By Dave Baumeister
County Correspondent
SIOUX FALLS – Minnehaha County Commissioners denied three beer/wine licenses to Triple J, Inc. after the matter had been deferred from their Feb. 7 meeting.
While Triple J, the Alibi Bar and Grill, east of Sioux Falls on Highway 42, had no complaints or violations against it, the point of contention was that this was also the location given for a new medical marijuana dispensary awarded in 2021.
On Feb. 7, commissioners spent most of their meeting asking questions about a business plan for the alcohol applications, since the conditional use permit for the property said both the bar and dispensary could not exist at the same location.
At that time, the commission told the owners of Triple J to come up with a definite plan on what was to happen, and then deferred the issue until this week.
Upon originally winning the cannabis license in a lottery, Emmett Reistroffer of Genesis Farms said the dispensary would go into the current location of the Alibi Bar, and that the bar would relocate.
But questions arose when Triple J came back and now wanted three additional beer and wine licenses at the same location, begging the question, “What is going on with the dispensary?”
At the Feb. 28 meeting, Reistroffer was introduced by Triple J co-owner Chrissy Johnson to help explain the situation.
While he said that Genesis had applied for and received a building permit for the dispensary at the proposed location, he was unable to clear up questions surrounding the bar-dispensary dilemma.
Commission chair Jean Bender made it very clear that Triple J/Genesis was given three extra weeks to address the questions surrounding their business, but she felt they did not do this.
“It’s my understanding,” Bender said of the cannabis license, “they can’t use it anywhere else (other than the 7605 SD Highway 42 location).”
Reistroffer said he was willing to surrender the cannabis license to make everything work out with the Triple J owners, but Eric Bogue with the Minnehaha County State’s Attorney didn’t think that anything could be done “on the spot” at a commission meeting.
So, because of the unresolved questions, Commissioner Joe Kippley made the motion to deny the three permits.
Commissioner Dean Karsky was the lone vote against the denial, as, from his comments, he seemed to want to help work things out for Triple J.
However, the others felt that Tripple J had enough “bites at the apple” to get matters squared away and had not done so.
The motion to deny passed by a 4 to 1 vote. It was said that, depending on the course of action they were going to take, it would be between three months to a year before they could re-apply.
Commissioners also referred to the status of the cannabis license being in question, as too much time will have passed without them opening their business for it to remain in effect.
In other business…
Three county departments, the County Safety Committee, the Office of Equalization, and the Treasurer all gave their annual briefings to the commission.
Most of the questions, though, just went to Equalization Director Chris Lilla about assessments, housing prices and taxes.
Lilla gave a very thorough explanation of how the equalization process works, and how that may or may not affect people’s tax bill.
He said that when they do assessments, they must be between 85 and 100% of market value, and his office was looking at an average increase of 14.7% in the county.
That means, Lilla said, that if all housing prices increase at the average amount and the county budget stays the same, homeowners won’t see any increase in taxes.
Although, properties that go above the 14.7% could see an increase, while properties that don’t go up in value that much will see a decrease in taxes.
Lilla said that the previous year, housing prices went up 18%.
At the end of the meeting, several people again urged the commission to take action to stop the Navigator and Summit carbon pipelines from coming through the county.
Minnehaha County Commission delays action on PUC letter to strengthen wording of same
At their Tuesday, Feb. 21 meeting Minnehaha County Commissioners voted unanimously to defer action on a letter regarding the Navigator CO2 pipeline that could run from corner to corner in the county.
The original “letter of concern” was presented to them with the explanation that it was almost the same as the one the county sent to the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission close to a year ago.
Commissioner Joe Kippley thought, with the knowledge about carbon dioxide pipelines they have gathered since then, more should be included in the letter.
The letter basically refers to the concerns of many Minnehaha County residents about safety issues, the use of eminent domain to acquire land, inadequate setbacks, etc.
The letter also reads: “The Minnehaha County Commission firmly concurs with these concerns…”
However, since Kippley felt many things had changed and they had more they should include.
While all the commissioners seemed to be in favor of the letter, they voted to defer acting on it until March 21 to add to it.
Gary Meyer of Hartford, a frequent commentor at these meetings, again addressed commissioners and said while he applauded them sending a letter, he had been told by Public Utilities Commissioner Chris Nelson that those letters just get filed away.
In saying this, Meyer suggested the county take more action on the matter, beyond just writing a letter.
He did not specify what action, but Meyer has spoken in the past about a moratorium on pipelines in Minnehaha County.
The next meeting will be Tuesday, March 7, at 9 a.m. in the third-floor meeting room of the Minnehaha County Administration Building at 6th and Minnesota in Sioux Falls.
