Battle-hardened servant retiring with career-long view of South Dakota's growing political, cultural divide

Battle-hardened servant retiring with career-long view of South Dakota's growing political, cultural divide

Jim Schmidt appears on The Dakota Scout’s Scouting Lounge podcast last year. (Joe Sneve / The Dakota Scout)In Lincoln County, where cornfields once defined the horizon south of Canton, debates over wind farms, pipelines and suburban sprawl now dominate courthouse chambers — a sign of how quickly one of South Dakota’s fastest-growing counties has been transformed by Sioux Falls’ southward march.For nearly three decades, Lincoln County Commissione…