South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

Wind Energy

Lincoln County Wind Energy

The Windhaters got it handed to them today

l3wis 5Comments

Looks like they are going to have a tough road ahead (Full DOC PR; REFER-WIND);

Faced with the heavy task of gathering more than 1,700 signatures from Lincoln County registered voters, supporters began circulating the referendum petition last week after the publication of the new setback ordinance. Supporters achieved their goal of having the requisite number of signatures far ahead of the statutory 20-day deadline. 

“Gathering nearly 2,100 signatures in a little more than a week is a true testament to the enthusiasm the voters of Lincoln County have for wind energy,” said Minish. “While circulating the petition it was a pleasure to hear thank you from the numerous voters who want to see clean, sustainable energy production become a reality in Lincoln County. From parents and grandparents looking at the funding this project would bring to schools, the county and townships to our ag producers, farmers and individuals who believe that landowners should be able to choose what they do on their family’s land, the support for Dakota Power Community Wind has really been overwhelming. We’re looking forward to the next phase of this process that will bring us one step closer to making wind energy in Lincoln County a reality.”

That many signatures, that fast, tells me that this will probably get the NO vote they are looking for on the setbacks. I predict at least a 70% in favor of eliminating the 1/2 mile setback. Get ready for more letters to the editor about how great and knowing the Lincoln County Commission is (LOL) and how evil the wind energy business is. What I find incredibly ironic about the opposition to wind energy is how we have no problem with two oil pipelines going through our state (with a 3rd one in progress) that provide us NO oil for energy, yet we fight green energy that will be used locally.

Shaking my head.

It also goes to show, once again, it takes the voters taking matters into their own hands with a petition to get things done. Just look at the amount of time and energy that County and Planning commission wasted on this. They should have just set up an election date to begin with and saved a lot of people, a lot of time. As I tell the city council quite often, ‘There are some things above your pay grade.’

Lincoln County Wind Energy

The Windhaters are wrong. When will the Lincoln CC wake up

l3wis 10Comments

Wind energy in the Midwest, what an amazing MODERN concept!

These poll numbers of course don’t surprise me;

On the question “Would you support or oppose a plan to build wind turbines to generate electricity in the southern part of Lincoln County?” surveyors found 41 percent strongly in favor, 26 percent somewhat supportive. Thirteen percent were somewhat opposed and 17 percent strongly opposed.

So will the county commissioners wake up?

The company released partial results from its poll in the run-up to a county commission vote on wind turbine setbacks that would doom the project if left unchanged. Commissioners could decide as quickly as Tuesday morning

It will be interesting to see what kind of excuses the county commissioners will cook up to vote for these stupid setbacks (especially Schmidt and King). It will probably go to a referendum anyway, so they might as well vote against the setbacks and let voters decide.

But you gotta love the windhaters and their continued opposition based on what they can pull from their butts;

“We’ll take all of that with a great amount of salt,” said Winnie Peterson, Director of We Care-SD. “Some people were very upset about the way the information was presented.”

We Care’s volunteers conducted door-to-door surveys in 2015, and Peterson said more than 80 percent of those surveyed within the area of the original 500-turbine project said they didn’t want to live within a quarter mile of a turbine.

I wonder if Winnie knows that it is a county wide election? Asking my neighbors what they think of a certain ballot proposal certainly isn’t scientific, but what would you expect from a group that depends on junk science to argue their points?

“As people from South Dakota, we don’t need to hire a fancy Washington polling agency to find out what our neighbors think,” Peterson said.

The poll from GOP strategist Glen Bolger’s Washington, D.C.-based agency is the first survey of Lincoln County voters specific to wind energy. National polls consistently show support for wind power and other forms of renewable energy.

The questions were asked of 300 registered voters, with 120 cell phone interviews by telephone March 23-26, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 5.66 percent.

Fancy or Not, it is scientific and way more accurate then the rag-tag group compiled of coffee drinkers from a Canton Café. I can’t wait to see them crushed at the polls, I’m sure commissioner King will blame the crack baby having liberals for swaying the vote.

Dan King Lincoln County SF City Council Sioux Falls Wind Energy

Hypocrite of the Week; Lincoln County Commissioner Dan King

l3wis 1Comments

No wind here, just a lot of smoke blowing.

Oh, Dan, how you make us chuckle. While you go on rants to the SF city council for a decision they made about zoning, every opportunity you had to make a decision about wind energy zoning, you chicken-shit out with your buddy Jim Schmidt. Maybe Dan is afraid that the Liberals will build encampments around the wind towers to raise their crack babies;

“As a board, if we crafted our ordinances and our policies so that businesses could or couldn’t come into the county, I think that’s the wrong way to look at it,” says Lincoln County commission chairman Dan King.

