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Looking Back
By Compiled by Challenger editor Jill Meier
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EmailFebruary 19. 2013 10:51AM
Editor’s Note: This is a ‘slice of life’ look at Brandon and Valley Springs from years past. The news items are taken from back issues of the Brandon Valley Challenger.
5 Years Ago
Feb. 20, 2008
• Twenty years ago, miles of countryside separated Sioux Falls and Brandon. Today, it’s difficult to tell where one city stops and the other begins. But the cities don’t overlap and never will because planners from both cities keep in touch as they plan for growth. On Feb. 28, Brandon will learn what Sioux Falls plans for its east side, as Mike Cooper, planning director for Sioux Falls, speaks in Brandon’s City Council Chambers on Main Street.
• Brandon city government has taken a giant leap in opening the lines of communication with the people they serve. The Brandon City Council had a recent “test run” with the newly installed audio and video recording equipment in Council Chambers. The system, which cost the city about $25,000, will allow the meetings to be aired on Alliance’s channel 18.
10 Years Ago
Feb. 19, 2003
• Kathy Baxter, a self-proclaimed hopeless romantic, wanted to provide a unique service to couples who may not have a church, have separate religions or want to get married before being sent overseas with the military, has opened the Dakota Wedding Chapel in Brandon.
• Brandon Mayor Mike Schultz announced that he would not seek re-election for the position. “I need to spend more time with my family and pay attention to my own personal business for a while,” he said.
• The Brandon Red Hat Society was officially convened a month ago, but Thursday, the group’s second meeting, marked the second, and certainly the more free-spirited get-together of the group. Gathering at The Neighbors coffeehouse for their second meeting were Max Hawke, Kathy Kemp, Lynne Metcalf, Dawn Webb, Marilyn Meyers, Gerri Harding, Diane Young, Carol TeKrony, Jan Johnson, Mary Lyng, Karon Schmitz and Sheila Keyman.
15 Years Ago
Feb. 17, 1999
• When officer Barry Williams of the Brandon Police Department asks people to be part of a neighborhood watch program, they ask him, “Why, do we need one?”
Williams said he wants to ask them, “If I said we did, would you be more interested?”
Williams started the Brandon Crime Watch program in the city last fall, and only a couple of neighborhoods have joined in so far.
• A Brandon woman said she could rub people’s feet all day. Mandi Stroh has joined the staff at Hair Country as manager of the salon’s new day spa area. She will take care of hands and feet with manicures and pedicures; the spa also offers tanning, body wraps, facials, body waxing, nail art and massage.
20 Years Ago
Feb. 17, 1993
• Brandon Valley gymnasts – the “Dream Team” – are now sporting t-shirts with the original artwork of spotter Lamont Hunt. The shirts depict the genie from Disney’s “Aladdin” with the words, “Our wish … state;” the back says, “Our wish was granted.”
Wishing is not how the Lynx made it to state, however. Hard work, dedication, pride and teamwork – and a lot of prayer – accomplished the goal. The Lynx gymnastics team made another first Saturday in Yankton, capturing the Region II AA title.
Megan Beuckens was crowned Region champ, taking first in all five events. Beuckens and her teammates Molly Klinedinst, Andrea Skalland, Jenny Lichtenberg, Casey Hewitt and Cheryl Ziegler put together a night to remember.
25 Years ago
Feb. 17, 1988
• Mike Moorlach visited his hometown late last year. The rural Brandon resident had to travel more than 4,000 miles to get there and brush the rust off of a different language when he finally arrived. And he got off the plane they called him Meindert.
Moorlach is a native of Uithuizermeeden, a town of about 1,500 in the Netherlands. Much of his family still lives there, and he particularly wanted to see a sister who has been ill. It was his first extended visit to the Netherlands in 20 years.
He said he is “too Americanized” for the Netherlands now, and finds he is impatient with the changes that have happened in his native land. He says he is disappointed with “the liberal way of life” in the country.
• Vice principal Kass Hoxeng reported to the school board that Brandon Elementary has been faced with numerous illness-related absences. On one day, 9 percent of the students were not in school. Of the 73 students absent, 21 families were experiencing chicken pox. This is a considerable increase over last year’s figures. The chicken pox virus normally costs students one to three weeks of school, primarily to prevent contagion. The virus can be spread up to five days prior to the onset of the rash, which is the main reason it affects large numbers of children when it appears.
• The Feb. 8 meeting of the Brandon Valley School Board marked the beginning of a “bombshell,” according to one board member when Superintendent Carleton Holt described the impact of new federal regulations concerning asbestos reporting.
