Greetings (Sioux Falls, Rapid City, Mitchell: apartments, lease, health insurance)

[Topper]

My wife and I are in the "talking about" stages of making a possible move to SD. We visited there back in 2004 and were stunned by the beauty and the air quality. So my questions are many....
1. I'm a printer by trade. Working mainly in sheetfed offset printing doing 4 color work. Where are my best bet for finding employment in SD? In Mass I make just about 50K a year. My wife does housekeeping in a Masonic nursing home. She's making about 20K per year. Can we possibly maintain this income level in SD?
2. I ride motorcycles.... When does it start gettting abouv 50 degrees on average during the day?
3. I like the Sturgis,Spearfish,Lead, Deadwood area. Can I get a nice well maintained or new construction home for $150 to $175K that has a little land with it? (2 to 5 acres)
4. Will it be possible for me to get a printing job in the Sturgis area in printing? I have sold tractor parts and farming equip
ment in the past so I could probably revert to that.
5. Who are the major (besides blue cross) health insurance prividers in SD?
Ok well that's enough for now... I'll check back in a day or two and hope that there might be some kind soul that will be willing to give me a little more detailed info. Thank you

Sincerely
Jim Daubney.

[Jammie]

Hi Jim, hopefully I can help you with a few of your questions. The largest city in So. Dak. is Sioux FAlls with a population of about 135,000. (Not sure, it's grown quickly.) It is also the city with the best employment opportunities and the highest pay rates. It is in southeastern SD. It sounds like you're really interested in the Hills area. It is absolutely beautiful out there. Employment opportunities for you and your wife would be easier to come by in Rapid City since it is the second largest city in the state. A lot of the smaller towns have very few available jobs in your area of expertise. Your wife may be luckier because hospitals and nursing homes are always looking for good employees. Housing has gone up dramatically the last few years, but you'll find it's probably some of the cheapest housing in the nation. As an example, I live in Mitchell and you can find a very nice house for $100,000. You may want to check out realtor.com. Do a search on a few different SD towns and see what you come up with. Also, you may want to read the Sioux Falls Argus Leader online to get an idea about the jobs of housing or apartments. If you're more interested in the Hills, you could read the Rapid City Journal. I'm sorry, but I'm not familiar with the pay scales in your line of work, but your wife should be able to make about the same wage here as she's making now. If I've left anything out or you have more questions, I'd be happy to try to help. Have a great day!!!

Oh and about insurance, Blue Cross is probably the major carrier here. We have very few good insurance companies because there was a battle between our state government and insurance carriers a few years ago. Your best bet would be if you can get insurance through your employer. Again, not sure about your future employer, but all the hospitals and nursing homes provide their employees and families with the opportunity to have health coverage.

[Topper]

We drove through Souix Falls, and Mitchell, (stayed at a motel with a big buffalo in front ) and Chamberlain! I really liked the Black Hills area. We really are in the early stages of looking to make a move. Thank you so much for pointing me in the right direction as far as papers and such to look for employment. Our basic plan would be to lease our home here in Mass for a year to our son. If things don't work out then we can always move back. Lead seamed like a good sized town/small city. Do you know the name of the local paper there?

thanks again
Jim Daubney

[Jammie]

I'm so glad you are familiar with the area. The motel you stayed at in Mitchell is a few blocks from where I live. They have since moved the buffalo, torn down the motel and built a Walgreens Store there. They have built a couple of new motels just south of there. They've added so many stores south of there and the Hampton Inn and Kelly Inn have been built out there, too.

I wish you could see Sioux Falls now. They have a new path called the Phillips to the Falls. They've taken Phillips Ave. and beautified all the shops there and have planted flowers all along the route. They have a nice waterfall there and you can walk to Falls Park, which they've added so much to also. Sioux Falls is a bit too large and populated for us, but we love visiting there.

The only papers that I know of in the Hills are the Rapid City Journal and the Black Hills Pioneer. I'm not sure if all the smaller towns have their own papers or if it's sort of combined. I work at the Tech Center here and we have the Rapid paper there and I'll check today to see if they have any info on there for the smaller towns. If I find something, I'll post back to you tonight. Have a great day and best of luck with your plans.

[Supersport396p]

I've been doing some reading about Rapid City, SD and it seems to say it is a nice moderate size city and is a nice place to live.
I have also been told it is in the so-called banana belt where the weather is a bit more moderate.....true?
I am a graduate of the Univ. of Wyoming in Laramie. Is the weather similar in Rapid City (if one knows)?
I would appreciate any information you can provide.
Thanks.

[Jammie]

Climatology Comparison for Rapid City, SD - weather.com

I like to use this for weather comparisons. It looks like Rapid is warmer then Laramie for both highs and lows. Yes, it's in the "banana belt". Actually, as you probably know, it does get pretty cold there, but I guess for the region the temps are considered to be quite mild. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'd guess you don't have a lot of humidity in Laramie~neither does Rapid.

[AZheat]

Topper - South Dakota's Most Comprehensive Health Insurance Network is another place to shop for health ins.

Jammie - can you elaborate on the "fight" between insurance companies and the state legislature?

Thanks.

[Jammie]

Originally Posted by AZheat

Topper - South Dakota's Most Comprehensive Health Insurance Network is another place to shop for health ins.

Jammie - can you elaborate on the "fight" between insurance companies and the state legislature?

Thanks.

Not really. Are you talking about currently? I know that when Gov. Janklow was still in office there was a feud and a lot of companies ended up leaving the state, but I really don't know what that was about either. Coverage was pretty limited here for a while, but it seems you see more advertising from health insurance companies recently.