For 132 years, The Voice of Clark County Courier

Clark County

Clark, South Dakota 57225Vol. 132, No. 13

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

$1.00Includes

Tax

www.clarkcountypublishing.com

Tony’s Collision Centeris now open in Clark Thesignswillbeupsoon,they’renot up yet, but Ritter’s Repair isnowTony’sCollisionCenter. TonyandAngieWerdelhavepur-chased theAuto Body repair busi-nessfromMerlynandMarieRitter.WerdelofficiallybecameownerSep-tember17. Whenaskedifhewillbemakinganychangestothebusiness,Werdelcommented, “Wewillbeable todosemi’s and heavier equipment, sowecanaccommodatebigrigs.” He also was excited that a newboothwithnewandimprovedwaterbased (not solvents) paint will beused.“Withthisnewbooth,wewillget just a wonderful paint match,whichwillbetwotimesthetruefin-ish,”hesaid. The auto body repair businesswill feature a full-line mechanicshop,anew,digital tirealignmentmachine,a transmissionflushma-

chineandaradiatorflushmachine.Theyalsowillselltiresandperson-alcarwashesforindividuals. ThestaffatTony’sCollisionCen-ter will be Tony and Angie, ScottWirkusandbodymanJasonBrink-man,whowillbeginemploymentonOctober8. Werdelhasbeendoingautobodyrepair since 2000 and he was em-ployed at Ritter’s Repair for fiveyears prior to managing HillcrestAuto,sixmileseastofClark. “I’m very excited about owningmy own business in Clark. Wehavebeenmakingsomechangesattheshopsoitwilllookthewaywewantitto.Mylong-termgoalistohave an auto body/mechanic shopin Clark, so someday my boys cantakeover.” Tony andAngie are the parentsofthreeboys:Jackson,eight;Zane,fiveandGavin,one.

Tony and Angie Werdel are the new owners of Tony’s Collision Cen-ter, formerly Ritter’s Repair on US Highway 212 in Clark. The business transaction took place earlier this month and the plan was to have Mer-lyn Ritter handing over the keys to the new owners, but health issues brought about a change in plans.

Clark Hometown Variety Store is closing its doors It’sofficial.TheClarkHometownVariety Store that so many wereexcited about when it opened fouryearsago,hasbeen forcedtocloseitsdoorsduetoalackofsales. “It’s really unfortunate that it’scome down to this,” said ClarkChamberofCommerceBoardpresi-dent Greg Furness. “I wish wecould have had the support beforetheclosingthatwehavehadsinceTuesday when we announced ourliquidation. “ThisclosingwillberealhardontheChamberofCommerceinClarkaswellasallofthebusinessesdown-towninatrickledowneffect.Whenone has to go to another town forcertainsupplies, they’ll shopotherplacestoowhiletheyarethereandwill tend not to shop locally whenthey return. None of that moneycomes back to us in sales tax rev-enueeitherforourcity,countyandschool district, like it does whenone shops locally. We really needtosupportbusinesses locally,” saidFurness. ItisafactthattheClarkCham-

ber will have to continue makingpayments on the mortgage untilthe building is sold or rented out.TheClarkChamberpurchasedthebuildingandhadbeenleasingittothevarietystore. NowtheCham-ber will be forced to pay the $558amonthuntilitissold.TheClarkChamber’s income as a non-profitorganizationisonlyabout$7,000ayearfrommembershipdues.Busi-nesspromotionsandsponsorshipforevents likePotatoDayandSpook-tacularcomeoutoftheChamberofCommercefund. Melanie Smith, co-chair of theClark Chamber said the store’sclosing will put the Chamber in adifficultsituation.“It’sgoingtoim-pact the rest ofus onMainStreetaswell.Thefewerbusinesses,thetougheritistobringpeopleinfromaroundthearea.Tryingtokeepthecommunityviableiswhywestarteditinthefirstplace.” BothSmithandFurnesssaidthestore’s closingwill affect the shop-

