Mark Robish

On Wednesday, Feb. 5, I had the privilege of visiting the state capital for Municipal Day. What a day it turned out to be! I will say that the timing was perfect. With the happenings of Tuesday afternoon/evening, it just made Wednesday a “Huron Day.”

It started early with the bill pertaining to the State Library funding. Our librarian Angela Bailey was there in person and testified along with several others. The committee unanimously passed wording to reject the bill and move to the next step. As usual, there was a lot of necessary attention on education with school officials there from many of our school districts, as well as several of the universities.

I was very pleased to have our hometown legislators, Rep. Kevin Van Diepen and Sen. David Wheeler, as well as Rep. Kent Roe and Sen. Stephanie Sauder from District 4 take me under their care and host me for the day.

The first person we ran into, seriously by chance, was Rep. Phil Jensen from Rapid City. Rep. Van Diepen introduced me to him as the mayor of Huron, and he picked up his pace away from us immediately. I requested a conversation with him, but he was not interested.

Personally, I believe he was uncomfortable, rightfully so, as by this time, he had been dismissed from the education committee meeting. He had meetings also with state officials and Huron School District Superintendent Dr. Kraig Steinhoff.

Throughout the day, I was introduced to several people; I apologize, I will not remember all of their names. It was great to see our State Treasurer, Josh Haeder, and I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation in his office and for his ongoing leadership.

I will say that the support for Huron was overwhelming from absolutely each person I talked to. Everyone, including our representatives, senators, higher officials, and the general public in attendance were outraged by the unsolicited target on our backs that we received. Nearly everyone apologized for the accusations that we experienced the night before.

I am writing here to proudly say and to let you know that the winner in this will be Huron.

Rep. Jensen highlighted us, and what we need to do is make sure we show our true Huron price, not with retaliation or hate, but with the strength and integrity that everyone else saw through this negative publicity. I am proud of the way that our city has responded to this, and for that, I say THANK YOU! I cannot express how much support there was this week for Huron and what we stand for in this town. You all should be very proud! All the comments and concerns we have moving forward will be looked at through lots of eyes and with many thoughts. Please use careful thought and consideration when expressing opinions and support.

Thank you for allowing me to help represent Huron on Wednesday and for everything each and every one of you do for our community. Together, WE ARE HURON.

Mark Robish
Huron Mayor