King says there’s a reason for the delay in decision-making.

Commissioners are researching what are called wind rights.

“A wind tower creates a wake that affects downwind where wind towers can be placed,” explains King.

LMFAO!

King says they need to look into how close the towers should be to one another and how that affects wind rights.

However, Minish says this is more of a property rights issue.

Hey, let’s talk wind rights, because if me or any other homeowner down wind of John Morrell’s has a right to the wind blowing across our property, we best lawyer up and sue the living crap out of JM’s for stinking up my back yard on a weekly basis. Dan, just admit it, you are a weak lawmaker who can’t make a simple decision. It comes down to aesthetics, that’s it. Your job as a lawmaker is not to be an art critic, it is to make laws that keep people safe while promoting economic development. There have been thousands of studies done on how safe (and green) wind energy is. Maybe you and Jim should share a computer at the library and do a little research on it instead of listening to all the Hayseed’s BS that come to your meetings.

Wind energy isn’t a Republican or Democrat, Conservative or Liberal idea, I would even be willing to guess most of the property owners and investors involved are probably Republican.

So the next time you have the urge to harass my lawmakers in Sioux Falls for ‘actually’ making a decision, think about all the lost opportunities you have had to make the right and judicial decision.

BTW, I think cowboy hats are ugly, just saying.

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South DaCola 2016 year in review (Part I)

l3wis 4Comments

art-maze-mower-lrArtMaze, one of the better parts of Sioux Falls life in 2016

2016 has been a rough year for citizen activism. While it has been up and down here in Sioux Falls with many successes and failures to boot, it seems Washington DC has gone into full collapse as we allowed racist, sexist, hillbillies to elect our president.

READ ABOUT 2015 REVIEW HERE.

But locally there were three things that stood out;

• Governor Daugaard claiming that voters were ‘hoodwinked’ into voting for IM 22, then getting the Pierre (in)justice system to go along with it. Funny how for over 40 years voters have been voting his party into power, and no word about ‘hoodwinking’ but once that corrupt power will be challenged, all the voters are idiots. As one official told me that used to work for Dennis, it’s not the public that are idiots, it’s Dennis. And his idiocy has been shining through.

• The South Dakota Democratic Party’s bottom completely fell out, and the people in charge patted themselves on the back. Insanity I tell you! Insanity!

• But one of the greatest achievements of the year is the Sioux Falls City Council’s change of power. The four new councilors have been flexing their muscles with a little help from Councilor Erickson, and while they have had a few missteps to start out, they have been learning from the battle scars. While ‘leadership’ of the council (Rolfing and Kiley) seem to be on a two man mission to rubberstamp all things Huether, shut down public input, and concoct false ethics charges against a fellow councilor (until they got caught lying like the snakes they are) they are becoming more and more in check. The city council has many big plans for 2017, and I have a feeling their agenda will push through easily as our lame duck mayor melts.

Let’s take a look at some the finer high and low points of 2016;

• The Huether Tennis center continues to block parking from other event attendees at the Sanford Sports complex though they basically stole $500K from taxpayers for the facility. Throughout the year there was several reports on cones and signs blocking the lot with not cars in it. But hey Mike’s Bride won an award this year and seemed surprised she did, without commenting that her check to the organization that gave the award wasn’t returned.

• The Sioux Falls City Council leadership and mayor’s HR department pulled a military retiree out of their asses for city clerk, a person who will be in charge of our city elections and hasn’t been registered to vote for years. He also proved his knowledge of official stamps when he stamped a petition without even bothering to read it. While Mr. Greco has gotten better over the year, the city clerk position should not be a $80K+ a year job as an apprentice, sadly being trained by one of his assistant clerks who has ten times the qualifications and applied for the position but was turned down. I’m sure it had nothing to do with the council chair’s view of women in the work place.

• Speaking of letting the mayor’s HR department and Leadership’s Mutt and Jeff pick the next internal auditor, the council barked loud enough that they did not want another ‘Greco’ pick. Not sure if the barking worked, but the person who was set to take the job saw the writing on the wall and turned it down. Hopefully the person who ultimately gets the position won’t be turned down because they shave their legs.

• The city continues to blow money on the Winter Wonderland Display, but the way the mayor has been cutting budgets these days, I expect next year’s display to be a couple of homeless barrel fire pits, sponsored by the Dudley House of course.

• After posting about the ridiculous corporate like raises the mayor has been giving to his management team, he turns around and still screws the minions with dismal raises again this year. I think in a special note to the city employees on their Christmas paystub he wrote, “I don’t care.”

• The city continues the FREE condom distribution program at area bars, and for some reason Monk’s is always emptied the quickest. Coincidence that is also a favorite watering hole of city managers . . .