Ryan Eggleston - Official Weather Observer

WEATHER

HI LO PRSept.18.............. 65 34 0Sept.19.............. 66 40 0Sept.20.............. 62 40 0Sept.21.............. 66 30 0Sept.22.............. 53 26 0Sept.23.............. 59 31 0Sept.24..............74 40 .122012precipitationtodate14.44”2011precipitationtodate20.77”

It’s just amazing that some pro-ducerswillbedonewithharvestbytheendofSeptember.Thatwillbeararecase,butitissafetosaythatfarmers are harvesting crops ear-lier this year because hot weathercausedplantstomaturefasterthannormal. Beautiful, dry weatheris not impeding harvest this weekwhatsoever,allowingsoybeansandcorntobeharvestedatafastpace.Plus, a freeze occurred over theweekendtohelpspeedupthepro-cess. “Manyofthefieldsarereadyandonsomewewillhavetowait,”istheconsensus of South Dakota Exten-sionagronomists.“Overall,weareseeingaveryearlyharvestthisfall.Farmers got in early to fields lastspring toplant earlyand theheattookover,earlyandoftenthissum-mer.” Withallofthesummerheatandmoisture less thannormal, resultsandyieldsareallacrosstheboardthisharvestseasonwithbothcornandbeans. As dry as it was, producers aresomewhat pleased with crop re-sults,asespeciallythesoybeansareproducinganicecrop.

“I’d say we’re probably close to amonthaheadofschedulewithboththecornandthebeans.Usuallyweuse the beginning of the pheasantseasonasabarometerofwhereweareat concerning thestartof cornharvest,butnotthisyear.WecouldveryeasilybedonewithharvestbyOct.20,thepheasantseasonopen-ingdate,”notedaspokesmanfromthe extension agronomy depart-ment. More corn than usual waschoppedforsilagethisyear,butascorn cropswereburningup in thefields,thatwasaviableoption. Soybeans have been surprising,butvaryfromfieldtofield,rangingfrom18bushelstotheacretoover60 in some fields, depending on ifanyrainscame. Moisture levels have been eightto16percent,with13being ideal.Qualityalsohasshownsomevaria-tion, with some small beans andsomegreenones. Withbeansat$16abushel,manyproducersarepleasedwith there-sults. “Overall, I’m finding thatyieldsareabout10bushelsanacrehigherthanexpectations,”saidJeffOlson, manager of Clark County

Finishing a harvest in September?▲ Crazy as the respectable yields

Hovde, Tonak selected as 2012 Willow Lake Homecoming Royalty The 2012 Willow Lake High School Royalty were chosen on Monday night at the WLHS auditorium. Queen Savannah Hovde and King Logan Tonak will reign over this week’s Homecoming festivities. Hovde is the daughter of Mike and Cheryl Hovde and Michelle and Les Peters. Tonak is the son of Dan and Nicole Tonak.

Getting closer to start-up time is the new 7.8 million dollar state of the art water treatment plant south of Clark. Duane Stokes, general manager of Clark Rural Water says the fine tun-ing of the plant on its test runs will begin as early as next week. Ninety nine percent of the water conditioning will happen in the clarifying

system at the plant. Behind the building, hidden in this photo, are two large blue tanks to the east that will hold one million gallons of treated water in storage. To the west of the building are, from left to right, the aerator, a chlorine tank and a pebble lime tank.

It’s getting time to be excited about soft water! “There’s a lot more to it thanmeetstheeye,”saidDuaneStokes,generalmanagerof thenewClarkRuralWaterTreatmentplantsouthofClark. The new CRW treatment planthas been in the works for threeyears and is getting very close tobeingcompleted.Thatwillhappensometimethisfall. The $7,852,000 facility will betesting out and tweaking the sys-tem as soon as next week. “Thenafter everything is fine tuned andingoodworkingorder,wecouldbeupandrunningwiththenewplantwithinamonth,”saidStokes. “Our water is 30 grains hard atthe treatment site,” says Stokes.“Wehopetogetitdownto15withthisnewsystemofwatertreatment,creatingnice, softwater.” Manga-nese, iron and calcium carbonateare the hard chemicals that needtobetakenoutofthewateratthenewplant.Thiswaterisalltakenfromsixwellswithinthreemilesof

