PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) — State records show that a contractor from western South Dakota submitted the lowest bid for the initial phase of mass grading at the shooting sport complex that the state Department of Game, Fish and Parks will be building near Rapid City.
Dakota Redi-Mix Inc., based in neighboring Black Hawk, offered to do the grading for $5,878,008. The company is owned by the McKillop family of Gillette, Wyoming. Other bids received were:
$7,800,000 from Zandstra Construction Inc., based in Rapid City;
$8,062,515 from Rounds Construction Co., based in Brookings; and
$12,483,296 from McGough Construction, a national firm with an office in Sioux Falls.
McGough currently has the main state contract for renovating the South Dakota Cultural Heritage Center museum and archives in Pierre. The center closed to the public and its staff in March and will remain shuttered through some point in 2025.
GFP also is seeking someone to independently work as a fundraiser for shooting range project. Those applications had to be submitted no later than 12 a.m. CDT September 13.
COURTROOM EXPERIENCE: A statewide news organization has turned to two well-known South Dakotans to share their expertise with reporters about how courts work.
South Dakota News Watch is hosting the training that will feature Larry Long, a retired circuit judge and two-term state attorney general, and Craig Kennedy, a former legislator and long-time attorney.
The first session is Saturday, September 16, in Rapid City. The second session is Saturday, September 23, in Sioux Falls.
South Dakota News Watch formed in 2017 to provide deeper statewide coverage.
Other partners for the Long-Kennedy presentation include South Dakota Public Broadcasting, South Dakota Newspaper Association and South Dakota Broadcasters Association.
VOTERS WANTED: Black Hills State University will host a voter registration drive on Tuesday, September 19, from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. MT at the Student Union in Spearfish — and South Dakota Secretary of State Monae Johnson and some of her staff will be there to help.
An award in honor of Gladys Pyle, who was South Dakota’s first female secretary of state and South Dakota’s first woman elected to the U.S. Senate, will also be presented at 12:15 p.m. MT.
NEW FACE: The governor has filled a vacant seat on the South Dakota Lottery Commission. She chose Timothy J. Donohue of Sioux Falls. He succeeds William Shorma of Dakota Dunes. Shorma left the commission after he was elected to the South Dakota House of Representatives last November.
Have a news item or tip about South Dakota state government? Contact KELOLAND News reporter Bob Mercer at the station’s Capitol bureau in Pierre at 605-280-7580 or bmercer@keloland.com or by mail at 1810 Camden Court, Pierre, SD 57501.
