During the ice storm the city did come through neighborhoods and pick up branches in the boulevard from private property. The city also got a reimbursement from FEMA for those efforts.
In this last Spring’s flood the city decided to buy up some homes that were in a problem flood area. We also got FEMA money for flood prevention/relief.
This is from the Mayor’s Chief of Staff;
Councilors;
I was texted a screenshot of Councilor Stehly’s most recent Facebook post and asked to clarify what seems to be a misunderstanding of the information within Mayor TenHaken’s email below. I am not able to comment directly on Councilor Stehly’s post in order to ensure the public is receiving accurate information.
For clarification purposes – if a tree originated within the boulevard and has fallen due to the storm then the City will work to remove that tree. If there is debris from trees originating from private property or buildings in the boulevard then we need the community’s help in moving that to either the landfill or one of the two drop-off locations. If the community has the ability to remove trees that were growing in the boulevard that have fallen, we certainly would appreciate the assistance in doing so.
We appreciate the community’s help in taking a #1SF approach to cleaning up from Tuesday night’s storms.
Best regards;
Erica L. Beck, Chief of Staff to the Mayor, City of Sioux Falls
I would agree with Beck on one point, if you ‘CAN’ cleanup your own yards, you should. If you ‘CAN’ transport your rubbish to the drop off sites, you should. But where I disagree is that many people cannot do this. They either don’t have the resources, money, time or youthfulness to do so. Volunteers can only do so much. If a resident of this city ‘CANNOT’ manage to cleanup after these storms, the city should HELP. Make no mistake, we have millions and millions of dollars in our reserve fund, it is there for incidents like this, not for private non-profit theaters or extending bike trails. On top of that, we could get reimbursement from FEMA. Not sure if the Mayor and his COS are aware, but we were hit by 3 tornadoes, those are natural disasters, those are covered by FEMA, an agency we fund through our Federal income taxes.
This administration needs to get it’s SH*T together!
If people are unable to cleanup their mess, HELP THEM! We pay taxes for services not for popcorn and Garth Brooks concerts! This is a SERVICE, NOT A HANDOUT! Enough Already with your Facebook shaming, trucker hats and mixed messages, just pick up the f’ing branches! Why do you have to make everything POLITICAL and COMPLICATED?! That’s my job dingbats.
UPDATE: Look at the fun graphic the city created to tell taxpayers what they WON’T do. Apparently they will take your tree ‘but just the tip’. The amount of time, energy and money spent telling people what they WON’T do could be put towards storm cleanup.
