Finally, Aberdeen grows!

U.S. Census Bureau Delivers South Dakota’s 2010 Census Population Totals.
Data for South Dakota show that the five most populous incorporated places and their 2010 Census counts are Sioux Falls, 153,888; Rapid City, 67,956; Aberdeen, 26,091; Brookings, 22,056; and Watertown, 21,482. Sioux Falls grew by 24.1 percent since the 2000 Census. Rapid City grew by 14.0 percent, Aberdeen grew by 5.8 percent, Brookings grew by 19.2 percent, and Watertown grew by 6.2 percent.
The largest county is Minnehaha, with a population of 169,468. Its population grew by 14.3 percent since 2000. The other counties in the top five include Pennington, with a population of 100,948 (increase of 14.0 percent); Lincoln, 44,828 (increase of 85.8 percent); Brown, 36,531 (increase of 3.0 percent); and Brookings, 31,965 (increase of 13.3 percent).

More to come! – Troy McQuillen

11 inches of snow causes drifts to get as high as four feet. Our front yard alone is about 20 inches thick.

Okay…if you don’t live here…if you live in a warmer climate, you look at the weather here and say, “they’re NUTS!” to which I’d have to agree with you. Just last week we got over 11 inches of snow. And there’s no place to put it. I snow blowed for three hours last week. I cleaned out my driveway, my neighbor’s driveway (who wasn’t home and wouldn’t have been able to get into their garage unless someone removed the snow), and a driveway across the street. Yes, life would be easier without snow. I often wonder why pioneers settled here with this sort of climate. I think they were afraid conditions would just get worse if the kept going west.

But if your home is where the snow is, you learn do deal with it. We had to cancel our family New Years party because of it. But Suzette and I stayed home and enjoyed the peace and quite of just being together, putting away the Christmas decorations, keeping up with everyone’s snow progress on Facebook, and napping. Sure we don’t spend a lot of time outside during the winter, but that’s when you get house projects done. Nothing else really changes. We still go out, go to friends, walk, and travel around the state. It’s just snow. And if you have kids; they will not find more joy and fun than playing in the snow

If you’re from here, you know what snow is like. You just deal with it. The best part about the snow is spring optimism. We are all focused on the end of March, summer projects, landscaping, mowing and just hanging out outdoors. March? Shoot, there’s not enough time left this winter to get the house projects done. The change of spring is rejuvenating, the start of another cycle. Winter makes you appreciate the other seasons so much more. Snow’s good.

Merry Christmas! If you're home for the holidays, think about moving back to Aberdeen. Suzette and I did!

Actually, I’ve been home for 15 years. But every time the holidays come around I feel so blessed to have made the move to come back to Aberdeen so long ago. I got to spend a lot of time with my grandparents before they passed on, I’ve made dozens of new friends and relish in the contentedness that my brother, mom, dad, uncles, aunts, cousins, inlaws are just a few blocks away. Looking back on my career in Los Angeles, I was making okay money for a guy my age in the graphic design world. But I had zero assets. Now I have a lot of assets, income of twice what it was in LA, my own company, and a huge investment of time and talent into my community. Who knows where I would be professionally if I had stayed in LA? In the last few years, my world of advertising has changed dramatically. I probably would have been replaced by two entry level kids who knew way more than I do about web stuffs.

I came back to Aberdeen and started from scratch. No business loan, no business plan, no colleagues to chum up with. Can anyone do it? I don’t know. I certainly wasn’t trained in business or entrepreneurship, but some how, things worked out. I think I did okay because of ignorance, which I know sounds dumb, but here’s what I mean. I’ve seen so many people come to town and set up new businesses. For some reason, because they are in a particular industry that demands a certain value-price structure, they think they can charge top dollar because everyone else is. But they’re untested, and have no credibility. I did just the opposite. I had no idea if people would pay me what I wanted. I proved myself to people first. Sure I tried to get top dollar for my industry, but I was also working in a part of the country that wasn’t accustomed to paying for the types of services I offered. So I just worked with people and I didn’t presume that just because “I” created a project for a company, it was the best thing out there. I’m not that arrogant. I always to try ascertain what’s right for each customer. It’s about being flexible, not overbearing.

