Opinion

DITOR Dear Editor, Government is Doing Bad #4 Observing the new 300-word limit, my subject today is the ongoing contraction of the livestock industry in South Dakota. Linking this severe problem to the disconnect between cattle prices and beef prices or, in other words, acute market failure, Bill Bullard, CEO of Ranchers Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America (R-CALF USA), weekly anguishes about this problem in The Gregory Times Advocate.

hoden Opportunity and Innovation in Education South Dakota is Open for Opportunity – and that includes opportunities for education. Our students are our future, so it is important that we equip them with the skills and resources they need to thrive! I am proud that South Dakota is home to so many quality schools, and I’m also thrilled that parents have the opportunity to choose new and creative ways to educate their children.

Dear Editor, Veterans Day Every year, I place a poppy wreath at our gate that says,” Lest we Forget”, which is related to a poem written by a fallen soldier in WW1, that I memorized in school,” In Flanders Fields”. I am a 45-year associate member of the Canadian Legion because my father served in the Canadian Army, hauling supplies to the Allied forces in Western Europe in WW2. My wife is an associate Legion member because her father was a Marine and was at the awful invasion of Palau. Her mother was an enlistment officer who had a friend whose father grew up in Gregory and was a Lakota code talker.

The information for this column was taken from one of the volumes written by George Kingsbury who was editor of The Yankton Press and Dakotan in the late 1800s. At that time there was a conflict between the State Nonpartisan League and the State Defense Council which had a representative living in Dallas. As best that I am able to determine from the newspaper articles, both of these organizations had an unusual amount of hatred and distrust for the other. They did not like the other and it appears that most of their history and involvement with the other was a “cat and dog” affair.

I come from a long line of veterans, a proud heritage that reaches back to the Revolutionary War. My great-great-great-grandfather came to America and served as an aide to General Lafayette. My grandfather served in World War I, and my father fought in World War II at the Battle of the Bulge.

As soon as the Yankton Indians on July 10, 1859 accepted and ratified the treaty of 1858 by their relocation on the reservation, there were a large number of immigrants waiting on the Nebraska shore to come over and posses the unsurpassed prairie land which would later become the site of Yankton and a part of the Dakota Territory. As soon as they were able to cross the river, they selected the site for their homestead.

Dear Community Member, The Gregory American Legion is continuing to raise funds to fix the roof of the building and the interior ceiling and we need your help. We are holding a fundraiser on Saturday, November 15, 2025 at the Legion Club. We will be having a Chili and Soup Competition (2 categories) - with prizes; a pie auction will also be held and we will be showing college football games on the TVs.

South Dakota’s greatest asset is our people, and some of our greatest attributes are grit and a tremendous work ethic. We work hard to take care of ourselves and our families, and we also work hard to serve those who can’t take care of themselves.

Rep. Will Mortenson (R-Fort Pierre) Property taxes are irritating.

The right project in the right place at the right time. That’s how we do economic development in South Dakota. More often than not, that means focusing on opportunities for existing South Dakota businesses to grow and expand – whether that be a new product, a new market, or just doing what they do well on a bigger scale. Sometimes that means finding the right partner to move into the state in a way that benefits us as well as that new business.