City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay. Good evening and welcome to the city council meeting for Tuesday, January 20th, 2026. We will begin with a roll call and determination of quorum. Leman here. Maher here. Roberts here. Strowman here. Pedigrew here. Serris here. Beverdorf here. Tamang here. Evans here. Meyer here. We have a quorum.

Uh, thank you. Obviously, you can tell we got someone not phoning in tonight, but we have a full quorum. Uh, next we will have an invocation by Brian McDaniel, followed by the pledge of allegiance. If you're able and willing, would you please rise?

Mr. Mayor, thank you so much on behalf of the Rapid City community ministers for allowing this honor and privilege. We appreciate it. So, would you join me in a word of prayer? Father God, we are so grateful for this time and this moment that you brought our leaders together here in Rapid City. We're asking that you give them wisdom where wisdom is needed, discernment where discernment is needed. And Father God, as decisions are discussed and are made, we pray that it is done in a perspective and an attitude of love. We thank you for their service to our community, their teams that serve the Rapid City area. We are grateful for the blessing that they are to us. So would you be their shield? Would you be their buckler? We ask tonight that the presence of your Holy Spirit be in this place as they look to make the best decision for our community. And we call them blessed in Jesus name and amen.

To the flag of the United States of America and to the stands nationy andice for all. Thank you everyone. Uh now I will entertain a motion to adopt the agenda. Got a motion by Bordorf with a second by Tamang to adopt the agenda. All in favor? Any opposed? The agenda is adopted. Uh first on the agenda here is a special presentation from the sustainab sustainability committee. Um so I'm going to invite them to come on up to the podium and they're going to give us their annual update.

Hi. Uh my name is David Holland. I am the chair of the sustainability committee and I'm joined by Heidi Severding and a handful of the members of our committee. Um thank you for this opportunity. Uh we are the mayor's standing committee on sustainability. This is our 2025 report. Uh all the activities that we uh participated in in 2025. We'll try to keep it short in uh about the 5 to 7 minute range is what we're g looking for. So um here's just a quick little summary of what we're going to talk about. the purpose for our committee, how we're structured, uh how we engage the community in 2025 and some of the plans that we have for 2026. Um so sustainability means uh meeting today's needs without jeopardizing uh the future of our community. So we often get talked about as only thinking about the future, but we also abs absolutely have to live for today. Um and so we listen, advise, educate, promote, and share. Those are uh the tenants of our committee. Um, so here is our leadership uh group. I am the chair. Um, this is my son. Uh, he got a pin on the trail challenge. He was really excited for that. Um, Heidi is our vice chair. Uh, Taran is our secretary. Patricia behind me is our uh, treasurer. And also, uh, Kathy uh, back here is our social media and uh, she does a fantastic job. They all do a great job. Um, this is our committee. We are 12 uh, full members and two alternates. We added five new members this year. I would like to give a thanks uh to some of the members that uh left our committee this year for various reasons. Cali is on the council. Um she was on the committee. Also, Kelly Moore, we'd like to thank him for his service. Gar Wadssworth and Kelly Juel. Our new members this year, you can see three of them in the photo there. Um let's see, are Quinton um uh let's see, Quinton, Nicole, and Leah. Um, and we also, uh, changed our bylaws

this year to have, um, two youth ambassadors. And so, Ellie Palmer and Sophia Sway have joined us. That's a one-year term for high school students. We had one, uh, Olivia leave us last year. We loved her so much. We said, "We want two of you next year." So, um, engaging the community. These are some of the activities that we participated in. This is not all of them. This always blows me away every year. I don't know how we get into all this much, but we have a big committee and so we're able to do quite a bit. I would just want to make point out that a lot of the activities that we do as a committee are uh a request by our community. We get a lot of phone calls from the community and and say, you know, can the city work on this? Can the sustainability committee work on this? So, a lot of these are uh demands of our community. Um a couple of ones that I'd like to point out, we invited SDSU extension to do a master food preserver training. Uh we did that at Fort Real Cafe and trained up four local citizens in master food preserving. We also had a collaboration this year with the U city council at the YFS Harvest Festival that was really successful. Um, we also received a Rotary grant that helped fund that uh food preservation education and we also created a local a flyer that uh we pass out at a lot of the events that we do that promotes uh local grocerers and local growers of local foods in Rapid City. Um we also uh gave feedback on a couple of the community uh sorry city plans. The EPA climate pollution reduction grant. We participated in that. Um and also the comprehensive plan. Um and now I am going to turn it over to Heidi who is going to talk about our subcommittees and some of the other work that we did in 25 and what we're up to in 2026. Thank you.

Thank you Dave. So for the next couple slides, it's just going through a picture show of some of the events that we've had over the last year. So we have two subcommittees that we formed last year on sustainable growth and development and local and sustainable food supply. So to better address the community concern, we've done a few informal polls, adopt polls, and um during the events, people have overwhelmingly stated that they're interested for a local foods in backyard gardens, food preservation, and backyard hands. Um so to further address that with the help of Rotary, um we did host a master food preserver class. So the participants in the class have agreed to host um food preservation classes over the coming year for the community. So for a local and sustainable food supply um we had multiple different meetings investigating the possibility of an indoor farmers market. We visited with local food experts, worked to reduce food waste and conducted an community needs assessment for community gardens. Um, we toured Security First National Bank's green building and recognized them for their outstanding effort with the sustainability award and we contributed feedback to the rapid state comprehensive plan and have started working with community planning and the water department to better understand their concerns and to advocate more for public transportation. some of our members of our and liaison traveled to the growing sustainability sustainable communities conference in Iowa. We brought back some great information and strategies for improving the sustainability of our community and we thank the city for supporting the participation in that um conference. Uh the big event of the year for the sustainability committee is the Earth

