Residents of Iroquois who are members of R.S.V.P. are helping out where they can. They volunteer their time at the school, Churches, in private homes, ballgames, and with travel to Doctors. Those who need help can contact the R.S.V.P. organization in Huron and they will contact help for you.
The city of Iroquois is getting an electronic sign to be placed on Highway 14 near the Country Store. This is a joint effort of the Horizons group, city of Iroquois, Community Club and many citizens of the town. Hopefully we’ll be erecting the sign as soon as the weather moderates. It will be a two (2) line display facing both directions and will be an attractive light orange in color.
Since examining ourselves through the Horizons project we have seen evidence of many groups coming together to get some common goals accomplished. One of the projects being done because of the Study Circles is the erection of an electronic sign on Highway 14 through town. The Horizons group began the initial talking, the city government listened to the talk, and took it upon themselves to order the sign and saw to it that the initial 50% funding was done. Some of this beginning money was in the form of grants for community projects. What better community project than this!!! Another example of partnerships being formed is between the Iroquois Housing and the city to not only acquire lots but to also clean up abandoned homes and then to build on lots. The city waives the fee for building permits on these homes. Individual citizens step up to help when extra help is needed.
I can see great changes in our community since we started this adventure called Horizons.
I think people in our community have united in an effort to make Iroquois a great place to call home. During the study circles, many voices were heard. It is still a struggle to get people to commit to taking on some of our projects, but they are usually willing to help in some way or other.
I have especially noticed the change in how the different organizations in our town communicate better.
One example of this would be for our annual Sports Day event held each summer. where the city council used to do this by themselves, we now have at least one person from each community group in town meeting to help make it an even better event.
I have noticed a remarkable difference, in the attitudes of those of us who have gone through the Leadership Plenty program. Some of us have become more open minded to change, and others have stepped up to become leaders, instead of followers. It is amazing how peoples attitudes can change, after discussing an issue, and thoughtfully figuring out a solution.
The word is Blog! The Iroquois bloggers are working hard to expand their community of bloggers. We have included information on our community blog site in our school newsletter, hung posters around town, created blog “business” cards, emailed all Iroquois alumni, published blog photos in the DeSmet News and Huron Daily Plainsman, and have contacted area business groups.
Now that we have the word out, how do we get more of our community members blogging? We would love to hear your ideas. Thanks.
If you are in Pierre for any of the legislative sessions, check out the Iroquois area Vietnam Veteran display, which is located near the Governor’s office.
A lot of hard work and research from Carl Matter(’63) and John Sweet(’64) went in to making this a great display.
Two Iroquois high school graduates, Ted Voigt (’63)and Bob Whites(’65), lost their lives in Vietnam. A beautiful plaque with their pictures on it is one of the exhibits on display.
A plaque depicting all of the Iroquois Area Vietnam Veterans and a painiting from Galen Wallum (’65)is also on display.
We humbly thank all of our veterans for their dedication and service to our country.
Iroquois, like most small towns wishes for building activity, not only to attract more people to town but to make the town more attractive. Iroquois Housing is doing just that. In the 60’s and 70’s a group of foreword looking citizens organized an Iroquois housing organization to build new houses in town. They built 3 new houses and then later built an apartment building, which were all sold. The money from those sales sat unused for a period of time until 2006 when the need for additional housing was realized and a group of citizens, some of them from the original housing group, began talks on how to get going again. The idea of offering incentives to build in town was tossed around and finally it was agreed to offer 5 $4000 gifts to anyone building a new home in Iroquois. That original $20,000 is now gone and we have more new homes than that in town.
Some of the new homes are “Governors” homes, which are built by inmates of the Springfield Correctional Facility and purchased by Iroquois Housing from the South Dakota Housing Authority. Iroquois Housing then places the homes on a basement and in most cases builds a garage onto them and then sells them to interested parties. Some of the new homes are built by individual contractors and one home was built by the vocational department at Huron High School.
But more has happened in our town than just getting new homes. In the process many individuals have decided to upgrade their own homes and some vacant, damaged, unoccupied homes have been torn down to make the area much more attractive. This makes a very favorable impression upon those considering settling here. The city of Iroquois issued 14 building permits in 2007; 9 of these were for new construction and the others were for major improvments. We don’t require permits for things like re-shingling, re-siding or new windows so those sort of fix-up projects don’t get reflected in the building permits but many were doing those sort of things to their homes.
My purpose in writing this is to show that towns that want to change for the better can do so. Iroquois is so much better for the things happening here and those from other communities reading this can be encouraged that great things can be done if only they will work together.
Very soon I hope to get some pictures of our new homes up on this blog site so everyone can see the great things that we have done here in Iroquois.
During our Horizons Study Circles, one idea that came up was having a Town and Country Show. We felt this would be a good opportunity to for our local citizens to sell their wares. It would also be an outlet for local talent. We held our first Town and Country Showcase last summer and felt it was a great success.
Our chance to grow and develop in this area is coming soon. In case you didn’t catch this on the blog site:
Farmers market workshop set for Feb. 2
BROOKINGS, S.D. – The South Dakota Cooperative Extension Service will host a farmers market workshop Feb. 2.
The training session will be 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Northern Plains Biostress Laboratory on the campus of South Dakota State University, Brookings.
The workshop costs $20 for those who register before Jan. 26, and $25 for those who register after that date. The fee includes lunch, breaks, and information hand-outs.
The South Dakota Specialty Producers Association, the South Dakota Cooperative Extension Service, the Downtown Brookings Farmers Market, and Downtown Brookings, Inc. are sponsoring the event, with partial funding from the USDA Farmers Market Promotion Program.
Morning sessions will focus on market organization and management, while the afternoon sessions will cover vendor topics such as methods to increase sales, developing enticing displays, customer relations, food safety, value-added processing, and more.Call Doris Roden at (605) 692-1554 to register, or e-mail her at downtown@brookings.net. A Web site with information on the event and registration form is available at http://www.downtownbrookings.com/eventcalendar.htm. Click on the link in the workshop description to see the form.
I hope we have several communities members at this meeting to help us develop this objective!
Q: In what ways is your community more aware of it’s strengths or assests?
A: I think the more we get to know the people in our community, the more we know their capabilities. The selling point in any community is to ask people to get involved in whatever project you may have.
This was made evident when our grocery store in town was about to close. People got together and talked about ways they could keep it open. As a result, a local family decided to buy it and keep it open. they are now in the process of remodeling it.
I think that the study circles that we had really drew the community together. As we would be talking in our various groups, many leadership qualities came to light. as a result, people were communicating about different things that they wanted to see happen in our town.