“…Shout it from the highest steeple, ring the bells the whole night…”
There is a lot of crowing local artiste sells artwork to the state of South Dakota. Ms. Paula Fagre, Alcester a piece to the South Dakota Arts Council for the state’s public art collection through the Art for State Building Program. Well there ya go folks! One does not have to look far for the incentive for Ms. Fagre’s ‘piece of work’. The title is, Stillness in the Storm…acrylic and alcohol ink. Ironic isn’t it, alcohol ink?
This artiste likes painting birds, too. She appears to be extremely adept at flinging the bird, flipping the bird while using her alcohol ink. Alcohol ink can be purchased already made or it can be crafted using your favorite brand of alcohol and markers. So one has to assume that she used her favorite brand of alcohol and cut the tips of magic markers,,,H-m-m?
Folks these women and the man-hangers did not just appear on their own, No, I do believe they had a special invitation from FOPAT. Kind-of-like a former president allegedly sent on January 6th of fame to march on a white house or in this case city hall. While the culprets chafed and called out mucas when they were relegated to the hall for executive session discussion of what I have come to understand was the removal of a stain on our community and what would be a simple removal devolved into chaos and threats. A simple reprimand was no longer available, total and complete removal was the curative measure for a long lived infection.
It is time to FIRE Pat and humbly ask Mayor Lukas to stay on as mayor. He has worked hard to understand the workings of city government of a place he calls home. He does his research and acts in the best interests of all citizens. It has come to my attention the madame artiste has been using her alcohol ink to debase and liable our Mayor in social media.
So with that I would humbly ask you contact him and ask him to stay. I would ask the city council to return to the issue of the executive session and remove this blight on our fair city, remove the continuous refusal to follow directives and do her job, so we make a start in rebuilding our fair city’s reputation. It appears she feels she won. We are done with the false 911 calls, we are done with the sexual harassment of employees, we are done with the lies, we are done with our tax moneys moving from one pocket to another, we are done with the never ending fee assessment to offset capping of taxes on our citizenry and we are more than done with FOPAT
NOW IT IS OUR TURN, IT IS TIME WE THE PEOPLE RETRIEVE OUR FAIR CITY FROM THE SHARP JAWS OF GREED, SELF ENTITLEMENT AND A QUEST FOR POWER AND REMOVE HER FROM CITY EMPLOYMENT.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN OF THE COUNCIL DISMISS FOPAT PERMANENTLY, YOU HAVE THE ABILITY TO SHOW MAYOR LUKAS YOU SUPPORT HIM
It would seem that our beautiful little community has been infested by tramps and theives! I have a button which states Make Alcester Great Again Fire FOPAT and I will be wearing it whenever and where-ever.
FO Pat refused to hand over the keys to the city of Alcester when Mayor Lukas Driesen asked for them. FOPat is insubordinate and refuses to do her job. When she recognized her continued status as city bookkeeper was in danger, she called upon what few friends she had to support her. How did they do that, well Blitzed Barstool Betty, California Karen and Nurse Ratched and a couple of hangers-of-men decided to rant and rave out in the hallway during executive session. Barstool Betty waving at the council while it was in executive session and make use of her middle finger flipping ability and still stand up. G-o-o-l-l-y ya’ll wonder if there some sort of condition arising out of oil paint which causes that stumbling effect, although I never saw that behavior from Bob Ross. And of course California Karen who allegedly threaten to audit the entire council referring to her alleged past profession as an auditor for a movie studio. WOW an auditor for Mickey Mouse. There is something to ‘Crow’ about and then there is Nurse Ratched whose main purpose in life appears to be the resident city office chair warmer and Neighborhood Rat at FOPAT’s desk. M-m-m what was it she said? Oh yeah she was giving FOPAT advice,
“…we know someone sold you out, and when we find out who that somone is…we will make them pay dearly for it…*
Now is the time for the residents who are desparately tired of paying for FOPat’s errors, abysmal failures and general laziness to act en masse and fire FOPAT!
