Director’s Notes

I’ve often joked that “we work in Pierre – we have very little contact with reality.” But District Meetings are our cure for that, and BOY, do you guys make reality look good! After more than 200 of these meetings, it still amazes me what a talented, dedicated, just genuinely good bunch of people city officials are.

Consider a recent question we put out, asking for some names of elected officials willing to work with the State on ambulance service issues. Instead of getting the one or two we expected, we have a long list of people who are on the city council, and also work as volunteer EMTs with their local ambulance service.

During district meetings, we were warned that “we might have quite a few people missing tonight – there is a fire burning up north, and they are all volunteer firefighters.”

During another meeting, cell phones began to ring during dinner at one table – water main break.

These examples aren’t even your real jobs – they are what you do with your “spare time.” You are truly amazing.

We worked a lot a few years back, getting our state-wide 911 system caught up with technology and working more efficiently – it might be the best system in the world – but “who ya gonna call?” We depend on our volunteers for ambulance and fire services, and look around – overall, they are getting older, getting tired, and for once in their lives, might actually like to have some spare time. We don’t seem to see the new generation of volunteers stepping up. We are going to need to address “Who ya gonna call?”

We need to address water main breaks and sewer line problems. Not necessarily ‘who ya gonna call?’ but “How ya gonna fix it?” We have massive, expensive problems lurking under every city in South Dakota – original (ie, 100 year and older) mains, all the things that hide underground and work just fine – until they don’t. Then, how ya gonna fix it?

We ran (again) into the “lawdy, lawdy, can’t raise a tax!” brigade during the recently ended legislative session. No one likes taxes – but you know what we like less? Backed up sewers, water outages, and potholes. And we have taxed our volunteers almost to the limit – not in money, but in their time, caring, and strength.

When the next grass fire starts and someone calls 911, when the next water main breaks and cell phones start ringing, will the anti-tax guys answer?

It is a privilege to work for you folks. Please remember we are always available at 1-800-658-3633 or yvonne@sdmunicipalleague.org.

No one likes taxes – but you know what we like less? Backed up sewers, water outages, and potholes.

When the next grass fire starts and someone calls 911, when the next water main breaks and cell phones start ringing, will the anti-tax guys answer?

Yvonne Taylor Executive Director