snow removal

1st Amendment Planning Commission Public Utilities SF City Council Sioux Falls snow removal Snowgates

Falls Park, data center and an RFP

l3wis December 16, 2025 4Comments

(SCOTT L. EHRISMAN (C) 12/16/2025)

You need to watch the informational meeting today where they talk about transforming Falls Park into an entertainment complex. The council pushed back pretty hard. Merkouris expressed he would like to see more of a natural park. I agree, they are cheaper, a lot cheaper, and they pretty much maintain themselves if you plant the right native species. They also look much more beautiful then layers of concrete like we currently have on the greenway (I think it is so funny we call concrete a GREENWAY). And as a visitor staying in a hotel downtown would you much rather take a stroll thru butterflies and flowers instead of a massive concrete path? We could turn Falls Park into a nature gem. Hopefully the next council takes this proposed plan and burns it, oh, and ask for our money back.

Why don’t we learn something from our immense failure of Jacobsen Plaza? What is the most popular part of the Plaza? FREE SH!T!!!! DUH!!!!! Make more natural trails at Falls Park and turn it into a nature wonderland instead of a mini-donut crap hole.

DATA CENTER MOVING FORWARD

The city council approved the 1st reading of zoning for the proposed data center and the conditions. Once again the council has FAILED to ask about the increasing energy costs. Not only is our council voting against our interests this will hurt us financially. Demand will drive up costs. I think if they plan to self-contain the center in 5 years, I would support it. But sucking water and power from us won’t help our rates. I beg the council to do their research. I see a national story EVERY DAY about the increased costs of Data Centers if their water and power is not self contained.

SHAWN ‘FIREBALL’ PRITCHETT HAD A CHANGE OF HEART.

It’s rare, but I gotta give Curtis the Blurtist credit on this one. When the finance director, Pritchett, came to the council tonight to fund motor graders he did his homework and put out an RFP (did his job for once). I believe this is because Curt put a boot up his ass about this and he was NOT going to buy motor graders without having an RFP. Funny how things work out better when you follow rules.

VERNON DID WHAT HE WAS HIRED TO DO

Everyone knows that the city council just wanted a shadow councilor over the next 6 months who won’t ask questions and ink up the rubber stamp. Vernon did not disappoint tonight. Besides his swearing in the only word coming out of Vernon’s mouth tonight was ‘YES’. Good Boy! I hope they gave you a treat.

1st Amendment Sioux Falls snow removal Snowgates Weatherman

Looks like it is going to be a slippery weekend in Sioux Falls

l3wis December 11, 2025 4Comments

With more snow coming this weekend and bitter cold temps, our street department will be busy. I know the city crews have been working their tales off with little time off.

So a friend said to me recently, “Have you noticed that some of the salt trucks put out very little salt while some just blowout too much?”

I told him I have noticed that in the past but I am assuming even if they have settings on the salt devices they tend to malfunction A LOT! A city plow driver told me that years ago and I guess I have never forgotten.

So this same friend likes to snoop around city properties to see what’s up. He travels around town a lot because of his work so he will drive by city properties to inspect*. I have been doing it for years on my bike downtown. So today he says to me. “I wonder if the city is going to have enough salt this winter or even for this weekend?”

I asked him why. He said, “I drove by the salt dome at the public works lot on North Cliff earlier this week and it was very, very, low.” With all the weather reports warning us of the possibility of a lot of precip this winter the city should have stocked up on salt, especially with $80 million in reserves I think we can afford to buy a little extra. You know, that natural occurring mineral from the earth that can be stored at no cost for decades? We just spent $1 million for new police radios that have better technology to keep the public safer. Keeping our roads passable is one of the MOST important public safety measures. BUY MORE SALT!!!!!!

*Believe me or not, I get a lot of my tips from just snooping around city projects. I never enter an active construction site because that is stupid and dangerous and I have no doubt I am on camera. That’s how the cops caught be running a stop sign on my bike DTSF and didn’t pull me over for 5 blocks. Why, because they caught me on camera (I do run stop signs, but I always slow and yield all directions and their wasn’t a car for blocks when I ran the sign). So yes, if you want to be snoopy like me, that’s cool, but be aware you are being watched.

1st Amendment Sioux Falls snow removal Snowgates Uncategorized

Seems we are a we bit behind on snow plowing

l3wis November 30, 2025 9Comments

I have been watching how the city will handle snow removal using mostly city workers and equipment. While this snow event wasn’t that bad and most residential streets are passable (especially if you go e-trike) there are challenges. The street crews were out early, which was great, but it seems they are behind on residential plowing;

Zone 2:

North / South Streets plowing will begin at 8 a.m. on Sunday, November 30, 2025
All vehicles parked on north/south streets are subject to ticketing and towing until streets have been plowed or until 5 p.m., whichever is earlier. Although this requirement is in effect only until 5 p.m., any continuing snow removal operations may impact your use of the street for parking.

East / West Streets plowing will begin at 8 p.m. on Sunday, November 30, 2025
All vehicles parked on east/west streets are subject to ticketing and towing until streets have been plowed or until 5 a.m., whichever is earlier. Although this requirement is in effect only until 5 a.m., any continuing snow removal operations may impact your use of the street for parking.

