By Dave Baumeister, County Correspondent
SIOUX FALLS – While commissioners were reluctant to do so, they declared a Minnehaha County property a “public nuisance” at their regular meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 20.
The property, owned by Lane McKenny and located 4 miles southeast of Baltic at the intersection on Highway 122 and 477th Ave., originally had complaints against it as early as June 2017, according to David Heinhold of the planning and zoning office.
He showed several photos of the property zoned A1 agricultural, which had a number of different types of vehicles parked on it.
From his inspection, Heinhold explained, many of the vehicles did not have current tags, and some of the vehicles did not have engines.
However, from the aerial view photos, it appeared that most of the offending vehicles were kept towards the back of the property, some behind buildings.
Heinhold said that this action was based on complaints, but both Commissioners Cindy Heiberger and Dean Karsky commented that they had seen much worse for nuisance properties that never received any complaints.
To add to the commissioner’s dilemma, the owner of the property was not present to defend himself, leaving the county board in the position of having to vote to declare the property a nuisance.
Still not wanting to have to move ahead, after some discussion, the motion made by Commissioner Jeff Barth was worded to say that the property was hereby declared a public nuisance, no action would be taken until after Sept. 4. That would allow for two more meetings in which time McKenny could still make his case.
That motion passed 4-0 (Commissioner Gerald Beninga was not present).
So, while that property has been declared a nuisance now, that action could be rescinded if the commissioners so chose.
The two-week delay had to be put into the motion, because if they didn’t, Maggie Gillespie with the State’s Attorney said work to alleviate the nuisance could begin immediately.
In this case, that would mainly include bringing in tow trucks to remove the vehicles and then billing the owner and/or putting a lien on the property.
Other business at this meeting was light, but commissioners did unanimously agree to authorize County Administrator Carol Muller to apply for a self-service terminal for vehicle registration from the South Dakota Department of Revenue.
After the discussion with the county treasurer two weeks earlier, a terminal of this type would provide a way to free up the treasurer’s office.
Heiberger, who is the liaison to the treasurer’s office, said that this move could save a lot of money, as two to three windows are usually dedicated just for tag renewal.
“If you force people to take a different avenue (for renewal)…they will do that,” she said.
The Minnehaha County Commission has its regular meetings each Tuesday at 9 a.m. on the second floor of the county administration building at 6th and Minnesota in Sioux Falls.
These meetings are open to all, and public comment is always encouraged.
