself with- good ideas that will bring South Dakotans together.” Keintz and Smith were ultimately defeated by incumbent Kristi Noem.

Incumbent Republican Michael Rohl defeated Independent challenger Susan Wismer of Britton for the District 1 Senate seat in the South Dakota Legislature. Republicans Tamara St. John and Joe Donnell took the District 1 House seats over Democratic challengers Steve McCleerey and Kay Nikolas.

Voters had decisions to make on two ballot issues in November as well. Initiated Measure 27, which would legalize the possession, use and distribution of marijuana was rejected in the county and statewide. Constitutional Amendment D to expand Medicaid was given the thumbs up in Marshall County and on a state basis.

Voter turnout in the county was a very good 68.12 percent with 1,911 of 2,805 registered voters going to the polls. A total of 379 of those votes were cast by absentee ballot.

Number Five MCHC Completes Building Project

After months of work, the $4 million building project at Marshall County Healthcare Center Avera in Britton was completed this summer. The project was first announced in November of 2020. Through the process, it changed in scope and morphed into the construction of completely new clinics, registration desks, waiting areas, offices, and more.

MCHC Administrator, Nick Fosness explained that COVID funds made the new construction project possible. After being allotted about $4.6 million through the CARES act, MCHC got to work.

The new additions to the healthcare center were conceived around an important concept, sick and healthy patients should not co-mingle. Consequently, the ‘well’ clinic, where patients are seen for routine healthcare needs like physicals or well-child checkups, functions as one might expect with regular check-ins and getting led to an exam room. ‘Sick’ patients now don’t go through those same steps. They are greeted at a separate door and directed into an exam room right away, never having to mingle with others. This separation of patients is a groundbreaking concept for the area.

As far as other features and amenities relating to the project, there is state of the art lighting, exam tables, and exam room layouts also make the providers’ and patients’ experience better and safer. Additionally, Fosness pointed out negative air pressure ventilation that draws air out of a room to avoid additional disease and odor spreading. A new black top parking lot on the east side of the building completed the project.

Other building projects in the area continue, including additions to Horton Industries and remodeled apartments in Britton.

Number Six COVID Concerns Continue

Two and a half years after most of us learned the phrase “COVID-19,” the virus both seems like a distant memory and ever present reality. And it was still often a news item in Journal Country.

Area folks contracted the illness in high numbers, though it became more difficult to keep a reliable count. Reported numbers of illnesses spiked in early 2022, though seemed to take a nose dive in later months. The SD Department of Health’s dashboard shows 343 new cases in Marshall County since the beginning of the year. However, local health professionals noted that number is artificially low because of at-home testing and less reporting of the illness The impacts of the virus continued to be seen and felt throughout the year. In the spring semester, Britton-Hecla School closed for a couple days due to several students and teachers having COVID. Federal relief dollars from the pandemic resulted in various projects at every level of society, including the local schools and the Marshall County Healthcare Center.

By summer, MCHC Nurse Practitioner Sara Raabe expressed concern again about the local endemic as many people were coming up ill. The hospital started offering the new bivalent booster vaccine that would better protect against the aggressive Omicron variant.

Most have accepted that COVID is here to stay, so it remains to be seen if the virus will again make an appearance on our Top 10 list.

Number Seven Courthouse Plans Taking Shape

Discussions and plans continued to move forward relating to the Marshall County Courthouse. The project seeks to remodel and update the current building with the possibility of an addition. As of discussions in August, the building remodel and addition had an estimated cost of $9.5 million, with the county putting in $34 million and financing the remainder.

Throughout the year, the Marshall County Commissioners had many discussions with the engineering firm ISG about the project. They discussed a proposal with the company for marketing and communication services to help inform the public and hold public meetings for the proposed work.

In recent months, the commission approved ISG’s fees, amounting to $15,000, for plans and marketing of the project before a planned ballot referendum takes place perhaps in June. In the upcoming months, there will be public meetings held and information on the project dispersed. Construction could hopefully start in the spring of 2024.

Number Eight Changing Of The Guard At Langford Area

There was another changing of the guard at Langford Area School this year in the superintendent’s office. In January, the LA Board of Education accepted the resignation of Superintendent Brett Gibbs, who planned to step away during the summer. Gibbs assumed the position the previous year when long-time superintendent Monte Nipp retired.

In the months that followed, the board went on to conduct a search and eventually extended a contract to Ryan Bruns. Bruns had most recently spent eight years as a superintendent in the Northwestern School District.