Please reach out to Mayor Lukas Driesen, thank him for his service and support his continued presence as mayor. We will not tolerate any and all threats towards him or his family. Footnote the video will be up and soon as I can so you all can see for yourselves. Vickie A. Larsen
Gee, I wasn’t aware the Albatross served up after hours “donuts”.
According to Michael Pollick, “One shining example of reckless driving is a maneuver known as doing donuts, sometimes called turfing a yard or driving donuts. This involves driving a car in a tight circle while continuing to accelerate. The result is a series of circular ruts or skid marks carved out of a lawn or street surface. These little circles of wanton destruction are the “donuts” of the doing donuts maneuver…” 1
Parking lot of the Albatross, time 10:15 p.m. June 25, 2022.Maybe the Albatross NEEDS cameras. That way we would see Mr. White Pick-up’s driving skill prowess and might even pick up his high speed exit East of Sixth Street. Oh yeah, the fact the moron slammed out of the parking lot without his head lights on might be important, too. Just prior to Mr. White Pick-Up’s high speed exit, another vehicle exited the Albatross parking lot heading East. And after the Hell-Bent-For-Election exit another vehicle exited the parking lot only they headed West.
But folks, what initially got my attention was the downtown antics on “mainstreet” which I could hear at my house prior to 10:00 p.m. Now folks there are people out there who have the ability of pairing the engine sounds to specific vehicles especially when when those vehicles ‘cruise the hood’ over and over. In fact in the evening after dark on certain days of the week, one can hear a vehicle rev-up around Total Stop or Main Street and can be audibly, credibly tracked North beyond the city limits.
This was happening prior to the 10:15 p.m. event. Perhaps law enforcement could CSI the tread/tire evidence.
Of course there is always the damage done as Mr. Pollick says, “Doing donuts or “turfing” a private yard or public property is considered to be an act of vandalism, and the offending driver could also face other charges of reckless driving and public endangerment…The act of doing donuts with a privately owned vehicle…can seriously damage the car’s suspension, alignment and steering system if overdone.2 So Little Billie Donut Maker in the White Pick-up of last night, perhaps Karma will beat you to the quarter mile. H-m-m?
Now folks I do not want to imply any criticism of our law enforcement they can patrol so much area in any specific time space. It is up to us, to document incident times, participants and so forth. It is up to We the People to get the Mayor off his duff of indifference and place surveillance cameras. Let him know.
Mayor Glas said, “well I guess it is time…” and so the regular meeting of the Alcester City Council was half-glas’d into session with Councilman David Larsen, Councilman Dan Haeder, Councilwoman Darla Reppe, Councilwoman Melissa Kay and Councilwoman Linda Talbott in attendance–who knows where Councilman Lance Johnson was, he sure wasn’t a sittin’ in his seat at the council meeting. Small wonder why the council hasn’t a clue of what is happening per comments made later in the meeting.
Pledge was called, Agenda Approved without change, Minutes approved without change and finally public input was called without all the enthusiasm of “oh, dang she is here”. I responded I had public input.
Agenda Item #5 Input- I announced I had, immediately prior to the meeting, delivered to the Mayor’s seat my formal appeal request of Councilman Lance Johnson’s variance and a FOIA (Freedom of Information Request-South Dakota Sunshine) and I also pointed to the 17 page, fine-print, terms and conditions of the BAMBEE contract as well as an article titled, “Making the Best Use of Your City Attorney”.
Finance Officer Patricia Jurrens said she didn’t have the copy of the appeal and the FOIA and I responded they had been placed at the Mayor’s seat. I commented on the fine print of BAMBEE pointing out the yellow highlighter on the document. Specifically mentioning item #3 where BAMBEE explains she cannot give a legal opinion, Oh deer! It was my impression that legal was the whole purpose of hiring BAMBEE. Now folks BAMBEE requires a $500 audit fee right off the bat, then requires a monthly fee, the combined totals account Mayor Glas’ stated was a grand total of $2500.00 to $3000.00 (01:17:55:63) annual fee for HR advice. HR advice which HAS to be run past our city attorney, who the city council previously insinuated is not trained in HR and is costing the city too much in legal fees! H-m-m the two gentlemen who currently hold retainers to represent the city, list their areas of expertise as Real Estate, Probate, Federal Income Tax, Family Law, Municipal Law, Civil litigation and Criminal Defense which seems to cover territory which has prominently figured in our HR problems recently and still has one doozy HR problem still in the hopper. Somehow I think our retained attorneys cannot ‘handle’ this situation without a conflict question.
