After Stehly suggested the return of the ‘Neighborhood Summit’ the administration has scheduled the event for this year. Kind of ironic after a lot of different ideas were thrown around on where and when, it returns to where the city used to do them. If it’s not broke.
I had to laugh today as I cruised by the Spencer Dog Park, The Sioux Falls Headliner predicted this back in May. I have often felt this was one of the dumbest places to put this park. It’s central location is OK, but this area has flooded almost every year since it has been there. It’s almost like the Parks department wanted to put it there so they have something to cleanup after.
I was actually surprised to hear this, I didn’t think the sale would be approved;
The FCC ruled Tuesday that Gray Television could buy KDLT-TV from Red River Broadcasting Co. Gray announced the $32.5 million deal in May 2018 and with approval from the FCC and Justice Department was able to complete the deal today, according to a KSFY report.
I thought for how long this was taking they may have been some hiccups, but it looks like Gray convinced the FCC they are going to provide us MORE news by acquiring KDLT, even though I think this is about advertising dollars and NOT providing us more news;
The FCC noted that the No. 1 station in the Sioux Falls market, KELO-TV, “has consistently earned a majority of advertising revenue, making it harder for the other stations in the market to effectively compete against it. The applicants note that KDLT-TV is already struggling to maintain a profitable local news operation and that, without relief, ‘it is only a matter of time before KDLT-TV is forced to eliminate its local news.’ â€
So in order for KSFY to compete with Stormland TV they need to buy up more stations? How about better programming and news instead of the latest food truck or dog race story? Oh, Oh, Oh, but wait . . .
Gray has committed to add at least 28 hours per week of local news programming across the two stations, more local news programming than either station currently airs in an average week, according to the FCC. The company also plans to open a news bureau in Pierre, the capital, to provide better coverage of state government and install a state-of-the-art weather radar that will enable it to provide more accurate information about severe weather in the Sioux Falls market, the order states.
So they will have a reporter in Pierre for 40 days? That’s nice. Where do I sign up for that miserable job? And I guess I was a little surprised to hear that neither station was providing state-of-the-art weather reporting. So what? Were they just winging it all these years? I actually get my forecasts from KDLT, because I think they lay it out better.
According to a statement from Gray, there will be no changes at either station for awhile.
LOL. And we won’t be holding our breath either. Bring on the Weiner Dog fashion show!
UPDATE: Audit report starts at 26:30
For the record, I did NOT attend the MCC meeting this morning, and since it takes them several days to the load the meeting to YouTube (something that should take like an hour) I haven’t seen it yet, so I am going by what is written in this story;
The audit looked at July to August 2018, around the time the treasurer’s office began revamping their efforts to catch up on the statements. It found that the county’s internal controls over cash management and reconciliation management were “inadequate, resulting in diminished assurance that county’s financial transactions were properly recorded and its assets were adequately safeguarded.” A treasurer’s daily balance book hasn’t been maintained since July 2018, either.
“A significant deficiency is not acceptable,” Beninga said. “Not only does it affect the county, but it affects the school system and the city and the cash flow related issues.”
I will agree that this is troubling, and Treasurer Nelson should do a better job, but I have to take her side on this for a couple of reasons. First off, Nelson has asked for more staff several times, while the State’s Attorney can skip work for two months without an initial explanation while turning around and asking for more help and more money for his department while we bond for a bigger jail, Nelson’s workload has gotten bigger. As Beninga mentions above, she has a lot of taxes to manage. The property valuation of the SFSD alone is $11 Billion folks. You can’t do that job with a shoestring staff, and how Nelson has managed without more SNAFU’s is beyond me.
But where I don’t get is the ‘Sky is Falling’ attitude towards the situation;
The audit did not find any missing money, Schaefer said. He ended up with a balance of $2,868 more than what county budget showed.
So if ‘no money is missing’ what’s the beef? It kind of sounds like the MCC is failing to be a partner with Nelson in alleviating these issues;
Schaefer recommended commissioners take some action on making sure the reports reach their desks.
“You have to have due diligence to get the reconciliation process done,” he said. “Someone has to be responsible for that.”
In other words, make sure you are doing your job and asking for the reports, and when Nelson asks for more help give it to her.
I have seen this Rhino locked up in the back cage several times over the summer, today I shot a picture of it (I think it is a young female) along the bike trail. What worries me about its time outs is that is that you can tell it is emotionally distressed, it paces back and forth and scrapes it’s horn against the wall. I’m obviously not an expert on rhinos and maybe there is a reason they do this (it’s not there every time I have rode past). I also understand that I think this is an endangered species and sometimes a zoo is the only place they can be. Just curious why sad rhino get’s time outs so much. Does anyone know why they may separate it from the rest of the herd?
l3wis