News

Erin Loder new chamber director

Published by admin on Wed, 09/18/2024 - 9:21am
Erin Loder is the new Hill City Area Chamber of Commerce (HCACC) executive director. Loder is taking over for former director Janet Wetovick-Bily who retired after 11 years with the chamber.
Raised in North Carolina, Loder is the daughter of a United States Army Green Beret. She moved to Guam in January 2020 just before Covid-19 hit. Shortly after, Loder started working for the Guam Women’s Chamber of Commerce (GWCC).

Sunset Creek project to begin Oct. 1

Published by admin on Wed, 09/18/2024 - 9:19am
A date was set for the Sunset Creek road resurfacing project. Construction will begin Oct 1. 
The plans prepared by Callen Hecker with city engineer AE2S were put out for bid and three responses were received. After the bids were opened Sept. 4, AE2S recommended the Hill City Common Council award the construction contract to Dakota Asphalt, LLC. 
The base bid came in at $357,496, and the ditch work came in at $27,075 making the total $384, 571. Council previously set aside $400,000 from a settlement agreement for this project. 

Town OKs haunting lease, talks marketing strategy

Published by admin on Wed, 09/18/2024 - 9:15am
A special Keystone Town Board Meeting resulted in the approval of the Haunting of Keystone lease.
Trustees voted to approve the lease at the Sept. 11 meeting.

Scheduling issues means no-go for class offering

Published by admin on Wed, 09/18/2024 - 9:14am
The Hill City School District will not offer the proposed EMT class this year, with high school principal Todd Satter citing scheduling and student conflict as the reasons. Satter said the issue to the Hill City School District (HCSD) board at its Sept. 9 meeting.
He said Western Dakota Tech needed students to have more seat time in the class, which was a deal breaker for some students. 
For others the strict absence policy, which forces a student to be dropped upon the eighth absence, was an issue.

City council sets budget for $12.6M

Published by admin on Wed, 09/11/2024 - 10:07am

The Custer City Council passed the first reading of an appropriation ordinance at its Sept. 3 meeting, setting the city budget at $12,658,432, down drastically from last year’s budget, which sat around $17 million. Now, the budget is nearly the same as it was for 2023, which was also about $12.6 million. The reason for last year’s budget hike was mostly due to the city’s project to upgrade the wastewater treatment system, which is now nearing completion.

Addae-Mensa gets 115 years

Published by admin on Wed, 09/11/2024 - 10:06am

A Custer man will more than likely die in prison for sex crimes he committed against his biological daughter.

Ministry shares love in parks

Published by admin on Wed, 09/11/2024 - 10:05am

A group in Custer State Park has been working to “be a light in communities and spread love to people in the parks,” said Lilly Allen with A Christian Ministry in National Parks (ACMNP), a grassroots student-led ministry that aims to provide interdenominational Christian worship services for people in the nation’s parks—for visitors, park employees and even some locals. ACMNP sends ministry teams to several national parks in the United States and a couple state parks as well.

New ADA sidewalks now at Gates Park

Published by admin on Wed, 09/11/2024 - 10:02am

The sidewalks at Gates Park have undergone a big upgrade recently as they are now up to Americans with Disabilities Act specifications.
The need for the updated sidewalks was identified in a Custer City parks master plan done in 2017, said  Steve Pischke, chairperson of the city Parks, Recreation and Forestry Committee. The work has taken less than a year to complete and was bid out earlier in this calendar year.  

Hermosa switches gears on water project again

Published by admin on Wed, 09/11/2024 - 10:00am

A Town of Hermosa water project for which the Custer County Commission has allocated $500,000 in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding is set to change again, but Hermosa town officials say it’s the last time the scope of the project will be changed.
It was February 2022 when the Custer County Commission first began to allocate $1.7 million given it through ARPA, a post-Covid-19 pandemic program administered by the federal government.

Town to try for state water plan

Published by admin on Wed, 09/11/2024 - 9:24am
Keystone is moving forward with a sewer pipe expansion project. At the Sept. 4 Keystone Town Board of Trustees meeting trustees asked their town engineer to begin an application with the state water plan. The proposed $5.6 million dollar plan will update the existing pipe to 14 inches.
Currently the 10-inch pipe that is in place can handle about 690,000 gallons of flow. 
Town engineer Zach Grapentine said cameras have shown the existing pipe is currently full. 
“Based off data you guys are at capacity,” he said.