The Mayor’s proposed CIP Budget

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If you are a city government ‘nerdy’ like myself, you will get a kick out of the proposed budget (DOC)

Funny how the SFPD can’t scrounge up $2,200 to fix windows they damaged but we have all kinds of money for other things.

Here are some highlights;

$100K for Event Center ‘improvements’ (Budgeting for improvements on a building that isn’t even completed yet. Anybody know a good ‘sider’)

$2.76 Million to the Pavilion ($500K for a generator, $320K for escalators, $200K for sculpture garden improvements) I would also like to respond to a commenter that said they believed the Pavilion already brought in good shows. I agree. I think what most people want is MORE shows and diversity. Nobody is asking the Pavilion to stop what they are doing currently (Musicals, Symphony, Plays etc.) they just want to see other stuff there. One of the biggest hurdles is that promoters don’t like dealing with them anymore.

$4.8 million on the River Greenway. Continuing to subsidize developers bulkheads and landscaping along the 15th dirtiest river in the country. We could sure buy a lot of lagoon pumps, honey wagons and manure spreaders for $4.8 million.

$800K for the Sanford Sports Complex Improvements. I thought the SSC was awarded millions in TIFs so they could improve the site. Hornswaggled again by the Sanfords of the world.

$400K towards McKennan Park Band Shell replacement. Was there something wrong with the current one?

$5.6 million for Falls Park improvements. Once again, I ask the question, What is wrong with Falls Park? It it is beautiful and well maintained.

$10 Million for new parking ramp Downtown. Didn’t we just tear one down for $1 and proposing to close the one next to Sushi Masa? Now that’s prudence!

There are many projects for water, sewage and drainage in the CIP. Which I find odd. They keep telling us that they had to raise our water/sewer rates because there are enterprise funds now to help pay for upgrades. Why dip into the CIP?

Posted in: Sioux Falls

The battle of the ‘Big Bulge’

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EC Seam & Joint closeup IMAG2247_1

Guest post and photos by Citizens for Integrity;

Drive by the shiny New Denny Sanford Premiere Events Center in the classy north side industrial neighborhood. But don’t stay too long. On some hot summer South Dakota day or corresponding super cold winter blast, it might become dangerous as the panels break their tiny screws. The blizzard winds might just catch the reverse flashed or lapped panels and send them flying. Not quite Dakota smart.

When someone looks at the EC from a distance (quite a distance) it has a decent look. The viewer can see what the architect was trying to accomplish. As the viewer gets closer, the look becomes strange. Something is not quite right. If the viewer gets a chance to get real close all kinds of problems arise (or bulge).

I drive past the EC almost every day in my work. Watching the process of snapping this building together like a big puzzle is interesting to me. I know, boring activity to most.

As the EC iron was being placed, the 400′ cranes were fascinating to watch as they danced under the planes taking off and landing on the nearby runway. Then as the contractors rushed to close up areas, the light gauge steel studs went in so interior sheetrock could get started. A fiberglass blanket could be seen going up between the metal studs. What I must have missed was any structural plywood before the polystyrene was applied. I found this surprising but oh well, I’m not involved and there must be a really strong cover going on.

What I didn’t understand from the very first pieces of siding, were the interesting bulges occurring as I saw the workers struggling with the installation. Maybe the possible lack of a strong backing allowed for the fight ahead. The foam insulation board might be there to provide a ‘cushion’ to help force the unbending siding on?

Why does this fascinate me? My family has been in the metalworking business for many decades. I grew up learning basics of how to make metal do things by incredible experts. When creating a sheetmetal enclosure out of any metal intended to be applied to a curved surface, it must be pre-rolled or formed to the shape it is intended to be. It is not possible to ‘field form’ 16 foot pre-formed straight channels. A wrinkling occurs on the horizontal edges and the bulging look to the vertical face. The vertical and horizontal edges must be pre-formed prior to paint being applied.

BTW, why weren’t the insert ends pre-formed with enough tolerance to allow them to fit into their corresponding sleeves? You should see the field worker modifications currently allowing water to flow into the wall cavity.

