Ravnsborg, derecho, drought and more: Mitchell Republic's 2022 stories of the year

Dec. 30—MITCHELL — For the first time in the state's history, the attorney general of South Dakota was impeached after the state Senate voted in June to remove Jason Ravnsborg for his role in a fatal vehicle crash.

After a heated trial that saw testimony from multiple authorities and South Dakota Highway patrolmen who investigated the Sept. 20, 2020, crash in which Ravnsborg struck and killed a man, Joe Boever, along a rural road, the state Senate delivered a historic vote to impeach Attorney General Ravnsborg for crimes committed in office. The Senate's vote made Ravnsborg the first constitutional officer to be impeached and barred from ever holding office.

Through reader interest and news value to the state's history, the Ravnsborg impeachment trial and its outcome were determined to be the top story for the Mitchell Republic in the 2022 calendar year. The state's extreme weather events, plans for a new multi-million-dollar soybean facility, and the ongoing progress to build a new high school in Mitchell were among the other top-five stories in the newspaper's coverage region.

As the investigation into the incident unfolded and revealed distracted driving was a factor, Gov. Kristi Noem and other top-elected officials put pressure on Ravnsborg to resign. However, Ravnsborg chose to remain in office — setting the stage for impeachment trials in the House of Representatives and Senate.

Leading up to the impeachment trial, the investigation into the crash put Ravnsborg in the national spotlight for his initial statements to officers claiming he thought he struck a deer and not a man.

Investigations into the incident led by the North Dakota Department of Criminal Investigation (NDBCI) would later reveal Ravnsborg was using his phone in the minutes leading up to the crash to check the weather, read emails, see voter registration statistics and read political articles.

During interviews with NDBCI agents, the video recording — which was publicly released then later ordered to be taken down by a judge — Ravnsborg claimed to not remember the extent of his phone use. Ultimately, investigators would testify before the state Senate that Ravnsborg was distracted in some way when he struck Boever.

Although Ravnsborg vehemently denied any wrongdoing from the crash, he was charged for careless driving, illegal lane change and driving while using his phone, each misdemeanor offenses. When a judge sentenced Ravnsborg to pay fines and serve no jail time, it sparked outrage among the Boever family, including his sister, Jane Boever, who called the sentencing a "slap on the wrist."

"We have gone through the process and the price has been paid," Ravnsborg wrote, referring to the nearly $5,000 he paid in fines and fees following his conviction of two traffic tickets as a result of striking Boever.

In the wake of Ravnsborg's sentencing hearing, a house committee's decision to recommend against impeaching Ravnsborg brought more controversy to the scandal.

But the committee's recommendation failed to stand, as the House of Representatives delivered a 36-31 vote to impeach Ravnsborg during an April 12 special session hearing at the state Capitol in Pierre. The Senate's 31-2 and 24-9 votes in June to impeach Ravnsborg and eliminate his ability to ever hold office in the state marked the final blow to his political career in South Dakota.

While Ravnsborg's impeachment and removal of office brought a close to a long, traumatic political scandal, it brought a new face to temporarily lead South Dakota's attorney general office in Mark Vargo.

2. Weather phenomenon tears through eastern South Dakota

What started out as a calm sunny day on May 12 in eastern South Dakota quickly turned into a freakish storm that brought 90 to 100 mph winds and wreaked havoc on towns in the surrounding Mitchell area.

The

May 12 "derecho" storm spawned 13 tornadoes

that inflicted severe damage in communities across the eastern portion of the state. While many South Dakotans weren't familiar with the term derecho prior to the storm, the rare weather event became the talk of many towns over the past summer.

According to the National Weather Service, a derecho is a widespread, long-lived wind storm that is associated with a band of rapidly moving showers or thunderstorms.

After the storm had subsided, law enforcement and other damage surveyors hit the ground, discovering imploded grain bins near Tripp, roofs torn off of buildings in Salem, a school rendered useless in Castlewood and countless overturned vehicles across the region.

Gov. Kristi Noem declared the storm a disaster in many areas of eastern South Dakota, which opened the door for additional funds to support communities affected by the derecho and ordered state personnel to assist.

Damages from the derecho totaled roughly $6.7 million across 20 counties in eastern South Dakota. Some communities like Salem are still recovering from the disaster.

3. Drought takes toll on crops and the Corn Palace

Rain was a rare occurrence in South Dakota throughout 2022.

Extreme heat paired with little moisture made way for an abnormally severe drought in 2022. Crops struggled, ponds dried up, cattle were exhausted and burn bans went into effect around the Mitchell area.

The drought halted the Corn Palace from welcoming the 2023 corn mural theme on the landmark building. The multicolored corn that a Mitchell area farmer grows for the

Corn Palace was plagued by the drought, forcing city officials

to leave the circus theme corn murals up for another year and hope for a better crop in the fall.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), South Dakota was in the midst of its eighth driest year over the past 128 years during mid-October. The U.S. Drought Monitor had much of South Dakota in extreme drought and severe drought conditions during the summer and fall.

