Iron Age International, a new motorcycle fabrication business, just broke ground in the Sturgis Industrial Park.

Jimmy Powell and Stephanie Martin established their company in Dickinson, Texas in 2000.

Last year they relocated their specialized high-end welding and fabrication plant to Sturgis, home of the world famous motorcycle rally.

This business has been housed in leased space until plans were finalized for their new building now under construction.

Iron Age is a major supplier to Competition Distributing and other customers. Lonnie Isam, owner of Competition Distributing, also relocated from Texas. Competition Distributing is located at 2106 Lazelle in Sturgis.

Sturgis  decided not to allow open containers on its streets.

Many residents present at the meeting opposed the potential change: “We have enough bars in Sturgis,” Danny Winter explained, according to the article.

And other concerns included that possibility of drinkers taking booze into businesses, which is illegal.

Do you think drinking should be allowed on Sturgis streets? How would you answer the concerns?

Commenter ‘barfDOA’ says:

Seems This new Biz is planning to sell sign frontage all along hwy 34.
This is not a rally its a circus…vendors are gonna get fleeced at $4.50sqft
Count me out….Good Luck Sturgis.

The commenter also includes a link to Monkey Rock’s media kit. It’s quite an impressive venue, to my eyes.

what do you think of the cost and that facility (formerly Thunder Road)?

Is the cost for vendors too high? I mean, hey, the Monkey Rock Girls get a free round-trip flight, after all.

By Jeremy Fugleberg

This came from the Black Hills News Bureau, and just sprang from my e-mail inbox:

The Monkey Rock Event Center, a unique, professional and provocative Rally site, has exploded onto the scene and will make its much anticipated debut at the 2009 Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, July 30 - August 9, 2009.

Monkey Rock has set the new Sturgis Motorcycle Rally benchmark in event and entertainment center excellence and is committed to making your Rally experience exciting, entertaining, comfortable and engaging for riders and vendors.

How do you think this will fit into the Rally?

By Jeremy Fugleberg

Finally, the dispute is over.

The Sturgis Area Chamber of Commerce announced today it purchased Sturgis Bike Week “for an undisclosed sum.”

From my inbox, the raw announcement from the Chamber and Sturgis Bike Week:

For Immediate Release

March 2, 2009

(Sturgis, SD) – A decade long dispute surrounding rights to the world’s most famous motorcycle rally ended amicably in Sturgis today. The Sturgis Area Chamber of Commerce, owner of trademarks and service marks of the event, has purchased the intellectual property of Sturgis Bike Week, Inc for an undisclosed sum.

In a joint press release, the Sturgis Chamber and Sturgis Bike Week, Inc. announced that, while the terms of the agreement are confidential, both sides are pleased with the final resolution to the issue. “When Gary (Lippold,) Bob (Davis,) and I decided to semi-retire, we started discussing logical purchasers of the Sturgis Bike Week trademarks,” said Francie Ruebel-Alberts, one of the Sturgis Bike Week, Inc. owners, “and we just kept coming back to our desire to keep it in the Sturgis community. Despite the fact that we have had our differences over the years, the Sturgis Chamber seemed the obvious choice and to maintain local ownership was very important to us.”

“I think these folks have made a very selfless decision that will benefit the community of Sturgis for decades,” said Karen Simmons, president of the Sturgis Chamber. “For many years now, our singular goal has been to help ensure the people of Sturgis and the surrounding area receive a direct, tangible benefit from the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. This helps us to achieve a dream of ours and the many members of the Chamber Board that have served this cause before us.”

Although the City of Sturgis is not technically a party to the agreement, they are a licensee of the Chamber of Commerce for selling sponsorship and promoting the annual event that will celebrate its 69^th anniversary in August. “This is a great day for the community of Sturgis,” said Sturgis City Manager David Boone, “I applaud the untold efforts of both sides and the many people that worked behind the scenes to make this happen.”

The annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally attracts hundreds of thousands of motorcycle enthusiasts from around the world each summer and is, by far, the largest tourism event in South Dakota.