Sioux Falls Airport

Did the City of Sioux Falls finance director tell a little white lie about airport bonding?

Well, he didn’t technically lie about the matter at hand, but yah gotta scratch your head a bit. Last week while the city council was approving bonding for the airport, Shawn Pritchett, the City of Sioux Falls Finance Director was asked a simple question. For reference, the Airport Authority is an appointed board and NOT elected, so they cannot approve bonds, they must have the next governing body approve the bonds, which is the city council. The bonds, with interest, will be paid in full by the airport authority thru parking and other revenues, the taxpayers are NOT on the hook for the $30 million in bonds, unless you park at the airport 🙂 So what was the question? I think Councilor Lucy Bayse asked the question, “So by approving these bonds, are citizens on the hook for the bonds or have any other financial obligation?” I’m paraphrasing, but it was pretty basic and to the point. Shawn replies, “NO.” Then goes into a detailed explanation as to why, as I explained above. So was he lying? Not at all, in fact, I see it identical to how he sees it. But, being the finance director you have to know what is coming down the pipeline? Right? Especially in a week!? So while we have NO financial obligation to the bond last week, this week, they decided to give the airport a $5 million dollar ‘LOAN’. (Item #33) Yeah, it has to be paid back, blah, blah, blah, but didn’t you just tell us last week that we had NO FINANCIAL OBLIGATION to this project (not just the bonds) then you roll out a loan? So which is it Shawn? Oh, and don’t think I don’t support the loan, I actually told a councilor that instead of the dumb bond and loan, the city should have bonded this project (50%) instead of those stupid rec centers. Expanding our airport will have more economic impact on us then a floating turd pond.

Transit On Demand is available at the airport

I stand corrected! I had a long post written last night about how On Demand doesn’t appear to go to the airport, but it does;

The airport, for example, wasn’t an option. I was instead prompted to take a bus and then a 50-minute walk.

As it was explained to me by a reporter, the app just gives you options and the first option was to take a fixed route or walk.

Uh, okay.

But my bigger concern is the data mining;

Via has its own app that you have to download, and there are quite a few steps to get it all set up,

While data can make the service much better, your personal information like credit card and tracking info should be scrubbed every 24-48 hours. I want to use the service, but not sure I can trust a 3rd party contractor partnering up with another 3rd party software provider (and who knows what other financial services they are partnering with?)

All this Bloomberg Institute of data mining is getting old.

Proposed Residential Airport

READ THE MINUTES

Yes, in a town where most people are middle to lower income some rich folks in town want their own airstrip next to their homes. The two petitioners are involved with a large construction company and the ethanol industry. The developer helping with the project is former City Councilor and current State Legislator, Greg Jamison.

While the proposal was a tie/stalemate with Minnehaha County voting for it and the City Planning Commission voting against, that means it goes to the Minnehaha CC and Sioux Falls city council for joint meeting approval on March 23.

A city official told me today that it may not make that date because the FAA is rumored to have already put a kabosh on it. We will see.

Airport moving ahead with ‘fiscally’ responsible parking ramp

As I posted about in 2017, the airport is building a fiscally responsible structure that maximized their parking needs at a fair price. But here is the real kick in the shorts;

But that’s not a long-term solution, so the Sioux Falls Airport Authority, the governmental entity that oversees the airport, has been saving for a permanent fix.

Did you catch that word ‘SAVING’. Maybe our city leaders could learn something about saving for projects, or at least completing them as planned. Not possible, that takes GUTS.

Sioux Falls Airport could see some hiccups

Besides the fact that Delta has stopped their non-stop flight to Atlanta from Sioux Falls, now Allegiant pilots may strike;

Pilots at Allegiant Air are prepared to strike if the airline doesn’t come to an agreement with them.

The dispute revolves around a scheduling system, which the pilots say has negatively impacted their lives and their families.

Also add that the airlines pay very low wages to ground crew and we could see many issues at the airport if they don’t start diversifying options for consumers. I have often wondered why it is so difficult for the state’s largest city to have good, reliable air service.