Conversations About Salem

AFTER THE DERECHO ‘YOU’RE EITHER GROWING OR DYING. SALEM IS ON THE GROWING PATH.’

Salem in 1913.

SALEM, SOUTH DAKOTA

Founded 1888

Mayor Glenda Blindert Population 1,355

SCHOOLS

McCook Central Schools (K-12) St. Mary’s Catholic Elementary School (K-8)

AMENITIES

Country club with a 9-hole golf course Bowling alley 3 Parks

Swimming Pool Track and football field Baseball and softball diamonds

Gymnasium Community library

The Sioux Metro Growth Alliance has a weekly podcast featuring conversations with community and business leaders in the region. This article is based on a podcast from Sept. 13, 2022. Text has been edited for clarity. To subscribe to the podcast, visit www.siouxmetro.com/growing-places-podcast.

Downtown Salem was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004. Photo by Sheldon Jensen.

Salem, S.D., is the newest member of the Sioux Metro Growth Alliance. Salem is the McCook County seat and is located about halfway between Mitchell and Sioux Falls, north of I-90.

Salem was hit hard by the 2022 derecho storms on May 12th and July 5th. There was extensive damage to many homes and businesses; and, in fact, the nursing home was damaged beyond repair. However, the city is recovering rapidly. Residents and community leaders focus on the community’s positive qualities and the resident’s can-do attitude.

Featured guests on this podcast were Matt Alley, superintendent of McCook Central School District; and Salem City Council member Mitch Rayman, who also manages Nutrient Ag Solutions south of Salem. Rayman has been the Booster Club president for 10 years. Also speaking on the podcast was Jesse Fonkert, president and CEO of Sioux Metro Growth Alliance.

FEELS LIKE HOME

McCOOK CENTRAL SUPERINTENDENT MATT ALLEY: “One thing that’s very noticeable is how welcoming Salem is to newcomers. It’s a community that wants to see growth, wants to see the school succeed and wants the community to succeed. It really feels like we have everybody rowing in the same direction in Salem.

“Residents have a real depth of commitment to the school district and we also have one of the most supportive school boards around. When you have a good school district with a lot of support, with amenities like our pool, our golf course and the small town restaurants, it really does feel like home. It’s a great community to be a part of and there’s just a lot of positive outlook. ”

SALEM COUNCIL MEMBER MITCH RAYMAN: “Whether young and newly married or retired, you don’t need to leave the community to find a lot of things. We have a local clinic, as well as a drugstore on Main Street and a hardware store. We’ve got insurance companies and a bank; and our grocery store in town just did an amazing remodel. Our restaurants include The Brewery, The Den and The Homestead. Our steakhouse is under new ownership. There’s also new owners of the gas station, which is going to continue to serve good food. So we have a lot of options when it comes to breakfast, lunch or supper. I’d be hard pressed to tell you something we don’t have. There’s a machine shop, two car dealerships and several mechanics. We’ve got a vet clinic and a chiropractor clinic.” MATT: “At the same time, Salem really is a small town. Everybody knows who you are. The people who do your oil change, they’ll drive right up to where you work and pick up or drop off your car. For people who travel to work in Sioux Falls, Salem might be 10 minutes further away than living in Harrisburg, Brandon or Hartford, but those are a short 10 minutes to sacrifice to enjoy the small town atmosphere we’ve got here.”

Superintendent Matt Alley Councilman Mitch Rayman

PEOPLE WHO CARE = INCREDIBLE BALL DIAMONDS

SIOUX METRO GROWTH ALLIANCE CEO JESSE FONKERT: “You walk downtown in Salem and there’s still Main Street businesses that are thriving and active. You can tell it’s a very tight knit community that wants to see good things happen. The first thing that caught my eye when I visited Salem was your beautiful ball diamonds. Why in the world does a community of 1,400 have a baseball field with turf this nice?”

MITCH: “We are proud of our baseball field and our softball fields. Improvements started years ago with the baseball association. The city council expressed strong support and encouraged organizers to keep pushing. Council members said, ‘We want to bring tournaments in, we want to bring people to Salem so they can see our town.’ In addition, a couple years ago, between the baseball association, city council, and First Dakota National Bank, we invested heavily in our softball fields. At the end of the day, it boils down to Salem having a lot of organizations, businesses and people who care. I think a lot of that credit goes back 10 or 20 years to a vision and a sense of pride that people have for Salem.”

MATT: “We’ve also made some upgrades at the football complex, which is adjacent to the baseball fields. We have facilities you just don’t normally see in a town this size. It’s not just people on boards who move things forward, but it’s also the people who roll up their sleeves and get out there and help these projects happen, both financially and by jumping in to do the hands-on work.”

Cubs Field is the pride of Salem. Photo by Jeremy Grady.

HOUSING IS THE GREATEST CHALLENGE

MITCH: “A long-term goal for the city council is to bring more people into the community. To make that happen, we’ve got to find some land to build new houses. There are a lot of people in Sioux Falls in positions that are great, but we’d love to have them commuting from a home in Salem where they can raise their kids in a small town just like the one they grew up in. Housing is absolutely the number one key issue in Salem.”

MATT: “The housing shortage negatively affects McCook Central Schools, too. After we’ve spent several years investing in a teacher to get him or her to our standards of excellence, the teacher and the district are faced with a dilemma. You don’t want to lose good quality teachers to the ‘big leagues,’ so to speak. But I think teachers leaving has less to do with the money out there versus we just don’t have the housing availability for somebody who is starting a young family.”

MITCH: “If you bring 40 or 50 more houses into town, that’s many more families. It’s going to help our tax base which helps roads and it’s going to allow the school district to keep things up. As the town develops that way, new jobs spin off here so maybe now only one spouse has to leave Salem during the day. Or maybe one spouse buys one of the buildings on Main Street that’s been empty for a couple years and they start a business.” MATT: “Like any city in South Dakota, you’re either growing or dying. In Salem, it seems we’re on the growing path, but getting over that housing hump is difficult.”

CHALLENGES PRESENT OPPORTUNITIES

MITCH: “The derecho storms hit us hard. There was a lot of damage to the community center and to a nursing home. So many farmers saw grain bins go down.

“When both those storm storms hit, you have never seen a community come together the way they did in terms of helping out their neighbors, between bringing in skid loaders and trucks and trailers and chainsaws. And once you’re done with one yard, you went to another. That’s just how the community as a whole operates.

“The community center building was 60 years old and maybe this will be an opportunity to build a brand new events center. We’ll see. ”

JESSE: “I think that’s really cool that your town, rather than seeing this as a tragedy and just sitting down to say ‘woe is me,’ you’re looking at it as an opportunity to really rebuild better than before.”

MATT: “Life’s going to happen. Like my favorite quote from Coach John Wooden says: ‘Don’t let what you can’t do get in the way of what you can do.’ Going forward in Salem, let’s say ‘What can we do?’ And then let’s do that and take it one bite at a time.” //