And I think new businesses need to be like that. Especially if the type of service is relatively new to the area. Any way, I’m here to chat if anyone wants to talk about moving back.

Merry Christmas all!

For some reason, we're getting no traffic on this site from people in Vermont. Do they have internet there?

The point of this website is to “speak to” those who have a connection with Aberdeen, SD. Whether you’re from here and moved away or if some of your family members have moved here for a job of some sorts. Maybe you came for college and left right away? What ever the reason you may have ties here. And that’s reason enough to consider returning here to build your life, or retire. The most popular state frequenting this website is obviously South Dakota; that always happens in web development. Those closest to you check you out more often. The top five states checking this website are, in order,

South Dakota, California, North Dakota, New York, Minnesota

I unfortunately have no way finding out if anyone moves here, although I hope people familiar with this site let me know. And many of my postcards are going to Illinois.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend! Aberdeen is a buzz with the kickoff of summer. – Troy McQuillen

When this brand identity hit the streets a few years back, some critics complained that “good” wasn’t good enough. Why not “great?” they asked. Good question. If you ask me, life is great here, but if a community boasts as being the absolute best and greatest, then by gosh it better be. And life is not great for everyone here, but generally speaking, life is good for most everyone. Instead of some silly slogan slapped on top of our town that is only relevant to a few, this slogan has resonated with the public to the point they speak it all the time, wear buttons with this symbol on it, and put it on banners. People like it. I did a survey a while back asking for opinions about Aberdeen’s brand. I presented about 8 options and the prevailing one was Life is Good; by an enormous margin. Maybe it was just ingrained in our popular culture, or maybe people just believe it to be true. Brands are what brands are. You cannot say a brand is something that it’s not…unless you have a huge marketing budget.

“Life is Good” emerged from our Chamber of Commerce several years back. The brand has been the successful center of advertising for many city organizations as well as individual companies. And we could do more with it.

My concern with my community is complacency. If Life is Good, how can we work to make it better? I say we pick a brand we want to be, then work hard to get there. But that would take tremendous leadership. But, alas, I’m content, but not complacent. I’m always inspired to push forward, say great things about my town, and hopefully inspire you or others to take a look at our great town as a place you’d like to return to. I’m good with that. – Troy McQuillen

During the third annual South Dakota Film Fest, of which I am a co-producer, Kevin Costner showed up. My wife Suzette is on the left, Amy and Kristi are on the right. Photo by Chad Coppess

Or rather, a community that gets into you. I’m not sure how it started, but once I moved back to Aberdeen I found it very easy to get involved with all sorts of volunteer efforts. When you come back to a town you left as kid for college, it’s not easy stepping into the business world.

Sometimes there’s resentment towards people who try to bring big city ideas to communities or boards. While the ideas are generally good, and spot on, tact must be maintained when attempting to offer tried and tested ideas. The best way I handled this was with patience, and by choosing what battles to get involved in (we never fight around here). You may have an original idea, sitting right there in the committee room, but because you have “out of town” experience, often ideas are not heard. Another thing you can do is just do your own thing if you’re passionate about how things should be in a community. Aberdeen is great for this. You can stick your neck out, take a risk and maybe get it shot off. Or, your idea just might stick and your image goes up a notch.

Looking back since 1995 here’s what I’ve done in Aberdeen to try to make this the best place it can be.

• Volunteered for many Chamber of Commerce events

• Co-coordinator of the Oz Festival for 7 years

• Started the Aberdeen Downtown Association with Council-woman Jennifer Slaight-Hansen and Jon Webb from Webb Shoes

• Started A-List magazine to cast a contagious aura of positivity around the town. (maintained it for only one fun year).

• Joined Preserve South Dakota to advocate for the preservation of South Dakota’s historic assets (8 years now)

• Served on the Brown County/Aberdeen Landmarks Historic Preservation Group

• Served on the Dacotah Prairie Museum Foundation for 6 years

• Currently serving on the Alexander Mitchell Library Foundation since 4 years ago.

