2 Vermillion Plain Talk December 14, 2018 www.plaintalk.net

ADVANCED SURGICAL CARE

HERE AT HOMEExperience the latest in surgical services and still be close to the comforts of home. Dr. Fernando Escobar provides expert surgical care on a full-time basis right in Vermillion.

With extensive expertise, Dr. Escobar is dedicated to giving you individualized, compassionate care – whether you are undergoing a major or minor procedure. Minimally invasive, laparoscopic and endoscopic surgical techniques are all locally available.

Surgical specialties at Sanford Vermillion include:• Colonoscopy and upper endoscopy

• Laparoscopic surgery for gall bladder or appendectomy, small and large bowel surgery

• Open hernia repair

• Cesarean section

• Vasectomy

Call (605) 677-3700 to schedule an appointment.

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CITY ENGINEERThe City of Harrisburg, “an equal opportunity employer,” is currently accepting

applications for a full time city engineer. Responsibilities will include budgeting, capital planning, estimating, developing

specifications and RFP's, review of plans and proposals, inspecting projects and approving payments. Desired minimum qualifications include: BS in Civil Engineering with PE designation, plus 5-7 years’ experience, strong communications and public relations skills.

Salary is dependent on experience and qualifications. Excellent benefit package!Pos i t ion descr ip t ion, in fo rmat ion and app l i cat ions a re ava i lab le a t

www.harrisburgsd.gov and Harrisburg City Hall, 301 E Willow Street, Harrisburg, SD 57032. Applications are due by December 20, 2018.

For more informat ion contact Andrew Pietrus, Ci t y Administ rator at (605) 767-5068 or Andrew.Pietrus@harrisburgsd.gov

DPS Plans Checkpoints For December

PIERRE, S.D. – State Department of Public Safety officials

want you to celebrate the holidays, but be careful in doing so.

To discourage people from trying to drive after having too much to drink at a holiday celebration, the department has planned 19 sobriety checkpoints during the month. The checkpoints will be held in 15 different counties.

Monthly checkpoints are funded by the South Dakota Office of Highway Safety and conducted by the South Dakota Highway Patrol. The checkpoints are designed to discourage motorists from drinking and then driving.

Checkpoints will be held in the counties of: Brookings, Brown, Beadle, Brule, Butte, Charles Mix, Clay, Codington, Lincoln, Meade, Pennington, Roberts, Spink, Stanley and Yankton.

Both the Office of Highway Safety and the Highway Patrol are part of the Department of Public Safety.

Tickets Available For ‘A Christmas Carol’

Tickets are now on sale for “A Christmas Carol” to be performed as a progressive dinner theatre on Dec. 14, 15 and 16. This production is collaboration between the Ver-million Community Theatre and the Vermillion High School Drama Boosters. The script has been adapted by Steve Miller and Mary Begley from the original book by Charles Dickens. Mary Begley is directing and Steve Miller leading a cast of 19 actors as Scrooge.

The different acts of the play will be performed at vari-ous venues as the patrons progress. The action will start at Trinity Lutheran Church with appetizers. School buses will be provided to transport between venues. Soup and salad will be served at Grace Baptist Church. Pot roast and wine are on the menu at the United Church of Christ and the show will conclude with dessert and coffee at First United Methodist Church. Buses will return to Trinity Lutheran Church. The play is not performed as a musical but there will be caroling during the performance and on the buses. This promises to be a unique dinner theatre experience.

Tickets are limited to 50 per performance and are $50 each. Tickets are available at HyVee and Davis Pharmacy until December 13. “Will Call” tickets may be purchased and reserved at Davis Pharmacy by calling 605-624-4444. There will be no tickets available at the door. Requests for vegetarian meal options and group tables can be arranged on the VCT website: vermillioncommunitytheatre.org. All of the ticket price will benefit the Vermillion High School drama trip to Scotland next summer. Food and production costs are being covered by organizations.

The Giving Tree Project Is Underway In Vermillion

The Giving Tree continues to bring smiles to youth and families at Christmas. For over 30 years this community project has provided gifts to Clay County area youth, ages 0-18, from low income families. In 2017, 291 youth were provided with gifts for Christmas due to the big hearts and generosity of our community. This is a year over year increase of 20 percent!

There are 11 trees located in the Vermillion area including: Ace Hardware (Vermillion), Dalesburg Lutheran Church, Davis Pharmacy, Hy-Vee, Knutson Family Dentistry, Little Italy’s, Sanford Hospital, The Bean, Vermillion Public Library, Wal-Mart and Whimps. Each tree is decorated with tags listing items the child needs and wants for Christ-mas. Tags are selected, gifts purchased and returned, unwrapped with tag(s) attached, to any of the businesses listed above Tags will be available at most sites prior to Thanksgiving and are due back Dec. 9. ESA members dis-tribute gifts mid-December to families.

