UPDATE: City hires firm to maintain outdoor BRONZE sculptures? LOL!

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Even Sodapop THINKS the city is silly.

When I read this story and got a H/T from a DaCola foot soldier, I said to myself, tell me it is not true. I mean, the city spends money on some pretty stupid shit (just recently they bought a film projector for a private non-profit). But this takes the cake;

The City of Sioux Falls has hired a firm to maintain nearly 40 pieces of artwork.

The California Company has been signed to a three year contract at $25,000 a year to maintain the city-owned artwork throughout Sioux Falls.

Oh, but this explains how the city got roped into this boondoggle;

The California firm is also working with local Sioux Falls artists to take care of the city-owned art.

So let me get this straight, the city had to hire an out-of-state contractor, to contract local artists to clean sculptures with soap and water? And that is the crux of this. Bronzes are used in outdoor sculptures because of there durability, and if you don’t like a little bird shit on them, you simply get out the hose and a scrub brush, something a city parks worker could do very easily. But for some reason the city seems to think (or got suckered) into thinking they need to pay $625 per year, per sculpture to essentially check welds and give a bath to sculptures.

I did my research (even though I already knew the answer);

One of the wonderful things about bronze sculptures is that they need little care or maintenance and will last for hundreds of years.

The best cleaner for bronze sculptures (now get ready) is plain soap and water.

Maybe we should hire a private firm to maintain the amount bullshit coming from City Hall, of course that would take more then $25,000 a year. CALL FEMA! WE HAVE AN EMERGENCY SITUATION!

I have often thought the city was getting the shaft on SculptureWalk. But not financially, to be fair, SW funds most of the project each year privately, the city provides space, some liability insurance (I think) and purchases a couple of sculptures each year (even though SW could probably raise this money privately and gift the sculptures to the city). My beef has never been with the money or even the sculptures themselves. I have never agreed with the fact the jurying process has been closed to selected individuals by SW, though SW uses public funds. And now those funds are apparently going to California to buy Ivory dish soap. Go figure.

UPDATE: The contract was approved at the October 9, 2012 Council Meeting in the consent agenda. It only took the city 10 months to make a formal announcement about it. (DOC: art cleanup) scroll to the bottom

Posted in: Art, Sculpture Walk, Sioux Falls

If you told a state legislator that Jesus walked on water, would he believe you, wait . . .

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“I believe anything the Unruhs tell me.”

Wow. Our governor is even dumber then I thought;

The Republican Governor of South Dakota signed a bill into law Tuesday, formally mandating that women in the state wait three days and visit with anti-abortion activists before undergoing a medical procedure to terminate a pregnancy.

With Gov. Dennis Daugaard’s signature, South Dakota claims the title of having the longest mandatory waiting period for an abortion out of any other state in the nation. About half of the states require patients to wait 24 hours.

There is only one abortion clinic in South Dakota: the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) in Sioux Falls.

South Dakota’s law was seen as part of a broader attack on Planned Parenthood by social conservatives acting at the state and federal levels.

The non-profit organization is perhaps best known for abortion services, thanks to media campaigns launched by its religious conservative critics. However, the vast majority of PPFA’s activities focus on education, womens’ health, disease screenings and pregnancy prevention.

To this effect, PPFA says that each year it plays a role in preventing over 600,000 unwanted pregnancies, and only three percent of their patients request abortion services. By contrast, figures show PPFA is ten times more likely to be helping prevent an abortion than carrying one out.

But in an exclusive interview with Raw Story, Republican state Sen. Al Novstrup, the South Dakota bill’s primary sponsor, did not seem to know that. He even suggested that Planned Parenthood is akin to an abortion factory, ushering women in and putting them on a doctor’s table without so much as a consultation.

He also suggested they have a financial incentive in carrying out as many abortions as possible, which is demonstrably false as similar procedures are astronomically more expensive when carried out at private hospitals. Most women pay between $500-$900 for abortion services through PPFA.

The 72-hour waiting period aside, the law will also require women to consult with one of the “crisis pregnancy centers” around the state, which are mainly run by anti-abortion activists.

