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Brandon has a dandy little community theater that puts on a play every spring and fall. This spring, the Mighty Corson Art Players will present “Blythe Spirit” at the Corson Payhouse.

Have you ever participated in community theater? Have you ever wanted to? Everyone’s welcome at MCAP, and there are lots of ways to be involved. Maybe you like to direct plays. If so, let MCAP know! Directors are always needed. Maybe you like to perform onstage, and maybe you like to work with props or costumes backstage. Maybe you’re into the technical aspect and would like to run lights or sound. Maybe you would like to usher or help with concessions. All talents are welcome.

Some people who help with MCAP shows are doing theater for the first time. Others have been active in community theater for decades. It’s fun to hang out with other theater enthusiasts. It’s fun to learn from the veterans and it’s fun to teach the newbies.

On this Web site, www.brandonsd.com, under the “Fun in Brandon” section of the Community Guide, you will find a list of all the clubs and organizations in Brandon. MCAP is just one of the opportunities to get involved in your town.

Check it out.

The Brandon Tennis Association was one of 14 groups that got money from Operation Roundup recently, and you can thank yourselves for that.

Sioux Valley Energy collects money from its member-customers by rounding up, to the next dollar, their electric bill each month. That rounded-up money goes into an Operation Roundup trust fund. The Brandon Tennis Association got $1,000 of the $10,250 the fund gave away this quarter.

A recent SVE newsletter said 75 percent of the company’s 20,000 customers participate in Operation Roundup. The most anyone would contribute in a month is 99 cents, or $11.88 a year. My guess is the average annual contribute is less than that — say, $6 a year. Just think, if the other 25 percent of the member-customers (5,000) also contributed, an additional $30,000 or so would be available each year.

Think of the extra good that money could do. Maybe your group or organization could apply and get help with some project.

How do you feel about Operation Roundup? If you participate, do you notice the extra few pennies that are on your electric bill each month? If you don’t participate, is there a particular reason why not? Do you belong to a group or organization that has ever received money from the fund? What was it used for?

If you graduated from Brandon Valley, you should check out the school’s alumni Web site. You can register there and post your class reunion news or any news or pictures relating to your graduating class.

You can look for your high school friends from other classes, too, and if they are registered, you can see what they are doing now.

It’s a great way to keep in touch, and a good resource for locating classmates with whom you might have lost touch.

Go to www.brandonvalley.k12.sd.us and look for the “other interests” tab in the bar across the top of the page. Click on it and go down to “alumni.”

Out of the BVHS Class of 1975, I think about 10 percent of us still live in the school district, and a good percentage of us still live in South Dakota. But classmates from anywhere in the world can log on to the alumni site and keep in touch that way.

Give it a try.

This Saturday, District 10 legislators will hold a coffee from 9:30 to 11 a.m. at the Brandon Valley High School commons. This is your chance to ask them about topics that concern you.

For example, a Senate committee just today passed a new version of the state’s campaign finance reporting law. The measure has already passed the House. Do you think the full Senate should pass the newlaw? Should the governor sign it?

And what about the new version of the abortion ban? South Dakota residents have been debating this issue for years. Will you weigh in on Saturday?

How do you feel about the bill to force small school districts to consolidate? Of course Brandon Valley is too big to have to worry about being forced to consolidate, but if the bill becomes law, how will that affect education funding? More specifically, how will it affect funding to Brandon Valley?

There are lots of issues being worked on now. Do Gene Abdallah, Roger Hunt and Shantel Krebs know your thoughts on these issues?

Rats. The construction along Holly Boulevard at The Bluffs is a long line of garages. It’s going to be difficult to drive past them to and from work every day. I don’t mind the countryside being dotted with houses. But those long lines of garages, so close to the road, really block a nice view.

How do you feel about them?

Bergquist Co. will be building this year in the Corson Development Park. Bergquist is family owned and has been in business since 1964. It is based in Chanhassen, Minn.

The company will make thermal materials here. According to the company’s Web site, “Thermal management materials … control and manage heat in electronic assemblies and printed circuit boards (and are used) in various industries including automotive, computer, power supply, military and motor control.”

It is a clean business that will bring about 40 new jobs to Brandon. The school district and city will benefit from the property tax.

Bergquist has facilities in Minnesota, Wisconsin and and Massachusetts. It also has sales offices in seven other countries and sales reps in 30 additional countries.

It looks like a solid company that will be good for Brandon.

Minnehaha County sheriff’s deputies will be trained in emergency response techniques this year, according to a Feb. 12 Argus Leader story. Minnehaha County Sheriff Mike Milstead is quoted in the story as saying the project is designed to enhance, not replace, emergency medical services in Minnehaha County.