Holt said: We have no asbestos in the buildings except in the (floor) tile.” But he said the initial paperwork and reporting requirements will result in a $40,000 expenditure in the 1988-89 budget.
5 Years Ago
Feb. 20, 2008
• Twenty years ago, miles of countryside separated Sioux Falls and Brandon. Today, it’s difficult to tell where one city stops and the other begins. But the cities don’t overlap and never will because planners from both cities keep in touch as they plan for growth. On Feb. 28, Brandon will learn what Sioux Falls plans for its east side, as Mike Cooper, planning director for Sioux Falls, speaks in Brandon’s City Council Chambers on Main Street.
• Brandon city government has taken a giant leap in opening the lines of communication with the people they serve. The Brandon City Council had a recent “test run” with the newly installed audio and video recording equipment in Council Chambers. The system, which cost the city about $25,000, will allow the meetings to be aired on Alliance’s channel 18.
10 Years Ago
Feb. 19, 2003
• Kathy Baxter, a self-proclaimed hopeless romantic, wanted to provide a unique service to couples who may not have a church, have separate religions or want to get married before being sent overseas with the military, has opened the Dakota Wedding Chapel in Brandon.
• Brandon Mayor Mike Schultz announced that he would not seek re-election for the position. “I need to spend more time with my family and pay attention to my own personal business for a while,” he said.
• The Brandon Red Hat Society was officially convened a month ago, but Thursday, the group’s second meeting, marked the second, and certainly the more free-spirited get-together of the group. Gathering at The Neighbors coffeehouse for their second meeting were Max Hawke, Kathy Kemp, Lynne Metcalf, Dawn Webb, Marilyn Meyers, Gerri Harding, Diane Young, Carol TeKrony, Jan Johnson, Mary Lyng, Karon Schmitz and Sheila Keyman.
15 Years Ago
Feb. 17, 1999
• When officer Barry Williams of the Brandon Police Department asks people to be part of a neighborhood watch program, they ask him, “Why, do we need one?”
Williams said he wants to ask them, “If I said we did, would you be more interested?”
Williams started the Brandon Crime Watch program in the city last fall, and only a couple of neighborhoods have joined in so far.
• A Brandon woman said she could rub people’s feet all day. Mandi Stroh has joined the staff at Hair Country as manager of the salon’s new day spa area. She will take care of hands and feet with manicures and pedicures; the spa also offers tanning, body wraps, facials, body waxing, nail art and massage.
20 Years Ago
Feb. 17, 1993
• Brandon Valley gymnasts – the “Dream Team” – are now sporting t-shirts with the original artwork of spotter Lamont Hunt. The shirts depict the genie from Disney’s “Aladdin” with the words, “Our wish … state;” the back says, “Our wish was granted.”
Wishing is not how the Lynx made it to state, however. Hard work, dedication, pride and teamwork – and a lot of prayer – accomplished the goal. The Lynx gymnastics team made another first Saturday in Yankton, capturing the Region II AA title.
Megan Beuckens was crowned Region champ, taking first in all five events. Beuckens and her teammates Molly Klinedinst, Andrea Skalland, Jenny Lichtenberg, Casey Hewitt and Cheryl Ziegler put together a night to remember.
25 Years ago
Feb. 17, 1988
• Mike Moorlach visited his hometown late last year. The rural Brandon resident had to travel more than 4,000 miles to get there and brush the rust off of a different language when he finally arrived. And he got off the plane they called him Meindert.
Moorlach is a native of Uithuizermeeden, a town of about 1,500 in the Netherlands. Much of his family still lives there, and he particularly wanted to see a sister who has been ill. It was his first extended visit to the Netherlands in 20 years.
He said he is “too Americanized” for the Netherlands now, and finds he is impatient with the changes that have happened in his native land. He says he is disappointed with “the liberal way of life” in the country.
• Vice principal Kass Hoxeng reported to the school board that Brandon Elementary has been faced with numerous illness-related absences. On one day, 9 percent of the students were not in school. Of the 73 students absent, 21 families were experiencing chicken pox. This is a considerable increase over last year’s figures. The chicken pox virus normally costs students one to three weeks of school, primarily to prevent contagion. The virus can be spread up to five days prior to the onset of the rash, which is the main reason it affects large numbers of children when it appears.
• The Feb. 8 meeting of the Brandon Valley School Board marked the beginning of a “bombshell,” according to one board member when Superintendent Carleton Holt described the impact of new federal regulations concerning asbestos reporting.
Holt said: We have no asbestos in the buildings except in the (floor) tile.” But he said the initial paperwork and reporting requirements will result in a $40,000 expenditure in the 1988-89 budget.
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