“A good ol’ boy and a pretty little girl
Start all over in a little bitty world
Little bitty plan and a little bitty dream
It’s all part of a little bitty scheme”
“Little Bitty” — Alan Jackson

The first single off Alan Jackson’s fifth studio album, Everything I Love, “Little Bitty” was a big hit for Jackson in 1996, reaching the top spot in the country charts and even crossing over to the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, peaking at No. 58. The album has been certified platinum three times over with the single also reaching platinum status.

The song focuses on finding joy in the little things of life, and it is a great example of the lyrical word play that exemplified songwriter Tom Hall’s writing.

Hall actually had been retired for roughly a decade before this album, which came out nearly thirty years after Hall’s biggest songwriting success to that point, “Harper Valley PTA,” recorded by Jeannie C. Riley in 1968.

As I head toward some much-needed family time over the next week, I thought it was appropriate to do a quick-hit piece on a few topics rather than digging in deep on any one topic.

Little Bitty 1: No more social Noem.

S.D. Governor Kristi Noem abruptly left social media on Monday, without explanation. Her political accounts on Facebook, Instragram, and Twitter/X were all deleted, with each having hundreds of thousands of followers that were left in the lurch.

Noem’s YouTube page is still active and her personal social media accounts are still active as well. A new Twitter/X account was created a month ago and only has a few hundred followers, but that’s where Noem spokesman Ian Fury pointed reporters who asked about the sudden and drastic deletion of social media accounts to look for official information, while not answering any of the “Why?” questions about the account deletions.

Seems odd that a governor who loves getting on camera and in front of a loudspeaker has suddenly gone social media quiet.

Apparently, backlash from stories in her recent book about killing a dog and lying about meeting foreign leaders didn’t bring her the vitriol to push her into social media hiding, but criticism over leaving her state’s residents abandoned during recent flooding was enough that she wanted to hide.

Little Bitty 2: Understanding laws and ordinances.
Social media was flooded over the last week by people in town complaining about others in town who were exploding fireworks within city limits. Many asked why the Huron Police Department was not doing anything about it - except that they were.

The city’s ordinance requires that violations are witnessed committing the act, which is rarely something an officer encounters. Beyond that, it’s an ordinance violation, not a criminal violation, which means it’s a minor fine that really costs the city as much to utilize the city attorney to prosecute violators as it brings in from those fines - not to mention the Huron Police Department’s time tracking down violators.

The main issue really is the mess that’s left - something that was a major issue at Ravine Lake last week. Again, there were plenty who saw photos of the trash left strewn around the lake after the fireworks show on the Fourth and wanted to charge someone with a violation…which also would have been an ordinance violation.

In all seriousness, an enterprising person could really establish a strong customer base in the upper Midwest by orchestrating drone faux-fireworks shows.

Drone shows have been shown to be incredibly eye-catching and they also don’t contain the explosions that often frighten veterans with PTSD, young children, and pets.

Luckily, the fireworks in town didn’t result in one of the dozens of major fires that swept through neighborhoods throughout the country because someone was lighting off fireworks within a residential neighborhood and ended up destroying multiple homes…and that’s, of course, something that drones wouldn’t do either.

The confusion about city ordinances also opens up a question about this November’s ballot.

There will be at least six ballot measures for voters to decide upon on this year’s ballot. To put it bluntly, it’s hard to believe that the average voter will have dedicated time beyond the advertisements that they see on television, online, and in print ads about each measure. To that end, you’ll see explanations in this space of each of the proposed measures over the next few months, hopefully encouraging you to dig in further on each one to be better informed as you head to the polls.

Little Bitty 3: cleaning up town.
Sitting every week in the Huron City Commission meetings, the idea of a citywide cleanup has been broached many times over the years.

Various different routes have been taken to encourage people to clean yards and remove debris from yards, whether it’s been curbside pickup, free limitless access to the dump site for a certain amount of time, or even going the route of enforcing ordinances on those who do not comply with upkeep of property (though see the first item to see how often those ordinance violation procedures cost the city as much or more as they cost the violator).

This time, however, the city has put together a plan that really could work. How, you may ask? Offering money!

As part of the cleanup projects taking place across the city in July and August, the Huron Chamber & Visitors Bureau will be sponsoring four $100 Huron Bucks prizes to those who email in before and after pictures of their yard during cleanup to cvb@huronsd.com.

The intention behind the timing isn’t to get everyone out into the mosquitos to build up immunity, it’s to get cleanup completed before Huron begins to see an influx of visitors at the end of August for the 2024 South Dakota State Fair. Having some extra cash to spend while getting your yard looking better sure seems like a win-win!