South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

Sioux Falls

Downtown Sioux Falls Levitt Pavilion Sioux Falls

Levitt presents a solid season

l3wis 2Comments

I finally had a chance to review the music of the bands playing this year. They have a great mix of country, bluegrass, hip-hop, pop, blues and alt-rock.

The bands not to miss this year are;

Radio Free Honduras (amazing music!) • Robert Jon & The Wreck (Blues Rock) • Patty PerShayla & the Mayhaps (alt rock) • Young Dubliners (Irish)

Don’t get confused by the band ‘Blood Brothers’ they are not the extreme punk band from 10 years ago, I think they are Canadian Blues (those two words don’t sit well together)

There are a couple of performers that are not my cup of tea but most of it is solid entertainment and it’s FREE! I am assuming at the June 2nd opener they will be handing out copies of the 2021 and 2022 annual reports. 🙂

Canton Public Works Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Parks and Rec

Canton proposes building swimming pool with garbage fees

l3wis 20Comments

You got to hand it to them for being creative;

  • Right now, Canton has private garbage services, meaning residents choose whichever provider they’d like to come collect their trash.
  • In a city-run garbage collection system, Canton would put out a bid to trash collectors and choose the lowest offer.
  • Because the city would take care of billing logistics, Gannon anticipates collectors would offer much lower rates to the city than they’re able to offer directly to customers.
  • Customers’ bills won’t go up, but because costs are lower, the city would have extra income from garbage collection to then help pay for the pool.

While I will leave it up to the citizens of Canton to determine if they want to pay for their pool with garbage fees, I do support the idea of municipal garbage. I have argued for a long time that if the City of Sioux Falls did this you would save consumers because the billing could be processed thru your water bill and the private contractor(s) the city would hire wouldn’t pay tipping fees and would have shorter planned routes.

I also would implement a city ambulance service since right now the city is already assisting in mutual aid, sometimes showing up before the private ambulance, and we are getting NO reimbursement from the private ambulance provider for our aid.

Some argue against having these services provided by the city, but if done correctly they can be very beneficial and cost effective for citizens.

Elections SF School Board Member SF School District Sioux Falls

UPDATE II: Sioux Falls School Board Candidates equally qualified

l3wis 13Comments

UPDATE II: I think the vote tonight will be an incredibly low turnout. Some have predicted about 2,000 but I think it will be closer to 6,000. I also think Johnson will win by over 60% of the vote. Hopefully the results come in quickly so Brian’s wife can get pack to dishes and laundry.

UPDATE: I am encouraging people to vote for Johnson. After hearing Mattson’s radio ads about supporting the new social studies standards I just can’t support a Noem puppet.

The ‘Man-Splaining’ video didn’t help matters either;

It has been a very long time since I have looked at a local election ballot and had trouble picking a candidate. This happened when I early voted last week. I voted for Johnson, but almost voted for Mattson.

I ultimately picked Johnson based solely on experience. But I really liked Mattson’s stance on fiscal responsibility, and that he understands the Constitution and 1st Amendment 🙂

I guess what I am saying is this is a NON-endorsement, I think both candidates are equally qualified and having either one serve would be an asset to Sioux Falls.

For once we had a real choice!

SF City Council Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls City Council announces new leadership before the vote

l3wis 13Comments

If you didn’t believe my claims of cruise control government here is one more reason to believe;

Sioux Falls City Councilor Marshall Selberg will return to his role as chairman of the body in his final year behind the dais.

The second-term city councilor, who terms out of office in spring 2024, is expected to be selected as chairman of the Council Tuesday by his peers at Carnegie Town Hall.

It’s anticipated first-term Councilor Rich Merkouris will be tapped to serve as vice chair.

While it should be NO surprise the council figures out who will be in leadership before the vote, they usually don’t go running to the media before a vote is even taken. I heard about a week ago that Jensen was NOT going to be tapped for council chair and he was okay with it. The back door plan was to put Selberg back in the role to not only block Jensen but Starr from the position.

In fact, there was so much chatter about it, I am not surprised Dakota Scout did a story about it. But the real story is that the council was very adamant about NOT having Jensen serve as council chair and Selberg was the backup plan.

Personally I think all the cattle wrangling could have been done out in the open and this deciding leadership in advance and running to the media before a vote is taken is unacceptable. I hope at least ONE councilor mentions the media link before the vote.

As I have said in the past; these folks know how to win elections, just not what to do once they have attained victory.

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