Sioux Falls

Pools, Handouts, Crime, Studies & Lenin’s Tomb of Dead Monkeys

Well it took a lot of hand wringing, two city councils and over a year to figure out the pool bonds;

An ordinance of the City of Sioux Falls authorizing the City to issue bonds backed and repaid by the City’s existing 2nd penny sales tax to utilize for $68,000,000 in parks and recreation improvements at the Westside Recreation Center, Kuehn Park, and Frank Olson Park.

They could have just put it to a public bond vote last spring, but that would have taken vision and leadership two attributes this current city government can’t wrap their heads around. I’ve told people it likely would have passed by over 60% of the vote. The argument for the new expenditures is about as laughable as it gets. If you were to put it to a bond vote you would get the answer you are looking for instead of speculating we are short (public) indoor recreation facilities. We are NOT short. We have more indoor (private) recreation then any city our size probably in the nation. Just do a google search, with new places being built every day! The new hobby lobby will be a gigantic indoor rec facility, privately owned and operated. It reminds me of the building permit argument, ‘Look! Look! We are over a Billion on permits, oh, and half that money is coming from you.’ We have plenty of private indoor rec space we don’t need to compete with them.

More handouts to the lobbyists (Item #13):

The proposed supplemental appropriation provides South Dakota Trade $100,000 to support its operations in 2025.

Well, I saw this coming a mile away, a lobbyist shows up to an informational, cracks a few jokes with the councilors and the next thing you know they have $100K in their pockets. I find it ironic we have to give an organization money that essentially represents importers and exporters in our state that are transferring millions in goods each year . . . maybe they need to be asking their members for the money instead of the taxpayers of Sioux Falls? Just a thought.

CRIME TRENDS CAN’T BE IGNORED

Jodi wrote this article in 2018, but it kind of rings true today.

TRUMP ISN’T EVEN QUALIFIED TO CLEAN A TOILET

I joked with someone that even though a convicted felon can become president they still couldn’t pass a Federal background check required before you could become a janitor in a government building. That’s right folks, the guy cleaning your toilet has more integrity and government clearance then the man in the corner office. Kind of reminds you of the public sector.

DUSTY MONKEYS AND THAT HUNCHBACK

It seems the city is ready to send most of Lenin’s tomb to Notre Dame. I contacted the department that would be taking on the collection and told them to request the origins of each of the animals before taking them. Since many are endangered I told them it would be ethically wise to see if any of the animals were taken illegally or poached and it would be a bit embarrassing for them to be displaying animals that were taken in this way.

LONG OVERDUE STUDY OF RAIL TRAFFIC IN SIOUX FALLS

The Federal Railroad Administration is giving the South Dakota DOT $1 million for an analysis and crossing safety study in the Sioux Falls area.

Hopefully this will result in many of the crossings DTSF to be closed and rerouted. We have far too much train traffic DTSF and I’m glad to see the agency in charge of regulating them will actually be regulating them.

Building Permits good in Sioux Falls, due to taxpayers and patients

The top 4 projects were either paid for by taxpayers or patients, and none of these projects will produce property tax revenue. I have often said the building permits need to be split-up between commercial, housing, institutional non-profit and government and show us what the private sector is really doing. It still puzzles me that you can boast about spending our tax and healthcare dollars and spin it into some big statement on growth. When non-profits and government are spending more on development then the private sector, you got problems. Then there is all the grift in the form of tax rebates and TIF’s for the private developers. All $1 Billion in building permits means to me is my taxes and healthcare costs are going up.

Screenshot

Is the Sioux Falls School District recruiting school board candidates?