• The Tuthill shooting case becomes ‘inactive‘ and a tree branch shadow gets off scott free.

• The Erp wrongfully calls out local massage therapists as prejudice because they pointed out the ‘shower massages’ that were taking place around town. Apparently someone got a bad fortune cookie that day.

• The car rental tax and BID tax grabby-grabby fails in Sioux Falls, but the state legislature passes one of the most idiotic tax increases ever so our teachers are now just tied for last instead of dead last in pay. Out hoodwinking governor already has plans to rob the pot only one year after its passage.

• Hartford’s city government was in a state of collapse. Who really cares?

• The Levitt Pavilion is moving forward in Sioux Falls. It will be nice watching outdoor concerts sitting in the grass while battery acid is boiling beneath our asses.

• The Boulevard ordinance changes went into effect. Now stop worrying about rocks and plant a garden.

• The Washington Pavilion got a change of leadership after Darrin Smith takes over as President. So far he has only eliminated one director, but I hear the blood-letting has just begun. Now let’s throw another couple of million at the place to fix the poor construction to begin with. That will never happen with the Events Center . . .

• The Events Center cracks down on outside snacks and guns at events. We are all now safe from cheap fat people shooting us, but not in the parking lot.

• The Pottie Room war starts in Pierre and is guaranteed to return in 2017.

• A state legislator calls transgender people ‘twisted’. Now I’m struggling with what word to use describing our state legislators?

• A city council candidate throws a hissy fit over a post I wrote about his wife’s involvement with the Jesus plows and after threats to my employer I pull the post. He ends up taking last place in the at-large race. How’s Jesus working out for you now?

• Due to health reasons, Kermit Staggers decides not to run for a 4th term on the city council. His endorsement of Stehly puts her over the top.

• One of the youngest candidates in city history runs for city council. I apologize to Briggs for all the shitty things I said about him during the campaign.

• The Argus Leader sues the city for the details in the secret events center siding settlement. The Argus loses the first round but it is headed to the SD Supreme Court.

• On a similar note, the SON neighborhood is also awaiting a judgement in their Walmart suit with the SD Supreme Court.

• While our Sioux Falls City Council approves the DAPL through Sioux Falls, it takes thousands of protesters in ND to actually stop it. Too bad our city council chair doesn’t understand how to vote.

• The Mayor and Q-Tip Smith screwup the DT parking ramp development by flapping their traps to soon, and the council later on in the year returns the favor and defunds the ramp all together for 2017. I still think the fiasco is what got Smith to seek refuge at the Pavilion.

• City officials throw a hissy-fit over Bruce’s camera at a city meeting we were invited to by then city councilor Kenny Anderson. Looking back on it now, I just chuckle.

• Former city councilor Dean Karsky and now commissioner elect has become the official endorser in Sioux Falls.

• Bruce and I do a presentation on voter turnout in Sioux Falls at Democratic Forum and one of the mayor’s buddy developers in Sioux Falls tries to shut us down. When he fails, he walks out. Another casualty to transparency.

Lincoln County Wind Energy

Some Lincoln County Commissioners chickenshit out

l3wis 11Comments

Make a decision already so the voters can finally decide the fate of wind energy in Lincoln County;

County commissioners decided Tuesday to punt until 2017 on a set of proposed restrictions on wind turbines in the fast-growing county that includes the southern edge of Sioux Falls.

The commission voted to study ways to refine the rules, which would require turbines sit at least three-quarters of a mile from homes and meet low-decibel sound limits.

We all know, no matter what they decide, voters will ultimately make the decision. And I think with the large voting block in Sioux Falls, they would approve the wind farm. But it really shouldn’t be that way, this is a simple decision to make;

Commissioner Jim Schmidt said the county’s voters deserve a decision that accounts for all the potential ripple effects of wind turbines.

“Every time we listen to testimony, it becomes a more complicated issue,” Schmidt said.

Jim, first off it is not complicated, and even if it was, you have had two years to do your research. It is very easy to contact universities and other scientific groups to get the information you need, which would all lead to the fact that wind turbines have no harmful health effects unless one fell on you.

This comes down to two very simple points, Money and Asthestics.

• Money; The county, the state and landowners would make money from the project, which would benefit many people. This is a fact.

• Some people don’t like what they look like. This really is the only sticking point in the matter. As a person who is an artist and collects art, I do understand and defend people who think wind turbines are ugly. I get it. But the same could be said about barb wired fences and power poles in the country landscape. As I said to a detractor once, ‘I would much rather look at a wind farm peacefully churning in a meadow then plumes of smoke rolling from a coal plant or refinery.’

But government officials are not art critics, their duty is to rule on law and what is best for people within those laws. Wind energy is good for the public and the economy. Stop being chickenshits and make an easy decision.

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