Bruns took over the LA job in July. One of the opportunities that he was happy to add to the district has been Premier Online Academy, a free online public school for kindergarten through 12th grade students. This school is part of the LA School District. He has also been happy to see the school’s ag and FFA programs get moving.

Number Nine Dangerous, Deadly Fires

In 2022, the area saw a handful of very destructive fires. In late February, the North Marshall Fire Department was called to the Devin and Sydney Yelkin residence in Britton located just north of the former Hunter’s building. Firemen were on the scene for five hours and prevented the fire from spreading to any other homes, but the Yelkin home was a total loss and a family cat died in the fire. In the days and weeks after the fire, many donated and contributed to fundraisers to help the family get back on their feet.

Not long after that fire in February, fire departments from five area communities spent most of a day controlling a fire at Full Circle Ag in Pierpont. Firefighters were called to a fire in the chemical storage shed and remained on site well into the evening. No injuries were reported. Flames eventually spread to the nearby office building, but firefighters were able to protect a seed building to the south.

Fire departments from Pierpont, Webster, Andover, Bristol, and Langford were on scene. The hazardous materials response team from Aberdeen Fire & Rescue also responded to help coordinate cleanup of hazardous materials. Cleanup was minimal due to the fact that the ground was still frozen.

Ahouse fire on the west edge of Britton in May resulted in the death of a Britton resident. 64-year-old Donna Schott died when her house at 1622 Vander Horck caught fire. Responding to the fire were the North Marshall Fire Department, the Marshall County Ambulance, and the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office. The South Dakota State Fire Marshal’s office and the Marshall County Coroner’s Office also responded.

Number Ten Area Honorees

As usual, there was plenty of special recognition sent Marshall County’s way during the past year.

Marshall County Snow Queens were among the royalty chosen at the state contests in January. Britton Area Snow Queen Marissa Sumption was selected as Princess of Spring, Langford Area Junior Snow Queen Jordis Jenner was named first runner-up at the recent South Dakota Snow Queen Festival. In November, Junior Snow Queen Corinne Bosse and Snow Queen Regan Ringkob were crowned at the Britton Area Snow Queen Festival. Langford Area crowned Grace Hatfield as their Junior Snow Queen.

The Kevin and Ann Stiegelmeier family was honored

by the South Dakota National Guard in February with the Adjutant General’s Family Award. The award recognizes family members who support their service members in a truly exemplary manner while managing family, careers, or even hardship, all the while not seeking recognition for their sacrifices. Kevin is a member of the 196th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade of Sioux Falls.

The Bien Ranch of Veblen was selected as the recipient of the 2022 South Dakota Leopold Conservation Award. Bien Ranch is operated by Neil and Muriel Bien, along with Neil’s brothers, Boyd and Lyle, and their families. The Effling family was featured in a video for the “Our Amazing Grasslands” campaign sponsored by the South Dakota Grassland Coalition.

This past summer, two Marshall County vets, LeRoy Aadland, a Korean War Army veteran, and Lorne Hill, also a Korean War Army vet, were among about 84 vets that were part of the latest Midwest Honor Flight trip to Washington D.C.

Langford Area seventh grader Brynn Samson was selected to the Middle School All-State Band in the clarinet section. Langford Area All-State Chorus performers included Laney Widener (soprano), Jesse Keough (bass), Eliana Darling (alto) and Kalen Godel (tenor). The B-H All-State quartet included Erika Symens (soprano), Jerod Nebrida (bass), Ashlyn Casey (alto) and Dyl Nebrida (tenor).

Two area seniors, Britton-Hecla’s Alyssa James and Langford Area’s Avery West, were chosen as Lake Region Electric Scholars of The Week this past fall.

Long-time Britton-Hecla educator Gretchen Christenson was named the school’s Teacher of the Year. Christenson has been an educator for over 26 years. Former Britton-Hecla superintendent Don Kirkegaard was the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award presented by the South Dakota School Superintendent Association (SDSSA). Britton-Hecla’s Sheila Anderson was named the South Dakota Counselor’s Association Counselor of the Year in May.

Chloe Furman was chosen as the Britton-Hecla DAR Good Citizen Award recipient and was also selected as the district winner. Furman was also among 14 students selected for the Venture Communications Cooperative, Inc. 2022 Citizenship and Community service scholarship.

