10/31/18

Hot Springs is acting on blogger's advice



Most South Dakota schools could be feeding food waste to chickens and hogs maybe composting for community gardens. Hot Springs, Philip and Midland enjoy hydrothermal water to heat greenhouses.

In 2014 an interested party passed a Black Hills State University article on community organizing to a Hot Springs official.
A new way of growing food is coming to Fall River County. The Southern Hills Economic Development Corporation was recently awarded a $42,435 grant from the United States Department of Agriculture to develop a hydrothermal greenhouse in the county. The project will be known as “Hydrothermal Applications for Sustainable Agriculture,” otherwise known as HASA. [Hydrothermal coming to Fall River County]
Progress has been made under current school lunch rules but as industrial agriculture lines Republican pockets South Dakota's children still suffer from elevated risks to obesity.

Hot Springs could be something someday if it wanted to be. The town has recently expanded its social media platform and the Mammoth Site is at the focus of scientific research on a 9300-year-old mummified bison uncovered there.

Nearby Wind Cave National Park is a perennial favorite destination for ecotourists and is within biking distance of the Mickelson Trail. There is a movement to bring a mountain bike race to the area that would rival the Black Hills Fat Tire Festival. Real estate is affordable and historic properties abound.

In 1921 my maternal grandparents rode the train from Humphrey, Nebraska and honeymooned in Hot Springs where Evans Plunge became the Black Hills' first commercial tourist attraction and if passenger rail ever happens again nearby Maverick Junction will no doubt be a stop.


1 comment:

wakangli said...

I'm going to do my best to block this from going forward for multiple good reasons. I've already persuaded the plumbing and electrical educators at WDTI (my alma mater) from participating because:
1. The grant was awarded to property owners on Igloo Army Depot, a US Superfund Site. It's federally forbidden to disturb the soil at Igloo beyond cattle grazing. Nearly 1000 acres are banned from access by anyone but the Corps of Engineers, and one corp scientist stated that the chromium levels at Igloo were higher than any military installation he had tested in the world.
2. The plan is to grow tomatoes in the former Igloo swimming pool, which is filled with dozens of layers of lead based paints, some of which are flaked a foot deep in the bottom of the pool.
3. Igloo is a quagmire of hazardous materials and physical danger like broken glass, protruding rebar, unexploded ordinace, mustard gas, nerve gas, etc.
4. "Old Lady Brunson", the mother of the school teacher who asked for the grant, is the actual property owner and is legendary for her caustic and threatening treatment of visitors and trespassers, including accosting people on the still public streets of Igloo.
5. The staff at WDTI and myself, as a South Dakota Master Electrician, have deemed the project mechanically unfeasible.

The intent is to then feed the tomatoes to Edgemont school children, which will definitely not be happening.