Tag: Community
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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…
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RETRO-ZONED: Rapid City is Changing the Map to Match the Ground
RAPID CITY, SD – On June 4, 2026, the Rapid City Planning Commission considered four simultaneous rezoning requests covering 562.68 acres of active mining and cement plant operations within Rapid City limits. The petitioner on all four requests was listed as the City of Rapid City Community Development Department — acting on behalf of GCC…
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The Elephant in the Cement Truck – Editorial Cartoon
The 25-Year Blind Spot: How a 563-Acre Mining Operation Escaped Rapid City’s Oversight How Rapid City Homeowners Unwittingly Subsidized a Global Cement Giant for 25 Years Rapid City Proactively Moves to Define It’s Cement Plant Future
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How Rapid City Homeowners Unwittingly Subsidized a Global Cement Giant for 25 Years
When a city department leaves a massive industrial footprint unmapped for a quarter-century, it’s not a clerical oversight—it’s an unrecognized tax subsidy. A deep dive into Pennington County property records reveals a glaring disparity between how local heavy infrastructure companies are taxed versus how a multi-national cement operation, GCC Dacotah, is assessed. The Anatomy of…
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The 25-Year Blind Spot: How a 563-Acre Mining Operation Escaped Rapid City’s Oversight
At 7:10 on Thursday morning, most Rapid City residents were still asleep. The ones who showed up to the Planning Commission meeting came because the ground beneath their neighborhood had been shaking before dawn. What they learned—and what the city itself had only recently discovered—was that a foreign-owned cement company had been extracting minerals from…
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Who Decides Rapid City? A Ward-by-Ward Look at Primary Turnout
On June 2, Rapid City held elections in all five wards to determine who would represent residents on the Common Council — the body that sets zoning policy, approves franchise agreements, and controls the city budget. Fewer than one in four registered voters participated. Citywide, council race turnout was 22.8% of registered voters. Statewide primary…
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At the Edge of Time – Rapid City Buries a Century’s Promise at the Place it all Began
Fifty years from now, when the residents of 2076 pry open the time capsule buried Friday afternoon at the base of M Hill, they will find the usual markers of a city frozen in time: photographs, newspapers, and local artifacts. But the true weight of the ceremony wasn’t just in what was put into the…
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Ward 2 Candidate Christopher Vanderhoof ‘s Employment at Black Hills Energy Raises Recurring Conflict Questions
A candidate seeking to represent Ward 2 on the Rapid City Common Council holds a full-time senior engineering position at Black Hills Energy — a utility company with active franchise agreements, infrastructure contracts, and major capital projects currently before the council — raising questions about how often state law would require him to sit out…