Lincoln County honors Verlyn Hofer’s legacy; hears opposition to Prison Proposal

The Lincoln County Board of Commission met Tuesday, May 29 in the Lincoln County boardroom. With all members present, the commission heard agenda items including declaring June 6 as Verlyn Hofer day, public hearings, and a letter to the lieutenant governor.

Commissioner Jim Schmidt requested board discussion and possible action to declare June 6 as Verlyn Hofer day in Lincoln County. 

“I have a resolution I would like to propose to the board for a gentleman whose name is Verlyn Hofer, who for all of you may have known as a man who published the Lennox Independent for such a long time and Verlyn is in poor health at this time, and if you have so mind, you may want to toss a prayer up tonight for him,” Schmidt said. 

The resolution reads A RESOLUTION BY THE LINCOLN COUNTY BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS TO DECLARE JUNE 6, 2025, AS VERLYN HOFER DAY WHEREAS, SDCL Ch. 7-18 provides that the powers of a County shall be exercised by a board of county commissioners; and WHEREAS, SDCL 7-18A-2 provides that Counties have the authority to enact such resolutions as may be proper and necessary to carry into effect the powers granted to it by law; and WHEREAS, Verlyn Hofer was born in Davis, South Dakota on June 6, 1925 where his family operated the Davis newspaper before moving to Lennox; and WHEREAS, Verlyn Hofer was drafted into the U.S. Army during World War II after High School in 1943; and WHEREAS, Verlyn Hofer served in the 62nd Armored Infantry Battalion of the 14th Armored Division in France and Germany from 1944 to 1945; and WHEREAS, Verlyn Hofer was injured in Germany and awarded the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart and the French Legion of Honor for his service; and WHEREAS, Mr. Hofer began his journalistic career at the age of 12 working in his family’s print shop; and WHEREAS, Mr. Hofer continued expressing his drive for journalism by assisting in the publication of the troop ship’s newsletter during its journey to France; and WHEREAS, Verlyn Hofer joined the Lennox Independent full time in 1948 and continued to write long after selling his interest in 1992; and WHEREAS, Verlyn Hofer was inducted into the South Dakota Newspaper Hall of Fame in 1994; and WHEREAS, Verlyn Hofer is celebrating his 100th birthday; and NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, by the Board of County Commissioners of Lincoln County, South Dakota, in recognition to his lifelong service to his country, his family and his community, wish to name June 6, 2025, as Verlyn Hofer Day. 

Motion to approve by Schmidt, seconded by Doug Putnam, motion carried unanimously.

Finance Manager, Michelle Burkhart was present to give the Auditor’s annual report of transactions for the previous fiscal year. SDCL 7-10-4 requires the Auditor’s Office to prepare the annual report by the first day of march and publish in the official newspapers. Burkhart reported to the commission that the legislative audit has conducted their annual financial statement and compliance audit for 2024. During her presentation, Burkhart broke down the expenses and revenues by each operating category for the commissioners.  

“I have a few key points from the presentation that I would like to address, one being the health essentially of Lincoln County. I would base the health of Lincoln County on our unassigned fund balance, which within the general fund, is a little over $8 million, and unassigned just means money that we have above and beyond expenses,” Burkhart told the commission. 

Full budget reports for all operating categories can be found on the Lincon County website. The Commission thanked Burkhart for her report.

Chairwoman Tiffani Landeen held a public hearing to consider an application for a temporary on-sale liquor license to operate outside the municipality for Prosper Country Warehouse & Event Hall for events to occur on June 14, June 21 and July 19, 2025. Located at Prosper Country Warehouse & Event Hall, 46620 278th St., Lennox, SD 57039, Tract 3A of Poppenga’s addition in the SW Quarter of Section 28, Township 99 N Range 51 West of the 5th pm Lincoln County, SD. With no proponents or opponents to the application, motion by Joel Arends, seconded by Schmidt, motion carried.

Chairwoman Landeen read a second reading and public hearing for an Ordinance of Lincoln County, SD, changing the zone of a portion (approximately 2.07 acres) of the property described as Lot 4, Quonset Addition, S1/2 SE1/4, Section 31-T100N-R50W Delapre Township from the I-1 Light Industrial District to the A-1 Agricultural District and amending the Official Zoning Map of Lincoln County. The Planning Commission recommends approval (4-0). Location: 27277 471st Avenue. Planning Director, Toby Brown was present to answer any questions. Commissioner Arends asked Brown to explain how important it is for new development to be consistent with the existing development. 

