Letters

Upcoming Meeting

In case you missed it, I would like to remind everyone that the City Council is going to have an informational meeting regarding the sewer plans. It will be held on Monday the 20th at 6:00 pm. Please try to attend the informercial if you can.

It seems to me that it would be more open, honest, and effective if the council would just use the City News Letter or the Ipswich Tribune to inform everybody that can read and chooses to do so. Forcing people to take time out of their busy lives to attend a meeting, for which the mayor gets paid, almost guarantees poor attendance. The mayor knows that and it seems probable that is exactly why; especially when you consider that the recordings for the last four council meetings are not available and the printed minutes are not always accurate.

Meanwhile, the DANR, the source from which the City will borrow $814,112 for the first of several stages of the storm sewer project, published in the March 8th edition of the Ipswich Tribune a notification of approval for the loan. In part it states that the loan is approved on the bases of lack of mitigating feedback “through the public participation process”. Really? Were you aware of any opportunity for public feedback to the DANR? I also found it interesting that the last paragraph states that the approval is open to public comments but gave no contact information for how to do that. I did however get hold of that information. For email contact: Mike.Perkovich@ state.sd.us or Mike Perkovich, 523 E. Capitol Avenue, Pierre, SD 57501. Let him know what you think.

With all that being said, I think that I will be voting for Hank Baker for mayor. Yes, he is for the storm sewer project but, he is also for being open and honest in the way city government operates. The current mayor is a good example for a need for term limits in my opinion. I thank him for his service but it is time to go.

- Ed Bierman