[youtube]http://youtu.be/YlTuhFrVktY[/youtube]
Theresa Stehly Showed up to the Sioux Falls City Council to talk Snowgates on April 7, 2015.
Theresa talked about the need of having visible large vinyl lettering signage on the snowplows with snowgates and a possible phone number (similar to ‘How is my Driving’). She pointed out the city is always putting out water bill inserts about how to turn in your neighbor with code enforcement, so why not a hotline to report unsatisfactory snow removal?
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPeyNPq1jHY[/youtube]
Charlie’s full testimony (the mayor cut him off at 6 minutes): Spellerberg Pool Points
The Sioux Falls City Council under the careful guidance of Fiddle Faddle sure is making some bonehead moves lately. Silencing critics with jail time is one thing but issuing orders to Council Members to NOT talk to the public is another.
Fiddle Faddle is taking his workload a bit too serious. Why, he is even confusing the responsibilities of a City Council with that of a runaway jury. You remember the John Grisham movie “Runaway Jury” where the juror and a woman on the outside manipulate a court trial involving a major gun manufacturer?
Our City Council is supposed to be a legislative body, able to gather facts, figures and stories from their lives, friends, neighbors, newspapers and officials to make decisions. We citizens do not hire them to do only what they are told by an out of control city administration. Their job is to investigate and ask questions. They are not judicial in any sense of the meaning in their jobs as our representatives.
Fiddle Faddle is getting very tired and needs a break based on his stupid rulings of late.
The four guys who got up and talked at public input Monday night did so to remind the council of their responsibilities to us. The city government’s marketing chief and puppet master needs to actually take notice of the things said Monday night.
Think about this: the 4 different citizens all included assertions that “the City (Hall) doesn’t follow their own ordinances or statutory procedures”. At what point does our city government have to begin to follow the laws governing the rest of the United States and South Dakota. Even sovereign tribal nations have to follow most laws. Why not Sioux Falls?
One of the take away revelations from Monday night, There appear to be several state and federal lawsuits being dropped on Fiddle Faddle concerning not only ambulances but railroads, illegal property seizures and more. How many Fiddle Faddle marketing opinions are being challenged in the courts we have not heard about?
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The above picture was sent to me by a reader that told me they didn’t even bother dropping the snow gate on his driveway, but did across the street. They also didn’t do a very good job on my driveway, my berm was over a foot high, while my neighbors had less, with longer driveways. I guess the snow plow drivers are determining who gets snow gate service thru the eeny-meeny-miney-mo process. That’s not how we wrote the ballot initiative AND now I am wondering what the consequences if an operator isn’t attempting to do it right? In other cities if the gates are not done right you can call into public works and they will come and clean it for you. There are some factors here to consider, the operators are paid an hourly wage, in other words if they have to slow down a bit, it is not going to affect their workload. Something else I like to remind people that the end of your driveway is OWNED by the city, clearing the streets IMO is no different then taking care of the curb. The Public Works department encourages residents to call them if they missed your driveway, so they can assess the situation.
There has often been an argument from the Public Works department that they really don’t work as well on long driveways and snows over 6 inches, which I find to be misleading.
Just yesterday I witnessed (below graphic) a snowplow operator kind of put that argument to shame. As I was sitting at the light on 49th street waiting to merge onto Western Ave. two snowplows going South on Western passed by. The first one had no snow gate, the second did, and he dropped it across 5 lanes of traffic (hardly slowing down) and I didn’t see any snow come over the snow gate until he was almost all the way across. As we said while doing research on snow gates across the country, they work on long driveways and in deep snow, now if our Public Works department will just choose to use them properly and often.
Mayor Kooiker continues to surprise me every day;
Kooiker, who estimated he personally collected about 400 signatures, said he was pleased that the City Council’s decision to approve $180 million in bonds for a new civic center arena will be put to a public vote.
What I find amazing about what Sam did, is that not only did he support a public vote, he helped collect signatures. This is in stark reality to our mayor who told everyone he supported snow gates, but when asked to sign the petition to put them on the ballot, he refused, as did many local politicians, including our Secretary of State elect Shantel Krebs, who told petition gathers after refusing to sign, “Initiatives/referendums should be illegal in South Dakota.” Interesting statement from the person that is now in charge of our elections 🙁
I want to commend Mayor Kooiker for standing up for democracy in South Dakota and setting an example for other elected officials who don’t really understand the process that well.
Once again, the half-ass TV news in our town is trying to claim snow gates don’t work. Well they do, it’s like any mechanical device, when operated properly it works. It would be like me taking a shotgun back to the store and asking for a refund because though I shot at the pheasants, I never killed any. Never mind the fact that I haven’t hunted in over 20 years and couldn’t aim to save my life.
Take for instance this last snowfall. During the first snowfall, the snowplow operator nailed my driveway, this time around, not so much. It appears they dropped it for a brief moment and lifted it back up right away. Still not complaining, better then the 2 foot berm I had before. Only took me about 5 scoops to clean out.
People, this comes down to using them properly. I have seen a ton of video footage of snowplow operators using snow gates in other communities ‘properly’ and they work. In one video the snowplow didn’t even slow down, and nailed the gate in about 10 inches of snow past a double driveway.
It’s going to take time and experience from the operators to get better at it. If you have any recommendations or complaints you can call the Public Works department at 367-8255.
In other news, the Kings Fishers are putting up a funny billboard in town. Thanks Mayor Mike for politicizing this.