Day Expo. Um, we hosted it again last year, co-hosted it at Western Dakota Tech, um, with Western Dakota Tech, Dakota Rural Action in South Dakota School of Minds despite a cold and blustery day. Um, once again, over a thousand community members came to learn about resources within our community and to help them better care for the earth and to be more sustainable. In the coming year, we plan on highlighting the importance of water resources to our sustainable growth and development. This spring, we plan on making the Earth Day Expo even better than last year. We will be supporting classes on native gardening and food preservation, and we hope to see you at one of the events or activities. So, thank you for your time. Um, the community is welcome to join us on our meetings. Um, meetings are held just down the hall in city hall at two on the second and fourth Mondays at 5:30 p.m. So, we open the floor for questions.

Thank you for the presentation. and I have no questions. So, we appreciate the annual update. Appreciate the frequent updates that you provide. Keep up the good work. Thank you. Uh, next we will move on to general public comment. A time for members of the public to discuss or express concerns to the council on any issue not on the agenda. Action will not be taken at the meeting on any issue not on the agenda except by placement on the agenda by unanimous vote of the council members present. Uh, I do have a handful of speaker request forms for general public comment. I have others that are for items on the agenda later on in the meeting. But as a reminder, you have three minutes per person. Uh so I will call a name and I'll also let the person who's on deck know so that they can get ready to go. So right over here where we had the presentations where you go, we will begin with Anthony Wright followed by Jean Kesloff. Good evening. My name is Anthony Wright. I'm a student at South Dakota School of Minds and I serve on the Student Association Senate Governmental Relations Committee. As of January 12th, approximately 2400 to 2500 students returned to campus for the spring semester, bringing students, faculty, and staff back into full academic activity after winter break. With students back on campus, there has been renewed engagement in campus and community focused initiatives. Earlier this month, we hosted a destination district or Liberty Land TIFF community information forum on campus. This event was attended by roughly 100 to 200 people including students and community members. The forum was designated as an informational Q&A, not a debate, with a goal of providing clear

explanations of the proposal and allowing attendees to ask questions in a structured and respectful setting focused on transparency and education. I would like to thank um Mr. Daniel A. Rapid City's finance director for attending the forum, answering questions, and providing a clear financial overview of the Liberty Land TIFF. Later this month, approximately 20 South Dakota School of Mind students will travel to Pier to participate in Students for Higher Education Day or SHED. SHED is an annual statewide event organized through the South Dakota Student Federation, which represents students from all South Dakota Board of Regents institutions. During shed, students will spend time in the state capital attending committee meetings, observing legislative sessions, meeting with legislators and state officials, and receiving formal recognition in both the House and Senate. The event is designated or is designed to educate students on the legislative process and to provide hands-on experience engaging with state government on issues affecting public higher education including access funding and gen and education quality. Overall, shed is a student-led civic engagement initiative that helps students understand how higher education connects with state policy and governance while representing their universities in a professional setting. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, sir. I want to say it's very noticed how much active uh the South South Dakota Minds Senate is and we appreciate all that you're doing with the community efforts and keep up the good work. We have some great men and women in that. Uh, Jean Kesloff, you're up next, followed by Rob Bunnel.

Jean Kesloff, Historic Rapid City. [snorts] Well, it's happened again. As Rapid City is celebrating its 150th birthday, it has seen to it that the neon signs from Rapid City's history have been damaged to where restoring them will be cost prohibitive. These signs, once impressive, drew the people to the businesses that created this successful community of Rapid City. The cultural heritage tourism of which we are so proud, will soon be a thing of the past, and you will wonder where it went. Many cities are now focusing on preserving and restoring historic neon signs as cultural artifacts. Shouldn't we? Shouldn't these iconic items of our community deserve the same respect? The value of historic neon signs can vary significantly based on factors such as a sign's age, rarity, the brands it represents. Vintage neon signs, particularly those from the 1920s to the 1960s, are often highly sought after. But the true value of a neon sign is solely determined is not solely determined by the aesthetic appeal, but also by its historical significance and the stories they tell. These sign could tell a lot of stories about the social, commercial, and economic development of Rapid City, the city you call home. Think stock growers. We ask you, what is the legacy that you all sink seek to leave the people of Rapid City in this 150th celebration? How do you suggest we recti rectify the most recent desecration of our 150year-old community? We have decided to leave you with one more issue to ponder. Not only do we not want our own history, we don't want anyone else's, famous or not. In the 80s, Rapid City was gifted a total of 38 pieces of western artwork by Joan Croc

with the stipulation that she be kept informed about the progress of the Journey Museum which was being built at the time. Rapid City and their infinite wisdom that they always seem to have did not do this. She pulled the author and the artwork went away. You all, I have copies here for you. And so you know that this is true. Most of the collection has never been found, but one of the bronzes is in the Smithsonian. The other one was sold at Christiey's auction house for 1.4 million. I repeat that, $1.4. 4 million and Rapid City pissed it away. Thank you. Ron, you're up next, followed by Michael Lucas.

