Latest news with #SenatorRounds
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Spreading kindness through the Best Buddies program
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) —The Tea Area School District is celebrating kindness this week, with some high schoolers hosting a special assembly for younger students. Kindness was in the lesson plan at Frontier Elementary Wednesday. 'We brought our high school students in to celebrate World Kindness Day for the elementary students. And we think it's a really big deal to get elementary students involved in celebrating kindness and differences and that's all Best Buddies at the high school is about,' Tea High School English teacher Abby Gullickson said. Calls for help to Senator Rounds triple as DOGE cuts hit South Dakotans 'This is our first year with Best Buddies actually. So it's just making sure that the people with disabilities feel included and have friends,' president of Tea Area Best Buddies Ava Opland said. Students who are part of the Best Buddies program helped lead the assembly. 'We really tried to tailor to elementary students, like, what can they do to show kindness?' Gullickson said. 'So eating with someone at lunch and making sure someone has someone to play with at recess and, you know, safe like hallway etiquette kind of thing, but making sure that they know that kindness is important.' 'I hope they learn that it's okay to be different. It's okay to not be exactly like the others and be unique,' Opland said. 'And that being yourself and making new friends is all what life is about.' It's a valuable lesson, no matter your age. 'If there is no kindness in the world, then people will just be mean to each other,' Frontier Elementary 3rd Grader Emersyn Stich said. And then there would be, like, no friends and you wouldn't have anybody to talk with so that it would literally like, not be a world.' The Tea Area High School Best Buddies will go to other schools on Friday. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Railroad Board changes loans for two projects
PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) — A new soybean facility at Mitchell will pay a lower rate of interest on its loan from South Dakota state government, while an ethanol producer at Onida will have its existing state loan extended another seven years and borrow some additional money. The South Dakota Railroad Board took those actions on Wednesday as steps to promote economic development. The soybean operation, High Plains Processing, requested that the interest rate on a $12.6 million loan that the state board previously had approved in November now be reduced to 2%. Calls for help to Senator Rounds triple as DOGE cuts hit South Dakotans The loan had been made at a rate of 2.95%. That included a 0.25% administrative charge for the state Department of Transportation, to which the Railroad Board is attached. State Transportation Secretary Joel Jundt said on Wednesday that the administrative charge now looks unnecessary. 'To add on 0.25 percent doesn't seem prudent,' Jundt said. High Plains originally applied through the Davison Regional Railroad Authority for a $16.1 million loan at 2% interest. The loan financed construction of 33,000 feet of track for loading rail cars. The facility is along the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad line. Other terms of the original loan — a 15-year amortization, with a balloon payment due after seven years — remain the same. 'We expect to see new businesses pop because of this. It's good for South Dakota,' Mike Lauritsen, CEO of the Mitchell Area Development Corporation (MADC) and Chamber of Commerce, told the state board. South Dakota Soybean Processors, which has about 2,200 producer members, manages the Mitchell facility. CEO Tom Kersting thanked the state board for approving the interest-rate reduction. 'It's really going to help make this project a success,' he said. The state board on Wednesday also reconfigured a $2.1 million loan for Ringneck Energy that was due on April 1 and loaned another $1.3 million to the Onida ethanol producer. Kevin Kjorsvik, who's commodities manager at Ringneck, presented the plan calling for extending the loading track 2,382 feet. Currently the plant switches rail cars in strings of five. The expansion will allow strings of 25 cars. 'It's to help expand our production,' Kjorsvik told the state board. He said Ringneck would pay the approximately $50,000 of interest by April 1. The $2.1 million original loan and the new $1.3 million loan will be combined. Those terms are 2% rate of interest, amortized over 15 years, with a balloon payment due April 1, 2032. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Re-Member: Service learning experience provides beds, firewood and more each week
Pine Ridge, S.D. (KELO) — College and high school students from across the region are on the Pine Ridge Reservation today. They're volunteers with Re-Member and are spending the week building beds and wheelchair ramps, and even cutting firewood for those in need. Ian Johnson is a high school student from Colorado. He's here not only to work, but to listen and connect with people. 'It gives them some privacy and some dignity. It just makes life feel a little less tragic I think for a lot of people and just gives them a baseline of respect that I think everyone deserves,' Colorado Junior Ian Johnson said. Calls for help to Senator Rounds triple as DOGE cuts hit South Dakotans Up to 40 student volunteers show up each week ready to work. 'So they need to be things that we can teach people how to do sort of the day of, but make sure that obviously we are constructing a solid, safe, effective project that really helps people out functionally,' Executive Director William Paese said. It's about more than manual labor, during the visit, students also learn about life on the reservation. 'And also hear from local speakers and cultural presenters throughout the week. Voices from within this community, to share the stories and some of the history and some of the reality of Pine Ridge,' Paese said. Through knowledge and hard work, the program is connecting people and teaching students about different perspectives. Everyone involved benefits. 'There's a real sense of community in that. Being able to serve people in need, not only helps form connections with you and the person you're serving, but also the people around you. It really just gives you a sense that you know, like the Lakota say, we are all related, we are all family,' Johnson said. Re-Member has been working with volunteers for over 27 years and each week a new group of students and teachers step up to help. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
