South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

April 2017

Dan King Lincoln County SF City Council Sioux Falls Wind Energy

Hypocrite of the Week; Lincoln County Commissioner Dan King

l3wis 1Comments

No wind here, just a lot of smoke blowing.

Oh, Dan, how you make us chuckle. While you go on rants to the SF city council for a decision they made about zoning, every opportunity you had to make a decision about wind energy zoning, you chicken-shit out with your buddy Jim Schmidt. Maybe Dan is afraid that the Liberals will build encampments around the wind towers to raise their crack babies;

“As a board, if we crafted our ordinances and our policies so that businesses could or couldn’t come into the county, I think that’s the wrong way to look at it,” says Lincoln County commission chairman Dan King.

King says there’s a reason for the delay in decision-making.

Commissioners are researching what are called wind rights.

“A wind tower creates a wake that affects downwind where wind towers can be placed,” explains King.

LMFAO!

King says they need to look into how close the towers should be to one another and how that affects wind rights.

However, Minish says this is more of a property rights issue.

Hey, let’s talk wind rights, because if me or any other homeowner down wind of John Morrell’s has a right to the wind blowing across our property, we best lawyer up and sue the living crap out of JM’s for stinking up my back yard on a weekly basis. Dan, just admit it, you are a weak lawmaker who can’t make a simple decision. It comes down to aesthetics, that’s it. Your job as a lawmaker is not to be an art critic, it is to make laws that keep people safe while promoting economic development. There have been thousands of studies done on how safe (and green) wind energy is. Maybe you and Jim should share a computer at the library and do a little research on it instead of listening to all the Hayseed’s BS that come to your meetings.

Wind energy isn’t a Republican or Democrat, Conservative or Liberal idea, I would even be willing to guess most of the property owners and investors involved are probably Republican.

So the next time you have the urge to harass my lawmakers in Sioux Falls for ‘actually’ making a decision, think about all the lost opportunities you have had to make the right and judicial decision.

BTW, I think cowboy hats are ugly, just saying.

Annexation Developers Development Planning Commission Sioux Falls

Annexation Task Force meetings set

l3wis 12Comments

The task force created to establish criteria to use with any future City-initiated annexation in Sioux Falls has set its meeting schedule.

The task force includes three City Council members as well as four members of the community who are potentially impacted by proposed annexations. City employees from Planning, Project Management, Engineering, the City Attorney’s Office, and Finance will provide information and be resources for the task force members. The task force will convene for five sessions with a goal of developing recommendations that will provide a consistent way forward for future annexations. The public is welcome to attend.

The meetings will take place from 2 to 3:30 p.m. in Meeting Room B of the Downtown Library, 200 North Dakota Avenue, on the following dates:
• Tuesday, April 11, 2017
• Tuesday, April 25, 2017
• Tuesday, May 9, 2017
• Tuesday, May 23, 2017
• A final meeting date that will be determined by the task force

“Since Sioux Falls was founded more than 130 years ago, all growth has occurred through the process of annexation. It is a rather simple process when a property owner has an interest in being annexed but can quickly turn complex when the city grows into areas where the property owner is not interested in annexation. Additional challenges occur when the city boundary begins to surround a large, rural subdivision. In a growing city like ours, we need a consistent process to move forward with needed annexations,” says Mike Cooper, Director of Planning and Building Services.

The task force will be given information on the many state laws regarding annexations, some historical information to illustrate how annexations have occurred in the past, an update on the current Engineering Design Standards, and discuss the financial impact of an annexation on both the property owner and the City, along with other topics. The group will then make recommendations regarding how to move forward with annexations in the future.

As updates and more information become available, it will be posted at www.siouxfalls.org/annexation.

The City of Sioux Falls Planning Office has formed a Task Force to address various issues surrounding annexation. When the city’s boundaries begin to engulf a property that is not annexed, and does not plan to annex, there are challenges that result from that.

The goal of the Annexation Task Force is to make recommendations regarding the following questions.

  • Under what circumstances should the City move forward with a city-initiated annexation?
  • What criteria will be used to prioritize the annexation of those properties deemed to be annexed under the city-initiated process?
  • Will the City move forward with a petitioned annexation request if the annexation requested creates a pocket of unannexed land within the city limits?
  • What infrastructure design standards will be required as annexation occurs?
  • What financial contribution will the city make towards any required infrastructure improvements due to a city-initiated annexation?

