Water could still be seen standing in Freeman Tuesday afternoon following another rain that moved across the area on Monday and into the overnight hours of Tuesday. The latest rainfall dropped more than in inch in town, contributing to what has been a wet recent week.

JEREMY WALTNER  - PUBLISHER In the same way he was when he played basketball for Freeman High School nearly 50 years ago, Bob Pidde will be in the limelight this Saturday, Aug. 28 when he is formally inducted into the South Dakota High School Basketball Hall of Fame. Pidde is one of 13 men and women who make up the Hall of Fame’s Class of 2020; the induction ceremony scheduled for last year was postponed following the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

JEREMY WALTNER - PUBLISHER Meeting in regular session Tuesday, Aug. 17, the Freeman City Council unanimously signed off on a Resolution 2021-07, which supports Dakota Protein Solutions and its plans to build a “protein and related products” processing facility one mile east/southeast of Freeman on the location that currently serves as home to Dakota Rendering.

  JEREMY WALTNER  - PUBLISHER John Kneifl doesn’t have near the experience cooking ribs as he does fighting fires. Whereas he’s been with the fire department in New Castle, Neb. for 33 years and currently serves as chief, he’s only been smoking ribs for the past two years, a process he says he’s been been trying to improve upon. He’s either a quick study or downright lucky. It’s probably a little bit of both.

JEREMY WALTNER  - PUBLISHER An hour-and-45-minutes. That’s how much time it took for 450 racks of ribs, 24 brisket, six pork butts and a couple hundred hot dogs to disappear at last year’s Freeman Volunteer Fire Department Firehouse Rib Cook-Off held at the Swimming Pool Park. “That’s a ton of food gone in a short period of time,” said Chad Soulek, founder and chief organizer of the event that will return this Saturday, Aug. 14 for the eighth time in as many years. “That was crazy.”

JEREMY WALTNER - PUBLISHER When students from Freeman Public and Menno return to school for another term next week, it will be business as usual. Classes begin at both districts Wednesday, Aug. 18; while it will be a full day in Menno, Freeman Public will dismiss at 1 p.m. Freeman Academy will begin the 2021-22 school year on Wednesday, Aug. 25.

Bob Pidde is finally getting his chance at recognition as the newest inductee into South Dakota High School Basketball Hall of Fame. The former Freeman standout who went on to play at South Dakota State University was originally to be inducted into the hall of fame in 2020, but the ceremony was postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

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