Valley Queen issued this statement to update the community: Controlling the odor from our wastewater treatment plant has challenged Valley Queen Cheese Factory officials and our environmental engineering consultant, The Probst Group. Our employees, along with our engineering firm’s crew, have feverishly worked to identify and address the source of... Read more

Bob and Linda Hartman’s daughter and son-in-law, Aly and Royce Swearingen of Aberdeen are gathering relief items for victims of the flooding in Pine Ridge. Royce is a registered member of the Sisseton tribe. Linda Hartman is collecting the donations from Milbank at 203 S. 6th Street until noon on... Read more

The Grant County chapter of Pheasants Forever donated three BB guns and three air pellet rifles to the Grant County 4-H Shooting Sports Club. The guns were purchased with proceeds from the Grant County Pheasants Forever banquet held annually in September. This is the third group of firearms the Grant... Read more

The 78th Annual Membership Meeting of the Whetstone Valley Electric Cooperative was held on Thursday, March 21, in Milbank. President Bill Tostenson stated a quorum was attained with 253 voting members present. Nathan Loutsch led the members in singing the National Anthem and Pastor Albert Meier of Peace Lutheran Church... Read more

Evan Grong has been promoted to the position of transportation and milk procurement manager at Valley Queen Cheese Factory. He will assume the duties held by Jody Kuper who will retire on April 30, after 36 years at Valley Queen. Jason Mischel, Valley Queen’s vice president-sales and procurement said, “As... Read more

Charles Frevert, age 78, of rural Big Stone City, SD, died on March 24, 2019, at his residence. A memorial service will be held on Saturday, April 6, at 11:00 a.m. at First United Methodist Church in Ortonville. Pastor Melanie Reiners will officiate. Visitation will be held at the church... Read more

Twenty-two seventh and eighth grade choir students from Milbank Middle School participated in the Festival for Young Voices in Brookings on March 12. Guest director, Kim Bruguier from Mitchell, rehearsed with the ensemble of over 200 voices. The choir presented a grand concert that evening in the Mitchell High School... Read more

Kevin Schuelke, fire chief of Milbank Fire and Rescue, said the Corona Volunteer Fire Department used “big water” to stop the spreading of flames from a barn fire on the Paul DeBoer dairy farm north of Corona on March 15, at 1 p.m. Schuelke said, “This is something first-on-the-scene departments... Read more

Keith Weber has been promoted to the new position of Information Technology Department Manager at Valley Queen Cheese Factory. Keith has been the company’s IT administrator for the past 17 years and has been instrumental in modernizing Valley Queen’s IT infrastructure and services to match the company’s growing dairy processing... Read more

Dave Page, general manager of the Whetstone Valley Electric Cooperative, summarized the power outages that occurred during the storm on March 14, and the restoration efforts that followed. Page said, “Shortly after noon on Thursday, March 14, Whetstone Valley Electric Cooperative members began experiencing blinks and short outages as a... Read more