We also have many generous businesses and groups that participate by making financial donations or obtaining tags. Each tree also has donation envelopes for those who prefer to financially support but not purchase gifts. Mon-etary donations can also be mailed to ESA Theta Omega – The Giving Tree, PO Box 644, Vermillion SD 57069.

The Theta Omega Chapter of ESA, in conjunction with the Salvation Army, would like to thank in advance all area organizations and individuals who generously support this very special Christmas project.

YOUR NEWS!The Vermillion Plain Talk

at the White House.As the nation witnessed

Wednesday’s state funeral in Washington, other South Dakotans shared with the Press & Dakotan their direct and indirect encounters with the late president through the years.

KEITH JENSENKeith Jensen had served

as campaign manager for Republican challenger Jim Abdnor during the 1980 U.S. Senate election in South Dakota. Abdnor won the six-year term by defeating the incumbent, former Demo-cratic presidential nominee George McGovern.

In the meantime, Jensen took the job of South Dakota Newspaper Association (SDNA) manager, contingent that he start his new job after the 1980 election.

As the new SDNA manag-er, Jensen sought a special speaker for the centennial convention in 1982 at Sioux Falls.

He turned to Abdnor for assistance.

“I knew there was no probability of getting the President (Ronald Reagan) to an SDNA convention, but thought the vice president (Bush) might be a pos-sibility,” Jensen said. “Jim (Abdnor) had me write the VP’s office requesting the appearance, and told me he would do his best to see that it happened. Obviously, it worked out! It was a big deal!”

Jensen faced an intense amount of work before and during Bush’s appearance at the convention.

“Security was huge. The Secret Service had all the rooms on the second floor (of the hotel), and blocked off the rooms above and below the rooms Bush would be using,” the former SDNA manager said. “In an-ticipation of his arrival, the security people used dogs to check all of the reserved rooms out. The banquet was held on the top floor of the downtown Holiday Inn, and metal detectors were placed at the entrance.”

The arrangements ran into a major hurdle when Bush’s appearance was moved up. He was originally scheduled for Saturday, but his office changed the ap-pearance to Friday.

“That caused a lot of work and changes along the way,” Jensen said. “We had to arrange for a substitute (speaker) as well, in case at last minute (Bush) couldn’t come, so we got Bill Marcil, the publisher of the Fargo newspapers, to fill in if necessary.”

More issues arose on the day of the banquet.

“I had to work with one of the VP staff members — who was quite pushy — in setting up the press area. He insisted it be placed at a certain spot, to get the best side of Bush. But when it was erected, it blocked off one of the tables,” Jensen said.

“We had a full house, as more than 400 attended, the largest SDNA banquet ever. I told the young man (from Bush’s staff) that I certainly wasn’t going to seat any of our people there, so his staff people would be given that table.”

The Bush staffer balked and refused to consider such an arrangement. Jen-sen sought the person with higher authority, who came up to the banquet room.

“(The superior) asked, ‘Why can’t we just move the press area?’ To which I responded, ‘That is exactly what I say!’” Jensen said. “So we proceeded to move all of the roping, chairs and tables out of the ‘where

it has to be’ area, and the problem was solved.”

Despite the background drama, the banquet went off without a hitch, Jensen said.

“It was quite a night. Bush was a gracious person. We held a small social before the banquet, where board members and other special guests got to meet him,” he said.

“And at the banquet, the most entertaining moment of the night, was when SDNA President Ralph Nachtigal, the Platte publisher, introduced his mother in the audience. Ralph said, “I want to intro-duce my mother, who was the 1952 Mother of the Year in South Dakota! To which out of a silent crowd, a high-pitched, but loud voice, shouted out ‘No Ralph, it was 1953!’

“Bush broke out laughing as did the entire audience, as (Nachtigal’s) mother stood up. Fun stuff!”

TAMI MARONEY BERNCircuit Judge Tami Bern

of Vermillion met then-Vice President Bush in January 1988. A college sophomore at the time, she was serving as an intern in the South Dakota Legislature.

“South Dakota had an early (GOP) presidential primary, and South Dakota leaned heavily toward his opponent, Bob Dole,” she said. “The Iran-Contra scan-dal was big national news, and the national press corps were everywhere in Pierre during his campaign stop.”

Bern didn’t expect to see Bush during his Pierre visit.

“Inexplicably, President Bush took valuable time out of his schedule to meet with a group of the interns. I believe it was a luncheon meeting, but I was too ner-vous to breathe much less eat lunch,” she said.

“Each of us underwent security clearance and was directed to have a question ready to ask. Being mostly political science majors who thought they knew more than they did, many of the questions were what we considered hard hitting.”

Bush didn’t flinch, react angrily or shy away from any of the questions, Bern said.

“He thoughtfully and directly answered them all. Bush had absolutely noth-ing to gain by this unpubli-cized meeting with a group of college kids interested in politics,” she said.

“His grace and dignity had a powerful impact on a bunch of impressionable kids. He was my first vote in a presidential election.”

