The I-Team has learned that the city of Sioux Falls has hired an outside attorney to represent the city in a lawsuit against the Village River Group.
I am assuming the I-Team means investigative team. Besides the fact that I posted about this on January 18, it wasn’t some secret since it was on the public agenda at the January 18 meeting in the consent agenda in which Councilor Starr pulled and asked the city finance director and city attorney where the money was coming from.
They both kind of fibbed a bit (the real story here).
Still wondering why it took supposed investigative journalists 6 weeks to figure something out that was posted on a public agenda?
“There’s no good way to say this, but we are a nice community to be homeless in,” he said. By that, he means that our social service agencies such as The Banquet and Bishop Dudley Hospitality House are strong, well-run organizations. The churches in Sioux Falls are financially stable. The people are generous.
I become less surprised each time Poops tells us exactly what he thinks. First he didn’t sign up for the job, then he thinks candidates are jealous of him when he uses inside information to benefit his campaign, then he is angry about alleged pervert cops now he acts like living homeless in Sioux Falls is the lap of luxury.
It is amazing how incredibly tone deaf our mayor is. He has NO clue of the amount of slum housing and poverty we have in this city, and he doesn’t seem to care, as long as the non-profits take care of it for us.
The city has the resources to make public transit, employment and housing better, but they live in the shiny glass house on the hill and wish the minions below the best of luck.
Many of our issues with food insecurity, housing, addiction and employment could be simply fixed by seeking higher wage employers to which Poops response is ‘we can’t continue this wage inflation, it’s not sustainable.’ But I guess we can continue to allow non-profits to bail out the poor?
And concerns about Cherapa Place colliding with Bishop Dudley Hospitality House or Union Gospel Men’s Center have not made developers wary. Although there might be the possibility that rising values could cause the shelters to sell, overall Pendar Properties hopes to work on a solution that works for all parties.
“I think what we do is we make this work together. There is a division, but it can be something we make positive,” Scherschligt told the Argus Leader.
Gee, like putting them somewhere else to begin with? It reminds me of the quiet zones. This stuff should have been negotiated to begin with, now we are going to throw even more tax dollars at the problems (that is who is paying for the quiet zones and eventually the relocation of the shelters).
I don’t expect our leaders to have a ton of vision, well maybe I do, but common sense would be nice.
And here we go, throwing more Federal money at the project and it’s an EMERGENCY even though the trains have tooting their horns through SF for over 100 years!
While I don’t oppose creating quiet zones throughout the city (even though we know this is probably for DTSF exclusively) it is pretty obvious we have to do this because we failed to remove the RR tracks from downtown during the negotiations. While it will make DTSF safer with the crossbars, the only noise it eliminates is the sirens from the trains, you will continue to hear them barrel down the track and cause traffic interruptions.
I have NO DOUBT the Feds will probably reimburse the state, but you have to admit since we didn’t successfully remove the tracks from this area to begin with, we are just playing a game of whack a mole and this is the latest.
So far the developer in this area has received millions in improvements to the River Greenway, a significant discount on the land, multiple TIFs (to build condos) and now another $5 million to create quiet zones next to those condos.
Here’s a concept DON’T BUILD CONDOS AND APARTMENTS NEXT TO A RAILROAD TRACK, or better yet work with our Washington delegates to get the tracks torn out. Nope, let’s just keep throwing tax dollars at small bandaids that doesn’t fix the bigger problem TRAINS RUMBLING THROUGH DOWNTOWN FOR NO DAMN GOOD REASON!
I will give you the short answer, Mayor Paul TenHaken (Item #25).
The City Council will vote on a resolution approving the committee and its members. I asked a city councilor if the council was asked by mayor’s office for input. They said they were not asked but not sure about the other council members. I think it is unfair to the council not to have input on at least half of the picks (there are 16 members).
While you go through the list you will notice people on it that have something to do with downtown businesses and organizations. Two of the members even previously worked at DTSF. But two of the members have incredible conflicts of interest with the mayor, Kevin Tupy (Cresten Capital Holdings) and Natalie Eisenberg (CEO of Click Rain).
Natalie’s conflict is obvious since she now runs the company that Paul founded, but Kevin’s is a little more tricky.
Don’t get me wrong, there are many people on the board who have some financial interest in DTSF, and there is nothing wrong with that. The problem is Tupy’s connections politically and financially that make this appear unethical.
What often frustrates me about Paul’s appointments is he doesn’t really extend out from his inner circle, his youth council showed that, where NO O’Gorman students sit on the council and most are kids of friends of his.
