January 2015

Should elected officials be drug tested?

l3wis January 7, 2015 3Comments

Before I get smoking on this post, I will say I don’t think anyone should be drug tested unless you are working in public safety, trucking or other jobs where safety can be compromised. I think people should be judged on their accomplishments and experience.

That being said, I have often wondered why lawmakers require public employees, and some have even suggested welfare recipients, to be drug tested when they are not? I thought about this the other day after turning in my resume for the county commission seat.

What do you think? Should we drug test elected officials before they are sworn into office? Or better yet, drug test them when they turn their petitions in for candidacy?

Hey, what’s good for the goose, is good for the gander.

Sioux Falls

Thumbs Up to the Siouxland Librairies for offering FREE online courses

l3wis January 6, 2015 3Comments

Hey, sometimes the city gets it right with it’s public services, and it didn’t even take a petition drive!

The library will be offering FREE online courses with a library card.

Gale Courses offers a wide range of highly interactive, instructor led courses that you can take entirely online.Â Â As a library card holder in good standing, you are entitled to these courses at no cost. Courses run for six weeks and new sessions begin every month.

This is a great way to update your skills, and it doesn’t cost a dime. Bravo once again to the Library for this service!

County Commission Minnehaha County

Commissioner Dick Kelly votes against re-electing chair

l3wis January 6, 2015 3Comments

If you watch the meeting from this morning (FF: 10:40) you will see why Kelly votes against re-electingÂ Cindy Heiberger for chair. He felt it should go to a new person, then reminds the commissioners that Cindy voted against him two years ago. Not sure what that was all about, but Barth made light of the situation and said that while he felt he should be elected as chair, he would support Cindy. She was re-elected on a 3-1 vote and Beninga was elected co-chair.

The commission also voted to not give themselves a raise this year, while Barth’s recommendation of a 1% raise failed.

They also closed the open commission seat application process and said they had 29 applicants to choose from. That’s a lot of paper to shred

Public Works Sioux Falls snow removal Snowgates

The changing story about snow gates

l3wis January 6, 2015 7Comments

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The above picture was sent to me by a reader that told me they didn’t even bother dropping the snow gate on his driveway, but did across the street. They also didn’t do a very good job on my driveway, my berm was over a foot high, while my neighbors had less, with longer driveways. I guess the snow plow drivers are determining who gets snow gate service thru the eeny-meeny-miney-mo process. That’s not how we wrote the ballot initiative AND now I am wondering what the consequences if an operator isn’t attempting to do it right? In other cities if the gates are not done right you can call into public works and they will come and clean it for you. There are some factors here to consider, the operators are paid an hourly wage, in other words if they have to slow down aÂ bit, it is not going to affect their workload. Something else I like to remind people that the end of your driveway is OWNED by the city, clearing the streetsÂ IMO is no different then taking care of the curb.Â The Public Works department encourages residents to call them if they missed your driveway, so they can assess the situation.

There has often been an argument from the Public Works department that they really don’t work as well on long driveways and snows over 6 inches, which I find to be misleading.

Just yesterday I witnessed (below graphic) a snowplow operator kind of put that argument to shame. As I was sitting at the light on 49^th street waiting to merge onto Western Ave. two snowplows going South on Western passed by. The first one had no snow gate, the second did, and he dropped it across 5 lanes of traffic (hardly slowing down) and I didn’t see any snow come over the snow gate until he was almost all the way across. As we said while doing research on snow gates across the country, they work on long driveways and in deep snow, now if our Public Works department will just choose to use them properly and often.

Developers Development Planning Commission SF City Council Sioux Falls

Re-Zone on Holly Avenue

l3wis January 6, 2015 6Comments

The â€˜100 Eyed Spaghetti News’ did a story today about the rezone to commercial property on Holly Avenue next to residential. You can read all the juicy details here (Item #25).

I really don’t see an issue with the rezone, and if I was sitting on the council I would vote to approve it. While it is close to residential housing, you must realize it is only a block off of 41^st street. I have friends who live 2 Blocks North of 41^st street near Western Avenue, and I don’t think they have ever seen any bad effects of retail near them. In fact, it is a pretty quiet neighborhood.

What I found ironic about the rezone was the petitioner, Lloyd Companies and councilor Erpenbach’s reaction to the rezoning proposal;

That’s probably true, Erpenbach said. But she wasn’t picking up that sentiment in any of the letters she was reading on this issue.

â€œFor now, I take the other side of the fence,â€ she said. â€œThere are people living there, and continue to live there, and they would have to put up with the construction and the additional traffic. I want to hear from them. We need to hear their voices.â€

Michelle, should I laugh now, or wait until you vote for this tonight? One of your largest campaign donors, Lloyd is asking for a re-zone, I’m pretty sure you don’t give two snits about what the residents think. We know the only thing you listen to is the sound of a check being signed by another developer donating to your campaign. You will vote yes tonight after you explain to us how you are satisfied with the fencing, berm and buffering. Do you need me to write you the script? I can email it to you?

I also find the Lloyd connection interesting because they are requesting they encroach into residential to expand retail, yet when Lloyd received a TIF downtown for condos and retail, he had to change it to all condos and no retail because retail just couldn’t be supported at that complex.

You know what, I think I just changed my mind, I don’t think any residential should be rezoned to commercial in this city until we have filled all of the other vacant retail space in town. Of course, that would require developers to get more creative, and who needs creativity when you can just donate a couple of grand to a councilor’s campaign, it’s a much easier and cheaper way to go.

Should elected officials be drug tested?

Thumbs Up to the Siouxland Librairies for offering FREE online courses

Commissioner Dick Kelly votes against re-electing chair

The changing story about snow gates

Re-Zone on Holly Avenue

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