Residents of Lane to vote on dissolution

Talk about it

LANE — Residents in this Jerauld County community will decide Feb. 8 whether to dissolve the town.

Margaret Schmidt, 83, has lived in Lane for 30 years. She believes the taxes are too high and residents don’t get enough services for what they pay. She has private water, sewer and electrical service.

Schmidt forks over $1,200 in property taxes annually and claims that more than half of the taxes pay the town board’s and finance officer’s wages.

“They don’t furnish one blasted thing,” she said. “Here I am, paying through the nose for taxes I can’t afford anymore because I’m getting so old. I’m trying to live on Social Security and it just don’t reach.”

Schmidt remembers when she first moved to Lane, it had a grocery store and bar that served meals and hosted dances.

“It’s nothing like it used to be,” she said. “The old timers, they say they hate to see it unincorporated in a way. They say it isn’t a town anymore. It’s pretty well gone.”

The town was formed in July 1903 and by 1910, it had more than 12 businesses and 350 residents. Voters made the decision to incorporate in 1907, and Lane School had 87 students by 1913. A consolidated school district was approved in 1920.

Drought during the Great Depression and a January 1943 fire caused enrollment to plummet, so school district voters decided to consolidate with Wessington Springs in 1968.

The town’s population continued to dwindle, reaching 71 residents in the 1990 census. That dropped to 59 in the 2000 census, with an estimated 50 as of July 2009.

Businesses include Lane Café — operated by Town Board Chairwoman Shirley Hines — Lane Garage and Auto Supply, and Larry Jones Heating and Cooling. A post office also exists.

Hines said Schmidt had asked to have her property excluded from the town’s limits because she thought her taxes were too high.

Lane residents’ tax levy is set at $21.26 per $1,000 of valuation, while Alpena is at $8.01 and Wessington Springs is $7.35, Jerauld County Auditor Cindy Peterson said.

The town board rejected Schmidt’s request on Aug. 5, Finance Officer Nikki Von Eye said.

Then Schmidt circulated a petition to dissolve the town, gathering 13 signatures. She needed 15 percent, or seven of the town’s 44 registered voters, Von Eye said.

Two-thirds of the town’s registered voters need to approve the termination of the town, she said. If approved, the town would become part of Franklin Township.

Schmidt noted that Forestburg had dissolved and that effort seemed to be successful.

Thirty-five towns in South Dakota with less than 50 residents remain incorporated, according to the Census Bureau.

Such elections for terminating a town are rare, said Yvonne Taylor, executive director of the South Dakota Municipal League.

Since the early ’90s, no towns have voted to dissolve, she said.

One of the last elections occurred roughly 15 years ago when residents in White Rock in Roberts County voted to stay incorporated, Taylor said. Two towns — Summerset and Piedmont along Interstate 90 in Meade County — were approved for incorporation in recent years.

State’s Attorney Casey Bridgman, who has a private practice in Wessington Springs, said he represented Schmidt as a civil client in the matter. She requested his assistance in creating a petition on dissolving the town, he said.

Bridgman had told Schmidt her taxes would decline by $300 if the town dissolved, she said.

Hines is concerned about what would happen if the county or township would take over providing services to the town.

“We are not prime on the list for the county to open us up,” she said, referring to snow removal. “We have got our own maintainer. We have our own street lights.

“We are solvent.”

The town hires Paul Raterman as a blade operator for snow removal and maintaining its mostly gravel streets. Dale Cox handles the mowing.

Hines noted that some residents live on more than one lot and the county could tax their property as an acreage.

“I think it’s a real foolish mistake,” she said. “I’m hoping if everybody votes, it won’t have a chance to pass.”

Schmidt thinks a good share of residents believe their taxes are too high.

“We wouldn’t have tried it if we wouldn’t have known the amount of people that were really upset,” she said, referring to her and another man who circulated the petition.

Tags: news, lane, dissolve