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Partly Cloudy, Scattered Storms9 a.m.: 71 | 3 p.m.: 78 | DETAILS: PAGE 2

YA N K T O N D A I LY

VOLUME 138NUMBER 103

SATURDAY n AUGUST 25, 2012

The Dakotas’ Oldest Newspaper | 16 PAGES | www.yankton.net

PRESS&DAKOTAN

REGION 2-3 | OBITUARIES 3 | VIEWS 4 | LIFE 5 | WORLD 7 | SPORTS 8-11 | CLASSIFIEDS 12-15 | MIDWEST 15

MONDAY: USD Names New Dean Of Students Print

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BY RANDY DOCKENDORFrandy.dockendorf@yankton.net

From its first announcement,the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers(USACE) has drawn fire for its pro-posal to begin charging a storagefee for Missouri River water.

Under the proposal, the Corpsdesignates a portion of the Mis-souri River reservoirs as surpluswater. In turn, cities and industrialusers must enter contracts for pur-chasing surplus water from the sixreservoirs, including four in SouthDakota.

The contracts would generallyrun for five years, with the possibil-ity of renewing the contracts withupdated costs for another fiveyears.

“We are the only one of theCorps’ districts that doesn’t chargefor water storage,” said Larry Janis,project manager for the OmahaDistrict.

Janis spoke with the Press &Dakotan following Thursday’s pub-lic meeting in Sioux City.

The Corps’ proposal wouldmean four cities, including Spring-field, and three water systems, in-cluding the Randall CommunityWater District and the B-Y WaterDistrict, would be required to payfor water stored behind the dams.

The proposal calls for tempo-rary use of up to 28,427 acre-feetper year of surplus water (73,058acre-feet of storage) from theGavins Point Dam/Lewis and ClarkLake. Under current policy pricing,the annual payment for surpluswater would be $174.66 per acre-foot of yield at fiscal year 2012price levels.

The temporary use of 28,427acre-feet/year of surplus water inLewis and Clark Lake would resultin additional net annual depletionsof 2,584 acre-feet from the system

for the 10-year period, beyond ex-isting usage levels.

Under another proposal, theOmaha District is proposing to tem-porarily make available 27,973 acre-feet per year of surplus wateravailable at the Fort RandallDam/Lake Francis Case Project.Under current policy pricing, theannual payment for surplus waterwould be $51.86 per acre-foot ofyield.

The Corps has released a draftsurplus water report and environ-mental assessment for each of themainstem reservoirs. The Secretaryof the Army for Civil Works, Jo

Proposed WaterStorage Fees

Draws Criticism

KELLY HERTZ/P&D

What a difference a year makes: On the left is a photo shot in the Larson’s Landing area in June 2011, just after discharges from Gavins PointDam had reached 150,000 cubic feet per second (cfs). (The discharges eventually reached 160,000 cfs.) Much of the lower level of the parkwas submerged, and numerous structures were drowning in floodwater. A year later (right), Larson’s Landing has lost some of the structuresand the trees, but the area has been cleaned up and refurbished. This week, even this late in the season, it was nearly filled with RVs.

KELLY HERTZ/P&D

One year after the Larson’s Landing RV Park west of Yankton sustained severe damage from record flooding on the Missouri River, the park’sowners, Doug and Linda Larson are celebrating the rebirth of the business. They are shown standing on the business’s jetty, with camp padsfull of customers in the background.The Larsons are hosting a grand re-openeing today (Saturday).

Last Summer, Record Flooding On The Missouri RiverDemolished Much Of Larson’s Landing, An RV Park LocatedJust A Mile Downstream From Gavins Point Dam. However,‘The Landing’ Has Arisen From The Wreckage In Grand Style

Resurrection

Plan Affects Springfield, Rural Systems

C O R R E C T I O NIt was incorrectly reported in

Friday’s Press & Dakotan thatStream Global Services, which willbe closing its call center in Vermil-lion in late October, is part of BainCapital Ventures. Bain ownedStream in the 1990s, but accordingto an email received Friday fromJoe Thornton, Stream’s senior di-

rector of brand management inBloomington, Minn., Stream has notbeen a part of the Bain Capitalgroup for several years. “I don'thave the date handy when Bain'sinterest in the company ended, butwe have not been part of thatgroup for a long time,” Thorntonsaid. We apologize for the error.

