South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

February 2015

SF City Council Sioux Falls

Public Input ‘High Five’ 2/17/2015

l3wis 16Comments

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEcnf4DvZW8[/youtube]

Spellerberg neighborhood advocate Liz Mulenburg is still trying to get the city to settle the Quit Claim Deed issues with the Veteran’s Administration before the city spends $24 million on the aquatic center. If they are planning to build it, it might as well be with the VA’s blessing. But then again, this city does little with the people’s blessing so why should they care if they have the fed’s?

Remember the money borrowed to build up the flood walls? You know the money the city has to pay back soon? Yea, that money. The money the Feds finally reimbursed us for so we could pay the bonds. Well it’s going to be spent on this pool thanks to this sub-prime credit card administration. So when the Feds need the space and take the park with everything on it, we get stuck with the bill.

I hung out the wash in our 5 minutes (timed myself to the second) and getting the guys upfront to high five each other was a class act. (during my testimony, the mayor and city attorney high fived each other about something) Our city administrators seem to think they can do as they please so long as we are given five minutes to blow off a little steam.

It’s as if they are saying “Who cares if the public is right, we are in charge and will do as we please”.

SFPD Sioux Falls

Is Sioux Falls crime rate soaring?

l3wis 10Comments

There are different factors of course to determine if the rates are worrisome. Before the last mayoral election, candidate Greg Jamison brought up the crime rate increases in his campaign;

In 2009, there were 212 violent crimes reported per 100,000 people in the Sioux Falls metro area, one of the lower rates nationwide. By 2013, the rate had risen to 292 violent crimes per 100,000 people, an increase of nearly 38% — the 10th largest increase among U.S. metro areas. City officials last year attributed part of this spike in crime to population growth. Yet, this does not fully explain the higher crime rate. Some crimes are also becoming more common than others. Methamphetamine-related crimes, for example, have risen dramatically in the area since 2009.

I have also been concerned that most of the violent crimes have been domestic related (the victims know their attackers) including several crimes against women. Of course, our Police chief blows off the rates like shooting at a ghost in Tuthill park;

Sioux Falls Police Chief Doug Barthel says the same things that help the city attract positive attention, and a growing population, also attract crime.

“Over that time period we’ve seen our city grow by almost 20,000 people. We just know there’s a certain number of people who are going to want to commit crimes,” Barthel said.

Maybe someone needs to explain percentages to Doug, he seems to be confused by them. Like I said above, the violent crime increase concerns me the most. And if you don’t think there hasn’t been an increase in crime, go down to the County Courthouse and ask the State’s Attorney and the County Commission about their dwindling budget due to the increase. You will see a whole other picture. But why should the SFPD care? There job is to shoot first ask questions later, cuff and stuff and let the county sort them out.

Employment South Dakotans

Need qualified workers (welders)? Train them yourself

l3wis 10Comments

Well the Hubbel craft doesn’t say many wise things, but when she does, they are whoppers. This is Lora’s online comment to the Argus story about hiring welders;

Lora Hubbel · Top Commenter · Sioux Falls, South Dakota

I don’t get it. Sioux Steel, if you need welders….THEN TRAIN THEM! Why look to the government to educate and train someone for your business…DO IT YOURSELF! You don’t have to do the “schooling”…just give them hands on training. Give them a small job at first and as they learn more they can do more complicated jobs. Since WHEN have we pouted about not having enough STATE TRAINED workers? Man up Sioux Steel…take control of your own destiny and train your own workers.

Besides having the desire to want to be a welder and having skills working with your hands, there really isn’t a reason why you can’t train welders on the job. As someone who has worked in manufacturing in the past said to me;

The training schools do not teach useable welding skills. Through the last 40 years of our trying to use their trained skills in many South Dakota factories, the first thing we learned to do with the new employee was to break all the bad habits taught at the SD schools. This is a reason these students have to leave South Dakota. We do not have programs being taught matching the needs of the factories.  The necessary skills for South Dakota welding shops / factories are not taught by the instructors not understanding the businesses. Most South Dakota businesses do not need “certified” welders. These shops need to train their own employees to do the light gauge work South Dakota factories utilize. The need for the training academies is expensive bullshit to force under-educated kids to get sucked into paying high priced loans to study useless skills.

These factory owners do not want to take the farm and city kids into their factories anymore to go through a rigorous training period. We taught many workers everything about welding the way we needed them to weld and some are still at it 30 years and more later at the factory we started in 1965. This is the way it needs to be done to build South Dakota and a dedicated workforce.

No money for public education, but $50 million to subsidize training for private industry, go figure.

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