Whitewood

Wow! City documents from the 1800’s were found. A map for Crook City from 1889 was found in the City Hall during their remodel. This document was a map for Crook City so that it could be developed into a town, but it never came to be because the railroad decided to go through Whitewood instead. Also their is a document from 1893 for the Whitewood Oak Park housing addition! This was an amazing find and I’m so happy to share them on our blog!!

The annual 8-10 craft fair was held today at Hale Hall. The event seemed to be a big success as Hale Hall was filled with people most of the afternoon! Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves and there were lots of cool things for sale!

Today Amy and Tammy the Whitewood Bloggers watched the Spearfish Cloggers perform at the Hub in Whitewood! We thought it was such a great idea we decided to take a picture with them!!! Check it out!! In the picture Tammy is on the far left and Amy on the far right

The City Hall finance office recently received a facelift! These pictures show the improved new office. In the picture is Brenda of the finance office.

Each Thanksgiving and Christmas, the Whitewood Lord’s Kitchen volunteers prepare food baskets for the food pantry which is located at the Baptist church. These baskets are given to families whom need extra help during the holidays. If you would like to help out please leave donations at the Baptist Church! Every donation will be gladly accepted! We appreciate your help!

 Blogging for results in Horizons! Blogging is a way for our community to earn great incentives just by meeting a certain criteria!! We in our community have decided to “shoot for the stars” and this means that we will need to meet certain criteria by February 1st 2008. Listed below are the things that as a community we need to accomplish:

1.  By Feb. 1, 2008, there must be at least three blog posts for each of the 12 categories  on the “Community Progress on Outcomes” grid.

2.  We must see that a community blogger has added at least four posts per month through completion of the Horizons project on July 1, 2008.

3.  At least five new bloggers from the community are added as users and are making contributions to the blog.

4. Blog includes quotes, stories, and photos or video that describe progress towards Horizons goals.

5.  Blog is used to highlight at least one Horizons community event.

6.  There is evidence of at least two conversations with others on the blog.

7.  You have connected by blog to at least 3 other Horizons communities.

8.  Blog has been used to recognize people or organizations for their Horizons work.

9.  There are at least 2 links on blog to other websites.

As a community if we accomplish these goals our community will be entitled to a new laptop computer! This laptop will be for community use and will more than likely be kept in the library for use. This is an awesome thing that Horizons is doing for our community, and what an easy way for us to earn this reward. I need the communities help in accomplishing these goals. I need others to become a part of the blog and to participate and help with the communication to make it a success!

I also need everyone’s help in reaching out to the other communities as well. Please check out the other communities and see the things that they are doing to improve their towns! Maybe there is something that another community is doing that will spark imagination and ideas in our town that we could do! Reaching out to other communities is a great asset especially if we don’t have to recreate the wheel on certain ideas. Please also post to these other communities and ask questions and have conversations with them about their communities.

If anyone has any questions pleast let me know! Let’s blog for results now!

The above photos: The group photo is Pictured left to right is associate publisher Letti Lister, publisher Stewart Huntington, managing editor Heather Ziegenbein, advertising representative Sharon Mason and a good friend of the office, Fred Ening of Fred Ening Realty in Spearfish. The individual picture is of Stewart Huntington! 

We learned last night at our Horizons even that the Pioneer newspaper will be delivering a Whitewood newspaper free of charge every Wednesday! This is exciting news and will be a great improvement to our town! We are so happy to have Pioneer Newspaper representing our town. These newspapers will be distributed to some of the local business for residents to pick up.

I know that I am really excited about this new opportunity for Whitewood!!!

Last night we had our Horizons Celebration event. We had a crowd of both young and old listening to the plans that will soon be put to action. We shared our vision statement for Whitewood with the community. Our vision statement reads as:

Working together for Whitewood!

The Whitewood Horizons Strategic Planning team will work together toward goals for making Whitewood the best place it can be. We will invite people to work together to improve our community.

We will focus on the renewed success of Whitewood.

We also shared our Mission statement which is:

Whitewood will be a friendly, progressive community where people care about each other and work together toward common goals. Whitewood will be a place where history and the future come together. We treasure our past, but we look to tomorrow by welcoming new residents, businesses and visitors. Whitewood will be a clean and safe place to live. We are committed to being a community that includes those living in the city limits, in neighboring developments, and in the country.

We also established our goals, which a highlight of the goals include:

*To improve communication in Whitewood

*To provide business opportunities, jobs, and services for Whitewood Economic Development

*To provide recreational opportunities for the citizens of Whitewood

Now the fun will begin and we can begin to work on the plans and start seeing them through! I personally look forward to the opportunity! Above are some of the pictures that I took during the event!

Some of our local boys were instrumental in getting some changes to Whitewood. The 4 boys are Keegan Weyrich, Charlie Willson, Riley Burkey, and Dexter Weyrich. In September of this year they wrote a letter to the Department of Transportation asking why the City of Whitewood sign did not show the town’s population size. This question was brought up previously by some Whitewood Elementary students a few months prior, but the 4 high school students decided to take action and write the DOT. They did not believe that their letter would be responded to, but a few weeks later they received the following response from the DOT:

     “The DOT has investigated the existing sign identifying the City of Whitewood. The existing sign is not located on the state highway system and therefore is not under the jurisdiction of the DOT. However, it appears this sign is also not located in the city limits. The proper location for this sign is along a portion of the highway that is part of the state system. Therefore, DOT representatives will work with local officials in an effort to remove the existing sign and install a new sign at the proper location. To be consistent with the DOT’s exiting policy, the new sign will include information identifying the population of the community.”

This is exciting information and will be so great once it’s installed. Marty O’Dea will be working with the DOT to see this project through.

We all owe a great deal of thanks to the boys for seeing this through!! Yeah!!!

On October 27th Taggarts Over-Land SkateArama was at Hale Hall! The kids that came to enjoy an afternoon of skating had a great time! Below are some pictures that I took while I was there!! Hopefully next time we will see more kids at this event!

The annual Halloween dance at Whitewood Elementary was a success! The kids all seemed to have a great time. We had a lot of parents that stayed and chatted with other parents too! Here are a few pictures from the event! Thanks to everyone who helped us with the event!

Please see the right side of this page. Under pages there is a link if you want to learn how to blog. Please click on that if you are interested in blogging. This link will give you instructions on how to obtain an id and some important steps to blogging! I actually borrowed this idea on posting the instructions from Newell! Thanks Newell!!

As a part of the Horizon’s program, the Whitewood Horizon’s Group received a digital camera to advertise and promote activities in the Whitewood community.  Check out this site often to see what the citizen’s of Whitewood are doing to promote and change their  community.

Tonight we are having our celebration kick off meeting at Hale Hall. Dinner will be served at 6pm and the meeting will begin at 6:30. We hope to see everyone there!!

The Immanuel Lutheran Church is hosting their Thanksgiving dinner Saturday November 1oth from 5-7pm at the church.  Everyone is invited.

The 8-10 club will be hosting their annual craft fair Saturday November 10 from 9am to 3pm.  There will be lots of crafts and great food.  See you there!

The Whitewood PTO is sponsoring a soup supper November 12 from 5-7 pm at Hale Hall. There will be a variety of soups and there is also a pie auction starting at 6pm.  The proceeds will go to the school beautification project.  Bring your appetites!!!!