Since law enforcement is often on the scene before anyone else, this seems like a sound plan. Deputies will be better trained to determine whether or not an ambulance is necessary. This could free up ambulances that are needed elsewhere. It could save people and their insurance companies money, and that’s good for all of us.

Does this new program influence how you feel about Brandon’s proposed ambulance law?

Brandon is the 12th largest city in South Dakota, by population. It’s been said that by 2025, Brandon will be the third largest.

How do you feel about that? Is Brandon too small, too large or just right? Shall Brandon’s City Council continue to encourage growth, or discourage it? Or just sit back and see what happens on its own?

Brandon’s sales tax income went up 8.5 percent in 2006, so that’s good. It means more money is available for police protection, road maintenance, water quality and other city services. But with city growth, it also means more police are needed, more roads need to be maintained and more water is required.

Because of its population, Brandon has upscale amenities like a performing arts center, golf courses and medical clinics. But gone are the days when you knew most everyone in town. These days, you may not even know your next-door neighbor or the parents of your kids’ friends.

Everything’s a trade-off, I guess. What are your thoughts? If you have lived in Brandon a long time, how do you feel about all the growth? If you moved here from somewhere else, how does Brandon compare?

On Feb. 26, the Brandon Valley school board will consider changing its firing policy for teachers who don’t have tenure.

Right now, the policy is to give the employee a reason he or she is being let go. But the school board wants to update the policy to match state law 13-43-6.3, which requires the superintendent to give written notice that the teacher’s annual contract is not being renewed, “but is not required to give further process or a reason for nonrenewal.”

Superintendent David Pappone said new teachers are on a three-year probationary period at Brandon Valley before they are tenured.

If you want to learn more or voice your opinion, you can attend the next school board meeting, which will be held at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 26, in the middle school library. Or, you can post your opinion on this blog. Or both.

Today is Valentine’s Day. According to the History Channel’s Web site, www.history.com, this is the origin of the holiday:

“There are many opinons as to who was the original Valentine, with the most popular theory that it was a clergyman who was executed for secretly marrying couples in ancient Rome. In any event, in 496 A.D., Pope Gelasius set aside Feb. 14 to honor St. Valentine.”

In any case, the day is now set aside for us to show our sweethearts how much they mean to us.

What special way will your honor your sweetheart? Or, maybe you have a special Valentine’s memory. Maybe today will even be your most special Valentine’s Day.

My daughter and I recently recalled the year we made a Frankenstein Valentine’s box for her school contest. The most convenient box we had at home was a round oatmeal box, which we thought was shaped a lot like Frankenstein’s monster’s head. So we painted it and added lots of gory scars to it and hot glued some strands of black yarn to the top of the head. My daughter didn’t win any prizes for her Valentine’s Day box, but her classmates liked it, especially the boys.

Share your stories here.

According to the Feb. 5 Brandon City Council minutes, the city will hold a public forum on the proposed ambulance ordinance on Wednesday, March 7, at 7 p.m. at the Brandon Municipal Golf Course community room.

You could think of the meeting as an opportunity to learn more about the proposed ordinance, but why not go into the meeting more prepared? Read the ordinance before the meeting and decide ahead of time what questions you would like to ask. The ordinance is available to read here on this blog, and also on the city Web site, www.brandonsd.com. From the main page of the city’s Web site, click on “Legal Notices” in the left-hand column. The .pdf file of the ambulance ordinance, #381, will be at the top of the list that appears. Or just go to http://brandon.govoffice.com/vertical/Sites/{23CB10F0-8C35-4CA4-9AD1-B693F0F58E76}/uploads/{1F0B7A7E-1F2B-4689-9AE1-1735BC970543}.PDF.

I suggest that you think of the meeting as an opportunity to learn more about why the City Council approved the ordinance and why they think residents should vote for it on April 10. How does Ordinance #381 benefit the residents of Brandon? What are the advantages of this ordinance over the one the city now follows, which is the Minnehaha County ordinance? The county ordinance can be found at the county Web site, www.minnehahacountry.org, then, under “Information,” click on “County Ordinances” and then on “Licensing Surface Ambulance Service.” Or just go to http://www.minnehahacounty.org/information/county_ordinances/licensing_surface_ambulance/MC31-021.pdf.

T. Denny Sanford has given $400,000 million to Sioux Valley Hospital, so now the hospital can afford to go nationwide, increase research and build a children’s hospital. And hospital officials are excited about getting started on all the changes.

They even immediately changed the name of the hospital to Sanford. A new sign is out in front already. It still has the familiar heart and chevron, but the name underneath is different.

