Sioux Falls Parks and Rec

What a stupid argument

l3wis November 4, 2025 1Comments

There was more stupidity occurring at the council meeting tonight. And guess what?! It’s happening again for the same reason; LACK OF TRANSPARENCY.

Just look at this stupid graph they have been man-splain’ to the council for over a year;

Notice, this is square footage of PUBLIC facilities. So what is the square footage of private facilities? As councilor Greg Neitzert said at a meeting last year; ‘There’s a gym on every corner of this town.’ I think he made it pretty clear when they first presented this stupid graph that there was NO comparison to the private sector, even after that warning over a year ago, they are still pitching this stupid argument. Sure, we may not have as much public fitness as other communities, but if you need to workout in Sioux Falls, you can find a gym and it is likely more affordable then the city.

I often tell councilors you need to support more outdoor / FREE recreation because it is something the private sector DOES not provide, and that is why we DON’T have much public indoor rec because we have an amazing city funded outdoor park system! How about we improve this? Or at least fix the broken equipment at Rotary Park!

Parks and Rec need to focus on what they do best, outdoor recreation and stop trying to act like they need to run a Gold’s Gym (I think they went bankrupt?)

UPDATE: CITY BALL FIELD TO BE NAMED AFTER FINANCIAL INSTITUTION WITH NO DOLLAR VALUE OF SPONSORSHIP

l3wis October 22, 2025 1Comments

UPDATE: So that only took 3 months but we finally know what the sponsorship was on this project;

They started with a goal of $150,000, and they ended up raising $175,000, according to neighbor Emily Fink, including a five-figure donation from Sammons Financial and grassroots efforts to knock on doors in the neighborhood and solicit donations from local businesses.

Well maybe we don’t know. So did they give $10,000 or $99,999? Apparently in SF you can sponsor a park with whatever figure you want. At least we know what the sponsorship goal was. Why did this take 3 months? Oh that’s right, this administration wouldn’t know transparency if it dropped on them like manure from a fighter jet.

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Aug 5, 2025

(Item #44) In one of the strangest park sponsorships I have ever seen, they are granting a 30 year naming sponsorship to a financial institution for a new ball field with NO DOLLAR AMOUNT mentioned in the sponsorship. I have never seen this before. They only reference what they will be paying for;

WHEREAS, HBA and the City agree that one of the conditions of such gift is to name the ballfield
“Sammons Field at Prairie Meadows Park” for the life of the Improvements and may be referred to as
the “Sammons Field” on any signage; and

While it is great they will be paying for the improvements (and why would we accept this field from Harrisburg?) there should be a yearly spending cap, so what is it? Transparency is just a turd to flush to this current administration. Don’t be fooled, the taxpayers of SF will be paying for most of the improvements, while we slap a financial institution’s name on it because they bought a couple of park benches. Even the rich and powerful now control our parks, while we have to pay to maintain them.