The Blue Light Podcast, hosted by Tyler Ramsbey, has been a way to help promote Garretson, its people, and its businesses since its inception. It has been popular enough that he has now expanded it to Dell Rapids and Pipestone. The podcast is streamed live each week on Facebook, with Tyler interviewing his featured guest for approximately 15-20 minutes.
Mayor Greg Beaner was a guest on the Blue Light Podcast on Wednesday, February 19. This is part two of the transcript of the podcast. Part one can be found in the February 27 issue of the Gazette. This interview transcript has been modified for length and clarity. The interviews in full may always be found by searching for the Blue Light Podcast on Facebook, and the full interview can be watched above. (Part Two begins at approximately 9 minutes in.)
Tyler: Well let’s talk about some more negative slash positive long-term-type stuff. You mentioned the street project, that’s probably been the biggest conversation over the past year, is the street project, for good or for bad. Can you provide us with any updates on this entire project, what went wrong, what is the city doing to find a solution?
Greg: So right now, the solution is to complete the project.
Tyler: That’s a great solution to have.
Greg: Right. The bond company has two bids, Hulstein Excavating and First Rate Excavating. It’s my understanding that First Rate is the low bid. The bond company is working with them, trying to figure a few things out, and the plan is to start this spring.
Tyler: And just for clarity, now that it’s gone to the bonding company, the city is essentially hands off, is that correct? You guys no longer choose the bidder, you’re not overseeing the project in any way, it’s all in the bonding company. The city has no control over it, is that correct or wrong?
Greg: Our control has gone. We met with the bonding agent, and with our lawyers, and he was like, who do you want, who do you not want? Obviously, the company that we’re kicking out is on the not-want [list]. And he said, other than that, we want companies that can do it quickly, we’re not going to be able to get subcontractors, we’re not dealing with that. Obviously the rates are going to go up to have someone come in and start. And he said, we’re not interested in low bid, we’re going to pick who can do it properly. I was very assured by what they told us.
Tyler: So if they’re not interested in low bid, if they pick a higher bidder, who makes up that cost? Do the people of Garretson make up for that cost?
Greg: No, the contractor pays for it. Because he defaulted on his bond, he is the one responsible for that cost difference.
Tyler: Now let’s talk about the future. Is there a timeline in place? What does this project entail? Is it the truck route only? What are we talking about for this spring?
Greg: It’s the truck route from Dows up to the elevator here, and then Main Street from 3rd Street until just about 5th Street is going to be re-done. The truck route is really important, we’ve got the fertilizer plant there, the elevator’s there, it needs to be done quick. And Main Street has to be done quickly.
Tyler: Is there a timeline on that, as far as a start date and end date?
Greg: We don’t have any of that.
Tyler: I suppose not until they have the person chosen for the job.
Greg: When they have the bid. In all honesty, our engineer was like, this is a really rare situation, they’ve only had it happen with them one other time. I’m assuming that what’s going to happen is we’re going to have a meeting, sit down with the contractor, go through what their preliminary plans are. I want to have some input on that to make sure it’s done right.
Tyler: Is there any other frequently asked questions you’d like to address right now, or did I get them all?
Greg: I think you got them all.
Tyler: Well, if I missed anything, send Greg an email. What is your email?
Greg: It’s thebeaners [AT] alliancecom.net.
Tyler: And unlike 99% of the population, Greg is a guy who actually responds to his email. We do have one audience member, Omar, and he’s raising his hand. Omar, what’s your question?
Omar: Any other types of businesses that are scheduled for Highway 11? Or any other types of projects that are coming? I can see development of businesses, lands, businesses along highways tend to happen. Is there anything else foreseen as far as Highway 11?
Greg: The project last summer over on 5th Street, we put in water and sewer, because the current industrial development down there was limited. They didn’t have enough water pressure. Obviously, you build a commercial building, you need to have sprinkler systems, you need to have all this stuff, so they had to quit putting lots up for sale because they couldn’t expand. I want to see that get filled up.
Tyler: So now is it open? The water, sewer?
Greg: Everything’s open, it’s ready to go, the for sale sign is up. They can start selling. Besides the State Park expanding, I don’t know of anything else going along Highway 11. We [the city council] talked about if we push for another development in the community, the north end of town would be a really good place to start. Out towards Split Rock Park, it would have easy highway access. At some point in the future, we’re going to need another water tower, and it’s going to go out along Hwy 11 on the north end of town.
Tyler: Is there a timeline on that as well? Because I know water towers are not cheap.
Greg: Within ten years.