The Drought Severity and Coverage Index showed South Dakota had 94.55% of land considered abnormally dry or worse, with 1.25% of the state — all in the southeast corner — considered in exceptional drought, as of early October.

The drought prompted the United States Agriculture Department to declare 33 counties as a disaster.

4. Mitchell area soybean plant gets approved

The south edge of Mitchell became a target site for a proposed $500 million soybean processing plant.

After hearing extensive input from support and opposition, the Davison County Commission delivered a unanimous vote to approve the soybean plant this summer, a move that city leaders said will bring much needed economic growth and good jobs to the Mitchell area. The plant is estimated to create roughly 75 full-time jobs.

While the South Dakota Soybean Processors' plan to build a massive facility in the Mitchell area brought plenty of excitement for some agriculture producers, nearby residents had concerns about the influx of truck traffic it would create on the two-lane Highway 37 road and environmental questions of the plant being near residential homes.

Among the supporters of the soybean processing facility were a handful of area farmers, including Chet Edinger, who touted the plant as a way to "keep those farming dollars here."

The plant will be able to process soybeans and high oilseeds, with the expectation of processing 35 million bushels of soybeans annually, along with 850,000 tons of sunflowers, which will each be crushed for meal and extracted for oil.

The South Dakota Soybean Processors organization has plants in Volga and Miller, and the Mitchell location is slated to become the newest area for the company.

While there were plenty of divided opinions on the proposed soybean processing plant, the Davison County Commission unanimously approved a conditional use permit for the facility to be built along Highway 37, roughly 2 miles south of Mitchell.

Leaders of the soybean organization are eyeing an opening date sometime in 2025.

5. Inflation sends project costs for new Mitchell High School $20 million over budget

After years of planning and budgeting to build a new Mitchell High School, the cost estimates of the project came in $20 million over budget.

The Mitchell Board of Education was presented with the estimated $62.1 million price tag of the project during a June meeting, which raised eyebrows among the board and school leaders. The Mitchell School District set aside $42 million in hopes of it being enough to build a new high school, but the unexpected high cost estimate brought new challenges to the plan.

In an attempt to bring project costs down, Joe Graves, superintendent of the Mitchell School District, explained in August that doing the project in phases could be a solution to moving ahead with the new school. Nixing the athletic facilities in the original design and building them in a separate phase further down the road was one avenue Graves and architects have been mulling over, which has sparked some opposition among school board members.

While the plan to bring Mitchell a new high school and replace the existing building that dates back to 1962 has been a longtime goal for the school district's leader, it came up against some opposition among a group of community members who held a meeting in an attempt to poke holes through the project.

The school board has yet to make a decision on whether to move forward with the multimillion-dollar project.

6. South Dakota voters made two historic decisions in November at the ballot box, approving the expansion of medicaid and rejecting legalizing recreational marijuana.

Leading up to the election, Initiated Measure 27 — the amendment that would have legalized recreational cannabis for people 21 or older in the state — became a hotly contested issue. Marijuana advocates sparred with opposition, including the mayors of Sioux Falls and Rapid City who held press conferences weeks before the election to urge against approving recreational cannabis.

The measure was narrowly defeated on November 8 in a 52 to 47 vote to reject legalizing recreational cannabis in South Dakota.

Although voters approved legalizing recreational marijuana in 2020, the vote was challenged in court over the way it was placed on the ballot. Roughly a year later, the South Dakota Supreme Court ruled the initiated measure was not properly placed on the ballot box, which nullified the vote.

The amendment to expand medicaid in the state passed in a much wider margin, with 56% approving and 43% voting against it. The approval of the amendment expanded eligibility for medicaid health care coverage for adults ages 18 to 65 who earn up to 138% of the federal poverty level.

7. While some polls anticipated a close gubernatorial race, Republican incumbent Kristi Noem decisively won a second term as the governor of South Dakota in November.

Democrat hopeful Jamie Smith hit the campaign trail hard in his bid to unseat Noem, but he was defeated by a wide margin, tallying 35% of the votes to Noem's 62%.

Leading up to the 2022 election in November, attack ads from Noem's camp dubbing Smith "South Dakota's Joe Biden" radiated throughout the state, while Smith took aim at investigations into Noem for nepotism and her use of airplanes.

Noem spent over $4 million in the re-election campaign, well above Smith's roughly $810,000.

Although Noem dealt with controversial issues in her first term as governor, she became a rising star among the nation's Republican party and found her name being suggested to make a potential run for presidency in 2024.

8. After sitting on the market for two years, the city of Mitchell sold the multi-million-dollar former Kelley home to a pair of Mitchell residents in the fall.