Thank you all and thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, my name is Ron Benell. I'm Chapel Valley uh citizen. Been here for about since 1995. And uh I was I'm I I was going to write uh you know my comments and and I've been writing so much here lately that uh I kind of run out of steam. Let me just say the uh reason I'm here today is because of our house our home in Chapel Valley and what might lie ahead for our future. In October 2013, uh we had the Atlas blizzard. And to give you an example of the kinds of things I've been doing, we are we are we were out of electrical power for six full days. Many if not most of the trees in the in the homeowners association where I live, Chapel Lane Village, uh were all damaged. And then we did a full mitigation of 19 acres of of our own property out in the valley. And uh then we've uh been working on it ever since. Um this um I don't know if it's appropriate or not, Mr. Mayor, but I'd like to give this to each one of the the board members. We actually designed this in our own home. uh when we started the task force and that was in 2009 and to and at that time we were on an ad hoc committee with the mayor mayor uh Ellen Hanks and the whole idea was to find another exit out of uh Chapel Valley. Uh, regrettably, we never found another exit out of Chapel Valley. And, uh, so at this point in time, uh, we're we're stuck with, you know, the bridge that we have there. And, uh, I've been conducting meetings since October, uh, the late later part of October. Um, about, uh, that I'm on a task force and that's who designed this uh, brochure.

Uh, in fact, I'm the the task force leader. And uh the whole idea is that we educate people on how to live in and and survive in Chapel Valley. Um we're undergoing a lot of stress lately because we're we're not trying to figure out where where where we're going to go with the bridge and all of that. I will have two more meetings next week. One on the 20 or two, excuse me, there's two of them on the 28th where we've been having the meetings and they're open to anybody. uh is at the old chop house uh the you know the uh it's actually the the resort there and then on that Wednesday that Thursday the the 29th we'll have a meeting basically for designing an evacua an evacuation plan out of Chapel Valley when the big storm hits. And on one of the things I did with a group the other day was I asked them how many people live in Chapel Valley and it's probably I'm not going to ask you because we don't have time. We got 8 seconds but eight uh the total number out there now right now about 645 houses something like 1,400 people.

All right Mr. Bunell your time's up. Okay. Thank you. Thank you and thank you for working with our staff on that issue. Obviously it's a it's an important one. Uh Mr. Lucas, you're up next, followed by Dale Nicola.

Uh, good evening, Mr. Mayor and staff. Uh, my name is, uh, Michael Lucas. I'm a retired Marine Lieutenant Colonel that just retired last year after serving 26 years in the greatest fighting force this nation has to offer. Um, I'd also like to preface that I would make graduate of the class of 98 at Rapid City Central. I was raised here. Um, and, [clears throat] uh, I plan to be a leadership figure in this community. So, I'm I'm moving back here to get involved. Um, I spent the last year uh as a in as a teacher at Lincoln High School, so I know that school system well. Uh, excuse the bluntness of this first comment, but I want to talk about the dumpster fire that exists at our public high schools in terms of graduation rate and academic performance. Um, as an example, Central High School has a 66% graduation rate and a 27% math proficiency rating. We can build all the fancy theme parks and sports complexes we want, but it's foolish to think that in today's society, our public school system performance doesn't impact the growth of this city. I did some research into the current superintendent who was just hired, and I'm not a fan. She comes from a rural school system of maybe 4,000 students compared to the 14,000 plus that exist in our school system. Her accolades deal with CTE improvement, not graduation rate and academic performance improvement. My daughter's a senior at Central High School and she has told me about the lack of academic integrity that exists due to a lack of leadership in our school district. What are you [clears throat] all doing about this? And I would highly recommend picking up the phone and calling Dr. Null over at Sou Falls. And I want to end with this. Who's our Native American leadership on your team? Thank you.

Thank you. Uh next up, Dale Nicola. Hi, my name is Dale Nicola. Back in October 1st, I reported the city for its weeds. [clears throat] I would like to let everyone know the weeds were done. It was done on a Sunday, but it was done. It impressed me that they were out there on a Sunday doing them. Um, and the one thing that was the city's problem that they had problems with on the weeds was the fence line along the drainage ditch. I would like everybody to know I noticed immediately that the fence was done and I would like to praise John Olsen for doing a good job. The fence looks great. It makes the neighborhood, the park, everything look better. I don't want to harp on the thing. So, let's move on. I would like to talk with some people after the meeting. I would start with the city attorney, the mayor, parks department, sidewalk engineer with sidewalk enforcement. I I'm dealing with a traumatic brain injury at this time. And on top of this brain injury, I now have a concussion.

We won't go into that because that's a long story and I got three minutes. I Where was I? We should have so many broke. We shouldn't have so many broken sidewalks, different height levels, missing pieces, and rebar sticking up from them. Yes, I have pictures at home, so it does you no good now to fix them other than to fix them the way they should be. when uh I get done with this city and you will see my face at as many meetings as I can make because of the concussion. It's been since October since I've been here. You will see my face. You will fix all the sidewalks to ADA legal aspects. And believe it or not, it's going to cost this city a lot of money. Thank you, Mr. Nicola. So, that concludes the general public comment and we will move on to non-public hearing items 2 through 27 and open the public comment for items 2 through 21. I have no speaker request forms for those items. So, we will close the public comment and move on to consent items 2 through 21. Would the council like to remove any items for separate consideration or approve the total balance? Second.

All right, we got a motion by Tamang with a second by Secrets to approve items 2 through 21. All in favor? Any opposed? Excuse [clears throat] me. Motion carries. That takes us to the end of the consent items and we will move on to non-consent items 2 through 27 and open public comment for items 22 22 through 27, excuse me. And the first speaker request form on item 24 is looks like Greg Stilton and then followed by Kathy Thrash on item 27. Greg or at least I think that's what it says. I All right.

