CASTLEWOOD, S.D. (KELO) — While there are plenty of amenities in the bigger cities of South Dakota, the smaller towns are doing what they can to be competitive places to settle down.
Just south of Watertown, you will find the city of Castlewood. While many people drive to Watertown for things like work, shopping and exercise, community leaders are trying to keep people in town. In 2018, residents took a survey, to say what they wanted to see in Castlewood.
“There were three amenities identified, the first one being a wellness center, and that was to include both a fitness and maybe a basic medical facility area. The second amenity was a regulation sized football field, and the third one was the splash park,” Castlewood Community Foundation, Lois Wiarda said.
Crews broke ground for the wellness center on June 29th, and hope to open it by next spring, offering different ways for people in the community to workout.
“Probably about 18 to 20 different machines, everything from treadmills to rowing machine or something, or and the different type of weights to work with both machines and then free weights section for weightlifters. You know, if kids want to come down here and work out, there’s plenty of space for that,” Grow Castlewood Wellness Committee, Richard Wiarda said.
The town has raised $780,000, but is still trying to come up with $50,000 more.
“So not using any city funds to build the building or to get it started. So it’s all based off donations. So that just tells us that the people want it. They want to stay here, live here, work out here, things like that,” Castlewood Mayor Brian Ries said.
People in Castlewood are excited to have a fitness center in their hometown.
“Watertown’s only 20 miles away. It’s not that far, but it’s still an effort to keep going. And I think it’s just going to be so nice to have something just a few blocks away and maybe more available,” Castlewood Resident, Karen Schooley said.
Over in Bryant, community leaders are also working to enhance the area. They too started off by asking people in the community what they wanted to see.
“The park, and picnic pavilion, and the walking path were the top three choices that people said they wanted improvement on the town of Bryant,” Bryant Up & Coming, Krista Prouty said.
“The last piece of equipment that was put in this park was mid nineties and that was not a commercial grade piece of equipment,” Bryant Mayor Win Noem said.
The playground equipment is going to be installed in the upcoming months.
“We’ll have a couple different structures with slides, we’ll have swings and other things for the kids to crawl and play on. But we’re actually going to have an 80 foot zipline as well, which is something that’s pretty unique to Bryant,” Prouty said.
But they still need help fundraising for the next two phases of their project.
“Phase two is shade structure. So that’ll be shade pods. And then this picnic pavilion that we’re wanting your help with the Kubota Hometown Proud Grant. And then phase three is a walking path around the whole entire park,” Prouty said.
The project’s creating buzz in Bryant.
“I have many grandchildren, many others in town have many grandchildren. And I think it’ll be a project that will benefit for years to come,” Bryant Resident, Doug Wendling said.
Whether it’s in Bryant or Castlewood, both mayors are excited for what this means for the smaller communities.
“It’s important to the whole area that small communities support small communities. So it’ll be a big deal for an area much larger than just Bryant,” Noem said.
“You’re always competing with other towns to get people to want to move here or stay here. And as close as we are to Watertown, we’re always trying to find ways to keep people here, whether it’s work here, go to school here, live here, eat here, shop here and now, work out here,” Castlewood Mayor Brian Ries said.
Click here for more information on the Castlewood wellness center.
Click here for more information on the Bryant park and grant.