MARY PAT BIERLEYankton resident Mary

Pat Bierle didn’t meet Bush while working in Washing-ton from 1985-92 for U.S. Sen. Jack Danforth (R-Mis-souri). However, she worked with Bush staffers as part of the Senate Commerce Com-mittee staff.

During her tenure, Bierle saw many of the situations that could set off disagree-ments among lawmakers.

“Although there were always issues that triggered partisan differences, many public policy debates were more likely to break along regional or demographic lines, like rural versus urban, or (East and West) coasts versus Midwest,” she said.

“Through all of that, the Bush White House insisted on finding common ground with supporters and op-ponents. Compromise was not a dirty word back then, which is why so much got done: immigration reform, tax reform, infrastructure funding, Social Security and Medicare reform, and expanded civil rights pro-tection.”

Some of the legislative accomplishments occurred when Bush served as Ron-

ald Reagan’s vice president, Bierle said. Other achieve-ments came during the Bush administration.

“President Bush was even willing to tackle the federal budget deficit during the 1992 election year,” she said. “I do think he was an incredible profile in courage when he signed the 1992 bi-partisan budget agreement that probably cost him the election to Bill Clinton.”

JANELLE KRAUSE TOMAN

Toman started her ca-reer as a journalist, but she met Bush during her later work as then-Gov. George Mickelson’s press secretary.

One meeting occurred at the Sioux Falls airport Oct. 25, 1992, during the final days of that year’s presiden-tial campaign. Mickelson and Toman were joined in the welcoming party by Lt. Gov. Walter Dale Miller and Mickelson’s sister, Pat Adam of Pierre.

Toman described the Bush meeting as “quite brief” but quite memorable.

“There is usually a welcome party designated to greet the president as he comes off Air Force One. Governor Mickelson asked if I would like to say ‘hello’ to the president and I was very excited to have this opportunity,” she said.

“By the time President Bush was first elected as president, I was already out of the news reporting business. But prior to April 1988, when I left (United Press International), I cov-ered Vice President Bush on several occasions when he came to South Dakota, including his visits to the state Legislature.”

As Mickelson’s press secretary, Toman dealt with Bush and his staffers on other occasions.

“I was involved in helping plan the South Dakota centennial celebra-tion during the fall of 1989 at the Sioux Falls Arena, when (Bush) came to South Dakota, as well as the dedi-cation of the Mt. Rushmore National Memorial in 1991 when he spoke on what was the 50th anniversary of the memorial.”

Toman came away from those events with high re-spect for Bush and his staff.

“In both of those cases, I worked with his advance staff at the White House and the Secret Service,” she said. “I was impressed by (Bush’s) dedication to public service and the many ways he served his country throughout his life.

“He probably had a stronger grounding in for-eign policy than any other president in recent history. His was certainly a life well lived.”

SHERRY FULLER BORDEWYK

Most veteran journalists never get to cover a White House occupant in their

lifetimes. Armour native Sherry

Fuller Bordewyk did so when she interviewed Bush, not long after she graduated from South Dakota State University.

“As a fairly novice reporter at the Aberdeen American News, I was given the plum assignment of interviewing then-Vice President George H.W. Bush when he made a campaign stop in the Hub City on No-vember 9, 1987,” she said. “Almost a year to the day later, he defeated Democrat Michael Dukakis to become the 41st president of the United States.”

Fuller Bordewyk was part of a group interview with Bush in Aberdeen. The journalists she could recall included American News photographers Mike Roemer and Dick Carlson; Jeff Canfield of Aberdeen radio station KKAA/KQ95; a reporter for the Northern State University campus newspaper; and Groton In-dependent weekly newspa-per owner Paul Irvin Kosel.

“The group interview took place before Bush’s campaign speech,” she said, noting a Bush staff member was also present.

Fuller Bordewyk later received an unexpected memento of the Bush gath-ering.

“(A) photograph, stamped ‘Official White House Photograph,’ arrived in my mailbox some time after the interview took place,” she said, discovering a photo taken of the group interview.

The photo brings back special memories which have returned with Bush’s passing, she said.

“While I certainly re-spected Vice President Bush at the time of this inter-view,” she said, “my older and wiser self has a much deeper respect, understand-ing and appreciation for his character, sacrifice, service and devotion to our coun-try. May he (rest in peace).”

. BRYCE HOLTER

During the November 1987 visit in Aberdeen, Bryce Holter attended Bush’s speech on the Northern State University campus.

Holter, who now teaches in the Hanson school district at Alexandria, was attending NSU at the time of Bush’s campaign visit.

“I skipped class to see his speech, which was very rare of me to do,” Holter recalled. “The night before the speech, several of my buddies and I made posters, I came up with the idea. The posters read, ‘Bush is Great in ‘88; and the other one read, ‘We Love Bush!’

“We got in line early and had front row seats. We met a Secret Service man that day. I asked him where he was from, and he told me

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