Sioux Falls

So that took awhile

l3wis January 5, 2026 2Comments

I let the cat out of the bag in December that Gage had sold, but I knew about the sale months in advance and was waiting to see if the local media would report on it. SF Bizzo was the first to report on the sale (which I am assuming she was PAID to print the article). My suspicions were correct;

The acquisition of Gage’s assets came amid significant financial challenges for the company. Gage became employee-owned when its ESOP was formed in 2007, and the value of that ESOP had dropped to 1.5 cents per share, which went to zero after necessary administrative and professional expenses were paid, according to a letter sent to shareholders.

It communicated that Gage “has navigated significant financial challenges” over the past several years, including “persistent cash-flow constraints, the general slowdown across the construction industry and the company’s broader financial trajectory,” which ultimately required pursuing an investor “to ensure the long-term stability of the business and protect the interests of its shareholders.”

The letter continued: “We know this is not the outcome anyone hoped for and sincerely regret the impact this has on you.”

The Gage real estate in northeast Sioux Falls was owned separately. Part of it was purchased in November for $14.4 million, according to Minnehaha County records, though it’s not clear what that includes. The property includes a highly automated 200,000-square-foot production facility that opened in 2019 at an estimated cost of $40 million and a two-story office building.

So why hasn’t the media touched this? Well, there is the obvious screw job to employees there is also the involvement of cemetery fraud). I found it funny that the company that BOUGHT* them was the one to pay a news service to break the story, this tells me the heat in the kitchen hasn’t been good.

*Talk about a misleading headline;

Gage Brothers becomes part of Minnesota-based concrete company

If I sell my house to another family, I don’t get to move back into the house I just sold them and become a PART of their family. The business SOLD to a competitor because they were facing bankruptcy, this isn’t a partnership.

UPDATE: Stormland is also reporting on it, after what appears to be a press release sent to the media. The the new owners are giving former Gage employees who stayed on with Molin a ESOP option with their company, but I am assuming those investments will start from scratch because if you were to bring in hundreds of employees in it would reduce the value of the ESOP stock for current Molin employees.

1st Amendment Developers Development Downtown Sioux Falls Elections Sioux Falls TIFs

One Great City!

l3wis January 3, 2026 9Comments

I LOVE this song;

I just replace ‘Winnipeg’ with ‘Sioux Falls’ and it makes soooo much sense. The last line in the song nails it;

And up above us all, leaning into sky
A golden business boy will watch the North End die
And sing I love this town
Then let his arcing wrecking ball proclaim

I hate Winnipeg (Sioux Falls)

So a foot soldier who actually reads regional news sent me this article about TIFs. Talking points are always the same and I encourage you to read the entire piece;

Politically, TIF is seductive. It allows elected officials to claim they are “doing something” about development without raising taxes today. The costs are deferred, opaque and spread across future taxpayers. But the long-term consequences are real: higher property taxes, underfunded schools, distorted development patterns and growing dependence on subsidies for projects that should stand on their own.

Pretty common sense stuff. Right? And the folks who wrote this article are not a couple of jokesters;

Julie Risser is an Edina City Council member. She previously served on Edina’s Planning Commission and Energy and Environment Commission. David Schultz is Hamline University Distinguished Professor of Political Science. Previously he served as a city director of planning, zoning and code enforcement and also as a housing and economic planner.

I have read hundreds of articles over the past decade about the destructive nature of TIF’s and have never understood why local governments get sucked in, besides the fact they are getting their personal palms greased, but I have never heard the word ‘SEDUCTIVE’ used. It makes SOOO much sense now. Not only are our national politics ruled by money and power (The taxpayers of this country just paid for a military operation to take the oil resources of an independent nation, wrap your F’ing head around that!!!) but now our local politics are now too. I think the upcoming city election is an opportunity for citizens to stand up this money machine and elect folks who won’t tolerate it any more. Don’t be ‘seduced’ by snake oil salespeople.

MY HOPES FOR THE NEXT ADMINISTRATION (Mayoral)

Somebody asked me last night what would be my ideal outcome of the next city election, and I gave a longer answer then I expected;

Greg Jamison as mayor, Christine Erickson as Public Information Officer, Joe Batcheller as his Planning Director and Jamie Smith as his Housing and Community Development director AND I would hire a trained monkey to be the city attorney. Notice I said ‘trained’.

1st Amendment Development Downtown Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce

What did I tell you about the ‘Rich Party’? (H/T-MZ)

l3wis January 2, 2026 0Comments

So check this out;

Isn’t it interesting the city is cutting funding to several struggling NGO’s in Sioux Falls but not the Development Foundation, even after receiving $15 million from the state just 2 years ago they magically still got around $500K from the taxpayers of Sioux Falls this year. Disgusting. Oh and the over $100 million in TIFs and other tax rebates.

I can guarantee you the reason funding was cut from the MCC was because DHS and the Feds threatened ALL Federal Funding to the city if they didn’t cut immigration services funding to orgs like LSS. This has nothing to do with making ‘tough choices’ this is just blatant racism from Sally and his cohorts and the city could have lost millions in Federal grants for infrastructure projects. Will the city ever tell us this? Highly unlikely.

I’m telling you, the RICH PARTY in Sioux Falls stays on TOP because they control the money and they take the money.

