Rising together

The 2022 Together We Rise Hill City Area Chamber of Commerce Annual Dinner Meeting and Awards Gala took place April 23.
The evening featured a catered dinner at the Homestead at Prairie Berry as well as a general chamber meeting  with elections. During the meeting Jen Schmoll of the Black Hills Bistro was voted in as the new secretary, while Nate Lail of the KOA and Rick Mills of the South Dakota State  Railway Museum extended their two-year terms on the board.
Attendees were thunderstruck by the images Executive Director of the Hill City Chamber of Commerce Janet Wetovick-Bily displayed to kick off the business portion of the meeting. Janet Wetovick-Bily said there are 30 new  chamber members and that there are currently 222 members from all over the region. The chamber is dedicated to having people “have a fabulous experience in Hill City,” said Wetovick-Bily.
The highlight of the evening was keynote guest speaker South Dakota Department of Tourism Secretary James Hagen who spoke about the state of tourism in the state.
His take on short-term rentals was met with applause from the audience. The explosion of “short-term rentals in 2022 is not like anything I’ve ever seen,” but Hagen stressed the need for these entities to pay their fair share of taxes. “We all need to be rowing in this boat together,” he said.
According to Hagen the greatest challenges South Dakota tourism currently faces is the lack of labor force, high gas prices and increasing inflation.
His prediction however, is “I think we’re going to have a really solid summer.”
This state is blanketing the entire country with digital marketing ads. Hagen sees that Texas is “blowing up” as a South Dakota market. The State’s theme is still “Go Great Places,” but it is  using  updated images to coincide with the theme that worked so well for the state last year. Hagen said the State can and is tracking travelers by pixels.
“It’s totally legal,” he joked as he described being able to track the movement of visitors across the state simply from their smartphone.
The state is also rolling  out a new Great Finds mobile passport program which will highlight every area of South Dakota and encourage people to visit hidden gems across the state. The program was launched in March and rewards travelers who make stops to these often rural locations. The more stops a person makes the more the rewards are.
The state is also working on a new passport program called the State of Create which will highlight cultural and artistic offerings in South Dakota. A  new Black to Yellow passport program will encourage traffic between the Black Hills and Yellowstone.
Hagen fielded questions from the audience which included concerns about the H-2b and J-1 programs. “H-2b program has been broken forever. Everybody is trying to get those 68,000 workers,” Hagen said.
From his vantage point one of the problems is that some states don’t need the workers as much as South Dakota does, so Congress can’t come to agreement to increase the numbers. Hagen is hoping to “stick his foot,” as he puts it, into the Department of Labor’s business.
The evening ended with the annual award presentation. Jewel of the West received the Business of the Year while Chute Rooster received the Employer of the Year award. The newest award, Employee of the Year, went to Ranae Schrier. The prestigious Victor Jepsen award went to Wally Matush at the Alpine Inn. Lori Comer, an avid quilter and crafter, was recognized with the Lifetime Achievement Award.