By Dave Baumeister, County Correspondent
SIOUX FALLS – While the Minnehaha County Commission dealt with a wide variety of issues at the Tuesday, June 21, meeting, the main ones concerned fireworks and Renner-area developments.
Unlike past meetings, the new medical marijuana law didn’t take up much time, but it was discussed again.
This time, though, it was about something the county could deal with without state action.
Commissioners voted 4-0 (Gerald Beninga was not present) to change its employee drug policy for most situations.
In the past, drug tests were done for employees that included marijuana use, but with the change in state law, commissioners adapted their drug policy on marijuana use.
The change they made said that employees and perspective employees would not be adversely affected for marijuana use if they had a prescription for it.
As of July 1, Initiated Measure 26 goes into effect, allowing the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.
However, according to new county guidelines, marijuana being present on an employee drug test will still have negative affects if the person is in a position relating to law enforcement, public safety or transportation.
Fire safety
Emergency Management Director Jason Gearman was present, along with several other rural fire chiefs, for a discussion of a countywide burn ban.
He said that while the National Weather Service has yet to flag Minnehaha County for such a ban, due to the amount of “green” still present in vegetation, he added that if dry conditions persist, that green could turn to brown very quickly.
And commissioners hit on this inaction from the NWS to not impose a burn ban at this time.
Robert Dykstra, president of the Minnehaha County Firefighters Association, discussed how misleading “green conditions” could be.
He cited that rural fire departments had to answer several calls recently, two due to fireworks, for grass fires.
Dykstra said that because of the absence of subsoil moisture, a fire could spread even in a green area, and “when that happens (the green area) is not coming back.”
At first all four commissioners present were against adopting a burn ban right now, because they were unsure it was needed, and they felt enacting a ban so close to Independence Day would be unenforceable.
But after Dykstra spoke on behalf of all the firefighters present, Commissioner Jeff Barth was more inclined to take the word of the “people on the ground.”
“You talk about people giving up their free time and fun (in regard to a ban), but we are giving up our time and our fun, too, when there is a fire,” Dykstra said.
Barth made the motion to enact a burn ban, but it failed for lack of a second from other commissioners.
They did point out, however, that the issue was not dead, as they plan to be monitoring conditions closely over the next week.
While no meeting is scheduled on June 29, one could be called if they felt a ban needed to be enacted.
In another fireworks related issue, the people from Huset’s Speedway in Brandon received commission permission to hold a fireworks display at their racetrack.
Commissioners were not worried about a professional display at the track.
New developments
Commissioners voted unanimously to give approval to preliminary plans to the Peterson First Addition to be located 1.5 miles northeast of Renner along SD Highway 115 at the site of the former Peterson Mobile Home Park.
42 mobile homes have been moved out to make way for 40 housing lots in the same area.
Commissioner Cindy Heiberger was quick to point out the benefits the county would see in property taxes on regular houses, as opposed to mobile homes.
This would be located just north of the Cedar Ridge Planned Development, which the county previously approved.
Dirt roads currently exist in the former mobile home park, but the new development would require paved roads to be put in place there.
Also, in that general area, a current housing development received permission to start work developing a road district.
This development is 1.5 miles north of Sioux Falls, also along Highway 115 (North Cliff).
A road district needs to be agreed on by the residents, and it allows for taxing specifically to develop and maintain roads in that area.
While there is no meeting scheduled for next Tuesday, June 29, a special meeting could be called to deal with a burn ban.
The next regular meeting will be on Tuesday, July 6, on the second floor of the Minnehaha County Administration Building at 6th and Minnesota in Sioux Falls.
As the room becomes more open, more seats are available for members of the public who may wish to attend or offer input during the allotted time.
