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Sioux Falls Parks and Rec

5G SF City Council Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Parks and Rec

Ugly 5G tower planned for McKennan Park

l3wis 10Comments

(FF: 32:00)

When I first read the Sioux Falls City Council agenda this past weekend I assumed this item that was worded as if NSP was just burying a line was just that, burying a line – not quite. If you read the entire document posted on SIRE, you still have no idea what it is except that NSP is subcontracting with Verizon. It wasn’t until a city official explaining the item last night that it was revealed that it was a ‘small cell tower’ and then admitted it was a 5G tower. They also said that it was presented to the McKennan Park neighborhood association meeting but failed to tell the council that there was very few people at the meeting. In other words, I doubt many neighbors of McKennan Park know that there was a 1st reading on putting a butt ugly 5G tower in their park.

No where in the ordinance is 5G even mentioned.

I have noticed that the city has become very deceptive lately with its agenda item language surrounding public works and planning/zoning items. Gee, I wonder why? Oh that’s right, because this administration and majority of the council HATE OPEN AND TRANSPARENT GOVERNMENT.

I hope some of my close neighbors over in the park read this post and spread the word and voice their opposition to octopus tower at the 2nd reading.

Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Parks and Rec

City of Sioux Falls Parks Department decides mowing a 1/4″ of grass is a good idea

l3wis 9Comments

For the past couple of weeks, I have watched as the parks department has mowed literally a 1/4″ of grass on the football fields at Sanford Sports Complex weekly. Not only is this a waste of labor and fuel, 1) the fields are not being used and 2) with all the concerns about tax revenue, really?

Don’t get me started about taxpayers funding youth sports to begin with, I have often thought that should be paid for by parents, but this is a total waste of tax revenue. While we can go around and talk about ‘cuts’ If I were the mayor, I would be slashing crap like this.

Planning Commission SF City Council Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Parks and Rec

Sioux Falls City Council Agenda June 15-17, 2020

l3wis 2Comments

Zoning Board of Adjustment • 6 PM • June 15, Monday

Weird, I have never seen these meetings on the agenda, online. They are actually good meetings (people asking to use more of their property to build a bunch of crap). Most of the time, I really don’t care, but sometimes people are just being weird with their intentions.

City Council Informational Meeting • 4 PM • June 16, Tuesday

Presentations on the Triage Center Project Lease Agreement and Public Parking Update. The Public Parking update was ‘supposed’ to occur after the council installation so a certain guilty party could sail thru to re-election (this same person has re-opened his Carnegie basement office). The Bunker Ramp has been an enormous disaster, and they don’t like to talk about it. Why? Guilty conscious.

City Council Regular Meeting • 7 PM • June 16, Tuesday

Item #7, Approval of Contracts, Sub Item #13. Notice the ethics complaint that was thrown out against Neitzert cost taxpayers $7,500. And we are worried about what a re-count is costing us . . . Puhleeeeze!

Items #43-44, 1st Reading, Triage lease and joint participation agreements.

Item #45, 1st Reading, More repeals of Covid restriction ordinances. I find it interesting that since the state has decided to call off all restrictive measures, Covid has essentially been flat lining and on some days going up. There has been NO downward curve. This is troublesome because if the curve doesn’t start going down within the next few weeks, we could be maintaining or increasing these numbers going into fall (when school starts) and into winter (when influenza and other illnesses increase). It will be interesting to see if we actually start a downward spiral soon. But I guess when we are hosting youth baseball tournaments and inviting families from out of state (councilor Erickson talked about this in the last informational meeting) what should we expect. While I am fine with people getting back to work safely, some of these other activities are just selfish. So the kids have to take the summer off from sports? Oh well, they are kids, they will forget about it in a couple of years.

Parks & Rec Board • 4 PM • June 17, Wednesday

4. Report of standing committees

 a. Marketing and Public Needs

 b. Park System Planning and Development

 c. Partnerships and Recreation

  1. Unfinished business

6. New business

7. Report of Director of Parks and Recreation

 a. Golf Course Report – April

Downtown Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Parks and Rec

Drowning Death Case against the City of Sioux Falls moves forward

l3wis 1Comments

I was actually surprised it is moving forward to trial;

A federal district court finds that the case against the City of Sioux Falls in the drowning death of an Iowa girl can go forward.

Judge Karen Schreier found that the plaintiff, Courtney Jayne, representing her deceased minor daughter Maggie Zaiger, had met their burden to survive the City’s motion for summary judgment.

The little girl fell into the Big Sioux River at Falls Park while on an outing with her family. 

As I understand it, the Public Assurance Alliance is handling the case for the city.

SF City Council Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Parks and Rec

City of Sioux Falls River Greenway and Falls Park design competition is actually a wonderful idea

l3wis 3Comments

When I first saw this on Tuesday, I thought to myself, “The city should do this more often.” For the small investment of $40K to selected competitors, we will probably get some innovative designs, save money, and encourage artistic competition.

If there is one thing I know about designers and artists, they love to compete, and they love to outdo each other. In a traditional sense of the RFP process, sometimes those bids go to the ones most connected and have insider information. What happens is we probably don’t get the best design, because we stifle creativity.

For years the city has used the same contractor over and over for these projects. I’m not saying they suck, but if you don’t know what other people have to offer, how will you ever know?

Of course, I am not naive, the selection process will probably be chocked full of backroom deals, and we will probably end up with the same contractor.

I challenge the city to post images of the submissions online and have residents vote on the final four. I think this would even the keel and be a wonderful way of having the public participate in the process. Great ideas die in the dark.

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