RANDY DOCKENDORF/P&D

Sioux City resident Bill Smith, pres-ident of the Missouri Valley Water-fowlers Association, stresses hisconcerns about a U.S. Army Corpsof Engineers proposal to charge awater storage fee for cities and in-dustries using Missouri River water.Smith spoke during this week’sCorps public meeting in Sioux City.

Report Card ShowsYSD Makes The Grade

YANKTON RECYCLING THIS WEEK:

SOUTHOF 15TH STREET

BY ANDREW ATWALandrew.atwal@yankton.net

As the Yankton School District(YSD) begins the 2012-13 schoolyear, district officials recentlylearned of the students’ test re-sults for this past school year.

Eighty-one percent of YSD stu-dents came out at, or above, profi-cient in reading, compared with a73 percent average for studentsacross the state.

In addition, 83 percent of stu-dents in the district were at orabove proficient in math, com-pared to a 74 percent averageacross South Dakota.

Kathy Wagner, director of Stu-dent Services at YSD, noted thereis no Adequate Yearly Progress(AYP) or Schools of Improvementresults this year because SouthDakota is moving away from No

Child Left Behind (NCLB) stan-dards to the Common Corestandards.

“If we were still following theNCLB standards this year, wewould not have any schools in im-provement based on the testscores,” Wagner said.

She added Webster School wasthe only school in the district lastyear listed as a School of Improve-ment, but students there were ableto boost their test scores from lastyear to this year.

Each school in YSD has a differ-ent Annual Measurable Objective(AMO) to meet for test scores, andstudents with disabilities in the el-ementary schools was the onlysubgroup that did not meet theAMO target.

REPORT | PAGE 2

CORPS | PAGE 3

BY NATHAN JOHNSONnathan.johnson@yankton.net

“It’s a miracle.”That’s the answer Linda Larson gives

when asked about the fact that Larson’sLanding RV Park is holding a grand re-open-ing today (Saturday).

A year ago, she and her husband, Doug,were just coming to terms with the after-math of the flooding along the MissouriRiver. It had devastated their business anddestroyed their home.

They had watched as Gavins Point Damreleases were increased to 160,000 cubicfeet per second (cfs) and the water over-came a wall of tens of thousands ofsandbags.

The earth at the park was left pock-marked once the water receded. Trees, mo-bile homes and sandbags had to bediscarded.

“It seemed like an insurmountable efforttrying to get rid of all (the sandbags),” Dougsaid. “I think back to how fast they put themin and how many people were here doing it.It doesn’t go that way when you’re removingthem.”

Volunteers spent hours cutting open a

portion of the sandbags and emptying them.Doug said sandbags are now buried all

over the property, and many more are stillawaiting a final resting place.

“We buried a lot of them where the roadsare, because we raised the roads up,” hestated.

This week, sitting in the park’s new com-munity center — a former garage that hasbeen renovated and expanded — the couplelooks over their property. They are amazedat how fast their business was rebuilt.

“It makes you very humble to lose every-thing you have and then have to stand upand say, ‘Get out of my way! I’m going to fixthis!’” Linda said. “It would have been easierto stay down.”

A Small Business Administration loanhelped the Larsons fund the rebuilding oftheir park.

Doug said that work on the RV pads isabout 95 percent complete. Only a handfulof the approximately 90 pads are still avail-able for occupancy.

Some weren’t done until July, butcampers continued to ask for them.

LANDING | PAGE 16

KELLY HERTZ/P&D

Using a pole located on the Larson’s Landingjetty as a yardstick, Doug Larson points to theheight the river reached during last summer’sflooding. Larson’s own home was one of thevictims of the high water.

Area Schools BeginFootball Seasons • 8