December 2013

Is the Sioux Falls CVB putting all of their eggs in one basket?

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Should this news come as some kind of surprise?

Sioux Falls will miss out on hosting a pair of youth sports tournaments and the millions of dollars in economic benefit that comes with them.

Other cities with newer facilities and unique fan amenities outshone Sioux Falls when the city went to bid for hosting the same softball and soccer tournaments it has held in the past. Sioux Falls even offered more cash to tournament operators than any other city, but it didn’t make a difference.

“We’re always in second place,” said Teri Schmidt, executive director of the Sioux Falls Convention and Visitor Bureau, which submitted bids on behalf of the city’s youth sports organizations.

Better not let MMM hear you say that Teri. This is San Antonio, gosh darn it, uh, I mean Sioux Falls, we should be first in everything!

There are a lot of factors why SF loses these kind of events. Bigger facilities, bigger cities, better weather, location, air travel, more lodging (remember the last time we had that soccer tournament, people had to lodge in Sioux City). A new bigger arena  isn’t going to bring BETTER and BIGGER tournaments and conventions in. There is just some things Sioux Falls cannot provide, as I mentioned above. We are what we are, and once people like Teri and MMM realize this, we can focus on what WE ARE accessible to and capable of.

There seems to be this attitude that we need to shoot high, and if we miss, make a bunch of excuses. Sioux Falls should be trying to attain ALL kinds of tournaments. Tournaments THAT WE CAN ACCOMODATE.

Any kind of tax revenue being brought to our city is a good thing, big or small, but it seems we just want to continue to ‘think big’ and hope it pays off. I say ‘think medium’ and do it often, and it will pay off.

Artists for Hunger, Friday & Saturday

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Artists Against Hunger is a bi-annual art show that focuses on emerging and established area artists while raising money and awareness for Feeding South Dakota. Over the course of 4.5 years, we have donated over 60,000 pounds of food to local families in need while establishing a fun, and friendly environment for artists and the community alike. Three floors of 8th & Railroad Center will be filled with original, local artwork. The event is FREE and open to the public!

Friday December 6th: 5-9PM

Saturday December 7th: 10AM-5:30PM

I will have some paintings in the exhibit also for sale.

Also as a favor to Feeding South Dakota,

Sanaa’s is holding her annual charity dinner this Saturday, Dec. 7th, from 5pm to 8pm.

She is furnishing all the food and all the labor and will donate all the contributions to Feeding South Dakota.  She is bearing the cost of the food and cost of the hired help to prepare and serve the dinner.

The contribution is $10 plus two cans of food of any kind.  Representatives of Feeding South Dakota will be on hand to collect the contributions of the money and the cans of food.

Sanaa’s Mediterranean Gourmet restaurant is located at 401 East 8th Street, Sioux Falls, in the 8th & Railroad Center building there.

How did Scheels get it’s own traffic light?

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Not sure if this is precedence or not, but I am trying to recall any individual business that has gotten it’s own traffic light entrance or a similar traffic advantage paid for by taxpayers?

The last I can recall is the McDonalds at 41st & Minnesota getting their own turn lane off of Minnesota Ave.

I wonder what the rule/law is with spacing between controlled intersections? Is there enough space between 41st and 49th to justify another traffic light?

The irony in all this is how the city has actually harmed a lot of private retail businesses throughout the city by putting in mediums so you can’t make a left turn into them from the right side of the street.

I wonder if a sizable donation to the Ice Plex may have something to do with it. Just curious.

 

So are the county’s tax valuations accurate and fair?

Interesting that we were just talking about this the other day on the blog, and our ever increasing property taxes. But this puts a new twist on it;

A lawsuit rising from a disputed property tax assessment involving Minnehaha County could set a troublesome precedent, county officials say.

Hutchinson Technology is suing the county, claiming the sale of a 300,000-square foot building to Sanford Health in 2009 showed the county greatly overvalued the building for tax purposes. The site at 2301 E. 60th St. had been the Hutchinson Technology campus. Sanford acquired it to be its research headquarters.

The most recent assessed valuation before the sale was $18.6 million. But Hutchinson Technology sold the site to Sanford for $12 million. Now Hutchinson Technology is challenging tax assessments from as far back as 2005 and possibly to 2001, according to Kersten Kappmeyer, Minnehaha County state’s attorney chief civil deputy.

Make no mistake, I have often thought state and local governments are greedy when it comes to taxing individuals, nickel and diming us on higher utility rates and fees. Continuing opt-outs for crime prevention and punishment (when changing state laws for non-violent drug offenders would fix the problem) while handing out TIF’s to the big boys and not taxing profits of corporations.

If the County loses this lawsuit, the ripple affect could be devastating, for their coffers anyway.

Does the city sweep leaves from the street anymore?

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Over the last few years, I have heard more and more complaints from residents that public works is not sweeping the streets for leaves anymore. Obviously, today wouldn’t be the ideal day to do it, BUT over the last couple of months, the city could have easily swept the streets. We have the resources (funding, employees, street sweepers) so why don’t we do it?

The mayor and public works MAY claim this is a cost saving measure, but I would disagree. Clogging the street drains with leaves can get very expensive, very fast. Keeping streets clean from foliage waste also helps with cutting down on surface corrosion.

So why isn’t the city doing it? I know the mayor has been asked about it several times in public meetings, and Public Works director Cotter has mentioned that adjoining property owners are responsible for out to the middle of the street. Huh?! So not only must we fix the city’s sidewalks, maintain the trees in the boulevard, but now we need to sweep the streets for them to? What next? Put snowplows on the front of our cars and plow our own streets? (which isn’t too far from the truth considering the poor job they have been doing plowing the main roads today).

This push to conserve and save the city money on street sweeping might be prudent if the city was in dire straits, hardly the case after building a $100 million dollar events center and the council is preparing to give $500K to the mayor’s wife’s private indoor tennis facility.

The city has money to sweep the streets. Start doing it.