South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

June 2014

Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Parks and Rec

The city better tread lightly with the indoor pool and negotiations with the VA

l3wis 7Comments

I found this article yesterday very timely, concerning Spellerberg Park and the Quit Claim deed with the VA;

A developer who mistakenly built a $1.8 million waterfront house on parkland has been ordered to remove it.

The Rhode Island Supreme Court found that the Narragansett home was built entirely on land owned by the Rose Nulman Park Foundation, and therefore must be removed.

The developer, Four Twenty Corp., began building the home in 2009, but it didn’t discover the error until 2011 when it tried to sell the house and the prospective buyers got a survey. Robert Lamoureux, who owns the company, then contacted one of the park’s trustees to try to work something out, but she told him the land was not for sale, according to Friday’s opinion.

The foundation was set up to preserve the property as a park in perpetuity. A 2008 agreement among the family members says that if the trustees allow the land to be used as anything other than a public park, they must pay $1.5 million to New York Presbyterian Hospital.

The developer argued it should not be penalized for an innocent surveying mistake. The court said it was sympathetic, but it said the park’s property rights outweighed that. It also said it was in the public’s interest to keep the land as a park.

I hope the city either has a rock solid agreement/contract with the VA or has the quit claim deed torn up before they even turn one shovel at Spellerberg.

Art Mayor Hubris Mayor Subprime Mike Huether Mike Huether Munson Phillips to the Falls Sioux Falls

Seven years ago

l3wis 6Comments

politicsandart

On June 4, 2007 the city council had a controversial item before them. (Video: FF: 9:00 – Public Input, Actual item #54 FF: 2:50 ) Whether or not to place a plaque on to the entry of Phillips to the Falls. It was controversial for a few reasons. First off, as the story goes, the plaque was purchased by several private developers and friends of Dave Munson, they wanted to honor him for getting Phillips to the Falls finished (it only took another 7 years to get something actually built on it, an ugly faceless apartment building with virtually no front footage). The plaque actually hung out in Dave’s office for awhile, then after pressure from his friends, he had it placed without any fanfare. That didn’t sit well with the media, myself, and some councilors and they asked for a review by the Visual Arts Commission. They were to determine whether it was considered ‘art’ because if it was, they would first have to approve the placement. Ultimately, the battle came down to quite a few different scenarios. First off, Dave didn’t get permission from anyone to put up the plaque, he just had it done by the parks department. Others were concerned that not others were honored. Councilor Brown pointed out that many city officials were involved in getting the project done. And who can forget Dave breaking city ordinance by not getting council approval for the 100% cost overrun.

To tell you the truth, I look back on it now, and am glad his face is the only one to the entrance, he concocted this stupid street that is finally seeing development, to the cost of taxpayers in TIF handouts. I started thinking about this incident because of the recent Ethics commission approval of Huether putting his name on the tennis facility, a facility that has received $500K in public funds. Instead of going through a process with a naming rights committee and the city council, the very board that was appointed by Huether said “It’s okay, go for it.”

Wow, a lot of things have changed in 7 years, and a lot remains the same.

 

Downtown Sioux Falls SF City Council Sioux Falls

Plans for a Main Street ‘Diet’

l3wis 15Comments

I saw this on the informational meeting and city council meeting agendas (DOC: roaddiet)

While I agree with the concept of diagonal and ‘timed parking’ and closing down to two lanes on Main Ave. I am wondering why/how the city directors just pulled this out of their butts to present to the council? They are doing a presentation at 4 PM, then want the council to approve the concept at the 7 PM meeting in a ‘motion’. This should be an agenda item that should be discussed in the land use committee, not something Smith and Cotter cooked up over coffee and donuts with the mayor. Yes, I know, traffic studies were done and public input. But why the rush to get the council to approve this without their input? We can’t even give them a week to look over the plans? Just a couple of hours?

Road diet? More like communication diet.

Art Sioux Falls Washington Pavilion

Pavilion has low expectations of new VAC director

l3wis 6Comments

I found the education requirements of the job posting for the VAC director interesting;

Min Education: BA/BS/Undergraduate

Min Experience: 5-7 Years

I could speculate a couple of reasons why they are not requiring much experience and education;

– Doesn’t pay well

– Already have some insider picked to do the job that has some family connection to the Board (that’s how the current curator got picked, rumor has it).

– Easy to control and manipulate a newbie to the industry.

Whoever does get picked for the job, I feel sorry for them. One person runs the show in that building, and if you disagree with them, you can kiss your ass goodbye. If you don’t believe me, just ask them what happened to the last Development Director. Would love to hear ‘the truthful’ answer.

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