Lost and Found: License Plate SD 1YH883

Don't play chicken with a blogger on a recumbent. ;-)

Someone in Minnehaha County is looking at his bare bumper and saying, "I thought I wired that sucker on there tight!"

The Madville Times goes on bike patrol in central Lake County, sweats off five pounds before the thunderstorm comes, and finds a bonus treasure on Highway 34, just west of Pizza Ranch: one expired South Dakota license plate! SD 1YH 883, expiration date November 2009, newly liberated thanks to some rusty 12gauge wire that just wasn't up to the job.

If this plate is near and dear to your heart, give me a shout. I might have an envelope big enough to return your treasure.

Debaters in High Places: McGowan Unchallenged as Minnehaha States Attorney

Lake County has one, now Minnehaha County follows suit: the chief prosecutors in both counties are now Madison HS graduates! Aaron McGowan (MHS 1992) went unchallenged in the race for Minnehaha County's states attorney. He joins Lake County's Ken Meyer (MHS 1985) in the ranks of South Dakota's chief prosecutors.

Another thing McGowan and Meyer have in common: as that Sioux Falls paper profiles McGowan, the big extracurricular activity it mentions is not basketball or even Greek fraternity, but McGowan's experience on the USD debate team. McGowan won national debate contests with his partner, Brendan Johnson (yeah, that Brendan Johnson—you want connections? join debate!). McGowan also made a speech or two as a Madison HS debater. Similarly, Meyer was a big Bulldog debater (and his freshman son Azmon hopes to carve a similar swath of debate destruction and extemp excellence).

Principal Sharon Knowlton is right when she writes in the December 2008 MHS Newsletter that all those tournaments our high schoolers attend are worth the occasional classes and home-cooked meals the kids may miss. Every debate tournament, every extemp round our kids compete in puts them another step ahead of the other kids with whom they'll be competing for scholarships and jobs.

Want to be a legal eagle? Join debate!

No GIS for Lake County: 21st Century Delayed Another Year

Alas, cartophiliac Mr. Heppler won't be getting his e-map fix in Lake County any time soon.

MDL reports that the Lake County Commission is planning to put off funding a Geographical Information System (GIS) for a year. Former equalization director Jerry Seidel proposed installing GIS last year, and the county agreed to budget half the cost in the 2008 budget and the remaining half in 2009. But now the county is shifting the latter half of that funding to cover equipment upgrades in the 911 dispatch center [see Elisa Sand, "County Commission Shifts Funding for GIS," Madison Daily Leader, 2008.09.04].

Now if the choice is as simple as cool online maps or being able to get hold of the sheriff, I guess I'd pick the sheriff, too. A number of folks would probably also prioritize patching our roads over computerizing operations in the equalization office. (Of course, if the equalization office had all their maps and records online, we wouldn't need to drive to the courthouse to look at them....)

Still, it's a shame to let the GIS project drop, especially if we've already paid for half of it. (Did that first half go through last year's budget? Commissioners, if you're reading, a little update, please?) Right now, if you want access to geographical information about Lake County, all you can get online is this static map of the county. Our fair county can't even manage to put tax records online the way Minnehaha does. At MinnehahaCounty.org, I can type in any address (for instance, KSFY's HQ at 300 N. Dakota Ave.) and find the legal description, lot size, property value and tax assessed (KSFY's building and lot are worth $2.3 million). Imagine how useful it would be to have information like that at everyone's fingertips here in Lake County (commenters questioning my fiscal policy could Google the actual value of my house!).

GIS would give county employees and citizens alike easy access to all sorts of geographical information that can be used to inform public policy and even business decisions. (Watersheds and FEMA floodplain info, lot boundaries, land use, changes in population... for a fuller rundown of what GIS can do, see GIS.com.) After some initial extra work in converting records from old maps and documents and the legacy computer system, GIS would help the equalization office and other county officials serve citizens faster and with better information.

GIS is an important component of making public information more accessible to the public. Even if we can't swing the money this year, I hope Lake County will look into ways to save money to put this project to work in the FY2010 budget.