I live in this zone on a N/S route. Normally if the Alert is at 8 AM, I am plowed out no later than Noon. It is almost 4 PM, and they just rode by, and didn’t even bother to use snowgates even though they were on the plow. The next mayor needs to immediately fire any operator who is caught on video NOT using the snowgate. It is city ordinance and when you violate it, it is grounds for termination. This is worrisome for many reasons. It means they are behind, and no surprise, and this wasn’t even a major storm.

I HATE predicting these things, but I knew with fewer resources there was NO WAY the city was going to be plowed out at the same rate when using private contractors and equipment. Hopefully there wasn’t 150 car accidents in one day!!!

1st Amendment Downtown Sioux Falls Public Utilities Public Works SF City Council Sioux Falls snow removal Snowgates

City Council defers Snowplow purchases

l3wis August 20, 2025 2Comments

It seemed a majority on the council were suspicious of this deal and why we need to buy these maintainers BEFORE the yearly budget is approved. And for good reason. So the question that we ALL need an answer to is; ‘Was it the city’s idea to purchase the maintainers or the contractor?’ I don’t know, but the more that gets revealed it seems this deal was concocted and pitched to the city by the contractor wanting to ‘rid’ themselves of the used equipment. So why would they need to get rid of this equipment? Long story short, the contractor who leased the equipment had the contract tied to a major developer who is out of the business now. So did this contractor inform the city they were no longer going to do the lease? And while they were at it, did they offer the city this ‘deal’ to purchase the used equipment we have already been paying leases on? Yup, that’s right folks, they want to sell us the very equipment they have been leasing to us. So since they are apparently not in the business anymore and a major investor has passed away it seems like a sweetheart deal for the contractor and ANY investor he may have had. Be warned council, this isn’t being done to bail out the city, it is being done to bail out a contractor. No surprise, while there is nothing nefarious about the current lease agreement, you have to question the arrangement with the developer, the city and what goes on at the yearly ‘High Tea’ meetings. The city council needs to budget for a NEW lease agreement with a NEW provider after a RFP is put out. I hope the council comes to their senses and looks at the current lease agreement and who is listed on it.

Mayor TenHaken SF City Council Sioux Falls snow removal Snowgates

UPDATE II: Where were the F’ing sanders today?!

l3wis November 30, 2024 6Comments

UPDATE II: I guess the street fleet was out at 7:30 AM on Wednesday, FILLING POTHOLES! The only spots they sanded were bridges and after they left at 3:30 PM they were CALLED back at 4:30 PM to sand, and only a handful of drivers responded to the request. But hey, if you drive a public works truck in the parade of lights you are getting $60 bones an hour. Priorities folks. Priorities. I also heard and still trying to verify there was almost 90 traffic accidents on Wednesday. Surprising? NOT.

UPDATE: I was told the sanders were out at 7:30 AM on Wednesday. I would be curious how many because when I drove to work at 4 PM on Cliff Avenue, parts of 41st street and Minnesota were pure ice and packed snow and I didn’t see one single sander out.

I know I have complained about this before, but today was literally a Sh!t show. With the weather today being what is was I decided to drive my car. Bad decision. While I do have studded snow tires on my bike, I try to avoid riding in the dark when conditions are very icy, but I would have probably been safer on my bike. Normally it takes me about 20 minutes to commute to work (5 miles) it took me 30 minutes today in my car, not just because of the terrible condition of the streets but because multiple streets were closed due to accidents.

I get it, there really wasn’t a forecast for this event, but it shouldn’t matter, it is the END OF NOVEMBER! Those sanders should be ready at ALL TIMES!

I did see them out tonight at 9 PM. Thanks . . . dumbasses.

So besides the personal expenditures of folks vehicles being damaged, we have the police and fire respond to these incidents. And now we are paying NIGHT differential to sand the streets. The pennies the city may have saved by not sanding this morning when the event started doesn’t even come close to the amount being spent on responding to these accidents.

Is our Mayor that stupid?

Maybe so, but it also falls back on his lack of leadership. Dave Munson would have been on the horn to Galen Huber at 6 am sending out those sanders. Why? Because public safety should never have a price tag, it is a requirement of municipal government to provide these services thru the taxes we pay. Makes you wonder if the city is in such dire straights that they can’t even send sanders out? We have around $80 million in reserves. We could sand every road in the state for a year and still not spend it all.

I suggested to a councilor that the council write an ordinance that takes control of street plowing and sanding. Basically it would require the street department to act on their own when there is an event and craft the ordinance in a way that pretty much requires them to act immediately to any winter weather event and take that control away from the mayor.

Falls Park, data center and an RFP

Looks like it is going to be a slippery weekend in Sioux Falls

Seems we are a we bit behind on snow plowing

City Council defers Snowplow purchases

UPDATE II: Where were the F’ing sanders today?!

You Missed

Is it time to recall the entire city council and mayor?

UPDATE: Data Center will get approved tonight

Big Announcement

So that took awhile