We might as well discuss the finish. It appears this is a relatively inexpensive cold-rolled galvanized steel they have used. I have purchased thousands of tons of 20 gauge rolled-rolled steel. It is a nice surface to paint but not very weather resistant. Each flat piece of steel actually has a minimum of 6 sides, I know this is hard to believe but there are. Now take the steel and form it into a shape ready to be attached. The forming process creates many more edges to be covered by paint. Each of these edges can only hold a certain amount of paint or virtually none depending on the application process. My calculations show there are likely at least 10 paintable edges with 8 paintable surfaces to each of these panels. A total of 18. Everywhere this metal has be run through a press brake, the coating has been opened or cracked, ready to start a rusting action.

Think of how our South Dakota galvanized grain bins dull and rust with age. Rust always starts on the damp or exposed edges.

Why are 18 surfaces this important? As the building ages, extreme weather is going to make the building panels move. It is already seen on the hot days we have had this summer. I have noticed a ‘popping’ look on the upper eastside as the morning sun beat on it. Nice touch. I wonder what would happen with all the heavy bass of Jason Aldean or Cher type concerts. Instead of swaying Pavilion balconies we can watch already stressed tiny screws blowing their tops.

BTW, have you ever been in a metal building and heard it pop in hot weather or ‘crack’ in bitter cold? You’d swear it was coming in on you. This is the natural expansion and contraction a designer must plan for.

Ok, back to the paint or silver coating. There is no horizontal expansion gap between the panels. Friction is a metal coatings worst friend. The panels will shrink and expand at differing rates. As constructed, this will wear the coating off and create a place for rust to begin. The building will begin to turn a dirty looking color in some interesting spots. Have you ever changed a baby’s diaper? We called the color this building will become “Baby Poo” brown. It will not be pleasant and with all the reverse flashing installed allowing water to enter the building walls, the building will begin to stink of smelly mold.

There is only one way to fix this building siding. The exterior siding must be completely removed. To retain the silver look, cover it with a preformed proper aluminized or stainless material. All the flashings must also be replaced. This building is a disaster and it is not even open. Who is going to pay? Or are we going to rely on those poor little self-tapping steel metal screws to work for 50 years?

I now know how we can have a quick $200 million events center for $100 million. Nice job Mr. Mayor! Is this how Mortenson is going to build us an indoor swimming pool?

Posted in: Event Center, Sioux Falls

Mayor Announces 2012 Top Ten Wins for him, but not for Sioux Falls

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SNARC ALERT!

Mayor Mike Subprime held a press conference yesterday, January 29, 2013, at 4 a.m. at City Hall and presented what he considered the top ten wins for him and his ilk in Sioux Falls City government during 2012.

Mayor Subprime presented a countdown;

#1. Pension changes in City government will save taxpayers millions, enabling us to spend those savings on more spray parks and special interest club sport facilities. We successfully identified strategic pension changes affecting current and future employees in order to reduce and stabilize rising pension costs. The savings over the next 30 years from these changes is estimated to be over $300 million, in which we will spend on building a new events center to replace our current events center that has not been built yet.

#2. Sioux Falls inks record-breaking naming rights deal for Events Center before the voters even approved building the facility! We successfully negotiated and signed one of the richest naming rights deals in history for a market our size when the City inked a $20.75 million, 25-year deal with Sanford Health, First PREMIER Bank, and PREMIER Bankcard to name the new Denny Sanford PREMIER Center, and we did it all in the dark with blindfolds on!

#3. Big-time manipulation of figures, economic development, job creation and growth!

• $490 million of construction activity permitted, the second highest year in history. Thank God we included the Events Center in that number.
• Over 2,000 jobs created. (I personally pulled that number out of my ass)
• 3.7 percent unemployment rate (We of course included part-time, teenagers and the underemployed in that figure)
• Great teamwork with Sioux Falls Development and the Governor’s Office. In fact, Pat Costello only hung up on me three times.
• Record boardings at Sioux Falls Airport. Still waiting for them to return.
• 158,800 citizens now call Sioux Falls jail!

