- This is a - Production of SDPD.

There's a season for everything, hunting season, tourist season, construction season, no matter the season, it's up to South Dakotans to maintain the attractions that keep visitors coming back year after year.

Whether that means developing a new trail system or managing a whole lot of wastewater, how communities maintain amenities for visitors and locals.

That's tonight's South Dakota Focus.

- South Dakota Focus is made possible with help from our members.

Thank you.

And by Black Hills State University and Cody, Wyoming and Yellowstone National Park.

- South Dakota is made for a road trip.

The state is striped by more than 82,000 miles of roadway.

According to the Department of Transportation, some of the most rural roads are maintained by townships scattered across the prairie.

Pete Fahlberg is the president of the South Dakota Association of Towns and Townships.

- There's 900 plus townships in the state of South Dakota, and the association helps all of those little government units to understand what they're supposed to be doing.

A lot of township activity involves road maintenance, just keeping the right of ways as passable for vehicle traffic, snow removal in the wintertime, mowing the road, ditches, weed control as necessary.

You know, when you think of tourism south in South Dakota, you're going to probably think if you're outta state, oh, Mount Rushmore, the Corn Palace, Falls Park, and none of that involves township roads to get to.

But you know, then there are some things that are out there that are a little less traveled if you are hunting or fishing.

Some of the good hunting and fishing spots are accessible by gravel roads, so there's a little bit of that that goes on.

- Maintaining access to those habitats is just as important for the local outdoorsmen as it is for a visiting hunter.

And just as local communities maintain rural roads, it's up to residents to preserve peak habitat.

Ryan Wendinger is the Habitat Administrator for South Dakota Game Fish and Parks.

We met him at the outdoor campus in Sioux Falls.

He says, partnerships with federal and state entities can help landowners preserve habitat for pheasants and other popular game.

One is the Conservation Reserve program through the USDA.

- It's a voluntary program for, for producers to enroll in if they so choose.

And it provides annual payments.

And, and what the goal of the program is, is to to plant back some of those farm farmlands that maybe are environmentally sensitive.

They're highly erodible.

They're prone to being flooded, very susceptible to wind erosion, soil erosion, things of that nature.

They can enroll in those programs for 10 or 15 years.

And along that, along that process of doing that, a big component of that is clean water, clean air, as well as the wildlife habitat that those programs create.

And so in South Dakota, there's about 2.6 million acres of CRP lands in South Dakota and those acres, recent study back in, I think 2014 of South Dakota hunters showed that about 56% of upland bird hunters utilized those CRP lands to hunt.

- Another partnership is the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program, - And that's a partnership between Game Fish and Parks and the USDA federal agency.

And so what USDA does is they enroll a producer or a landowner in their typical CRP program, but then Game Fish and Parks comes along and pays an incentive payment on top of that in addition.

And what that payment from Game Fish and Parks does is opens those lands up for hunting and fishing access.

And so we have a couple of different crept programs in South Dakota, one in the James River Watershed that's been around since 2009, and then one in the Big Sioux River watershed.

And just an example like the James River Watershed.

Some of those bottom lands are very prone to flooding and and maybe they have been cropped in the past and, and we're in, we're in row crop agriculture.

But from time to time those things would flood just routinely where it just wouldn't make sense for those producers to try to farm those grounds.

And so enrolling them into some type of program like this that's gonna benefit the water, the wildlife help provide some payment for that land for that producer is a kind of a win for everybody between our non-residents and our, our residents, there's those typical weekends where maybe it's opening weekend of the season.

There's a lot of a lot of places that have a lot of use, but there's a lot of times that there's places that maybe aren't being utilized on some of those off off days, maybe later in the season.

Recently we, we've extended our pheasant hunting season to go through January.

That creates some additional time for some of these properties to be able to be utilized.

Or maybe there's not so much crowding, but crowding is something that we have heard of from time to time.

I think a lot of states struggle with that and creating enough places for people to go.

When you live and work in the eastern part of the state here near Sioux Falls, Watertown, Brookings, Huron, the population is much more dense here.

And so we have a lot more people that are looking for places to go recreate the James River Watershed, CREP and the Big Sioux River Watershed, CREP, those two programs there are creating additional access and habitat in this part of the state where there's a lot more people looking to recreate.

And that's partially a a, a reason why those particular watersheds were selected is it's in our population centers here in South Dakota, - But Wendinger says South Dakota's GF and P provides more than financial assistance for habitat preservation.

