UPDATE II: Sioux Falls continues their ‘White Trash 4th’ festivities

UPDATE II: So a friend who used to live in Sioux Falls and still has businesses here sent me a suggestion after reading this post, he now lives in a suburb of Casper, WY;

Hey saw your article. They do something like that with the fireworks here in Glenrock, WY. It’s a $10 minimum donation to the fire department per car and they have two baseball fields where you wait in line and have like 6 stations each where you can shoot your fireworks and all the fire trucks are there. It’s a great event!

UPDATE: From cynicism comes relief. I am reminded, quite often (daily) that my cynicism is a problem, to which I reply, ‘If we lived in a perfect world, I wouldn’t be a cynic.’ So after posting this I have had tons of people reach out privately to me, at first I thot to scold me about not being woke about trashy people, but in fact, quite the opposite. People agree, pick up your trash, they also agree, even poor kids should be able to have fun. The solution? The city should designate a fireworks area for people who don’t have the property (or the legal right) to do it in the city limits. So you have a designated area. There have been tons of suggestions, but I suggested Sanford Sports Complex, because the parking lots and football fields would be well suited in case a fire broke out. You could also get a non-profit involved to raise money by having food trucks at the event, selling sparklers and snaps, etc. and putting out a message about their charity. They could also hand out garbage bags to event goers and afterwards volunteer to clean up. It could be a great community event and everyone would feel included instead doing the duck and run under the Burnside Bridge. Thank You! I love it when my cynicism leads to solutions, but doesn’t it always 🙂 Now if we can just get the knuckleheads at city hall to see the vision . . . nevermind, already feeding the leading mayoral candidate my ideas, because this one is out to lunch.

It doesn’t fail, every year after the 4th I am dodging empty fireworks containers on the bike trail, it has been this way since I can remember. The irony is the penalty for shooting off fireworks is less then littering, oh, and you are doing it all on taxpayer owned property. Skanky, trashy, lazy, pathetic clems. They do it in the same spot every year (right off of Burnside). Not one cop has driven by and witnessed this in 30 years? It’s one thing to use public land to shoot off fireworks illegally, but did you ever think about bringing a garbage bag and cleaning it up? Skanky, trashy, lazy, pathetic clems. This part bothers me the most. I’m okay with some trailer trash kids blowing things up once in awhile, but for Godsakes, why aren’t the parents making them clean this up? Because you know they are present, probably their idea. Skanky, trashy, lazy, pathetic clems. So next year, I want an undercover officer stationed under the Burnside bridge on the bike trail, and start handing out those tickets, mostly for littering. I know it would require an officer to leave their vehicle, and that can be a struggle, but just pretend you are getting a FREE 64 oz Fountain Mt. Dew at the C-Store (probably pissed they don’t have a drive thru.)

Did the City of Sioux Falls finance director tell a little white lie about airport bonding?

Well, he didn’t technically lie about the matter at hand, but yah gotta scratch your head a bit. Last week while the city council was approving bonding for the airport, Shawn Pritchett, the City of Sioux Falls Finance Director was asked a simple question. For reference, the Airport Authority is an appointed board and NOT elected, so they cannot approve bonds, they must have the next governing body approve the bonds, which is the city council. The bonds, with interest, will be paid in full by the airport authority thru parking and other revenues, the taxpayers are NOT on the hook for the $30 million in bonds, unless you park at the airport 🙂 So what was the question? I think Councilor Lucy Bayse asked the question, “So by approving these bonds, are citizens on the hook for the bonds or have any other financial obligation?” I’m paraphrasing, but it was pretty basic and to the point. Shawn replies, “NO.” Then goes into a detailed explanation as to why, as I explained above. So was he lying? Not at all, in fact, I see it identical to how he sees it. But, being the finance director you have to know what is coming down the pipeline? Right? Especially in a week!? So while we have NO financial obligation to the bond last week, this week, they decided to give the airport a $5 million dollar ‘LOAN’. (Item #33) Yeah, it has to be paid back, blah, blah, blah, but didn’t you just tell us last week that we had NO FINANCIAL OBLIGATION to this project (not just the bonds) then you roll out a loan? So which is it Shawn? Oh, and don’t think I don’t support the loan, I actually told a councilor that instead of the dumb bond and loan, the city should have bonded this project (50%) instead of those stupid rec centers. Expanding our airport will have more economic impact on us then a floating turd pond.

