Whitewood

Mayor Weyrich is in route with his National Guard Unit to provide support in Texas.

RAPID CITY, S.D. - The South Dakota National Guard’s 82nd Civil Support Team
(Weapons of Mass Destruction), headquartered in Rapid City, was directed to
provide environmental quality support for relief operations in the aftermath
of Hurricane Ike in southeast Texas on Tuesday, Sept. 23.

This is the first activation of South Dakota’s Civil Support Team since the
unit became certified in July 2007.

Seventeen members from the 82nd CST, along with five members from the 81st
CST, North Dakota National Guard, will support the 6th CST of the Texas
National Guard and the Texas State Commission on Environmental Quality with
liaison, communications interface and HAZMAT survey assessment missions in
the vicinity of Houston for the next two weeks.

The CST’s mission will be to maintain communication equipment that allows for
enhanced interoperability between military and civilian communication
devices. The unit will also help identify substances that have washed ashore
along the coast of Texas or have been displaced on the mainland in the wake
of the storm, and advise civilian authorities on substance disposal.

The unit will be relieving the 72nd CST from Nebraska that is currently
augmenting the 6th CST operating in Texas. The 82nd was conducting training
with the 81st in Bismarck, N.D., when the request for support came in from
the National Guard Bureau in Washington D.C. earlier today.

According to Maj. John Emick, commander of the 82nd CST, the unit trains
often with civil support teams from other states for this type of scenario.
He said working with other teams and personnel from other states increases
the readiness and effectiveness of units that must be able to work together.

While CSTs were originally designed for response to a WMD event, Emick said
after Hurricane Katrina, Congress changed the charter of these specialized
units to allow for response to natural disasters.

The 82nd CST is one of 55 teams across the U.S. and its territories designed
to integrate with the Incident Command System in support of a local incident
commander, providing a crucial capability between the initial local response
and that of follow-on federal assets.

Using special military and commercial detection and communication equipment,
the 82nd can provide rapid analysis of unidentified substances; to include
chemical or radiological hazards and identification of biological agents.

This full-time National Guard force is comprised of both Soldiers and Airmen
which are on call 24-hours, seven days a week. The unit is stationed at
Ellsworth Air Force Base and is comprised of command, medical, hazard
materials, communications, logistics and administration personnel.

The 82nd Civil Support Team is mainly designed to augment local and regional
terrorism response capabilities in events known or suspected to involve WMD.
WMD events are incidents involving hostile use of chemicals (such as nerve or
blister agent), biological (for example, anthrax), or radiological agents.
The team can be enroute within 90 minutes to support civil authorities in the
event or suspicion of a WMD attack.

Specifically, the CST deploys to an area of operations to support civil
authorities at an incident site by:

• identifying agents/substances.

• assessing current and projected consequences.

• advising on response measures and with appropriate requests for
additional support.  The unit also advises civilian responders regarding
appropriate response actions.

• assisting requests for assistance to expedite arrival of additional
state and federal assets to help save lives, prevent human suffering, and
mitigate great property damage.
 

Hello well we are going to be starting up troop 72291 again on Sunday Sept. 28th at 4pm at the Whitewood Library. At this meeting we will be going over our nut/chocolate/magazine sale stuff which sales start on October 3rd. Also if you have a girl who is 5th grade on up and they would like to join our troop you are more then welcome to attend this meeting and get registered. Hope to see you all there. And everyone look for your local girls to be coming to your door for our fall products. Thank you for your support.

Just a note to let everyone know (i know this does not pertain to Whitewood itself, but thought it was a good thing to share) that Saturday Sept. 27th from 1-5pm there will be a fun fundraiser day at the wildlife sanctuary. It is going to be geared more for kids. Horse rides and food and bake sales and all kinds from what i have been told.

Tour your city assets and meet the employees!! The tour to include: city hall, police station, city shop, library, treatment plant, fire department, and the new water tank!

The date is Wednesday, October 1st from 3:30-8:00pm

Prairie Hills Transit will provide transportation to the various sites. Pick-up will be at City Hall!!

Refreshments will be provided by Whitewood Senior Citizens.

Please come and see some of the changes and meet the employees!

Hey there citizens of Whitewood

My name is Heather Murschel. I’m the managing editor at the Black Hills Pioneer in Spearfish. As this area’s only locally owned newspaper, the staff here at the Pioneer is dedicated to being one of the best publications in the Northern Hills. That’s where the citizens of Whitewood come in. About a year ago, the publisher and I sat down with several prominent individuals in the community to discuss putting together a weekly edition of the Whitewood News. Those pages would be filled with Whitewood News and event coverage and so far, it’s been an amazing addition to our publication … it is something we are very proud of. However, we are now in a position where we need more help from the Whitewood community when it comes to story ideas and community events.

I’m hoping by writing this blog that I remind everyone how important these news pages were to the community at that time and how great they can be in the future. Brandon Bennett, a general assignment reporter at the Pioneer, is dedicated to the city of Whitewood. He attends all Whitewood City Council meetings and is consistently reporting on the growing economy and new businesses that are now gracing the landscape in Whitewood. 

The only thing I feel the Whitewood News is lacking is a detailed community calendar. It’s a goal of mine to make sure that people have one place to look when they are planning a weekend. If Whitewood has any special events, club meetings, school recitals, award presentations or church events … let us know. In order for an event to make it into the Wednesday edition, the notice of events must be sent via e-mail, or snail mail by Tuesday at 1 p.m. The announcements can be sent to Heather Murschel at heather@bhpioneer.com or Aloah Pahl in Lead at bhpioneer@rushmore.com. To call Heather, dial 642-2761 and to  call Aloah, dial 584-2303. 

With that said, I want to thank our readers for your support this last year. It’s been a wonderful experience getting to know a number of individuals that make Whitewood a wonderful place to live, work and raise a family. 

Sincerely,

Heather Murschel

Heather M. Murschel

Managing Editor

Black Hills Pioneer 

315 Seaton Circle

Spearfish, SD  57783

Whitewood Healthy Living Challenge 

 A way to get help you reach and maintain your ideal weight.  The Morning Show interviews dieters who have successfully used the web to help them reach their weight goals.  some of the web sites they used are:

Calorie King - caloric values of restaurant food and exercises to counter balance

Woman Activity Tracker - Helps you keep a log of goals you set for yourself

Daily Plate - a way to track what you eat every day

Hungry Girl - an everyday woman’s website for daily tips & tricks

The Scramble -  a seasonal online weekly menu planner and cookbook

Will be held on September 9th. The skateboard park meeting will be held at 5:30pm and the Economic Development meeting will be held at 6:00pm at City Hall. As of now the meetings will be held on the 3rd Tuesday of the month following this meeting at the same place and time. Please get involved and come to these meetings.