8 Broadcaster Press February 16, 2016 www.broadcasteronline.com Reading on the Road: Jolley School USDA, Partners to Invest $720 Million Celebrates Half a Million Minutes in Large-Scale, Targeted Conservation Projects Across the Nation plained the process of reaching the school’s goal. “There are certain points,” he said. Over halfway to their goal “The first one was 100,000. of one million and one minThen we had someone come utes of reading and writing, and do something. The next the kids at Jolley Elemenone was 250,000. The next tary school celebrated their one, 500,000 we got to go progress by taking a trip to reading on the road. Once various locations in town we hit a million we get to to read. Each grade visited go have recess at the Dome a different site such as the and get to play with the Vermillion Public Library, Coyote Basketball team.” As the Wellness Center and the a fourth-grader last year, Will W.H. Over Museum. got to read on the road at Fifth graders had the the Wellness Center. “It was opportunity to read in Old pretty fun,” he said. “We got Main on the University of to go on the court and read South Dakota campus. They on there. We sang a song were welcomed by Mark Pet- then took pictures and we ty, Dean of Enrollment who read pretty much most of was able to answer some the time.” Will already knows questions about college. the importance of reading. “One thing you do in college “Reading books can help is do exactly what you’re do- once you get into college,” ing today, reading,” he said. he said. “If you didn’t read “That is definitely a skill books it would be very hard that you will not only need to understand what to do in to make you successful as a classes. If you didn’t know sixth grader or seventh grad- how to read you couldn’t do er or freshman or a senior in anything unless the teacher high school. When you’re in talked to you.” Will hopes to college it’s completely differ- attend college himself and ent because when you go to study engineering or some class you learn about all the other type of science. things you read about for Many of the students that class. We have to read like fifth-grader Brooklyn every day in our jobs. That realize the importance of is the one thing that you are having a goal in order to going to carry with you your progress. “I think the goals whole lives. I’m proud to see are really worth reading for you are reading so diligently. because if you didn’t read It looks like you have some you wouldn’t have these good books in front of you.” fun things to do,” she said. Fifth-grader, Will ex“I’ve learned that when you read it helps you with your vocabulary and things like that. If you couldn’t read you couldn’t know how to do everything. It also helps with writing because you have to know how to read to write. I love to write. It’s one Selling by of my favorite things to do. I normally do funny stories. Private Treaty Sometimes they’ll be real Two-Year Olds things that I’ve experienced. & Yearling Like one time in third grade I did a lot of stories about Polled Hereford my summer and I filled up Bulls for Sale all my little books.” Finding Avg Yearling Wt. 1260 lbs. the right book is important “This is the BEST set to spark the love of reading according to Brooklyn. “First we have ever had!” they need to get into a series METTLER POLLED that they like to read,” she HEREFORDS & ANGUS said. “They need to embrace 28225 431st Ave. the book and not even think Menno, SD 57045 about if it’s boring or not. If Brian: 605-951-3007 you just start reading then or Ron: 650-359-9035 you’ll progress and you’ll like it better. You can’t just BY SARAH WETZEL For the Plain Talk Go Ahead. . . WALK ALL OVER US! Are your floors damaged after years of wear & tear? Don’t wait for Spring! Call us today for a free in-home consultation. We are your one-stop shop for replacing, renewing, or refinishing your wood floors. . .and our method is minimally invasive. Ask about other services we can provide! Kokesh Construction 605-660-5680 Locally Owned & Operated like a book by the first page you read. You have to get into the book.” Brooklyn is currently reading a book entitled ‘Freaky Monday.’ Morgen is another fifth grader who has caught the reading bug. “Last year I got a couple of stars I believe on the wall,” she said. “This year I got a star. I really like reading. I’ve always loved it. I read during my free time and I read on my kindle. I’m always finding new books. After I finish one book I start another one. I just really get into the book and imagine what’s happening. I really enjoy it.” Morgen enjoys fantasy books such as the Harry Potter series and imagining what is happening in her head. “I want to help reach the goal because if we don’t reach it we won’t get to do fun things at the end of the year,” she said. The teachers are just as excited as the students. “I think overall as teachers we always encourage the students to read but doing our one million minute challenge has just made it more of a school-wide community project,” said Kelly Gilgeson, fifth grade teacher. “With the different prizes per week and the assemblies we’ve had in conjunction with the basketball teams from the university have added a lot of excitement to it. It has put an extra spin on reading because we read all the time anyway but it has just made it more of a fun community-type activity as a whole school.” According to Gilgeson, things are running more smoothly this year than last year. “We have surpassed, I think, our numbers from last year with each benchmark,” she said. “I think with repeating it, the students who did it last year knew how exciting it was and they just got on board and really worked hard reading from the beginning. We’ll reach our goal sooner than expected to.” Working with the university has been extremely beneficial according to Gilgeson.