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lease the sale price, and they have applied for a nonprofit license to accept donations, Van Dover said. They will develop a specific purpose in the coming months that will likely preserve the site's Catholic identity and continue the monks' mission of using the monastery as a corporate and individual retreat and a place to host events and faith activities, he said.
• "There have been 50 great ideas of what to do with it. We have to define the mission and the vision and move forward," Van Dover said.
• The abbey will likely have side businesses to support the nonprofit, he said. Use of the monks' wood shop, greenhouse, garden and land for natural beef grazing are among the possibilities.
• Besides Van Dover and his wife, Cindy Van Dover, of Big Stone City, the five other couples are: Val and Paula Rausch, of Big Stone City; Jim and Kala Heller, of Aberdeen; Roman and Carol Taffe and Paul and Julie Treinen, of Ortonville, Minn.; and Dan and Michelle Moberg, of Clinton, Minn.
• The Mobergs will live at the abbey initially because Dan Moberg knows how to operate boilers and other parts of the operation.
• Jerry Klein, spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Sioux Falls, said the monastery will continue operating separately but with the bishop's blessing, support and gratitude for the couples' effort to maintain the mission.
• Wade Van Dover said more people will have to step up because the heating bill alone this winter will be about $90,000.
• "This group has really stuck their neck out to do this," he said. "To get this thing bought, we did what we had to do. But there is going to be a fundraising attempt, and there will be a need for people to give their time and talents."
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• RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) -- A man convicted of manslaughter in Rapid City now acknowledges he used cocaine and gave meth to a 15-year-old girl.
• Charles Birdshead pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of distribution of a controlled substance, methamphetamine, to a minor and one count of possession of a controlled substance, cocaine.
• In exchange for his guilty pleas, prosecutors agreed to ask that his drug sentences run at the same time as his sentence for manslaughter.
• Birdshead was convicted in August for the January shooting death of Eustacio Marrufo in the South Dakota Rose parking lot during a drug transaction.
• He'll be sentenced on Jan. 6.
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