• Co-Founded the South Dakota Film Festival with Tom Black (going on 4th annual)

• Started this Blog to encourage people to move back to Aberdeen

• Currently serve on the Aberdeen Downtown Association’s Design and Appearance committee; we’re assisting with a new streetscape project this year

• Member of the Bethlehem Lutheran Church and former council member for 3 years.

• Taught three semesters at Northern State University as an adjunct professor.

You can imagine that this sort of involvement affords one the chance to meet a lot of people. Yes, it takes a lot of time, but not really. And as I’ve said before, we have no children so my time is quite flexible. Plus, I really like to help the community where I can. My company has also helped dozens of non-profit organizations with all sorts of media-related and advertising assistance.

I’ve not even begun to tap the surface of all the areas you can get involved in. If you are new to town and have a particular interest, just let me know and I’ll see if I can get you connected.

— Troy McQuillen

Built in 2008 by Gese Construction, designed by Brad Ciavarella, this 2800 square foot home sits on the Moccasin Creek in northeast Aberdeen.

To address the needs of a growing community, several projects are in the works to add more housing to the community. Several large-scale apartment units are being built and new houses continue to pop up all over town. This house in the northeast corner of Aberdeen was designed by Mitchell, SD architect Brad Ciavarella of Ciavarella Design. General contracting was handled by the homeowners and the project experienced no major roadblocks during construction. This house was built in 2008 and was accomplished in 9 months. While there were substantial cost savings by generaling the home themselves, sole responsibility of the entire projects fell to the homeowners. The construction was handled, however, by reputable Aberdeen builder, Joe Gese of Gese Construction. As the primary builder, Joe assisted the homeowners with site management and sub contractor coordination. His expertise was invaluable, and his talent was masterful as he created a one-of-a-kind home in Aberdeen. This house sits on the Moccasin Creek and has had limited sump pump activity in the 13 months the owners have lived in it.

Why is this house featured on “I moved to Aberdeen?” Simply because this is our house. I was always the “old home restorer-type” but a beautiful lot on the creek caught my wife’s eye and we bought it thinking some day we’d build a new home on it. Some day came way quicker as we could not contain our enthusiasm. Needless to say,  we learned a lot about building a house without a general contractor. We asked so many questions and talked to so many people that we had everything lined up perfectly. People always ask us what we’d do differently. We can’t think of anything. I provided the architect with lots of reference photos of classic bungalows built around the early part of the last century. And I asked a lot of the builder, especially on the interior. We used all solid oak planking for trim and baseboard, which is really unheard of nowadays. But, we did our homework and determined it was cheaper to have solid oak boards milled and cut to size than standard off-the-shelf oak moldings. Who would have thought?

I can’t stress enough how living in this community has afforded us the things we dream about. In my line of work it probably would have been impossible for me to build a house like this in Los Angeles in my mid 40s; on the water, with .6 acres of land. Living in a relatively small town, the people know you, and reputations go a long way. Our mortgage banker was related to a client of ours, the builder was referred to us by a neighbor of my brother, and all the sub contractors seemed excited to be working on a house that was a little different than most.  In a small town like this, your reputation definitely does preceed you, and in our case, that was a great thing. My wife calls this our dream house. I call it the house for our 40s. — Troy McQuillen

Architectural details were difficult to engineer and build, but were well worth the effort.

The Aberdeen logo (designed by myself) is the perfect brand icon for a community rich with family values and family fun.

I suppose everyone would say their community is the best place to live. So maybe you won’t take my word for it. BUT, if you grew up here, and you’re living somewhere else, how’s your quality of life? And what does it really mean to be “the best place to live?” Compared to when I lived in Los Angeles, I have some pretty good, comparative notions of what constitutes “the best” versus, “not so good.”

First off, the best place to live is near family. Maybe you don’t get along with your siblings or your parents. So what; get over it, someone will get sick and die then you’ll feel bad.

