Keystone water is good to go

Well three in Keystone is arsenic free. That is according to town public works supervisor Jerry Przybylski, who shared the news at the June 5 Keystone Town Board meeting. 

“It was high and we flushed it out for three days and it’s non-detectable now,” Przybylski said. He also said that well six, the newest well in town, is ready to go online after it gets flushed.

Town board president Casey McNulty picked the winners for the cemetery fundraiser.

John Zwetzig won the picnic table and Carolyn Clifford won the flower planter.  Przybylski  initiated the raffle and with community support $860 worth of tickets were sold.

“Thanks to everybody who bought tickets,” Przybylski  said.

The money will be used to create a space in the cemetery so people can easily locate where their loved ones are buried. 

A request from MK Peace via his lawyer John  Fitzgerald will appear on the next town board meeting agenda. Peace owns several plots in the town cemetery and wants to own them “for all eternity” according to Keystone town attorney Mitch Johnson. Johnson said if the town allows it Peace will give four plots back to the town  in order to keep the other six he has. Currently town ordinances state that if plots are not used in a 30-year timeframe then those plots can be rescinded by the town.

The sediment removal project is finally getting a green light. Trustees approved a $24,000 engineering proposal from Interstate Engineering to begin the bidding phase of the project. The fee  includes $15,000 for construction administration. The sediment is being removed from under the Winter Street bridge and 3rd Street bridge. 

“It’s taken a long time,” said trustee Sandi McLain, citing permitting issues as the main hold up for the project. McLain said the project needs to be done due to the belief that “if it floods all this is gonna go down Main Street.” 

“It does seem like a lot of money but we do need to fix it permanently,” McLain said.

David Holmgren, a business owner in town, asked the town board to consider the way current business license ordinances are written. Holmgren asked that multiple businesses under one address be treated as one business, not multiple. 

“If you have more than one sign and the same cash management it’s not multiple business licenses,” Holmgren said, adding that each uses only one tax ID. 

Holmgren said the current practice is onerous and said if the state can figure out how to manage it then the city should too. Holmgren said that with more than one business license he is forced to do multiple filings for securing J1 and H-2B seasonal workers.

The board approved  the purchase of a solar speed limit sign on 16A splitting the cost with the South Dakota Department of Transportation. The total cost of the sign is $3,858.

The board will continue the conversation regarding the senior citizen center and the alley. The matter was once again tabled. 

“We don’t really like the road going through our property,” said Karen Boland, representing the senior center. “We just want it moved over further so it’s not taking our property.”

However, the matter is not so simple. It is unclear if the alley is a dedicated public right of way or who might be impacted if the alley was moved to a section line.

“The way it sounds, the  road has been implied as a dedication to the public,” Johnson said. “The town would need to vacate that and get all property owners to agree to  a replat.”

Johnson will review all the information about the alley and the matter will once again be addressed at the next meeting.

In the meantime the board gave Boland permission to hire a surveyor to survey the property, using senior center money that the town administers.

Keystone museum director Jeanie Kirkpatrick asked for $1,000 from the city promotion fund to hype up Carrie Days July 26-28. The  board approved the sum which will be used for banners, flyers and advertisements. 

“This could be really, really big,” Kirkpatrick said. 

The Keystone Town Board meets again June 19 at 6 p.m.