In a recent Argus Leader story, Andy Wentzy, who works in strategic planning for systems and marketing at Sanford, said signs on the health system’s hospitals, nursing homes, clinics and other holdings will be updated in the next year, “based on traffic counts and such things.”

Boy, I’d hate to be the last clinic to get the new sign. How embarrassing would that be?

I’m going to bet the Sioux Valley clinic in Brandon will be one of the first to get new signs. What do you think?

Most of the changes in the Sanford health system will occur in Sioux Falls in the coming years, but Brandon is close enough that we’ll probably see some changes in our town as well. What changes do you predict, or would like to see?

Greg Carmon won’t be able to put up a new building to wash railcars at his business, Midwest Railcar, north of Corson. The City Council won’t let him hook up to the city sewer system because his business isn’t in the city limits.Darn right.

If the city makes an exception and lets Midwest Railcar hook up to the city sewer system, what’s to stop the next guy from asking, and the next, and the next? Sure, the City Council wouldn’t have to say yes to the next guy, but that just leads to the standard response: “You let the other guy do it. That’s not fair.”

What isn’t fair is letting someone have privileges that are against the rules. The City Council could change the rules. They could make a law that you have to be in the city limits to have access to the city sewer system, except if you’re Midwest Railcar. I suspect that law wouldn’t go over too well with city residents, though.

Or the City Council could make a law that anybody could hook up to the city sewer system, no matter who they are or where they live. I suspect that would cause a lot more problems than it would solve, though.

Or, Mr. Carmon could ask to be brought into the city limits. Of course, he’d have to buy up some land first, because the city can annex land only if it already touches the city limits. And the Midwest Railcar land doesn’t.

I guess the railcars won’t get a good rinsing any time soon.

On Monday, Feb. 5, the city council approved a request from Dan and Kari Elliott to build a residence onto their photography studio at 704 Eighth Ave. But even with the approval, they can’t build. Council member Bob Serk said the arrangement would be in violation of building codes.

Do you think the council made the right decision? Why did they approve the request (on a 3-2 decision) if the Elliott’s building plan didn’t meet code? According to a story in the Brandon Valley Challenger, the couple plans to appeal the building code. Why not just redesign the plan to conform to the code?

The phtoography studio is there because of a conditional use permit in the first place. The land is zoned R-3, which means multi-family dwelling. So the Elliotts got a permit to put a business in a zone meant for apartments and twin homes, and now they want a second permit to put a single-family home there. Should they be allowed?

What do you think?

I saw a snow fort in the front yard of an 8th Street house. Good job. I remember a cool snow fort my brother and I built when we were kids.

I’ve seen other snow sculptures in Brandon over the years. I remember a Mt. Rushmore made out of snow one year. Another year, a snow deer was in someone’s yard.

It’s great that Brandon residents show their artistic side like this. And the snow is free to boot. If you’ve seen any cool snow sculptures in town, let us know. I know I’ll drive over to see it.

Should Roger Hunt say who gave him $750,000 to campaign for an abortion ban in South Dakota?

Roger says that the law says he doesn’t have to say.

But Attorney General Larry Long says that Roger does have to say, so the attorney general is taking Roger to court to make him say.

The court date is set for 1:30 p.m. April 23 at the Minnehaha County Courthouse. Judge Kathleen Caldwell will hear arguments from both sides before deciding whether Roger really has to say or not.

Why do you think Roger Hunt is refusing to say? Do you think he’ll decide to say before the court date, or do you think he’ll continue to refuse to say unless the judge says he has to say?

Any guesses as to who gave the $750,000? Roger says he, or she, is a South Dakota resident. Do you think the person will come forward and reveal his, or her, identity so Roger doesn’t have to say?

I saw these accidents listed in the police log, but it doesn’t say who was in the accidents or if there were any injuries. Both happened on Friday, Feb. 2.

I hope no one got hurt. Do you know anything about these accidents? If so, let us know.

- Two-vehicle accident at Ash Street and North Splitrock Boulevard with damages totalling about $8,010.

- Two-vehicle accident at Sandstone Avenue and West Holly Boulevard with damages totalling about $6,000.

If you’re hungry as a bear on Saturday, go down to the VFW and partake in mass quantities of wild game. Social hour begins at 5 p.m. with dinner at 6 p.m.

It’s for a good cause — the Ed Polzine Memorial Cancer Fund. This fund gives money to young people in the Brandon area who have cancer. The fund is named after Ed Polzine, who died in 1999 of cancer. (Don’t smoke.) Ed always liked kids, and I know he would be very happy to know that this fund is helping kids have better lives.

If you know of a young person in the Brandon area who has cancer and needs money, equipment or anything else, you can let Tom Johnson know at 366-7596.