Rose Kraft was inducted into the South Dakota 4-H Shooting Sports Hall of Fame at the State Fair. Britton native Chelsey Redler, Activities Coordinator at Four Seasons Healthcare Center in Forman, ND, was one of four selected from 563 applications this year as North Dakota Long Term Care Association Caregiver Award Winner.

Pam Lunzman was named the 2022 Outstanding Customer Service Representative of the Year recipient for the state of South Dakota by The National Alliance for Insurance Education & Research. The Norstar Credit Union of Britton was one of two credit unions recognized for their outstanding social impact achievements Dakota Credit Union Association (DakCU) awards banquet.

Four Britton youth wrestlers placed at the state meet held in Sioux Falls. Crue Jones led the way with a fourth place finish, and Corbin Dawson, Sarah Cease, and Emersyn Eimers all placed seventh. Maggie Kilker of Britton-Hecla was the only individual placer for the Lady Braves in the state gymnastics meet, taking eighth on the balance beam. The team also brought home an eighth place finish.

Area players named to the boys and girls squads for the All-Star Basketball Game from Britton-Hecla include Aidan Fredrickson, Chloe Furman, and Jenna Werner. Selected from Langford Area were Ben Gustafson, Aden Godel, Brayden Peterson, Katie Jensen, Jennaka Nelson, Morgan Glines, and Olyvia Dwight. Britton-Hecla basketball coach Terry Nelson was also named as the coach for the Class B boys and girls teams in the AllStar Games sponsored by B-103 Radio. Fredrickson won a tie-breaker to claim the Class B 3-Point Shootout title at the game.

The Britton U10 baseball team brought home the third place trophy from the Class B State Tournament for the second straight year. B-H Senior quarterback BoDell Davidson received honorable mention Class 9AA All-State recognition and was also an honorable mention selection for the Sioux Falls Argus Leader’s Elite 45 which includes all divisions in the state.

Marshall County Sharpshooters 8 & 9 year old team made it a clean sweep for the season, winning the team championship in every tournament. The Marshall County Sharpshooters finished fifth in the National Daisy BB Gun Tournament in Rogers, AR. Marshall County’s only individual medalist from this year’s national tourney – Baylee Bender –won the bronze medal in the alternate division. Carter Effling earned a fourth place finish in the trapshooting category at the National 4H Shooting Sports competition held in Grand Island, NE.

Brian Rabenberg, a 1987 Britton High school graduate and 1992 Moorhead State University grad, was named to the University of Minnesota Moorhead Athletic Hall of Fame for his track accomplishments this year. Steve Hammer, a member of the final graduating class from Pierpont High School, was inducted into the South Dakota Intercollegiate Conference (SDIC) Basketball Hall of Fame this year. Marv Rasmussen of Langford was also inducted into the SDIC Basketball Hall of Fame in recognition of his stellar career playing for the Northern State Wolves. Langford Area Boys Basketball Coach Paul Raasch was named the Region 1 Coach of the Year by the South Dakota Basketball Coaches Association.

Members of the 2022 Marshall County Journal All-Area Academic Team included Ethan Denholm, Aidan Fredrickson, Chloe Furman, and Kadence Haug of Britton-Hecla, and Olyvia Dwight and Benjamin Gustafson of Langford Area. Seniors Chloe Furman of Britton-Hecla and Benjamin Gustafson of Langford Area were honored by the Associated School Boards of South Dakota as the ‘Best and Brightest’ for being in the top one percent of their senior classes.

The Marshall County Relay for Life raised $60,679.77 this year for cancer research, education and patient programs and services. Cleo Symens and Carol Jones who had been cochairs of the Cancer Board for over 20 years resigned from their positions this year.

Lily Mundt of Britton won the HubArea 4-H Regional Rodeo Jr. Ambassador award, as a part of the 4-H rodeo this summer. She also won the Horsemanship Award with her horse, Dotty. Carter Effling was given the Key Award, the Outstanding 4-Her Award and 4-H Archery Scholarship at the Marshall County 4-H Recognition Event this fall. Joe Lang was named Friend of 4H.

At Britton-Hecla High School Homecoming, BoDell Davidson was named king and McKaelyn Zuehlke was crowned queen. Avery West and Jesse Keough reigned over Langford Area homecoming activities.

The 24th Annual Heart of Dakota Award winners were Vicky Hoines and Shelly Steiner, People’s Choice winners; Gail Smith and Helen Nice of Britton Senior Nutrition, Customer Service; Rhonda Wade, Community Involvement and Logan Smith, Agribusiness.