Uh good evening. U my name's Greek Stilton. I'm the owner of Rushmore Real Estate Group and a multiple owner property owner on Mount Rushmore Road. on commenting on um item 24. Firstly, I'd like to thank the the property owners who stood as one to reject the Rushmore Road bid resolution proposed by the mayor and the unelected committee known as Mount Rushmore Road Group. The committee as established created by the mayor and the finance director known as Mount Rushmore Road Group per STCL 9556 is specific only to the bid which has now been voted down. As a direct result, the committee should be disbanded and have no further authority or ability to influence influence city council members and others on behalf of or for the property owners or the business owners. It's important to note that the Mount Rushmore Road Group board never had standing to submit a proposal for a bid as it did not meet the minimum required standard per STCL 955. The board cho chairman is neither a property owner, a business owner or a spokesperson for any direct businesses within the area designated um and to my knowledge is not not a resident of Rapid City or Pennington County. We expect the city council minutes to reflect the failure of the resolution and the dissolving of that committee. I would hope that in future when the mayor and council seek to increase and amend or vary property taxes above and beyond the normal inflationary increases that they seek buy in in future from the parties directly impacted by those increases and not some unofficial social media group with no real fiscal involvement. Moreover, when establishing any committee that they in future follow the clear guidelines as established under the South Dakota codified laws, it would certainly have saved a significant amount of work on both my behalf and the

many property owners who assisted in rejecting this proposal. Thank you. Thank you. Uh next up is Kathy Thrash, followed by Dan Malali.

Hello, city council. Thank you for hearing my um my opinion here. I'm um talking about number 27, the backyard hens ordinance. So I would like to um mention that I am a member of the standing committee of sustainability um since 2020 and I am active with the rapid city hands and the rapid city citizens for urban hands. I'm the doing social media have been doing lots of meetings with um the people that are involved with this and I just want to say that I support the the way that it is written now. I know there's been a lot of contention and and disagreement in it and I agree that some of those uh past ordinances were probably not the best, but I believe that this um crew has done their homework um and addressed a lot of those concerns. Um now I must say too that I do own some business property in the city, but I'm not currently within the city limits residing. So, I cannot vote on this, but I have had the benefit of my neighbors that have hands. And I got to say, um, moving out and within the last couple of years, um, I've made really good connections with my neighbors that I don't think would have happened before had I not heard that they had hens and I could get local, um, sustainable, um, better tasting, better nutritious eggs from them. And so it made me reach out to them and I believe um it created a sense of community that might not have been there before. Um I got to say it just feels right to me to have this in place to let other those that are in the city limits can do this. Um I believe that it would bring um a lot of I don't know it brings to me a sense of security as far as like they're just right there. Um, and in this kind of chaotic madness of of situation with high prices and just kind of I don't know, it just seems a lot right now. To have everything right there would be really nice. So, um, I would support the ordinance. I hope you guys do too. And I am active in

the petition. I understand I'm learning a lot about government process, how this all works as well. But, um, I understand that to bring it to a ballot and a vote and all of that would be a lot more um, a lot more involved with that. So, I would ask for your support um for the ordinance and moving that forward. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Malali. You're up next, followed by Darla Drew.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Councel. My name is Dan Malali, live in Rapid Valley and I'm with the Wannabe Hobby Beekeepers Club and I also have chickens out there. I'm in the valley so we're allowed to. But I wanted to kind of draw a parallel between what the beekeepers went through and maybe what the hen people are going through. Before 2015, honeybees were considered well, honeybees were not allowed in Rapid City for several years. And um a lot of us beekeepers got together and eventually an ordinance was passed in 2015 to turn that around. And as far as I know, after that was done, there were no negative effects from honeybees in the city. [snorts] Another point, I grew up in St. Paul. They allowed honeybees there. My dad had them in the backyard. And so we, [clears throat] that was one of the arguments I made is that Rapid City needs to consider what other big cities have successfully done. And I'll in parallel to that, St. Paul allows chicken, so I think it's time for Rapid City to allow hens in in the city limits. Thank you.

Next up is Darla Drew, followed by David Holland. Hi there.

Hello, council. Um, I'm Darla Drew, citizen of Rapid City. It's been a minute. I haven't seen you guys in a long time. Um, served on council from 2014 to 2022. So, I'm here tonight to support the backyard hen ordinance that you're considering. I know that you don't have anything really carved out yet for that particular ordinance. Um, I brought the backyard hen issue up several times while on council. Um, and yeah, we had some work to do and I hope that you guys will get this done. I It's time. It's It It'll just come back. Um, it it's time to get done. Um, they know it. I know it. And I think you guys know it, too. This is something the city wants and they can handle it. Give them a chance. Just give them a chance to to see if this will work out for our city. I think it'll be more beneficial than you can imagine. And so, I was ahead of my time. What can I say? But it is it is time now. And so I hope that you'll give this your best thoughts and that uh that you'll trust the people of Rapid City to um obey what what you come up with and and think about the repercussions or good things that can come from owning backyard hens. And that's it from me. So thank you for serving. I know it's not easy. I know it takes a lot of time. And I just want to thank you for all the time that you spend on our great city. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Holland's up next, followed by Jerry Owens.

