relocating to small town SD (Mitchell, Alexandria: crime, houses, dorms)

[thoeneash]

We live in Nebraska and are thinking about moving to South Dakota, if anyone could tell me about Alexandria and the area around it I would appreciate it. We are looking to relocate close to Alexandria, we would prefer around 5 acres in the country. We prefer a smaller town atmosphere. We have 2 small children and are interested in the school system around the area. Do they have a bus system? We don't have to worry about a job for my husband, but I am nurse. I'm not worried about driving up to 20 miles, as I now drive 14 miles to get to my job. How is the crime rate? Are there many younger couples or small children in the area? If anyone could give any info I would greatly appreciate it.

[Jammie]

Originally Posted by thoeneash

We live in Nebraska and are thinking about moving to South Dakota, if anyone could tell me about Alexandria and the area around it I would appreciate it. We are looking to relocate close to Alexandria, we would prefer around 5 acres in the country. We prefer a smaller town atmosphere. We have 2 small children and are interested in the school system around the area. Do they have a bus system? We don't have to worry about a job for my husband, but I am nurse. I'm not worried about driving up to 20 miles, as I now drive 14 miles to get to my job. How is the crime rate? Are there many younger couples or small children in the area? If anyone could give any info I would greatly appreciate it.

Hi Thoe and welcome to the forum. We used to live in Alex so hopefully I can give you a bit of info on it. It's a friendly little town and there have been a lot of new people that have moved in there within the past 15 years. The population is still in the area of 500 since the older folks have passed on now. It's a very welcoming little town and people take pride in their lawns and gardens and flowers. Several of the people over there still can from their gardens and do a lot of old fashioned things. They have a volunteer fire department and do a very good job. The grocery store had changed hands a couple of times and ended up closing. As far as I know, it's still closed.

The school system there is very good. It's also a sports town, basketball being the king there. They were a force to be reckoned with back in the 80s. During that time, the football team was very poor and it was nearly abandoned, but local football fans made noise so it was kept. The past several years they've done remarkably well. (I'm not a sports fan, but did attend a lot of games years ago) And yes, they have a bus system.

They have three small churches~the largest being the Catholic Church, then the Lutheran, and then the Methodist.

You probably already know that the nearest town is Mitchell. That's where you'd probably want to work. We have the Avera Queen of Peace Hospital here now. We used to have the St. Joseph Hospital and the Methodist Hospital, but about 15 years ago they closed Methodist and it was turned into a jail. Avera is now at the location that St. Joe was in. We also have Firesteel Nursing Home and Brady Nursing Home. The closest for you would be either the hospital or Firesteel. They're right across the street from each other and are on the eastern side of Mitchell. Mitchell would probably be your shopping and entertainment town. Our population is just under 15,000.

Since you live in Neb., I won't warn you about the cold winters and icy roads and snowstorms. I personally am not a winter person and didn't like driving over here to work. You would easily be able to take I-90 back and forth to work.

There used to be a lot of areas with small acreages right outside of Alex so hopefully you could find something fairly reasonable. Housing took a huge jump over there the past 20 years, but it's still quite affordable.

If you have any more questions or need phone numbers for employment, let me know and I can PM you with that info.

[ElkHunter]

Jammie,

I read your post and one line caught my funny bone. Now I'm setting here still chuckling.

Only in South Dakota, would they take a hospital and turn it into a jail.

[Jammie]

Originally Posted by jgussler

Jammie,

I read your post and one line caught my funny bone. Now I'm setting here still chuckling.

Only in South Dakota, would they take a hospital and turn it into a jail.

Hey, I never thought about that! It is a bit turned around, isn't it?

[ElkHunter]

Originally Posted by Jammie

Hey, I never thought about that! It is a bit turned around, isn't it?

When I was in the service, I was stationed in San Diego. Due to base closures, NTC (Naval Training Center) was being closed down. Immediately the city was saying, "Give it to us, we need it, please please please please." Seems the city wanted to turn it into a minimum security prison.

Well, it's located on Point Loma. The houses across the street sell for 2 and 3 million dollars. So you can imagine the rumble that went up. haha

They bounced this around for a year trying to think what to do with it. Normally, the Navy trades something like that for barren land that the Navy can use but nobody else wants.

So I sat down and wrote a letter to the editor and said, "Why don't you contact The University of California, San Diego and see if they want it. They're already cramped where they're at. This base has barracks, can turn them into dorms. The barracks are 4 story, each room has it's own bathroom. It has lots of buildings set up as classrooms. It has a rec center, complete with bowling alley and football field and track field. It has lots of maintenance buildings that can be used for automotive classes and such. Lot's of admin buildings. Everything the college could need was right there. Plus, there's a very large fence all the way around the base. It's a secure base. Think they did it?

No. They sold this building to this outfit. The building next to it to this other outfit. And so on. It would have made a wonderful college or University campus.

[thoeneash]

Thanks Jammie for all the info, I may ask more in the near future. And glad to hear that an old hospital could be put to such good use!