Category: columns-business

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Wind Won’t Be Stopped

By Bernie Hunhoff

State legislators and energy lobbyists gathered on the fourth floor of the State Capitol on Monday night to hear a review of various issues from the Public Utilities Commission.

If there is any issue that unites Democrats and Republicans in South Dakota, it is the omnipresence of our prairie breezes. They say a real Texas oilman can almost smell where to drill. It is in his bones and nostrils, maybe the way a Northerner can feel the wind even when indoors or in a truck. We live with wind, and we believe in its power.

So the news from PUC commissioners Gary Hanson and Chris Nelson was heartening on that cold night in Pierre, who reported that in a scant decade our state has grown its wind energy industry from nothing to nearly 800 megawatts.

We lead all states in wind development when you rank it as a percentage of total in-state generation. Wind represents 23% in South Dakota. Iowa is second at 17%, followed by North Dakota and Minnesota at about 13%.

But our potential has hardly been tapped by the existing turbines. We could produce up to 4,000 MWs — twice the total annual peak demand for electricity in South Dakota. Consequently, if we are going to expand in the future we’ll need to export our energy to urban areas.

News came this week that a $730 million transmission line will be finished that will carry wind power from the Buffalo Ridge country in Brookings County to the Twin Cities. It is one segment of a string of proposed lines from North Dakota eastward.

Transmission towers are more important than turbine towers at this stage of the game. Also critical is a federal tax subsidy that pays developers up to 30% in construction costs. The federal credit has been an on/off program and it is currently scheduled to be switched off again in 2013, so next year is an important construction season for projects currently being planned.

The only downside to wind energy has been the realization that, beyond construction jobs, it doesn’t seem to create as many rural jobs policymakers had hoped. The PUC staff reports that only about 3 to 7 maintenance and operation positions are created in a 100 MW project.

But the other benefits — lease payments to landowners, tax receipts for state and local governments, cleaner air and less dependence on foreign energy — have all become realities in South Dakota.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Easy Summer Salad

By Katie Hunhoff

Today I ate lunch at the Open Door in Menno. It’s been years since I’ve visited the tiny, pretty town located near the James River. My dad told me that people used to come from miles around on Sundays to drink a cold beer in Menno’s very popular beer garden, which was more like a back alley than a garden.

These days people still gather on Sundays in Menno, but it’s for the brunch at the Open Door, not a beer party. The restaurant is run by Rita Hoff and is open seven days a week. Rita features German food on Tuesdays so today I tried some fleisch kuechle, knoefla and saurkraut. We’ll have a story on Rita’s German cooking in the September/October 2011 issue.

Besides making German dishes on Tuesdays and the large brunch on Sundays, Rita features homemade kuchen and donuts on Thursdays. All her food is made fresh daily, including the seven or eight salads she had featured when I stopped today. The pea salad was my favorite and I asked for the recipe (below). Rita said it was one of her easier recipes, and most popular.

Pea Salad

2 cups cooked macaroni
1 can peas, drained
Ω cup green sweet pickles
Ω shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup salad dressing
2 tablespoons sugar

Mix all ingredients and chill before serving.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Spink: Open For Business

By Bernie Hunhoff

To insiders in southeast South Dakota, the tiny “map spot” called Spink is a diamond in the rough. Here at South Dakota Magazine, we became fans of the town in the summer of 1992 when we spent a day there with Myrtle Twedt, then the town matriarch.

Myrtle had painted more than 100 paintings by then, and most of them were of the town she lived in and loved. The family home (which is still owned by the Twedt family and stands just north of the Spink Store, is still in great condition. It was built by Johannes Larson, her grandfather, more than 135 years ago.

Myrtle and her husband once ran the store. In fact, they struck gold. They were there when the REA strung lines. “We sold Maytag washers by the carload,” she said. They also had a locker plant and a creamery. Where did all the entrepreneurs go?

Well, a few are still in Spink — including John and Diane Otten, who have been running an old-style restaurant in the Spink Store. We stopped by the other night, and there was a good crowd of local folks enjoying a spring evening at the store. The Ottens told me they serve breakfast, lunch and dinner. They have evening specials. Saturday night prime rib is — no surprise here — the biggest “seller,” says John. But spaghetti Wednesdays are also good. They are open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily, and ’till 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. They do quit on Sundays at 2 p.m. — such slackers in Union County.

A classic old Jeep is for sale across the street for $3,000.

After we featured Myrtle’s art in 1992, Ted Hustead of Wall Drug called and ordered one of the paintings we pictured. It still hangs in the main hallway of the world’s funnest pharmacy. Myrtle was thrilled, and so are we every time we see it hanging there.