Seems Heritage Park has become the new party park (just east of the Former Zip Feed Mill on Weber Ave.);

Neighbors living around Heritage Park say it’s as if Van Eps moved to the east.

“They didn’t want people to see the crowds, the police and all that’s going on. Heritage Park will be that,” neighbor Wilma Barrett said.

Heritage Park is on the list of city parks where alcohol is banned, but these neighbors see people breaking that rule on a daily basis.

No surprise, I figured the problem would move around. In fact I still see drinking in Van Eps and I also see it at a picnic shelter by the old Drake Springs pool site. Police are there quite often.

I may get myself into a little trouble with this, but I think there should be a total ban on alcohol in ALL parks throughout the city. I would include the ball parks. I think if we are going to solve a problem like this we need to have an equal policy throughout the city.

PS – I noticed the female police officer in the video looks like the same one that tried to do a skateboard trick on a guard rail with her patrol car.

12 Thoughts on “Van Eps Park Part II

  1. The Daily Spin on July 1, 2015 at 11:10 am said:

    Don’t think a total ban will happen, maybe. What troubles me is fines for lower income parents. It’s money they need to buy milk for their kids. I suggest police regularly walk through parks and give a choice to either pour it all out or get cited/arrested. They’ll stop bringing alcohol when there’s hourly patrols. Also, cheaper than litigation with clogged courts.

    Hey, leave this woman cop alone. Men are abusive bullys with an attitude. Women are more diplomatic and true peace officers. We need more women. Don’t get this one terminated.

  2. The Daily Spin on July 1, 2015 at 11:18 am said:

    If you can’t afford $100 for Denny Dome, swimming pool rate hikes, or Huether tennis you hang out at parks. Make some of these things affordable (ie. Discounts, low income passes) and the parks issue might be tamed. This city is the rich and the rest of us. Thank god for city parks. Lose this subject before Huether fences us out.

  3. Return of Peonage on July 1, 2015 at 2:30 pm said:

    In many parts of this country for over 150 years we had a disorganized – organized effort to keep people separated and not trusting one another. We could go into this in detail some other time. But an example is when a person of certain skin shades was caught in a town after a specified hour or after the town bell was rung, they would be picked up the authorities and hauled off to the work camps, jail or had their necks stretched from a local special tree. This was justified by a term an old term, peonage. If they were hauled off to jail, fines and fees would be assessed on people unable to pay. To pay these charges off, they were put into a servitude system, peonage.

    Peonage, also called debt slavery or debt servitude, is a system where an employer compels a worker to pay off a debt with work. Legally, peonage was outlawed by Congress in 1867

    Slavery v. Peonage | Slavery By Another Name
    http://www.pbs.org/tpt/slavery-by-another-name/themes/peonage/PBS

    Cool Hand Luke was released in 1967 illustrating the conditions in an American peonage prison starring Paul Newman. This model is still functioning and is being restarted in many parts of the USA.

    Because we no longer have the legal term on the books, our police force and proper citizens look for other means to accomplish the same thing. In the last century our city fathers had a chamber of commerce committee ready to great each arriving train to “help” these colorful potential residents book passage to other towns.

    Our current mayor actively recruits new residents to enhance our population numbers but does not have the means to make sure they are not dumped onto the county welfare agencies. If the agencies can’t help, let the jail fill up with the leftovers.

  4. shyne on July 1, 2015 at 2:45 pm said:

    They should reserve a place for them in Flandreau so they can smoke pot all day. The city could get some use out of the underutilized city busses and drive them up there every day.

  5. scott on July 1, 2015 at 8:10 pm said:

    it looks like the female officer has now been given an old crown victoria to drive, since she put her new explorer in the shop.

  6. Johnny Roastbeef on July 2, 2015 at 8:54 am said:

    The day I can’t sip a beer at a ball park, is the day this stops being AMERICA!

  7. hornguy on July 2, 2015 at 9:04 am said:

    “Our current mayor actively recruits new residents to enhance our population numbers but does not have the means to make sure they are not dumped onto the county welfare agencies.”

    You can say a lot about bad things about the mayor – including in regard to how this matter is being handled – but I’m pretty sure he’s not hanging out in Eagle Butte handing out Indian tacos and buffalo chili and trying to seduce people into a black, windowless van.

  8. l3wis on July 2, 2015 at 9:07 am said:

    “t looks like the female officer has now been given an old crown victoria to drive, since she put her new explorer in the shop.”

    Reminds me of my ‘first car’ 1965 4-door Dodge Dart. Gotta start them out with a ‘grandma car’

  9. The Daily Spin on July 2, 2015 at 9:28 am said:

    1965 Dodge Dart not cool unless you put an 8 track tape player in it.

  10. anominous on July 2, 2015 at 3:40 pm said:

    I heard someone hid a bunch of 40 oz’s around McKennan Park.

  11. The Daily Spin on July 3, 2015 at 10:14 am said:

    Couldn’t find the 40 oz.. Looked really hard. Lots of police tho. Sleeping or shooting white elephants. Is this one of those snipe hunting pranks?

  12. tony70 on July 7, 2015 at 4:23 am said:

    Yep, banning alcohol at the parks and ball fields will solve the problem. You are imaginative as the city itself. Let’s just say you can’t do it and the problem will go away. Banning things doesn’t solve the “harsh reality” of life.

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