(Continued from page 30)

sive flooding occurred last year in the Dakotas, Iowa, Nebraska and Missouri because of record releases caused by a deep mountain and prairie snowpack and heavy spring rains in the upper basin.
• However, Stasch and others noted last year's flooding would have been much worse without the dams.
• Pierre lawyer Jamie Damon said at Friday's ceremony that she got Kennedy to come to South Dakota because of a fourth-grade project, in which each student had to write a letter to someone. She invited the president to dedicate the dam, which her father helped build as a bulldozer operator.
• "I wanted the president to come to Pierre to see the dam my dad built. While I

knew other people worked on it, I was 9. My dad built it," she said.
• Russ Nyhaug, 84, of Baltic, said the ceremony brought back memories of his work as a mechanic on the tunnels that deliver water to the power generators.
• "It feels good to be a part of something like this. There was a lot a lot of hard work, but there was a lot of fun, too," Nyhaug said.

• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- Authorities say a Waubay man has pleaded not guilty in the January death of his 2-year-old daughter.
• U.S. Attorney Brendan Johnson says Mario M. Contreras pleaded not guilty on Thursday to second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter, child abuse and assault resulting in serious bodily injury.
• The Argus Leader reports (http://argusne.ws/NK2FXQ ) that his daughter, Aleeyah Cook of Sisseton, died Jan. 11 at a Fargo, N.D., hospital.
• No court date has been set for Contreras.
•

• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- Gov. Dennis Daugaard has appointed four new members to the South Dakota Board of Tourism.
• The new members announced Friday are: Ivan Sorbel of Kyle; Kristi Wagner of Whitewood; Mark Schilling of Mitchell; and Ted Hustead of Wall.
• Sorbel is Executive Director of the Pine Ridge Area Chamber of Commerce; Wagner is owner of the Rushmore Center for Civic Leadership; Schilling is Director of the Corn Palace; and Hustead is President of Wall Drug.

(Continued on page 32)