By Garrick Moritz, Editor
The City of Garretson had a big meeting with a lot of debate last week, on Monday, Sept. 5.
Starting off they discussed the Pool with several of the pool Board Members presents including Karla Godbey, Leah Konechne, Doug Grimsrud and Jason Bohl. The Pool Board gave the city council a review of the year and notified them of potential problems for the future. Firstly there was some vandalism and midnight swimming this summer and also the roof was damaged in last year's storm and not completely repaired yet.
"There are cracks in the cement, and in those cracks, water gets in and ice forms during the winter and that of course, causes damage." said Bohl. "We schedule painting every three years of course, but that only does so much. This year, getting the pool prepped before the season started we took out and patched some pretty big chunks of cement that had flaked off due to weathering, some the size of your fist. Moisture is our biggest adversary and that might seem funny when you talk about a pool, but it's the truth."
The road leading to the pool also needs repairs, and the pool board is planning to install security cameras at the pool this coming year.
On a positive note, the pool board said that they had regular families coming on a weekly basis from Hills, Beaver Creek and Brandon. These families said that they enjoyed the deeper depths and large swimming area offered by the Garretson pool, so the open concept floor plan has certainly worked to the pool's advantage.
Mayor Tim Mullin and the City Council asked the present pool board members what they thought of the grant for playground equipment that had been received.
Pool board member Jason Bohl said it hadn't been discussed overmuch. Generally speaking he said that they would rather have that money available for some of the repair and perhaps some material upgrades inside the pool first, but he understood that the grant in question was for exterior playground equipment. Everyone agreed that the current playground equipment is old, dilapidated and a potential hazard. Former City Councilwoman Jodi Gloe advised that it was best not to return a grant because that might affect the possibility of getting new grants for the pool more difficult. Mayor Mullin offered to attend the next pool board meeting and develop a plan of action for removing the old equipment and ordering a new, modern set of playground gear that is up to current code.
"It's the right time because everything is on sale right now," said Mullin, "and if we can get a core of volunteers with some equipment to install it we can get something that's much better for that space than the unsafe eyesore that's currently there. "
The final deadline for the grant is this coming December so the pool board and city council need to decide what to do quickly.
Next, Captain Mike Walsh from the Minnehaha County Sherriff’s Department was there to give a briefing on the rash of vandalisms and petty thefts that have been happening in Garretson.
Captain Walsh elaborated that there have been approximately 7 instances of vandalism in Garretson this past summer. In the building housing Palisades Chiropractic and People's Insurance we had graffiti applied with cooking spray on the north face of the building. We had a van whose side mirror was broken off. At the Garretson Food Center we had windows damaged and glass doors damaged or shattered in two separate instances one week ago and the second over the Labor Day holiday and at the Jesse James Country Store, the very same occurred over the Labor Day holiday. The pool was also vandalized, with chairs thrown into the pool on two occasions. He regretted to say that as of this moment, there were no suspects for any of these crimes.
Neither of the storefront crimes developed into burglaries, he was happy to report.
"Though I never make assumptions on investigations, my experience in law enforcement tells me that these crimes were committed by juveniles," he said. "The unfortunate truth about property crimes like this is the solve rate is very low. Both the Garretson Food Center and Jesse James have security cameras, but in neither case were any useful images found. GFC's cameras are all inside to dissuade shoplifters and the perpetrators at Jesse James were savvy enough to avoid the camera there. Listening to you pool board's report just now, I noted that they plan to install more cameras at the pool, well I heartily support that idea and encourage that as a plan of action to implement. Nowadays, cameras are very inexpensive, and act as both a deterrent and a solid way to identify a suspect."
Captain Walsh was informed by Garretson Historical Society member Kelly Schleuter that the Historical Society has cameras in the Museum, some of which face outward to the street and the Garretson Food Center can sometimes be seen in their camera feed. Captain Walsh thanked her and took down information from the historical society to pass on to his investigating officer to examine the Museum’s recordings.
"Anything can potentially help, and if we can get a positive ID on one suspect we can usually round up any others involved as well," he said. "There is no doubt that the crime rate is rising in Sioux Falls, which means it's up in general county wide. The crime rate countywide however, hasn't shifted all that much. Many of the rural areas haven't been targeted as much as Sioux Falls neighborhoods, however there is no doubt that both amateurs and professional criminals alike will be looking toward the rural areas of Minnehaha County looking for easy targets. Locks and cameras are a good and simple way to protect yourself and your business."
Next the council talked about the success of the Big Dam Party on the second, second Saturday events that followed courtesy of the Grow Garretson citizens group. The council formally thanked Grow Garretson, many members of which were there present.
There was no report from the Garretson Ambulance Service coordinator Matt Penning, but Fire Chief Mark Rozeboom gave his report. The Fire Department had 20 calls in July with 112 work/training hours and 9 calls in August with 102 work/training ours with a total of 86 calls for this year to date.
