The September 22nd meeting of the Wagner Rotary Club had a number of guests present, so the meal was consumed quickly, and the meeting agenda began. Rotarian Ken Cotton spoke about using the Rotary International website and making use of the information on the page for his Membership Minute.

Sergeant at Arms Jeff Doom acted as Assistant Sergeant to Jerry Weber and had a great deal of fun handing out fines: $2 to Bryan Slaba for a phone call during the meal; $2 to Becky Brunsing who was caught doing business after the bell rang; $5 to Ken Cotton for breaking the 4 person rule (only 4 to a table); $5 to Jordan Weber for beating his Dad in the Fun Run on LD; $2 to Jeff for forgetting to help load the aluminum cans last week; $7 to Gerrit Juffer for being 7 minutes late with the food; but Bryan Slaba offered to pay for it as Gerrit was helping dish out the food; $5 to Bryan for being all over the US last week; $10 to Jeff for having a little mishap last week with a vehicle; $3 to Joe Stedronsky for having his son inducted into the Wagner Athletic Hall of Fame. Kathe Henke offered up a Happy Fine of $12 for her son finishing his first Iron Man competition

Craig Krsnak was the winner of a chance to draw the Queen of Hearts, but he wound up with the ten of Diamonds. He was not heartbroken as the pot is only at $52 presently. Craig reported that the attendance race is Brunsing Team at 7 misses and Woods Team at 5 misses.

Football winners were Scott Doom sold by Rachel Woods, and Delores Kotab sold by Patty Frei.

Gerrit Juffer introduced his program guests who were Ron and Janet Wagner of Tyndall, South Dakota and his wife Michelle who is the current Wagner Economic Development Director. They held up a poster board showing a “rail to trail” proposal that wants to convert unused rail line in Bon Homme and Charles Mix counties into the core of a Regional, Multipurpose Recreation Trail. If you are at all familiar with The Mickelson Trail in western South Dakota this is based on the same premise.

A group of citizens from both Charles Mix and Bon Homme counties formed this group to advocate for this proposed Regional, Multipurpose Recreation Trail. The group was incorporated on June 30, 2021, in SD as a Domestic Non-Profit Corporation and their Bylaws were adopted July 22, 2021.

The State of South Dakota owns the 83.3-mile rail line between NAPA Junction in Yankton County and Platte in Charles Mix County. No rail traffic occurs on this line, except for limited activity between the NAPA Junction and Tabor. The 28.1-mile segment between Ravinia and Platte is “railbanked” a legal designation established in federal law helpful for creating a Rail to Trail project. Railbanking means that the railroad line cannot be used for traffic by trains or vehicles. This will be the first portion of the project to be funded, hopefully with a government grant.

The Friends group advocates developing the Ravinia to Platte as a trail core which anchors a Regional, Multipurpose Recreation Trail Network. The rail line traverses heritage Yankton Sioux lands and picturesque, historic countryside. The line contains over fifty trestles and two hundred culverts.

The trail core connects to state parks at Lewis and Clark Lake and Lake Francis Case, the Missouri National Recreational River, and multiple communities in two states. When complete, the trail network creates a 350-mile recreation opportunity.

This trail will diversify our economy, adds a recreation option for an at-risk population and addresses the growing demand for recreational tourism nationally and in South Dakota.

Please check out their website: www.tabortoplatterailtotrail.com and their Facebook page: Friends of the Tabor to Platte Rail to Trail

You can also email questions about the project to jrwagner@hcinet.net or call Janet or Ron Wagner at 605-464-1085