This is pretty odd coming from an organization that does everything in their power to make sure nobody votes in their elections. There was also the illegal finance report they filed and edited. There is also the dubious school bond election where the citizens voted in the Putin Bonds (Lalley said the results of the election seemed Soviet). I don’t think Carly and Nan want to run again and they are looking for replacements. Also, just a note, when asking folks to get involved with local government, try not to schedule that meeting conflicting with another local body (City Council Meeting). I see this often where the school board will have an important meeting at the same time as the city or county. Can you folks coordinate? I know the mayor meets with the Super on a regular basis (probably working out more closed government strategies). I was glad to see Nold replacing Stavem, but why didn’t they just hire him before Stavem? The things this body does in executive session really makes you scratch your head.

Why are restaurants in Sioux Falls failing?

Well, at least someone in the media has figured it out;

I am beginning to wonder if this market is adding restaurants faster than it’s growing the resident and visitor population. 

That’s one of the problems. The other is horrible service (many experienced managers and servers left the industry during Covid, permanently). Prices of course with inflation are also to blame. Food quality is also at an all time low due to cost cutting by restaurants. Also, there really is no destinations. Just look at the restaurants and bars that are always busy, they have great service, good food, decent price points and a reason to be there. I’m sorry, an aluminum stool at a bar with Coors Light on tap and a buffalo chicken wrap on the menu isn’t roping me in or keeping me there. I think the hospitality industry in Sioux Falls needs to realize the same old, same old, just ain’t cutting it anymore.

There is only a handful of locally owned restaurants I go to anymore, and they are getting slimmer. I also got a kick out of this statement;

and even the impact of so many people using weight-loss drugs, 

I about fell out of my chair laughing at that one. If people can’t afford to go out to eat, they certainly can’t afford $1,000 a month designer diet pills. Look around at people when you are at a restaurant and count the people who are NOT overweight. You may find 2-3 out of 40. Trust me, people are getting enough food to eat. It’s the garbage we are being fed.

Sioux Falls City Council Agenda (Jan 7, 2025)

The council has had a few weeks off, so I knew stuff was piling up, and it’s a big-in;

City Council Informational • Tuesday January 7, 2025, 4 PM

• Real Time Information Center by Jon Thum, Police Chief (not sure what this is but looks interesting). Hopefully this will be an effort by the SFPD to be more open with citizens and their assistance in helping to solve crime. I’m sorry, but a large majority of the 16 murders this year in Sioux Falls were preventable and we need to be sharing more data and information with the public.

Regular Meeting • Tuesday January 7, 2025, 6 PM

Item #22, This resolution of necessity is for the construction of an urban section connecting Detroit to the existing urban section of Grant Street which is 650+/- feet East of Detroit Avenue. (This will be an interesting item during discussion. I am NOT sure if the properties are willing to pay for the completion of this street, but maybe that is what was negotiated?)

Item #29, An ordinance of the City of Sioux Falls authorizing the City to issue bonds backed and repaid by the City’s existing 2nd penny sales tax to utilize for $68,000,000 in parks and recreation improvements at the Westside Recreation Center, Kuehn Park, and Frank Olson Park. (IMO, the city council missed an incredible opportunity to put these bonds to a vote during the spring elections. The numbers have been the same for over a year, there has been NO mysteries. They will pass it even though most taxpayers in Sioux Falls have no idea this is going on.)

Item #6, Approval of Contracts;

Sub-Item #3 (When you have to pay a private contractor $70K to create a budget book you have to question the competency of our finance department. Maybe they need to hire a private contractor to replace the staples in their staplers to?)

Sub-Item #6 (Settlement for $595K for easement property. Notice that this was awarded to the developer who sold the Tre Ministries property and will not be developing it).

Sub-Item #7 (Why are we paying the RR $100K for bridge repair? Biggest Grifters EVER!)

Sub-Item #15 (Onward and Leadership Training Agreement. More waste on leadership programs. Maybe teach city employees how to be more efficient and productive?)

Sub-Item #16 (Millions more to the Pavilion to fix something? I would really like a tally of how much money from the entertainment tax we have spent so far on the Pavilion. May guess it is north of $100 million since it’s inception. A project that was supposed to cost $19 million and when finally completed was around $50 million, with millions more in repairs and subsidies over the years).