Countdown
l3wis 
September 2025
DATA Centers drive up electricity costs
(FF 19:00)
As you will see from the video, data centers drive up all consumers prices because the electrical provider has to build the infrastructure to handle the load. With a lot of demand it will ultimately drive costs up for all consumers in the region. I am opposed to the DATA center planned in SF joint jurisdiction area because it takes land away for housing AND provides few jobs after it is built. But the effect on the rest of us is not good either.
1st Amendment
Art
Elections
Former Mayor
Former Mayor Bucktooth & Bowlcut
Former Mayor Coors Light & Olives
Marshall Selberg
Mayor Almost Done
Mayor Grump Toad
Mayor High Crimes
Mayor Hubris
Mayor Pants on Fire
Sioux Falls
Sioux Falls Mayor Race
We are fortunate to have good choices in the upcoming city election
These were my final words to a mayoral candidate today after we had coffee. I really believe that. While this candidate wanted me to be on their team, I told them my mind is not made up yet, and I am going to weigh all of them equally. This wasn’t an interview for the blog, we were just touching base and talking issues. Let’s just say a municipal ambulance is in our near future and Erica Beck ain’t running for mayor (she’s a bit busy running from her past command post).
They also asked me what I would like to see in my city, knowing that I was a biking advocate. I said I had to think about it;
ITS TIME SIOUX FALLS SUPPORTED AN ARTIST COOPERATIVE
There is an artist cooperative in Downtown Omaha that is really cool, and I always thought we could have one here with the help of the taxpayers. We used to have such a space at Falls Park, the Horsebarn Art Center, but the city kicked them out because they needed the barn for lawn mower storage (no f’ing lie). The reason I started thinking about this is because I have been watching our fine stewards 🙁 on the council give away $1 a year leases for city property to for profit businesses. There is tons of space downtown the city owns that they could lease for a $1 a year. The bus barn would work perfectly (if they build a replacement). The location is awesome, plenty of parking in the back and enough space for an amphitheater, gallery space and workshops and studios. The best part is on nice days you can open the garage doors! You could also set it up as a non-profit with a partnership with the city (they would do all maintenance to the facility (externally) and cover utilities and provide a used city van for facility transport. While we are at it, put the Arts Coordinator’s office in the building. We can do good artsy things in this community without kissing the ring at the Bazillion (Wash Pav). I think the city is considering cutting their subsidy substantially which is way over due.
What Hubris! I heard that Selberg was seriously still considering a run for mayor. A word of advice, Marsh, probably need to move back to Sux from Hartford 🙂 you know, that whole district thingy.
OH, and still not sure where MMM stands on the election. I guess the bride isn’t too keen on it (like the rest of the city) but peeps have been seeing him appear in public like those parasites on that new Alien TV series. I saw him on the bike trail the other day with his grandkids(?) it was quite the scene 🙂
Somebody is certainly in hot water
Anytime I see a warning or notice on the city website I get curious about a cover-up (I really do). The other day the city was warning that folks near Veterans Parkway were under a boil order. The city reported it as an accident with a contractor. I was waiting for one of my city hall moles to call me for the other side of the story. I got that call tonight. According to them there was quite the kerfuffle at public works about how this all came down. It seems the ‘accident’ was partially the contractor’s fault and partially the city’s. According to my source who was getting their information from another city employee (so it’s a bit fuzzy) they said the contractor called the city asking permission to open a valve. The city granted the permission but the contractor opened the wrong valve (maybe?). So partially the city’s fault, partially the contractor’s. No harm. No foul.
Well it didn’t end there. So someone at public works apparently didn’t want any blame on the city and blamed the whole incident on the contractor, so NOW the contractor is facing a ‘unresponsive contractor’ label, which means they won’t be able to bid on RFP’s anymore.
Like I said, 2nd hand info, from a grunt, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it were true, because, you know, the city engineers NEVER F’k Up a city project 🙁
Bunker Ramp
Unity Bridge
Admin building
Midco
Denty, and much more . . .
The City of Sioux Falls Finance Director is a real FIREBALL
After the Finance Director, Shawn ‘Fireball’ Pritchett put on his best performance to date to the city council Tuesday night supporting a property tax increase, some councilors were not buying it.
Why?
Well, because it’s strange that Fireball budgeted in the tax increase for 2026 before the council even approved it. I have no doubt the city council will pass this, either with 5-6 votes or a 4/4 tie with the mayor approving it. But what if the council votes this tax increase down? Then what? Well, the finance director would have to adjust the budget.
It is the council’s job to control the budget, and by charter they really are the ones supposed to be compiling it. So how does Fireball get away with budgeting for an assumed tax increase BEFORE the council approves that increase? Cart before horse. Reminds me of the Riverline promotion without a revenue source to pay for it. I guess I would have found the revenue first before pushing this forward. I would vote against this increase so Fireball has to do his job and actually put a budget together that focuses on fiscal restraint and not ‘assumed’ increases. I can’t believe we have 10 more months of this crap.
CITY NEEDS TO LIVESTREAM ALL PUBLIC MEETINGS ON YOUTUBE
The city’s agenda page is STILL broken after almost 16 years, just last night while watching the planning meeting it was screwing up. I sent this email to the entire city council, we will see what they do. I have been requesting this for several years with NO results;
Hello,
Trust me, with conversations with councilors current and past, I get your frustration with the video system on the city website, it started failing as Munson was leaving office and has never really been fixed since, and it appears it is getting worse. Several meetings over the past month have had video glitches. There is something you can do for a temporary/permanent fix. I would suggest keeping the current system so people can follow along the agenda, but for those who are only listening or watching the meetings they can also stream in YouTube. The benefit of the stream is it is FREE, in fact if you would put ALL of our public meetings on YouTube you would probably generate ad revenue from it. Also, almost every single local government in South Dakota uses YT to stream meetings, including the 2 local commissions and school board. The benefit is you can rewind the meeting at any time if you missed a speaker and the meeting is available for review IMMEDIATELY after the meeting ends. This is way past due. Now, I would assume that since the media department reports to the Mayor it is in his wheelhouse to get this fixed, but council meetings are under your review. My suggestion would be to pass an ordinance that requires the media department to live stream ALL public meetings. I would also give them 60 days to implement the YT stream in case they have to upgrade equipment or do some training (I learned how to make a YT video in 20 minutes). I also stress this needs to be in CHARTER, no handshake deals that get forgotten about in the next administration, I would even go a step farther and see if a council staffer can manage this and not even involve the media department.
As I said, way past due, and you can force the hand of the administration to comply by passing an ordinance. See, government can be easy sometimes, it only took 16 years.
Scott