South DaCola

Editorial Cartoonist from South Dakota

December 2021

Bunker Ramp Downtown Sioux Falls Mayor TenHaken Sioux Falls

Update: What’s Going on with the Downtown Sioux Falls Bunker Ramp Fiasco?

l3wis 5Comments

UPDATE: I guess the developer involved with this project has been telling people he is getting a substantial settlement. Which is odd considering he screwed this up, if anything he owes us. Either way, where will this rumored settlement come from? And will it be made public? By state law legal settlements must be public, but they could play a different game and call it something else. My suggestion is to send him a $10 gift card to Walmart and call it good, which is $9.99 to much.

Last I heard several months ago, we were in a legal pissing match with the developer who still thought they had a chance to do the (scaled back) project. Where are we with it now? No news is good news.

Some of my peeps in the media and city hall have been saying the mice have been on the wheel over the past couple of weeks . . . but don’t expect an announcement anytime soon. WTF is that supposed to mean?

Maybe on Christmas Eve Mayor Poops will announce that he is gifting the hunk of grey matter to a DeveLloydper and washing the city’s hands of it. Or maybe he will turn it into a tent city so the homeless have a place to drink and do their laundry besides the Dudley House parking lot. Or better yet, he may say it will be a part of the secret settlement of Event Center Siding, Windows on the Midco and the Administration Building’s HVAC?

Who doesn’t like a package deal?

So many underground deals and only a few weeks before 2022 to complete them. Where does Poops and his crack team of lawyers find the time? I take it back, he really deserves a 30% raise 🙁 He better hurry though before the city council fires them all.

SF School Board Member SF School District Sioux Falls South Dakotans

South Dakota Public Education’s Dirty Little Secret

l3wis 15Comments

While everyone is gnashing teeth over teachers rolling around on ice for a handful of bills, there is one part of the story missing from the conversation;

The South Dakota Education Association President says he believes the event was well-intentioned but…
“It just underscores the fact that educators don’t have the resources necessary to meet the needs of their students and that’s what’s kind of cropping up here I think,” SDEA President Loren Paul said.


Not really. It is a well known secret that while teacher pay in South Dakota may be dead last, administrator pay rates anywhere from 11th–33rd in the country depending on the position. I have often asked the question why NON-UNION administrators are paid at such a higher National rate then teachers? This is the real disparity issue here and if it was adjusted there would be plenty of money for teacher pay and school room supplies so teachers don’t have to act like rootin’ hogs on the ice.


What often amazes me when ‘teacher pay’ stories come up every year around this time, nobody in the media talks about this disparity or the fact that a lot of private and public professional jobs like nursing also pay dead last in the state. It seems mentioning management pay in these articles is taboo.


I encourage the local media to dig around a little, and ASK why administrator pay rates average around 25th in the nation while teacher pay rates 49th? Things that make you go hmmmmm . . .

Developers Development Planning Commission Rapid City TIFs

Sioux Falls Developer trying to get TIFilicious in Rapid City

l3wis 5Comments

It shouldn’t be a surprise that this developer is asking for a TIF for a project that doesn’t supply ANY affordable housing;

The apartments will start at around $995 for studios, $1,295 for one bedrooms and $1,895 for two bedrooms.
Luke Jessen, senior director of development at Lloyd, said the company will ask the city for an $8.75 million TIF, although a hearing date has not yet been scheduled.


$995 for a hole in the wall apartment in Rapid City, seems reasonable? Notice how many groups it must go through before approval;

The project will soon appear on the Tax Increment Finance District Review Committee, Planning Commission and Historic Preservation Commission agendas.

We may be served well if we had such a committee;

The committee is comprised of two Rapid City Council members, two Pennington County Commissioner members, one Rapid City Planning Commissioner, one Rapid City Area School District representative, and one Economic Development Partnership representative.

If we had a committee like this, there might be transparency in the process, they actually meet in council chambers and members of the public can attend to see how the TIF is negotiated. What a concept! In Sioux Falls they are negotiated in the basement of the planning office then rubber stamped by the Planning Commission and City Council.

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