BY ROB NIELSENrob.nielsen@yankton.net

MENN0 — It’s time for Oktoberfest inMenno. This Saturday the town will behosting its annual ethnic celebration offood, music and dancing Saturday Oct.26.

The event will take place at theMenno School Auditorium The meal willbegin at 6 p.m. with a live band, the Bum-ble Bees, taking the stage around 8:30p.m.

The organization tasked with settingthe event up is the Sodak Stamm Ger-mans from Russia Heritage Society

(GRHS). Group president Gary Jerke saidthe festival, celebrating it’s 30th year inMenno, started off small.

“It started many years ago with just asmall gathering with some homemadefoods,” Jerke said.

Today the celebration routinely at-tracts nearly 500 patrons each year.

Jerke said there has been a lot of evo-lution in the Oktoberfest celebration inMenno. At one point it was even used tohelp teach German youths from beyondthe recently fallen Iron Curtain.

“We had groups from Germany that

From P&D Staff Reports

VERMILLION — In responseto an incident during the Uni-versity of South Dakota’s (USD)homecoming parade earlier thismonth, USD President JamesAbbott said Tuesday that theschool will not tolerate insensi-tive remarks and rude treat-ment of minority groups oncampus.

Abbott joinedthe USD Presi-dent’s Councilon Diversity &Inclusivenessco-chairs BethBoyd and JerryYutrzenka in is-suing a state-ment after thecouncil met to

hear from American Indian stu-dent Alexis Oskolkoff. Oskolkoffhad previously informed theschool that students on a floatat the Oct. 5 parade taunted herand her 9-year-old son for theirtribal dance regalia.

“The University of SouthDakota supports an inclusivelearning environment where di-versity and individual differ-ences are understood,respected, appreciated and rec-ognized as a source ofstrength,” the statement said.

Oskolkoff, 30, a senior major-ing in anthropology and NativeStudies, told the Argus Leadernewspaper last week that thestudents made an inappropriatecomment and gestures regard-ing her and her son’s race.

“(My son) was really upset,”she said. “You could tell it hurthis feelings. I shouted at themso they stopped. I mean, I’mused to having racial thingssaid to me. But when it comesto my son, I put my foot down.”

Boyd and Yutrzenka said in a

REGION 2 | OBITUARIES 3 | VIEWS 4 | LIFE 5 | MIDWEST 7 | SPORTS 8 | CLASSIFIEDS 11 | WORLD 13

TOMORROW: School District Maps out Strategic Plans Print

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Volume 139Number 152 The Dakotas’ Oldest Newspaper | 14 PAGES | www.yankton.net

PRESS&DAKOTAN

WEDNESDAYOctober 23, 2013

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AmericanProfile

Former Tourism Sec. FoundDead Near Lake Andes

PIERRE (AP) — A former South Dakota statetourism director has died of a gunshot.

Richard Benda was Secretary ofTourism and State Development from2006 to 2010 under former Gov. MikeRounds.

Gov. Dennis Daugaard put out astatement Tuesday saying Benda wasfound earlier in the day near LakeAndes, in southeast South Dakota. Dau-gaard expressed his condolences tofriends and family.

Attorney General Marty Jackleysays it’s standard procedure to investigate such adeath. He says there will be an autopsy and investiga-tors will collect evidence from the scene and interviewany witnesses to determine if it was an accident, sui-cide or a crime.

Jackley says the body was found at a grove of trees.

Benda

BY DIRK LAMMERSAssociated Press

SIOUX FALLS — Weeks of rainfall in the Dakotas have beenslowing this year’s corn and soybean harvests, as farmers arebeing forced to wait for their muddy fields to dry out.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s latest crop reportsshow that South Dakota farmers have harvested 75 percentof their soybean fields, while the harvest was 54 percentcomplete in North Dakota. Last year at this time, soybeancrops in both states were fully harvested.

Scott Gauslow, who farms 2,500 acres of corn and soy-beans about 25 miles south of Fargo, N.D., said he hasn’tbeen able to get into his muddy fields for about two weeks.Gauslow, chairman of the North Dakota Soybean Council,

said farmers are dealing with equipment getting stuck infields.

“It’s just been continuous rain,” Gauslow said. “It’s notconducive to harvest.”

