News

On Jan. 24, LeRon Knebel and granddaughter Kayla Kirchmeier attended the Lake Area Technical College scholarship banquet in Watertown. They presented two scholarships in memory of the late John Knebel of Eden.

Calee Hagen could have a great time playing dress-up at her home currently. She is in possession of many prom and formal dresses of all styles and sizes. However, Hagen is not collecting dresses for her own enjoyment. Rather, she is doing it for a good cause: to provide affordable prom dresses to girls while benefitting a worthwhile charity.

After being on-call in some capacity since the 1980’s Todd Landmark is ready to hang up his many hats. He was formerly a Marshall County sheriff’s deputy, and until retiring from the department recently, a member of the North Marshall Fire Department for 34 years. At the end of January, Landmark also retired from his position as Marshall County Emergency Management (EM) Director following a 16 year stint.

It’s a dream come true.

Britton-Hecla fourth graders had an electric time a few weeks back thanks to the local electric co-op. Lake Region Electric Association visited Paula Hanson’s students for their ‘Co-ops in the Classroom’ program.

Amber (Andrews) Bowen works from home. Her office is in the corner of her basement in a farmhouse west of Britton. Her two computer monitors sit against the cinderblock wall. Occasionally she has to bang on her washing machine if it gets too loud while she’s on a meeting. While this situation might sound typical these days, especially in a post-COVID shutdown world, Bowen works for a company that you might not imagine a small-town South Dakota girl would work for: Ultimate Fighting Championship, better known as UFC.

Area city board positions will be up for election this spring.

“The shortage of substitute teachers, both in quantity and quality, across the country has never been more severe,” wrote Geoffrey Smith, director of the Substitute Teacher Training Institute, in a 2022 article for the National School Superintendents Association website. Though Smith penned those words last year, the issue remains and is true for South Dakota as well: There are not enough substitute teachers to go around. Yet, area principals say that it can be a great job for many reasons and invite local people to learn more about the position.

Concern over the future of the teaching profession in South Dakota has led to more aggressive efforts by education officials to train and inspire a new generation of classroom leaders, with particular emphasis on elementary school classrooms.