South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

2012

Event Center Sanford Hospital SF City Council Sioux Falls

IMPORTANT City Meetings

l3wis 3Comments

Sanford Rezoning and Elementary School Closures, are on the agenda for the upcoming Board of Historic Preservation meeting.

The meeting is Wednesday, August 8th at 4:00, First Floor Commission Room, City Hall.

I watched the Sanford rezoning issue being addressed at the last Planning Commission meeting. Many residents voiced concerns, one of the main concerns was building flat parking instead of a parking ramp. It is blatantly obvious why Sanford builds flat parking lots, they are easy to tear up when they are expanding. While I agree the residents have a good gripe about it, this is just a good business decision by Sanford. But what amazes me is how PC member Jessie (Pins) Schmidt told the one resident suggesting parking ramps that it wasn’t their job to give Sanford an opinion on how they use the land just if they were using the land properly. Huh? The resident told her that it was THEIR job to suggest to Sanford that they submit other plans, or deny the request. We all know this comes down to money. Sanford has it, these homeowners do not. Planning Commission recommends approval. Go figure.

There is also a plan to record and televise the council’s working session on Wednesday in which they will discuss the Events Center. This is unusual because they have never televised these meetings.

Mayor’s Event Center Staff Presentation by Darrin Smith, Director of Community Development/Public Parking

Railroads Sioux Falls

UPDATE: More transparency from city hall on the RR relocation project

l3wis 10Comments

Here we go again;

A reporter for the Argus Leader tried to attend a meeting Tuesday. BNSF representatives did not object, but Mark Cotter, the city’s public works director, asked the reporter to leave.

Yup, one of the most transparent city halls in history, but hey, when you compare yourself to the previous administration, it may be true.

Ellis did a fine (Part II) story about this today. I await Part II next Sunday(?) which hopefully talks about our current mayor’s role in this matter.

I also see the city council is moving forward with the texting ban. Unfortunate. It amazes me how little our city legislators know about the law.

Democrats

Karma is a bitch

l3wis 6Comments

No surprise here that the bottom is falling out of the SD Democratic party (okay, it fell out a long time ago, but this isn’t helping);

In District 6 Senate, Dick Gors has withdrawn from the ballot.

In District 10 House, Barb Kavanaugh has withdrawn.

Keep encouraging people to support Republicans, like De Knudson, and you will keep disenfranchising your party members. Get behind candidates from YOUR party, and give them FULL support instead of messing around with faux-republicans.

Haven’t you learned your lesson yet?

 

Sioux Falls snow removal

UPDATED: Snowgates in Sioux Falls. Let’s just test them again.

l3wis 35Comments

UPDATED: I see the AL had to write a follow-up editorial to snow gates just one day after I initially posted this;

Snowgates are popular and many people want them. Others think it is a silly use of taxpayer money.

There’s no justification at this point to add, except that people love snowgates. Public policy and budgeting need to be based on more than what we want. We need to make those decisions based on what makes sense.

LMFAO!

Why change things now? Was a new EC a want or a need? How about Jr. Football fields?

You know who is ‘silly’? The editorial staff of the Argus Leader. While you praise monkey spas and indoor hockey and event centers, when the city is actually providing a service for taxpayers, it is ‘SILLY’ and too expensive. But a heated floor for Rhinos? That sounds like a perfect project to spend our tax dollars on.

And you sit around in meetings for hours on end, wondering why your newspaper subscriptions are in the toilet, because you don’t have a freaking clue who your subscribers are.

I don’t know whether to feel sorry for you, or just laugh it off. I’m laughing today.

Last month, the mayor of our great city left me a long voicemail about all things Mike Huether. Let me summarize it, and leave out the arm waving and good folks of SF,

“If you have a question about something, just ask me.”

Ok. I concede.

So I have been throwing things his way (still haven’t asked him his chicken salad recipe – I am a chicken salad fanatic) but I did ask him about snowgates.

Dean Borchardt, from the department of snow gate testing, I guess, sent me this email;

The 2011-2012 snow gate summary memo has been added to the City of Sioux Falls website at the following link:  http://www.siouxfalls.org/public-works/street-fleet/snow/snow-gate-analysis-pg.aspx.  I have also attached a copy of the original memo as Director Cotter requested.  We are currently on the August 21st, 4 pm City Council Informational agenda to discuss snow gates.  Thank you for your interest.

Dean Borchardt

So I guess we are going to just keep testing these things until all the test areas include the whole damn city.

The funny part about snow gates is if you put these things on the ballot, it would pass in flying colors. I found this comment interesting in the statement linked above;

We have learned a large number of homeowners support the use of snow gates in the areas we have tested in the past two winter seasons.

Duh.

Education funding SF School District Sioux Falls

Big ‘T’ gets out her message of sub teacher pay raises today

l3wis 5Comments

(Image: KELO-TV screenshot)

This of course is the real story in Stormland today, the grunts in the trenches, not the millionaires at press conferences kissing T. Denny Sanford’s ass when he didn’t even bother to show up;

“We are hoping to give the substitutes a voice within the district and get the same treatment as every other entity,” Theresa Stehly said.

Stehly is leading the initiative. She says substitute teachers haven’t seen a raise in six years while teachers and other employees have. She doesn’t believe the district is listening to their needs but thinks they’ll have a voice in numbers.

Of course, it didn’t stop another credit card company lackey, who happens to sit on the school board, talk about the ‘merit’ of a sub teacher pay;

“In this coming budget cycle we’ll look at substitute teacher pay again if it merits it we’ll act on an increase, maybe, for substitutes,” Morrison said.

Tragic, coming from a man who works for a company that got a taxpayer bailout while the execs in his company live high on the hog. Go away.

 

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