Veterans Parkway name to be changed to Venice Parkway
l3wis A foot soldier took this picture last night. Can’t wait until they finish the tunnel and we can go body boarding during heavy rains. #pisspoorplanning
Floods
What’s going on with the Flood Recovery Fund?
Have donations to the “Flood Recovery Fund” (set up by the City of Sioux Falls) been distributed yet?
Mayor TenHaken said $7,500 had been received, and that was VERY early on . . . perhaps within hours of it being announced. That’s the only quantifier I’ve seen about how much money came in.
The Sioux Falls Area Community Foundation has been designated as the collecting agency for the donations. While I’ve never requested any grant, etc. from this group, I know some people who have had other dealings with them, and were not happy with the results. Their board, donors & honorees are quite the “who’s who” of Sioux Falls – a real mutual admiration society, if you will.
I believe the SFACF has a $140 million dollar war chest (most of it liquid investments) which – in spite of their very nice ongoing charitable grants, scholarships & monetary awards – grows every year via donations & their investments.
Given the tremendous existing multi-million dollar donations this organization already has on hand, I question why they have been designated to receive and disperse these donated Flood Recovery funds. . . . as opposed to the Red Cross, another existing disaster relief organization, or even some municipal equivalent of a Go Fund Me page, for example.
I believe the citizens who donate to this Flood Recovery Fund deserve confirmation that 100% of the donations received are dispersed to deserving recipients, and that no portion of these donations get absorbed back into one or more of the SFACF fund accounts.
Will we ever know?
UPDATE: City considering buying flood prone homes
UPDATE: According to the Minnehaha County Historical Society FB Page, this would affect the WH Lyons House which is on historical record. It also appears that if your home is flood damaged you wouldn’t get full price for your house.
I guess some of my city moles are leaking stuff to other media sources, GOOD JOB. If we can’t fix open government from the front end we can certainly go thru the back door;
According to a letter obtained by KELOLAND News on City of Sioux Falls letterhead, the city is looking at the possibility of turning recently flooded land into green space.
The letter says the city is looking at the area of Rose and Lotta on the floodplain, just off south Minnesota Avenue, just south of Interstate 229.
The letter says quote “The City’s proposal at this time is to offer voluntary purchases of certain homes in this area.” The letter also says that details are still up in the air, and that the city council has to approve this.
This is actually a great idea. The city has done this in the past of other flood prone areas. The only drawback is that even if the city gives these homeowners a fair market appraised value, a lot of these homes are so modest they may not be able to afford to purchase another home, BUT it may get them out of doing costly repairs. This also may take several years to repurpose the neighborhood. It will be an interesting process to watch.
How’s those pedestrian bridges holding out?
Remember when there was all the discussion about the million dollar pedestrian bridge DT which Jeff S. (who owns Cherapa) forced the Council to follow through with?
At the Park Board meetings and Council meetings at that time there was lengthy input about how the Corps of Engineers wanted the old Railroad bridge removed but did not want it replaced with anything because in the case of flooding it would be an obstruction in the river which would catch debris and increase the risk of the river overflowing its banks.
This is exactly what was happening at Rotary Park yesterday. So, how did they get approval for this when the Corps balked at the Downtown bridge for the very same reason?
Falls Park Safety Recommendations
If you read the report above (click on link) you will see they are recommending building viewing areas with railings. While I like the recommendations, I will will await the questions from the city council.
BTW, why did it take a new mayor before we moved forward with this? You don’t have to answer that question