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Hello all.. I have a few questions i hope some of you can help with.. Some may be dumb lol but i will ask anyways.. I live in Ely MN.. a tourist town that closes down in winter pretty much the moose walk through our 3 blocks of down town .. its beautiful here and i fell in love with the videos from Custer, i want to make the move next summer .
I wrote the chamber of com and they were not really that helpful..
1.. are their places to rent there, places like where i can have chickens that is..
2.. are their job there, in fast food/ find dinning sort of thing..
3 .. what is the min wage there?
4 ...Where do i go to see what is for rent or lease..
5..Are their any places to rent out side of the city?
6.. Are food prices about the same there as most places?
7..what are the elec places there and internet places..
8.. is the elec costly?
9..Is there places to use quads?
ok i am sure there will be more questions as i go, thank you so much for any info you all can give me..
I can answer some of your questions, as I am a recent transplant to Custer. See responses in red...
Quote:
Originally Posted by macebreaker
Hello all.. I have a few questions i hope some of you can help with.. Some may be dumb lol but i will ask anyways.. I live in Ely MN.. a tourist town that closes down in winter pretty much the moose walk through our 3 blocks of down town .. its beautiful here and i fell in love with the videos from Custer, i want to make the move next summer .
I wrote the chamber of com and they were not really that helpful..
1.. are their places to rent there, places like where i can have chickens that is.. There are places to rent, but not an abundance. Whether or not you could have chickens would be between you and the land lord and the city regulations...
2.. are their job there, in fast food/ find dinning sort of thing.. Custer is similar to where you are in that it is a tourist town. A good portion of the employment here is seasonal. There is a Dairy Queen, a Subway, a Pizza Hut and a Quiznos for fast food. There are an assortment of local restaurants and bars. Many of them close down before Thanksgiving and stay that way until April or May.
3 .. what is the min wage there? Minimum wage here is the same as it is all across the country. If you are asking what the lowest pay here is, I would guess that it is somewhere in the $4-5/hour for waitstaff, plus tips. Otherwise, $7.25 an hour it is!
4 ...Where do i go to see what is for rent or lease.. There is a local paper called the Custer Chronicle that has ads in it, but I would recommend checking with the realtor's hereabouts. They will likely know a good amount about who rents what property, and sometimes it's just a matter of knowing someone. This is a very small community.
5..Are their any places to rent out side of the city? Again, there are some. Sometimes, it's just a matter of luck in finding them. We rent outside the city, but that was because someone I work with knew someone...
6.. Are food prices about the same there as most places? No. Grocery prices here are high compared to the national average. Custer is about 50 miles from the nearest sizable community, and prices for groceries are high in the Hills. A gallon of milk averages $5 at the grocery (I buy milk at the convenience store @ 2 for $7 if I have to get it before I go to town again). Produce prices are usually through the roof, and the quality can be iffy. I only buy what I absolutely have to in Custer. Otherwise, we make about two trips to Rapid City a month for groceries. Then, you have to factor in the cost of gas to get there and back.
7..what are the elec places there and internet places.. If you are in Custer, Black Hills Power will be your electric company. Outside of town, there is an electric co-op. Don't know who the gas company is, but I am guessing it's all either fuel oil or propane, as I never see MDU trucks here. The only internet provider in the area is Goldenwest, who also offers landline service and cable in town. If you are outside of town, you will have Goldenwest for internet and phone (chances are, you won't get cell service at home if you are outside of town, or if you do, it will be spotty), but Dish or DirectTV for cable. Otherwise, you will have to get your tv programming online.
8.. is the elec costly? We run 100% electric, and it can be as much as $150 a month for a place that is less than 1000 square feet, so I wouldn't call it cheap.
9..Is there places to use quads? There are a number of designated trails for reccreational vehicles, and a lot of folks use them on the roads around here. Someone else can give you the details as to what the licensing and insurance requirements are for that sort of thing. All I can tell you is stick to designated roads and trails, or expect to pay a hefty fine!
ok i am sure there will be more questions as i go, thank you so much for any info you all can give me..
Best of luck to you. Custer living isn't for everyone...otherwise everyone would live here, but that goes for much of South Dakota! Feel free to ask questions, but have a look around the forum, too. A lot of your questions will be answered readily by reading some of the other posters' questions!
4 wheelers and quads can be licensed and driven on highways, county roads, in town, etc... and of course on trails. NOT on the INTERSTATE. There are laws on how to safely and sanely use trails. You can not be more than so many feet off the trails, you have to run particular tires (flotation - standard ATV tires). The reason I mention the tires is I had rims made so that I could run standard 14 inch car tires. Great for the paved roads, but not legal on trails. It is well worth licensing your 4 wheelers as not all trails connect. haha What I mean is, you'll come down off a trail to the highway and the trail does not continue straight across the road, you have to go down a quarter mile and then take the trail. As such, you have to travel down the highway for a ways and it's best to be licensed. I believe there is also a 4 wheeler permit for trails. If I remember correctly it's something like $15 a year and it pays for trail repair and trail markings and such. Great use of the money. License and registration and insurance is much the same as a motorcycle. Pretty easy to obtain and relatively inexpensive. Please, somebody correct me if I got any of that wrong. I live in Wyoming and my cousins all live in the Black Hills. We have compared notes on the differences of the laws between the two states and there is not a lot of difference.
Custer is a small town in an excellent location in the Black Hills. If you are into the outdoors, camping, hiking, horseback riding, fishing, hunting, etc, you would be hard pressed to find a nicer area. Personally I would rather be in Hill City, but that's just me. I grew up in the Black Hills right along Highway 44 about 4 miles from the 385 junction.
You can find out a lot of information by visiting another part of City Data that will give you the demographics of Custer. These files may be a couple years old so some of the data may be dated but most of it should be real close to what it is. You can find that HERE . On that page you can select towns over 6000, 1000 to 6000 and under 1000. Once you select what you want it will give you a list of those tows along with location on a map on the right.
Or, you can look at the top of the page where it says "CITY-DATA.COM" and click on it and it will take you to the same place.
The Black Hills are kind of the Banana belt of South Dakota. Much better climate than the rest of the state. But that doesn't keep from getting -20 a few times in the winter and getting 8-10 inches of snow on the ground. The Black Hills does a real good job of keeping the roads plowed and you won't have a lot of problems getting around all winter.
So ask your questions, as they say the only dumb question is the one you didn't ask. There are a great bunch of folks here on the forum that love the hills and can answer all the questions you might have. Good luck and Welcome to the Forum.
Thank you.. where i live now, everything closes for winter.. we travel to find a kmart or wally world 2.5 hours.. We have no fast food places but subway and dairy queen.. other wise its all out fitters for the BWCA.. our summers are mild 75 but our winters can be 60 below 0 this far north.. there are no roads above us we are the end of the road .. So we are used to being in a tourist town and dealing with that..I fell in love watching the videos for Custer.. was thinking of Rapid city, things might be cheaper there for rent since it is bigger and open year around..
I do understand when renting having chickens is between landlord and renter.. i think i was asking that are their places there that you can have chickens, small hobby farm like.. pleases to rent like that..
thank you both for yoru wonderful posts back , and thank you for taking the time to
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