I also pointed out the article on, “Making the Best Use of your City Attorney” might be a good read if it is true as Councilwoman Melissa Kay pointed out later in the meeting, (01:22:31:30) “…we only have one or two times a month where we are seated in Council, we do not get enough information and we do not know how to deal with it…” ?
Agenda Item #6 – Executive Session-Contract- and request for Revolving Loan for a local businessman. Council went into Executive session at 6:05 p.m. and came out at 6:17 p.m. with no motion made.
Agenda Item #7 – Legal Updates-
a) Shouse discussion – Now I had to ask what Shouse was, thinking it was a misprint. It was explained a Shouse was a metal house/shed which according to FOPat is just ‘the thing’. Yeah? IN TOWN? Is the illegal garage at 518A Anderson Street now morphing into a metal sh** house? Yet another effort on FOPat’s part to legalize a ‘favor’ for a dirty-handed councilman?
b) Chip Seal – Now we have to amend the chip seal bid to delete the most wondrous, amazing street treatment ‘evah’ and a Fantastic Failure Done our Roads. Given the efficacy of FDR on our streets, we would have had more success papering our streets with laminated BFranklin paper. So now we must pay for City Attorney Tom to apply Anti-Monkey Butt lotion language to FOPat’s and Mayor Tom’s RASH bid contract to FIX our streets! (54:42:43) Get the Red out of our Budget! I warned the council in a past complaint the vandalism to the curb at 518B Anderson Street would create water damage to the street and I was told by Mayor Glas the water ran-off just fine. Check out how he changes his tune (52:55:17)(54:42:43)(55:55.17) about street damage due to cracks in the curb and gutter.
Agenda Item #9 – Nuisance Update – (13:08:07) Arlene’s Cafe sidewalk drainage solutions. The city sat, wasting council time on discussing this issue and its ‘fix’ solutions. This is private commercial property NOT belonging to the city of Alcester. While there is certainly an issue with water draining down-stream from the city owned bar and city responsibility for the property, the simplest solution is to routinely clear the space between the City owned building and the adjoining Arlene’s Café property of snow BEFORE it gets to the sidewalk. Messing with an apparently sound sidewalk on the east side of Iowa street is unnecessarily costly. The two entities can share the cost of removing the alley snow, leaving each entity responsible for the snow clearance of the sidewalk fronting each property as provided by ordinance.
Agenda Item 8 – At this point 6:30 p.m. the time for scheduled bid (17:41:90) opening for the auditorium property. Mr. Scott Hansen representative of Alkota Cleaning Systems was present (26:40:00) for the opening. Mayor Glas opened the lone bid received, which offered $120, 000.00 for the building/and property and which was well below the appraised price on the auditorium of $260,000.00. And so the great debate/discussion began over a bid contract which the council failed to read and understand their own terms and conditions for bidding. When the council put our auditorium up for bid, they lacked the foresight to make alternate plans for holding city council meetings, they lacked the foresight what to do if the bid is substantially lower than appraisal, and what is the lowest bid we are willing to take for our building. Judging from the discussion,
“Our council Hindsight is 20/20 and our Council foresight is legally blind.” (Inspired by the quote of Benjamin Graham)
How many people would put their homes up for sale without a clue where they were going to live after promising an immediate possession sale?
