We are a bunch of Hypocrites

<$BlogMetaData$>We and the county are Hypocrites!


One thing about writing articles about things happening in Union County is that you don’t have to look very far to find stuff to write about. I’m not sure what I’m about to write about is funny or sad.

The county commissioners have suddenly found out that the by-laws adopted by the Union County Fair Board way way back in the 1950’s,is taking money improperly. It seems that the fair board has been renting out the buildings during the time the fair is not in session and using the money to fund the fair for the next year. They have been doing this for 50 years and there has never been a word said about how they raise their money for the fair each year. The way they are going about it seems okay to me. They have a board and the board decides how to spend the money. No big deal. I think the budget from the county is somewhere around $16000.00, which is not nearly enough to do anything with and the board, relies on funds from renting the buildings and donations. Seems as though the county just found out about this and told the board they need to rewrite the bylaws to give all money to the county since the buildings and grounds belong to the county. (You can see what’s coming can’t you?) The commissioners never give anything back to the departments that I know of. It all goes in the coffers to be spent at THEIR discretion.

Some of the buildings are already being rented and have equipment, hay, corn and beans stored in them. Well, the county has decided that people must bid on the buildings and the winning bid will get to rent the building for the next year. The money of course, goes to the county. Now we are going into malfunction junction with questions that haven’t been asked therefore the county hasn’t answered. Since the budget has already been approved for 2011 I don’t think they can change it without a public hearing.

If the lease is for more than 120 days and $500 they have to have a hearing and after the leases are accepted they have to pass a resolution. (SDCL 7-18-32) if they don’t collect enough to make up the difference the board would normally receive for renting these buildings, will the county kick in some money or does the fair board have to make it on their own? If they get more than what they would get normally, does this go to the fair board or the county general fund? Do the people who secure the bids have to be bonded? Do they have to provide proof of insurance etc? Are there default clauses in the contracts? Since some farmers already have grain and equipment stored, are they grandfathered for this year or do they have to move stuff out if they lose their bid on the buildings. Do you see where this is headed, and this is just for the fair board. GOOFEY! Why don’t the commissioners just leave well enough alone? The county just has to step in doo-doo every time they turn around. This could go on forever. If you think the nation government is too invasive, look what the county government is doing.

Now we get to one of my favorite concerns. We repealed the zoning ordinance in 2007 and a new one was passed in 2008. One of the biggest items of contention was the statement by the planning and zoning that in order to preserve ag land and keep ag land there can only be one house per 40 acres. That is unless it is rezoned commercial, rural residential, light industrial etc. it seems that the popular thing to do now is to have land rezoned as rural residential. Ignoring the statement to keep as much land as possible as agriculture, the p&z is more than happy to rezone it otherwise. They also approved the Izaak Walton League to replat 119 acres to acreages. Uh-h-h-h-h, Uh-h-h-h-h, Uh-h-h-h-h-h. I’ll bet you that the Izaak Walton league will buy another acre to make it an even 120 acres. I think they are trying to work the system.

The intent of the zoning ordinance to have only one house per 40 acres was to induce people to move into incorporated areas and leave ag land to be farmable. I guess they can ignore their statements and rulings to suit their purposes. I wonder why this doesn’t surprise me.

The Dakota Dunes CID voted on a tax abatement for new businesses and commercial property in the dunes area in accordance with SDCL 10-6-35 to give tax breaks of 80% the first year, 60% the second, %40 the third and 20% the fourth year. Oh please Lord, give me a break! The rest of the county just had their assessments raised 20-25% last year and the CID is giving tax abatements. What’s wrong with this picture? Not only that, this procedure was first instituted in 2000 and renewed in 2005. This period covers 2011 thru 2015. What else is going on that we don’t know about?

I saved my personal comments for last. The election on Tuesday, November 2nd had a proposition 12 on it to ban smoking statewide. This proposition is an attempt to keep people from getting lung cancer etc. from smoking. I think the state is being Hypocritical about this whole deal since they think it would be great to have an oil refinery spewing 19 million TONS of carbon dioxide and almost 8,000 TONS of particulate matter which will give people terminal illnesses such as cancer and emphysema. I think the state has developed a NIMBY attitude and is more than willing to sacrifice the lives of people in this area just for the sake of economic development. That is just plain Stupid.