- We have 12 private lands habitat biologists.

South Dakota is 80% or over 80% privately owned.

That that private land is, is holding a lot of habitat and a lot of wildlife.

And helping landowners manage that habitat is, is a priority or, and a important key component within South Dakota, just based on how many acres acres are privately owned.

And so our private lands habit, habitat biologists that we have stationed across the state, they work one-on-one with landowners and producers to go through the different things that maybe they're doing on their operation and provide technical assistance, financial assistance that can help them maybe improve things for their operation that also help benefit wildlife and, and the environment in itself.

We have some state-owned properties, our game production areas that we utilize for hunting, many people come here, residents and non-residents to utilize those properties.

And, and so we as a state agency have teens across the state to manage those properties, improve the habitat, manage those different habitats that are out there to keep them in a very healthy, productive state.

- One of those state owned properties sits along Highway 14 just east of Deme.

The land is near the big slew, a place immortalized in the little house on the Prairie Books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, that landscape, its history and draw for Little House fans worldwide, gave Bob and Nancy Montross an idea - Because we drive by Highway 14 every time we come into town or drive by the Forest Reserve.

It was a feature that Bob thought could be expanded to bring tourism into De Smet and of course, and increase our economy.

So we talked about it, he talked about it.

We talked to Game Fish and Parks and they had these some real good ideas.

The fellow that he knew was Game Fish and Parks.

So we eventually brought it to Rita from the Development Corporation.

We all went out to tour the site to see what the possibility was.

And it all started from there.

- The group envisioned a hiking and biking trail, the sort of amenity that could build on the community's existing historic appeal.

- I think basically the people who De Smet realized that we need something like this because this is today's world.

The biking, hiking trails, that's the world we're living in today.

And if you take a look around our community or our area here, we just don't have that.

So that's something we need to add so that we can keep our tours right in town here.

- That's been our goal to have for a lot of years.

As former economic development director here for 15 years, that was always the goal is to get people downtown and also to stay overnight - From there, the vision grew to a biking trail all along Highway 14, which runs east and west across the state predating Interstate 90.

- And so that now is one of our long-term goals that we would like to have this trail then extend all the way from the border to border from Minnesota to the Western border and have it be there is not, there are not any other bike trails that cross the state.

And so we feel Highway 14 is the very best route because it's straight, it's an original one and there's so many things along the way for tourists to see and for bikers, we started out in the very beginning doing barbecue out at the kiosk site that's out there that the game Fish and parks maintained.

And so we invited a lot of the people from the community to come out to that.

And we had the National Park Service ranger there to talk.

And then we also had some solar lighting companies and some boardwalk samples and some of those things there for people to view and then also to give their opinions on - Another vision for the site included a viewing tower of the surrounding area.

Jamie Lancaster is the current economic development director in De Smet.

- We were just researching tower ideas and one of our team members at the time, Laird Beck, he came across this tower in Lithuania and you know, brought it to the team and we were looking at it and actually the, the person that we've been working with at the National Park Service, he said, well, maybe you can find whoever designed that and reach out to them and kind of find their process and what they, they did.

And it was this company that run builders that runs these international competitions.

And so we reached out and told 'em about our project and they accepted us in as one of their, one of their competitions for the year.

- And I always thought a tower was just a tall tower.

But now I've been educated that with all these designs that are so fantastic that our, like for revolver evolving where they'll be circular and they just, where you can walk on the, on the tower and take your time going up and, and those with disabilities can take the wheelchair and they can just, you know, go on round and there'll be benches along the way that where people can take a break and enjoy the wildlife and all.

And then it'll gradually go up so that you can see for a long ways and, and view all of the area and the Silver Lake and, and feel the history of Laura Ingalls Wilder as she walked across that slew by having the competition with the tower and all the architectural designs that were submitted, we did a huge public meeting here at the event center and had the public attend and then vote on which of those we they liked.

And so that brought out, you know, several close to 200 people for that.

- The trail is certain to attract visitors, but it's also a quality of life improvement for locals.

And any major project needs a certain level of buy-in from the community.

While De Smet event center wasn't necessarily built with tourists in mind, it's proof of what a community with a shared vision can do.

- So we looked at that 20 year plan and it said, well we need a community center, we need a wellness center, we need a senior center.

We also need a new football field track and an athletic complex.

