By: Superintendent Darrell Mueller In order to be better prepared in the event of a pandemic crisis such as the Bird Flu, the state of South Dakota established Points of Dispensing of medicine known as PODs. The POD center for Charles Mix and Douglas Counties is located in Wagner. The state also allowed other communities to develop “mini-PODs” provided the communities could put together the necessary facilities and personal to maintain and run an effective POD. Several concerned citizens in the Lake Andes area have been meeting for about a year and half to establish a “mini-POD” in Lake Andes. By establishing a mini-POD in Lake Andes, area citizens could receive medicine quicker and with less difficulty than traveling to Wagner to receive their medications. The Corsica/Armour area also established a mini-POD. The Lake Andes Community would like to test it's mini-POD on November 5, 2009 by giving seasonal flu and H1N1 vaccinations to children ages 6 months to age 18. However, with the short supply of these vaccines all across the nation including South Dakota it may not be possible to have one or both vaccines available that day. Information needed for that decision probably will not be available to our community until Friday, October 30th. Please watch next week’s paper for more information.