“We’ve got that connection to USD with the weekly visits from the USD athletes and then again as we came through the building we let them know that there were classes being held where the students are reading here for their classes like we do at Jolley School,” she said. “We’re loving reading, this just makes it that much more fun.” Regional Conservation Partnership Program Pools Together $220 Million Investment from USDA, up to $500 Million from Local Partners to Improve Water Quality, Soil Health, Habitat and More NATURAL RESOURCES CONSERVATION SERVICE, HURON, SD February 12, 2016 – Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and partners across the nation together will direct up to $720 million towards 84 conservation projects that will help communities improve water quality, combat drought, enhance soil health, support wildlife habitat and protect agricultural viability. These projects make up the second round of the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) created by the 2014 Farm Bill. Through the 2015 and 2016 rounds, USDA and partners are investing up to $1.5 billion in 199 strategic conservation projects. Projects are selected on a competitive basis, and local private partners are matching the USDA commitment. For this round, USDA received 265 applications requesting nearly $900 million, or four times the amount of available federal funding. The 84 projects selected for 2016 include proposed partner matches totaling over $500 million, more than tripling the federal investment alone. “The Regional Conservation Partnership Program puts local partners in the driver’s seat to accomplish environmental goals that are most meaningful to that community. Joining together public and private resources also harnesses innovation that neither sector could implement alone,” Vilsack said. “We have seen record enrollment of privately owned lands in USDA’s conservation programs under this Administration, and the new Regional Conservation Partnership Program will be instrumental in building on those numbers and demonstrating that government and private entities can work together for greater impacts on America’s communities.” RCPP draws on local knowledge and networks to fuel conservation projects. Bringing together a wide variety of new partners including businesses, universities, non-profits and local and Tribal governments makes it possible to deliver innovative, landscapeand watershed-scale projects that improve water quality and quantity, wildlife habitat, soil health and other natural resource concerns on working farms, ranches and forests. Three of these projects will bring conservation to South Dakota. • Five entities of the Honey Bee and Monarch Butterfly Partnership will help farmers and ranchers implement conservation on 14,500 acres in six key pollinator habitat states over a 3-year period. The areas will result in improve habitat conditions for honey bees and monarch butterflies. The project will work with landowners on croplands in the Prairie Grasslands Critical Conservation Areas in South Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska (lead), and North Dakota using innovative strategies that directly connect beekeepers, landowners, honey bees, Monarch butterflies and high quality habitat. • The Innovative Tribal Conservation and Green House Gas Management will work with nine partners in five states, with the Intertribal Agriculture Council and South Dakota as the lead. The project will implement resource conservation land management systems on American Indian Lands pilot project sites that incorporate greenhouse gas management activities, also known as carbon farming practices. The anticipated outcomes include development of carbon offsets from soil amendment and grazing land and livestock management activities. Additionally, the resulting resource conservation will meet investors and credit buyers’ interest in charismatic high-quality carbon offsets, and tribes’ interest in promoting appropriate conservation practices and economic development on Indian lands. • The James River Water Development District with seven partners were awarded the Lewis & Clark/ Lower James River Water Quality Project which will assist landowners and producers with saline and sodic problem soils; improving water quality by avoiding controlling and trapping nutrient and sediment runoff; reducing agricultural non-point source pollution; improving grassland and riparian area conditions and improving soil health and wildlife habitat within the watersheds. The South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources will develop a monitoring program for the project to assess the current river and watershed conditions and gage the impacts of past and planned conservation practices. “We put out a call for innovative and results-focused projects that will deliver the most conservation impact,” said Jeff Zimprich, NRCS state conservationist for South Dakota. “Our partners answered with creative, locally-led