Table of Contents
Entity Profile
- Type: City — incorporated municipality, population 1,104 (2020 census)
- Domain(s): cityofgettysburg.com (government records), gettysburgsd.us (community/tourism, Wix)
- Jurisdiction: Potter County, South Dakota. County seat.
- Hosting: GoDaddy Website Builder (gettysburgsd.us) + GoDaddy shared Windows/IIS/Plesk (cityofgettysburg.com)
- Email: Microsoft 365 on both domains
Budget Signals
The city receives modest but consistent federal funding:
- FAA Airport Improvement Program: $239K in direct grants (2011, 2014) for airport master plan and improvements. The municipal airport is a maintained asset — future FAA grants are likely.
- BIL-funded radar infrastructure: $1.4M in FAA contracts at the Gettysburg ARSR radar site (2019-2024). This is federal infrastructure on/near city jurisdiction — not city-controlled, but indicates federal investment in the area.
- Highway 212 reconstruction: $12.9M SDDOT project currently underway. State-funded, federal pass-through. This is the dominant infrastructure event in the city right now.
- Clean Water SRF loan: $2.96M for wastewater line cleaning and lagoon improvements. This is debt, not a grant — the city is investing in water infrastructure.
- Mid-Dakota Rural Water: $21.6M+ in ARPA grants to the regional water system that serves Gettysburg. The city benefits indirectly.
- School district: ~$268K in recurring federal education grants (Impact Aid, Small Rural School).
Signal: The city is in an infrastructure investment cycle — highway, wastewater, water system, airport. There's money flowing and more coming. Data services could plug into any of these programs for reporting, compliance, or grant management.
Technology Gaps
- Legacy website with no security hardening. cityofgettysburg.com runs on IIS/10.0 with Plesk, exposes full server fingerprint, has zero security headers. This is the site hosting 749 government PDFs. It's a static HTML site — no CMS, no login — but the lack of basic hardening is a gap.
- No DMARC on either domain. SPF is configured, but without DMARC, both city domains can be spoofed. For a municipal entity handling utility billing and constituent communications, this is a real risk.
- Dual-domain confusion. gettysburgsd.us (tourism/community) and cityofgettysburg.com (government) serve different purposes but neither clearly identifies itself as the official city government site. A third domain (cityofgettysburgsd.com) may also exist.
- No online code library. Municipal ordinances are available as scanned PDFs but not in a searchable online format (no Municode, no American Legal). This is a modernization opportunity.
- .us domain, not .gov. The city does not use a .gov domain, which would provide higher trust authority and domain verification.
Opportunity: Web modernization, email security (DMARC), domain consolidation, and online code publishing are all low-hanging services Oahe could offer. The city clearly values transparency (20 years of published records) but lacks the technical infrastructure to deliver it securely.
Decision Makers
| Name | Role | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Bill Wuttke | Mayor | In office since at least 2012. Handled the 2020 Confederate flag controversy. Long-tenured, likely well-connected in Potter County. |
| Sheila Schatz | Chief Financial Officer | Manages fiscal affairs, budget, accounting, payroll. Primary contact for financial/data services. |
| Shane Wager | Deputy Financial Officer | Backup to Schatz. |
| Dave Mogard | Police Chief | Removed Confederate flag logo in 2020. May or may not still be serving. |
| Jesse Zweber | Potter County Commission Chair | County-level decision maker. Relevant if engaging at the county level. |
| Molly McRoberts | Editor, Potter County News | SD NewsMedia Association president. Key local media figure — shapes public narrative. |
Entry point: Sheila Schatz (CFO) for anything related to financial data, reporting, or compliance. Mayor Wuttke for strategic conversations. The city council meets regularly (minutes published monthly).
Pain Points
1. Persistent disaster exposure. 16 FEMA declarations since 1976 — floods, winter storms, drought. This is not going away. Every disaster cycle generates reporting requirements, grant applications, and compliance documentation. The city has no visible data infrastructure to manage this.
2. Infrastructure investment overload. Highway reconstruction, wastewater upgrades, water system improvements, airport maintenance — all happening concurrently for a city staff that probably numbers in single digits. Compliance and reporting burden is high.
3. Legacy technology. A hand-coded HTML website on a Windows/IIS/Plesk stack with no CMS. This is being maintained by someone who knows HTML, not by an IT department. When that person moves on, the city's web presence is at risk.
4. Email security gap. No DMARC means phishing emails can spoof city domains. For a city that handles utility billing, this is a real constituent risk.
5. Data accessibility. 20 years of records exist as flat PDFs in a directory. This is transparency done the hard way. The data is available but not searchable, not queryable, not analytically useful.
Competitive Landscape
For a city of 1,100 people, there is likely no existing data services vendor. The city's technology is self-managed (hand-coded website, GoDaddy hosting). There is no evidence of any contracted IT services, data analytics, or compliance management.
Potential competitors for services would be:
- SD Municipal League — provides templates and guidance but not hands-on services
- Regional planning commissions — may assist with grant applications
- GoDaddy/Wix — current hosting, but no strategic services
- Local accounting firm — handles the $9,500 annual audit
Positioning advantage: Oahe is physically proximate (Gettysburg is in central SD, reachable from the reservation), understands rural municipal operations, and can offer a level of data sophistication that no regional competitor provides.
Timing Opportunities
1. Highway 212 reconstruction is active now. Multi-year project with extensive federal/state reporting requirements. The city is in the middle of managing this.
2. Wastewater SRF loan is recent. $2.96M in debt means compliance reporting for the loan term. The city needs to track expenditures and report to SD DANR.
3. FEMA declarations are recent. DR-4718 (2023 flooding) and DR-4689 (2022 winter storm) mean the city is still in the aftermath window — FEMA closeout, hazard mitigation planning, and future preparedness are all active concerns.
4. No contested elections. Uncontested council and school board cycles suggest stable governance — leadership is approachable, not in political flux.
5. Airport investment cycle. FAA grants in 2011 and 2014 suggest the next round may be approaching. Airport master plans typically drive 5-10 year investment cycles.
Recommended Approach
Gettysburg is a town that values transparency but lacks the tools to deliver it efficiently or securely. They publish 20 years of records by hand, maintain a legacy website with HTML they wrote themselves, and manage multi-million-dollar infrastructure projects with a staff smaller than most startups. The entry point is infrastructure compliance and data modernization — not a technology pitch, but a "let us help you manage what you're already doing." Start with Sheila Schatz (CFO) on the financial/reporting side, or approach the city council during the Highway 212 project window when reporting burden is highest. The pitch is not "you need better technology" — it's "you're already doing the work; we can make it easier and more useful."