I understand we are having massive flooding, so this post isn’t really about the flooding, but about why this project was way over the top. You can READ HERE all my posts going back to the beginning of the project 9 years ago and how something modest turned into a monster overnight due to a greedy developer making legal threats over a contract signed in the middle of the night with Mayor Munson.
That all aside, I did fight to keep the project modest, speaking at city council meetings and talking to councilors (Kermit was the only one that agreed). One of the options discussed, which would have been very reasonable and would have prevented any long term damage like the current situation we have was redoing the trail extra wide (like they did) and landscaping the entire area with natural rock and natural flowers and plants lining the river. Not only would have it been beautiful, it would have been very low maintenance. Instead we wasted millions on high maintenance infrastructure, as you can see above. And now we want to put a $2 million dollar effigy to egos on top of it all.
When a city decides to do projects like this, they really need to look at the long term costs of building such structures. I don’t even want to know what it will cost to repair all the damage from this latest flood. If we would have went with plan B, as I suggested, cleanup would have been a couple of people with rakes and some re-seeding, but instead we have Bread & Circus.
I hope the spray park is okay. We sure don’t want any contaminated water getting into its plumbing…. But that’s probably too late, huh?
And thank goodness that Seney Island is no more, else that would be backing up the water even more.
But I can’t wait until they get that Baghdad/Tijuana Arch done, however, because probably for the next flood it will be the only way to know where the rusty spray park once was.
Oh, and is this what our former mayor would call a 350 year flood? Or, is this a 1000 year flood, or a 500 year flood, or a 10,000 year flood, or a……..
Oh, and also, you can always tell when our current Mayor is working on an ark, because he starts wearing a tie again…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJUdwum5jAY
We all know South Dakota is a perpetual welfare state and permanent disaster area. This morning the Big Sioux River is out of its banks contaminating everything in its path with poisonous effluent. Instead of empowering communities to harvest snow melt and rain water rural communities continue to be dependent on politicians who exploit need.
Like most of East River South Dakota southwestern Minnesota is a Republican stronghold where dairies, swine units and other concentrated animal feeding operations have devastated water supplies by contaminating wells with nitrates. The United States Geological Survey has found elevated levels of arsenic in ground water near hog confinements. Expect South Dakota’s climate denier governor to request yet another disaster declaration while ignoring the effects of ecocide in the chemical toilet.
This isn’t self-reliance; it’s moral hazard.
Kurtz, I agree 100% I have nagged the city council and anyone who would listen in the city to put up toxicity signs at Falls Park and other areas along the Big Poo. The response is usually the same, “We don’t want to scare visitors.” That is exactly the point jackasses! It’s a matter of public safety, and that is the responsibility of government. Yeah, I can’t wait to see the mess after the flood water recedes.
To attract tourists, call the steps the submerged lost city of Atlantis. Per KELO noon news, an upstream Missouri River dam broke and there’s danger of flooding at Dakota Dunes from water released at Gavin’s Point Dam.
Why did the Corps of Engineers give the City of Sioux Falls permission to build a pedestrian bridge across the Sioux River at Rotary Park?
Today, it is COMPLETELY BLOCKED by ice jams.
It has created an impediment in the river so that anything flowing down the river catches on the bridge forcing the water to go around the bridge. When the pedestrian bridge downtown was built, the Corps was resistant to granting permission to the City to replace the old railroad bridge with the pedestrian bridge for this very reason!!
WHY was this allowed at Rotary Park!!??
Got a call that a friend saw what looked like a few dead pig carcasses floating down in the Big Sioux in Sioux Falls. Curious if anyone called the city or media. It is bad enough with all the feces and chemical runoff in it. Gross!
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT!!! Build in the flood plain!!! Use that land!! Drain the fields!!!! What could go . . . wrong . . .