approaches to help producers support their ongoing business operations and address natural resource challenges in their communities, here in South Dakota, and across the nation.” Water quality and drought are dominant themes in this year’s RCPP project list with 45 of the 84 projects focusing on water resource concerns. USDA is committed to invest $1.2 billion in RCPP partnerships over the life of the 2014 Farm Bill. Today’s announcement brings the current USDA commitment to almost $600 million invested in 199 partner-led projects, leveraging an additional $900 million for conservation activities in all 50 states and Puerto Rico. USDA invested $370 million in 115 high impact RCPP projects during 2015. In New Mexico, a RCPP project with the Interstate Stream Commission and an acequia—a local communal irrigation system—has addressed long-standing infrastructure failures to significantly reduce water needs by improving irrigation efficiency. In Oregon, removal of encroaching juniper was part of the Westwide private lands conservation effort that helped obviate the need to list the Greater sage-grouse on the endangered species list. Since 2009, USDA has invested more than $29 billion to help producers make conservation improvements, working with as many as 500,000 farmers, ranchers and landowners to protect over 400 million acres nationwide, boosting soil and air quality, cleaning and conserving water and enhancing wildlife habitat. For an interactive look at USDA's work in conservation and forestry over the course of this Administration, visit http:// medium.com/usda-results Vermillion Robotics Has Successful Weekend Twenty-five robotic teams from across South Dakota participated in the Mitchell VEX Robotic Competition over the weekend at the Mitchell Technical Institute. The Vermillion Area Robotics Club high school and middle school teams participated in the tournament. The middle school team went undefeated during alliance matches and aligned with the high school team to win the Tournament Spirit Mound Township Annual Meeting Tuesday, March 1st, 2016 • 1:30 p.m. Clay County Extension Office 515 High St.• Vermillion Curt Brodsky, Clerk Championship Award. In addition, the high school team won the Excellence Award which is determined by the team’s engineering notebook, sportsmanship, and robot design. This tournament win qualifies the teams for the U.S. Open in Council Bluffs, Iowa, at the Mid-America Center on April 7th-9th. These teams won their autonomous rounds which is 15 seconds of programmed robot automation. Last summer, the youth raised funds to purchase a $2000 competition course/2016 game pieces and additional team hardware to add teams to include elementary teams. The competition course ensured their robot's accuracy when launching 4" foam balls a distance of 13 feet into a triangular opening at the top of 3' nets using automation. The teams wish to thank those sponsors: Masaba, First Bank and Trust, Knutson Affordable Monuments by Spring Farm Machinery & Construction Equipment Consignment Mollet Memorials Monuments 1,760 Starting $ at Linda Jamtgaard Cummings 605-408-6631 Consignments now being taken! Thursday, March 24th at the Girard Auction Facilities, Wakonda, SD Consignments include: Tractors — Trucks Hay Equipment — Tillage Equipment — Planters Drills — Sprayers — Livestock Equipment Construction Equip. — Vehicles — Trailers Lawn & Garden — Boats — Campers & More! NO SMALL ITEMS WILL BE TAKEN! Call or Email your list w/photos to mike@girardauction.com Advertising Deadline Monday, March 7th GIRARD AUCTION & LAND BROKERS, INC. (605) 267-2421 Toll Free: 1-866-531-6186 www.GirardAuction.com Price includes: Design, Lettering, Setting & Cement Foundation Vermillion and Beresford Areas Marlon Mollet “Create a Legacy” 605-360-9656 or visit molletmemorials.com Family Dentistry, Applied Engineering, Preferred Builders Construction, Kohlberg Pioneer, Yeager Diesel, Moore Welding, Herren-Schempp Building Supply, and Bank of the West. These two teams along with 2 additional middle school teams will be busy preparing for the SD State VEX Championship that will take place on February 27th. Their goal is to win this competition and earn qualifying seats to the World VEX VRC Championship in Louisville, KY, in late April. The youth will need to raise over $4000 in event fees (no travel costs) to participate in these two events as it is $450 per team for nationals and $850 per team for the world competition (if they qualify). The parents have already paid for team fees and state event fees along with travel as this is not a Vermillion School funded activity. If the community is interested in supporting the robotics youth to attend these events, contributions can be made to the Vermillion Area Public School Foundation with a note to support "VARC Competition". If Attention Pleasant Valley Township Residents Pleasant Valley Township Annual Meeting You Read This... You Know Advertising Pays! Tuesday March 1st, 2016 7:00 pm at Clay Rural Water System Call the Broadcaster at 605-624-4429 or stop by to place your ad today! Agenda items include election of officers and receiving quotes for gravel, blading, mowing and snow removal. Full agenda available at: http://sites.google.com/site/pvtownship For more information, please contact: Brandi Johnson, Clerk 30630 Frog Creek Rd. Wakonda, SD. 57073 Brajohns76@icloud.com 201 West Cherry St Vermillion, SD 624-4429