It was "sign up" day this month for next fall's kindergarteners in Howard and when 5 o'clock came, word began to spread around town that 36 youngsters were signed up .... that's about 12 more than were anticipated.

Something's happening in Miner County, and we think it's time the rest of rural America started to pay attention. I spent a day there last week, taking pictures, and here's what I found. Jobs are being created. Big dreams are being hatched. Young people are staying, or coming home. New businesses are opening. New homes are being built and old ones are getting paint. The highway into Howard, the county seat, is neat and orderly.

The genesis for much of the good news is the Miner County Community Revitalization organization, which grew out of a project in the 1990s that sought to link the public school with the community at large. Randy Parry, then a teacher at Howard, is now the leader of MCCR. He and his small staff operate from a beehive-of-an-office on main street where ideas are thick as honey.

New business are involved in wind energy, organic beef processing, computerized robotic machinery, energy management and ag manufacturing, among other things.

Naysayers might say that, well, they got a grant or well, they are close to Sioux Falls (an hour's drive) or, well, they got lucky or, well, that's just one city.

You'd think our state and national leaders would, well, go take a good hard look at Miner County and then, well, duplicate or, well, try to copy it a thousand times across America.

MCCR's board vice president now is Pat Maroney, an old friend. He and his family have run Maroney's Bar for the past 60 years on main street. His fellow board members are businessmen, farmers and housewives. Howard is the county seat, but the organization is also intent on helping the neighboring villages of Carthage, Fedora and Canova.

They know they have a lot of work yet to be done. One good kindergarten class does not mean that everyone in Miner County can now relax at Pat's bar. They also know the work probably never ends. Maybe that was the problem: once we built our towns we thought the hard work was over when, in reality, a civilization needs constant nurturing.

We urge our readers to support this enterprising group of never-say-die doers and dreamers. Stop and shop their stores. Eat their pie. Hunt their pheasants. Show them you believe in what they are accomplishing for South Dakota.
(Bernie Hunhoff)