• Over 8,000 citizens signed the snowgates petition, then we gave them the middle finger, told them to shut up and go home.

#4. The old River Ramp comes down. A new Hilton Hotel sprouts up! A goal of the City for more than a decade was finally accomplished in 2012 with the removal of the 50-year old River Ramp parking garage in downtown Sioux Falls. Ground was broken on a much-anticipated 136-room Hilton Garden Inn & Suites complete with conference room meeting space, restaurant, and lounge estimated at $30 million, with millions of developer welfare handouts from taxpayers for TIF’s, landscaping, and a squirty-squirt park, all of which is gigantic waste of money just like snowgates.

#5. Team Policing is a huge success in keeping citizens safe, but not from stray bullets in shootouts with suicidal maniacs! The Police Department’s reorganization effort and Team Policing Initiative resulted in many cutting-edge programs. The hospitals even changed their free meals program to the SFPD. Trust and communication between Police and community members have been enhanced along with providing education on personal safety and the security of property, unless of course you are in violation of city ordinances, then we will haul your ass to jail and threaten to sue. The Pettigrew Heights neighborhood is just one of many success stories in 2012 that we will claim to be a success again in 2013 and 2014 without really cleaning up anything, but if we continue to say it is a success enough times it just might magically happen.

#6. “Our new Events Center” is going up and taxpayers secured incredible interest rates without the place costing a dime! The official ground breaking for the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center was held on August 30. The foundation systems and on-site utilities were completed WITH MONEY FROM THE CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT FUND instead of from the bond fund, and the McCart Park parking lot (that will have to be replaced by a parking ramp eventually) and the new gravity flow sanitary sewer main were constructed off site to ensure its reliability the next time we have to dump your shit in the Sioux River. We are ahead of our goal to have 85 percent of the work performed by local subcontractors and suppliers that we just happened to have already picked out even before the first Events Center task force met.

An overall interest rate of 3.13 percent was achieved on two bond sales composed of taxable and tax-exempt bonds to raise the needed $114.5 million in financing. These outstanding rates will result in interest savings of millions of dollars when compared to the interest costs initially forecast for the Events Center project, but like I said already, it won’t cost you a dime. In fact, the Events Center will be so profitable I project we will all be getting our money back sometime in 2057 or 2058.

#7. Lewis & Clark water is flowing into Sioux Falls just in time to make it appear the $80 million we spent on it wasn’t a total waste of money! A new and critical supply of water from the Lewis & Clark Regional Water System, which draws water from the Missouri River, was tapped on July 30. Construction was completed on a one-mile, 20-inch diameter water transmission main to connect the Sioux Falls water distribution system. Lewis & Clark water provides Sioux Falls with a drought-resistant supply offsetting demand on the Big Sioux Aquifer, the main source for the city (even though we will probably only really need water from L & C about 2 or 3 days out of the year). Without the Lewis & Clark water, lawn watering schedules and restrictions would be much more restrictive in an extended drought period, but during a drought you shouldn’t be watering your lawns anyway, unless you are an obsessive compulsive selfish prick.

#8. Surpassed the 200-mile mark of our “SMOOTHER ROADS AHEAD” campaign, and man am I tired, next time I am going to drive it instead of running it! In the past three construction seasons, we have repaired, rebuilt, and/or replaced over 200 lane miles of inner core roads. This work improved the driving surface, reduces driver delay, creates safer roads, and adds capacity to the arterial street system. Believe it or not, #8 is actually true.

#9. www.siouxfalls.org website is completely redesigned and receiving rave reviews from city employees who are in denial of how poorly it operates. There has been a complete redesign of the City’s official website, www.siouxfalls.org. Not sure why, maybe the media services and IT people needed something to do besides pretending to fix things. The new website provides a more complicated navigation structure, outdated design, and an almost non-exsistant search function. Over 20,000 pages of my press releases and 20 GB of data were restructured for my massive ego. Please check us out today (but stay away from the council meetings page, it probably isn’t working) And try the fun game ‘Find the council meeting calendar’.

