Press Release Contact: Joan McMillin Phone: 605-331-0037 Email: commongroundssd@gmail.com
Secure Our Election Rally
When: Tuesday, September 17, 10:00 a.m.
Where: Office of Senator John Thune, 5015 S, Bur Oak Place, Sioux Falls
Why: Our elections are under attack. We have been warned by Robert Mueller, by FBI Director Christopher Wray, by the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee, and by all our intelligence agencies that our elections in 2020 will be under even greater attack by Russia and other nations.
Yet legislation which would dedicate $600 million to update vulnerable election systems and ensure all votes are backed up by paper ballots sits languishing on the desk of Senate Leader Mitch McConnell..
We are rallying to urge Senator Thune to use his influence as the second ranking Republican in the Senate to bring this legislation to a vote. It has bipartisan support.
What is more important to our democracy than that our elections are secure?
At Tuesday’s meeting a resolution will be proposed to help with storm cleanup. Many residents throughout the city have been reaching out to councilors about picking up branches from private property ‘IF’ left in the boulevard by the curb like they did with the ice storm.
Even though the RS5 normally votes against these things, I have a feeling this will get the support of all 8 councilors. I would go even one step forward and guess PTH made have a change of heart over the weekend and implement this himself on Monday or before.
The rumor is that the administration is calling this a ‘HANDOUT’ instead of a handup. I guess filling potholes, building streets, clean water and educating little Johnny is a ‘HANDOUT’ to. Cleaning up after natural disasters is a duty of our government, this is what we pay taxes for.
So I have been hearing for the last couple of months that the owner of Swamp Daddy’s would be challenging Neitzert, he will announce formally tonight.
But Mr. Beaudion needs to learn a little about challenging a popular incumbent;
“My campaign has nothing to do with him. It has everything to do with the people of Sioux Falls,” Beaudion told the Argus Leader Friday morning. “I’m not running against Greg. I’m running for the people.”
Oh boy, another one of these positive campaigner. For the record, I have never spoken to or met Julian.
If you are going to beat a popular incumbent like Neitzert, you need to reveal the bad aspects of his record, and he has quite the list. He has flip-flopped on about every issue from the city administration building, bunker ramp, tax increases, and numerous zoning issues.
In order to ‘beat’ your opponent, you have to show us why you would do a better job, in other words you need to counter Neitzert at every front, and confront him about his horrible record. Simply just telling us you are running for ‘US’ won’t cut it, and Neitzert will easily beat you.
To tell you the truth, I would like to see a lot more people in that race.
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.
It would probably take me hours to go into detail about the amount of punk rock shows I have been to. I often chuckle when people make fun of the way someone dresses in public, because if you are ‘punk’ the whole purpose is to make a spectacle. Clothing is a facade that serves no purpose but to impress others.
I started going to shows at Nordic before I even moved to Sioux Falls in 1991, and was fortunate to have a roommate who was older than me and a private security guard at the shows, so he would occasionally sneak me in.
I got to know all the players, musicians, promoters and regulars. To this day my 2 favorite bands at the shows were Eight Bark (from Chicago) and God’s Favorite Band (from Mpls).
I still listen to punk rock on a daily basis, I still love the humor and stupidity of it all. Whenever I am having a bad day, it always makes me smile.
l3wis 
