Opinion

To the Editor, As our community continues to grow and take on important projects — from infrastructure improvements to Main Street revitalization — strong local leadership matters more than ever. Gregory has always been a place where people step up, get involved, and work together to make things better. That’s why I’m reaching out today.

The fur trading firm of D. M. Frost & Co. of St. Louis, who had been trading at Pierre and at other points in the upper c o u n t r y , was given charge of the United States property, consisting principally of the buildings and material at Fort Pierre and also at Fort Lookout, which had likewise been abandoned. Maj. Charles E. Galpin, who was in the employ of the American Fur Company at the time, took the contract for taking down and removing a portion of the buildings at Pierre and Lookout to Fort Randall.

South Dakota is a safe place, and, thanks to the work of our law enforcement, we have decreased crime in double-digit percentages in several categories. But we never settle – and we are not satisfied. Just like life on the ranch, there is always work to be done.

Dear Editor, Our mailboxes are groaning with political flyers, the signs are dotting everyone’s yards and highway- nuts, (even when I squint and look away from news coverage in Iran, drought, the fires, and the advice from hoards of preppers advising me to run out and stock up on canned meat, penicillin, and rice,) as I assume everyone else’s is, and it all feels way outside the circle of things we can control. So that leaves me looking around at the things we can influence, and what I see are our votes in our local elections.

General Harney with his command, consisting of four companies of the Second Dragoons, five companies of the Sixth Infantry, one of the Tenth Infantry and Light Battery G, of the Fourth Artillery, arrived on the 19th of October, 1855, expecting to go into winter quarters at Pierre. The troops that had previously reached there by river were the six companies of the Second Infantry.

I have attended candidate forums held in District 21 and listened to each one explain why they are best for the job. The Representatives are friendly and courteous to each other. John Harter, Jim Halverson, Wyatt De-Jong, and Marty Overweg are all gentlemen and kind individuals. Then I watch the Senator candidates. Mykala Voita is charming, respectable, and courteous. Erin Tobin, guarded and unapproachable, had several passive aggressive insults and false statements. Meanwhile through social media, she complains that “people distort the truth” or “stab her in the back.”

hoden Every taxpayer dollar belongs to the people. It’s our job as elected leaders to spend the people’s money as efficiently as possible to keep South Dakota strong, safe, and free.

Dear editor, We are writing as a lifelong ranching family to express our strong support for Senator Mykala Voita and the work she has done during her first term as our Senator. One issue that received a lot of attention this year was banning cell cultivated protein (fake meat”).

In the settlement of the Dakota Territory in 1854, officials had determined that the army’s operations would be confined to the country north of the Platte River in Nebraska, east of the Black Hills, south of the Cheyenne River, and west of the Missouri River in Dakota. They also determined that not more than seven thousand Indians would be encountered and that it was advisable to have a decisive engagement with the whole body rather than permit them to break off into small detachments.

hoden In South Dakota, we believe in protecting our freedom, defending our constitutional rights, and putting common sense policies into action. That’s a big reason why South Dakota remains strong, safe, and free.