Questions were asked of Tom Walsh who was also present (29:26:77) with regard to the Golf Course Community Building. The council opined they cannot possibly make a decision to accept the Alkota Bid until they KNOW IF AND WHEN the proposed Community Building Dream Gaffe project is consummated. Mr. Walsh gave an update from the architects of the golf course project. In a past meeting when FOPat was ‘splaining’ the project to the council she commented that, “…the architects projected the cost of the community building high…” It appears that COOP Architects project costs missed the boat ’cause the reported bid info shared on March 2, 2020, meeting was “the bids came in SIGNIFICANTLY HIGH-something nearer to $1 Million+ over. FOPat commented they, “…just couldn’t figure out where the costs came from…” (00:00:00) Dear Sweet Auntie Em, this is our finance officer who cannot figure out expenses? Folks the items involved in this bid HAVE to be commercial grade not Sh**House grade or Residential grade. More discussion to take place at the March 16, 2020, special meeting set for 6:00 p.m.
Agenda Item #9 – Nuisance(continued) – Council touched on 204 Ofstad, 208 West Fourth, Dog License Compliance. City Attorney Tom Frieberg to clean up Dog Licensing ordinance language to compel our Police Department to act as dog catchers. Councilman Dan Haeder made an analogy concerning dogs-at-large, citing a tragic car/truck crash on I-29. The crash cause summary per news reports was a northbound tractor-trailer with a pup trailer abruptly braked to avoid two dogs crossing the interstate. A Mazda following the tractor-trailer rear-ending the pup trailer. The operator who was wearing seat belt was pronounced dead-on-scene with no injury to the tractor-trailer driver.
Councilman Haeder’s analogy (40:53:57) using the crash, inferred dog owners were culpable because the dogs were running-at-large. Errors in that analogy include such circumstances as: 1- Dogs could have been deer. 2- what exactly was the Mazda driver doing, what was the speed of the Mazda (posted limit 80 mph), how close was the Mazda following the tractor-trailer, were there contributing road conditions, 3- There is no ordinance dogs in Alcester must be caged, just that they are controlled, their vaccinations are current, they are spayed/neutered and have a city license which proves the appropriate documentations has been provided to the city, the only apparent concern for at-large-dogs relates to menacing behaviors, 4- As I understand motor vehicle liability relating to rear-end collisions, is the failure to have one’s vehicle under control is a cause for citation for failure to have control. Tragically it was the failure to have the vehicle under control which ultimately caused the death. There is no justification for licensing dogs in this analogy and no justification for attributing a tragic death to a pet owner.
Perhaps instead of licensing cats and dogs, owners of domestic pets voluntarily register their pets with the city without license or cost and we avoid the Mayor Glas’ and the city council’s castration of our city police department into dog catchers which distracts our police department from their very real job of enforcing the drug laws, domestic abuse laws, embezzlement laws, false 911 reporting and liquor violations. Anybody on meth or over-reaching political authority is far more menacing than Fluffy or Lassie any day of the week!
7:03 p.m. Alcester City Attorney Tom Frieberg left the meeting.
Agenda Item #15– Executive Session called at 7:03 p.m. for interview of two candidates for Utilities person. Out of Executive session at 7:52 p.m. with no decision voted upon or action taken.
Agenda Item #11 – Streets- Most important issue was the city asking for advice from Engineer McLaury. Now I personally have a problem with this because Mr. McLaury in all his engineering prowess during the SRTS issue caused the illegal vacation of alley behind to two residential properties from 4th street to 6th street, the earthen dam design caused AND CONTINUES TO CAUSE flooding of the property at 301-4th street along the east side of the alleyway, required a significant change order which ultimately cost the taxpayers of Alcester an project over-run of $20,000.00 ’cause he could not seem to figure out the ADA restrictions and requirements while maintaining his bid quote. Now FOPat wants to reward him with another shot at our tax coffers?
Agenda Item #18 – Finance Office
a) Warrants
b) HR Services – California BAMBEE (01:17:03) Ask to see the copy of the terms and conditions of BAMBEE I provided to the city. The council has presented BAMBEE, yet none of the council seems to have read or investigated this subject adequately to make AN INFORMED DECISION.
*PLEASE NOTE Finance Officer Jurrens cannot seem to get a simple agenda done properly. She cannot seem to go from 18 (a) to 18 (b) to 18 (e) without screwing up and leaving out 18(c) and 18 (d). Now folks I make proofing errors, but I do not get paid $46K to get a simple agenda correct!