#10. Our City’s “piggy bank” keeps growing while our debt is at a record all time high! We balance progress with drunken sailorness in Sioux Falls! Despite news of governments at all levels around the country struggling to live within their means, we just say fuck it and say ‘Charge the Card’, the Finance department is anticipating the City of Sioux Falls will add dollars to its general operating reserves for the THIRD YEAR IN A ROW while adding 10x that to our debt rolls. Although originally budgeting to use $3.8 million in reserves, the City’s modest revenue estimates and strong budgetary management practices ensured the City remains fiscally strong with General Fund reserves, which exceed policy targets. Finance is also forecasting excess capital improvement plan money that will be utilized to its fullest soon, like when we run out of money building the Events Center.

Posted in: Mayor Subprime Mike Huether, Sioux Falls

So when is the parking ramp scheme going to rear it’s ugly head?

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We are already seeing it, parking problems at the arena site. The city was warned about this even before the new Event Center location was chosen. What can we expect when the Event Center opens it’s doors? Shuttle buses?

To eliminate congestion there will be a free shuttle service running from the Sioux Empire Fairgrounds to the arena complex.

Some may ask why a parking ramp was not included in the new EC plan? In fact I asked the question at a council meeting. Crickets. One can assume it would have added too much to the price-tag of the the EC, which would have made it more difficult to sell the idea.

Let’s face it, a parking ramp makes sense, and you could charge patrons to use it. Would you be willing to pay a few bucks so you could walk a couple of 100 feet from your car into a warm elevator into the EC? Of course you would.

It’s about perception. Huether promised us the EC wouldn’t cost more then 100 million, adding a parking ramp could add up to $20 million to the project.

My assumption was that the mayor and his staff decided to kick the can down the road. Rumor has it that there was even a joke about it circulating around city hall with his inner staff.

How would we pay for this ramp? Bonding of course was the inevitable punchline.

Prepare yourself, because if you think we can build this facility for $115 million, you took the bait, hook, line and sinker. A parking ramp will be built in a few years, and we will have another ‘unexpected’ expense for the EC.

*I also heard from an insider that the city has been shifting around capital/enterprise funds for sewer, water, infrastructure etc. to help pay for construction of the EC that is not included in the bond loan. Of course, this is something I feared would happen when they were raising water and sewer rates (enterprise funds). The claim is that the money is only being used to link up to the EC . . . yeah . . . right. Would love to hear more detail on this rumor from the most transparent city hall we have ever had 🙂

Posted in: Event Center, Sioux Falls

Quen Be De puts out a misleading campaign postcard (so much for a ‘positive’ campaign promise)

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According to De,

When others said “No” to progress, De worked to build consensus on major projects:

• Lewis and Clark Water System (Kermit actually voted FOR the system)

• Phillips to the Falls (Kermit voted for this project also, but did not approve of the ‘middle of the night’ extra funding of the project that actually got Mayor Munson in a lot of hot water.)

• New Events Center (Neither Knudson, or Staggers were sitting on the city council when the Events Center location was picked by the council. Staggers supported an Events Center, a profitable one. He made this very clear during the mayoral campaign.)

• DT Improvements Projects (Not sure what she means by this, but most of the infrastructure projects DT were approved by Staggers. Staggers did not support the facade easement program. And for good reason, it was a handout to DT businesses. I’m all for community development, but like Staggers, I believe the project should have been available to ALL SF businesses not just Downtown businesses.)

• River Greenway (Kermit and councilor Costello voted against this project, not because they were specifically against it but because Munson doubled the price of the project practically overnight without giving an explanation)

Nice try De. Next time do your research. And BTW, my property taxes have gone up every year since I bought my home over 9 years ago. Rates don’t mean anything when my bill is larger every year.

Posted in: De Knudson, SF City Council, Sioux Falls