I would hope the council asks why they were not asked to participate and about the conflicts.
In the First Annual DTSF Dog Turd Battle there was a winner announced today . . . and it will surprise you.
“We just saw so much success with the burger battle and the equal success of the new dog park downtown that we decided to add a new competition,” said Communications Director Lady Swirly, “and surprisingly the criteria is very similar to the burger battle.”
The dog waste was judged on;
• Weight
• Girth (diameter)
• Unique Shape
• Overall artistry and composition
Swirly said at first they were going to limit it to just the new dog park, but they decided there were so many other popular places downtown for dogs to take (leave) a dump they opened it up.
“Besides the dog park, Falls Park and the lawn at city hall are actually very popular places for Fido to flop a number two,” said Swirly, “Our winner’s entry comes from the city hall location.”
While most would think weight would be the biggest contributing factor, the winner came out on top of the steaming heap because of the overwhelming votes on artistry and girth.
Some have wondered how they could determine the feces of the winner. Simple, a DNA test of the best entries were matched with veterinarian records.
The winner was a Jack Russell terrier named Nerdy who dropped a perfect sphere with the coloration similar to Jupiter complete with a big red spot.
The owners of Nerdy who live in a condo downtown said they can only assume Nerdy’s unique poo comes from them feeding him leftovers of take home burger battle entries that they couldn’t finish.
Owner Penelope Klurpy said, “My husband and tried so hard to eat every burger battle entry that it just got overwhelming and we let Nerdy splurge, apparently it encouraged him to turn his lower intestine into a canvas.”
And indeed he did!
Second place went to a male pitbull-bischon cross named Denny who dropped an 11 pounder in the shape of a skateboard.
Some have wondered how the entries were considered, Swirly explained that since the interns at DTSF don’t have much to do except wander around Zandbroz or stand in line for an omelet at Josiahs they were recruited to hunt down interesting deuces.
There are 2 of these about 300 feet apart from each other on poles along the bike trail downtown about a quarter mile east of the viaducts. Not sure how long they have been there but I think I noticed them last Fall? I am honestly asking the question, What are they?
The front part looks like a surveillance camera but not sure what the other part is. I’m also curious why 2 of them are so close to each other?
You will notice that I erased the parapet from the top of the Pavilion in this photo and kept the cornice, I actually think it looks better. I sometimes wonder when Washington HS was built some greedy contractor talked the school district into the railing to begin with? Some things don’t change.
In other news from the Pavilion, there will be a presentation tomorrow for the new roof and their parapet replacement (you know, those spindle thingies on the top of the building that no one knows are there and if not replaced, most people would not notice);
Washington Pavilion Cornice and Parapet Replacement by Scott Rust, Purchasing Manager; and Steve Jastram, Arch, Inc.
As we know, there have been several numbers thrown out there about fixing the roof, the highest is around $6 million. Even councilors have asked if they don’t do the parapets could it be cheaper. But what most people don’t know is that the roof has to be fixed because 1) the parapets are about to fall off and 2) it wasn’t constructed correctly to begin with. When the center of the building was gutted during construction they were supposed to replace the entire roof as a complete roof, instead to cut corners they matched up the new roof over the Great Hall with the existing roof over the outside office space and lobby. It would be like backing your Ferrari into a telephone pole and fixing the cracked fender with duct tape and spray paint. They were warned it would not work, and it didn’t. In fact it leaked from the very beginning and was/has been causing water damage in the building and over the years they kept applying more duct tape and spray paint. As for the parapets, they should just go completely, they are a hazard, even if the new ones are made from fix-a-flat foam or something.
What is interesting about this proposal is that the Pavilion hasn’t released a financial report in 1-1/2 years, but recently they changed their reporting period from July-June for the fiscal year. We have NO IDEA what the finances were from July 2020-June 2021. But if you look closely, even during the first half of Covid the Pavilion did pretty good (pages 27-28). What is interesting is that expenses in 2020 were around $8 Million while in 2019 they were $13 million, yet the books level out at the end.
Hmmmmmm.
I just think the Bazillion has some splaining to do before asking the tax payers to blow $6 million on a roof from the entertainment tax when they have some money in their kitty to help pay for it.
Minnehaha County's emergency management director says there's over $900,000 in damages to public infrastructure, power lines, tree debris cleanup and personnel hours.
This weekend is the beginning of tourism season for many businesses in Western KELOLAND. And as families pack up for their camping trips, gas prices are at some of the highest numbers yet. This is concerning for some iconic Black Hills attractions.