“What we’re looking at is generally what the cities envision that future area to be. Both cities did identify that they would consider this to be a more industrial commercial future development area. But if you look to the adjacent properties to the north, there’s already developed with residential properties along that area. I would say it’s consistent again with the comprehensive plan in terms of the future municipal plans but also the general consistency of what the area is now which is generally adjacent to that area would be residential,” Brown responded. 

With no proponents or opponents to the application, motion by Putnam, seconded by Schmidt, motion carried.

Commissioner Arends requested board discussion and possible action to provide a reply to Lieutenant Governor Venhuizen’s letter requesting comments about proposed prison sites in Lincoln County. Arends told the commissioners and crowd that Lt. Governor, Tony Venhuizen has asked for the input of local communities where there is potential for a prison site. 

“Now it’s time for the County Commission, I think, to formally confirm to the state that this site is incompatible with our comprehensive plan. I appreciate the work that the Prison Reset Committee has done, I think they’ve done a lot of good work and they’re also looking to us for our opinion on the issue as well,” Arends said. 

Arends believes that as a commission, they need to defend the principle and follow the comprehensive plan. 

“Tonight I’m asking the commission to endorse a simple reply to our lieutenant governor stating the following: a prison at the proposed site is inconsistent with our comprehensive plan regardless of the applicability of local zoning laws and rules to state-owned property. Number two, a prison at the proposed site is inconsistent with the character of the neighborhood. You just heard the planning and zoning director talk about that from the comprehensive plan. And number three, successful and orderly future growth and development in Lincoln County requires a use of this kind to be located at a site that is designated as industrial commercial,” Arends said. 

Representative Karla Lems was the first to speak at the podium. 

“I just want to say that I am on the Prison Task Force, and we are tasked with three things: Do we need a new prison? How large should the prison be? And where should the prison be located?  Lincoln County Commissioners have been asked by Lieutenant Governor Tony Venhuizen to respond to what are your thoughts and what are you hearing from your constituents and I would encourage you to do so,” she said. 

Lems told the commission of two more public meetings, one on June 3 in Pierre and the second on July 8 in Sioux Falls, for residents to voice their opinions.

Marlene Sweeter was next to speak. 

“I’m first and foremost here on behalf of Lynn Township. This is for the site along US Highway 18, right off of Interstate 29.I would ask that you consider this site. It’s of deep concern to the township because of the loss of tax revenue, it will be a great loss of revenue for us because it wasn’t a planned tax district that we will now lose all of that taxes for,” she said. 

Mayor of Worthing, Crystal Jacobson, cited infrastructure, staff, and budget as the main reasons Worthing cannot accommodate a prison. 

“Our yearly budget is around $650,000 for the city of Worthing. We don’t have a full-time police force, we rely on four at the Sheriff’s office to come work part-time when they are off duty. We can’t afford to hire a full-time police force. We don’t have room for a housing boom, we actually can’t even build houses right now because Lincoln County requires us to take over the highways that go through town if we want to make another road coming off of the highway and we can’t afford to take over the maintenance of the road. So we can’t build any more roads to build more homes,” she said. 

Kyah Broders returned to express her views on the prison. 

“I like three-quarters of a mile from the original proposed site and I will make it known that I am against all, I believe it’s four sites, in Lincoln County. I am the president of Nope and was fortunate enough to attend the supreme court hearing. I found it very appalling as well as interesting to hear Justice Salter bring up the question directly to our attorney AJ Swanson. He actually brought up why our county commissioners didn’t pursue action when it came to our comprehensive plan and why it had to come in front of a group of private citizens,” she said. 

Seven citizens spoke to echo Broders concerns and ask the commissioners to write the letter on behalf of Lincoln County. Three residents of Minnehaha County stood in solidarity with Lincoln County residents that the prison should remain in their county. 

Motion by Arends, seconded by Putnam, motion carried.

Chief Civil Deputy State’s Attorney, Drew DeGroot requested the commission consider a motion to allow private fireworks sales at the Lincoln County Fairgrounds. 

“This item is being brought in front of the commission due to the fact that it was a condition of the conditional use permit that full approval will be given by the board of commissioners, the time to appeal the planning commission’s approval has run, that ended at 5 p.m. today,” he said. 

Chairwoman Landeen asked if there would be fireworks display shows that would be taking place at the fairgrounds and DeGroot responded with it would just be the sale of fireworks. Motion by Schmidt, seconded by Betty Otten, motion carried.

Auditor, Sheri Lund requested a motion to move $29,917.65 from the General Fund to the Opioid Settlement Fund. 

“The legislative audit has given us direction to set up a separate fund to track the money. This is the balance of the $80,000 some balance we had last year that we haven’t spent yet,” Lund said. Motion by Arends, seconded by Otten, motion carried.