Last week’s precipitation left about 2.4 days of fieldworkin North Dakota and 2.5 days in South Dakota, according tothe reports.

The corn harvest also is lagging behind last year’s paceand the five-year average. The harvest was 31 percent com-plete in South Dakota, while North Dakota’s corn harvest hasreached 14 percent. In North Dakota, much of the state expe-rienced a hard frost on Oct. 15, and temperatures for theweek averaged 2 to 6 degrees below normal.

Abbott

U OfficialsRespond

To TauntingIncident

BY CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABERAP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON — The uncer-tainty and weakness that hungover the U.S. job market in Septem-ber before the government shutdown aren’t going away.

Employers will likely remainslow to hire as long as the econ-omy struggles to accelerate, con-sumers limit their spending andCongress keeps putting off a reso-lution to a budget fight that willresurface early next year.

Just a few months ago, manyeconomists predicted that hiringwould pick up by year’s end as theeffects of tax increases and govern-ment spending cuts that kicked inthis year faded.

No longer. The September jobsreport made clear that hiring isn’tstrengthening. It’s slowing.

Employers last month added148,000 jobs, a steep drop from the193,000 gained in August. From Jan-uary through March, job growth av-eraged 207,000 jobs a month. ForApril through June, the averagewas 182,000. For July through Sep-tember, it was just 143,000.

“We had assumed that the head-winds would dissipate, but in factthey didn’t,” says Doug Handler, aneconomist at IHS Global Insight.

What’s more, the 16-day partialshutdown of the government,which began Oct. 1, will likely fur-ther depress hiring for October.That’s because government con-tractors and other companies af-fected by the shutdown imposedtemporary layoffs.

And the budget battles that led

Fixes In The Works

Oktoberfest To BeCelebrated In Menno

The Rain GameRecent Moisture Slowing Corn, Soybean Harvests

SlowedHiring

Likely ToLinger

KELLY HERTZ/P&DThe Auld-Brokaw Trail south of Yankton’s wastewater treatment plant was damaged a couple years ago when a sink-hole formed over an outfall pipe. City officials hope the trail can be fixed next spring.

RAIN | PAGE 2

ABBOTT | PAGE 12

MENNO | PAGE 12

BY NATHAN JOHNSONnathan.johnson@yankton.net

Yankton’s plans to build a lift station, an outfallpipe and repair a recreational trail have taken longerto materialize than expected, according to the city’senvironmental services director.

Kyle Goodmanson said the projects have beendelayed while the details of the Highway 50 recon-struction project are finalized.

Late last year, the City of Yankton was awarded$2,069,600 by the U.S. Economic Development Ad-ministration (EDA) through its Disaster Relief Oppor-tunity Program. The program is aimed at creatingresiliency against future flooding events and, in thiscase, was in response to the Missouri River flood of2011.

As part of the agreement, Yankton must provide a20 percent match equaling $517,400.

The city applied for the money in order toimprove the outfall piping system from the waste-water treatment plant and replace two lift stationsalong East Highway 50.

Rather than restoring the outfall pipe with a stan-dard one, Goodmanson said it will be improved witha box structure that will allow valves to be shut. Itwill also have temporary pumps to let water out.

The collapse of the soil around the outfall pipe acouple years ago has disrupted the recreational trailsouth of the wastewater treatment plant.

The high water levels in 2011 also led to sinkholes near the city’s two aging lift stations alongEast Highway 50. Additionally, the structures had ca-pacity issues.

A single, larger lift station will be built nearVishay-Dale Electronics.

“Until we can bid the lift station project, we can’tbid the outfall pipe,” Goodmanson said. “If we’regoing to cut some funding on anything, it’s going tobe on the outfall pipe.”

He said the expected cost of the outfall pipe camein higher than anticipated.

“We’re not sure where the forced main from the lift

PLANS | PAGE 12

Yankton’s Infrastructure FloodPlans Taking Longer Than Expected

ECONOMY | PAGE 14

Crunch Time

KELLY HERTZ/P&DOne person was reported injured in a two-vehicle accident onHighway 81 north of Yankton at approximately 7:45 p.m. Tues-day night. This car sustained heavy damage to its rear end andwound up in the ditch on the west side of the road. The YanktonCounty Sheriff’s Office, firefighters and emergency responderswere on the scene. No other information was available at presstime.