*e) District meeting – Vermillion March 19, 2020. Now you have heard about HR BAMBEE and how according to Councilwoman Melissa Kay, “…we just do not have the information, the experience or the know how about HR…” District meeting is where you can get this information, SDML to whom you pay a membership dues is another source of information, Alcester City Attorney to whom you pay a retainer for HR information and council-folks it is part of what you were elected/appointed to do. Readers check out the video (01:39:58:63) and (01:41:23:00) see how many council members attend the district meeting. Oh do not FOPat it where you sign up and only show up for a hour.
You want to have information, demand your finance officer get it to you in time for you to read up on the subject matter BEFORE council meeting. IF your finance officer cannot get the job done or get the information to you in a timely manner-FIRE HER BUTT! In addition do not accept her ‘translation’ as accurate, it is YOUR responsibility to verify all information. I email information from time to time to the you, or lay it at your place at the council table. I put it in front of you so when I reference it, you can pick it up and read it at brain level. I do not place this information on your chairs so you must absorb the information through your emergency exit!
Agenda Item #18 (?) Alleged payment for a Website- HOORAY Now payments made to the city, the golf course, the pool and etc. can be made to the city via the Official Website.
WE DO NOT HAVE TO HAVE THE CITY OFFICES AT THE GOLF COURSE COMMUNITY BUILDING ‘CAUSE ALL PAYMENTS CAN BE MADE THROUGH THE OFFICIAL ALCESTER WEBSITE PAYMENT PORTAL. WE CAN ACCESS AGENDAS, MINUTES, FORMS AND ALL OFFICIAL NOTIFICATIONS THROUGH OUR OFFICIAL WEBSITE YAY!
Agenda Item #18 (f) Updates and reminders-One item not under the updates and reminder is the 2019 Election Issue, according to my source the complaints have been investigated and the reports are sitting in line on the prosecutor’s desk for execution.
A forward here to explain the nature of the video. This was a come and go affair not a seated gallery who posed questions to the architect. This affair was set to run from 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. In actual fact the gallery roams at will and around 5:00 p.m. all activity ceased but the architect Kyle, Gary McKellips, Pat Jurrens and myself remained until 5:30 p.m. to allow for any late comers. For brevity of boredom, I have edited out the final half hour of no movement beyond just the videographer and three presenters.
“…We can sit on the patio/veranda at the golf course and watch the Alcester-Hudson football game…”
Now ain’t that speschal. Say isn’t there an admissions fee to games to help fund the athletic programs in the school?
I attended the pre-bid informational session with local and not-so-local contractors, electrical trades, plumbing trades, landscaping trades and of course construction trades at 2:00 p.m. in the school library. COOP Architecture was present and running the session, Alcester City Employees present were city bookkeeper Patricia Jurrens, Dale Pearson and Lonnie Johnson. Also in attendance were the funding entourage of Gary McKellips and Tom Walsh. Those attending were asked to sign in and were presented with an agenda at that time. Most already had quasi-blueprints and mechanical drawings.
There was a question-answer period in which several of the group asking for clarification on the two separate but con-joined buildings (i.e. the ‘shed’ and the ‘community event’ structure.
Later at 4:00 p.m, I attended the ‘Ask the Architect’ session in the city council room sans chairs. I planned on video-taping the session laboring under the assumption it was to be an informational meeting addressing community questions concerning the structure, financial concerns and a general opinion the city offices and council chambers should remain downtown Alcester within a gallery seating type venue. O-O-P-S!
Sadly and disappointingly this session was anything but informational. Sure there were architectural renditions of a vision but it came very evident that,
“common sense is a flower that doesn’t grow in the gardens at 308 Iowa or 410 Hidin’ in the bushes Drive”
Anyone watching the amendments to the design, the two rooms originally labeled office and conference room with a static grand total of 883 square feet of space has to think WOW! Approximately 440 square feet of space per each room where current city office rooms run slightly less, square footage-wise. However the current finance office would benefit greatly if they removed the chest deep freezer from the room.
AND SHORT-SIGHTEDLY
There is NO provision in the community center for a REAL however ad-libbed council chamber.
A Voice from the Gallery 