Opening to public travel in June of 2016; Fort Meade Way has seen several regulatory changes to its use:
July 2017
July 2016
August 2, 2017: The Meade County Commission met one week early this month because of the Sturgis Rally. Most of the County offices are preparing for this annual event. The totals of the rally will be out later next week.
The Meade County Fair was held this past week. Despite the drought - exhibits, venders and attendance were all up from previous years. Good job Jenny Voigt, SDSU Extension 4-H Youth Program Advisor.
After a lengthy discussion, a resolution was passed that declares Chaffee Place is not and has never been a public highway. This will allow the land owners to control the use of this private road.
We started discussions with RDO Equipment (John Deere) on our leased motors graders, which is up in December of 2019. This has to be part of 2019 budget discussion next year.
The highway department is working on replacing culverts all over the County as part of the ongoing maintenance of county roads. Work is progressing on the Elm Springs Road, with a completion date before school starts.
Keep cool and pray for rain.
Respectfully,
Commissioner Robert Heidgerken
The Meade County Commission met in regular session on Wednesday, July 26. We were greeted by a group of Fort Meade Way residents who came to discuss safety and speeding issues on the Fort Meade Way road. We Made a speed limit change, and will also post no passing sings on the entire road, and eliminate jake-braking on the south portion of the road. We would respectfully ask people driving on Fort Meade Way to follow the guidelines to ensure safety for vehicles and residents alike.
Our next Item of discussion was the New Underwood Road, which needs several million dollars of repairs. Due to budget restraints, we have put that project on hold for now. We had a lengthy meeting, spending the bulk of our time coming up with a balanced provisional budged which was passed by days end.
We were honored to recognize our Meade County Veteran of the month; Mr. Ralph E Besler, who had a distinguished military career, serving in both the Navy and the US Air Force. Finally, We approved a transfer of license for Peaceful Pines Casino Inc., approved a preliminary plat of lots 1-8 of Avalanche Subdivision and approved an abatement request.
Our next scheduled meeting will be on August 2nd.
Respectfully,
Ted Seaman
Commissioner
District 4
News from the Meade County Commission Meeting held July 12, 2017
The Meade County Commission met in regular session on Wednesday, July 12. The day was mostly spent on 2018 budget reviews for the various county departments. Of course, we are legally and morally obligated to have a balanced budget, and the good things to spend the money on always exceed the available funds. Therefore, the day was spent talking about what things we can not fund. Generally, the departments were very helpful in sorting through the things that can wait until later or things not to fund at all.
By the end of the day we were much closer to a balanced budget, but we are not there yet. The biggest cost challenge is the estimated 30% increase in health care costs. Also, the need for work on our county roads is always a high dollar item. We had to cut some big road projects, but the list isn’t finalized.
We must have a balanced provisional budget for publication by the end on July and the final budget is due in September. Watch the website and the newspapers for these budgets. We would love to hear from the folks in Meade County about their thoughts on the budget. Work will continue on the budget in our July 26th meeting.
In other business, we approved the transfer of the liquor license for the Spur Campground/Barrelhouse Bar to the new owner. We approved miscellaneous actions by the highway department to move along the road maintenance and repairs for this year and some plans for next year.
Thanks to Black Hills Energy for their assistance with the installation of our emergency notification siren at Black Hawk. This project required outside expertise and equipment; we appreciate their willingness to donate their time, professional skills and equipment to this critical endeavor.
Mr. Wright was born in Valentine, NE and raised in California. After high school Mr. Wright knew when the war started, he had to go. He didn't want to go into the regular Army, so he volunteered for the ski troops. He was accepted and that started his Army career.
Mr. Wright trained and worked in Washington, California, Colorado, Alaska, Texas, and the mountainous ranges in Europe.
Early on in his training Mr. Wright can remember the maneuvers at Jolon, California. “First night out I thought I had found a good place to sleep. In the morning I heard everybody going to mess, but I could not see anything! It seems I slept next to a poison oak bush. I was in such bad shape, I had to be taken to the hospital. It took almost a week before I was released. “
Another story Mr. Wright remembers takes place in August of 1943. They were going to hit the “beach” and there was only room for one landing craft at a time which meant the should expect heavy casualties. It was foggy and raining so the visibility was nil. They had about 100 feet of beach to cross, then a cliff to climb. Just as they reached the top they heard gunfire of to one side, so they were told to dig in and get ready for a Japanese attack. The ridge they were on was solid rock so they couldn’t dig a very deep foxhole. His buddy and he managed to dig a hole to fit one soldier. It soon filled up with water, but they took turns lying in ice cold water and tried to get a little rest. The gunfire stopped, but they could not see more than a few feet in front of them. They were sure that the Japanese were about ready to jump in their hole. As it turned out, the gunfire was from friendly troops. The Japanese left by submarine the day before they landed.
Early in World War II, the world heard about two heavily armored Russian divisions invading Finland, only to be crushed by Finnish troops on skis. The president of the National Ski Patrol in the U.S. convinced the War Department that the U.S. Army should work to develop a similar unit, and the Army created three mountain warfare divisions; training troops in rock climbing, skiing, and mountaineering. The division started out as an experiment to train skiers and climbers to fight in the most difficult, mountainous terrain. Their training began at Camp Hale, near Pando, Colorado included: skiing, snowshoeing and rock climbing. They also learned cold-weather survival tactics, such as keeping warm by building snow caves. The men lived in the mountains for weeks, working in altitudes of up to 13,500 feet, in five to six feet of snow and in temperatures that dropped to 20 degrees below zero at night. Only one, the 10th Mountain Division, saw combat in World War II. In four months, the division had one of the highest casualty rates of any in the war.
Mr. Wright said that we lost a lot of men. A lot of things happen, but I will only remember the ones that had some humor. We had a lot of enemy encounters and more climbing than skiing, but we accomplished our mission. Our unit was then sent to the Yugoslavia border to supervise the turning over of arms from the Yugoslavia army. What a laugh, no way were they going to comply with that. As we went forward, we spent a couple of weeks touring the little mountain villages in that area. From there we were shipped back to the states for discharge.
An interesting fact about the individuals from the 10th Mountain Division they were skiers and soldiers, trained to use their mountain skills in combat, and when they returned from war they helped build the American ski industry as we know it. In the postwar years, many veterans of the 10th returned to Colorado, Wyoming and Montana, and formed the foundation of the U.S. ski industry. They worked as ski instructors, ski school directors, Olympic and college coaches, and helped found resort areas in Colorado, such as Winter Park, Arapahoe Basin and Vale.
This is exactly what Mr. Wright did too. He married and moved to Aspen, Colorado where he was a ski instructor and contractor for 30 years. He retired to New Mexico where his son lives - before later moving to Piedmont, SD with his daughter.
Mr. Wright has 2 children, 2 grandchild and 1 great grandchild. His hobbies are skiing and mountain climbing.
Home
Calendar
Contact Us
Scoreboard
GIS
Board Docs
Meade County YouTube Live