Hi. Uh my name is David Holland. Um I live in the West Boulevard neighborhood and um I just want to start by saying that I also am the president of the West Boulevard Neighborhood Association and I do field a lot of complaints about uh issues in the neighborhood and I am perfectly willing to field complaints if we do have any regarding chickens. Um and so I feel a little bit of your pain. I know you guys uh feel uh concerns or complaints whether you want to call it that uh to our community. So I I want to give a little bit of background. I hope some of the other people can speak to the benefits of uh backyard hands. I think there are many. Um first of all this uh obviously has been considered a couple of times by city council the last time in 2020. Um and so we went back as a group. I'm part of the group that has uh put together a petition drive to put this on the ballot in June. Um, what we did over a year ago is we watched all the city council meetings. We read all the minutes. We took we wrote down the issues that people had, why it didn't pass the last time, and I'm just going to say them right now. Uh, there wasn't a smooth process figured out with the Humane Society what to do with chickens if they ended up with them. There were concerns related to noise, smell, and disease. And there were concerns about poor communication with city staff. So, we wrote those down and we said, "Okay, we have our work to do." So, one of the first things we did was we went we met with the Humane Society and I have met with the Humane Society at least a half a dozen times over the last uh six to nine months. Um, and we worked out a plan uh which basically is similar to what a lot of other communities there are more than two dozen communities in South Dakota that allow backyard hens. And I've spoken to about eight or 10 of their animal control officers and I asked what they did. I also provided contact information to our humane society so that they can reach out to those animal control officers so they feel comfortable. um if we did allow backyard hands, what that would look like. Um noise, smell, and disease. We actually added some language to the ordinance that was considered in 2020 to address these. Um noise is kind of already uh covered. There are no

roosters allowed. Um smell, we added a clause in there that if animal control can smell it from your neighbor's property, you're in violation. That was a common uh stipulation that we saw in other ordinances. Um only one of the animal control officers that I talked to actually had that complaint. They issued a citation and that owner had it cleaned up uh within the 72-hour time frame and it wasn't a problem. Again, um the last one, disease, we spoke with the veterinarian for the Black Hills Society. The only one he was concerned with was aven flu, bird flu, right? And he said as long as they're in the coupe at night and that they're not roaming around the streets of our city, there shouldn't be any danger of that. Um so we did try to address all of those. Um let's see. I'm just going to name Sou Falls, Spearfish, Hot Springs, Lead, Vermillion, Aberdine, Brandon, Watertown, Yankton, Whitewood, Matter. Those are some of the cities in South Dakota that have had um ordinances for backyard hens and allowed them for a long time. Um Rapid Valley, as uh Dan mentioned earlier, uh has allowed them, which is also under the jurisdiction of the Humane Society, so they've actually already been dealing with chickens uh for quite some time. So, thank you for your time.

Thank you. Uh Jerry Owens, you're up next. And that will conclude public comment. Actually, I'm Patty Pate. Jerry Owens is my husband and the cat got his hearing aids, so I'm going to speak for him tonight. All right, we'll allow it. [laughter]

Um Jerry is a a hobby beekeeper and has started um the hobby beekeeping club here in Rapid City has been very successful. We went through the whole ordinance for um getting beekeeping allowed in Rapid City. And at that time, I remember the chicken lady coming and supporting us in our effort. It was when Sam Quaker was mayor. Um, and I [clears throat] feel that this is just a perfect timing to have a sustainability um, annual report when we're talking about hens, backyard hens in Rapid City. It just goes hand in hand. As Beekeepers family, we have been very successful in um, making the public aware of responsible beekeeping and what we can do for the for the community. And it just seems like the same opportunity should be given to people who want hens. I know I like fresh eggs. Um I just we're here to support the backyard hens.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That will conclude the public comment. And we will now move on to item 22, first reading of ordinance number 6702, an ordinance amending section 17.06 of the Rapid City Municipal Code. A request by City of Rapid City for resoning request from public district to Heavy Industrial District for property generally described as being located at 5055 South Highway 79. Got a motion by Roberts with a second by layman to approve. All in favor? Any opposed? I.

Motion carries. Item 23, first reading of ordinance number 6703, an ordinance amending section 17.06 of the Rap City Municipal Code, a request by Tui Design Group for Watershed Development 2 LLC for resoning request from No District to Low Lowdensity Residential District 2 for property chilly described as being located north of the northern terminus of Cloud Peak Drive. to approve. Motion by Roberts with a second by Cris to approve. All in favor? Any opposed? I. Motion [clears throat] carries. Item 24, approve the Mount Rushmore Road Business Improvement District. Before we have any conversation on that, the city attorney has an update for us. Joel Lendine.

Thank you, mayor. This is a continuation of the public hearing on the creation of the Mount Shore Road uh business improvement district. At the hearing at the last meeting, a petition was submitted by the property owners within the district. Uh we've had a chance to look at that. Believe there are sufficient signatures of the property owners within the district that pursuant to state statute, the only option for the council at this point is to acknowledge that uh sufficient land owners have submitted a petition to uh protest creation of the district and therefore terminate the hearing and not create the district. Okay, we got a motion. What's your What's your motion? You said so moved.

All right. Thank you. Just want to make sure. Don't want to put words in your mouth. So, we have a motion to terminate uh this followed by a second by Roberts. Councelor Tang, you have the floor. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I think this all worked out the way it was supposed to be, and I appreciate the property owners coming forward. I just wanted to make a quick note that um the Mount Rushmore Road Group and Deborah Jensen I think had the highest intentions with this and I think their um their hope was to make the area better and I do acknowledge and appreciate what they did to try to to help. I yield. Thank you. Uh so the motion on the floor is to terminate uh this item. All in favor?

