By Rep. Leslie Heinemann
As I mentioned in last week’s column, we were fortunate to have a budget reserve from Fiscal Year ‘12 as well as ‘13, so thus the reason for the end of the session discussions on where to place the one time funds. The estimates came in at about $26 million in December,  but by the time we were finishing up more than three months later, the projections  had grown to a little over $30 million. We used about $14 million to add to various education programs, and it wasn’t until the last few days that the expansion of the cyber security program at Dakota State University came up for consideration.
The proposal was to expand the tenure track computer science faculty by two the first year, while adding 10 additional students to the program. Then the next two years the program would add a faculty member each year, while adding additional students to the program to bring the total expansion to 56 new computer science/cyber security majors. Dr. Borofsky, as well as your delegation from District 8, testified at the House Appropriations Committee to allocate $900,000 with one time money to fund this program.
Many of you know the importance of cyber security, and it’s a growing challenge for not only our military, banks and credit card companies, but health care records, e-mail and a variety of other areas. DSU is considered one of the top four universities nationwide that offers  a major in this area, and there are companies as well as our military that need more trained graduates, as the demand is greater than the supply. I contract with Infotech Systems in Madison to provide my dental office records security, and that company is a great example of the results of the computer science program at DSU. We need to support and grow that niche at DSU, and this one time money would accomplish that goal.
It was not an easy “sell,” as many other worthwhile demands came into play; Medicaid expansion, K-12  education, Board of Regents higher education, etc.  My House caucus only wanted to support one year since this was one time money, but I convinced the 53 members that you couldn’t recruit two PhD faculty from a nationwide pool with only a one year guarantee, and with the addition of 56 students in that major, the program would be self-sustaining by the fourth year. Thanks to a combined effort from your District 8 delegation, the final appropriations bill included the full proposed program.
We look forward to the implementation of the expanded program, and wish Dr. Borofsky the best in the mechanics of making a great program even better. I also wish him the best in his inauguration to officially take over as President of DSU.
Congratulations go out to the Madison High School  boys basketball team for winning the State Championship! What a great season!
I hope to provide you with some different topics this upcoming year. I will most likely be appointed to a couple summer study committees and will provide some insight into what I believe would be interesting issues. Thank you again for the opportunity to serve the people of District 8.

By Katie Hunhoff
“A timid salesman has skinny kids,” quipped a sales consultant at a recent business meeting in Sioux Falls.
That may be especially true for salesmen in sparsely populated South Dakota, where you can literally run out of prospects and even restaurants. So the smart traveling salesman of the prairie makes the most of every day, every town, every mile.
And the experienced salesman knows the advantages of starting the day right, with a tasty breakfast enjoyed in a place where the locals meet — so we asked a few road veterans to share their favorite breakfast establishment as a travel tip for the rest of us.
JOIE’S CAFE  — Winner
Although Wayne Hopkins of Brookings sells electrical and air conditioning parts for Nielsen’s in a four state area, he chose a restaurant in his home town of

Sparky’s owner is Ryan Maher, a young entrepreneur and state senator.

Winner.  “In the winter I’d go into the cafe, just a block from my school, to have a hot chocolate and warm up. It still looks the same as I remember it 30 years ago,” Hopkins says. His favorite item is the breakfast burrito.
Brock Green succeeded his father-in-law at Joie’s years ago. Special recipes for biscuits and gravy and made-from-scratch pancakes haven’t changed. He even has his own specialty sausage, made just for Joie’s at the local Super Duper Store.
The 140-seat Main Street cafe is a Winner mainstay that was called Sargent’s when Hopkins was growing up. Visitors are welcome to sit at the businessman’s roundtable, where locals shoot dice to see who picks up the noon tab. But be careful. “Usually it’s the new guy or the guy who only had soup that gets nailed,” laughs Green. Call 842-3788.
ALASKA CAFE — Lemmon
Lemmon is South Dakota’s northernmost city, but it’s still a far cry from the tundra so travelers are surprised to see the Alaska Cafe sign on Highway 12 and they often stop to pose for pictures.
Inside, they get an even better taste of the Land of the Midnight Sun. Pictures of grizzly bears, moose, the Bering Strait and North Pacific fishing boats grace the walls, and proprietor Laura Casey — who runs the cafe with her daughter, Breanna Thomas — has a big compass, the only surviving artifact of her father’s commercial halibut boat that was lost in a storm. Several years after the accident, Laura’s parents moved to Lemmon and she followed seven years ago and opened the restaurant.
Amy Pravecek of Winner chose the Alaska Cafe in Lemmon as her favorite breakfast spot because “everything on their menu is wonderful and the cafe is full of friendly locals who are always willing to visit,” she says.
Pravecek is the territory manager for Phizer in western South Dakota. She travels West River back roads visiting veterinarians, animal health distributors, farmers and ranchers, telling them about Phizer’s vaccination programs.
Alaska Cafe serves breakfast from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. The big breakfast is a country fried skillet with scrambled eggs, hash browns, chicken fried steak, country gravy and cheddar sauce. Pancakes are the size of big plates.
Pravecek likes to dine on the biscuits and gravy and then take a little walk through the petrified wood park across the street. She also recommends visiting Lemmon Livestock sale barn if you are in town on a Wednesday. Call 374-7588.

Julie Wilkins takes orders from a table of local diners at Sparky’s, a popular three-meals-a-day restaurant on Isabel’s main street.

SPARKY’S — ISABEL
Sparky’s operates from a non-descript building on Isabel’s Main Street, which is busier than you might expect because it also sits along S.D. Highway 65, a north-south corridor that cuts across West River country.
Operated by Ryan Maher, a young entrepreneur and Republican state senator, the restaurant serves three meals a day and sometimes even provides the evening entertainment, which has ranged from karaoke and country bands to pool tournaments, goat-roping and an ugly sweater contest.
Monte James of Yankton chose Sparky’s for their “All American Breakfast”: two sausage patties, two eggs, wheat toast and homemade hashbrowns. “The food is off the charts,” says James, a territory manager for Sioux Steel Company. Sioux Steel is a fourth generation family-owned business that opened in 1918 and makes grain bins, livestock equipment and other steel supplies for farmers and ranchers across the world.
James also frequents Sparky’s while announcing for the Isabel Rodeo, which he has done for the last 10 years. “The locals are friendly and fond of visitors,” he says. “They will want to know all about your comings and goings. And as the name indicates, it is not only a grill but a bar as well and the nightlife at Sparky’s is legendary.” Call 466-2131.
Katie Hunhoff is the editor of South Dakota Magazine, a bi-monthly magazine highlighting South Dakota culture. This article is edited from a feature in the January/February 2013 edition. To subscribe, visit www.SouthDakotaMagazine.com or call 1(800) 456-5117.