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Home rehabilitation funds available for SD groups
• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- The South Dakota Housing Development Authority says it has $500,000 available for nonprofit organizations or public agencies that can administer the funds and use them to provide loans to homeowners.
• The housing authority says the groups must use the money toward zero percent interest, conditionally forgivable loans meant to help homeowners rehabilitate their houses. Homeowners in turn can put the loan toward bringing their houses up to code, improving energy efficiency and making them accessible for people with disabilities.
• The housing authority says these improvements help avoid neighborhood blight.
• Interested organizations and agencies must apply by July 31. Applications from individuals will not be accepted.
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Pheasants Forever opening SD office in Brookings
NORA HERTEL, Associated Press
• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- Pheasants Forever will set up its first office in South Dakota early July, in recognition of a sharp drop in bird numbers and South Dakota's place as a global center of pheasant hunting.
• Future director of the office and longtime Pheasants Forever staffer Dave Nomsen made the announcement Monday to the governor's Pheasant Habitat Work Group.
• "They have been very involved in our meetings to date," Chairwoman Pam Roberts said. "I see a lot of opportunity for coordination with them."
• Nomsen long has served as vice president of government affairs for the nonprofit, lobbying for several versions of the farm bill since 1996. He graduated from South Dakota State University in Brookings and worked as faculty in the Wildlife Department. The Pheasants Forever office will open July 1 in Brookings.
• "In a sense, I'm kind of coming home," Nomsen said.
• He called South Dakota the "gold standard" for pheasant hunting worldwide. The move to South Dakota also highlights the dwindling of the bird's habitats and population in the state.
• A state report says pheasant numbers have fallen since 2008 as fallow grasslands have been converted to farmland. Roberts said bad weather in the last 18 (Continued on page 19)
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