Black Hills Pioneer

LEAD — Though Vicki Franzen lives in Rapid City, her dentist and optometrist are both in Lead. She spends a significant amount of time and money in the old mining town as she works to advance a proposal to build a deep underground science and engineering laboratory.

Franzen, who works for RESPEC in Rapid City, is one of the many local employees who are working on the DUSEL project and spending money in the area. Franzen’s company is working to do geotechnical characterization in the mine so DUSEL project managers can submit a set of detailed plans for the National Science Foundation to consider when the agency decides whether to build a multi-million dollar underground lab in Lead.

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