And so we put all those ideas together and then came up with the a plan and, and we worked with Architect Design Company to really make it a unique building.

In the end it mounted to about $8 million.

And so for a community of only 1100, we thought if we could have half the community donate to this and then we will get some businesses, we did not have very much time to raise money as the city council was said, they would that if we would raise the funds, we asked them to operate the building.

So they gave us a certain timeframe to raise the money, - They met their goal and then some in a community of 1100 people, there were 1500 individual donations for the project, despite other community projects happening at the same time.

- And some of 'em were people that, that wanted to have their name on the board here.

And so even if they couldn't afford it, there's so many heartwarming stories of how like the one family that, or two or three that would, that would just bring me $25 a week and they would bring it in quarters and change and that was their donation and it just meant so much to me.

- What does that tell you about how the community steps up?

- I think the community was awesome in it.

Bob had spoken to a philanthropist in the Sioux Falls area and he was asking for money or, and he just said to him, he said, you know what, take a look around your community.

You have plenty of money in your area that you don't need our money.

Well, you know, they've been hit with the hospital for donations for the hospital and everybody still has to live and you know, so they still need their, their mon their monies.

But Bob took that to heart and thought, you know, if there's people around here that's got it, we'll get it.

And we did.

- Nancy's husband Bob passed in late 2023.

He's remembered in part for his vision for De Smet's future from the Highway 14 trail to the potential for a Laura Ingalls state park on the land just east of town.

It's a vision Nancy shares along with other members of the community after six years, the first portion of the trail will soon be complete.

- We definitely will get that first phase built this summer, which is just a small section.

And then from there we will go on and continue to fundraise as we have hoped to get some grants and some help from some of the, of the programs that are out there for trails.

But most require a 50% match.

And so for us to raise 50% of $8 million project is quite a lot.

It's like starting with the community center.

Again, - This whole project is looking at the past to build our future.

I mean, that's what De Smets doing.

We know what we had in the past, but we'd have to be able to transfer it to our future.

And I think it's, it's readily available for us by doing this project.

- Keeping an eye to the future is a matter of survival for many small South Dakota communities.

Even in major tourist areas like the Black Hills in Hill City, the success of the local tourism industry puts a strain on critical infrastructure.

Nate Anderson is the City Administrator.

So - our summertime water and sewer usage is about four times the wintertime use.

And so we are in the process of designing and getting ready to go out for a contract for a new addition to our sewer plant and then upgrades to our water system.

And so you have this tax on the infrastructure where you have to grow between four and five times your capacity during the summertime and then have a very small percentage of that to, to run all year round.

And so that makes it difficult to, to operate a physical plant, especially our sewer plant.

So we have to build it into two phases where we can, we can shut one half of the plant down and just operate on one half and then come summertime we, we light off that other half.

It'll be about a six year project before that sewer plant is added onto and is ready to take that capacity that we're already seeing.

But this is, we're gonna mirror build a second version of this as part of that expansion to be able to accommodate the full summertime growth.

So - My knee jerk question that I wanna ask is, do we have six years?

Like how fast does this upgrade need to happen?

- Depends on who you talk to.

Probably already should have happened about 10 years ago.

But the reality is we're here and we're trying to take proactive steps.

What that has done already though is, is in gearing up for this is we've already doubled our water and sewer rates this year.

So in January we initiated a, an increase in our rate structure and we're gonna have to double it again by the time that six years is out.

And so that has put a lot of pressure already on our, on our residents here that are year, year round.

And it's gonna put even more by the time that six year timeframe is done, you're talking about $14 million for the sewer plant and about another five and a half million dollars for the, for the water tower and water infrastructure, things like that.

So that is putting a tremendous demand on our fixed income folks that live here in town that have been here all their life, haven't seen sewer and water rates increase significantly.

Perhaps that was a mistake, but that's where we're at and now we're trying to make it right.

And those are tough decisions that the city council and the mayor have had to wrestle with over the last year or two as we embarked on this plan to, to improve our water and sewer, one of the final stages before it goes out to the creek.

So this is all clean treated effluent, it goes through a filtration process and then a UV disinfectant system and then out to the creek, right?

Yep.

So yeah, we also wrestled with how do we pass that water and sewer rate increase onto hotels, businesses, vacation rentals as a business 'cause they are a business and how do we put the correct percentage of burden on the year round residents versus those, those commercial entities.

And that's been a tough, tough discussion that had had lots of passion and somewhat argue that we should put more on the businesses and others say it should be more balanced.

