Art Exhibit
l3wis 
Downtown Sioux Falls
The Pavilion to open an Ice Ribbon Bar?
I had heard rumors about this a few years back that since the City now can pull liquor licenses for their own facilities they would open a full liquor bar and restaurant at the new ice ribbon (Items #39-40). I don’t want to get into some moral argument about whether or not we should be selling alcohol at a city park facilities, we sell them at the golf courses and Great Bear, BUT, should the city be competing with other food and beverage providers in that downtown area? Or as one city official said to me ‘Why not contract with a PRIVATE restauranteur?’ The argument of drinking and skating aside being less then safe, I think it is bizarre we are building this facility but it seems the focus is on food and beverage? I also find it funny that a single beer will likely cost you DOUBLE of what a rental fee would be for the rink (ever bought a beer at the Pavilion for a show?)
I knew the Pavilion’s Darrin Smith had his claws in this contract for a couple of years now, so no surprise they are getting it, but like buying the Sanford Fitness Center, we are NOW competing with private business for absolutely NO reason. So is this an ice ribbon or a bar? Maybe right before they turn if off in the Spring they could fill it full of Jello Shots!?
OTHER CITY COUNCIL TIDBITS
Besides opening another bar downtown we don’t need the city is also having a Riverline District meeting, but it is entirely an Executive Session. So how is it that just regular folks that get appointed to a bogus committee get to see legal documents in an executive session? If they can be shared with them, normal members of the public, then those docs need to be shared in public with the public at the same time. This whole process is sooooo crooked it is not even funny.
Item #6, sub #3, is a funny one. $62K to tell the city the Canaries Stadium is a dump.
Item #42, Notice in this lease agreement where we are allowing Sanford to continue to use space we bought from them at the Wellness Center, it has NO dollar amount, just that it will be over $500 a year. Betcha they are leasing the space for $501 dollars a year. Wonder if any of the councilors will ask the actual lease amount.
Item #43, The mayor appoints a VP of banking to be on the Parks Board, and who says that board isn’t made up of regular folks!!! Because what we need is more rich people on that board! They just are not represented enough!
Items #44-45, the council moves to make Jim David boss of everyone, even the City Clerk. Weird. Has the city council lost confidence in their City Clerk?
Item #46, council makes a bunch of benign changes to policies. For instance, they are changing ‘public comment’ to ‘public input’. Doesn’t really matter, same thing, except that input is a broader definition of comment.
Item #47, Seems councilors want to ‘lock in’ a price on future rec bonds. Good Luck with that. They did that with Drake Springs then after they lost the election stole money from that pot for other park projects. A snot rag would have a greater legal standing then this resolution.
On a weird note, Harris may win the election by taking IOWA!!!!!!
Update: What the heck are they building next to the Steel District?
Update: someone involved with the project reassured me that the Corps did sign off, the problem is the RR is taking their time on approval thru there easement. I have assumed from the beginning that the city would not be dumb enough to proceed without approval. Not sure if they followed plans, but that is a discussion for another day.
I took the above picture in the middle of September on a Saturday morning. I counted 15 construction hard hatted men inspecting what they have built so far.
According to this article;
It will take the next few weeks “to complete everything other than the low-head dam,” said Mike Patten, city parks planning and project manager. The plan is to work on that throughout the winter and into the spring as the city continues to work toward necessary approvals from BNSF Railway to fully complete the project.
This is an interesting ‘excuse’. The city received a $750K donation from Lloyd Companies to construct a picnic area but the city apparently is using some of the funds to create this diversion dam (they are calling it a low head dam, but it is NOT.) Last month the city brought in heavy equipment to build this dam that many local waterway advocates say is ‘troubling and suspicious’ because changing the natural flow of the river should never be an afterthought.
So after building 80% of the structure they suddenly stopped and then the above ‘inspection’ occurred. So why didn’t the city ask for permission from the Fed DOT to construct this before bringing in all the equipment? I don’t know. This is Federal easement land and those permissions also have to have the Federal Government involved, and we know the pace they move.
So the nagging question is, did the city get ANY permission from the Feds before starting this project? I don’t know. But it has all the signs of a ‘ask for forgiveness instead of permission’.
There are also some other interesting things going on, for instance there is a massive culvert that flows out into this area that comes from underneath the Sioux Steel district, and there has been a constant flow of water for over a month, and NO rain. Where is the water coming from? Is there that much seepage from the buildings and the quartzite underneath?
I believe the city had a convo in 2018(?) about this saying they wanted to raise the water levels next to the Steel District project 6 feet which would certainly flood the east bank everytime it rains. It’s fun to have dreams.
Some would say why don’t I just ask the city what is going on, oh I have made many attempts and the answer is always the same;
It was only a matter of time
I warned some city councilors several months ago that with the increase of transients in Sioux Falls, things like this would occur;
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – A 32-year-old Sioux Falls man has now been indicted on murder charges after a man he allegedly assaulted passed away from his injuries.
Robin Swallow was indicted by the Minnehaha County State’s Attorney’s Office on Wednesday for murder in the first degree and one alternative count of murder in the second degree.
The incident occurred on September 22 near 12th Street and Cleveland Avenue in Sioux Falls.
A group of people were drinking in an area of trees when an altercation occurred.
A 64-year-old man was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries and Swallow was arrested for aggravated assault, kidnapping, robbery and a parole violation.
The victim has been identified as Michael Raymond Colvin of Sioux Falls. Police said Colvin was hospitalized for several weeks and ultimately passed away. After an autopsy, Colvin’s death was ruled a homicide.
The troubling part is what if an innocent bystander happened upon this? Would they have been safe? The ‘transient’ problem we have in Sioux Falls isn’t just about addicts wandering our streets aimlessly it’s about a city government and police department that have stood their ground in NOT helping to MANAGE the issue, and also NOT filling us in. Why does the SFPD have a public information officer if that officer doesn’t tell us anything?!
It’s time the City Council had a serious working session to discuss a long term strategy on how to MANAGE the issue before more people end up dead.
Sioux Falls City Councilor Curtis Soehl, DEFENDER of the GIGANTIC TRUCK!!!
While Councilor Soehl has done very little in his two terms, besides brow beating public inputers like a unruly child, he did surprise his fellow councilors today with his passionate defense of gigantic trucks that only belong in gravel pits with the governor’s dead dogs.
A new councilor, not Lucy the cement bucket lady, but Jennifer Sigette has proposed an ordinance that previous chickensh!t councils and parking department gurus wouldn’t pull the trigger on; if you have a gigantic truck, don’t park it on these four blocks on Phillips Avenue.
Pretty simple, but Curtis the Blurtist wasn’t having it!
“What if a bunch of my podunk relatives who only drive gigantic farm trucks from Woonsocket came downtown to shop at all the luxury boutiques, buy rare antiques at Zandbroz, have a steak meal at Crawfords or Minervas right before taking in the Symphony at the Pavilion after getting this ticket, they may never come back.”
First off, he didn’t say most of that, but he might as well had. He gave some bullsh!t anecdedote about some farmer visiting from a small town. Yeah, so many boot scraping visitors downtown these days I am surprised it doesn’t smell like cow manure . . . nope, just dead hogs. As someone who has lived and worked in DTSF for over 30 years, the only time you observe ‘Farm Folks’ downtown is when all six of them are trying to read a parking meter and after 10 minutes of frustration get back in their sheep hauler and drive away never to experience some overpriced app at Parker’s.
Besides the safety reasons for passing this ordinance, it is just plain RUDE. So you have a big truck. Good for you. I don’t need one, I drink a couple of Arnold Palmers each day, it seems to cure my fascination with large shiny things.