Minutes of Regular Meeting of Southern Black Hills Water System Board
Crazy Horse Monument
Thursday, August 28, 2025
The Regular Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Southern Black Hills Water System was held at the Crazy Horse Monument on Thursday, August 21, 2025.
Chairman Wick called the meeting to order at approximately 1:00 p.m.
ROLL CALL – Board Members present were Wick, Baird, Beard, Kowalski, Krump, Nase, and Zolnowsky; Baker and Smith were absent. Others in attendance were manager Don Peterson, and observer Doug Musser.
AGENDA – Motion by Nase, 2nd by Krump to approve the agenda; motion passed unanimously.
MINUTES - Motion by Krump, 2nd by Beard to approve the minutes of the July 24, 2025 meeting. Motion passed unanimously.
TREASURER’S REPORT – Peterson presented the treasurer’s report for July 2025. The report was reviewed by the board members. The check sequence ending July 31 was check #4726 and beginning August 1 was check #4727. Motion by Baird, 2nd by Beard to approve the treasurer’s report and transfer $15,000 from the regular checking into the RD account; motion passed unanimously.
OLD BUSINESS –
Managers’ Report
Conflicts resulted in postponement of the previously scheduled budget committee meeting before the August meeting, Peterson will convene a meeting of the committee to propose a budget for 2026 before the September meeting.
Actions by Flatland Engineering in construction of the new water mains for the Paramount Point (PP) / Spring Creek Acres (SCA) project have raised issues. Workers have intruded onto adjacent private lands resulting in damage to those properties; SBHWS would be dependent on the goodwill of the affected landowners for future customers and extensions. Flatland needs a water source to conduct testing of the water line and SBHWS had agreed to allow Flatland to obtain from the existing Spring Creek Acres system subject to limited impact; use by Flatland beyond that agreed to resulted in damage of the SCA system and has forced SBHWS to protect their customers and refuse further use of the SCA system as a source for their testing needs. Flatland has requested that SBHWS furnish water to complete their testing from the PP system. Discussion amongst the Board led the consensus that we wanted completion of the project and hence could provide water from PP with conditions: that Flatland pay for the water, they reimburse SBHWS for costs for the damage to the SCA system, and water would not be supplied until they had reached agreements addressing the damage claims by the adjacent landowners.
Fuller Construction expects to have the storage tower erected by the end of the year and is aiming for completion of the tower subproject by July 2026.
RCS plans to begin installation of pumps at the pump station on August 27.
The annual member meeting is scheduled for October 2. Rick Krump’s position is up for election at this meeting; candidate petitions are due at the SBHWS office by September 10.
The Western Dakota Regional Water System annual meeting will be held September 25 in Keystone. Multiple SBHWS Board members requested that the regular SBHWS meeting date be changed so they might attend the WDRWS meeting.
The Preston family sold nine lots north of Hermosa with the commitment to provide SBHWS water service to the lots. The drawings provided by the developer for water mains to the lots still lack sufficient detail and are dependent of a draft easement on adjacent property that has not been filed.
A past owner of a property serviced by SBHWS terminated his membership and subsequently sold the property to the current owner. The current owner requested service, was informed of the cost of resumption of service under Resolution 2019-01, and subsequently declined to resume service at that time. Several years later, the current owner now wants to sell the property to a party wanting water service and requested a statement of the current cost of resumption of service, which is rising by over $1200 per year.
NEW BUSINESS -
There was no new business.
EXECUTIVE SESSION -
There was no Executive Session.
UPCOMING MEETINGS -
The next meeting of the Southern Black Hills System Board will be Friday, September 26, 2025 at 1:00 PM at the Crazy Horse Monument in Custer; NOTE THE ONE-DAY POSTPONEMENT. The annual member meeting is scheduled for October 2, 2025 at 6:30 PM at the Pringle Community Center.
ADJOURNMENT - There being no further business, the chair declared the meeting adjourned at 2:00.
