Hometown Power

CHRIS HILL | SDML DIRECTOR OF MUNICIPAL ELECTRIC SERVICES

Session is over! This year it did feel like legislative session  went by more quickly than in previous years. Which is good,  but the travel for me is not over yet.

The month of March kept me busy by traveling to district  meetings and prepping for our annual SDMEA Conference  in Watertown. Next month I will be doing a recap on those  events, but for April, I wanted to discuss the events that the  SDMEA hosted in Pierre for our legislators and upcoming  SDMEA events.

On March 1, the SDMEA hosted a joint Public Power event  with Heartland Energy and Missouri River Energy Services.  Having a dinner that late in the session is always welcomed,  however, this is the second year in a row that we managed  to schedule our dinner on the same night as the Senate  Republican Dinner. Despite having poor timing, this year our  event hosted 82 attendees, including 70 legislators. We also  had representatives from the SDMEA Board of Directors,  Heartland Energy, and Missouri River Energy services.

It was a great event with a lot of potential and we hope for  more involvement each year. Thank you to all our legislators  that attended.

The next day, March 2, the SDMEA hosted a lunch at the  Capitol with grab-and-go lunches in the Speaker’s and  President’s lobbies. This was a great opportunity for us to visit  with the legislators on back-to-back days and for them to get  to learn more about our association from our board members.  I was a little hesitant to have both events on consecutive  days, but I do think that it turned out to be a positive for us  this year. We will have to see if we continue to try something  like this going forward.

Speaking of going forward, we have a lot of great events  coming up. First up will be the annual SDMEA Golf  Tournament. The golf tournament will be held in Madison at  the Madison Country Club on June 13 at 9 a.m. Please save  the date and get it on your calendar to attend. We have also  set the date for our Sporting Clay Event: Sept. 8 beginning  at 9 a.m. The proceeds from this event go to our scholarship  at Mitchell Technical College.

Please be looking in your emails for ways to register for  our events. They are great opportunities for our SDMEA  member municipalities to network and visit with all of our  great associate members as well! ■

1. Rep. Mike Weisgram, Dist. 24, and SDMEA Director of  Electrical Services Chris Hill at the SDMEA Legislative Lunch.

2. SDMEA Board Member Jerry Jongeling, Dist. 8 Sen. Casey  Crabtree, Dis. 6 Sen. Herman Otten, and Kelly Dybdahl from  Heartland Energy at the Public Power Dinner.

3. Chris Hill and Sen. Randy Diebert, Dist. 31, at the Public  Power Dinner.

4.  SDMEA Board President Russell Halgerson speaks at the  Public Power Dinner.

5. Chris Hill and Dist. 21 Rep. Marty Overweg at the SDMEA  Legislative Lunch.