Downtown Sioux Falls Mayor TenHaken Phillips to the Falls Sioux Falls Sioux Falls Parks and Rec

What Falls Park could be

l3wis January 1, 2026 3Comments

Notice I call it Falls Park and not THE FALLS. The first thing the next mayor needs to do is take down that stupid looking 1982 jacket vest colored sign and replace if with a new quartzite sign that says ‘Falls Park’. So if any future mayors try to do the same thing, it will be a little bit harder to replace. I still don’t know how a mayor can just make that decision on his own with executive authority? That should have gone thru public hearings with the naming committee, historic board, the parks board, the planning commission, the rubberstamp arts commission and a vote of the city council. Heck, the next mayor needs to do just that to get it changed back! So much corruption at city hall. When I bitched to someone about this who works at city hall they kind of said to me like ‘Who cares.’ and I was like, ‘How would you like it if he renamed Fawick Park, Sanford Park and replaced David with that goofy Happy Chef looking statue that sits on the Sanford campus.’ They had a change of heart.

LOOK HOW BEAUTIFUL WE COULD MAKE FALLS PARK WITHOUT SPENDING MUCH ON PERMANENT INFRASTRUCTURE

If you have ever been to the Butchart Gardens in Victoria, BC, Canada, you know what I am talking about. It is one of the gems of this coastal city. When I lived in the Pacific Northwest I made a couple of trips to Victoria (before 9/11 so all you needed was an ID to enter the country and empty your pockets before getting on the ferry. I saw them make an old lady cry because she couldn’t take her peaches with her. The attendant was like, ‘Mam, this is a 45 minute ride and there is a huge food court at the dock’.) Victoria is on a peninsula thingy so driving there is a pain in the ass, so peeps drive from Seattle to Port Angeles and take a 45 minute cruise in open ocean. I tell you this because we came back on high tide once and I was as green as cucumber.

With Greek and Scottish culture throughout the city and dozens of public museums the Butchart Gardens is there true attraction;

Internationally renowned, the 55-acre display garden located near Victoria, British Columbia was created in 1904 by Jennie Butchart. Still privately owned and operated by family descendants, The Gardens is a National Historic Site of Canada. Open every day of the year, welcoming over one million visitors annually.

You just get lost in there. I would recommend the city fund a trip so a councilor, parks manager and parks board member can go see this in person. We could do this at Falls Park using native flowers and grasses and really turn Falls Park into a nature wonderland instead of a Six Flags.

There is also a bigger idea in all of this. If you read the Buchart website you will notice it is privately owned with volunteers. You could get corporate sponsorship’s for the garden beds at Falls Park that could pay for the little maintenance they will need or even have a team of volunteers. If the Pavilion can use volunteers to operate it’s Great Hall, then why can’t the city have volunteers maintain Falls Park?

There are so many opportunities to bring in the community on this and make it the talk of the midwest, but if contractors in this town don’t get a contract every 5 minutes to poor concrete over our parks, they get nervous and city hall folds like a cheap suit.

1st Amendment Elections Sioux Falls

Politics in Sioux Falls is divided by money, not party

l3wis December 31, 2025 3Comments

Before I get into a half story about a strange dynamic going on right now in city government that involves rich powerful people and money grubby politicos let’s talk about what we want to see next year.

I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year and hopefully next year at this exact time I will be blogging about how our new mayor transformed government access and integrity within the halls of city hall. Our city council is actually writing policy that benefits citizens over businesses, the Dems sweep the House and Senate and eliminate the filibuster to overturn most of Republiscum’s horrific policies. The irony is this will be a cakewalk for Dems if they win. Why? Because the dipsh!t GOP hasn’t passed any legislation only waiting on Trump to do EO’s which can be overturned by the Congress pretty quickly by codifying it.

I will also celebrate my 19th Anniversary of DaCola on June 24th. My intention has always been to try to make it to 20 years before my blogging career (at least in politics) ends. In retirement I plan to do a video blog about my travels. There have been almost 15,000 posts on DaCola since it’s inception.

MONEY IN SIOUX FALLS MAKES STRANGE BEDFELLOWS

While most people would think we are divided by the Left/Right in this community when it comes to politics, that couldn’t be further from reality.

MONEY. That’s what divides this town. If you have moolah, it doesn’t matter if you are Repug or Demorat, as long as you have the greenbacks. It’s the Rich Party vs. the Poor Party. And while there is more of us in the Poor Party, the Rich Party has more buying power.

There’s an interesting dynamic going on right now behind the scenes that involves a mayoral candidate a possible gubernatorial candidate and a little rich weasel in our community playing defense and offense, all with different political affiliations. I would love to tell you what I know so far, because this stuff is as juicy as it gets, but I want this to ferment a little longer before I serve that glass of whine.

For the record nothing ILLEGAL is going on here, that I can see, I wouldn’t even classify it as corrupt or unethical, it is just typical money politics in Sioux Falls with the same cast of characters trying to play games with the Clems to get what they want. I hope they ALL F’ING LOSE at the ballot box 🙂 We can only hope. I know I ain’t voting for either of them.

So that took awhile

One Great City!

What did I tell you about the ‘Rich Party’? (H/T-MZ)

What Falls Park could be

Politics in Sioux Falls is divided by money, not party

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