Any opposed? Motion carries. Item 25, a request by Baseline Surveying, Inc. for Mike Sojun for preliminary subdivision plan for proposed lot one of Sojun Edition, generally described as being located southwest of the intersection of Country Road and Three Rivers Drive. The recommendation is to approve with stipulations. Got a motion by Roberts with a second by layman to approve with stipulations. All in favor?

Any opposed? Motion carries. Item 26, a request by Baseline Surveying, Inc. for Rapid Creek Land Development LLC for preliminary subdivision plan for proposed lot one and lot two of Rapid City Creek. A Rapid Creek subdivision generally described as being located at 23275 Radar Hill Road. The recommendation is to approve with stipulations. Motion by Pedigrew, second by Evans to approve with stipulations. All in favor?

Any opposed? Motion carries. Item 27, a request by Alderman Tang that the city council direct city staff to bring forward an ordinance legalizing the keeping of chickens on residentially zoned properties in Rapid City. And with that, we'll go to councelor Tang. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I would move to approve. And if I can get a second, I'd like to hold the floor. We got a motion by Tamang with a second by seekers to approve. The floor is yours, sir.

Thank you. I uh I can't speak to any of the points better than Mr. Holland and some of the other uh commenters. So, thank you for doing that. I just had um a couple of of quick points on this. Um I think that the ordinance that was written um by the group, I compared it to as many of the ordinances as I could find and tried to make sure that it was aligned with what seemed to be working well in other communities. And there's a lot of them as they pointed out. And I found the ordinance as written to be really um quite well quite well done. And um there's some areas I think director Fischer brought up some stuff that was excellent and I think uh Mr. Lendine said he was going to speak with the Humane Society. So I think we can fine-tune it a little bit, but I think the vast majority of it's ready to go and I'm excited to see it through. Um I I've gotten so many comments to the affirmative on this. It's exciting. And so that was probably the main reason I brought it through. And then the other thing is I I got one comment that I want to bring up. Actually, a couple people said the same thing, and I I think it's a little um maybe it's the sign of the times, but a few people mentioned that they're doing it because organic eggs now cost six or seven dollars for a dozen and people can't afford it and they got a bunch of kids and it's it's meaningful to them. So, I think on that front, we don't necessarily always think about that, but I think that's another important thing to consider. So, um I appreciate everyone's support on this. I yield.

Thank you, Councelor Strowman. Thank you, mayor. I just wanted to say that I received a lot of emails, telephone calls, and comments from constituents and uh people generally in the community and I just appreciate that the community is being engaged. Um I do read all of those and I do answer the I I listen to the voicemails and uh even if I didn't get back to somebody, that doesn't mean I didn't read it because I did. There's plenty of them in my inbox. I've read them all and I just thank you for offering me your opinions on these things. I yield. Okay. Thank you. Uh Councelor Evans,

uh similar to what Mr. Strowman said, um there's been a lot of correspondence coming from constituents about this and right now I can say it's probably 20 to one in favor of chickens. Now, the last time we voted on on this, I would say those numbers were reversed, and I don't know whether it's just because it hasn't been up for public discussion yet, but it's looking like uh we're probably going to have to allow the citizens to do what they're asking for. Um so, if the people are in opposition, they need to mobilize themselves and let us know because I believe the council is um willing to do whatever the citizens want for this and it's looking like it's a very favorable thing right now. So, um, that's all I have to say. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other comments on this? Councelor Pedigrew.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I really don't have any skin in this game. I really don't care if there's chickens or not. Um, but I do have some comments to make. Uh like uh Councilman Strowman and and Councilman Evans, I said, we got a lot of emails and I told David Holland, he called me the other day and we had a long discussion about this and I said, "I'm going to vote simply on who who I get the most emails from, pro or against." So to David's credit, he must have gotten all the pro-ch people on it. And I got a lot of emails. But shortly after David and I talked, I got a negative comment and I said, "Same thing. Whoever gets me the most emails, you would not be surprised how many negative comments I got. In fact, David, I can show you all my tallies. The nose one." And um I just think this group and and like I say, I don't care, Dave. You could have them. I don't care. You live two houses from me. I don't care. But I think the group should go and create a ballot and put it before the city. Let the citizens decide. Why are us 10 people trying to decide this? I that doesn't make sense to me. Let the people of Rapid City decide. I think that would be the the best way to address this. But I just like to make a couple comments. My wife has a good friend who raises chickens and uh she sent my wife a long email today about it and I I've heard often from those for it. Groceries are high. I I think they they think they're going to go to the bank and save a lot of money. Do the math, folks. You got to buy chickens. You got to buy feed. You got to build a chicken coupe. There are other expenses and you aren't going to save any money on this. You you really

aren't. I think it's a cute, warm, fuzzy feeling. That's great, but but don't distort it with the cost of food and you're going to save a a lot of money. That's just not going to happen. Um, long time ago when I was young, dumb, and stupid, I uh had a wood burning stove and I was going to put MDU out of business by burning wood. And I went and bought a $600 chainsaw. I went and bought a $30,000 pickup. How long do you think the payback was on that? I mean, I soon learned that was a stupid idea. And I think the same thing has to be done with these chickens. who are not going to save money. And I just don't have confidence in the citizens of Rapid City. Not all of them, but they are going to be responsible in maintaining these pens. Um, code enforcement has their hands full and they're not responsible for this. They'll get the calls. The call should go to animal control, not code enforcement. But code enforcement has enough problems trying to keep antique cars off the street that don't run, weeds off the street, all sorts of other issues. And I think this is just going to be an additional burden to code enforcement because they'll get the calls. I've been told that the uh animal control/humane society has two people for the entire city. I don't know if that's correct or not. I'm assuming it is. So I I I just think if we're going to implement this uh probably us as a council or city has to do some some some discussion on how we are going to control all this because not all citizens are going to be good henkeepers and there's going to be problems and how are we going to address those. That's the end of my comments. Thank you. Thank you. Uh I do have Cali

Meyer on the line who would like to say a few words. Uh, Cali, there's a brief delay, so she'll get on in just a moment.