Crazy Horse Monument
Thursday, August 28, 2025
The Regular Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Southern Black Hills Water System was held at the Crazy Horse Monument on Thursday, August 21, 2025.
Chairman Wick called the meeting to order at approximately 1:00 p.m.
ROLL CALL – Board Members present were Wick, Baird, Beard, Kowalski, Krump, Nase, and Zolnowsky; Baker and Smith were absent. Others in attendance were manager Don Peterson, and observer Doug Musser.
AGENDA – Motion by Nase, 2nd by Krump to approve the agenda; motion passed unanimously.
MINUTES - Motion by Krump, 2nd by Beard to approve the minutes of the July 24, 2025 meeting. Motion passed unanimously.
TREASURER’S REPORT – Peterson presented the treasurer’s report for July 2025. The report was reviewed by the board members. The check sequence ending July 31 was check #4726 and beginning August 1 was check #4727. Motion by Baird, 2nd by Beard to approve the treasurer’s report and transfer $15,000 from the regular checking into the RD account; motion passed unanimously.
OLD BUSINESS –
Managers’ Report
Conflicts resulted in postponement of the previously scheduled budget committee meeting before the August meeting, Peterson will convene a meeting of the committee to propose a budget for 2026 before the September meeting.
Actions by Flatland Engineering in construction of the new water mains for the Paramount Point (PP) / Spring Creek Acres (SCA) project have raised issues. Workers have intruded onto adjacent private lands resulting in damage to those properties; SBHWS would be dependent on the goodwill of the affected landowners for future customers and extensions. Flatland needs a water source to conduct testing of the water line and SBHWS had agreed to allow Flatland to obtain from the existing Spring Creek Acres system subject to limited impact; use by Flatland beyond that agreed to resulted in damage of the SCA system and has forced SBHWS to protect their customers and refuse further use of the SCA system as a source for their testing needs. Flatland has requested that SBHWS furnish water to complete their testing from the PP system. Discussion amongst the Board led the consensus that we wanted completion of the project and hence could provide water from PP with conditions: that Flatland pay for the water, they reimburse SBHWS for costs for the damage to the SCA system, and water would not be supplied until they had reached agreements addressing the damage claims by the adjacent landowners.
Fuller Construction expects to have the storage tower erected by the end of the year and is aiming for completion of the tower subproject by July 2026.
RCS plans to begin installation of pumps at the pump station on August 27.
The annual member meeting is scheduled for October 2. Rick Krump’s position is up for election at this meeting; candidate petitions are due at the SBHWS office by September 10.
The Western Dakota Regional Water System annual meeting will be held September 25 in Keystone. Multiple SBHWS Board members requested that the regular SBHWS meeting date be changed so they might attend the WDRWS meeting.
The Preston family sold nine lots north of Hermosa with the commitment to provide SBHWS water service to the lots. The drawings provided by the developer for water mains to the lots still lack sufficient detail and are dependent of a draft easement on adjacent property that has not been filed.
A past owner of a property serviced by SBHWS terminated his membership and subsequently sold the property to the current owner. The current owner requested service, was informed of the cost of resumption of service under Resolution 2019-01, and subsequently declined to resume service at that time. Several years later, the current owner now wants to sell the property to a party wanting water service and requested a statement of the current cost of resumption of service, which is rising by over $1200 per year.
NEW BUSINESS -
There was no new business.
EXECUTIVE SESSION -
There was no Executive Session.
UPCOMING MEETINGS -
The next meeting of the Southern Black Hills System Board will be Friday, September 26, 2025 at 1:00 PM at the Crazy Horse Monument in Custer; NOTE THE ONE-DAY POSTPONEMENT. The annual member meeting is scheduled for October 2, 2025 at 6:30 PM at the Pringle Community Center.
ADJOURNMENT - There being no further business, the chair declared the meeting adjourned at 2:00.