The best place to live is safe! How many times do I hear stories from people who are surprised that most people in Aberdeen don’t lock their cars or their houses? Okay, that’s just stupid and you’re asking for trouble if you don’t lock things; no matter where you live. But, if you forget to put your bike in the garage one night, it will more than likely be where you left it in the front yard come morning.

The best place to live provides economic sustainability and personal growth. If you want to work and want a career, you will advance in Aberdeen. If you want to start your own business and don’t mind working 80 hour weeks to get it started, Aberdeen is the best place to live for that. Our cost of living does not choke you, allowing you to take risks, try new things and bring ideas to life.

I do not have kids. But if you look at our city logo, you’ll see it has a representation of a castle from our famed Storybook Land. Aberdeen is the best place to raise a family. I would highly recommend doing what I did. Go away for college, establish career skills, move back to Aberdeen (with a few coastal clients), buy a starter home then have some kids. You need the support of grandparents now days to help with day care, babysitting, day-to-day advice etc. Aberdeen is the best place for that. We are truly kid friendly. Take one look at our parks and school system and you’ll see why. — Troy McQuillen

My teaching experience at Norther State University exposed me to art events as well as to brilliant students whom now work for me. (2006 Exhibit for Mark McGinnes – seated at right)

It’s kind of weird leaving a great hometown when you’re a teenager. I left when I was 18 to go to college. I came back 11 years later as an adult. I had a few friends from high school but they were long gone so I had no real connection to the business community here in Aberdeen. I had no one to vouch for my abilities or reputation. It was hard, but just meeting a few people at socials, mixers, etc., leads to meeting more people. Sitting at home feeling lonely would have never cut it.

Edging into the business community was difficult. I had a solid 5 years professional experience in my field yet when I came back to Aberdeen I had to work for peanuts to prove my worth. However, that’s because I started my own business. I did have job offers which would have allowed me to get to work day one, but I had some time to give my new business venture a shot. But every time I “proved myself” it always paid off. I still have many clients to day from way back in those days. There were some great job offers, with some of the best companies in Aberdeen, but I managed alright on my own. Persistent consistency is key.

And people remember you when you help them. Just today I was reunited with a client I’ve not worked for for 5 years. We’ve both grown in our abilities so we were a good fit for one another once again. And that’s another thing I love about Aberdeen. I can sit “from a distance” and see people, clients, come and go into new jobs, new companies, old companies; things turn over and become fresh again – and I’m still here. I am growing, but I’m also consistent in my core principles of being honest, accommodating, and easy to work with.

My life in Aberdeen is paying off, I’m thankful everyday that I moved back to a great hometown. And I have a lot of people and companies to be thankful for.

I designed this TV movie press kit for ABC. My client was in LA, the network was in NY and the producer of the movie was in Ireland. I was in Aberdeen, SD.

Most of the advertising work we do for Aberdeen and the surrounding region is done on an hourly fee basis. Given the fact I have some roots in the film business in Los Angeles, I occasionally get projects from the west coast. And since this is the digital age, I never have to go there for the work. Subsequently, there are occasions when I get jobs from California that are “budgeted prices” meaning, they tell me what the budget is and that’s what I get to do it. Often these types of projects are 3-4 times my local rate, and because I’ve been doing this for a while, I’m pretty quick with the work. Needless to say, these projects are very profitable for my company. By maintaining my ties with classmates, friends and business acquaintances, I’ve been able to keep a steady stream of LA work coming into Aberdeen.

Shortly after we moved back, I got a sizeable job from a TV Studio in New York. I was able to use the profits from that job to make a down payment on a house in Aberdeen. And so it began. Had I been on either coast, I would have had to put the profits towards a couple months rent. I honestly have the best of both worlds. Great contacts with profitable projects and a quality of life not imaginable by the metro cities of LA or NY.

Would this work for your line of work or skillset? I did lose one client who was uncomfortable with me not living in the area, but he had introduced me to others who were perfectly fine working 1,700 miles away.