Sesquicentennial Celebration - 150 Years August 6-9, 2009

Plans for 2009

The 150th Anniversary of the Founding
In March of 2005 Ted Muenster contacted Mayor Dan Christopherson to alert him of the upcoming Sesquicentennial in 2009. Newspaper articles and a letter to the editor from the mayor invited interested citizens to volunteer to serve on the Vermillion Sesquicentennial Task Force. Twenty-eight citizens responded and most attended the initial meeting of the group on September 15, 2005 at the Vermillion Public Library.

An executive committee was appointed by the mayor to guide the Sesquicentennial process with the following members: Gloria Barnes, general project chair; Cleo Erickson, Joe Reedy, Kevin Jacobson and Mayor Dan Christopherson. The executive committee met approximately every other month from November 2005 to February 2007, when Kevin Jacobson resigned for family reasons.

During his tenure, Kevin was a very active and involved executive committee member, having organized and managed the Sesquicentennial Logo contest in Vermillion's public and private schools. Various age groups were used to give everyone an equal chance to participate.

The winning entry was submitted by Erin Hesla, a graduating senior at Vermillion High School, in May 2006. Fine tuning on the logo was accomplished with Erin working with Paulette Mehrer-Wipf, a professional designer at Pressing Matters Printing.

The executive committee approved the appointment of former Mayor Roger Kozak to replace Jacobson in March 2007. The executive committee continues to meet at least every other month and more often if needed to keep the planning process proceeding on schedule.

Sesquicentennial Logo
The logo was officially unveiled to the city council on August 21, 2006.

Sesquicentennial Website
This project has launched and will be completed soon.

Sesquicentennial Calendar
Lindy Wipf and Susan Stach have volunteered to work on this project with Tom Thaden. The 18 month calendar should be finished in 2008 to start offering them to the public. IN PROGRESS

History Documentation
Joe Reedy and Cleo Erickson are co-chairs for this project. Volunteers are Nancy Carlson, Mayor Dan Christopherson, Honorable Judge Arthur Rusch, Tom Thaden, Jan Small and Curt Hackemer with his USD History Graduate students.

The Clay County Historical Society has offered to underwrite the publishing of the first book, a pictorial history book.

A second book is planned to be published covering city government and important events in Vermillion/Clay County.

The Mayors of Vermillion from 1877 to 2009 project is being coordinated by current Mayor Dan Christopherson. Twenty eight photos of former mayors, owned by the City of Vermillion, are currently being preserved by the USD Archives under the direction of Sarah Hanson. Mark Derby is also working on a Mayors of Vermillion project for the WH Over Museum.

Other histories of various departments and services in City government are available and encouraged to be worked on by interested citizens.

City Flag Design Contest
Contact Alderman Kent Osborne (kent@techradio.us) for more details.

The Vermillion City Council encourages all Vermillion residents to support and participate in the Vermillion Flag Design Contest, a community-wide effort sponsored by the City of Vermillion.

The overall objective of the flag design contest is to create - for the first time in our almost 150-year history - a Flag of Vermillion. This flag, a new and unique symbol for Vermillion, will establish Vermillion within South Dakota, and be a source of pride and identity for our citizens.

The specific objectives of the contest are:

(1) To organize and open competition composed of several stages leading to a final grand-prize stage;

(2) To have all entries fairly judged by a Flag Design Evaluation Panel with members appointed from Vermillion;

(3) To select, recognize, and reward individual stage winners, runners-up, and the finalist;

(4) To select a winning design no later than 15 August 2008, thus allowing time for the manufacture of flag-bearing articles;

(5) To formally dedicate the new Vermillion flag in the year of our Sesquicentennial, 2009.