Thank you. Um, I uh just wanted to say that like I am out of town this week and I think I was originally planning on just being absent from this meeting, but had received an overwhelming amount of communication in support of this. Um, I truly received three pieces of opposition to probably 30 in favor. And so we do go by the logic of uh who's the most supportive. I I felt like I had to uh make the the phone call meeting work because I really needed to cast my vote in support of this because of the amount of outreach that we heard from constituents. And so I will be voting in the affirmative. If there's a delay, I apologize. I just I want to make sure it gets counted as the affirmative. So uh with that, I yield. Thank you.

Thank you, councelor Meyer. I have no councelor Cris, you have the you have the floor, ma'am.

Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to add in that um this motion today is to bring forward an ordinance for consideration. And so I think this is a great time for all of us uh potentially as a group um to get together to work through some of the concerns. um the the crew that's worked on this for the last decade has done a great job of vetting concerns over the years and I want to just acknowledge the effort that's gone into that and thank you for bringing that forward um the way in which you did. Um but to um Alderman Pedigrew's concerns with um handling the concerns, he's absolutely right. there will be issues and there will be people um that aren't maintaining their hins as we see um historically with other animals and it I doubt that it's going to be a super common occurrence because it is a an investment to establish um a coupe and and maintain and um but there will be um you know opportunities for things to go south and so I think we do need to vet through that and look at that at the ordinance and I know I mentioned this at legal finance But I am a big proponent of this ordinance with a 10 ft property line setback requirement. Um just so that we can uh potentially ease any potential conflicts between neighbors in close proximity. Um and just that I myself property abuts two rental properties on both sides and um could just see how easily a worst case scenario could um could transpire. So, I'll be supporting this and look forward to seeing the ordinance brought forward and uh further discussion on this um item. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other discussion from council members? If I may then uh just add a couple of comments before we get to a vote. I've been asked many times if I would sign this or if an ordinance passed or I would veto it. Uh I would sign it so long as we have protections for uh the neighboring properties to this. Um but I also believe it's a bit of a property rights issue for the people that are on board. Um so I think those are the two two things to always weigh there's a property rights issue to kind of do what you want on your property so long as it doesn't negatively impact your neighbors. So, with the ordinance, if it passes, I would just urge that we have our staff really look into that to make sure that that we write a tight ordinance. Um, two, the reason I would sign it, it really goes back to when we had supply chain issues and we saw empty shelves and grocery stores. And um, that really struck with me uh, at that time and made me really think about the local food initiatives, which is something uh, the sustainability committee has uh, worked on and I appreciate that. And I told them that was near and dear to my heart with gardens and having access to local foods in case we have shortages. How do we feed people? Uh, it's just a thing I think about. I know that's kind of weird, but I think that's just our job. Um, and while it's not necessarily my responsibility to feed people, I do think allowing people to uh grow their own food and to perhaps provide a a healthy source of protein and those sorts of things can be good. I do have concerns I think were brought up. I think those are very wise words uh from some of the council members regarding enforcement, regarding uh upkeep and care uh regarding the the really the caretaking of the hens um ensuring we have no roosters uh those sorts of thing. I think there's a lot there to consider, but we are not reinventing the wheel here. a lot of communities have

done this and I think all of that if it's a reasonable and responsible ordinance. Um I could I could get behind it. So I I appreciate giving the the staff an opportunity to craft something that might even be more more tight than the ones that's going to the vote, but if you decide to take it to the vote, then the people will decide and of course that's you know that that's an option for you as well. So um just thought I'd throw that out there. Lots of lots of feedback on this and I'd say it's pretty been pretty split uh to me, but uh my third third time on this one, I think. Um been pretty interesting. So, it's kind of deja vu all over again. But I would the vitriol is not nearly as bad this time, which is kind of nice. So, uh but maybe uh John laughed, so maybe he has a different experience. And so, John, I would love to hear about that experience. Would you mind taking some time to explain it? No, I was going to say I I think this is my fifth time on this. So, uh and you know, I I spoke to the chicken group at the very beginning of this and said, "Let's get it on the ballot and get people to vote on it." Um we we could have put it to bed, I think. Well, maybe not. You may have had to be like the civic center and vote on it two or three times before you got it passed. If you got it passed. Um, I do know that I've got more a different experience than most people. I get a lot of the people that are worried about their neighbors not maintaining and taking care of them. Um, some of these people because they've had negative experiences with people that already had chickens. Um, I personally have been involved in cleaning up two properties where people moved and had chickens that didn't take care of them well. Um, and it can be a

