South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

January 2017

Minnehaha County SF City Council Sioux Falls

New Siouxland Library Director admits being a 30 year resident of Minnesota with no intentions of moving to SD.

l3wis 9Comments

Well, I would have to give Jodi Fick a gold star for honesty. After being voted in by the Sioux Falls city council tonight she freely admits she is a 30 year resident of Minnesota, though she calls Sioux Falls her home, she will gladly keep commuting. She gave this information freely without anyone asking. (Go to last item on agenda).

I suggested a couple of months ago to a city councilor that SFPD and SFFD and all city managers and directors should be Sioux Falls residents (mainly for safety reasons and being on call). But you could also probably say that about most city employees. It would be a simple ordinance change, and you could grandfather in current out-of-town employees, and only apply to new employees that would be willing to move to SF within 90 days of their hire date.

In Fick’s defense, she very well could live anywhere in Minnehaha County because she is also a county employee, but at least SD.

Why do I think this important? Besides the safety of having city employees close to their work, it has to do with tax base. Do you think it is fair for someone making 6 figures a year from our tax dollars isn’t contributing to her own wage and tax base?

Maybe I am making mountains out of mole hills, what do you think?

Levitt Pavilion Sioux Falls

Do we really know the true expense of the Levitt Pavilion? (H/T-WP)

l3wis 5Comments

Thanks for Warren for finding this article from 2015 outlining what the Levitt Foundation will contribute to a project in Dayton;

Levitt would contribute 10 percent of the construction costs, or up to $500,000, followed by half the operating costs the first year. The annual contribution would decline thereafter. It’s hoped the pavilion could open as soon as July 2017.

Operating a Levitt pavilion costs about $500,000 annually. The foundation provides $500,000 in seed funding for construction and capital expenses and support resources. The foundation said it provides $1 million in the first five years of the pavilion’s operation.

After that, the foundation will provide about $150,000 annually in ongoing operational support to a nonprofit group formed to oversee the venue.

This is what has often puzzled me about the promises of the Levitt Foundation. Fifty Free ‘Professional’ concerts within basically a 4 month time period. Forget about the time frame in how you are going to get that many acts packed into that time frame, or that you are going to get 50 ‘professional’ acts to come to Sioux Falls to play, for a moment, let’s pretend that is achievable.

The bigger question is how is this going to be paid for? Remember, these are free concerts, similar to JazzFest. While I have a rough idea what JazzFest costs to put on, you have to remember, besides sponsors, advertisers, vendors, and the city chipping in services, the majority of the event if paid for by beer sales. Will Levitt have adult beverage sales at concerts? Will vendors have to pay a fee to sell their goods? I just don’t know how we are going to be able to maintain such a high level of concerts at the Levitt without digging into the city budget and having a major subsidy each year.

Something the city council needs to chew on before going full boar on this.

Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Parks and Rec

Cameras invade the Parks Board (Dec 20, 2017)

l3wis 2Comments

Lookout, the cameras are coming. If the Sioux Falls City Parks Board doesn’t record them look who does show up. When they won’t do it we will and they can suffer the consequences if your message is not what you want to be.

The Parks Board on December 20, 2016 received Cameraman Bruce’s demonstration of camera setup and now they get to see what it looks like (presentation is right at the beginning).

Dakota Access Pipeline

Truckin’ out DAPL pipe? (Jan 1, 2017)

l3wis 1Comments

Save For Testing! Where’s it going? What kind of test will they do?

Just a regular Sunday drive down a South Dakota interstate and look what you find. A load of broken pipe being driven quickly out of the state. As an observer of pipe of all sorts, it bears similar characteristics to steel pipe used on the Dakota Access and Keystone pipelines.

What a way to bring in 2017, being reminded of all the crap we have to look forward to with the changes in Washington.

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