Tyler: Within ten years, so that’ll be something coming up in the near future.
Greg: New businesses though, I haven’t heard of anything.
Tyler: That doesn’t mean there isn’t anything, just not in the foreseeable future.
Greg: With the traffic on Hwy 11, it would be nice to see them expand Highway 11, make it a little bigger.
Tyler: That would be a great place to do that. It’s a good spot for a business, because you’re right on the main road.
Tyler: Let’s talk about a community center. This is a conversation that came up at one of the city council meetings. I read about it in the minutes of the newspaper, and then I reached out to a few different people to try to get some details on this. I spoke to some other people who have been in the community longer than I have, and it sounds like the idea of a community center was proposed back in the day, maybe back when you were on city council, and there was the idea of having a pool, and eventually that didn’t come to fruition. Now there’s another conversation about having a community center, so let me kind of boil this down to a few different questions. Number one, why does Garretson need a community center?
Greg: A couple of things. One, is our city hall has gotten to the point where it’s too small.
Tyler: City Hall is tiny, it really is.
Greg: It’s tiny. The employees have done a great job of making it work, the building is just getting really old. It’s getting outdated. It’s really expensive to heat, the windows are rotting out. This is the second or third time we’ve replaced them, and it needs to be done again. What I would like to do, and this is just a long-term plan, is do something- like, put several things together that we need in our community. One is a City Hall, because it’s too small to have city council meetings there anymore-
Tyler: ‘Cause you guys are meeting at the Legion now.
Greg: We’re meeting at the Legion right now. The reason I did that is, when I started as Mayor, you would go into City Hall and people are just cramped in there, and it’s tiny. I want people to come to the meetings. I want public input. So, we moved it to the Legion. It’s more convenient, people can come in, you don’t have to climb all over a bunch of people to get in and get out when you’re done saying your piece. The other thing is, when my daughter got married, this got me thinking. There’s nowhere to have a reception in town. We had Ron Luke do the catering for the reception. We actually had it in Crooks, at their community center. Ron leaned over to me, he said, “You know, Garretson needs one of these. This would be awesome for our community.” That kind of sparked me thinking, if people had receptions here, they would be using local catering, they’d be buying local gas, all of that. That started it, but I didn’t realize how many other people would be interested in using something like that. Reunions, community get-togethers, all of that stuff. There was a little bit of discussion about the Senior Citizens’ Center, because the current owner didn’t really want to keep it anymore, and they were looking at giving it to the city. So, we were investigating that. In the meantime, that’s been bought by a private person, and so what I want to do is what we’re discussing at city council. It’s called an RFP, a Request for Performance. We want to talk with architects, hey, what can you do for our city? What can we have here? I think, the first community center, the plan was kind of to do something like Luverne, where it’s a pool, an aqua center, and I think the price was too much. I don’t want to have our community “house poor.” You don’t want to buy a house that’s so expensive you can’t afford to do anything else. I’ve talked to Anna, because she’s the one who does the finances, and I’m like, 5th Street’s going to have to be fixed at one point, Dows has to be fixed at some point, we talked about a water tower, we may need to do something with natural gas at some point. I want to be able to build something that will accommodate what we need as a community but still allow us to keep fixing our infrastructure and keep growing things.
Tyler: And where are we at in that conversation? Is the community center a for-sure thing that’s going to happen, or is it still in the investigative stages?
Greg: It’s still in the investigative stages. At our meeting in March, we’re going to vote, because Richelle Hofer wasn’t there- she was on the phone- but, we’re going to talk, probably, one last time and probably request RFP’s. That was my feeling from city council. Once we’re going to do that, we’ll send out a bunch of letters to architectural companies and construction firms, saying, hey, this is what we’re looking at, and they will make presentations to us. One of the things I want is, if we’re going to do this, we’re going to do it right. So, I want to have meetings with public input. I talked with Marcia of the Jesse James Players. What do you need to be able to do your plays in the community center? What do you need if you’re going to have 4-H groups here, what do we need to be able to do city council meetings, stuff like that.
Tyler: Is there any type of timeline for when you would hope that would come to fruition? So not saying it’s not going to come to fruition, but if you could paint a timeline, what would that look like?
Greg: If everything goes well, and everything’s put together, you start with that request, and then you need to have an architect draw plans, and then you need to get construction bids. It would probably be two years.
