Tag: Municipal government
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Rapid City Council Races Decided; Ward 4 Results Complicated by Withdrawn Candidate
Unofficial results from the South Dakota Secretary of State, June 2, 2026 Rapid City voters settled all five ward alderman races Tuesday in a primary that saw turnout vary widely across the city, with Ward 2 recording the lowest total of any ward at 1,427 votes — less than half the 3,313 cast in Ward…
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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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How A Spearfish Political Power Struggle Helped Shape Rapid City Ordinance 6717
RAPID CITY, S.D. — When Rapid City’s Legal and Finance Committee advanced Ordinance 6717 Wednesday, the item was described simply as bringing the city’s municipal code into alignment with state law. What that alignment represents is a legal framework — rooted in an 1890 statute — that concentrates authority over appointed city officers firmly in…
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Ward 2 Challengers Conflict Disclosure Form Left Blank, Records Show
RAPID CITY, S.D. — A challenger for Rapid City’s Ward 2 city council seat left the financial disclosure section of a required conflict of interest form entirely blank when he filed his candidacy in March, records obtained by the Rapid City Sentinel show. Christopher Vanderhoof, who faces incumbent Lindsey Seachris in Tuesday’s primary, signed the…
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Mayor Appoints Cushman as City Attorney After Search Yields Interim
RAPID CITY, S.D. — Mayor Jason Salamun has appointed Carla Cushman as Rapid City’s next city attorney, the city announced Wednesday via social media. The Rapid City Common Council will take up the appointment at its June 1 meeting. Cushman has served as interim city attorney since April 1, when Mayor Salamun confirmed he had…
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Ward 2 Candidates Utility Employment 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…
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A City Shows Up For Itself at the Rapid City 2076 Time Capsule Community Photo
When time ceases for a moment, the present presents itself to the future. A Rapid City 150 years in the making showed up Friday for the Rapid City of 2076. Sesquicentennial proclamation Earlier this month, a mayoral proclamation officially recognized this sesquicentennial year, tracing Rapid City’s roots from an 1876 “Hay Camp” to a “resilient…
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When Words Become Weapons: Accusations, Accountability and the Cost of Getting it Wrong
On May 18, 2026, a federal jury in Nashville ordered YouTube personality Ryan Upchurch to pay $17.5 million to the father and grandfather of Kiely Rodni — a 16-year-old California girl who drowned in Prosser Creek Reservoir in August 2022. Her death was ruled accidental. No foul play. Multiple law enforcement agencies, the FBI, and…
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Rapid City Proactively Moves to Define Its Cement Plant Future
A century ago, South Dakota stepped in where private industry wouldn’t. With vast deposits of the raw materials needed for cement production sitting in the Black Hills and no private developer willing to build, Gov. Peter Norbeck championed a state-owned plant. Voters amended the state constitution to make it possible, and Dacotah Cement was born.…