The $1.59 million sale of the immaculate 10,095-square-foot home brought the city's unexpected real estate venture to a close and revealed who the buyers were.

Mitchell businessmen Austen Iverson and J.R. Heidinger purchased the property to transform it into an event and wedding venue. While members of the Mitchell City Council and Mayor Bob Everson were relieved to have sold the house amid a volatile real estate market, plans to host weddings and events at the property that sits about 2 miles west of Lake Mitchell were met with pushback from some nearby residents.

The city purchased the home in 2019 as part of a $4.1 million deal that came with 371 acres of land for the city to build a wetland aimed at reducing the phosphorus and sediment flowing into Lake Mitchell from Firesteel Creek. Although city leaders did not intend to buy the Kelley house for the wetland project, the former owner stipulated the 371 acres of land could only be sold with the house included.

With the city's plans to improve the algae woes hampering Lake Mitchell in the form of building wetlands upstream and mulling over a dredging project, the revenue from the sale of the home was set aside to help advance lake restoration efforts.

9. Mitchell said goodbye to two staples in 2022.

When Chef Louie's and the Ramada Hotel and Conference Center shut down early in the year, it left a hole in Mitchell's food and hospitality industry.

Chef Louie's had been a fixture on the corner of Havens Avenue and Burr Street since 1945. After the owners announced the longtime steakhouse and lounge was closing in early January 2022, it sparked plenty of emotions among the loyal customers who frequented Chef Louie's.

The Ramada hotel underwent several name changes through the years, but it remained as one of the more popular wedding venues and hotels in the Mitchell area. The closure of the hotel ended an era that spanned over five decades.

Although the loss of the two staple businesses brought plenty of emotions among Mitchell area residents, new eras are on the horizon at both locations. Plains Commerce Bank is gearing up to build its new Mitchell office where the former Chef Louie's used to be, while the Ramada is transforming into a large apartment complex.

10. Despite starting the season off with a loss to Iowa, the South Dakota State Jackrabbits football team went on to win every game since and punched a ticket to compete for a national championship.

With quarterback Mark Gronowski coming back to lead the offense after a season-ending injury in 2021 and a veteran defense, the Jacks put together a dominant season on the gridiron by tallying 13-1 record. During the memorable season, SDSU defeated conference foe North Dakota State University to retake the Dakota marker back to Brookings and claimed the Missouri Valley Conference Championship.

After beating Montana State in the semifinal matchup of the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), the Jackrabbits put themselves in position to become the first team in school history to hoist the FCS trophy.

SDSU will square off against longtime rival NDSU on Jan. 8 in Frisco, Texas, and bring the historic season to a close.

With the FCS championship game yet to be played, time will tell whether the 2022-2023 Jackrabbits will cement their names in the school's history books.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The entirety of the SDSU football season — which is a single subject was considered as a top-ranked news story due to the team's No. 1 ranking and its qualification for the national championship game. The top sports story of the year was determined to be the combined success of the USD and SDSU women's basketball teams in March.

Honorable mention: A new era was ushered in at Dakota Wesleyan University on Aug. 25 with the inauguration of the Mitchell college's 21st president, Dan Kittle.

"It is the work of preparing students for professional lives and ethical leadership and service and for lives dedicated to the broader ideals of contributing to the public good which motivate me to dedicate my life — my professional life — to Dakota Wesleyan University," Kittle said during the inauguration ceremony on DWU's campus.

After former DWU President Amy Novak resigned in 2022, a presidential search committee began its quest to find the next top administrator to lead DWU.

The committee — made up of university faculty, staff, administrators and students, as well as members of the school board of trustees — ultimately found Kittle to be the choice to move DWU into its next chapter.

Kittle, 45, left his role as vice president for student life and dean of students at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa. He worked for Wartburg in several capacities for over 16 years.

Honorable mention: Woonsocket native turned professional angler Duane Hjelm strung together his most dominant season yet this year while competing on the Cabela's and Bass Pro Shops National Walleye Tour in 2022.

After claiming a tournament championship in Green Bay, where he reeled in a 73-pound bag of walleye in two days, Hjlem came in second at the tour championship in Dunkirk, New York. The big season he produced competing on the tour cemented his name in pro angling history when he took home the Angler of the Year title.

Honorable mention: After sitting vacant for three years, the former Shopko building on the north side of Mitchell was purchased by a South Dakota Native American tribe that has plans to turn the property into a medical marijuana cultivation facility.

The Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe bought the 71,846-square-foot building earlier in the year for its plans to produce medical marijuana in Mitchell.

The building sold for $1.6 million, marking a $400,000 decrease from the initial listing price. An application to secure the permits needed to produce marijuana in the building has yet to come in front of the Mitchell City Council.

Prior to purchasing the large commercial property, the Flandreau tribe had been approved to open a dispensary at a location along the south edge of Mitchell.