Under the guidelines of the REA representatives, members of the small farmer-owned lines, which dotted the areas, were contacted and they agreed to sell their holdings if a cooperative would be formed. Vandarwarka, had already offered to sell. Members of this committee were Emil Martens, Wessington Glenn Hughes, Onida Randal Mercer, Blunt Lawrence Stoley, Highmore and Wayne Wade of Highmore, who was named coordinator. A five-man committee representing the five counties was appointed and organized to contact Ollig to see if he would sell the exchanges of Blunt, Highmore, and Wessington to make an REA loan feasible. The key holding company in these areas was the Missouri Valley Telephone Company, owned by L. The farmers in attendance at that meeting were a very determined group, and the recommendation was adopted by the unit. The REA Field Representative, Mauritz Erkkila, suggested the group organize a telephone cooperative that would include all or parts of Hyde, Hughes, Sully, Hand, and Beadle counties. The men also discovered that all of them had many things in common and the problems were much the same, such as the towns were all served by telephone companies that either could not or would not build modern telephone lines to the farms and ranches in these counties. The other counties seemed to be a little further along than Hyde County. They found that Sully, Hughes, and Hand County farmers had no better telephone service than Hyde County farmers did, and all of them had held organizing meetings and signed up members. Three rural Hyde County residents - Lawrence Stoley, Wayne Wade, and Dick Raske - realizing the importance of obtaining telephone service for the rural areas, attended the organizational meeting held in Onida. Those attending from Hyde County were advised to attend a meeting that was going to be held in Onida. In late 1952, many people interested in reliable telephone service attended a state-wide meeting held in Huron by REA representatives and officials. In times of emergency, rural residents would build a large fire to attract the attention of airplanes that were kept in the air for that purpose. The severe winter of 1951-52 hastened the Hyde County organizers to “get the ball rolling” to get telephone service in the area. The many blizzards and deep snow left many people no way of communicating with anyone for long periods of time. Those who became affiliated with Sully Buttes Telephone Cooperative and attended those meetings were Harold Courier and Glenn Hughes, both of Onida, and Randal Mercer, of Blunt. The first organizational meetings were held in Sully County in 1951. The objective was to provide telephone service “to the widest practicable number of rural users.” At this time, area residents started proceedings to form a cooperative. The Rural Telephone Program became law in October 1949, as an amendment to the Rural Electrification Act of 1936. Most farms didn’t have telephone service at all, or if they did, it was just between close neighbors. SDN specializes in serving banks, health care, agricultural businesses, government and education.When the trading centers converted to automatic dial telephones, and rural residents started getting electric power, the old single-wire telephones didn’t work well enough to do much good. Together SDN and its member companies serve businesses needing managed services along with broadband connectivity among office locations. SDN Communications interconnects all 17 companies, creating a statewide fiber optic network of more than 50,000 miles that spans eight states: South Dakota, Minnesota, North Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado. Ryan Thompson, Santel Communications (Woonsocket).Jeff Symens, Valley Telecommunications (Herreid).Chad Mutziger, Midstate Communications (Kimball).Heather Kranz, TrioTel Communications (Salem).Fay Jandreau, Venture Communications (Highmore).Secretary/Treasurer Tracy Bandemer, Interstate Telecommunications Cooperative (Clear Lake).Vice President Ross Petrick, Alliance Communications (Garretson).President Denny Law, Golden West Telecommunications (Wall,.The nine members on the Board of Managers oversee SDN Communications, which is owned by 17 rural broadband companies serving more than 80% of South Dakota’s geography. Meyer also serves as executive VP and GM of Brookings Municipal Utilities. Swiftel is based in Brookings and is owned and operated by the city. Updated: 3 months ago / Posted Jul 18, 2023īROOKINGS - The SDN Communications board of managers re-elected Swiftel Communications executive VP/general manager Steve Meyer to serve another one-year term during its recent annual meeting.
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