So we hire private contractors to clean up residential areas while city employees are cleaning up the bike trail?! There was 4 of them. While I do know that cleaning up the bike trail is important and has to be done eventually, shouldn’t the priority be the residential neighborhoods first?
And apparently NOW the city says they ‘could’ pick up your stuff if you cannot;
Funny, as I predicted, TenHaken had a change of heart after Stehly and Starr put a motion forward. Heck, Neitzert’s FB post from below even disappeared. I wonder why? But the bigger issue is the mixed messages out there, citizens are confused why the city is picking up stuff when they said they would not. Many people have told me that the private contractors have been picking up all waste in the boulevard and have been asking NO questions about where it came from. So are they NOT following orders? Who knows? I guess one resident said that Councilor Kiley told some people to stop putting their private property waste in the boulevard, they ignored him and guess what? They picked it up. So I’m telling people, just drag it out there, they will probably pick it up.
Somebody asked me if I volunteered? I did not. Nobody asked me for help, in fact one of my friends asked ME if I needed help, I told him NO.
You will see that Neitzert calls the motion a political stunt. Greg can say some pretty ridiculous things (probably why he took it down). When a natural disaster occurs you have to have a multiple tiered approach. They definately should include volunteers, and I commend people for that. But it also should include a government response with assistance in cleanup. All people are asking for is that the rubbish be removed from the boulevard, they will do the work to get it out there. Why is this so complicated?
I will say it again, we pay taxes and maintain a reserve fund for these kind of events. This is NOT a handout, we will be paying for it. Not sure why the mayor is acting like the city doesn’t have two nickels to rub together.
The only political stunt occurring is the mayor and some city councilors acting like they know how to lead, because they are failing miserably.
That presser which Thune, Rounds, Teenager, and Thune Jr., had at the auto place consisted of just them, security, and the press. Well, I was there briefly. I walked over after doing some banking, but it was beginning to break-up; and the only reason I am mentioning this is because Neitzert was the only council member that I saw in attendance at that presser. So, I guess we know were his true allegiance falls, huh?
And you’re right, the city should just be cleaning all of this up and Hat Haken should be reaching out to Noem and FEMA….. #WhereIsKristi?
What really kills me about this storm, too, is why the city didn’t use the ice storm playbook right from the start? It was a smaller area, or areas, then the ice storm, the cost would be less, I mean, it looks like they tried to re-invent the wheel with this one, and why?
The only answer I have for all of this is that this storm doesn’t fit into the political narrative of our current political and/or civic leadership in this town and they can’t handle it, nor do they really want to. And like I have said before, this town has plateaued beginning with the Copper Lounge collapse, the railroad yard boondoggle, the Bunker Ramp debacle, and now this, and our local leadership needs to wake up, or man up, and recognize this and stop worrying about ball parks and “Entertainment Districts,” and start carrying more about the average citizen in this town and issues like roads and having all of the sirens work.
I guess Marshall was there to, with a baseball cap on (he must not have gotten the memo that they were not going to wear one at this event. LOL). Thune was wearing his puffy north face vest he always wears at these disaster thingys. It’s like they wear these things as political props.
As I have said about Public Works Director Cotter in the past when he didn’t bother to tell us several years ago that we would need to spend millions on a waste treatment plant. He is the 2nd most powerful person in city government, and he should have told the mayor to follow that playbook, he might have, and if so when the mayor said NO, Cotter should have held his ground. We pay these people massive salaries and they are a bunch of wimps. Mark, you don’t work for Paul, you work for us.
Marshall must be one step behind, huh? The next time they all wear hats to a presser, Marshall will show-up in a three piece suit.
Yah, and don’t you love Thune’s “Calvin Klein,” or is it “Marty McFly” vest? Whenever he pulls that one out, I think of this scene from ‘Back to the Future:’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyYoJlINTHo
Plus, I have never understood those vests…..
(“Yes, I am looking for something to keep me warm, but I don’t mind if my arms and hands are cold…..”)
( – and Woodstock states: “I was there, too, and wondering if the “teenager” was cold?” #WhereWasHisMother? …..)
How many of these Councilors were out in the trenches as volunteers in the cleanup effort?
I guess Councilor Neitzert didn’t see the Tree Debris Removal graphic with the red line!
Why is the city all a sudden into lines? I mean, there is a line between where you can and can’t exercise your constitutional rights at a traffic accident. There is a line which determines if it is a city mess or your mess. It’s like the citizens and our local leaders are acting like a legally separated couple, but they still have to live together out of necessity….. #DontCrossMyLine!
The city was for the line before they were against it.
But they have to clean up the bike trail immediately for all of the “Taupesters,” who weren’t impacted….. #TheyHaveTheirPriorities…..#TheyHaveTheirPayMasters