Tag: City council
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The Roster Resets: Rapid City’s 2026 City Council Lineup
Five Rapid City Council seats turn over Monday, July 6, as the winners of the June 2 municipal election take their oaths of office for new three-year terms: They join five members continuing their terms from last year: Stephen Tamang (Ward 1, current Council Vice President), Bill Evans (Ward 2), Greg Strommen (Ward 3), Lance…
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Buren Properties Appeal Hits a Wall: Public Works Committee Sends It Back For Two More Weeks
Rapid City S.D.- On June 30, the Rapid City Public Works Committee took up Exception 26EX042 — a request from Longbranch Civil Engineering, on behalf of Buren Properties LLC, to skip dedicating right-of-way and building a collector street across a 42-acre unplatted balance north of Deadwood Avenue and I-90. Staff had already denied it once.…
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Three Things Worth Noting on the July 1st Rapid City Legal and Finance Committee Agenda
The Legal & Finance Committee meets Wednesday, July 1st at 12:30 PM in Council Chambers — the day before Rapid City’s Fourth of July parade and drone show. The agenda is fourteen items long. Most are routine. Three are not. A “Clerical Error” in the Division That Manages TIF Item 14 is Ordinance 6733, described…
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The Exception That Has An Exception: The Public Works Agenda Anomaly
Rapid City, S.D. – On Tuesday, June 30 at 12:30 p.m., the Rapid City Public Works Committee will hear what the agenda describes as a routine appeal. The item is listed as Exception 26EX042 — a request to not dedicate right-of-way or construct a Collector Street for the Deadwood Avenue Commercial Subdivision and Farrar Business…
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A Developer, A TIF, and A Landowner – A Rapid City Zoning Tale
Paul E. Evans didn’t mince words.On June 18, one week before the Rapid City Planning Commission was scheduled to consider five simultaneous rezoning requests covering 127.95 acres of undeveloped land north of Mall Drive, Evans — president of McMahon Investment Inc. — filed a formal written protest with the City’s Department of Community Development. It…
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Before You Count Your Eggs: What Rapid City Hen Owners Need to Know About Ordinance 6723
The April Victory In April, the Rapid City City Council voted to allow urban hen keeping, and the Sentinel was there to walk you through what that meant — six hens, no roosters, backyard only, coop 25 feet from neighboring homes. A win for residents who fought hard for it. What most people don’t know…
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The Opaqueness of Transparency – Editorial Cartoon
Rapid City’s Ordinance 6717 folds an existing Code of Conduct into municipal law, but complaints against elected officials stay sealed in executive session by default, with no guarantee the public ever learns the outcome.
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Smoke and Mirrors: An Award-Winning Performance at City Hall: An Editorial
There is a dangerous kind of alchemy that happens at City Hall when the cameras are rolling but the microphones go quiet. On Monday night, navigating a grueling 34-item agenda, the Rapid City Council pulled off a masterclass in municipal sleight-of-hand, demonstrating exactly how to shift liability and bury history in plain sight. The tone…
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What is Burning Next to Rapid City’s Neighborhoods? Inside the GCC Zoning Void
The Collateral Damage of Small Town USA Growing up, the shadow of the Millstone Nuclear Power Plant was a constant, quiet hum in the background of my childhood. You learn early on what it feels like to live next to an environmental wild card—a facility where the true cost of “production” isn’t always something…
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The 25 Year Precedent Set by GCC Dacotah- EDITORIAL CARTOON
For Immediate ReleaseRapid City, SD –From the Desk of the Press Secretary, Office of Waterfowl Affairs, Memorial Park Division “The Office of Waterfowl Affairs notes the historical precedent set by the 25-year oversight of the aforementioned 563-acre mining operation. We applaud the city’s long-standing tradition of looking the other way when it comes to expansion…