The voice of central South Dakota since 1881

Wednesday, October 9, 2013 www.capjournal.com Volume 132, Issue No. 198 75¢C

THE 18TH HOLEGovs finish season at

State AA Meet in Brandon B1

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Crews shoveled snow o� the roof of First Interstate Bank in Spear� sh,S.D. on Monday afternoon. Heavy, wet snow caused businesses and residents problems during the early October blizzard which left over 10,000 people still without power. (AP Photo/Rapid City Journal, Kristina Barker)

Royce Loesch, commander of American Legion Post 20 in Fort Pierre, leans on a wagon wheel in front of the Post Building on Deadwood Street. Loesch has spent the last few months trying to � x up the building and attract new members to the post. (David Rookhuyzen/Capital Journal)

BY CHET BROKAWASSOCIATED PRESS

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — No major flooding is expected from up to nearly 5 feet of rapidly melting snow that blanketed western South Dakota during an early fall storm that killed at least one person, collapsed sev-eral buildings and left tens of thousands without power, officials said Tuesday.

“We still have some creeks and streams that can still hold quite a bit of moisture,” Melissa Smith, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service in Rapid City, said. “If anything, we might have some minor flooding condi-tions. Right now, we’re not looking for anything major or widespread.

Officials and residents

meanwhile were working to clean up after the week-end storm in western South Dakota’s Black Hills cut power to tens of thousands of customers, brought trav-el to a standstill, left cattle ranchers dealing with heavy losses and damaged numer-ous buildings.

Smith said the area had abnormally dry to moderate drought conditions before the storm, so much of the water from melting snow is soaking into the unfrozen ground. Creeks and streams were running low, so they also can handle runoff, she said.

Minor flooding is possible, particularly where snow drifts block water from running into creeks and streams. Between half an inch to an inch and a half of

rain is predicted for the area Thursday and Friday, but that also will soak into the parched ground, Smith said.

Calen Maningas, a Rapid City firefighter working in the Pennington County Emergency Operations Center, said the city-coun-ty Water Rescue Team was put on notice to deal with any flooding or water dam-age problems, but no major flooding was expected.

Rapid City is protected from floods by the green belt, essentially a giant park running through the city along Rapid Creek, which was established after the June 1972 flood that killed 238 people, Maningas said.

“If a flood was to happen, it would just be in the park,”

No major � ooding expected from melting SD snow

See SNOW, A8

BY ALYSSA SMALLALYSSA.SMALL@CAPJOURNAL.COM

Reports of fewer wild pheasants this hunting season aren’t keeping the hunters away from South Dakota.

Instead anecdotal evidence suggests that hunters are seeking birds on hunting pre-serves – lodges that release birds onto their land in addition to the wild birds. The birds are raised to full maturity on farms around the state and then released on preserves.

Though the state Game, Fish and Parks Department’s pheasant brood survey report-ed wild bird numbers were down 64 percent from last year in South Dakota, visitor num-bers at area lodges are up, with Cheyenne Ridge reporting about 600 hunters so far this season.

“We offer an overall experience,” Cheyenne Ridge general manager Sean Finley said. “We pick up more birds

How it worksA minimum of 300

rooster pheasants must be released within the preserve during the � rst year of operation and a minimum of 600 rooster pheasants each season thereafter.

Hen releases are al-lowed on the preserves, but their numbers cannot be included on the game release records, nor can they be used to meet the required minimum release total for the preserve.

The total harvest of released and wild birds cannot exceed 100 percent of each species of birds released. For example, if 800 pheasants (680 marked and 120 wild) were harvested on the preserve, release records must show that at least 800 rooster pheasants have been released on the preserve acres.

All birds released on the shooting preserve must be

Business strong on area hunting preserves

WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s long been known that America’s school kids haven’t measured well compared with international peers. Now, there’s a new twist: Adults don’t either.

In math, reading and problem-solving using technology – all skills considered critical for global competitiveness and economic strength – American adults scored below the international average on a global test, according to results released Tuesday.

