Category: Local politics
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The Recap Prior to Monday’s City Council: Split Decisions and Supplemental Funds
What’s on the Rapid City Council Agenda for Aug. 17, 2026: Council takes up the Reasonable Accommodation ordinance, a $1.28M appropriation, and decides who actually wins the sidewalk waiver argument. Consent Agenda Highlights Council opens Monday with 20 consent items — five sets of minutes going back to late July. A string of Public Works…
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Sanford Bought the Microphone- Paying for its own Q&A about its own Deal
Rapid City SD- On August 13, Mayor Jason Salamun sat on a stage at an Elevate Rapid City luncheon, one of several panelists arranged across a small riser, answering questions about the Indoor Sports Complex rising off Mall Drive. Also on the panel: Domico Rodriguez, executive director of the Rapid City Sports Commission. Caleb Arceneaux,…
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The Tzadik Mount Rushmore Hotel Files for Bankruptcy -And the Paperwork Wasn’t Even Signed
Rapid City SD – The company that owns downtown Rapid City’s Rushmore Hotel & Suites filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on August 13 — the second time in just over a year that a Tzadik-affiliated entity has put South Dakota property into federal bankruptcy court, and the first time it’s happened to a property…
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Radio Silence: Pennington County Stopped Updating It’s Own Incident Page Three Weeks Ago
Rapid City SD – Pennington County has a dedicated page for its cybersecurity incident. It’s the county’s own words, posted by its own spokesperson, with timestamps. It’s also been silent since July 20 — even as the county kept talking to reporters about the same recovery. The Official Record The county disclosed the incident on…
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Shooters on the Sidewalk: Why Rapid City Council President Tamang is Taking a Second Look at Single-Serve Alcohol
Rapid City SD – It started with a walk. Council President Stephen Tamang posted on Facebook about what he found on a recent neighborhood walk: empty vodka shooters, scattered along the route like they’d become part of the landscape. It read like a small, personal observation. It wasn’t. That Facebook post has become the starting…
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Two Sidewalk Waivers, One Agenda: Committee Grills Corporate Request, Punts the Other to September
Rapid City SD – The Rapid City Public Works Committee meeting opened with a chaotic public comment period. Concerned citizen Mark Millar was first to the microphone, telling the committee they were starting to look like a “bunch of clowns” before noting the state is stepping in to fix the deck of the bridge that…
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August 12th Legal And Finance Committee Rundown: Contracts After the Naming Ceremony, Single – Serve Alcohol Restrictions proposed and Tzadik on the Nuisance List
Rapid City SD –The Rapid City Legal and Finance Committee meets Wednesday, August 12, at 12:30 p.m. in Council Chambers. From high-dollar sports complex agreements to serious municipal code enforcement against absentee landlords, tomorrow’s agenda offers a wide window into city priorities and administrative spending. The Sports Complex: Formalizing the Photo-Op The committee is slated…
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The Sidewalks to Nowhere: A Stroll through Rapid City’s Sidewalk Variance Routes
Rapid City SD- Tuesday’s Public Works Committee agenda is, for the most part, the routine business of running a city: a $129,450 tracked conveyor for the Solid Waste Division, a $21,102 change order for Well 13 pump equipment, $235,000 in advertised bids for upgrades at McKeague Field. Sixteen items, most of them numbers nobody will…
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The Optics Check: A $10 Million Trial Balloon and the Shadow Over Rapid City’s Youth Sports Complex
Rapid City SD – Running the 20-minute game clock on a municipal maneuver — and a name barely three weeks in the ground. 20:00 — The Premature Celebration On Thursday, Aug. 6, at 10:30 a.m., Mayor Jason Salamun and Sanford Health officials stood in a parking lot along East Mall Drive to celebrate a $10…