The year, decade went by too fast

It seems like we just passed from one century into another and here we are on the verge of welcoming in 2010. It wasn’t just a fast 2009, it was a super fast entire decade! This has been a special decade for us because it marks 10 years of ownership of the Custer County Chronicle and Hill City Prevailer-News. We purchased the newspapers from Jim and Alice Anderson on Dec. 28, 1999, just before the anticipated Y2K bug was to hit.

As you probably remember, those feared massive computer glitches failed to materialize. Sure, there were some minor adjustments, but countries that  spent a great deal of time and money on preparing their computers for the century change had just as many problems as those that didn’t. We all survived in this country and we won’t ever have to worry about that situation again in our lifetimes.

After surviving Y2K, our next challenge in 2000 was surviving the big April 19 snow storm that brought things to a virtual standstill. The spring storm came with heavy, wet snow that brought down utility poles and lines throughout the county. I remember that day well. It was Wednesday, our usual publication day, but nobody could get to work except us because we  lived only a few blocks from the office. Did I mention that we also had no power in town so it was impossible to run the press. We came out a day late. There was nothing we could do about it.

Then a few months later we had to deal with the largest wildfire in recent  recorded history in Custer County. The Jasper Fire just west of Custer burned 83,508 acres of timber, primarily in the Black Hills National Forest. Luckily, there were no serious injuries or loss of life reported from the man-caused fire that started the latter part of August and burned into September. We had reporters from all over changing into their fire retardant clothing in our offices. Like the snow storm, Norma and I had to handle all the reporting duties because we were it on our small staff. That spread us pretty thin.

We got some reporting help in January the next year when Jason Ferguson was hired right out of Chadron State College. I told him we couldn’t pay him much at the time, but that we would treat him fairly. We must be doing alright in that category because he is still with us as reporter and general manager after nine years. He has been a big help these past nine years.

Our next milestone came in June of 2001 when we moved out of our old location where Highmark is now and into our own two-story brick building where we currently reside. One of the happiest days of my life was when we got out of the printing business at the same time and sold our newspaper presses to a publisher in Mariposa, Calif. That’s right, they went all the way to the city nearest Yosemite National Park.

It has been a fast, but great 10 years here in Custer and we look forward to a new decade of progress. We seem to have the right people in place to get the job done in Custer and in South Dakota, but I am appalled at what is happening in Washington, D.C. Obama and the Democrats are literally looting America right before our very eyes. If they get away with their  bribes to the likes of Nelson in Nebraska and Landrieu in Louisiana to secure their Senate health care votes, you can kiss our Constitution good-bye.

Instead of real change in politics in Washington, D.C., we are getting  more of the same and then some. It’s Chicago-style politics at its best. Instead of promised transparency in government, we are getting closed door meetings and behind-the-scenes deals. Enough is enough! We attended the Tea Party held recently in Rapid City and can tell you they are for real. People are angry and, more than anything, frustrated at what they see happening in our nation. They don’t know what to do about it.

I know some of our readers don’t like to hear anything negative about our president, but even they have to agree that spending in Washington is totally out of control. Obama knows he has a very small window in time to get his socialist, liberal agenda passed before the public catches on, and he is making the best of it. He and his economic advisors also wrongly believe they can spend us out of a recession. History tells us otherwise.

I believe in America and the American people and I believe that we will not stand for any more forced mandates like national health care or proposed cap and trade legislation. Let’s make 2010 the year we take back our country and reverse this perverse culture that has taken over our nation’s capitol.

Thank you all for your great support these past 10 years and Happy New Year to all of you!

                                                                  – Charley Najacht