ANNEXATION TASK FORCE MEMBERS

Councilor Rick Kiley
Councilor Marshall Selberg
Councilor Greg Neitzert
Matt Metzger – Citizen of Lincoln County
Tena Haraldson – Citizen of Sioux Falls
Greg Starnes – Citizen of Sioux Falls
Jeff Davis – Citizen of Minnehaha County
Support/Resource members:
Mike Cooper, Director of Planning and Building Services
Albert Schmidt, Urban Planner
Debra Gaikowski, Project Manager
Chad Huwe, City Engineer
Tracy Turbak, Director of Finance
Danny Brown, City Attorney

ANNEXATION TASK FORCE MEETING TOPICS

Topic #1 – Annexation law and the requirements and limitations imposed by those laws.
Topic #2 – The history of city-initiated annexations including the design standards the property owners were held to.
Topic #3 – A review of all unannexed property within the city that is currently completely surround by annexed land and the amount of development that exists on the surrounding land.
Topic #4 – A review of all recently completed CIP projects or CIP projects programmed in the near future that are adjacent to unannexed property or directly impact unannexed property.
Topic #5 – Assessment law, the rights of the city, and the rights of the property owners.
Topic #6 – The financial impact of annexation on a property owner including property tax changes, financial benefits, and the cost of infrastructure improvements.
Topic #7 – The impact on the property owners and the community if Engineering Design Standards are lowered in order in an effort to get unannexed property annexed. Review current ADA requirements.
Topic #8 – The impact on development if limitations are imposed on property owners wanting to annex land but a pocket of unannexed property is created by that annexation. Examples to be provided.
Topic #9 – How often should the established annexation criteria be reevaluated and by whom?
Topic #10 – Notification and Communication Process

Minnehaha County Paramedics Plus SF City Council Sioux Falls

Good thing we picked the ‘Most Qualified’ ambulance service

l3wis 1Comments

Looks like we enjoyed the ambulance vetting process so much, we MIGHT get to go through it again, soon;

South Dakota is not listed in the government’s lawsuit. Sioux Falls Regional Emergency Medical Services Authority says there was no profit cap for Paramedics Plus here.

However, when it got the contract in Sioux Falls, Paramedics Plus said it was making a $1.7 million investment into the REMSA system.

Meanwhile, East Texas Medical Center will merge its two ambulance services, EMS and Paramedics Plus, and spin off the division as a separate entity and is looking for a new partner to run it.

Paramedics Plus President Ron Schwartz says he it doesn’t anticipate any change in the ambulance workforce or management structure.

So what does that mean? Well if new partners join PP, that that may mean the contract has to be renewed with the new company. Not sure.

I found this comment attached to the story;

I worked at 9-1-1 for many years and it wasn’t until Paramedica Plus got the contract that I had ever heard of a level zero for ambulance response. For who ever it was on the city council to say that Paramedics Plus is living up to their contract and the responses are within the guidelines of the contract is abhorent. It is only acceptable when it’s not you or family. Get rid of Paramedics plus and get rid of what ever politicians who thinks that this contract is acceptable.

I guess we will never know what they are doing to eliminate the issue. The ‘Pilot’ program was performed under a cloak of secrecy.

Fitch did an analysis of Minnehaha County’s ambulance service, yesterday at the CC meeting (starts at 14:00)

Media

AM950 Blue State Ball 2017

l3wis 4Comments

Minnesota’s own am950 progressive talk radio held its 13th Blue State Ball in Minneapolis on March 11, 2017. The large crowd of Minnesotans were joined for the fourth time by Scott Ehrisman and Bruce Danielson. It’s our chance to go somewhere and talk with people who actually can have discussions without acrimony.

There two speakers this year actually put the events of the last few years into perspective, authors and radio hosts Thom Hartmann and Norman Goldman.

While we in South Dakota have to search the Internets for them, our neighbors in Minnesota get to easily find them on a great radio station am950, KTNF.

Norman Goldman is a New York born and now a Los Angeles based attorney – radio host who looks at the world through is legal eyes. Listen to Norman every evening on KTNF or livestream at www.normangoldman.com.

We attended the 2017 am950 KTNF Blue State Ball in Minneapolis on March 11th. It’s our chance to go somewhere and talk with people who actually can have discussions without acrimony.

There two speakers this year actually put the events of the last few years into perspective, authors and radio hosts Thom Hartmann and Norman Goldman.

While we in South Dakota have to search the Internets for them, our neighbors in Minnesota get to easily find them on a great radio station am950, KTNF.

Thom Hartmann’s let us in on the dirty little secret little Marco Rubio and the GOP did to ruin many insurance companies who went along with the ACA causing the sky high rate increases to cover the “loses”. The GOP Congress undercut them and then tried to blame it on Obama. Yea, right it’s always his fault. Wonder why….

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