Tyler: Cool. Another hot button topic I’d like to jump to, and you mentioned, is the future of the Senior Citizen’s Center/Opera House. The fact is that they had a bad leak, and there’s a lot of mold damage inside that building. So, the Jesse James Players haven’t had a good place to meet. I know they’ve used the Legion, but they’re still kind of looking for a regular place to meet, which is why they have an interest in the community center. I heard a rumor, and I think it’s just a rumor, that the building is condemned and is for sure being torn down. But you just mentioned it was sold to a private person. So just give us an update on the status of that building, what its future looks like.
Greg: I honestly don’t know. The building behind the Senior Citizen’s Center, there were some safety concerns, because the floor had fallen out on the first floor, stuff like that. I believe that was also sold with the Senior Citizen’s Center. Here’s what we talked about as a city council- if we were going to fix that building up, what would we do? Purchasing the building on the back, you would probably put a brand-new addition on the back, and make that parking. And obviously, you need to have ADA stuff if you have two floors, so you’d have to have an elevator that would go in the new part. Then, you could fix up the old part.
Tyler: Gotcha. But it’s outside the city’s hands now with a private person-
Greg: That would be our dream, if it was like, here’s the Senior Citizen’s Center, fix it up, that’s what we would’ve done with it.
Tyler: So it’s not going to be torn down, at least not in the foreseeable future, not that you know.
Greg: I’m assuming the plan is to fix it up.
Tyler: If you’re watching this, and you own that building, I would love to do a podcast with you about your plans. Send me a message and we can sit down and talk about what that looks like.
We are past the time, but I just have a few more questions.
In addition to all the other political news in our national news, which I won’t even bring up- it may make the podcast get more views if I ask about them but I won’t do that- there are elections coming up for local city offices. From your perspective, why’s it so important for the people of Garretson to be involved with local politics?
Greg: We have an awesome city council right now, and I want to keep that going. If you have questions, comments, concerns, don’t put them on Facebook, because some people will read them and take it with a grain of salt, some people don’t read them at all.
Tyler: There’s always more to the story, right?
Greg: Right. Call me, email me, or call your city council member. Tell them about how you feel about something. And maybe they’ll explain to you, or tell you why we’re doing this, or what’s going on. Or, maybe they’ll be like, we don’t have an answer. Maybe that’s something we need to fix, make better, that’s how things get changed.
Tyler: I’ve heard it said, the most important politics are your local politics. Would you agree with that, and why?
Greg: Yep. It doesn’t matter your political party, it doesn’t matter what your viewpoints are, you need roads to drive on, you need your snow removed, you need water, you need sewer, you need natural gas. Politics is about working together, and getting things done for your community. It’s not about impeaching, and fighting, it’s about electing people that can do a good job. Or have done a good job, and having them work for your community.
Tyler: So with local politics, you actually know the people, and you see things either getting done or not getting done. And if they’re not getting done, you have the power as a citizen to make a change when it comes to voting.
Greg: And, you go to coffee, and when somebody doesn’t like something, you’re going to hear about it. And that’s the way it should be. Because, you’re personally held accountable for what you’re doing. If you’re doing something, and you can’t explain yourself, you probably shouldn’t be doing it. Like, if I want to pass a law, or if I want to push the council to do something, and I can’t explain myself, that’s not right.
Tyler: You should be held accountable
Greg: I should be able to defend myself, and explain what we’re doing, and why.
Tyler: Do you know off the top of your head, what the average voter turnout is for local elections? I know it’s always lower than what we think it would be.
Greg: It’s always bigger on presidential election terms. But that’s the thing too- people need to get out and vote. What was the last election? It was ten votes? A ten-vote difference. And I’m not picking on any candidates- but that’s how important your votes are. Your vote counts.
Tyler: What are two or three things each person can do to make Garretson a better place to live?
Greg: Well, we talked about one. Tell people what you think. Tell your elected official.
Tyler: Communication. Not Facebook, communication.
Greg: And there are so many groups, and so many people that would love help, would love volunteers, like the Jesse James Day parade, all of the activities, they are always looking for volunteers.
Tyler: If you live in this area and you want to volunteer, but you have no idea who to contact, send us a message at the Blue Light Podcast page. I’ll get you plugged in to the right person and we’ll get you plugged into one of those groups. So, communication, volunteers, what’s the third?
Greg: Just be proud of your community. This is an awesome community. There’s so many good things here. I love it when you’re driving down the street, people wave at you, people are friendly, so many people walk around the community. Our community’s so clean, it’s nice. I have co-workers from Sioux Falls, they’ll drive to Garretson and have supper here at O So Good and they’re like, “Wow, what a nice community.” I’m proud of it.
Tyler: Greg, thank you again for being on the podcast.
The Blue Light Podcast can be found each week on Facebook.