total total mess if you don't take care of them. Um, I've had a lot of people because of the fact that this has been ongoing for over a decade um that are very much against it. And it was interesting because I did talk to a few people today and they were shocked that the majority of people that have talked to me have been against it. And I think a lot of it has to do with again neighborhoods. I think a lot of it has to do with social economic, you know, status where you, you know, I mean, if you can afford because I personally know somebody that's got like a $20,000 chicken coupe for their chickens, you know, they can afford that. And you know, again, six chickens for anybody that has been around chickens, u I spent a lot of time around livestock when I was younger. too much time. That's why I live in the city. Um, but six chickens is not going to feed a family. You might feed them for a week after you kill and eat the chickens, but the eggs aren't going to feed a family for a full week. So, and you know, that's been one of my concerns, too, is these these become pets, and chickens do not lay eggs forever, and it's really hard to kill your pet. So your pet's got to go somewhere and it's even harder to kill and eat your pet. So, you know, that's why people on the ranch really don't make friends of their pets because they know eventually they're going to eat them. So anyway, I think that there's just a lot of there's a lot of issues that this brings up to a lot of my constituents and I I just have a different look at it than I think a lot of other people do because of the people that bring forward their concerns,

you know, and I had somebody that I was talking to a couple of days ago about it. They're concerned about their cats because they live in a neighborhood that has a lot of cats and they're worried about their cats getting into somebody's chickens and the liability and what's going to happen. And I mean, there's just there's a lot of aspects to it. We we hear a lot of negative and positive. Um, you know, ideally if it passes, I hope everything's fantastic and it all works out fine. Um, in the real world that doesn't happen. There's always going to be issues one way or another. Um, you know, I and I'll be blunt. I'm going to vote no on it again. I don't think there's anything anybody could ever convince me into voting yes on it, especially after voting no, I think I said five time, four or five times so far. Um, and I've been pretty consistent on this council. If I vote no on something or yes on something, you usually do that. So, I just wanted to make it clear my point where I'm at, you know, um, and you can call me, we can talk about it, but you're not going to change my mind. So, I just want to let you know that. So, anyway, thank you.

What's your number? I'll call you. [laughter] I got it in my phone. I think I think this is a good uh you know I like this issue is a good issue because I think you hear great points on all sides and I I think that that's good and I think everybody here wants what's best for Rapid City and I appreciate those points as well. John, um Kevin Maher is now in the queue. Just allow more time for people to chime in. No, I would just like to call for the vote, please.

Yep. So, we're going to do a roll call vote with this. And uh the motion on the floor is to direct staff to craft an ordinance to to bring back to the council. So, tonight they are not approving whether we allow Hens. They are simply directing staff to craft an ordinance to then make that decision. So, with that, uh Heidi, let's go to a roll call vote, please. Strowman, no. Pedigrew, no. Crisis, hi. Bdorf Tang. Hi Evans. Hi Meyer. [snorts] I Leman. No. Maher. Hi. Roberts. No.

Motion passes six to four. Okay. So, we'll do that. We'll work on that. We'll get that back to you in the near future. Thank you everyone. Uh now we will move on to non-public or excuse me to public hearing items 28 through 33 and open the public hearing for items 28 through 33. I have no speaker request form. So we will close the public hearing and move on to consent public hearing items 28 through 32. Would the council like to move remove any item for consideration? All right. We have a motion by Roberts to approve the uh all of the consent items with a second by Bieberorf. All in favor?

Any opposed? Motion carries. That takes us to the end of the consent public hearing calendar. We will move on to non-consent public hearing item number three 33, excuse me. Approve resolution 2026-00002, a request by TUI Design Group for Watershed Development 2 LLC for a petition for annexation for property generally described as being located north of the northern terminus of Cloud Peak Drive. Motion by Roberts with a second by Tang. All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Uh, next we're going to go to the bill list. Before we do that, uh, Councelor Pedigree would like to make a few remarks.

I just think we're we're going into some extremely difficult economic times and I would ask that all departments look at their travel requests prior to making those and reviewing uh, today's bills. I'm not putting anyone under the gun here, but I noticed uh the fire department sent some people to some training and um I just think we got to slow down the process of sending people everywhere. And there's been discussion amongst a few of us on the council that maybe before we uh go to uh conferences and training, maybe we should have those departments come before us and tell us what it's about. and then when they get back from that after the first council meeting report to us and let us know what they learned. I just think the city has to tighten their belt. Uh in my business we have a conference every year and um we normally send several people and this year we didn't. Business is tough economically. The country's in tough shape and I think we need to slow down. And I'm just asking all departments to really consider before they sign the dotted line to send someone someplace. Can you do it virtually? Can you do it by Zoom? Um or not go. And I would just like some justification from all uh employees before they go. come before the council, come before someone and let us know where you're going, what it's going to cost, and what are the benefits to the city. Thank you. All right, with that, we go to item 34, the bill list for Main Street Square and Visit Rapid City. Actually, I need to let the finance director say all that. Will you chime back in there, Daniel? I was going to do your job for you. Finance director Daniel Aninsley.

Feel free, Mr. Mayor. It's okay. Uh the bill is for Main Street Square and visit uh Rapid City. Total $80,6227 tonight. All right. I apologize that I was being spoken to. Who made the motion and second? Lindsay. Okay. We got a motion by Cris with a second by Tamang to approve item 34. All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries with one abstension from councelor Meyer. Uh item 35 will return to uh Daniel Aninsley. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. The remaining uh bills total 12,822,36860.

We have a motion by Roberts with a second by Cris. All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. I I did have a request real quick from councelor Strowman uh to Director Ty. We looks like we have a street closure on Cross Street that maybe just to let folks know about. Uh yes, that is correct. We had a request from the railroad. They've got some damage out there to an arm. So they requested to close the street tomorrow morning at 9:00. Okay. And cross cross street cross street that

which um connects uh both Omaha and Maine. Yeah. So very heavily used street. So, thank you for that. Uh, with that, I will entertain a motion to adjurnn. We got a motion by Tamang with a second by Maher to adjurnn. All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Thanks, everyone.