Rapid City SD – Kids will be on the ice Saturday afternoon. The clocks fall back an hour early Sunday morning. And by Monday, the jack-o’-lanterns on Rapid City porches will be starting to sag. The city has something to say about all three.
Saturday: Spooky Skate closes Red Ribbon Week
Roosevelt Park Ice Arena, 235 Waterloo St., will host “Spooky Skate” from 1 to 3:15 p.m. on Halloween. Admission, skate rentals and pizza are free, and the afternoon includes games and a costume contest. Prizes include ice skating punch passes.
“This is a great way to wrap up Red Ribbon Week and to also join with friends to celebrate Halloween,” said City Recreation Specialist Erin Holmes.
The skate is the last event of Rapid City’s Red Ribbon Week. The week is part of a national drug-prevention campaign that began in 1985 and has been observed locally for decades. This year’s theme is “Make a Difference, Be a Hero, Stay Drug Free.”
The week opened Monday with a youth kickoff at the Minneluzahan Senior Center, where Mayor Jason Salamun shared the city’s 2026 Red Ribbon Week proclamation.
Deano, the big dinosaur at Dinosaur Park, is lit red through the end of the week, and the mayor is scheduled to speak at Pinedale Elementary’s Red Ribbon Week assembly Thursday from 8:30 to 9 a.m.
The skate is hosted by the Rapid City Optimist Club, the Ice Arena and Thrivent. The Optimist Club is the local chapter of Optimist International, a volunteer service organization focused on youth. The chapter was chartered in 1968 and meets twice a month at the Rapid City Club for Boys. The city credits the club, along with local schools and community organizations, with supporting Red Ribbon Week locally.
Sunday: Daylight saving time ends
Clocks fall back one hour at 2 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 1. The city says sunset will move to before 5 p.m., and evenings will keep getting darker earlier for about seven more weeks.
City officials are asking drivers to take extra care as they adjust. That means watching for pedestrians and bicyclists in the earlier dark, and for deer stepping out of roadside shadows.
“With the change in daylight savings, more people are driving around when deer are most active,” said Shannon Truax, the city’s Public Works administration operations manager. “This can pose a challenge and we’re reminding drivers to use an extra dose of caution.”
The city’s two main tips for avoiding a deer strike:
- Watch closely at dawn and dusk, when deer are most active.
- Scan the shoulders, not just the lane. Deer often show up at the roadside before stepping into traffic.
South Dakota ranks among the states with the highest rates of deer-vehicle collisions, according to the city.
If you find a dead animal along a city road, call the non-emergency dispatch line at 605-394-4131. The city sends a contractor to remove it, typically within 48 hours.
After Halloween: Where the leftovers go
The city’s Solid Waste Division has guidance for cleaning up once the holiday is over:
- Pumpkins: Put them in the garbage, compost them in your backyard, or take them to the remote yard waste bins at Fitzgerald Stadium on Nickel Street or to the Rapid City Landfill.
- Burned-out light strings: Recycle them at the Solid Waste Administration Office entrance at the landfill, or drop them in one of the holiday light recycling boxes at about a dozen locations around town.
- Costumes and masks: Reuse them, donate them, or put them in the garbage.
- Candy wrappers, glow sticks and stretchy spider webs: These go in the trash.
For more information, call the Solid Waste Division at 605-355-3496.
Sources: City of Rapid City press releases (Oct. 26 and Oct. 28, 2026); Optimist International club directory.
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