Moving into old business there was a brief discussion on the formation of the Park Board. City finance officer Anna Uhl said that she will be placing an ad in the Gazette in the near future to fill the positions on the park board before 2017.
Next the council came to one of the most debated issues of the night, the city's bid for garbage hauling. Multiple proposals and motions were made, but they all failed to get the votes needed to take the floor. Council members Greg Beaner, Gloria Sanders, and William "Bill" Hoskins were in favor of giving the contract to VanDykes sanitation because of their lower bid. Richelle Hofer and Dave Bonte opposed this because they wanted to award the contract to Garbage-N-More as they are service that is operated out in the City limits of Garretson.
A large debate unfolded with both council members and citizens all having a say. Former city councilwoman Jodi Gloe made an eloquent argument, saying that she herself uses VanDykes and is happy with their service, however she felt that the city council should support business based within the city limits, even if the bid was higher, because to vote any other way would make hollow the congratulations the city just issued to the members of Grow Garretson there present, because by action the city would be making the implication that it's ok to not shop locally, because getting the best price is the only thing that matters. Several members of the public as well as the mayor also voiced his support for Garbage-N-More, saying they served his personal residence and he didn’t have any complaints.
Councilwoman Sanders made a counter argument that VanDykes are very local, just because they're across the state line doesn't mean they don't support local businesses too. She noted that they do a lot of service contracts for large local industry, such as Nordstrom’s. Councilwomen Hofer counter argued that the city makes more with Garbage-N-more however, as they are local taxpayers. This discussion then moved issues that council members had with Garbage-N-More. Council members brought up that several times trash has not been removed on schedule from the city's parks and that some dumpsters placed, and also that several members of the public had complained about the Garbage-N-More trucks driving on lawns to retrieve garbage.
Councilwoman Hofer said that she understood these concerns, but rebuked her fellow councilmen saying that the time to air those concerns was at the last meeting when owner/operator Jeff Schreurs himself was there to answer their concerns.
"Lets be fair to him and give him a recourse to address the concerns we have, rather than giving the contract to another party without warning," she said. "If he doesn't meet the concerns we have then I'd be all for canceling our deal, because that's just business," Hofer said.
Hoskins made a compromise motion, for a one-year contract with Garbage-N-More for monthly payments based on performance. Hofer seconded it, and all present members save Sanders voted for the motion.
After that the council voted to sell the old and buy the new street sweeper.
They then discussed the current nuisance properties on the city's watch list. They were pleased with news about Mark Williamson’s property and citing great progress on work he'd done cleaning up his property, so he was officially off the list. The council discussed Ron Eitriem's Property as well as Wood-n-Tees. Uhl will send letters and request their presence at the next council meeting. They also agreed to follow procedure at 509 Essex, and the garage there will be removed as soon as a contractor is available.
The council tabled discussion of sidewalks and proposed bike trail, as Chad Hanish was unable to attend this meeting.
The council then returned to ordinances and resolutions. This was the next item up for discussion as this has been a matter of debate for several council sessions. This revised ordinance was given its second reading for final approval. This has more strict license requirements for the city, better definition of the procedure for licensed pets and what a vicious animal is and what the city's legal recourse is for enforcing protocols against a vicious animal, all based in South Dakota codified law. This met with overall approval from the council. However, two last minute changes were made regarding this revised ordinance. First was an amendment to allow residents to have up to 5 family pets in a home instead of just 3. Next, an amendment was made to remove the allowance for chickens within the city limits. The mayor and a majority of council members expressed their opinion that they did not want chickens allowed in Garretson, despite several previous council meetings were residents argued in favor of allowing them, as Sioux Falls does. However, none of those residents were present at this meeting to voice their positions so the council voted as they majority desired and the new ordinance was passed as amended.
Next the council talked about enacting a 5-year improvement plan, which was another debate item. Hofer made a compelling argument that Garretson needs to join the majority of South Dakota Municipalities and create a 5-year improvement plan. The council by in large thought that had merit, especially considering the large infrastructure issue the city is currently facing. The key debate point was how to fund it, and fund it adequately and still pass a balanced budget.
This debate consumed a good bit of time, with several proposals brought forward. In the end, the compromise reached was to make the plan a line item in the budget by borrowing out of the city's subsidy funds. The plan is that if the sale of city land to Dollar General goes forward then that money would be then directly allocated for the 5-year plan and subsidy money redistributed. If the sale did not go through, then reserves could be tapped to make up the shortfall.
The council then appointed Shelly Hofer as the Minnehaha County Economic Development Association Representative for the City of Garretson.
Lastly, the council had a personnel executive session, after which the voted to give city maintenance officer Craig Nussbaum a 3 percent annual wage increase.