I’ll say it again, the best way to end abortion is to prevent a pregnancy from happening to begin with. We should be encouraging PP to reach out and educate more people on birth control instead of continuing to tie their hands.

Posted in: abortion, Sioux Falls, State Funding, State Legislature

Just another amenity of downtown Sioux Falls condo living!

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I was at Falls Park a little bit ago and it smelled of sewage and fertilizer. So besides the great stench of the packing plant and the endless train whistles you now have one of the most polluted water ways in South Dakota (and 13th in the nation) running past your residence. Can’t beat luxury downtown living! I’ll stick with my 1888, 900 sq ft home 🙂 at least we don’t have tampons running down the street . . . yet.

Folks this is what happens when you have people in government who are climate change deniers that have not set any strategic plans going forward for our infrastructure. There has been at least 4 major water main breaks downtown in the past month (maybe more) alone. Stop spending money on ego projects!

Posted in: Uncategorized

Maybe the City of Sioux Falls should take up the State’s bid requirements

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As I was stumbling through the city council’s upcoming agenda (Item #7, click on PDF of South Veterans) I found this bid requirement interesting;

The South Veterans Parkway with arterials estimate was $44.1 million (M) and the low bid was $47.9M. The estimate for the sanitary sewer and water main improvements was $2.6M and the low bid was $1.7M. The total bid estimate was $46.7M and the total low bid amount was $49.6M. This is less than 10% over the estimate and SDDOT recommends awarding both bids.

So is this a SDDOT requirement? If so, maybe the city needs to take this on for bridge replacements?

Posted in: SF City Council, Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls City Council Agenda, July 17, 2018

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Informational Meeting – 4 PM

Mike Cooper will do a presentation about ‘WHAT’ the Planning Department does. Let me simplify it for you . . . wait for Sanford or Lloyd Companies to call.

We will get a presentation on what is going in at the RR redevelopment area. Just for the record, I do know that it will NOT be a Dave & Busters.

Regular Council Meeting – 7 PM

Item #1, Approval of Contracts,

Even though we may be running the city on fumes, we seem to have plenty of money to move a head with Phase III of the River Greenway project.

Apparently Stone Group Architects buy the old Fire Station from us, than we give them $54,000 back for a façade. What a deal!

We are replacing a Water Main at Great Bear and it is coming out of the Parks budget? Huh? I thought water pipe replacement is supposed to come out of the enterprise funds? It just goes to show that we can take money out of the CIP for the Water treatment expansion if we want to and NOT raise water rates.

We need to hire a private attorney at $10K to tell us how to fill out a purchase agreement.

We are building a bunch of (un)affordable houses that we will never make our money back on.

Item #2, Change orders, apparently we need another $62K for the Brown bear exhibit.

Item #27, 2nd Reading, Lifescape requesting to tear down affordable housing to build more parking WITHOUT a feasibility study finished. This will be an interesting one to watch. Our ramrod, pass the flaming football planning commission pushed this off to the council.

Item #28/42, 2nd Reading, Funding for USD Discovery Center and Falls Park platforms. I expect some debate on this item. Councilors Stehly and Starr have requested an actual study before moving forward with capital expenses.

Item #29, 2nd Reading, Paramedics Plus gets their automatic fee rate increases, including $21 a mile fuel charge. Not sure who they are getting their fuel from, but that’s steep.

Item #43, Resolution, Gifting some junk signs to the Stockyard experience folks.

Item #47, Resolution, Insurance coverage agreement amendment with Levitt. Not sure what this means, “Liquor liability insurance”, but apparently we will be able to get our drink on at the events. Woot! Woot!

Item #48, Resolution, Appointment to Boards, I see the most wonderful, Sandra Callies is getting appointed to the Visual Arts Commission. Woot! Woot! Woot!

Item #50-51, Motion to approve travel for either 3 OR 4 Councilors to the National League of Cities. I guess they have to debate on how many people get to go. Silly. I have often felt that councilors attending these conferences is much more valuable than hiring consultants. They bring back great ideas from other cities to help form legislation. We pay consultants to tell us what we want to hear.

Posted in: SF City Council, Sioux Falls