Mayor Mike promised to ‘experiment’ with snowgates during the campaign, something that has been long overdue. A friend of mine had a conversation with Mike about it the other day and he said he will budget to experiment with them. Something Staggers fought for his entire term on the council. The biggest argument against them was that they do not work, which is not the case. Many communities use them not only for 40 inches of snow, but for leaf removal from the streets (Cour De Lene, Idaho). I’m glad to see Mike will be taking on this endeavor.

Other things discussed were tree trimming in the boulevard and expanding Drake Springs Pool (since the city scaled back the main pool before building it) and I want to clarify this. In the original plans shown of Drake Springs Pool, the main pool was much larger, not sure why it was scaled back, but I’m sure ‘sour grapes’ had something to do with it. Mike said he will absolutely not expand the pool (which sounds reasonable because, quite frankly, it is too late and he has been chomping at the bit to build an indoor pool which I’m sure will be in the 2011 budget). And he seems to be confused about tree trimming, he sounded like he was under the impression that property owners have to take care of adjacent city property (and this is true according to city charter) but it still isn’t right considering the city is legally liable for the property. But since the constitutionality of code enforcement is in question now, the city may have no choice but to take care of their own property. They have no legal standing to fine you if you don’t trim their trees.

14 Thoughts on “We may just get those snowgates after all

  1. hosenpheffer on May 29, 2010 at 9:36 am said:

    Two things bother me about this post. One is the fact that it is hearsay as to one persons side of a conversation. The second, that you failed to mention, is the fact that your friend called the mayor on his personal cell phone after she was told he would not be meeting with anyone, and was offered the opportunity to voice her concerns at the Whisk & Chop or the council meeting.
    The fact that Huether gave her his personal cell number during the race does not give her permission to call it now. I hope she reads this post and understands that SHE is out of line.
    I’m sure I am not the only one who would rationalize the situation as I have.

  2. l3wis on May 29, 2010 at 6:30 pm said:

    Who pays Huether’s wages? We do. We can call him whenever we want to. He is a public official now, and he better figure out damn quick what that means.

  3. l3wis on May 29, 2010 at 6:33 pm said:

    And secondly I think it is a bit hypocritical that he would give everyone and his dog his cell number when he was running for office (even emailing it to me 5 times in a row begging me to call him) but once he became mayor he doesn’t want anyone to talk to him anymore? He had a choice of who he wanted to talk to while running for office, he doesn’t have that choice now.

  4. l3wis on May 29, 2010 at 6:35 pm said:

    And thirdly I don’t think it is fair to hold public meetings in a private establishment. The listening sessions should be at Carnegie.

  5. But Carnegie doesn’t look as folky for his friends at KELO and KSFY. It’s all about the photo op.

  6. l3wis on May 29, 2010 at 7:03 pm said:

    Just hang up a couple of Harvey Dunn prints, put some pot pourri bowls on the window shelves and you will be set.

  7. l3wis on May 29, 2010 at 7:05 pm said:

    I beat the Gargoyle on this one too;

    http://www.argusleader.com/article/20100529/UPDATES/100529007

    “The city also will buy two snowgates for motor graders to test how well they work in Sioux Falls’ snow removal efforts. The gates can be dropped to prevent graders from depositing snow berms across driveways and parking lot entrances.”

  8. anominous on May 29, 2010 at 8:01 pm said:

    They will work great on the snow in the events center parking lot.

  9. l3wis on May 29, 2010 at 8:07 pm said:

    Maybe they can test them there first since there will only be about 4-5 events a year there.

  10. Poly43 on May 30, 2010 at 6:10 am said:

    I have watched the Henke Hi-Gate video several times over the past six months.

    http://www.henkemfg.com/higate_video.html

    For the life of me I cannot figure out where former mayor munson was coming from with his comments in this news piece.

    http://www.ksfy.com/news/local/80765642.html

    We asked Mayor Dave Munson what he thinks about using snow gates for the city.

    He says quote, “The City of Sioux Falls has looked into snow gates many times and repeatedly found the same information. Snow gates are used in very few communities because they cannot be used in heavy snowfalls, they require significant additional staff and equipment to maintain the same level of service we currently provide.”

  11. Mike C on May 30, 2010 at 6:25 am said:

    I shouldn’t comment on this being an out-of-towner, however what happen in Sioux Falls does affect us.

    I have no problem with Mike holding listening sessions at the Whisk and Chop, in fact it makes sense, go to the people, however he should move the sessions around, like at the Burnt (Fry’n) Pan on West 12th, or flyn’ J truckstop (no shortage of opinion there) or even the Eastgate bowling ally.

    Why not experiment with snowgates? If they work keep’em and get more, if they don’t, return then or sell them to some other community or township.

    Mike is now a public servant, the buck stops with him. If something is not getting done, it is his fault. He can’t fix it unless he knows about it.

  12. l3wis on May 30, 2010 at 7:23 pm said:

    Poly- Munson was against snow gates for one reason; it didn’t benefit the special interests.

    Mike- you are right in a lot of ways. The city charter (though flawed in many ways) gives absolute power to the mayor by the most part. When fuckups occur it will be his head.

  13. anominous on June 2, 2010 at 9:05 pm said:

    Maybe they can make a new plowing zone just for the Whisk & Chop.

  14. l3wis on June 2, 2010 at 9:11 pm said:

    Is there a zone for mediocre locally owned restaurant food.

    I have a confession, I worked there for one day. While I found the management and co-workers pretty cool, the product and clientele was lacking.

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