Here are the minutes of the SDWARN meeting held on January 15, 2025. Thank you Barbara Friedeman for taking the minutes.

SDWARN

WATER /WASTEWATER AGENCY RESPONSE NETWORK

CALL TO ORDER

The 16th annual meeting of the South Dakota Water and Wastewater Agency Response Network met 1/15/2025 at the SD Association of Rural Water System’s Annual Technology Conference. We did not meet in 2024. Chairman Robin Dykstra brought the meeting to order. We thank SDARWS giving us a time slot during the ATC to talk and teach about SDWARN.

STEERING COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Thanks to Darin Nugteren (Canistota) and Steve Muilenberg (Clay Rural Water) for volunteering to be new steering committee members. Steering committee members with voting rights are as follows.

• Chris Myers, City of Sioux Falls, is a municipal representative and his term expires 1/2026.
• Darin Nugteren, City of Canistota, is a municipal representative and his term expires 1/2027.
• Jim Auen, Lewis and Clark, is a rural water representative and his term expires 1/2026.
• Steve Muilenberg, Clay Rural Water, is a rural water representative and his term expires 1/2027.
• Jim McCauley, Lower Brule Rural Water, will continue to serve as the tribal.

OTHER BUSINESS

We decided to meet just once per year during the ATC because of its central location in Pierre and there is always good attendance.

Robin had a great powerpoint program that reviewed SDWARN from the past up to the present. Highlights from that presentation are:

-The minutes from the 9/2023 meeting noted that the website needed updating and we have made great strides

in that area. A new website is up and running and members need to contact an administrator to get a new password. Robin has already helped a number of water systems get signed up.

-If you wish to be a member, complete the mutual aid agreement and have it signed by an authorized representative from your utility and submit to Robin. He can then help you set a new password.

-SDWARN relies on donations from members and is grateful for those donations. They allow SDWARN to purchase equipment needed during emergencies and pay for website updates. At the end of October 2024, SDWARN had $8,075.44. Our funds are managed by the Rural Water Center.

-When setting up an SDWARN password, if you supply a cell number and agree to it, you can be notified of alert notifications by text in addition to by email.

-There are some pieces of equipment that need to be eliminated or surplused or are wearing out.

-Al Kocmich showed photos of SDARWS technical assistance activities during the flooding in eastern SD in 2024.

Sammi Blood with DANR gave a review of the Salamander Credentialing Program. Those participating in the Salamander Program hold badges with QR codes that identifies people and their qualifications to help at an event.

We are grateful for SDARWS’s dedication and participation. Their technical assistance is vital to all water/wastewater utilities and SDWARN would not be able to achieve our mission without it.

By my count, there are 135 WARN members. I’m not confident that number is accurate because not all signed MAAs were copied to me.

I wish to thank Robin Dykstra for taking the reins and advancing and improving SDWARN. Barb Friedeman, Secretary