theplantthatarefrom24to58feetdeepandoutoftheVermillionaqui-fer. Previouslythewaterwasfilteredandoxidizedandthehardmineralstakenoutwithchemicalsandthenfiltered. In thenewplant, 99%ofthisprocesswillhappeninthenewclarifiersystemattheplant. “It’s an exact science” explainsStokes, and even water comingfrom different wells yet from thesame aquifer can be different andneedmore or lessadjusting to thesystems. Alotofmoderntechnologyisusedattheplant,butStokeshasalsoim-plementedmanualbackupswitchesshould thecomputersystemshaveaglitch. The plant also has a huge CATcaterpillardieselgeneratorindoorsthatcanbeswitchedoverinamat-ter of seven seconds should thepowergoout. Raw water coming up from thewellsmustfirstgothroughanaera-

tion system to remove the carbondioxide gases. From there it goesintotheclarifiertank. Pebble lime is involved mixedwith liquid and heated to makea slurry in the lime slaking room.The terminology here would be“whenlimeisslakeditturnsintoaslurry,” statedTerryKaufman, op-erationsmanagerattheplant.Inother words slaking is technicallyturningdrylimeintoasolution. Thelimedoesthesofteningwhenput into the clarifying tank as itraisesthepHbalanceofthewaterto11or12whichisonthealkalineside.Whenthathappens,thecalci-umcarbonate,manganeseandironprecipitates out. A sludgeblanketis then formed about four feet offthe bottom of the clarifying tank.As water is circulated through,thesludgeparticlesgetbiggerandeventually drop to the floor of thetank. “You could compare it to hail-stones forming in the sky,” said

Stokes.“Howtheyformandeven-tually get heavy and fall is howthese water particles get heavy astheycollidetogetherandfalldown,makingthesludgeatthebottomoftheclarifyingtank.” Large,50feetacross,armsslowlyscrapethesludgeintoasystemthatcarriesitouttothreefootballfieldsizedpondstothesouthwestofthebuilding.Asthewaterdrainsoutofthese ponds and the sludge buildsup,itwillberemovedandtakentofarmersfortheirfeedlotsforanex-ample. Back at the plant, the cleanedwater on the top in the clarifierroom is then moved through a re-carbonizationbasinwhereCO2low-ersthepHtosevenoreight.Thenitwillgointothesandfilter,goingthroughtwofeetofsandtofilteroutanythingthatdoesn’tgetcaughtinthesludgetank.Thissandisback-washed every 10 days to clean it

Clark County has two cases of West Nile virus According to the latest Depart-ment of Health West Nile update,ClarkCountynowhastwocasesofhumandetection. The number of South DakotanswhohavebeendiagnosedwithWestNile virus has risen to 158, up 60casesfromtwoweeksago.Sofarin2012,twopersonshavediedinthestatefromthisdisease. InthispartofSouthDakota,onlyDeuel County remains detection-free. IneasternSouthDakota,BrownCounty is one of the hardest-hitcounties in the state, with 35 re-ported human cases, five donorcases and 32 confirmed mosquito

pools. Beadle County has reported11WestNilehumancases. Roberts County has one humanandonebirdcase.MarshallCoun-tyhas sixhumanand threedonorcases.Granthastwohumancases,whileCodingtonCountyreportssixhumancases,twodonorcases,onebirdcaseandthreemosquitopools. Theaverageageofthoseinfectedis48yearsoldandagenderbreak-down shows 51 percent are maleand49percentarefemale.Thesta-tusof thosepatientshas indicated33percenthavecontractedmenin-gitis/encephalitis, 67 percent hadfevers and 41 percent were hospi-talized.

Burn ban in effect in Clark County The Clark County Board ofCommissioners at their Tuesday,September 25 meeting adopted acounty-wideburnban,effectiveim-mediately. The resolution was adopted dueto lackofadequatemoisture caus-ingextremelydryconditions.Openburningisnotallowedatthistime,asa“firedangeremergency”exists. To repeat, effective immediately,noopenburningisallowedinClarkCounty.

Harvest(continued on page 3)

Variety Store(continued on page 3)

Clark Rural Water(continued on page 3)