UPDATE: Is the Planning Commission Approving an AI Data Center?

UPDATE: If you watch the meeting from the other night you will see that a representative from the city of Brandon showed up in opposition of this item. Not sure what his role is, but I think he works in planning. He basically said the opposition comes from two directions, 1) They are not sure what kind of data center they plan to build and how large it will be, they said the company (foreign) has been very secretive about sharing any plans with the city of Brandon 2) Which was the most important part of the opposition, was that area is already zoned for FUTURE residential growth which is in Brandon’s long term growth plan and has been for years. Of course our boot licking planning commission approved the re-zone because they said this is just preliminary (they say this crap all the time) but it is NOT. It changes it now from a future growth of residential to industrial which means to change it back you would have to go thru the process all over again with a new land owner. Stupidity. Until this foreign company reveals EXACTLY what they plan to build, we should leave it AS is, Ag land with future use for residential. It was also revealed at the meeting that 300 people would be working at the site. Hogwash. These places pull this crap all the time. This is the amount of construction workers that would be on site while being built, that would most likely be shipped in from other parts of the country, but once finished it may have 20 full-time peeps who will work mostly in security and maintenance.

Unfortunately the way our planning approvals are setup, they must first ask for a re-zone of the property BEFORE they can announce what they plan to build there (Item #5A-Regular Agenda);

FLUA-021026-2025: Future Land Use Amendment to reclassify a Development Area identified in the Shape Sioux Falls 2040 Comprehensive Plan from Tier 3 to Tier 1 and amend the Future Land Use Map for the area from Residential to Future Light Industrial located east of Veterans Pkwy. and south of E. Rice St.

First off, I am NOT a fan of changing residential zoned property into light industrial especially with our housing needs in Sioux Falls. Secondly, it is pretty obvious they are changing the zoning to put in a data center but there is NO mention of a Data Center in the attached documentation on the agenda item. I wonder if the commission is smart enough to ask the question, and if the client have plans to power it? These data centers take massive amounts of electricity, how will this affect the grid in Sioux Falls? Also, the company I linked above is a registered FOREIGN LLC, and has only been registered for 6 months. I hope the commission sees thru this ruse, but if not, hopefully the city council will see this for what it is, an AI data center that will suck us dry on energy and probably drive up our energy costs. WE DO NOT WANT THIS IN SIOUX FALLS. Besides the property taxes, there is very little economic advantages of having a large data center like this in Sioux Falls. It won’t generate any sales tax revenue and it will mostly be full of servers and very few employees. We will see how this plays out, I see the planning department recommends approval (which is a way of making sure the commission rubber stamps this).

City tries to ‘gloss over’ nepotism

Oh the timing of this article couldn’t be more dubious;

The butterfly effect is the idea that a small action can lead to a large and unpredictable change in the future. As a talent acquisition coordinator for the city of Sioux Falls, Ethan Beck finds pride in knowing he plays a small part in the onset of that ripple effect.   

Notice the piece is sponsored by USD, and NOT the city, and comes after I have exposed the blatant nepotism at city hall and after Mr. Beck’s Mom decided to resign as COS to either run for mayor or run some one else’s campaign. Sure, the kid has a great resume, but I’m sure there are a hundred candidates just like him in the region that could have done the job, and didn’t need mommy to help them.

Stop the Opt Out

Local group is circulating this petition, I signed it today;

The Sioux Falls School Board just voted to approve ANOTHER opt out – this time to the tune of $2.1M for 10 years. The opt-out will allow the school district to raise additional funds beyond what they get in their existing tax levy and state aid, by collecting taxes from property owners in the district. SD Law allows citizens to bring this to a vote of the people (rather than a board of five unilaterally making the decision for all of Sioux Falls residents.) Deadline is July 17th. We will be circulating petitions to bring the opt-out to a public vote. This group will be for sharing information and locations to sign a petition (if you are a registered voter in the Sioux Falls School District) or if you would like to circulate a petition (have to be a registered voter in the State of South Dakota) you can find out more information for events/opportunities to volunteer at.

You know my feelings on this, stop handing out TIFs like candy and our opt outs would go away.