And, and that's again what city council had to wrestle with when they set the water rates and, and we'll continue to wrestle with that as we figure out what our final costs are and, and all that.

So, but we did, we did weight it more towards the hotels and businesses than had been done in the past.

So we're trying to make proactive steps to, to balance it, to protect our, our fixed income folks that live here in town.

Small users.

Yeah.

Here's your final stage right here.

This is water.

And so this is going out into, into Spring Creek, which goes into Sheridan Lake.

So we have the highest strictest discharge limits of anywhere else in the state because of that cold water fisheries watershed downstream of us.

So that's what drives the cost up and makes this plant complex.

- Tourism is a main industry in Hill City, so meeting seasonal demands is crucial, but that doesn't make it easier for locals to see their utility payments go up.

- Certainly there are frustrated folks that, that feel, why did my water bill go up when we're trying to solve a hotel problem?

Now the hotel owner would tell you, I'm bringing a lot of revenue in, I'm paying for every gallon of water that I use and put through the sewer.

And some of those hotel owners are local here.

So they make that argument and it's, it's a valid one as well.

- Hill City recently received a $5.4 million loan from the State Department of Ag and Natural Resources along with other grant funds.

It'll help.

But while he's showing us around town, Anderson shares his concern for rising costs in light of the city's success.

- That's the second.

We've already raised our rates in one big chunk and we're gonna have to raise 'em again once construction is kind of finalized.

And, and it's that, it's that hard jump that is, is got a lot of our residents in fear of, you know, can they continue to afford to, to live here along with taxes as you, you know, property taxes as you mentioned, and, and just all the other costs of living increases that come with, with living here.

So I think it's our fixed income people that grew up here and lived here that are in most jeopardy.

Everybody that lives here in town benefits from the beautiful city we have because all these businesses are here doing it too.

So maybe that's the, the message is they go hand in hand.

Are they gonna cause tension?

Yes.

Is it an a tension that we can manage and is it a, is it an okay tension to have?

I I think it is.

- Progress can come with growing pains back in De Smet, old water mains have inspired another project along the town's Main Street, - You know, it's a wonderful place.

It's it a lot of history, great stores and, and it, it is a place that people do go to on a regular basis, but at the same time it isn't what it used to be as its aged.

And the city actually had already had a project planned to redo the infrastructure underneath the water main underneath were installed in, in 1922, if I'm remembering correctly.

And so the, the need to redo everything was coming.

One of the, the proposed elements that we have, which is very exciting, is, is actually a, a welcome arch that goes over Main Street.

So it'll be placed about a block or so up from where it meets Highway 14.

And it's, you know, I'll have lights on that that'll light up for the different, different times of year.

And it just something that one says, there's something here to see when you're coming down.

Highway 14 and two says, this is a community that takes pride in itself and, and we want you to come and, and experience it and be a part of it.

The roads, the streets, the, the water systems and all of that.

We're at a point in our state where most communities are having to look at redoing those things and pairing that with the placemaking.

It actually saves money in the long run with our main street.

One of the things that we're able to do is when everything is torn up for, for the infrastructure underneath, we're actually able to go in and run all the conduit for the electrical place.

All these things that if we had to do it later or we wanted to do it as a separate thing, you have to tear up all this new beautiful concrete and pairing these things together, it and planning them together.

It makes it more cohesive, makes it more affordable.

And really it, it makes it a partnership so that everybody has a role.

- Before interviews, I sat for lunch with Jamie, Rita and Nancy to hear the basics about the community's ongoing projects.

And I heard a common theme from throughout this season on tourism.

Nancy, you mentioned at lunch striking that balance between being a progressive community that is meeting the new needs of people while still giving the visitors what they're looking for when they come here.

- Exactly.

We need to, they're, they're coming here for the pioneer, for Laura Ingalls Wilder, her generation, her era.

So we need to still portray that, but we can't live in yesterday.

We have to live in today and tomorrow.

So we have to figure out where the breaking point is there and how to bond the two of 'em together.

And I think we have a number of people in De Smet in this area that are really good at that.

They still wanna maintain their roots, but they know that they have to, they have to progress or else you die.

I mean, that's just the way it is, especially in a small community, - That balance looks a little different from place to place.

From managing rural roads, water and habitat to bringing a vision to reality.

Everyone does have a role in shaping South Dakota's future for visitors and locals.