Another List
l3wis Who do you think will run for mayor of Sioux Falls in 2018? I have some wildcards, but here are my two I think will run for sure;
Darrin Smith
Michelle Erpenbach
June 2014
Fashion Police, “You are both under arrest.” Write your own caption
Just kidding Monty, I just found it funny you both coordinated. Monty interviewed Gordon ‘Whirly Gig’ Howie yesterday. Google Argus Leader.
UPDATE: What will become of the old Ice Recreation center once the new Iceplex opens?
UPDATE: I have been thinking about this for a few days. I have been trying to access the informational meeting on the city website, but no luck. The video died about a minute into the meeting when it was LIVE and they have not yet posted it to the website. Once again, SIRE isn’t working and no one at Carnegie or City Hall is doing anything about it. Go figure. Anyway, I did have a South DaCola foot soldier attend the meeting. Parks & Rec Mob Boss Don Kearney did a presentation on saving the Rec Center (I partially agree with him, but we will get to that in a moment). Of course the stuck-up IcePlex crew showed up and cried about competing with the new facility. This could be true, and they do have a point, the city kicked in $1.5 million to the new facility, and why would we want to continue to subsidize the old Rec Center?
I think there is a solution that can make everyone happy. Let’s say we close the Rec center. We have only a few options. Tear the whole place down and just sell the land. We could use it as a Parks garage. Or we could just sell the place ‘As Is’ with the ice and throw in the Zamboni. I like this idea the best, first off, it wouldn’t cost taxpayers anything to sell it ‘as is’, secondly we wouldn’t have to continue to subsidize it, either as ice OR as a garage. I would also put a condition on the sale that the place that buys it (Private health club or non-profit) can either remove the ice, tear the whole place down, or what I think would be the best use make it into a recreational ice facility, much like Caurosel Skate. Use the facility for strictly ice skating and curling, etc, but not ice hockey unless it is adult leagues.
One of the reasons the Ice Association wanted a new bigger facility is because they claim there isn’t enough inside ice, keeping the old Rec Center as a private ice facility won’t hurt their business. That’s like saying Wild Water West hurts the outdoor pool business in SF Parks. There is room for two ‘different’ kinds of ice facilities in Sioux Falls, and the taxpayers can be off the hook for once.
Images below are from Don’s presentation to the city council. Click to enlarge.
Why is the city paying for something the state should cover?
I got a surprise yesterday while attending the City Council working session. As some of you may or may not know, while the state shares revenue with alcohol sales, they don’t reimburse the city police department for conducting alcohol sale stings. I think a solution would be the city PD to stop doing the stings and require the Highway Patrol (which gets state funding) to do the stings.
Kenny Anderson says the problem is that people who fail the stings are not the owners or managers in most cases, it’s the clerks. While this is true, it is also the responsibility of the company to properly train their employees AND hire responsible people.
I have often said the solution is simple. Require anyone who is purchasing alcohol or tobacco to put their ID in a scanner. If they don’t or if the ID is incorrect, the cash register would refuse the sale. Of course, this would piss off a lot of older people who clearly look old enough to purchase. This would also probably get blow back from the malt beverage industry. I know a few years ago I read a study that said over 30% of beer that is consumed in this country is drunk by underage people. That’s a lot of lost revenue if roadblocks are put for these people to purchase.
Texting Ban – Still pointless & Unneeded
When the city decided to pass a texting ban, I agreed with councilor Staggers and some members of the Highway Patrol and SFPD, that it was unneeded because there are already laws in place like distracted driving and reckless driving that cover texting and driving. If you cause an accident while texting or talking on your phone, or  eating a hamburger or scratching your butt while driving, you will get one of these tickets. Don’t get me wrong, I think texting while driving is idiotic, but since the Supreme Court’s ruling yesterday about getting a warrant to search someone’s phone, it is going to be a lot harder to prove someone was texting and driving. That pesky US Constitution and 4th Amendment prevailed once again. Just wondering when our state legislature and city council are going to bother reading it and stop passing pointless laws and ordinances?
SD Dems seal the deal for Huether’s 2018 Governor Run
Bend over Chicky
I’m not going to print what I said to a friend today about the SD Democratic Party when I heard this, even to fowl for this blog;
The Democratic ticket is set in South Dakota’s gubernatorial race.
Susan Wismer named Susy Blake as her lieutenant governor running mate.
Blake is a former state legislator and nurse. She represented District 13 in Sioux Falls from 2008 to 2012.
“It was an honor to be asked to join Susan for this historic campaign, and now it is my pleasure to join this campaign and stand with Susan to advocate for all of the people of South Dakota,” Blake said in a statement.
Oh, it will be historic alright, I bet it will be the biggest ass kicking the Dems get in 40 years in a Governor Race. If Susan breaks 30% I will be shocked. I bet Huether was secretly giddy after hearing the news. I will be curious if he donates any money to the campaign. As I have said in the past, the only way Wismer/Blake even have a snowball chance in Hell of beating Denny is if the EB-5 scandal blows up in his face, but I see that investigation is slowly getting buried like Benda himself.
The Dems just couldn’t leave well enough alone by handing the nomination to Joe Lowe, and running Wismer as SOS.
As Jon Stewart would say, they really f’d the chicken on this one.