Adults in Japan, Canada, Australia, Finland and multiple other countries scored significantly higher than the United States in all three areas on the test. Beyond basic reading and math, respondents were tested on activi-

ties such as calculating mileage reimbursement due to a salesman, sort-ing email and comparing food expiration dates on

THE 18TH HOLEGovs finish season at

BY DAVID ROOKHUYZENDAVID.ROOKHUYZEN@CAPJOURNAL.COM

It took half a day for Royce Loesch to decide he wanted to help revitalize American Legion Post 20 in Fort Pierre.

It was June and Loesch, a local barber and former commander of Post 8 in Pierre, was just beaten in a bid to become vice command-er for the eastern half of South Dakota. Looking around for anoth-er chance to serve fellow veterans, his gaze turned to Fort Pierre.

Ed Duffy, the previous Post Commander, had passed away on May 11 and the post was leaderless. Membership had had been dwin-dling for the past decade and the Legion hadn’t done a large activ-ity in at least 20 years. So Loesch transferred his membership to Fort Pierre and started his effort to breathe some new life into the post.

When he took over around July 1 there were only 15 members: four

who had paid their dues for life and 11 who needed to renew for the year. He set what he thought was a reasonable goal to add 20 members after a year.

The result was beyond his wildest expectations. Usually only networking through the veter-ans who came in for haircuts, membership reached 44 after only three months.

After that kind of growth, Loesch said it would be nice to have 60 active members by the end of the year, but he doesn’t want to set a goal because all his numbers seem to fall short of what actually happens.

“I really don’t expect anything anymore,” he said.

With the renewed membership, Loesch wants to reinstitute sev-

eral Legion programs, both for the veterans and for the youth. Those included marches and a color guard, along with what are known as “Americanism” programs such

as teaching younger students about the flag.

The reaction from the public, city of Fort Pierre and Legionnaires has been positive so far and Loesch said he hopes more will join the cause as the post ramps up its services.

“They don’t know what an active Legion looks like,” he said.

But revitalizing the post goes beyond engaging the members.

Loesch also has to work on upgrad-ing the post building itself.

The post occupies a small,

Pierre man rebuilding body and soul of Fort Pierre American Legion

OCTOBER TORNADOTornadoes scatter

debris through Northwest Iowa fields A5

With the renewed membership, Loesch wants to reinstitute several Legion programs, both for the veterans and for the youth. Those included marches and a color guard, along with what are known as “Americanism” programs such as teaching younger students about the � ag.

See LEGION, A8

See PHEASANT, A8See HUNT, A8

American adults score poorly on global test

See TEST, A8

BY CAPITAL JOURNAL STAFFNEWS@CAPJOURNAL.COM

Pierre Police officers used a stun gun on an 8-year-old girl threatening to injure herself Saturday night.

According to Pierre Police Chief Bob Grandpre, officers responded to a call between 8:30 and 9 p.m. from a person in charge of the juvenile about the girl making comments about suicide and stab-bing herself in the leg.

When the officers

arrived, they engaged with the juvenile who had the tip of the knife touching her chest, he said. The juvenile would not put down the knife and moved toward a hall-way and potentially into another room out of sight of the officers, Grandpre said.

One of the officers approached her, and the juvenile pointed the knife at officer and then back at herself when he stopped. The Taser was then used to incapacitate the juve-nile, he said.

E m e r g e n cy r e s p o n d e r s were brought in to check the girl and found no stab wounds to her legs, Grandpre said.

G r a n d p r e said the situa-tion was fluid and fast mov-ing, and there are not many alternatives in that type of situations. The officers acted correctly to ensure everyone was safe, he said.

“With the options they had presented, they used good j u d g m e n t , ” Grandpre said.

A c c o r d i n g to department protocol, he was notified after the inci-dent and an initial review has been con-

ducted. A second, more in-depth review is in the process, he said.

Pierre Police use Taser on girl, 8, threatening suicideAccording to Pierre Police Chief Bob Grandpre, o� cers responded to a call between 8:30 and 9 p.m. from a person in charge of the juvenile about the girl making comments about suicide and stabbing herself in the leg.

See TASER, A8

“It’s not just the kids who require more and more preparation to get access to the economy, it’s more and more the adults don’t have the skills to stay in it,”

Anthony Carnevale, director of the

Georgetown University Center on

Education and the Workforce