Jan 31st, 2010
by Craig Wenzel.
PIERRE – Crews assisting with storm repairs at six South Dakota electric cooperatives continue to make steady progress Saturday as they sought to restore power to about 2,000 homes. Power in the Wessington Springs area was restored to the last Central Electric Power Co. customer on Thursday night, January 25. Some customers in the area were without electricity for ab0ut a week. Central Electric crews installed 50 new poles –covering a distance of about four miles– to reach the final Jerauld County customer and restore their power.
Grand Electric Cooperative hopes to restore power to the last 15 of its members Sunday. However, to do so, the cooperative needs to set 140 more poles in deep snow in remote locations today and Sunday morning. The cooperative in northwestern South Dakota was able to restore power to 15 homes on Friday.
Another cooperative reported that to make repairs on two wire breaks in one area, a four-mile path had to be dug through the snow to access the damage. The fix resulted in several homes receiving power.
More than 650 workers assisting at the cooperatives come from cooperatives, public power districts, municipal utilities and private contractors in 10 states. Additionally, the South Dakota National Guard, area farmers and students from Mitchell Technical Institute are also assisting the crews. This is in addition to the impacted cooperatives’ own work forces of more than 100 people.
Repairs are expected to take several days before power is restored to the nearly 2,000 rural homes still without power.
The storm knocked down in excess of 8,200 power poles across eastern, central and northern South Dakota. The storm also caused thousands of wire breaks and damaged other infrastructure.
Jan 31st, 2010
by Craig Wenzel.
BY PENNY WENZEL
WESKOTA MANOR AVERA ACTIVITIES LEADER
In honor of Customer Appreciation Week October 4-10, members of the Service Excellence Team at Weskota Manor Avera hosted Customer Appreciation Bingo and provided a special snack afterwards.
Dorothy Krog played her Autoharp for us on October 13.
Tom Shonley entertained residents with storytelling on October 20. Tom also comes and volunteers on other days during each month by getting residents to group activities and calling Bingo numbers.
Susan and Gail Arnott, accompanied by Twila Zastrow, sang for the residents on October 21. We always enjoy their wonderful music.
Jan 31st, 2010
by Craig Wenzel.
TRUE DAKOTAN PHOTO/DUKE
BRYANNA KURTH, a fifth grader at Springs Elementary, gets off the school bus at her home on College Avenue last week. The bus department, overseen by Superintendent Lance Witte and Supervisor Kim Baker have had some tough calls over the past month or so as ice, snow storms, and fog has made travel hard in the country. As of last week, the students will have to make up three days in the spring but another snow storm Monday morning had school being called off and perhaps adding another make up day later in the year. The school bus supervisors and drivers should be applauded for their efforts both to keep our children safe and also make sure they get an education.
Jan 31st, 2010
by Craig Wenzel.
A young father was packing for a business trip while his three year old daughter was having a wonderful time playing on the bed. At one point she said, ’Daddy, look at this’ , and stuck out two of her fingers.
Trying to keep her entertained, he reached out and stuck her tiny fingers in his mouth and said, ‘Daddy’s gonna eat your fingers,’ pretending to eat them. He went back to packing, looked up again and the child was standing on the bed staring at her fingers with a devastated look on her face. ‘What’s wrong, honey?’ he asked. She replied, ‘What happened to my booger?’
PIERRE – Crews assisting with storm repairs at six South Dakota electric cooperatives continue to make steady progress Saturday as they sought to restore power to about 2,000 homes. Power in the Wessington Springs area was restored to the last Central Electric Power Co. customer on Thursday night, January 25. Some customers in the area were without electricity for ab0ut a week. Central Electric crews installed 50 new poles –covering a distance of about four miles– to reach the final Jerauld County customer and restore their power.
