Sioux Falls Weather Peeps: HUGE FAIL!
I sometimes wonder if our grocery stores are secretly giving money under the table to our local weather peeps? I drove around tonight at 8:30 PM. Thirty-four degrees, streets completely clear and barely a half-inch of snow on my sidewalk. I saw very little traffic. If I was the hospitality industry in SF I would threaten to sue the TV stations for killing weekend business. Stop telling us that it ‘could’ be a blizzard? Your forecasting not only sucks, you are doing a disservice to the retail and hospitality industry in Sioux Falls.
Why are sump pumps running so damn much in Sioux Falls?
Lora Hubbel warned us well over 16 years ago when running against Munson for mayor, she said Sioux Falls will continue to have ‘water issues’ because it is flat. Who knew the voice of reason was the Hubbel-Craft?
So this has been a topic I have been hearing a lot of side talking about. Not just poor, middle-class or richer neighborhoods, but many neighborhoods in Sioux Falls have to run their sump pumps constantly. Some have had to install multiple pumps, some have said they run all the way into December.
I have also heard from developers, plumbers, contractors, city employees, residents even police about why this may be happening (usually in developments that are from the past 20-30 years or older developments that get taken over by big retail and big parking lots).
There has been even multiple reports of city employees even police officers with warrants asking OR telling residents they need to re-plumb.
Why might this be happening?
• There may be as much water running along side the piping that is in the ground as there is in the pipes. When you dig in the ground you make a great path for the water to run. Water always runs along the easiest path. When you dig thru the clay and then backfill with gravel you make a waterway. If your water supply or sewer breaks the water will run the easiest way. When the break is in the street the water may follow your water supply or sewer piping under your house. If you have a sump field, that is a easy path for it to follow.
• When the city looks for sewer leaks. If you watch the sewer department look for a leak they dig a hole and find which way the water is running, Then they dig another hole, and another hole, and another hole until they find where the water quits running outside the piping. Then they go back and dig between the wet hole and the dry hole and repair the leak. When the frost starts to heave the ground or when it goes out is when most of the breaks happen. With this wet year this may be a busy year for water and sewer line breaks.
Is our sewer system upgrades way behind?
Remember Bruce talking about the ’emergency’ of the sewer upgrades? Maybe it is past that point. As we have pointed out, over the past 8 years it was hush, hush, about the sewer upgrades so Bucktooth & Bowlcut could build his palaces of pleasure.
Many residents are being told that the sanitary sewer system just can’t handle all of the water anymore. When the sewer pipe blew up by the prison well over 7 years ago, wasn’t that our freaking warning sign? Instead, they raised water rates so they could hoard $25 million to make a re-finance payment on Lewis & Clark. Shouldn’t we have spent that money elsewhere?
With global warming and all of these 100 year rains almost every weekend during the summer, we best get our water problems under control, or we are screwed.
Was the RR Relocation project really the biggest accomplishment of the last mayor?
As we have been seeing, there have been some kinks in process. The only prospect to bid on the property so far is having issues with the quartzite and may either pull out all together or drastically change the project.
I have NO information on either.
But recently it has come to light that Bucktooth & Bowlcut may have killed it all together by asking for impossible demands from the Railroad. Of course, as I am finding out, the RR does whatever they want to.
The project was pretty much dead until some other big shots intervened and all the demands were dropped.
Maybe B & B getting the project totally killed would not have been so bad after all? Nothing really has changed for DTSF residents. Still tons of train traffic and noise and questionable storage of cars by the river and parks.
I still maintain that the RR Relocation project was one of the worst negotiated projects in the history of our city.
Councilor Stehly on John Michael’s Forum
Theresa talks about our increasing water and sewer rates.
Here is Stehly’s Letter to the Editor.